So we have been back in the US of A for about 6 weeks now and unashamedly enjoying ourselves. The language is familiar, the markets are boring but easy to use (excepting NUGGET, which is Extraordinary!) and the hometown is clean and newish looking compared to olde Ligniere's medieval rustic-ness. The roof repair had to wait until summer as we were leaving and the job just didn't seem to have any priority either with us or with the very busy French roofer. So this morning an email came, from our friends at the Lignieres Tourist Office with the message that our roof is now repaired, no demand for payment, no signing of a contract, nothing...just that the holes are all fixed and the roof is "as new". Amazing! You might wonder why the roof had problems, well, the roof is covered with the thinest of slate tiles, black, shiny (when new) and above all else brittle. Storms come and go with great regularity in the eastern Loire Valley and some of these drop amazing amounts of hail. Hail is hard, imagine sloppy iceballs up to baseball sized dropping at 100 mph and you have the picture. Slate is strong but not THAT strong and a 1" - 2" hail stone can create many chips and holes with subsequent leaks.
When we bought the "petit maison" I counted three small holes with sunlight pouring through them, each less than 1" in size. Upon asking I was told that was "a puh"...a little, meaning there was little to worry about. So I didn't worry. In the 3 years gone by the roof has been stormed upon again and again. I ignore the granerie (attic) as much as possible as it is uncomfortable with no heat in the winter and less cooling from the one window in the summer and at all times very, very dark. As I carried boxes of clothing from the summer up to be stored this last winter I noticed there were many more damaged areas, perhaps 15-20. So I got concerned asked our buddies at the Tourist Office is they knew anyone who could fix our roof and they said "Yes, of course!". Some few days later the specialist in slate roofs appeared at our door and did a cusory but seemingly adequate (for him) inspection of the roof. That was the last we saw of him. Now it is all fixed. We have paid nothing, but will, of course, as soon as we figure out a method. I'm so amazed by the hospitality and follow thru of our French friends, bless them all!
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Our tickets are now purchased for our return trip. $720 dollars on United RT each amidst this current oil crisis is not bad. Most fares were in excess of 1000 dollars. We'll leave in early September and return in mid-January. 4 1/2 months of our lovely France. We'll take also a trip to Split and the Roman ruins of Diocletian's Palace in Croatia as part of our journey before Ashley comes over (though she'd be really handy to have in light of the length of the driving). She's planning on coming in early December and staying until we all return, some 6 weeks all total. We bought her the ticket as a birthday present for her 40th. We love her and she's a great deal of fun and usefullness when we're there too. A great sous chef she is too!
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We attended our first French Class at Cafe Society in Napa last Monday at 6pm (sharp!) Very nice indeed! Conversational French, with a group of like challenged (some more than Others!) individuals both male and female. Lots of laughs, French chatter, a glass of a good Cote Du Rhone in hand and the study papers from the teacher herself. We feel we're trying to gain the necesaary knowledge to chat with our friends in Lignieres, it might not actually Work for us, but the effort is being made at least. Driven by that knowledge and a dose of good old Guilt we go back tonight for our second class and are looking forward to it, of course!
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Another Trip Home
Home at last...this home that is...they both FEEL the same to me these days, not that there aren't some differences to note. The TRAFFIC comes first as it's what first approached as an obstacle to automobile progress when we commute back to Suisun City from good ol' SFO. How everyone speaks English FIRST! and no one says "Bonjour" when just walked by or glanced at, all those things, which culture is more insular? The plane, a fine Boeing 777 had the new entertainment system, 26 movies of various genres, TV (not live but still), games (even play with a partner!?), shopping (credit card reader in handset!) weather, aircraft tracking and music and a controller that looks and acts like a combo cell phone and TV remote. Everything was there (including email) except the Internet...that's next I bet. It gave us lots to do even for the 11 odd hours it took. We were in Row 44...on a 777 that's the LAST ROW, seats A&B even though it was the ubiquitous "Coach" class...read "steerage" there was more room for elbows and the usual junk (newspapers, candy bars, magazines, coats, luggage etc.) which we had more than enough of, even a paper in Dutch for our friend that grew up in Haarlam outside Amsterdam.
Only two seats side by side meant no seat mate to snore, cross legs, loose eyeglasses with or to smell feet with. Yes, a real joy 44 A&B. Next to the bathrooms too and water as well as 1/3rd sized candy bars were available in the galley a few steps (3) away. A bit bouncy as out at the tail you are a long way from the center of gravity/lift so motions are amplified a bit, it was a smooth flight this time with only a few transparent "rumble strips" felt over Greenland and north of the Sierra Nevada in southern Oregon.
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The train trip north from Chateauneuf-sur-Cher was uneventful with Alice from the Tourist board taking us instead of Steven the Taxi-driver at $30US. A sweet and thoroughly appreciated favor by one of our favorite people in our little village. The day was coolish and the fare had been reduced by 25% making the fare a mere 22 Euros apiece for the first leg. The countryside now so familiar to us had outlines of crisp white snow to remind us of the winter just past, very beautiful too. Paris was it's own special chaos as it always is, our Taxi driver was a middle-aged (to us that means anyone under 65!) and her DOG! a shaggy poodle looking mutt friendly and snappish as the same time that loved to have it's nose scratched over the top of the front seat of the Mercedes station wagon. Off to Gare du Nord where we missed the train to Amsterdam by a mere 3 minutes. Oh well. So we waited in the station for three hours until the next train. I took several pictures of the interior of the station but ran afoul of the local gendarmes who told me in from behind a large potted palm in short abrupt Frengleeesh "No peekturs meeesur". So I turned off the Nikon and walked down the stairs to sit quietly with Kelly and peruse the waiting crowd. Why this prohibition I did not know...I was to find out s short time later as we neared the French/Belgium border on the TVG. As we sat with our Turkish and Japanese seat mates we were suddenly confronted with a youngish man (looked 19) in a striped sweater asking for our Passports and details of what we had with us. They announced that they were (two groups of 6 were seen from my vantage) "French Customs". They asked the Turk to stand in the aisle and summarily frisked the Turkish young man (looked 25-28) and examined the contents of the Japanese young women's luggage and jewelery sample box. They just delicately went thru everything she and he had including coats in the upper rack. When we told the story to Ted as we drove home from SFO, he said "searching for drugs". I watched as they tore apart another persons belongings in the hallway between cars and worked there was through the next car of the train.
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Amsterdam...wonderful the second time around, more about that later.
Love,
H
Only two seats side by side meant no seat mate to snore, cross legs, loose eyeglasses with or to smell feet with. Yes, a real joy 44 A&B. Next to the bathrooms too and water as well as 1/3rd sized candy bars were available in the galley a few steps (3) away. A bit bouncy as out at the tail you are a long way from the center of gravity/lift so motions are amplified a bit, it was a smooth flight this time with only a few transparent "rumble strips" felt over Greenland and north of the Sierra Nevada in southern Oregon.
---
The train trip north from Chateauneuf-sur-Cher was uneventful with Alice from the Tourist board taking us instead of Steven the Taxi-driver at $30US. A sweet and thoroughly appreciated favor by one of our favorite people in our little village. The day was coolish and the fare had been reduced by 25% making the fare a mere 22 Euros apiece for the first leg. The countryside now so familiar to us had outlines of crisp white snow to remind us of the winter just past, very beautiful too. Paris was it's own special chaos as it always is, our Taxi driver was a middle-aged (to us that means anyone under 65!) and her DOG! a shaggy poodle looking mutt friendly and snappish as the same time that loved to have it's nose scratched over the top of the front seat of the Mercedes station wagon. Off to Gare du Nord where we missed the train to Amsterdam by a mere 3 minutes. Oh well. So we waited in the station for three hours until the next train. I took several pictures of the interior of the station but ran afoul of the local gendarmes who told me in from behind a large potted palm in short abrupt Frengleeesh "No peekturs meeesur". So I turned off the Nikon and walked down the stairs to sit quietly with Kelly and peruse the waiting crowd. Why this prohibition I did not know...I was to find out s short time later as we neared the French/Belgium border on the TVG. As we sat with our Turkish and Japanese seat mates we were suddenly confronted with a youngish man (looked 19) in a striped sweater asking for our Passports and details of what we had with us. They announced that they were (two groups of 6 were seen from my vantage) "French Customs". They asked the Turk to stand in the aisle and summarily frisked the Turkish young man (looked 25-28) and examined the contents of the Japanese young women's luggage and jewelery sample box. They just delicately went thru everything she and he had including coats in the upper rack. When we told the story to Ted as we drove home from SFO, he said "searching for drugs". I watched as they tore apart another persons belongings in the hallway between cars and worked there was through the next car of the train.
---
Amsterdam...wonderful the second time around, more about that later.
Love,
H
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