Fall is Beautiful!

 I've become lazy. I don't feel like writing. More precisely, I don't feel like opening the computer, and typing or swooshing on the phone just doesn't work for me. There's not really anything new, just routine.

Since my last post was over 3 months ago, though, there is some catching up to do. We returned to Ginals early in July with the two Parisian grandchildren. They stayed with E & G; we stayed at our base - Hôtel Belle Rive in Najac. They had a great time helping around the property. We all did a little tourism. I'm very proud to announce that I managed to go up to the center of Cordes-Sur-Ciel and back down. The new hip is doing its job. It was a pleasure to be able to walk and go up and down steep hills. In this part of France, most picturesque medieval villages are perched high up overlooking a valley. We went to the market at St.-Antonin-Nobel-Val and had lunch at the Auberge des Sens. It was almost like old times -- not quite as crowded as in the past, but still bustling.

Delapre Abbey

The U.K. family canceled their trip to France because of the ever-changing Covid rules. Would they have to do multiple expensive tests upon return to the U.K.? Would they have to quarantine? At home? In a hotel? It was looking like a logistical and economic nightmare so they canceled. We went to them, instead. By the time we decided, it was pretty clear that if we had to quarantine it would be at their home. And if we needed tests, there are only two of us versus five of them, so much less expensive. In the end, we did not have to quarantine and we only had to do the "Day 2" test. We got to spend some much-needed cuddle time with them. 

Delapre Abbey

We went to a history event at the Delapre Abbey. There were stands all around the "parade" ground with embroidery, fabric dyeing, music, cooking, and other demonstrations of the 17th century revolutionary times. Inside the Abbey, there was a "dentist/doctor" demonstrating the various medical devices of the time. Everyone manning the stands seemed to be quite an expert in his or her field. I think we all learned a lot. The kids seemed captivated.

Another day, we went to Sulgrave, touted as the ancestral home of George Washington. In a way, yes. But his family had left the home many generations before George Washington was born. His great-great-great-great-grandfather built it in the 16th century but it was no longer in the family by the mid-17th. By 1911, it was a rundown farm. My take on it is that owners wanted to sell at the same time a group of investors was looking for a symbol of 100 years (give or take) of Anglo-American friendship. It was purchased in 1914 but restoration had to wait for the end of World War I. It is U.S. property. You are on U.S. soil when you are there. They have a beautiful garden and an extensive apple orchard. 

We were lucky to be there for A's birthday at the end of August, but by the time C's birthday came around, we were already home. Right now, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the girls on their first school break. In England, as in France, there's a two-week break after about 6 weeks in school. 
In September, P & G came up from Six-Fours for a week. They stayed in Paris and we got together with them for lunch and the Botticelli exhibit at the Jacquemart-André Museum. I'm not a real fan of Botticelli. Interesting, but not riveting, for me. 

Fall is also the period of doing the medical rounds. I'm seeing doctors, getting all the check-ups, and so on. In France, our flu shots will be available from October 26. I've got my 3rd Covid shot scheduled for the 29th. Then, in November, my mammogram and an unrelated minor surgery. By mid-November, I should be clear of all the routine stuff. It's as if the beginning of the school year is still the beginning of my year. 

Ready to go!

First of all, Unmute Yourself, Girlfriend is already published. BookBaby has been distributing the pre-orders, not waiting for the July 4 publication date. Susan, our chief editor, who laid out all the publishing cost, has recovered her expenses and from that point on, all the money goes to the alumnae association for a scholorship for a Girls' High girl for college. On BookBaby, you can order an e-version and or the print version, but the Kindle version will not be out until it's available on Amazon, which, I suppose will be next week. If you are thinking of ordering it, via BookBaby will allow us more funds for the alumnae association than Amazon will.

For anyone wondering about the cover, the school has pink marble halls (and the real cover is more pink than the purple in this image) and there is a replica of the Winged Victory in the main hall. 

We went to Najac for a few days earlier this month, visiting Emma and Gabriel in Ginals, and we came back with Emma, who spent a few days going to museums and trying to see friends. She managed to see her best friend since Ecole Maternelle (pre-K) but was not so successful with the other visits and her appointment with the dentist was cancelled at that last minute because of water damage in the office or the building. Not a complete failure, but not a complete success, either. 

While we were there, I took picures of the vegetable garden. We picked lots and lots of cherries and we came home with some fresh artichokes, which I just finished up cooking, yesterday. Here, I managed to pick some raspberries this past week. It's not the kind of crop we've had in the past. There are fewer plants and they are not producing as much. I did manage to make a small jar of jam, though. And I suppose we'll get some more to eat this week.

Yesterday, Anne invited me to the Magritte / Renoir exhibit at the Orangerie. We had lunch together beforehand. Our reservation was for 2:00 p.m. It's not a big exhibit and doesn't take much time to walk through. I liked seeing the Renoir and Magritte paintings associated like that. I would not have imagined such a powerful influence on Magritte. I was also impressed by Magritte's efforts to lighten up the Surrealist movement during and especially after the war -- to focus on the positive. There are arrows on the floor to make sure you follow the flow and, of course, there aren't many people allowed in each time slot. It makes it really pleasant. You can step back to see the whole picture; you can get up close if you need to. Since it didn't take us much more than half an hour, we walked through some of the permanent exhibit - Matisse, Picasso - and sat for a while among Monet's Waterlilies, where I really appreciated not having a crowd block the view between the seat in the center of the room and the paintings. This is one nice effect of the Covid restrictions. 

From there, we went up the Champs-Elysées by métro because I was not feeling up to the walk from Concorde almost all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe. That gave us time for a smoothie at a café (2 smoothies cost us more than lunch for the two of us!) before going to the movies (again, thanks to Anne) to see "Minari". It's the Korean Film Festival week. A foreign movie, on a weekday afternoon -- I think there were not more than 10 of us in the theater. That's too bad. It's a good movie. 

It was a full day out and about in the city. I can't remember the last time I had such a day. I hope to start up my Navigo transportation pass again in September and go into Paris more frequently as I used to. 

Getting ready to go somewhere, anywhere!

 Am I getting ready, really? No. Until we know what the schedule for deconfinement is, it is hard to get ready. Mentally, I am ready. We think that the weekend in mid-May will be free, but that is going to be a '-day weekend anyway from Ascension Thursday. We fear there just may be too many people on the road. I don't really care. We could leave a day or two before that and or come back a day or two after. I would simply like to go down to see E and G. The car needs to go on a trip!

Over the past few months, a bunch of my classmates wrote some essays that we have compiled into a book. That book will be coming out, soon. Our editing team is expecting the second version from the publisher. We hope there will be no more changes, that they get the cover right this time. If so, publication will follow! This is what comes from our now regular Zoom reunions!

Paul and I have been having even more frequent Zoom reunions with our Pierwige friends. We are a group of 5 couples. We've travelled together to Malta (and some more), to Portugal , to Valencia, Spain, the Camargue, France, and Andalusia, Spain. We're talking about a possible trip to Germany towards the end of summer. 

Meanwhile, here, in the Paris region, the weather is fine. I bet they'll start talking about a drought before too long. We had a cold snap a couple of weeks ago and that has guaranteed us higher fruit prices, again, this year. Every year, there is something that means production will be low and prices high. That's not always true. This is asparagus season and the news reports a couple of weeks ago were about the glut in the asparagus market. At our market, though, a bunch of 11 spears cost €13! That's outrageously expensive. You'd think that if there is a glut, the prices would be lower.

This confinement period meant that the kids, who had been in school with regular vacation breaks since the start of the school year in September, had a short week (Easter Monday is a holiday, here) of online school, then their 2-week Spring vacation. We had them for a few days, so their parents could work calmly from home, then the parents took a few days off and delivered them to their other grandparents. Normally, the Paris region's Spring break would have been a few weeks later, but the confinement, in all logic, had all the zones on the same schedule. This week, the primary school kids all went back to class. They've got saliva tests and at the first sign of Covid-19, the class goes back to online sessions. Middle school kids go back to class next week and high school kids, in mid-May in split in person and online classes. Our grandkids are still in primary. 

Baseball practice has continued. With the nice weather, I can walk over to watch. In fact, L had practice last Sunday and his family sat by the bleachers for a picnic. A hopped on a bus to the Bois and joined them and I walked over after our lunch at home. Next Sunday, the N°1 and N°2 teams will warm up together and play a practice game. I hope the weather holds up. I also hope that I do not have a severe reaction to the second Pfizer shot. I had my first dose on April 2 and the second one is this coming Friday. My arm was a little sore after the first shot, but no worse than after any other vaccination.

I need to go into Paris to return some books to the library. Maybe I'll pick up a lunch at Breakfast in America and walk home from there. It's a long walk but I need motivation to get out and walk. A destination, a purpose. A and I went to the arboretum a few weeks ago. We should go back now that all the trees have leaves out. I walked there. We also have a walk planned in the Bois de Vincennes to discover parts we are less familiar with. Maybe next Monday afternoon. 

Another month has gone by

There are many reasons for winter to be a slow time. for retired people: cold, clouds, rain, snow. Really, though, none of that has been the case for the last month. We had a stretch of fine weather. It's been above freezing, mostly clear skies, but I simply haven't felt like going out for walks. 

I haven't been knitting. I was trying to make a yoke for a yoke-neck sweater but I kept making mistakes due to lack of concentration. I'd restart, remember what went wrong, and make a different mistake. That has been frustrating, to say the least. 

The pandemic just won't stop. After the second wave hit and peaked in November, numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths went down, but then hit a plateau that was still on the high level. For this past month, they slowly swelled up, but I guess they are now forming into a wave. The UK variant has become the dominant strain and its highly contagious. In Europe, and in France, particularly, vaccinations are still slowly coming. In France, communication from the government has been terrible. First, only those over 75 or with underlying conditions could be vaccinated and the only vaccines were the Pfizer and Moderna ones. When the Astra-Zeneca vaccine was finally approved, we were told that it would not be given to people over 65 because it hadn't been fully tested on that group. That left people between 65 and 75 in the lurch as the first priority group was not done, yet. After protest, that policy was reversed to allow people over 65 to get the Astra-Zeneca vaccine. Then, two weeks ago, throughout Europe, there were fears that some side effects of  the Astra-Zeneca were so dangerous as to require suspending its use. On Thursday, this week, the European agency said it was ok, so yesterday, France reinstated Astra-Zeneca and the Prime Minister got his shot. However, the official French recommendation is that people under 55 not get that one. It's so confusing that many people who had appointments for the Astra-Zeneca vaccine in pharmacies and doctors' office, even if they are in the "qualified" age group, are not showing up. I have stayed out of the fray. Back in February, my appointment for March 2 was postponed to April 2 at the Nogent vaccination center and I have not attempted to change it or get a vaccination elsewhere. I'll take whatever vaccination they have. 

In any case, if you follow the charts and maps on www.covidtracker.fr, you can see how Covid has been spreading. In France, we've had a curfew since November, first from 8p.m. to 6a.m., then tightened from 6 to 6. Restaurants have been shut for any service other than take-out or delivery. Movie and all theaters and museums are shut. It hasn't been enough. Starting this weekend, the Paris region, the northern departments all the way west into Normandy, and the Côte d'Azur are on a moderate lockdown. Essential businesses are open -- and this time, hair salons are essential. The curfew has been enlarged to 7p.m. to 6a.m. We can go out for sports and other physical activity without the 1-hour limit we had last Spring and we have a 10-km radius rather than the 1-km of a year ago. 

I can go to the ballpark! And yes, there is baseball because, for Parisians, the ballpark in the Bois de Vincennes is within the 10k limit and sport is allowed. For me, the field is close enough to walk to. They've been holding practice for several weeks, now. It's still up in the air whether they'll have actual games. L's been coaching the little kids for a few years and finally decided he wanted to play again, after an 8 or 9-year break. I don't think sitting in the bleachers to watch will be allowed, but it's a nice walk over there and back home -- 5k round trip -- and I like having a reason for a walk. I think that not having any purpose other than just "going for a walk" is why I've been so lazy. 

What a week!

Last week was the awful. We woke up on Friday morning to no heat and no hot water. Paul called the company that sold us the furnace and with which we still have a maintenance contract at a little after 6. He expected to get the answering machine but woke up the wife. He was told to call at 9, which he did, giving the error message showing on the furnace (a sensor on the air intake) and was told a technician would call him back. So we waited. At lunch time, Paul called, again, and the guy hung up after saying he was eating. Half an hour later, Paul called, again and was told the technician would call…. This went on all afternoon. At a little past 7 p.m. he called once more and got a young guy who is new and not a technician but who took our plight to heart and came over. Via WhatsApp, he consulted with the technician, but was unable to solve the problem. There is no service over the weekend, so we froze until Monday. The house, on Sunday, was down to 7ºC. 

Friends lent us a couple of space heaters to supplement the one we already had in the bedroom. The bathroom became quite toasty, but without hot water, we didn't spend much time, there. On Saturday, we went to our friend's for lunch. Of course, it was nice to have a warm meal in a warm dining room. But even nicer was spending almost 4 hours with friends. They invited us to spend the night, but we went home.

Monday morning, the phoning started again and the technician finally showed up by the end of the afternoon and turned out to be unfamiliar with our furnace. He told us the other technician would come by, but that didn't happen. On Tuesday, Paul called, again, first thing, and told the boss to give the technician the part. He was told that we had to call the manufacturer to order the part; he didn't have it and he didn't order them. That was a surprise, so Paul called the manufacturer, whose staff was just as surprised to hear the that. He gave us the name of a couple of approved repairers not far from us (and our supplier was not among them). Tuesday afternoon, the furnace was repaired, with the new part.

This adventure of ours was nothing compared to the catastrophic cold and snow that caused the power outages in Texas and the mid-West.

This week, it's Springlike! Today is Sunday and it was sunny and warm so we went for a long walk. There's an app called VisioRando. It's based on IGN maps. That's the Institut géographique national and they are the best maps for hiking. The app keeps reminding you to subscribe, but I'm not ready to do that, yet. We didn't follow the hike exactly, today, because we were starting from home and bypassed the RER station. I then retraced our steps in Map My Walk to figure out our actual distance. There is a slight problem with Map My Walk, though, because it did not allow me to trace our walk through the parks. In the 40+ years we've lived on the border between Nogent and Fontenay, I'd never gone for a casual walk in Fontenay. The red dot on that map is home. On that map, the Fontenay RER station is northwest of us. The road to the center of Fontenay is north. Today, though, instead of following the straight Rue de Joinville, we meandered and then cut westward through the park behind the city hall. We'd never stopped to go through this park before. This brought us to the back of the church and to more familiar paths. We went up the Rue du Cheval Rû, but instead of following the curve, we continued on the Rue des Belles Vues, which took us through a park. There's work going on and it was fenced off on the right so there was no view. All of a sudden we found ourselves at the back of one of our doctor's buildings. We then continued through the old quarry, which is a beautiful ecopark that we never knew existed. There, the views are splendid. It was slightly overcast so we couldn't see all the way to the other side of Paris, but it was still an impressive view. From there, it was all downhill, along the lower border of the quarry and back into the center of Fontenay, to our familiar route home. 

Catching up these past few months -- Happy New Year!

 

A Journal, sort of

January 9, 2021

A friend reminded me that I hadn't written a blog post in a long, long while. I didn't feel like writing, frankly. I made a sweater for Co. on the renovated machine. In September, after consulting again with the surgeon, we decided to proceed with a hip replacement in mid-November. Then, in France, we went on partial reconfinement -- for us, it was the same as the first one. One-hour out-of-home activity, curfew, etc. There were a few high school classmate reunions on Zoom and the following journal is a result of those meetings. I have configured it so that the reader bores down to the past. That way, once it was started, the reader doesn't have to scroll down all the way to the latest installment; it's at the top. I've edited slightly for the blog, taking out full names. (My friends and family can figure out who's who; other readers don't really need to know.) This, then, is a long post, with a lot of catching up.

January 7, 2021

I can't believe what I saw last night when I turned on the TV. But let's get the good news out of the way.

Yesterday, before 7a.m., I left on a 5-hour drive to Mulhouse in our 14-year-old Prius. It was a very smooth trip. I got to the dealership before they were closing for their two-hour lunch break. I left after 1p.m. to return home in our new-to-us one-year-old Prius. 

I can't describe the pleasure I have on long, solitary drives. I can listen to the radio. I can drive as I like to drive. I got home just before 7p.m., before our 8p.m. curfew. A long 12-hour day.

After a bite eat, I turned on CNN. The thugs were still "just" on the Capitol steps; they hadn't yet broken in. The scene brought me to tears. I've been to the Capitol. I've been to the office of Nancy Pelosi -- when she was the Minority Leader. I've been to the office buildings, especially Cannon, where my Representative from PA-3, Dwight Evans, is. Seeing an attempted coup in Washington is just too much. 

This morning, I woke up to the Pennsylvania electoral college vote being objected to. As I write this, they are getting back to the full session to continue the tally. It's. 3:23a.m. in DC, 9:23 in France. I'm confident the procedure will now continue smoothly. 

I'm not confident that the inauguration on the 20th will go smoothly. I'm afraid that even after the inauguration, President Biden and Vice President Harris will be in danger. I'm sad and angry to see how low our country has fallen.

January 5, 2021

Good news first. Yesterday, I wanted to go for a walk and P agreed to go, too. Then I suggested that maybe R and M could join us. They've been our dear friends since our daughters, now 45, started école maternelle when they were going on 3. R and I have been out walking together a few times since December. It was time to get our husbands out. We went into the Bois de Vincennes and went around the lac des Minimes. For us, from home and back, that's precisely 5km. As we chatted away, it was a smooth walk. I think I can declare my recovery complete.

It's the doctor who will really decide if I'm fully recovered. My appointment with him is this afternoon. 

Not such good news. Cl is still coughing and exhausted. G is still so exhausted he couldn't take Ch to the halfway stop for N to meet them and take her home. N came all the way to Northampton to pick her up. A, the 11 year old, has become the family chef. She loves to cook. As Cl says, the meals are not balanced, but at least they're eating and she's having fun. She's also been a bit anxious with both parents sick. C, 7, is very quiet. As of today, the U.K. is back on full lockdown. Cl says it'll give her more time to get back her strength as she didn't feel she'd have been able to walk Co to school starting today.

We discussed the catastrophic vaccine distribution strategies in the U.K. and in France. In two weeks, France is still counting vaccination in the hundreds, not yet reaching 1000! In the U.K. they've decided to delay the second dose.

Trump should be arrested for trying to tamper with an election, with extortion of a public official. The Senate runoff in Georgia is today. Will there ever be good news coming from the U.S. again. Biden has such an uphill struggle to get some sort of bipartisan peace again.

January 2, 2021

Here’s wishing us all a Happier 2021 than 2020 was. Covid is still rampant in Europe, where we seem to have better governance than the U.S. does, and in the U.S. where better governance should be coming after January 20. France is taking a tiptoe approach. First only those in care facilities are being vaccinated and in a week, they’d only managed 332, whereas Germany had vaccinated in the many thousands. After much protest, the French have added medical workers over 50. They do not anticipate reaching people with high risk and over 75 until late February and we younger folk will have to wait until March or April. Maybe, by then, they’ll get rid of the “informed consent” document. My thought is that if you are reticent and do not consent, then you don’t get the shot. To have to see the doctor beforehand, get informed, and then make another appointment to get the shot and a third appointment for the second dose is overkill. Still, it’s better than what the British have just done -- put off the second dose to a later date so they can give more people a first dose. Pfizer has not done any study as to whether that approach will work.

Update on the UK family -- so far, so good. The kids are fine and keeping occupied. Ch is doing a great job on that front. To prepare for her upcoming exams, she’s been playing school with the others, teaching them what she needs to be studying. If they (7 and 11 years old) get what she’s saying, then she’s got it down pat. She’s also been doing watercolor workshops with them. Cl is still coughing a lot during the day, but sleeping fine and her husband is stuck with a stuffy nose and a headache. But the symptoms have not gotten worse.

Update on the car -- I’m going to pick it up on the 6th. I will probably have to spend the night on the way back. It’s a lot of driving for a single day and there’s a curfew in effect, so I’ll play it safe.

Today, an Italian woman currently in Paris is coming over to check out my knitting machines. She may decide to take one of them off my hands. I think I only really want to keep one standard and the mid-gauge so getting rid of two of the standards would be nice but I’m still too attached to them to create an ad and put them up for sale.

December 26, 2020

Christmas gift? Cl and G spent Christmas morning getting tested for Covid. They got the results, today -- both positive.

After Christmas Eve dinner they went to bed feeling a bit under the weather and woke up on Christmas Day coughing and feverish. G was supposed to drive Ch halfway so she could transfer home to her mum, but of course, that did not happen. That is a good thing because she's about to turn 16 and with both Cl and G ill, she will be the adult in the house. I'm sure A, 11, and Co, 7, will be as helpful as they can possibly be but I'm reassured that Ch is with them.

My own inclination would normally be to get on a plane or train and go to them, but it's just not feasible. Thank goodness they have wonderful friends who are already volunteering to drop off shopping and food for them. I feel so damn helpless.

December 23, 2020

I woke up this morning with one of my high school friends on my mind and how sorry I was that she would be missing her usual holiday travel for Christmas with her family and the missing people in her family who had died from Covid earlier this year. This has been a terrifying year.

Another reason she, in particular, came to mind is something she had said about never leaving the country to live abroad and eventually abandoning U.S. citizenship. Certainly not at the age we are, now. I did not leave with such an intention. I came to France as a student, just turned 19, and fell in love. Just like Kathleen Damerol, whose story is much like mine, with the added distress that she has because she had a business and a tax-advantaged account in France that was specifically for retirement but is not recognized as such by the IRS.

https://youtu.be/UaTILxfPs0M

What's extraordinary is that Keith Richmond, a mutual friend (also participating in the video), sent Kathleen and me an introduction email just last month. It was when I had my surgery and I sent her my phone number but we never talked. Yesterday, I wrote to her again and we agreed to a call this morning. Then, I saw that video, so now I feel I already know her. I'm looking forward to our call even more.

The distress of considering renunciation is very real. I go through thinking of it every year, sometimes several times a year. I haven't done it. I always manage to reason with myself that I can manage the status quo. But I don't have my own business. I don't have a job that would require signatory authority on company accounts. My friend D-L vomited when she left the embassy after renouncing.

PS: I just got off the phone with Kathleen.

December 21, 2020

Okay, it looks like this is going to be a once-a-week deal. First thing, very early this morning, I looked at my emails and found a flurry from some GHS friends about an upcoming class-wide announcement/invitation to the GHS Stories. It was a pleasant thought and I went back to sleep. However, that reminded me that I needed to do some cleaning tasks in the group’s folder that S had requested last Friday. That led me to catching up on some stories that had been modified or added since the last time I looked. Reading P’s piece reminded me that I should probably update this journal.

One thing leads to another and the days go by. It’s raining so I don’t think I’ll go out for a walk unless it clears up. I took a long (for me, at least) walk, yesterday, to the Picard frozen food shop in Fontenay. According to “Map My Walk”, that’s 1.23km. Let’s just say it was 2.5km round trip, with the return trip a bit slow because I had a backpack full of frozen food on my back. P estimated about 15kg. I don’t think it was that much but it was heavy and my leg was a bit wobbly by the time I got home. I think I was more sprite a week ago and have been overdoing it since then. I walked a bit over 2km with R on Friday. When I see the pictures on Facebook of wonderful hikes in the snowy woods, I wonder if I’ll get anywhere near the stamina to do those kinds of walks again. 

We are going to buy a car. Our Prius will be 14 in May and I think P is just tired of it. We got it as a recent used car in 2008. Once shops were reopened, we scheduled a meeting (can’t just walk in any more because of the limits on the number of people allowed inside at one time) and got the info for a new Prius, leased or bought, cash or credit. Then we were told that one would be available in April. On a used car website, we found just what we were looking for, a 2020 model, only 4000 km, in Mulhouse. That is not the town next door. Now that restrictions on going from one region to another have been lifted, we thought I could drive there on Saturday, trade in the old for the new one, and drive back, either the same day, or the next. Oh, no. The vendor is treating this as an online sale with a retraction period of 14 days. Plus he’s now on vacation for the holidays. Then, he has to handle the transfer of registration paperwork (which is really online work) and does not anticipate our coming to get the car until January 9. I hope that France is not back to shopping and or travel restrictions, again, by then. 

I am not hopeful about the progression of Covid. I’m pretty sure that this fast-spreading variant that has forced a strict lockdown in the London area is not limited to London, nor to the U.K. The numbers have gone back up in France over the past week instead of staying at their plateau or going down, as hoped. I’m sure this is going to mean stricter measures are in store. The hospitals are okay, so far. The percentage of Covid patients in ICU is holding steady at less than 55%. The famous effective R number is creeping back up -- now at 0.9. Vaccinations start in France this week. We may be in the “elder” category but we are not the top priority, nor should we be. First the health care workers and the occupants of care facilities. Those of us in our own homes, with no health problems, can wait a bit.  

14 Dec. 2020

During the Zoom meeting on Dec. 13, it was suggested that we might add a story 6 months on. I had already left the meeting at that point, so I don’t know exactly what was discussed. Susan told me about it today.

That brings me to bringing this whole Covid business up to now before I carry on with the future.

In France, it really started hitting us hard in March. There were municipal elections scheduled in the middle of the month and there were already questions about whether they could go through, as scheduled, or not. (An aside, here, for non-French readers. There are no absentee ballots, here. If you know you are not going to be able to go to the polling place on election day, you have to go to the police station and fill out a proxy to allow someone else in your town to vote for you. You trust that person to vote as you want.)  At this late stage, it was a matter of delaying the election or carrying on as scheduled. To delay would have required a special law. The President went on the air to announce that France would be going into lockdown (called “confinement”) after the election. The many parties involved in the election had met with the President and had decided to go ahead with the election. 

My husband and I went early to the polling station, which is our usual habit. We are usually the first, or at least in the first 10 people present. We voted and walked home with our friend and neighbor who was just behind us at the polling place. We were already keeping apart, scarves over our faces, no kissing cheeks, shaking hands. 

The second round of the election, two weeks later, was postponed. We were in lockdown. Our neighbors were wonderful, checking on us to see if we needed anything. Spring was coming. Days were getting longer. We could open our windows and hold conversations across the street. There was a festive air about it. Every evening, after the Italian and Spanish models, we were all at our windows clapping our appreciation for the medical workers. Festivity is one thing but the grim numbers of people getting sick and dying is another. 

By May, things were looking up and by the end of the month, confinement was over. We no longer needed permission slips to be out of the home. We could finally see our son’s family in their apartment into which they had moved just the weekend before the confinement started. We could see the grandchildren. We could see our daughter who lives in Paris. The French confinement eased just in time to fit in the delayed runoff election before it would have been necessary to start all over.

Zoom had started to enter our lives. Our daughter in England, has a step-daughter whose grandmother is a talented artist and a great teacher. She gave us watercolor lessons every week over Zoom. She lives near Tours, France; I’m just outside Paris; Cl and the girls are in Northampton, England; and V, Ch’s mom, is near London. We had a great time. We also had a few family Zoom meetings with immediate and more distant family.

Then, S suggested a 212 Zoom meeting. From Europe, all across the United States, some classmates joined in the meeting. Covid was on our minds. Long-term care facilities everywhere were hard hit. Hospitals were under considerable strain. Although statistics show that Europe was really more severely hit in terms of numbers of deaths per 100,000 population, it seems that the governments tried to flatten the curve and succeeded to some extent while the states in the U.S. were not reacting in concert and the President was not taking the illness seriously, at all. Europe seemed calmer and reports in the U.S. seemed more panicked.

I missed the July Zoom because we were in the southwest of France with our Parisian grandchildren, visiting our daughter who lives down there. Cl and her family came down with their trailer and parked it at E’s. It was great that the cousins were able to spend about 10 days together. Anne even came for a few days of her vacation. With hindsight, this could have been a risky gathering. We spent all our time outdoors at E's. It was wonderful. Luckily for us, no one became ill. 

In September, people started going back to their offices; the children went back to school. The English family, too, started a more normal routine. Cafés and restaurants had set up service on sidewalks and in the parking spaces in front of them. We could eat with friends. At our age, we were still being very cautious. 

By the time of the October 212 Zoom meeting, the second Covid-19 wave was hitting Europe and in the United States, there was debate as to whether this was the second or the third wave! Schools in France did not seem affected. Our grandchildren have not missed a day of going to school. In England, one of the children had to remain at home because there had been an outbreak of Covid in her section of the building. It was becoming evident, though, that a second confinement period was coming. That came in early November.

Stay at home -- except for medical appointments, to take care of someone, to shop for necessities, to walk the dog, to go for a walk (limited to 1 hour). However, I do not consider this a hardship. I’m fine. I’m not doing much, but I’m not particularly bored. 

Between April and November, I had made each grandchild a sweater. I had picked up another old knitting machine in July and restored it. I feel no urge to knit every day. I even started some projects by hand. I’ve read several books. I’ve watched lots of YouTube. 

After my shoulder replacement in September 2019, my hip problems became more noticeable. This ended up with a hip replacement on November 18. Luckily, the confinement was decided early enough to avoid the strain on hospitals and clinics, so this kind of elective surgery has been able to continue. 

The numbers in France have not declined to the desired level, but have gone down and stabilized enough. Our confinement has been eased. We can go out for 3 hours. As of tomorrow, we’ll be able to go to other regions of France. There is a stay-at-home curfew after 7pm. This will allow for limited family gatherings at Christmas. However, we will be home. A will come over. The other Parisian family will go to the other grandparents. The U.K. family will stay in the U.K. 

That brings me to today. We went to the Toyota sales point in Vincennes. I walked to the bus stop without a crutch. That’s the longest walk I’ve done without a crutch. The second bus stopped almost in front of the sales office. We think we know what we are going to do, now. We’ve gone over the recent used versus new, and buying versus 3-year lease. This is the future. By this coming Spring, we will be ready to head out on the road. I hope we will have been vaccinated by then. 

 

 

We are fortunate

 We took two of our grandchildren on vacation with us for 10 days. Since the end of the French "confinement", we'd seen them a couple of times: a picnic in the yard the first weekend of deconfinement, a birthday party in our house and then off we went. From mid-May to mid-July, when we took them, they had been back to school and had spent a couple of weeks with their other grandparents. Their parents had been back to work sporadically and we adults had all gone food shopping and been out for appointments. We wore masks, but not when we were together.

France, on the whole, is not doing too badly with containing Covid. The numbers have been creeping up, though. The RO number announced this weekend was 1.32. Ideally, it should be under 1. Restrictions can become quite serious, again, if it goes over 2. As it is, Paris, suburbs, and other cities with crowed streets have decided masks must be worn outside, too, when in crowded areas or on crowded streets. In Nogent, that's the walk along the Marne, along the main street Grande Rue, and the outdoor areas of the market place. I have an appointment in Paris on Monday and the street, Rue d'Avron, is on the list. I couldn't find the RO number for the US, either as a whole or in parts.

Our vacation was in an area with remarkably little Covid. We stayed at a hotel, the one we always stay at when we visit E and G. L'Hôtel la Belle Rive, which gets shortened to Le Belle Rive (for grammarians, that is the result of an ellipsis between LE hôtel and LA rive). Covid prevention rules were strictly adhered to. The kids, though, under 11, did not have to wear masks indoors. In Najac, all was calm - eerily so. There are hardly any tourists. Wherever we went (and we really didn't go anywhere), we saw that people were putting their masks on before entering any place.

So, how were we, perhaps, slack? We spent our days with E&G. Not a problem. The family from the U.K. arrived with their trailer: 2 under age 11, a teenager, and 2 adults. That brought us up to a group of 11 people, from different areas. We were joined for the last few days by our other daughter coming from Paris. She had stopped to visit friends in Lyon on the way. That means that just our little family created a rather large group of 12 at its peak. In fact, when we had an end-of-vacation family dinner at the hotel, we had a children's table and an adults' table -- not so much because we wanted the peace and quiet of not sitting with the kids, but because a restaurant cannot serve tables of over 10.

We are fortunate that none has shown any symptoms of the illness. In retrospect, perhaps we should have worn masks more when around one another. But we spent the whole time outdoors and not all that close, when you think about it. 

Bathroom renovation underway

We're lucky. We live in a house and it's big enough so that the work crew of two can be upstairs and away from us, making a lot of noise as they dismantle the old. In fact, I think I'll go for a walk.
France relaxed its confinement rules starting on Monday. I don't need a permission slip with the reason for my being away from home any more. I can go into the Bois de Vincennes or to the center of Nogent if I want. Until the noise got really bad after lunch, I didn't feel the need to get out of the house.
That's not quite true. I took the car this morning and went all the way to Costco. My 40+ year-old sewing machine needs repair and the minimum for just a "revision" is €90. I gave in and got a new, less elaborate machine. I don't need an elaborate machine. I just want to finish off the masks, for the time being.
The drive was good for the car. The battery had drained during these months of non-use. Paul had hooked up the charger and charged it, but there's nothing like taking a car on the road to get the battery up to where it belongs. That, it did. The drive was unlike any other -- hardly any traffic. It only took half an hour to get there and the same to get back. It usually takes us about an hour each way, which is why we don't go frequently.
Everyone at Costco was well disciplined. We all had our masks on and a line formed outside the store with everyone well spaced apart. I had my gel and disinfected the cart handle when I took the cart, but upon entering, an employee had a disinfectent wipe and wiped the handle -- just in case. The store was not crowded. I got what I needed -- the sewing machine and the rest of the list I had.
I had everything packed away before lunch! Now. I'm going out in the sun. I'll unpack the machine when these workers leave.

Another week has gone by

Our family has discovered Zoom. First, K suggested it; he's been using it for online classes and family reunions. I mentioned it to A and she said she's been using it for the continuing educations classes she manages. Then, last Thursday, I was attending a meeting of an association (AAWE) on Google Hangouts, but there were too many of us or something else was wrong, because communication was difficult and my telephone was not the only one to get extremely hot so we decided to use Zoom. That worked fine. Thus initiated, I launched a family reunion on Friday.
Why not WhatsApp? Well, from what I gather, that's limited to 4 phones and we needed more connections if I was to connect us and our four kids. Plus, that on the phone, which is a small screen. Why not FaceTime? That's for Apple users and we do not all have Apple products. Why not Skype? We've been really disappointed in the audio. So, Zoom, it was.
L showed us all the apartment. They've settled in. I think all the stuff left at our house is expendable, then. The children showed us their rooms and they got to see their UK cousins, too. Only E and G were not able to join us. Internet is so slow where they are, they can't do video conferences and besides, E was cleaning up after an afternoon of working on the walls of the gîte.
I would like to bake. The thing is I want to be able to buy flour to replace the bag that I will have to open in order to bake. P went to the supermarket this morning (Don't worry. He goes at 7, when they open and there are no other customers.) It was the first time since last week. There was still no flour. He got some canned fruit and some fresh fruit, but so far, we're still ok with our supplies. The boeuf bourgignon I made and froze last month is very good. There was too much sauce and that made a great oignon soup last night.
The plants are coming along fine. The radishes have sprouted. The other seeds have not yet sprouted. The planted seedlings are surviving under the winter cover. We still have frosty mornings. The weather has been beautiful since mid-March. Blue skies, no rain -- if only we could go out on long walks.
That's it. Nothing extraordinary.

It's all anyone is talking about, still!

First, family news.
We haven't concentrated so many phone calls in a single week in a long time.

• T & B, in San Diego, have been confined to their apartment since before the governor issued the lockdown for the whole state. Meals are delivered to their door and the aide is checked for temperature upon entering the building. It sounds as though they are ok. 
• J & T, in Pittsburgh, also sound ok, although J was on an errand to the pharmacy when I called. I had a long chat with T, who was still able to go to her physical therapy sessions at an ungodly early hour but that means she's the only patient there. Their son D, in California is keeping in close touch and son E, in Philly, is a nurse on the front lines of this pandemic.
• K& S, near LA, also sound fine. They have a wonderful hillside garden to get their exercise and K, even though he retired, is still teaching at CalTech. He hasn't been to the campus in weeks and is doing it all online, as is being done at most universities. I got caught up on their kids and grandkids.
• G, in Florida, also sounds good an caught me up on her kids, grandkids.
• P & G, in Six-Fours, are in good shape, missing their daily evening walk down to and along the seaside, but otherwise carrying on normally. The scheduled surgery is off until further notice, of course. Again, caught up on kids and grandkids. 

Now, for our gang.

• C, G, and the girls are safe and sound in Northampton. C is keeping the kids occupied with learning new family recipes (cornes de gazelle was the latest) and G is thinking of setting up office in the caravan parked just outside. The question is whether the wifi signal is strong enough. Of course, we cancelled our trip to see them this week. 
• E and G are carrying on as usual -- nothing new for them; they've been relatively isolated up on their hilltop for 6 years. Usually, they do go down to St. Antonin Noble Val and meet up with neighbors and friends and that is off, for now. E has gotten the veggie garden started and will be working on the walls in the gîte, now that the hay insulation is all dry. G is also keeping busy and doing fantastic artwork on the computer with the graphic tools he got recently. 
• A is working from home and seems to be the only one from her office who was set up for telecommuting. Others don't know how to log on and are skittish about downloading new applications and having documents filed remotely. Her balcony is starting to bloom.
• L & G, who, as I reported last week, just managed to move into their new apartment the weekend before the confinement started, have settled in to some sort of routine with both of them working from home and trying to keep the kids occupied. They have nice long balconies on the east and west sides, so they've done some gardening with what they had on hand. They've also discovered a floor of the garage that was apparently empty for work to be done. The kids have this gigantic underground playground and there don't seem to be other kids, so there's no problem about sharing time down there. There's also a large garden on the property, but not set up for play. We've still got lots of their boxes, here, so I don't know what they are missing. 

Here I am, trying on one of the masks.

That brings us up to us. We're fine. It's really not too different from normal. P was going out for walks, but has not gone out in the past few days -- the mornings are cold. We've got plenty of food in the house. I gave up trying to repair the back of the cardigan and started to make a replacement. But I don't do much at a time. I think I need to do some hand knitting to keep busy. I made some cloth masks.
I know they are not efficient, but there's something calming about making them. Next on the list is to make reusable disinfection wipes. I've got plenty of fabric to make squares and vinegar, but I don't have 70% or 90% alcohol. I wonder if vodka would do? We don't have that, either, but it might be easier to get at the grocery store. Also, since we might not be able to get together to do our US tax filing, I want to make a tutorial for them.

Speaking of tax tutorials, AARO's tax committee chair, Monte Silver, is organizing tax professionals to create short tutorials for AARO members (https://aaro.org/events/event-videos). So far, he's posted a few for those who have corporations and have to deal with GILTI. Other, more general tutorials, will follow. It might be worth it for some readers to become members of AARO (https://aaro.org/membership/how-to-join).

As of today, I'm going to try to be less online. The constant barrage of Facebook postings is too much.The kids have already turned off notifications from our family WhatsApp group and I agree; it went overboard last week. A daily post, and a little video call is enough. I did enjoy playing yahtzee (yams, in French) with C the other day. She had her dice and I had mine and we showed each other our throws so there was no cheating. She kept score, which is a great activity for addition and learning multiplication tables! I hope we get to do it again, this week.

Now it is time to go outside in the back yard. It's sunny and warm. The plum trees are in full bloom and the cherry tree is just starting to bloom. The plants we bought 10 days ago seem to be thriving and I can't wait to see the seeds we planted start to come up.

Then, lunch. The corned beef I made (from scratch!) turned out fine. My second loaf of rye bread was not as good as the first. It's too flaky. But we got some sandwiches out of it. About half the meat is in in the freezer and the leftover from our sandwiches will go into a "hachis parmentier" tomorrow.

It's all everybody is talking about

Last night, French president Macron also talked about Covid19.
In French, with voice-over in English; 
It was a good speech. So says all the pundits and politicians except Marine Le Pen.
People 70 years old or more are asked to stay in. Within reason. We can still shop for food. This morning, we went to the garden center. I figured that we might as well get the veggies raised boxes in shape for planting and buying seeds and sturdy plants that can live through a light freeze if we get some more. Normally, planting in France is late April and May.
This little ones will not go back to school on Monday; no baseball practice or games until further notice and I bet it's the same for the pony and piano lessons. The parents will work from home or be on "technical unemployment" if working from home is not possible and the president promised that that will be covered. Still, it would have been nice if we could have taken the kids off their backs, but since the whole reason for closing the schools is not that kids are sick but rather that they are healthy carriers of the virus and we belong to the "at risk" population.
Meanwhile, I've still got to finish that cardigan. There is a visible mistake in the back in the ribbed center section. Really, it would probably be faster to take the cardigan apart and knit a new back but for two weeks, off and on, I've been trying to repair it by hand. I think I'm about to give up. But the thought of taking it apart, including ripping back the collar, and knitting the back for the third time is just too discouraging. However, I do have the time to do it. Once that is done, I need to clean the machine I've been using. I received the special brush to clean the unreachable area in the needle bed. I imagine there must be a ton of fluff, there. I think I need to use the other machine for a while -- so it doesn't get jealous! I have plenty of yarn stash to go through. Let's see if I make any headway.
The trip to the U.K. is off. I can't get through to the Eurostar customer service and their website says traffic is normal. However, we have been instructed to stay home and, for such a short visit, it seems ridiculous to risk going and getting stuck in England, to risk taking the virus with us or contracting it there, from the kids.
Stuck at home -- but with a yard. Stuck at home -- but able to go out for walks when the weather is nice. Stuck at home -- with FaceBook. Stuck at home -- but able to go to the corner store to get fresh food. Stuck at home -- but with tons of TV channels with all sorts of programs and YouTube, which can be addictive. Boredom is out of the question. This is not hardship. Not for us.

Moving Day

Not us. It's the Parisian family that is, at last, moving into their new apartment! For the past month and a half they've been in one temporary apartment after another with occasional weekends with us. But tonight, they will sleep at home! I am excited see the new place, all moved in. We did visit a few weeks ago, during the renovation. I thought I had a photo of that, but I guess I don't. I can't find it, in any case.
This morning, after the night, here, they took several of the boxes we'd stored for them. The basement, however, is still full and it'll take several trips to empty it. We have the least needed items, so they don't have to take everything immediately. The basement will seem almost empty when they finish taking their boxes, but it will really be far from empty. I hope we get caught up in the momentum and get rid of some of our junk, too. The last time we tried that, I found my knitting machine. I took it upstairs with the aim to sell it, but it needed cleaning and some parts repair, and by the time I finished, I decided to keep it. I now have two more machines! I also found my old yarn stash, to which I have added rather than decreased. I do want to clean out the basement, though.

Thinking about last summer

I didn't write during the summer. Now, I'm going through our photos to create our annual photo album and that got me to thinking about the summer, again.
Photobox is moving to a new system since Adobe Flash is no longer available. They haven't finished the migration and some of the conveniences of the old studio are gone and it's frustrating. I just don't want to have to start using some other service. I've got so many books created with Photobox. It's already frustrating enough that I have two accounts. I started one in the UK and then another in FR. I managed to migrate the one in France to the UK, but could not merge the two accounts. Each has its own email address. I do wish I could merge them and have everything in a single account.

So, let's get back to the summer. Rue du Général Chanzy held its annual street party. For C, it was her first and she loved it. The weather was good, too; the rain held off until almost the end. There was a new "toy": a bubble maker. C. loved that and spent a lot of time chasing bubbles. Our street has held this party for 30 years. At the time, it was a novelty, so much so, that the Maire (then, Nungesser, now, Martin) has come almost every year. Since we started, the French have created a national "Fête des Voisins", but we don't bother with that date. It has been a great success on our street, with the street blocked off to traffic and open to games such as racing on stilts, rope pulls, snail races and more. Adults gather together to watch the kids. It's nice to see the next generation continue. Meanwhile, A took a week-long vacation in the Loire valley.
Early in June, we went to Northampton to visit the English family. We went to visit a manor and a petting farm. We got to see Au. in a dance show. I had my hobby knitting machine with me and the kids had a chance to knit a little and I fixed the skirt and sweater that were too big.
Immediately after that, I went off with the AARO delegation to Washington for Overseas Americans Week. I was already exhausted because I had done most of the preparation work of getting the appointments. A couple of the other participants helped out once the lists were made but it is exhausting work.

The OAW delegation before we split up the last day.

The FAWCO delegate and I shared a hotel room not far from Dupont Circle. I got to spend one dinner with Amy, who is now working in DC. We had a tiny family reunion, eating our take-out dinner in Dupont Circle! She has a small apartment right at the Circle. Another delegate and I had a night out at the ball game - Washington Nationals vs the Diamondbacks. Other than that we all spent the week scattering ourselves from meeting to meeting both on the Hill and off. 83 meetings, in all!
Paul's cousin, Danielle, died before I got home but since the funeral was delayed, we both managed to go to St. André des Alpes for the funeral and, as usual with funerals, we got to see lots of family not seen in ages. P. and G. stayed at the same B&B as we did, so we had a pleasant get together before they headed back to Six-Fours and we headed back to Nice to catch our train. There was a heatwave and our train back to Paris got delayed. We had water for the trip, but not enough and it was an uncomfortable ride. The OUIGO discount TGVs do not have a refreshment car nor vending machines so if you don't bring your own food (in our case, lunch sandwiches) and water, you are stuck. They do have air-conditioning but they set it at a minimum, relatively high temperature. We were wilted on arrival and still had to catch the RER and walk up the hill once we got to Nogent.
At the end of June, Chl celebrated her 5th birthday. We went to Swann et Vincent, a decent family restaurant at Denfert-Rocherau and got an ice cream cone for dessert at the nearby rue Daguerre. After that, we had a little break. The kids in England were still in school and the kids in Paris were off on the beginning of their vacation until the end of July. Somewhere in there

A day at the zoo

When school was over in England, Cl brought the girls for a week at the end of July and the Parisian kids were back so the cousins had a wonderful few days together. We all went to the zoo one day. They went to the Toutankhamon exhibit and even managed to go up the Eiffel Tower before I took the Brits back to the airport. This was followed by a visit from the American cousins at the beginning of August! We only got a couple of hours together on the river bank, but the kids, who remembered the Christmas visit to Winter Park, picked up playing together as if they'd seen one another just the day before.

Chez Emma

We had a week or so to recover from all the visiting. The Brits stopped in on their way to the Annecy and took A with them for a week and the Parisians went to Oléron for relaxation and oysters. We drove down to Najac to visit E and G and after the week in Oléron, the Parisians had a week not far, so we all managed to get together, again.
Upon our return to Paris, the Brits stopped for a night on their way back to England and took me with them for a family birthday party in London -- another wonderful family reunion, especially for C, who hadn't seen these cousins in several years.
One night at the hotel and I returned home the next day. And then my shoulder froze.
PS: As usual, there are no photos of the kids. I do share them with the family.

Road Trip 2

Le Vigan is midway, more or less, between Six-Fours and E and G's place in Ginals. That's where we were heading, but we were so close to le Cirque de Navacelle that we took a little detour.  The first time we saw this sight was more than 30 years ago. Then, cars stopped just at the viewpoint and it was crowded with cars. Now, they've created a parking lot about a kilometer away and you walk across the plateau, past a restaurant and boutique to a path that takes you from the main viewpoint (still the same magnificent view) to another and on to a third, which we decided not to hike to.
After some detours, we managed to find the roads to La Couvertoirade, another place we had visited the year we spent our vacation in Dourbie. La Couvertoirade is a fortified village founded by the Templar Knights. There are several in the area. This one still has its ramparts intact. We did not venture up along the ramparts this time; we stuck to the village, which involves a pretty steep climb. I think what is most beautiful is that every building was built from the same gray stone. It's harmonious. It was also quite windy and much cooler than when we had visited the Cirque de Navacelle, earlier. After lunch, we headed for Ginals, just two hours away, according to the GPS.
Our route went alongside the autoroute for a while before we had to get on to the autoroute to take the viaduct de Millau going North, this time, with Millau down in the crux of the valley on our right. A few years ago, we were on the same autoroute going south to Montpellier. And the first time we saw the viaduct it was from a café in Millau. No matter what the viewpoint, it's an impressive bridge.

E greeted us with a still-warm-from-the-oven plum pie. These are plums from one of their trees and she needs to empty the freezer for defrosting. A couple of days later we had some peaches -- still defrosting so it was like eating peach sorbet. All yummy. I helped weed the potato patch. She hasn't planted this year's crop, yet, but some potatoes that were left in the ground last year have started growing. There are also some mushrooms, but we can't figure out which kind, yet: edible or non-edible. When in doubt, assume non-edible.
The gite is coming along, slowly but surely. They still have the second floor (third in U.S. terms) walls to finish. But it's manageable.
One day, we decided to go to the bastides in L'Aveyron. Leaving Najac, we started with Villeneuve en Aveyron, having simply driven through Villefranche. We've walked around Villefranche enough times to be more depressed each time as we notice the empty shops. Villeneuve is much smaller than Villefranche. Its history is slightly different. It was founded a couple of centuries earlier as a sanctuary city (salvetat) for peasants escaping cruel lords. They became the peasants of the monastery, instead. Then, as the Cathare war between the Comte de Toulouse, Raymond VII, and the French king's generals, the Montfort brothers, was winding down, the Montforts attached a royal bastide (fortified town) to the sanctuary. The whole town is tiny and an easy walk. We would have liked to see the inside of the church. One half is Romanesque and when Villeneuve was added to one of the main routes to San Compostelle, a Gothic transept was added on. Unfortunately, the church was still locked up and the tourist office, where we went to find out when the church would be open, didn't open until 2:00 p.m. It was 10:30, so we left.

We followed the signs for Peyrusse-le-Roc. This is a major town dating back to the 8th century. The leaflet handed out by the tourist office is not helpful and the booklet they sell for €3 is not much better. We drove up to the top of the hill and found a parking lot from which we started our meandering. There's not much to see in this hilltop town. The arrows led down to a viewpoint of a solitary pointy rock pillar with a couple of towers on it -- quite picturesque. The arrow led down a steep path to the medieval town, where the interesting ruins are. It was too steep. We headed back uphill and asked if there was easier access. The nice lady told us how to drive there -- really pretty far before tacking back along the stream. We parked. There are a chapel and a "hospital" (des Anglais) dating from the Hundred Years War. From there, there's a steep hike uphill to the medieval town. Again, too steep. So we didn't get to visit the ruins. Among the ruins, there is one called "the synagogue". I was wondering if there had really been a significant Jewish community, but found out, in the booklet we bought, that it was a rock that was called the synagogue because there was a story that Jews had taken shelter beside that rock. This was an important administrative center with a population of around 3500, but the booklet does not say what the economy was based on and the lady at the tourist office couldn't tell us, either. Only reading the Wikipedia article, later, did I find out it was silver.
By the time we left Peyrusse, it was time to find some lunch, which we did on our way to La-Bastide-l'Evèque, which we could have skipped. This bastide was founded by the Bishop of Rodez who was jealous of the Bishop of Villefranche. The tiny church is the same shape, with a covered porch front, as the gigantic church in Villefranche.
Our original idea had been to also visit Rieupeyroux and Sauveterre-de-Rouergue (another word for sanctuary city) but we gave up and went to E and G's to relax in the sun.

Road Trip 3

Castelnau-de-Montmirail

Saturday looked like it was going to be another warm, sunny day. We decided to go to some bastides Albigeois. The royal bastides generally have the church in the center, with the market square in front of the church, and the bastides built under Raymond VII are built around a market square, with the church off to the side or even at part of the ramparts, as at Cordes-sur-Ciel. We visited Castelnau-de-Montmirail. The arcades on the square are interesting, especially in the brickwork. In fact, the whole town has this interesting construction. For lunch, we returned to Puycelsi, which we had visited last year. After lunch, we took the road along the Aveyron past Bruniquel, Saint-Antonin, Lexos, and Laguépie back to Najac.

The tree in bloom at the
Monument aux Morts in Varen

Sunday was Easter. We got up early in order to go to Saint Antonin. It being market day, we wanted to get there before nine in order to find a parking space and see the market before it disappeared in the crowd of people shoppers. It's quite a nice market. We went into a little bookshop and I was able to consult the owner on the choice for S's birthday. Later, at the bee product stall, I got a full explanation of the benefits of Propolis. It was also the plant sellers'day just outside the market area. We bought all we needed for our vegetable garden. On our way back to Najac, we stopped in Varen and walked through the medieval village, next to the church and deanery.

The hotel restaurant was full for Easter lunch, after which we went to E & G's. It was no longer sunny and warm. Our little vacation was coming to an end. We spent the afternoon in the warmth of the gîte's wood stove fire. (That translates as "vacation rental", but since it's not ready for rental to anyone, yet, I think "little house" suits it better, even if it's not quite ready to live in, yet.) Lively conversation, a couple of games of Yahtzee, and an excellent dinner of Toulouse sausage from the producer who sells at the market, cabbage from the last year's garden later, we said our goodbyes and took to the road, home, on Monday.