random thoughts

Weather is better. Evidently it was really nice during most of April, but has been rainy and rotten during May; it certainly has since we've been here. Rain, mist, drizzle, chilly but not really cold; seems a lot like England, but the house is sort of okay, and this is just as well, since we have no heat. I still haven't managed to get us more fuel oil.

Haven't sorted out many of the financial issues, but nothing has been turned off yet.

I really like the car, which is a Peugeot 207 hatchback, with A.C., diesel, not smelly. It's actually comfortable. All the cars you see around here are TINY, which is seriously nice, given that fuel is astronomical (sold by the liter), and space is at a serious premium. I've seen cars that look like Smart cars but aren't, are Thomas or something like that. And I saw a Mercedes today that is sorta boxy, but not any bigger than the Peugeot 207, and I suspect that (a) it costs not more than half what the smallest Mercedes costs in the US, and (b) gets at LEAST twice the mileage. So why exactly aren't those available in the US?

Food good; Phil has cleaned up the garden. Plan to go to LeBugue to the market tomorrow and get more plants; I had planned to go the Issigeac market Sunday morning, but the weather was miserable and my back and leg ached, so I didn't make it.

We are going to St. Etienne and Lyon on Thursday. Phil will do science in St. Etienne, and I plan to eat, sleep, read and shop, not necessarily in that order. I wish Sarah were here, as I could use some clothes, and she's the best person I know to shop with.

Haven't seen any of the English ex-pats here in Lalinde, except for Margo and Julian, whom I ran into on Thursday at the market.

Being here is a whole new concept; Sarah thinks things are slower in Kentucky?!? She needs to come to France.

Still haven't had any oysters (didn't make it to Issigeac yesterday, maybe Le Bugue tomorrow...they are always better if you buy them at a market rather than a supermarket..fresher), but otherwise, the eating is good...

I LOVED the two books I just finished. The first was "Being Dead is no Excuse" by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays, a Southern Episcopalian's Guide to Funerals, with recipes, for the sort of stuff I grew up with. It is a hoot, and I embarrassed everybody while I was reading it.

THe other is Lunch in Paris, by Elizabeth Bard, and while it's not a howler, it has a lot of insight into the cultural differences between Americans and Frenchmen. I have tried one of her recipes, and it was a bust, so I'm not optimistic about the rest, but the book was GREAT.

Cheers, Lillie

Friday, 28 May 2010, Couze

So after I got moving, discussed the neighbors across the street with Jeannette (Lord, she hates them...this is the ex-con and his roommate, as they don't have common law spouses in France, now his wife, as of March), had lunch (my breakfast, Phil's lunch), and went to Lalinde to deal with more of our overdue debts, specifically in this case the tax situation. I also thought I could deal with the electricity bill in Lalinde, and hoped I could organize some more fuel oil as we are out.

So after I finally found the building where I have to discuss the taxes, it was closed. It's open mornings weekdays, something like 9:30-12:00, afternoons 1:00-4:00 except wednesdays and fridays, and of course closed on Saturday. SO I went to the post office to buy some stamps to mail in a check and (hopefully) sort out the electric bill. They close at 4:30 on Friday and it was 4:32. M. Arbaudie the fuel oil guy was closed, of course, and was closed yesterday, too, also, I think, when we went by on Wednesday. At least it's not very cold.

C'est la France.

This afternoon I got Phil's computer talking to the internet. Now there's the issue of the printer, which of course won't yet talk to Windows 7. I can't get very excited about it.

I love France. It smells different, it looks different, the food is great, I found a place in Lalinde where you can get wine poured into a water bottle for 1 euro 25 cents per liter (take note, Cindy!). And Sarah, you say Kentucky is inherently slower than New York, come over here!

Love, Lillie

Back in France May 2010

Trip over was (thankfully) uneventful, although, as usual, brutally long. Three flights, haven't added up the hours, but it's a large number, left noon on Tuesday from Kentucky, arrived noon Wednesday Bordeaux, arrived Couze about 3:30 p.m. works out to a large number of hours in airplanes and on the road. Admittedly not in the same league as a flight to Asia or Australia from Kentucky, but hey, I'm not sure I'd survive another one of those. A degenerated spine and seriously bad sciatica do not make for comfortable travel in coach. We were in a 747, I think it was, 10 seats across, three on the side. Phil had the aisle seat, and I had the window seat. I can lean against the wall and try to stretch out; he can try to stretch his legs into the aisle. Fortunately, the person in the middle (it was a TOTALLY full flight...they all are these days) was a lovely Scottish lady from someplace south of Edinburgh. She'd been visiting her daughter somewhere down in Mississippi or Alabama, who married an American. Also, fortunately, it was Air France, so when I asked for Scotch as an aperitif, they not only didn't flinch, they GAVE it to me. I was all prepared with little bottles of Grants in a zip lock bag just in case they wanted to charge me $7.00 or 7 euros for one of the 1.5 oz bottles with approximately 75 cents worth of Scotch, if that, like Delta will.

Air France means the food is better.

The house was clean (should be, given what I've paid Robyn to clean it...); I found the sheets, etc., can't remember what we did about dinner, but we must have had some. Maybe we went shopping at the supermarket. Couldn't sleep, as back and leg were NOT in good shape. Yesterday (Thursday) I went to the market in Lalinde, which was as spectacular as ever. Bought Phil some of those almond cooky things from the bakery on the square, the ones that are crunchy, and I suspect pure sugar with a few almonds, 3 for 2 euros. Bread, lettuce (which they call "salade", go figure), some walnut oil from my favorite old Gascon lady, who seemed to actually recognize me, because she asked me if I'd already tasted the stuff. SHe makes and bottles the stuff herself. Trout, a couple of other things.

After lunch (rillettes on bread, olives, a couple of other things), some red wine, went to Bergerac and (I think) sorted out our problems with France Telecom, so they can no longer cut us off.

Several other details are seriously boring. I thought I went to bed last night (Thursday) at 8 or 9, but Phil assures me that it was about 6:00 p.m., that I got into bed in my clothes, and got up sometime or other and took most of them off and put on a nightgown. At any rate, I slept MUCH better, all in all, despite being awakened by the cats sometime after daybreak (see below), and didn't actually drag out until noon. I should feel better, at any rate.

The cats. There's a brown tabby that I think belongs to Jeannette, looks rather like Casper, Martin's newest cat. Hangs around our house a lot. This morning there was a serious commotion up by the rear window in the bedroom, the one that sort of opens onto the roof. I finally woke up to see this kitten come tumbling in the window and down the stairs. Landed in the living room by the suitcases. I got up, had a chat with the brown tabby on the roof, and closed the window. Turned out there were THREE kittens she had brought up and dumped into our house. Phil later found two huddled under the bed. Plus the one down in the living room. All were clearly very young, had just opened their eyes, and couldn't walk properly. They were (sorry, cat lovers out there...) ushered out onto the patio and have since disappeared, presumably into the brush around here somewhere.

Cheers, Lillie