Getting to Know You

Contrary to the depiction of French as standoffish, we have found everyone we have encountered to be quite friendly.  Perhaps it is because we are living in a small town.  For instance, while dining at a restaurant, we were seated next to two couples from Montpelier with whom we struck up a conversation in our limited French and their limited English.  At the end, they invited us to come stay at their home down South for a visit.  Not so sure that would have happened in Michigan if we were the ones seated next to foreigners.  Today we are lunching with a woman from New York , Joan, we have not actually met, but a merchant we have in common "fixed us up."  Then last night I was in a different shop where the owner introduced me to another patron, an American from Boston named Patrick, whose mother is French.  When I met Patrick, he responded, "So YOU are the Americans who are lunching with Joan tomorrow."  News travels quickly in a small town.  By the way, crime is nonexistent here, except for parking and driving violations, which have very expensive fines - a revenue producer for all governments it appears.

Highland Appliance It Is Not

Our latest adventure was purchasing appliances.  Rental properties do not come furnished with any appliances, so we set off to locate them.  Our go to first stop is always LeClerc, the WalMart of this area.  It just seems to have everything we need.  The overriding concept here is environmentally kind appliances.  Although we purchased appliances at the upper end for instance, the freezer is not frost free (it's been a long time, since we had to defrost piles). The washing machine squirts a little bit of water, spins, squirts a little more, spins, and on and on using minimum amounts of water.  It also takes a lot longer to finish the cycle.  The dryer spins the water out of the clothes rather than incinerating them dry.       So at the end of the dryer cycle, we have to empty a full water resevoir.  Then garbage has to be separated - blue bags for paper, yellow bags for plastic and metal, black bags for perishables (no disposals), and glass must be taken to a special receptacle placed in every neighborhood.  The good news is we have loads of really hot water instantly, however they manage that.  Utilities are paid directly from your bank account which makes bill paying almost non existent for us.

To Parler or Not Parler - C'est la question

The challenge with the language continues to be my inability to understand them.  They all understand me reasonably well and often compliment me on my speech.  Nevertheless, they all just speak too fast for my comprehension.  We are trying to figure it out by watching French TV with French subtitles.  The verdict is still out on this approach.  The absolute hardest task is calling a business and getting a recording with a full menu of options - none of which are clear to us.  Another almost impossible task is receiving a voicemail message entirely in French.  It is so frustrating that we put a greeting message on our phone in French that says, "We are Americans.  Please speak slowly - verrrrrry slowly."  Perhaps that will help a bit.  When we are out and about, everyone knows we are Americans as soon as we open our mouths, so they lower their expectations of our oral skills which is fine.  No huge embarrassing gaffes so far, but they are bound to happen eventually.

Sur la route encore

Even though the French drive on the same side of the road as those of us in the US, some things are very different.  The first time we tried to get to Ikea, we drove right past it but were unable to get to it due to the roundabouts.  The harder we tried, the further away we ended up until we were at least 8 miles away. You can see a destination, but if you take the wrong turn on a roundabout (which is easy to do since nothing is instinctual about roundabouts), you will be headed in a totally wrong direction.  So we spent an hour and a half trying to get back to where we started basically.  Probably the most frustrating experience we have had so far.  Also, the French are notorious tailgaters.  The danger of speeding up is that you can then get a speeding ticket from an automatic camera.  No police stop you and hand you a ticket.  You just receive it in the mail.  A new Scottish friend of ours here just received his first automatic ticket and told us the fines ramp up quite high quickly if you do not pay it expeditiously.  With all this going on and unfamiliar road signs, we decided it was best to procure an automatic transmission vehicle rather than also teaching me how to drive a stick.  Automatics are few in availability, but we were able to locate a slightly used manufacturer driven vehicle.

Bonjour C'est Vendredi

Today is Friday, so it's off to the farmers' market for our fresh produce and many other little items that small artisans offer.  Ron is still not so sure about many of the items such as head of veal and pig snout, but he did try porc en aspic and thought it was pretty good.  By the way, for those who have inquired, Lola, our little dog, did very well on the trip over.  Due to the sedative, she was able to sleep most of the 12 hours portal to portal without needing a potty break and only squeaked out one loud bark the entire time.  She dosed in a canine carryon roller bag under our seat and did not exhibit any distress.  Perhaps all of France is the same as Amboise as we are able to take her to almost any restaurant or establishment and she behaves very well just observing everything quietly.  Each business provides her with a bowl of water.  All businesses here shut down completely between 12 and 2 for lunch - even the banks and post office.  Lunch is often a 3 course affair at a fairly reasonable price.  Although wine in the middle of the day means my afternoons are spent napping.  Au revoir as we are off to the market.

First Message from Amboise

We haven't had Internet service since our arrival and won't until sometime later this week but a new friend let us piggyback on his connection to enable us to post this message at long last.  Other than Internet type services, everything has gone extremely well.  Our new checks were waiting for us upon arrival.  To our amazement, when we went to Ikea to buy our furniture, they took a blank check from our checkbook, ran it through their register and it printed all information on the check (date, payee, amount in euros in numerals and words).  All I had to do was sign the check.  Voila.  All transactions take a great amount of documentation such as setting up utilities, purchasing a car (very little choice in automatics but we did find a manufacturer vehicle with only 7000 klm on it for about half price), establishing telephone service, procuring insurance and on and on.  Several times we needed a copy of our lease to prove we were living in France and a utility bill.  For some reason, utility bills are the king of documentation for proof.  Then we had to purchase tools for Ron to assemble the Ikea furniture - bed, dresser, nightstands, desk, armoire etc.  Naturally, he was happy to be working with his hands again.  Soon he will tackle the 2 gardens which are terribly overgrown.  Today he painted the mailbox and window railings.  So we have been extremely busy establishing ourselves.  In the evenings, we sit on the bank of La Loire with beautiful sunsets with sweet little Lola watching rabbits nearby.  This is paradise - for us.  Stay tuned for future posts when we get our service working.  By the way, Les Simpsons in French are very amusing on TV.  A bientot.