4 May
It is a lazy Sunday at the house. The Franks make great baked Brie. For lunch we have lamb Tagine. The Franks leave tomorrow–BooHoo.
5 May
The Franks are leaving from the Montpelier train station–we HATE that place. But I am confident that we can now find the train station parking lot. And we do! That’s the good part; the bad part is that it’s about a half mile walk to the station.
Nancy, the dogs and I wait outside the station with the luggage while the guys go in to look at the departure schedule and get the tickets. There is a homeless man who is surprised by the 3-legged dogs. He speaks to us in both French and English. He is saying something about Churchill, de Gaul, George Washington, Lafayette and who knows what else. We are nice to him and he tells us that the train to Paris will leave at the platform just behind us. Howard finds us and tells Nancy she must show her ID to get the train tickets. She says she does not want to leave me alone with the homeless guy–HA! But I say I’m OK. We make sure Nancy and Bart are settled in the waiting area and we head off back home.
6 May
We realize that Toby has lost his collar and vow to look for it when we have time. We have a vet appointment for the dogs’ booster vaccines. As we enter the clinic there is a notice about mosquitoes. I have a vague recollection that there is some nasty bug that is transmitted by mosquitoes so I ask the vet. The disease is nasty and there is no cure. Our area is highly populated by these mosquitoes. He recommends that we use a topical medication, Vectra 3D, so we buy 2 months’ worth. (This veterinary work has so far cost about 500€ which is about $650!)
The exchange rate is really miserable and to make it worse everything here is very expensive. The only deal is wine! I guess we should count ourselves lucky for that. Other inconveniences are the size of the washing machines (less than half of a normal machine in the US), no window screens (I HATE flies and when mosquito season starts I will be miserable), the people drive like idiots (I am happy to have found a less traveled way to our house so I don’t have to risk my life driving on the main road).
Our house is on a fairly busy corner.
There appears to be a lot of confusion about who has the right of way. I have had drivers get mad at me because I am not pulling out from the “side-road” I’m on onto what I think is the main road that those drivers are on. So I do a little research (actually a lot of research) on the Internet about French driving laws/rules. What I find surprises me; I think I should have looked this up before. In France generally the car to the right has the right of way. So I was on the right of those drivers that were getting mad at me. Now there are exceptions to that rule but that is the basic rule. When we are lounging on the front veranda it is amazing how many drivers don’t know who has the right of way. So I was not alone in my ignorance. Or I guess an alternate explanation is that, since there are exceptions to the rule, some drivers think they are the exception.
Another interesting law regulates what safety items you must have in the car. Everyone must have a reflective vest in the car’s “cabin.” They must also have a red warning “triangle” to put in the road in case of a breakdown. Additionally the French have become very strict about drunk driving. The limit is .05% (compared to .08% in CA). All cars are required to have at least 2 Breathalyzers in the car. I found the Breathalyzers on sale at the supermarket for 1€. I think that is pretty handy! After a normal evening of wine the Breathalyzer told us to STAY AT HOME! (We were anyway.)