Friday, February 27, 2009

One Busy Summer!

Yes we are going to be greeted by many visitors this year. Old and dear friends, relatives and Barrack and Michelle might even join us. 8-) Whoopee! Dinners for all to cook, lots of wine to sample and hours and hours of chats and sightseeing in the verdant green outback of France called The Berry. Terrific! Ted is first, he's landing the day before we get there thanks to my errant scheduling attempt at www.Cheapoair.com. I have no idea of how long he'll be there but he can help with preping the little house for sale or rent and we'll have a ball with him too, he's open to anything and anyplace. The S & M (Steve and Michelle) come in early-mid summer for a couple of weeks more or less, then a past student of mine Andy and his girlfriend in early September followed by Kelly's sister in the middle of September! What a hoot! Meal planning extraordinaire! Gotta get to work on the guest room too...new cloth walls and paint, paint, paint. The courtyard will be a winters mess, the roses need work as does everything else. I'm about to become very busy. The huge and heavy iron gate needs hanging...great fun that. Steve has volunteered for that lil' set of tasks, drilling 3/4" holes in solid limestone is interesting, inserting the pintals into said holes and then hang the gate panels. It gets painted black too. So we will have a productive and rewarding good time in the French sunshine this year...weather permitting.
I'm always asked, as is Kelly, "what do we wear?" Well...that's a long read. The weather in France has proven itself to be quite variable. It can snow as late as late April, at least it has twice in the 7 years of our personal observations. Not enough to matter but not exactly T-Shirt weather then either. May and June are beautiful Spring weather mostly, clouds, rain in the afternoons, sunny mornings, just plain pretty. July can be a bit warmer, or not...the cloud cover this last year was extensive in July and July was cooler than I remember in the last few years...highs in the 70's mostly, umbrellas at the hand in the afternoon. August, the Vacation Month can be blistering hot like 2003 and 4 or like last year a copy of July, highs in the 70's and 80's with a rare day in the 90's thrown in for backyard fun around the barbecue. Beer weather for sure. September can be August-like but more variable and towards the latter part of the moth decidedly cooler at night.
So there it is, freezing to sweaty, that's France outside of Winter (cold to colder).
So wear layers, cotton or linen in the summer, warmer stuff in the Springtime thru June and otherwise T-shirts and shorts in July and August. Pack lightly! You'll love yourself for that as you can buy anything here and the prices are cheap to higher for any clothing items you might need, makes great souvenirs too! Bring camera, batteries, memory cards and two pair of comfortable shoes. To be picked up at your train station is easy as long as you choose the right train, get on it and make it to Verizon, take 2nd class non-smoking. You will leave Paris via the
Austerlitz station. When you land a Charles De Gualle (CDG) go to the taxi stand and take one to phonetically said as " Jay-Voo-Drey...Austerlitz See Voo Play" and sit quietly while you scream down the freeway some 15 miles to the very center of Paris. Cost...well about 50 Euros...they take credit cards but best to get an ATM at the airport and get cash. Don't do it in the US...they charge way over the exchange rate here...and currently it's about 1.28 dollars = 1 Euro. Better than last year by a mile (1.60 = 1 then!). Once you get to Austerlitz train station go to the mail hall and get in line at one of the windows. Be very polite and calmly say.
Duh bee-lay Duh klass aww Ver-eh_zone (Verizon) See-voo-play (2 tickets to Verizon Please)...once in your hand look at the scheduling board and see which track is the right track. There's a machine to insert your ticket into at the front of each track...you need to get your ticket time stamped therein. Watch others to do it easily. It works.
Then find a conductor nearby your train and show him your tickets and do as he indicates. Board your train...put your bags in the end of the car and find a seat either as assigned or anywhere. Rest, read, look out the window. About 2 hrs later you will arrive at Verizon station. You will need to call us from Austerlitz or cell phone...and we will pick you up in Verizon!!! Such a deal!
If you are driving...that's another matter entirely. I'll cover that issue in the next issue!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Tickets! We have tickets!

The "two weeks" are up! Off to Paris once again, cats in tow, so fun! I do so hate the awful airline reservation search engines and the damned airlines for making the whole stinking project such a drag. The sites and there are many are all hopelessly alike, enter the to and from dates, enter the city, enter how many people (nowhere for special things like cats and the charges for bags, cargo, food and water) preferences...of course I want NON-stop, what's wrong with you!? Days of boring sameness with lies for prices, prices PLUS taxes and licenses, fees, baggage costs, a damned baloney sandwich and a bottle of water! All lies, either they the sites or the damnable airlines need to be honest at least so one could select one's total costs without the sticker shock when you click on the tiny grey out "taxes / fees" box. Awful! I spent hours hunting knowing full well I didn't want to fly into Dulles...it's DULL alright, huge distances to walk, up, down "just follow the signs"
all over the damned place but not ever past a restroom to pee! No watering stations either! What a way to treat 2 paying passengers and their cats! Never again if I can at all help it! A POX on the place! Leave it to the Senators and Congressmen and their consorts and pages.
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There are few airlines that allow pets or don't have flying regulations that virtually prohibit them ( Cats and Dogs must weigh under 4.5 kilograms total including carrier with plastic liner, food and water...what's that a cat skeleton? Or a gerbil? Gads. That's Air France's answer to the problem. Some carry them but only in the hold with the horses and cattle (you think I'm joking!)
Here's a headline for you...CBBC Newsround | ANIMALS | Crocodiles found in aircraft hold_ Yes, not one but 10! Horses! Cows! Rhinoceroses! But cats in the cabin! Impossible! Neighhhh! Here's an article about which I speak: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=8012
So United Airlines gets the nod AGAIN, so many years, so many flights and still never an upgrade or free flight and though we travel together always and always have...our Frequent Flier mileage is not equal...I have thousands more miles (useless as they are) than Kelly does! Thanks United, thanks! Just normal in airline travel, nothing surprising. The cats are booked now...200 USD per cat ONE WAY! Highway robbery! They weigh less apiece, in their bags than 4 quarts of Perrier's best. I pee more than they weigh for chrisakes! Our two cats are quiet as church mice, not a whimper after they get out of whatever conveyance brought them there. No pee, no poop, not hunger and Kelly's bottle of drinking water is used to wet their little faces periodically during the flight(s...how many stopovers sir? 5, oh good) which they promptly lick off thus get some water...almost a force feed I think, nice trick for cat travellers. Thus they fly well and have for the last three plus years.
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Awwww heck...who cares, we're back in France soon enough and ready to work our asses to stumps for the next 6 months. Huge Iron gate to hang, walls to repair, roof estimates to cry over, painting by the gallons inside and out, many yards of cloth to sew and hang as curtains and wall coverings (Kelly's favorite!). Dinners with our friends, our favorite activity of all and new people to meet and get to know, it is all such an adventure! It's the BEST thing we ever did for ourselves outside of getting married to each other. I may bitch and complain about the difficulties but down deep in there is a world of satisfaction and pleasure that goes far beyond and complaining I (we) may do time to time. The French treat us exceptionally well and we get along in the language better every time and never has any language difficulty kept us from getting anything we needed or wanted. It's lovely, we like it. Next time...