I met another of my readers yesterday! Sue Lawrence, who has just bought a house in Rivel. We had a wonderful evening and a great dinner at the Commerce in Mirepoix.

When we went out to get in the car, we saw that the village is all decorated with lights for Christmas. It looked so pretty and cheerful. JM and I tried to remember from our visit last year (next week will be the anniversary of when we found the house), and neither of us remembers seeing lights then. So, maybe they hadn’t been put up yet? Or, perhaps, these are new ones. I will ask around to find out.

Just as we were getting into the car, one of our village friends stopped me. She wants me to tutor her daughter and two friends in English. These will be my first kid students, so that will be interesting. I hope I can make it fun for them. And, I hope they will learn something. It’s one thing to teach adults who just want to have a bit of conversational ability, and quite another to have the responsibility for some kid’s school grades!

And, speaking of teaching, at the Commerce, our friend Sylvie mentioned that I should really start giving French lessons to the English-speakers. She’s not the first person to mention that to me. Of course, I don’t know if people will want to learn French from a native English speaker though. On the one hand, I’m clearly less perfect than someone who grew up speaking French, on the other; maybe it’s less traumatizing to speak French with someone who has shared their struggles. I will look into the possibilities after the holidays.

As for the holidays, I think that after tallying up the costs of moving and renovation, the Possums will be having a very subdued celebration this year. A nice meal and maybe we’ll find a DVD that we want to see and splurge on that. There’s not that much that we need in the way of gifts anyway. As embarrassing as it is to admit, probably the only thing I’d want for Christmas would be a new pressure cooker! I’ve got the one I want all picked out, but it will probably have to wait until later. Is it sad to want a pressure cooker instead of jewelry?

Ciao for now!

R
(see pictures on my personal site.)

Okay, if I were the kind of person who took things personally, I would be feeling quite put upon by today’s weather!

I looked out the window to see the sun shining. I would decide it was the perfect moment to take Maggie for a walk or head out to the post office or the Huit à 8 to pick up a few things. I’d grab my coat, put on my boots, open the door and as soon as I stepped outside, it would start to snow! I really started to feel traumatized.

Still, it really IS beginning to look a lot like Christmas. At one point, I went up the street to make an appointment with our Vivianne to have my hair done. When I turned back to come home, there was such an amazing quality to the light that I was sorry there was no way to capture it. The sky was a steely-silver, and the light shined on the houses in such a way that they all looked as if they had been covered in silver. Even the leaves that still cling desperately to the plane trees had a silver hue to them. It was truly quite a stunning sight. But, that’s one place where a digital camera falls flat. It simply is not as good at capturing that kind of thing as a film camera.

I did manage to track down both snow tires and long underwear today, both of them from online sources and both to be delivered either tomorrow or Thursday. For some reason, the last few times that I tried to go to www.damart.fr, I was instead redirected to their U.S. website, which isn’t up and running at the moment. Today, I got to the right place at last.

Maybe I should see if they sell doggie long johns. Poor Maggie looked decidedly cold when we were out this morning and she was covered in melting snow. My friends at the hairdressers suggested I knit her something. It took me forever to stop laughing at that one. Knitting and I are not close companions.

I may try ordering her something online and hope that I like it and it fits when it gets here. Otherwise, I think I will look at my own sweaters and see if there’s not something I’m willing to sacrifice in the name of a happy, warm pet. I just need to make sure she looks so stylish that no one laughs at us when we’re out walking!

Ciao for now!

R
(see pictures on my personal site.)

First up: Los Angeles tires are NOT good enough for Pyrenean winters. The first snowfall yesterday, made me realize that I definitely need to buy new tires. Yes, there are chains. But, seriously, can you see me kneeling in an icy road on one of the mountain roads trying to put chains on my tires as the cold freezes my fingers? Just not going to happen.

I don’t mind though, as everything looks so beautiful right now. When you go out around 9:30 or so, there are places that the rising sun is just starting to hit. That creates a mist, which rises up from the defrosting fields and hangs in the air, glistening in the sun in front of a backdrop of flame-leaved trees. Truly breathtaking. Especially in the places where the snow covered tops of the mountains are also visible in the distance.

It is starting to make us feel quite Christmassy, so yesterday we pulled our box of decorations out of the closet and decorated the downstairs. We wanted a tree, but with the fireplace down there we just didn’t feel comfortable getting a real one. Since we had had errands in Limoux, we swung by the LeClerc and bought a fake one instead. It’s just little, but it has fiber optic lights and looks quite charming. And, we don’t have to worry about a stray spark catching it on fire.

The errand in Limoux was at the ASSEDIC, or the unemployment office. We discovered that whomever we had spoken with on the phone had given us some wrong information. We needed to fill out a different set of forms which may eventually lead to me getting a small grant available to French citizens who repatriate and need help getting back into the employment pool. Whether I’m actually eligible or not, I don’t know. But it doesn’t hurt to find out.

Speaking of administrative matters, a small parenthesis here: I got my convocation for my next try at the written driver's license exam. It's December 16th. That gives three weeks to study. I am determined!

Because it was an errand at a government office, we didn’t take Maggie with us. I found out this afternoon that she pretty much spent the whole time we were gone crying and barking. I don’t know what we’re going to do about that, as there are times she has to stay home. It’s odd, because she was home alone in L.A. frequently. Does this mean she’s gotten so spoiled she doesn’t want to do it anymore? Or did she make that kind of noise in L.A. as well, except no one ever told us? I guess we’ll never know the answer. Maybe I’m going to have to get someone to Maggie-sit from now on.

Still, she doesn’t get left home alone all that much, so I suppose that we’ll all just have to learn how to cope.

Ciao for now!

R
(see pictures on my personal site.)