I'm not quite sure what happened this week. I actually started writing this entry on Thursday and am only getting back to it today, Saturday afternoon!
On Thursday, I started to write:
Yesterday, we left early for a meeting in Narbonne. I believe I may have mentioned that JM is getting his real estate agent's license. In order for him to belong to the FNAIM, which is the national, realtors organization and has a lot of advantages, including a reasonably priced insurance package, he had to go to meet the board of the Aude branch. For some reason, that is in Narbonne. We didn't really mind, because the weather was more than stunning, and therefore it was a perfect day for a drive.
Narbonne is about an hour-and-a-half from Chalabre. We had only ever been there once, when we'd had trouble with a rental car while we were on vacation, and the nearest Hertz office was in Narbonne. The FNAIM office is right on the Canal du Midi, which is quite beautiful. We found the city to be pleasant and not too crowded, which was good for driving.
Because the day was so beautiful, we decided to come home on the Nationale, rather than taking the Autoroute. We went through Lezignan (underwhelming) and had lunch in Lagrasse, which is designated as one of the most beautiful villages in France. They have a stunning medieval abbey there, which is in the process of being restored. We stopped and had a simple, but good lunch at a little café (the only restaurant actually open). No matter how beautiful the weather, it's always good to remember that in this part of France, many places close for their annual holidays in January and February, so you need to be flexible about eating out.
We took the road from Lagrasse to Limoux. It's a spectacular route through the Corbieres. At one point, there was a sign warning "difficult road." At first, we didn't think it was all that difficult; a bit narrow in spots, but no big deal. However, as we got into some of the wilder parts, we saw the reason for the warning. The snow that fell last month had done major, and I do mean major, damage to wholed swathes of forest. There were hundreds and hundreds of downed trees; some of them had actually been torn out by their roots. It was a sad, even if impressive, sight. I think that before the road crews had gotten to them, that there must have been trees lying across the road in a lot of places.
We got home a bit tired, and no wonder. I'd actually wound up driving about 150 miles, most of it on windy mountain roads. Worth seeing, but exhausting. Still, we couldn't have asked for a nicer day to do something like that. When I think of what the weather was like last year at this time, I'm astonished. This was the weekend that we moved into our house and we had snow the whole time; indeed, it was so bad I couldn't even take the car out to go to dinner. Yesterday and today, we were outside without jackets! The sun is shining in a brilliant blue sky and it seems hard to believe that we're still over a month away from spring.
I think we need to enjoy it while we can though. Rain is predicted for tomorrow and I imagine we'll be back to coats, gloves and boots for a little while yet.
Ciao for now
Randy
On Thursday, I started to write:
I'm having a mini-celebration this afternoon. First, I actually finished correcting the manuscript to my book, OVER HERE: An American Expat in the South of France. With the computer crash, it took two weeks longer than I'd planned. It feels good to be done though.
I'm also feeling celebratory because of a phone call I received last night; the mother of one of my students called. Maxime had had his first test since starting lessons with me. He went from 11/20 (grades are the number of points out of 20 that you get correct) to 19/20!! He said that my lessons had definitely made a difference in his understanding of what they had done in school. I'm as pleased as if I'd gotten that grade myself. Too bad there's no similar way for my adult students to judge their success.
Yesterday, we left early for a meeting in Narbonne. I believe I may have mentioned that JM is getting his real estate agent's license. In order for him to belong to the FNAIM, which is the national, realtors organization and has a lot of advantages, including a reasonably priced insurance package, he had to go to meet the board of the Aude branch. For some reason, that is in Narbonne. We didn't really mind, because the weather was more than stunning, and therefore it was a perfect day for a drive.
Narbonne is about an hour-and-a-half from Chalabre. We had only ever been there once, when we'd had trouble with a rental car while we were on vacation, and the nearest Hertz office was in Narbonne. The FNAIM office is right on the Canal du Midi, which is quite beautiful. We found the city to be pleasant and not too crowded, which was good for driving.
Because the day was so beautiful, we decided to come home on the Nationale, rather than taking the Autoroute. We went through Lezignan (underwhelming) and had lunch in Lagrasse, which is designated as one of the most beautiful villages in France. They have a stunning medieval abbey there, which is in the process of being restored. We stopped and had a simple, but good lunch at a little café (the only restaurant actually open). No matter how beautiful the weather, it's always good to remember that in this part of France, many places close for their annual holidays in January and February, so you need to be flexible about eating out.
We took the road from Lagrasse to Limoux. It's a spectacular route through the Corbieres. At one point, there was a sign warning "difficult road." At first, we didn't think it was all that difficult; a bit narrow in spots, but no big deal. However, as we got into some of the wilder parts, we saw the reason for the warning. The snow that fell last month had done major, and I do mean major, damage to wholed swathes of forest. There were hundreds and hundreds of downed trees; some of them had actually been torn out by their roots. It was a sad, even if impressive, sight. I think that before the road crews had gotten to them, that there must have been trees lying across the road in a lot of places.
We got home a bit tired, and no wonder. I'd actually wound up driving about 150 miles, most of it on windy mountain roads. Worth seeing, but exhausting. Still, we couldn't have asked for a nicer day to do something like that. When I think of what the weather was like last year at this time, I'm astonished. This was the weekend that we moved into our house and we had snow the whole time; indeed, it was so bad I couldn't even take the car out to go to dinner. Yesterday and today, we were outside without jackets! The sun is shining in a brilliant blue sky and it seems hard to believe that we're still over a month away from spring.
I think we need to enjoy it while we can though. Rain is predicted for tomorrow and I imagine we'll be back to coats, gloves and boots for a little while yet.
Ciao for now
Randy
2 Comments:
>>Sure, if we were here, we could hand out leaflets at the mall and organize with other Dems, but I don't think I have the energy for that right now. <<
How nice. Anyone who is rich enough to move overseas was never in any danger from Bush anyway. Don't even THINK about coming back here when "the coast is clear," you lazy elitist.
By Anonymous, At 2:58 PM
Now now, that was not a nice comment. One need not be filthy rich to move to Europe. I had 20 bucks when I left the USA. As for the coast ever being clear, uh, I don't think it will ever be. And heck, who in their right mind would want to return to the USA to give up a life in a cozy little township somewhere in Europe ?
Randy, posts like the one above are to be expected from narrow-minded people. It's not their fault though. They're still under the brainwash.
Cheers, Curtis aka Rossini
P.S. I like your webpage et al. Nice !
By rossini, At 1:07 PM
Post a Comment
<$I18N$LinksToThisPost>:
Create a Link
<< Home