January, 2012

Chateau de Largoet

Constructed between the 13th and 15th centuries, the walls are between 6 and 10 m thick. (18-30 feet). Between 1474 and 1476 it protected Henry Tudor, later to become Henry VII, King of England. In 1490, Charles VIII of France, dismantled the castle but it was restored under the influence of Anne of Brittany. The movie "Lancelot" among others, was shot on location here. It is located outside of Vannes, 90 minutes from our front door. It has seen ongoing restoration since the 1970s.

For the past several years, every month while in France I post a picture of one of the 4,000 castles here that we have either visited or will visit as a masthead to the months blog. At the island its, well, the islands. Gosh, do we ever love the variety.

Mandy, again.

Having just recently completed her Master’s degree in International Commercial Arbitration Law from the University of Stockholm, daughter Mandy was approached by the largest law firm in Aachen Germany (where she and Markus live) and offered a position. She has joined 19 other attorneys and a support staff of 25, the latter who she will be responsible for managing as she serves as a legal adviser on EU law and Arbitration law cases. Multi-tasking, she teaches English to select legal staff and is the liaison for English speaking clients.

Self-effacing, reserved and lacking in self-confidence, Mandy called us with the news a mere 20 minutes after it was a done deal announcing “the writing is on the wall…I am on track to become partner!” The apple does not fall far from her mother’s side of the tree. I can hardly wait for her to be appointed judge so I can get all my speeding tickets fixed. Seriously, we are VERY proud of our girl.

In April she is scheduled to travel to Ireland to attend an International Client Counseling competition. In the past, she has participated as a student in Europe and Asia but this time was invited to coach the team.

Mandy and Markus had planned to come visit us for the holidays but a combination of now having two families to split their time with, a new job to prepare for as well as Markus having school responsibilities, it began to become a crazy maker so we decided to go visit them. We spent Christmas day with friends in our village then set off for Germany the next morning.

Driving across France, Belgium, the Netherlands and finally into Germany is a pretty good run, but in truth is little more than half the length of California. Still, we were early enough to make it on time to take them out for dinner to celebrate Mandy’s new job. We had last visited the kids in May so throughout the week we finished up several ‘honey do’ tasks. We installed a washer and dishwasher, hung rods and curtains, repaired a faucet, hung pictures and shelves, etc.

Between tasks, we took a day to visit the city of Trier, the oldest city in Germany, founded by the Romans in 16 BC. Located near the Luxembourg border, it happens to have been the birthplace of Karl Marx, and is classed as a World heritage site (WHS) due to its multiple Roman archeological remains.

We visited several, including the amphitheater, the baths, and the entry ‘gate’ to the city (above). Of course, the big dog was the Cathedral of Trier itself. Having visited more Cathedrals in Europe than I can count, I am struck by how many purport to contain incredibly significant religious remains and artifacts. There are ossuaries containing skeletal remains of saints by the dozens, but this Cathedral displays what it says is the seamless tunic that Christ wore just before being crucified. It has been on display only 3 times in the past century and is scheduled to be shown again in April, 2012.

A nail used in Christ's crucifixtion?

Also in the heavily secured Crypt (It would have given Mission Impossible a run for its money) were a plethora of centuries old chalices and other large, gold, ornate religious objects including their prized possession: a single nail recovered from Christ’s crucifixion. This became the 97^th WHS I have visited.

We wrapped up our visit by attending New Year’s services at the Dom in Aachen where the kids live. It is quite a sight being below the throne where for over 600 years, 30 Kings and 12 Queens were crowned and where Charlemagne* is buried.

*Note to young readers: Charlemagne was way before Britney Spears. Radical, huh?

Note to very young readers: Like, Charlemagne was, like, even before your parents were, like, born!! Sooooo 7^th century!

Parlex vous Francais?

Janice has been working on her French language Rosetta Stone computer program on and off for several years and has found it to be very helpful. Recently though, she has started to take French lessons from a lady nearby. I wondered about this at first, considering that she is married to a fluent French speaker but she chooses to only speak English around the house.

I am guessing that part of the reason is that it is very fatiguing to work your brain in a new language from morning to night, and that English at home is a bit of a break. Perhaps most importantly is the fact that what she studies with this lady is not conversational French but French grammar. Explain French grammar, Moi? “Vous etes kidding, right?” I could no more explain French grammar than the inner workings of a synchrotron, and I haven’t a clue what that is.

What's shaking?

The only other news from this side of the pond has been Janice's continuation of her painting classes, my continuation of working on my little forging [blacksmithing] projects (show-and-tell next month) and spending a little time helping some buddies on theirs. This was the first time I have done any slate roofing and it is quite different than what we are used to but it will go in the experience bank.

Fashionista

As long as we are bragging about kids, it is high time I raise the subject of our niece, 20 something Christine. While her day job is working for my brother’s firm “Vigilantia”, who purports to offer “international investigation consulting, comprehensive domestic and foreign intelligence services to the legal, corporate and financial communities”, her avocation has been to be on the bleeding edge of the fashion world.

Fashionista Christine

I thought her interest in fashion was kind of cute at first, but she has become a serious contender in this milieu and is no longer to be taken lightly. This is one of those cases where we are watching someone on the cusp of breaking out into the big time and can only hope she remembers us little people when she does. You can see her site HERE or at http://www.vigilantfashionista.com/ For you old farts who think high fashion is baggy pants, T shirt and a baseball cap, you seriously need this girls help.

Christian Dior, Yves St Laurent, Prada…..beware. There is new kid in town.

December, 2011

California dreaming

Home sweet home

Last month I ended the Epistle with a mention that we had just arrived In Los Angeles to visit our daughter Kami and friends Ed and Marilyn. Knowing that we would be on the plane on (American) Thanksgiving day, they prepared a day-before-Thanksgiving dinner for us. How sweet was that? Then after an evening Jacuzi under the Los Angeles sky, we flew to Paris the next morning.

The Eagle has landed

It didn’t take long to settle back into village life here. Except for the 9 hour time change which we deal with by simply taking sleeping pills at night for the first week, we quickly got back into the groove. Janice ran off to rejoin her art class, I headed to the blacksmith to order up some metal for a project or two and we got back in touch with our friends and neighbors here. Dinner invitations started flying back and forth with plans being laid for upcoming outings.

The first was returning to a monthly dinner club that some friends belong to. The meals are great but the focus of the club is French viticulture. You know, the practical study of the art and science of winemaking. Everything from the tannins to soil compositions are explained. Every meeting covers a small but different part of France with producers of that area providing wines from their viniards. Throughout the 4 hour dinner, we sampled 8-9 wines (I was so thrirsty, I lost count) from the area just north of Avignon in Provence.

As hard as it may be for you to believe, we have no plans for any major projects or travel this winter. There is little of any significance to do to this house and we are trying to set an example of fiscal discipline for our president by “saving” for the major works we will need to do upon our return home in California next year as opposed to borrowing from the Chinese.

The blacksmithing project will involve forging a substantial support for a large flower pot which will hang from a post I installed on the dock at the island last summer. I will also forge a set of doors for our wine storage area here. Unlike many of the locals who have wine cellars, we fake it by having an area in our garage where we store ours. Amateurs by their standards, we store a modest 250 bottles or so.

This, mind you, is the St. Emilion Bordeau wine and cider I help bottle with the local fellas every winter. Up till this year, we had to remove it all to a secret hiding place during our 7 month absence, while rental and home exchange guests were here. Now, we will simply lock the mediaeval looking doors and all will be secure. OK, so have one project to do..

Helping Loic build his carport

Not one to sit on my thumbs, I have the opportunity to step up to the plate and offer to help some folks who have been so kind to us in the past. We have a few friends who are doing modest projects of their own so I have stopped by, hammer in hand, to see just how much damage I could do.

Helping Thierry insulate a wall

They do things differently here

Every year I note some of the different ways of seeing and doing things here. Sometimes impressive, sometimes humorous, sometimes aggravating but always something that adds to the flavor of our time in France. Here are some latest observations.

President Sarkozy recently said that the French ways of retiring early and working 35 hour work weeks with 5 to 6 weeks’ vacation for all was unsustainable and that the country was- and would continue- paying a heavy price for it. Predictably, it was largely meet with derision by those who have a well develloped sense of entitlement.

In these economic times he often seems like the only adult in the room while some seem more like school kids who are thrilled that the school is closed for the day because of a snowstorm, completely clueless as to the long term consequences of their short term gain. I would trade his more realistic, no-nonsense, tough love economic approach for Obama in a New York minute. But that is just me.

France will stop writing paper medical prescriptions within two years. They are digitizing the entire system where the doctor ‘writing’ the prescription will not only send it directly to the pharmacy but to a central records keeping database. This will eliminate massive amounts of paper record keeping and personnel, thus achieving huge savings. Absolutely brilliant!

I mentioned earlier that we settled in quickly. Truth is, we sort of did. When we arrive, there is always a substantial delay in getting our phone and internet up and running. You would think that after doing this for 8 years we could simply call ahead and say “Dude, you are killing me here, turn everything back on!” You would be wrong.

Every year, we have to physically go to the local phone company office and re-invent the wheel. We must provide proof of having a residence here (home insurance docs) and a copy of our US tax returns (proving that we are foreigners with a second residence here) I could easily have dispelled any doubts on that subject by sharing my political predilections but that’s another matter. Time in the office to reorder the activation of our phone and internet? 2 ½ hours.

Four or five days later the phone was turned on, but for reasons known only to God and the phone company, the internet took a full two weeks to be activated. Speedy efficient service is not one of the strengths here. Still, when the lights finally blinked on my modem, my hands shook with excitement like an alcoholic with DT’s going cold turkey.

Within a few days of our return, we discovered that the main power breaker to the house tripped 4 times in the first 5 days. With some kind of delay mechanism built in, it took nearly 2 hours to re-set itself each time, invariably in the evening after dark. We suspected that there was inadequate power being supplied to our home as we had added a number of electric radiators, the sauna as well as other appliances not always found here. You see in America the standard home power supply is 200 Amps. You use whatever you want and you pay based on your consumption. What is ‘available’ is irrelevant; it’s what you use that counts.

Here, you pay based on how much power is available to you (with substantial increases in cost for each step up) plus whatever power you consume. When we bought the house years ago, it had 30 Amps of ‘available’ power. (about as much as a motorhome) We quickly raised it to 45 Amps until we had the problems when we arrived this year and raised it again to 60 Amps. You hardly want to run around turning the coffee pot off so you can run the dishwasher. Time to upgrade? 3 weeks.

Still, the bread here makes up for any other shortcomings.

Merry Christmas!

November, 2011

©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com

Singer Castle on Dark Island
Janice and I were invited to join a small group for a day long voyage on the "Fair Jeanne" in the Thousand Islands by its owner two summers ago. One of the highlights was climbing to the top of the crows nest.

It’s done.

No really, it’s all done. Not nearly done, mostly done or even practically done but… ALL done. Put gas in it and let’s fly this sucker done.

Done.

Some say that “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings”. The thing is, the fat lady has not only sung but she has showered, shaved and left the stadium. Ok, so the colors have yet to be added but that’s only cosmetic.

The undercover operation is over

A few days after publishing last month’s Epistle, I had an inspection from the Transport Canada (the Canadian version of the FAA) representative who spent 5 hours scrutinizing every nut and bolt on my entire airplane. When he was satisfied that it meet all factory assembly specs, he signed off on the ‘birth certificate’ (also known as the airworthiness certificate).

This one signature transformed what had started out 3 summers ago as 17 boxes of parts and pieces, 3 of which were larger than my car (2 wing frames and the fuselage) from a bucket of bolts into an official airplane. Serial # CH2-0209-2858 is now call sign C-IJQP.

C-IJQP set to join the TIAF

(Thousand Islands Air Force)

I am not suggesting that I am proud or anything, but I have been patting my back so often this past month that both my shoulders are killing me.

Skeptics (no, you were by far not the only one) will ask “Yea, but has it flown yet?” No, I have pickled it for the winter to start flying lessons in June. “AH HA! And when you do, the wings will probably fall off and you will crash and DIE!”

It took twice as long as I had expected to build but regrettably that is about on par with my ability to estimate any task I undertake. I am simply an incorrigible and naive optimist. You will note from the pics that the floats are not on yet as I must begin flying on my training wheels, graduating to a passenger carrying rating before transitioning to float training. By the time I am done I will know so much I will need a bigger head. Or maybe just two regular size heads.

The elephant in the room

Ok, the time has come. Not talking about this would be like writing about the Titanic but forgetting to mention that it sank. Some of you are worried, I know.

Four summers ago, when Janice started to tell friends that I was going learn to fly, I began to notice a certain look in people’s eyes. At first it was a vague ‘you’re kidding, right’? Then, when I mentioned that I was going to assemble an airplane from a kit, you thought I didn’t notice that you were biting your lip and looked at me as though I was going to jump out of a seven story window.

Flying is one of those things better left to the professionals, right? Never mind that much like brain surgeons or astronauts who didn’t start with years of experience either, you still feel that it’s best to leave it to those who know what they are doing. Fortunately, that logic didn’t prevail when it came time for you to learn to drive. After all, a few spins around the parking lot with dad and an hour’s worth of studying for the test and bingo, you had a license!

The truth is, flying is more complicated than driving. It’s why I will spend more than 50 hours studying before I am allowed to get behind the stick in the pilot’s seat to begin my lessons. Then, for the license type I will get (but don’t actually need) I will have nearly 50 hours of instruction in the air. Learning to fly is not like being a kid without a helmet or knee pads who skate-boards across a busy parking lot then leaps to ‘slide’ down the handrail of a concrete staircase.

Assembling the plane is another story. Once again, clearly better left to the professionals, right? Like having an ‘expert’ like Bernie Maddoff manage your portfolio… Don’t think for one moment that every bolt I tightened and cable I fastened, I wasn’t intensely concerned that it was being done correctly. This is not some other guy’s airplane, it’s mine. It is a manufactured airplane kit, not pile of aluminum tubing and a set of drawings. Besides, I do have some experience with this whole kit business. Not with planes, with homes. I built our dome home in California from a ‘kit’. It consisted of manufactured ‘hubs’ that connected all the triangles together, creating the outer structure. With it, came a set of plans and a good luck letter. This kit consisted of considerably more than that. Yet it has definitely pushed me to get out my comfort zone, and learn new skills.

“But what about the risks? What if the wing falls off or the engine stops midflight?” Listen, I am not writing about this thinking that I am going to convince you of anything different than you already believe. Besides, I am a world class rationalizer. But you know as well as I do that everything has risks. Whether it’s skydiving, motorcycling, driving your car, boating, skiing or scuba diving, none are more regulated and require more training than flying. Yet, we know people still get killed from all those pursuits. [Interestingly, more people die from driving their cars than all others combined]

Think about it. Does the motorcyclist worry that his wheel will fall off when he rides? When was the last time you walked around your car and checked that everything was tight, your steering controls were not worn out, that the lug nuts on your wheels were not about to fall off before you drove down the road coming head on with that cement truck? All those things and many more are checked before every flight. Not to be a smarty pants but it would be arguable that you will be a lot safer flying with me than I would be driving with you.

Besides, it’s worth remembering that ‘life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways -Chardonnay in one hand -chocolate in the other -body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, “WOO HOO, What a ride”!!!’ The ability to fly is something that has been available to man for only a nanosecond in the history of time. I have a friend who has referred to it as “The privileged view” and how true it is. I couldn’t live with myself if I turned the opportunity down.

I have given a lot of thought to the type of airplane I will fly and the kind of flying I will do. This particular one is perfectly suited for slow flight. In fact, it can be flown safely at less than 40 miles per hour. Landing in a 20 mile per hour headwind, I would only be going 20 miles per hour. You could practically run alongside and pull me down.

Yet, plowing into a telephone pole while driving on the ground still sounds better to most people than falling out of the sky. Consider that even at cruising speed, I would fly at a slower speed than you would at highway speeds…to say nothing of if you had a head on collision with the proverbial cement truck.

“Yes but if I have a problem in my car, I can pull over to the side of the road. What do you do?” Flying on floats, I have thousands of miles of runway in all directions to choose from in the event of a problem. I am not Wile E Coyote racing heedlessly across the endless landscape at maximum speed until suspended in midair just past the end of the cliff.

“But aren’t you a little …eh…. ‘old’ for this?”

Don’t reach for the defibrillator paddles or the rosary beads quite yet.

Pilots jokingly say that “time spent flying is not deducted from one's lifespan”. In fact, whatever age related diminished capacity I may have is more than offset in prudence and judgment. You’ve heard the story about old pilots and bold pilots. You generally get to be one or the other, but not both.

Having convinced myself (if not you) of the validity of my arguments, I sure hope I don’t crash and burn….. For some people, the sky’s the limit… but for a pilot, it’s only the beginning. Besides, there is no point in taking life too seriously; no one makes it out alive anyway.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

After Labor Day, when the river is ours again, it is as if someone pressed the pause button. Life on the river becomes very different, very private, almost secluded. Still, when it was time, we pulled the plug for another season and hit the proverbial road.

We did catch up with Amy’s family for a spell and spent several days with son Wesley in Sandpoint Idaho, where he arranged for a tour of the vitamin manufacturing plant he works at.

Wesley and the mama

As we go to press, we have arrived in Los Angeles and visited daughter Kami.

Janice

Janice continues to deal with health issues. No, not the Cancer thing, that seems to be firmly behind us, but a couple of lesser things that are not ‘serious’ but important. Earlier this month she had an endoscopy exam (little tube down the throat) for some unspecified ongoing abdominal pains. The latest diagnosis is that, well, they can’t find anything wrong so we will keep an eye on things while in Europe. After what she has been through in the past 18 months it is all just a major drag.

How’s this for logistics?

Since I retired in 2004, we have transitioned from America to Europe twice a year. I have written before about our flying here and there, visiting kids and checking in on our home in California but while it may not be obvious, there are considerable logistics involved in these transitions.

Take this one for instance. After spending several days storing the plane, pulling our boats out of the water, winterizing, covering and storing them, we then drained the house plumbing system to prevent freezing damage as we do not heat the house during the winter. Neither of these tasks are particularly straight forward and have a degree of complexity about them that takes considerable time and are performed when the weather is not at its most pleasant.

Of course, all manner of outdoor furniture needed to be brought indoors, the BBQ cleaned and covered from the elements, all paints and other liquids (including printer ink cartridges) needed to be pawned off on friends to be kept in a heated area in their homes for the winter. The fridge and pantry needed to be stripped bare as we will not return for 7 months.

D day consisted of renting a car so we could store ours nearby and still have a way to get to the airport. Then there was the first flight from Syracuse NY to Seattle Washington. After renting another car there, we made our way to daughter Amy’s home, drove 400 miles ((650 Km) to Idaho to visit son Wesley and until this trip, we had also driven to Oregon to visit daughter Cassie.

Returning the rental car, we flew from Seattle to Los Angeles where we rented yet another car to visit daughter Kami, visit friends and to get up to the central coast to see Janice’s mother and to do maintenance on our house there. Returning the car in Los Angeles we will fly to Paris where …you guessed it… we will rent another car to drive to a B&B nearby as we will be exhausted from both the flight and the whirlwind tour. Finally we will drive home to pick up our own car to be able to return the rental. Time to start scheduling the next transition.

Piece of cake!

BTW, did I mention I finished my airplane? I did? Oh well…. C-IJQP here, over and out :)

October, 2011

 ©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com

Island life is not for everybody. Realizing that there was no bridge to our island, I once had someone ask me incredulously “You mean you HAVE to take your boat to your island?”  “No” I said, “I GET to take my boat to my island”. For an islander, it is all in the attitude.   

Full disclosure: the above pic is not of our place.

           

If you build it, they will come.

Well, it finally happened. We built it and boy, did they come. I think that we have had more company and visitors this summer than in all the other years combined since we have been here. In June we had friends come out from California while on an East coast tour. In August we had Mandy and Markus come from Germany for two weeks while Amy and Maddie came from Seattle Washington.

The girls on Mount Royal in Montreal

 

Catherine and Loic checking out the fall colors in the Adirondacks 

This past month, we had our friends Loic and Catherine from our village in France fly out to spend ten days with us. We picked them up at the Montreal airport and spent a few days visiting the city. We then made our way to Quebec City for a couple of days there also. Their trip focused on being here at the peak of fall colors so we went to Stowe Vermont where we had a home exchange lined up for a few more days. Finally, after driving across the Adirondacks, we arrived home in the islands.

 

Catherine meeting a local near Stowe, Vermont

The weather had turned to far less than ideal but we managed to include the mandatory tour of the area including having the good fortune to introduce them to some of our friends and neighbors here. We even took them to a party we had been invited to, giving them a chance to see how we let the good times roll around here. This being their first trip to North America they definitely felt the European version of ‘Honey, we are not in Kansas anymore’

 

Loic and Catherine at our friend Fred's island. 

It is not an easy life we lead here.

Returning them to Montreal for their return flight to Paris, we rushed home to wash linens and clean up a bit before having longtime friends Ed and Marilyn from Los Angeles show up for a visit while on their East Coast whirlwind tour. If they arrived any sooner we would have had to hot bunk them all. 

 Ed and Marilyn visiting at the the Bee

We fired up the boat, put our tour guide hats on and crisscrossed the islands. After visiting our local towns and bidding them ‘Adieu!’ they were gone. We are now suffering from the empty nest syndrome. 

All of which begs the question: when can we expect you?

The end, the end the end...

As we go to press, we are getting uncomfortably close to having to pull the plug for another season. We still have a few minor odds and ends to wrap up project wise, and aside from my flying we have already determined what we will attack next summer.  We spread out about two or three solid days worth of work to winterize the place over a week as to not drive ourselves crazy. Still, there is quite a bit to do.

Let's catch up next month.