Yes!!

In front of the post office is a handicapped parking space with plenty of room to get in and out of a car if you have difficulties. Rob and I sometimes sit drinking our coffee and watch people drive into the space, often they pull out again when they realise. Some of them that stay look very fit and sheepish. This morning there were two gendarmes in motorbikes (gasp), I think that they were doing some training as they were going quite slowly. A people carrier drove into the space carrying two well to do middle aged people. The gendarmes stopped and asked if they had a disabled sticker. They said they were parking there because there weren’t any other places. The main car park is about 10 meters away from where they were. They had to move – poor things.

We’ve got the brocante (think boot sale without cars) in the park this weekend. If you’re thinking of coming there will be less parking space than ever. Four houses are being built on the field that was used by the stand holders and the one way street now has a foot path along with a wooden fence to protect walkers from the traffic and parked cars. To add to the chaos as from tomorrow (Tuesday 15th) all junctions will be priority to the right (more gendarmes on motorbikes!!!).

Safe and sound

I had a very busy week supervising exams and this morning Rob and I went into town to do a little last minute Christmas shopping and pick Dom up from the station. The man at the Irish Counter very nicely gave me a free plastic carrier bag as I had a flimsy bag from another shop that was going to break. He said as long as I walked round town a lot with it he didn’t mind. (Don’t worry I always use plastic bags till they fall into holes.)

A couple of mornings last week I arrived at the big car park just after seven. The fairground is there at the moment but I suppose everyone was asleep at that hour, so the car park was deserted. I thought that I would feel more afraid to get out of the car than I did but it was fine. The closer I got to the park there were a few more people about, though mainly women like me, on their own. I didn’t want to go through the park so I used the underpass by Dom’s old Lycée. It’s really well lit inside and at either end. I was amazed at how secure I felt.