Another interesting Friday

One of Rob’s colleagues is married and his wife works at the Napoleon and African Museums on the Ile d’Aix. The Ile d’Aix is very small and no cars are allowed, especially in the summer months. The ferry ride is about 20 minutes from the mainland.

Last Friday saw us catching the ferry to pay a visit to our friends. They actually live in the south of Charente Maritime, but while she is working she lodges in a little house behind the African museum. The family passes their time between two homes. The Ile d’Aix is a wonderful island and their other home is in a small town where artists have taken over the old fishing huts and painted them bright colours. What amazing memories their 8 year old son will have when he grows up.

 The little house is situated in a large walled garden, well away from the public eye and I was fascinated to see this dovecote placed over a well in the grounds:

They had other visitors too and we all started off our visit with a walk around the island. It takes a couple of hours and the day was very, very hot. There’s plenty of shade and between the trees you can catch glimpses of little coves and azure blue sea. Out hostess is a good guide and she pointed out places of interest and told us about the island as we went round.

Lunch was eaten under the trees, which was lovely and delicious and I picked up some new cookery ideas.

After lunch we were taken around the Napoleon Museum. Napoleon slept in the house, which is now the museum, for one night on his way to exile. Unfortunately, I was suffering from too much sun so didn’t really appreciate the visit as much as I’d liked to. I had to go back to rest. Strange to say I visited the museum on a very hot day when I was expecting Christian nearly 30 years ago and was unwell. I’ll have to try to visit in winter!

 Rob and his colleague visited the African museum which was actually the one I wanted to visit as it contains the famous dodo that I got involved with on Wikipedia. The talk page has been cleared over the years but here’s the post I wrote on my postcard blog. I now know that the dodo is not a real stuffed dodo.


After a rest and a drink of water I was fine again. The ferry was pretty full on the way back to the mainland. It was a lovely day – but hot!

The eggs were well and truly scrambled

I was very disappointed with N.C.I.S. yesterday evening. It is very popular in France. Friday evening we have episodes of N.C.I.S. and on Saturday evening episodes of N.C.I.S. Los Angeles.

 In episode 23 of season 11, Tony finds himself in Marseille. Why wasn’t the episode filmed in Marseille? The outside shots looked suspiciously like thinly disguised Washington sets. When Tony asked for breakfast in French the waitress arrived with scrambled eggs! In a café, breakfast is croissants or baguette and jam or both if you ask for ‘petit déjeuner complet’.

In my etiquette book the question is asked “What should one give American guests for breakfast?” and the answer is that American guests do not travel all the way to Europe to be served with their own food, so give them what you normally eat yourself. (The book dates from the 1930s)

I’m sure that CBS could have done better there.

Marriage for all

Some recommended reading: Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert. She’s done all the research on marriage that you could wish for. Nothing is new:  The story of Mr and Mrs Loving, in their day mixed marriage caused a lot of trouble!

 Tomorrow the first ever gay couple in France will officially marry. This is at the end of several months of sometimes violent protest by the anti marriage for all movement. The movement has been led by Frigide Barjot (a play on the name of Brigitte Bardot), who in my opinion often shoots herself in the foot. She said that marriage is for a man and a woman who want to make babies. Does she mean that couples who do not want children, couples who cannot have children and couples who are too old to have children, cannot marry?

Then we get on to the subject of adoption. “A child needs a Mummy and a Daddy in order to thrive properly”. In France one child in 5 is being brought up by a single parent. How do they think lone parents feel when they hear that statement? What about parents whose partener just went off. “The responsibility of a family is too much for me” (We know someone who left their wife and two children with those parting words)? Not to mention the children who end up murdered or ill treated by their step-fathers? What about the wives of Soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan and Mali; what do they make of that statement?

As I see it, any idiot can make a baby – and they often do. I’ve worked with teenagers who were well aware that they were unwanted by their parents from an early age. Only highly committed couples get the opportunity to adopt the baby or child that they really want. Children need love from consistent adults in their lives to thrive.

 I wish Vincent and Bruno all the best in their future life. If they choose to adopt, I hope that they are treated with the same fairness that any heterosexual couple could expect.

Bits and Pieces

Recently, we’ve had snow, warm spring weather and now we’re back to cold with the threat of snow. Although we seem to be in winter still, we’re only a week away from spring. Where has the time gone?

On Monday in town I saw a hollyhock in flower.

Last week there was a small earthquake locally – it didn’t wake us up.

I watched “The Lake House” on Sunday evening. Lovers corresponding to each other from different time zones – just the kind of film I like!

Just finished “Last Night at Twisted River” in French. Dom is going to lend me it in English next time she and J-M come to visit. I’ll review it on Still Learning when I’ve finished the second reading.

Findus France have announced their recent troubles as a “problem with labelling”.

My son the postman and other stories

Olivier is now a postman. He’s replacing a real postman for 3 weeks. Guess who has to get him to the sorting office for 6.40 in the morning? I think that by the last day he should be pretty fast at sorting the letters for his round into order and finding his way around the streets. Would you believe that people come up to him in the street and expect him to know who they are and where they live? His round finishes in a street along the beach which he considers as his reward for the day.
 

In September he will be continuing his studies in Bordeaux.  He will also be sharing an apartment with a couple of his friends - if all goes to plan.

Today is a holiday in France to celebrate The Assumption. It marks the beginning of the end of the holiday season here. The weather joined in this morning too; wind and rain to drive the holiday makers away…

 I’ve been busy looking into the names of some cats who were fortunate enough to have their own visiting cards.

Cram Chaban!

I’ve always been fascinated by the name on a sign post we’ve passed over the years when we were travelling North. Cram Chaban sounds like a magic word. Yesterday we set off to visit the village.

In fact Cram Chaban consists of the community, Cram and another part of the village which is either called Chaban or Cram Chaban? It’s tucked away in the middle of nowhere and is quite a pretty village.

As there was nowhere to have lunch there, we travelled to the next village to find somewhere to eat and happened on Basil Fawlty. When we asked if we could eat outside he said “We don’t usually serve meals out side. Do you really want to eat outside? Well I suppose if you must eat out side I’ll serve you a meal outside…” and so on. There was no menu, just the menu du jour which was simple and quite good. He told Rob off for being on his phone at the table (timetable problems – I was secretly pleased though). We were handed a selection of cheese on a plate, each piece wrapped up, but it was all the same goat’s cheese. If he hadn’t reminded us of Basil Fawlty we wouldn’t have stayed – it was quite amusing.

We then enjoyed a good walk around the beautiful, old village and went into the tourist office where there was an exhibition of work by Michel Moro, who combines paint and mosaics. The website does not do justice to the colours. His workshop is open to the public and is in CRAM! I think that we will be returning soon.

Mayday

The first of May already and we still have the heating on!  The tradition in France is to offer Lily of the Valley for good luck today.  Rob went out to buy a baguette this morning and came back with a stem of flowers for me.  It's a holiday here, when we first came to France in 1985, even the television channels were off until 8 in the evening. 

I hope that these Lily of the Valley bring you luck and happiness.

Drinking water

Now you'll understand why we French ladies drink bottled water:

Eric for President?

I apologise for bringing up the coming elections again. This time it's good news; Eric Cantona the ex footballer, artist and actor is looking for the 500 letters of support from mayors to allow him to stand for election. He wants to draw attention to the homeless and near homeless that live in the most terrible conditions in our big cities.  I mentioned Emmaüs in a post on my Still Learning blog. Since Emmaüs' founder, Abbé Pierre, died in 2007, the homeless have lacked a high profile champion.  Well if Eric gets onto the lists, he's got my vote!

 This is Eric Cantona's ad about poor housing in France.  It is in French, but I think it's understandable, at the ends he asks 'will you take it?'

Saint Angela de Merici (1474 – 1540)

Today is my ‘fête’! Celebrated in France, fêtes are a nice way of celebrating our names . Today we remember Saint Angela de Merici who founded the order of Ursulines. The order was founded primarily for the education of girls and care of the sick and needy. January 27th is the anniversary of her death . She is patron Saint of sickness, handicapped people and the loss of parents.

Aperitifs and timetables

We went to visit some friends for tea on Saturday afternoon. This is what I like about living in France ; after a little walk the tea as followed by an aperitif. Aperitif dînatoire seems to be the new fashion. The nibbles are more substantial, in this case quiche and courgette tart amongst other things. When we got home we didn’t need to eat. Fortunately for me Rob never drinks and drives, so I get to have a drink.

Olivier came home for the weekend. We drove him to a neighbouring village for his lift back. It’s nice when we do that because we have the time to talk to each other before he goes off.

This morning I supervised an exam. It went well and despite the clatter of the air-conditioning I did not have a migraine. I was with a colleague who used to be a colleague of Rob’s. Apparently a month a go she told him that she will be a grandmother in January. He forgot to tell me. She’s so excited – she’ll be present at the birth (there isn’t a papa). He daughter is a very lucky girl, she has such a loving family to support her.

Since Manpower took over appointing us, the timetables appear to be a little confused. I’m working longer on Wednesday morning (though I suspected I might be) and I haven’t got to go to work tomorrow. I’d been told I had four mornings in January, but I’ve only got one after all. It’s a good job I’m not desperate for the cash.

The weather has gone really cold here, the wind is coming from the North East which means from Siberia. I wonder if we’ll have snow?

Ideas

I've wanted to show everyone this ad for years. It's in French. The French railway are careful to look after ideas. Those pink things are the ideas, aren't they sweet?