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The most recent entries are at the top of this page. Earlier entries follow in reverse chronological order.

31.01.2016

Numbers used here often confuse me. For example, I was looking online for a decorative and functional ladder for our apartment because the ceilings are so high. I wanted it to be decorative because we have a nice place and I intended to keep the ladder in the apartment (as opposed to storing it in our cave (basement) downstairs).

I found a sale and a great bargain on a cute ladder for only 89 €. I was about to tell John about it when I read the translated description and realized it was a ladder for a bird cage priced at less than a Euro. I think it was supposed to read 0€89 or € 0.89 or 0.89€. Confusing. Sigh.

Then I started seeing this format in the sales price:
999 1 € 40 is €1,999.40 (or €1.999,40 in European numbers format -- note that their commas and periods are in the opposite positions as are ours) and 99 € 60 is sometimes written 99€60.

30.01.2016

Apartments here often have a storage area in the basement of their building. The basement (or your storage area part of the basement) is called a cave (pronounced kahv). It may have varied structures and uses but I think storage is the most common one. Our cave is a tall room in a large basement. It isn't tiny. Each of the 8 apartments in our building is assigned one room. The caves have nice, thick, polished wood doors that match the building's decor. No mustiness, so visiting the cave should be an OK experience except for the walking up and down about 150 steps each direction, possibly carrying something heavy.

29.01.2016

I tried to buy our furniture online, but it seems that every French company uses a verified by Visa product which never verifies my Visa cards. The verified by Visa here is different from in the U.S. in that it asks a lot of personal questions, comes across as a scam and the one time it was less invasive and I tried it my French Visa was rejected. If I don't use a Visa card I won't have to deal with verified by Visa, but those stores won't allow a non French credit card billing address and we only have a Visa card here. John will transfer our American cards to our French address as soon as we sign the contract for the apartment. We'll probably also get a French MasterCard soon.

28.01.2016

I really can't recall where or how I learned this, but there is service in Nice to find a doctor for English speakers. It's quick and easy -- just call Riviera Medicine at 04 93 26 12 70 and they will ask where you live in Nice and if you are able to visit the doctor's office or if need a home visit. They will give you the name and phone number of a general practitioner who can refer you to specialists if needed. I got an appointment for the very next day and her office is about a minute walk from our new home.

Read more

27.01.2016

We had a very busy and somewhat frustrating day today. Yesterday our realtor called our bank several times and spoke to several people, but was not able to contact the people responsible for issuing our bank guarantee. Plus, there was a bank strike yesterday. Today we went to 3 banks and finally got help in setting up an appointment for us on Friday. The bank called our realtor to tell her everything was on track and that the guarantee can be issued to her on Monday. She told us we could move in on Wednesday if nothing went wrong.

So the upside is, if nothing goes wrong these next few days (and it shouldn't), we will have the apartment we wanted and we will be there for 2 or 3 years. Woo Hoo!.

Our apartment will be on the top floor.

26.01.2016

John and I went to look at furniture at Basika, a discount furniture store. A lot of furniture there and at some of the places we visited or stayed has a paper covering that resembles wood in appearance. It's not a wood veneer -- it is thin paper that melts if it gets wet. So weird. I would never buy that. So we were looking at real wood furniture and we found some desks and cabinets we like.

I found a bed and a mattress I like. I need an adjustable bed because it is difficult for me to get comfortable due to my neck pain. I found a bed that is sturdy and even more adjustable than the Craftmatic beds I had before. It has a metal frame like the Craftmatics. The motor is not as heavy so the bed is lighter. The price is right, too. It' about €400 for the frame and mattress.

We looked at couches and dinning sets too, but we haven't settled on those just yet. There were many attractive and comfortable couches but they have either somewhat loose weave material or polyurethane coverings for the couch base. The polyurethane resembles leather in appearance. But with 2 cats and no doubt others in the future we decided those couches wouldn't work. Danny started scratching the couch here so we had to drape blankets over the couch to stop his scratching. Cutting his nails didn't help.

In Eugene the cats did not scratch the furniture. We had a smooth, soft couch. I don't know if Danny is still stressed or if the new loser weave material attracts him. Having cats limits our options for furniture and a few other things, but we are both very happy to have the cats in our lives.

Today our realtor tried to get our bank guarantee but no one from the bank called her back so John and I will go to the bank at 9 AM to see if we can talk to the guy who handles that. We talked with him about the guarantee a few days ago so, hopefully, our meeting with him tomorrow will go smoothly and we will soon have the apartment we are Jonesing for. It's beautiful and big. We are excited. It doesn't have a lift so we will continue to build our respiratory capacity and leg muscles strength, which is cool. We'll keep you posted. Wish us luck!

24.01.2016

There is no Black Friday in France. Not only do they not have a Thanksgiving here but sales shopping in France is allowed only twice a year. Starting in January 2015, each of the two sales periods has been extended to six weeks. They used to be five-weeks long in the summer and five in winter, plus two floating weeks that have now been discontinued. Traditionally, the winter sales start the first Wednesday of January. Read more. These days each French sales period has a definitive start date that is uniform across the country and they last for 6 weeks in winter, 6 weeks in summer.

Starting the first week of January I started seeing big red signs in shops and large stores that read SOLDES. Even though I knew about this sales scheme it didn't register for me that those signs were announcing SALES. It seemed to me to be a bit of a slow build on the SOLDES signs until now they are everywhere, but officially the winter SOLDES starts the first Wednesday of January.

The vender is obligated to mark the original price as well as the Soldes price, so that you can be reassured you aren’t getting a 40% discount off an elevated price tag.

Plus they drop the prices in increments during the sales period. The markdowns begin at 10%- 20% and become deeper as the sale weeks progress. We are already seeiiing 70%-90% discounts in some places and this is only the halfway point for the SOLDES period.

The summer SOLDES starts the third week in July. The dates of the winter and summer SOLDES are closely governed by a set of rules and regulations. Merchants are not allowed to use the word SOLDES except at specific times of year defined in the Code de la Consommation. Stores can offer discounts or ‘promotions’ at any time but the actual, hard-core ‘sales’ periods are strictly controlled.

Sales signs are everywhere during sales season	More sales signs	Orange trees and motorcycles are everywhere in Nice.
Shoppers arrive by tram on Avenue Jean Médecin	Another view of shoppers during sales season	Pathé cinema theater. The Pathé film company started in 1896.

23.01.2016

John and I are excited about our future of cheap transportation around Europe. Intra-European flights are cheap because of 3 discount airlines: Easy Jet, Ryan Air and Icelandic Airlines. These 3 airlines have fewer flights than the larger airlines and the schedules are not consistent over time. Trains and large airlines fly frequently and have regular schedules, but they aren't cheap.

We've been flying Easy Jet. The cheapest flights sell out quickly and there aren't necessarily flights when we want them. For example, there are often no mornings out of Nice. However, we usually find what we want because we have a lot of flexibility in our timing.

22.01.2016

I dropped my laptop and had to get a new one and now I have a French keyboard. It's similar to the English keyboard but, of course, it has some extra characters and the layout of the letters is slightly different. It will take me a while to get used to the relocated letters, having to hit shift before the period and the addition of new symbols. At least all the English alphabet letters exist in French.

For all you plebeians out there without a French keyboard who want to write in French -- here are some easy directions for typing French letters using an English keyboard: Read more.

21.01.2016

We went to see the apartment on Grosso street. It is missing all the appliances, so we'll need to get those. The apartment is big, like the one on Avenue des Fleurs and it has a lift (the Avenue des Fleurs one doesn't), but our hearts are still with the Avenue des Fleurs apartment.

The Grosso apartment has collective heating. The master ON/OFF switch is controlled by the building's maintenance people (I presume they are contracted by something like a home owner's association). In November they turn on the heat and each apartment has several radiators from which the tenants (or owners) can adjust the amount of heating. In April (I think) they turn off the heat. If you still need heat then -- or before it is turned on in November, then you are expected to use your own portable heaters. I don't think there is air conditioning, so the tenants have to provide their own fans (including installing ceiling fans if that is desired).

In France (and in the rest of Europe??) the long-term apartments often come unfurnished and without appliances and light fixtures. So, in addition to apartment hunting, John and I are evaluating furniture and appliances.

We will likely need to buy a clothes washer and dryer and maybe a stove top (I don't want an oven). We're probably not going to buy a dishwasher, as we are both comfortable with washing dishes right away and putting them in the dish rack to dry, but if the place comes with one we'll use it. And in the past when I gave parties of 30 people + my guests always washed the dishes for me because they wouldn't all fit in the dishwasher anyway.

I don't like the front loading clothes washers because they automatically lock you out of adding something after it starts. My brother-in-law, Philip, who was an energy policy researcher for 5 years, told me about and sent me some links of tests performed which demonstrated that the front loading washers are much more efficient and do much less damage to clothes than do the top loading washers. I guess I can learn to live with a front loading washer.

Our experiences here with the clothes washers is that they run at least an hour. Dishwashers run a long time too. We haven't had any experience with clothes dryers yet. Philip sent me a lot of helpful info on European appliances and has offered to send more if needed. I thought I'd post his comments in this blog so the rest of you can have an idea of the differences between European and American electrical appliances. Many thanks to Philip for his contribution to our edification about everyday necessities of life in Europe.

FROM PHILIP:

For the past 5 years, I’ve been an energy policy researcher working as part of the energy bureaucracy, for the state of California, for USDOE, for US EPA, for Natural Resources Canada, and have done work for the 4E Pacific Rim consortium, and have had a lot of interaction with the EU energy regulators, and I am proud of the regulatory process I helped make on a number of energy efficiency matters in North America, and to some extent in the world. The free market will not reduce energy consumption and related emissions on its own, regulatory measures and subsidized incentives are required from the public sector.

Over the years, both in my recent work, and in my early years of working overseas, I found that Europeans have developed regulations for a number of things that barely register to a US citizen that there is a need for bureaucratic/regulatory/agreement guidance. And many things that finally got on our radar in the US have far better implementation in the EU. Take consumer energy efficiency labeling. Our EPA Energy Star and DOE EnergyGuide lables are helpful, but are a kindergarten effort next to the EU A-F categorized grading lables; the latter having real use for consumers, and they become a marketing edge for better products, which more than offsets the compliance issues. The CE safety mark is far superior to the UL mark, is harder to get but means more, and covers many more products and aspects.

Building codes are far different, particularly with an eye toward longevity in housing that is just not on the radar in the US. I could go on, but centuries of living in a place, and living at higher densities, and having a longer cultural continuity has produced a wide array of agreed upon laws, customs and processes for almost all aspects of social interaction, to an extent that US citizens find surprising.

Europeans have a broad and deep background and experience with bureaucracy, because they have crafted some really good systems, and I spent a lot of time listening to European regulatory experts as we tried to craft workable regulations for North American energy usage. They have a lot of history in what works and what does not work in Europe.

We tested a number of European dryers, to evaluate their efficiency, and they are indeed more efficient than North American dryers, but slower. One of the things that doing energy efficiency research shows, is that speed and efficiency are always in inverse proportion. Applies to everything from trucks to data; faster uses more energy.

The EU market has different drivers than the NA market. North American consumers like clothes dried fast, and expect the dryer to complete its cycle in the same amount of time that the washer runs, so that one can run tandem loads in both units without too much waiting. This requires a large BTU input all at once, and generates a lot of heat and moisture that must be removed from the building through an external vent. (The high heat required to dry clothes quickly also is the major reason clothes wear out, followed by over-agitation in top loading washers)

EU buildings typically are not set up such that a dryer can be vented to the outside, and the typical EU residence does not have a dedicated 7kW dryer outlet, so the popular solution is a condensing dryer, that collects the removed water in a tray that can be emptied in the sink, as well as using a smaller amount of instantaneous power, for a longer time, allowing them to be plugged into a regular outlet. A particularly efficient type of condensing dryer is a “Heat Pump” condensing dryer. Bosch makes a very nice unit. Drum size is smaller on EU units, partly because the cabinet is smaller, and also there is more insulation inside the dryer. The typical cycle time on condensers is about an hour or so. The EU units we tore down were very well built, and should last a long time.

The sort of vented dryers we are used to buying in North America are rarely found in residences, and the closest comparable units are considered to be “Small commercial” units.

20.01.2016

Because we moved here less than 4 months ago we haven't yet had to pay French income taxes. Not unlike the U.S., some rentals here require proof of a monthly income equal to 3 times the monthly rent. That proof must be a French income tax return from the previous year. Which we don't have.

Alternately, some places will accept a bank guarantee for the amount of 1 year's rent. The bank places a hold on that amount of money for the duration of your lease. If your lease is for 3 years the bank holds the money for 3 years - but they only hold one year's worth of rent. Yesterday John visited our Frenchie bank (the Post Office) and got an assurance that they would issue that guarantee. We just need to give them the name and address of the person who will receive the guarantee.

Besides being a post office and a bank, the Post Office provides cell phone and internet service, renters insurance, same day pharmaceutical delivery, delivery of library books and magazines to "shut-ins" they take over meter reading services (not sure what that is about). The French like and trust their post office employees. We do too.

19.01.2016

Today we saw one of the apartments and although it is on the (American) 4th floor without a lift we both pretty much fell in love with the place.

To me the layout in this apartment is for one HUGE dining room, one HUGE living room, one big kitchen tucked away in the back, a small-medium sized office and one very big bedroom. We will use the "dining room" as a bedroom, I think. The footage is 96 sq meters but it seems even bigger than that. That's probably due to the super high ceilings. We have high ceilings where we are staying now but the new apartment's ceilings are SUPER HIGH. Many of the buildings built in the early 1900's are like that, and also have a lot of intricate decorative work. Very pretty. The windows and doors are floor to ceiling on the outer walls. Lots of light comes in. One of a few small negatives is that most of the window and shutter trim is flaking and needs to be cleaned and repainted. I think it will be up to us to do that if we want it done.

Although the place has many fireplaces they are not functional. The homeowners agreed to quit using them and to block off the chimneys because of the excessive work in keeping the chimneys clean. They are still pretty and they can be made functional fairly easily, but they aren't functional now. John lived in New Mexico for a long time and had to maintain fireplaces throughout his house. The only fireplace I ever owned was in Oregon and we never used it except to hang Christmas stockings on the mantel. We can get electric decorative units that will warm the rooms, if we want, but there are furnaces in each room. I'm still not quite clear on what is included in the rent regarding the heating bills.

Several of the ceiling lights are just light bulbs on a chord. We'll need to get our own light fixtures and we'll take them with us when we move. It's not the way apartment renting is done in the States but all these differences are starting to feel more natural -- just different choices to make - with a constant nagging feeling in the background that we may be misunderstanding cultural differences. Sometimes I feel like I am in my 20's again learning how the world works.

The stairs are very wide and the trip up seems to be not so bad. I just worry how we will get upstairs if one of us gets hurt. We live with stairs now, but that will end soon and we both said we didn't want to live upstairs without a lift. The steps are shallow so using crutches or even a wheel chair with those 3-wheel thingies would probably work well. We're getting old. We need to plan for these things.

The building is in an attractive area a little west of where we are now. There are shops nearby and the beach is about 5 blocks away.

We'll also look at a similar building on Thursday, but that one does have a lift. The location is farther from the beach and there are not so many shops there, but from the photos it looks even prettier than the one we looked at yesterday.

The place we will see on Thursday has "collective" heating. With collective heating common equipment is used to heat the apartments. We don't know yet if we will still have individual controls. John said he read that we wouldn't with collective heating. I'm aghast at the thought as I hear Jerry Jeff Walker singing Gary Dun's "London Homesick Blues:, "Well, it's cold over here and I swear I wish they'd turn the heat on." -- Dunn wrote the song while he visited London in the early 70s with singer Michael Murphey and his wife (they went to see the wife's brother) and while the Murpheys toured the town Dunn was alone in the apartment most of the time watching TV, low on funds and lonely. To add insult to injury the flat was only heated at night (collective heating). So I'm a bit leery about the Thursday apartment, but I'll know more soon.

18.01.2016

John went to our bank today and got an assurance that they will issue a bank guarantee to a property owner. This is what is needed if we don't have a job here. Presumably, with a job in France, the property owner can garnish wages if needed. If you don't have a job here your bank needs to hold one year's worth of rent and issue a guarantee to the owner that the money will be released to them if ordered by a court (I think that's the way it works).

We are not allowed to work in France so we are not even self-employed here. We may as well be vagabonds in the eyes of property owners in France.

We're dealing with several realtors now (because you have to deal with the listing agent as opposed to having a realtor represent us - as is done in the States). We're setting appointments to view property via email and (very rarely) talking on the phone. One recent email conversation with a realtors went like this:

Realtor: This flat is not available. It’s necessary to see you.
Me: You said you need to see us. May we come to your office on Wednesday morning at 11?
Realtor: No, it’s not necessary to see you.
Have a nice day.

What can I say? Wish us luck?

Here in Europe I'm often concerned that we'll get lost or miss an appointment because we misunderstood what floor we should be on. I've done that several times, but only for a short while before I remembered that the first floor in Europe is the second floor in America. We were cautioned about this by our French teacher, but I first became aware of it in the 1970s - long before I visited Europe - from listening to a Jerry Jeff Walker song "London Homesick Blues" which includes the line "where in the world is that English girl I promised I would meet on the third floor?"

OK -- that was a long intro and aside for this: today we had an appointment with a realtor and as more and more time passed I kept wondering if our missed meeting was due a cultural misunderstanding. When the realtor was 35 minutes late we headed home. Once home I learned I had made the mundane error of simply mis-reading the date of our appointment and I said to John, "At least it wasn't because we promised to meet her on the third floor."

The place was 2 miles from our current apartment. We left early so as to experience the buildings, parks and stores along the way. We passed St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral for a tsarevitch (the eldest son of an emperor of Russia) who died of meningitis while in Nice. John took a bunch of pics including me in my parka for the first time. It was very cold today.

The street we traveled was named for the Tsesarevich, (which means eldest son of the Tsar) but with a different spelling (Boulevard du Tsarewitch).

The Imperial family of Russia, the Romanovs, enjoyed spending the winter months in Nice and it was at the villa Bermond, rented by the family, that Tsesarevich Nicolas Alexandrovich, son of Czar (Emperor) Alexander II and heir to Imperial Russia, died on April 24, 1865. So devastated was he by his son’s death, that Czar Alexander II purchased the villa so that he might create a memorial to his son. And, although the Russian L’Eglise Saint-Nicolas et Sainte-Alexandra already existed at Rue Longchamp, La Chapelle du Tsarévitch was built, as the story goes, in 1868 on the exact location of Nicolas’ room within the villa.

Six years ago a French Court ruled that the land legally belongs to Russia because it was paid for by the Tsar. This is part of Putin's drive in recent years to reclaim Russian national and religious symbols abroad.
Read more.

While we were walking near there, John told me the story about the tsar's heir and his dying in Nice. I am very proud to have a history geek for my better half, so I'll let him finish filling you on one this tale -- take it away, John . . . ;-)

Not much more to tell. Ruth covered it all pretty well. Probably, the best source for general information on these topics are from Wikipedia. Here are links for Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsesarevich of Russia and a very beautiful example of Russian-influenced architecture the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Nice.

The view from our bedroom window of workers maintaining the older buildings of Nice.	The towers of St Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Nice.	Another view of St Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral with the Russian imperial eagles atop a spire.
A bust of the Tsesarevich.	The rear view of the cathedral's towers.	Ruth in her parka in front of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

16.01.2016

We got our Frenchie checkbooks! We had to teach ourselves how to fill out a French check.

Read more.

Our French styled checkbook.

15.01.2016

Time flies, you know? We've been here 3 and a half months now. We are still "having fun" apartment hunting. The hunt we are on now is for the 1-2 year apartment rental (while we investigate where we want to buy a home and live for the rest of our lives).

The real estate offices here are like franchises. In the states you go to an agent and if another agent has the property listed your agent goes to the other agent and together they hammer out a deal. Here we have to deal directly with the listing agent and it is often tricky to determine who is the listing agent. At least it is for us. The confusion is, in large part, because we don't yet know the ropes.

Adding to that confusion, as our agent told us today, it is more difficult for the French to understand American English than British English. It's the same with Australians, Canadians and even Scottish and Irish. The French are used to British TV and frequent encounters with British citizens. She said she had the expectation that she would understand what we say but often she doesn't because of our word choice or accent. I've had a similar experience when talking with Brits -- I expect to understand what they say but at least 10% of the conversation is lost to me because I don't understand their accent or I am not familiar with their word choices.

Rental rules here are very different from those in the States. One of those rules/laws is that we can rent an unfurnished apartment for 3 years. Furnished apartments can have a 1 year lease. We thought that meant that we must rent for 3 years and would have penalties applied if we left earlier than 3 years. That was confusing because I often read that France has strong pro-tenant rules/laws. Finally we realized that 3 year contract can be terminated by the tenant at any time with a 30 day notice, but not by the owner.

So owners try to limit the 3 year contracts to local people who have a lot of documentation and thus the one year furnished rentals are easier for us to get. We're flexible, though. If we cannot get a 3 year rental (meaning up to 3 years), we will get one of the 1 year rentals for now. That's close to what we need, anyway. And, to be honest, I'm not sure I've got all that straight anyway.

For the most part we feel happy and pleased with our environs, but just having to research and rework our patterns of behavior is taxing, so we are tired a lot. The physical activity is energizing, but it is work too. I've commented to John a few times that this entire country is designed to be labor intensive (such as no clothes dryer, lots of walk-ups, car inconvenient, no hangers for the Christmas ornaments - must use ribbons -- other stuff). It's not bad, just something to get used to. I do want a clothes dryer, though. Or I need to learn to hang clothes so that they aren't stiff and scratchy when they are dry, so that the wrinkles release, so that I can wash and wear some clothes within a couple of hours, and so that the entire home is not taken over by wet clothes on bad weather days.

We have an appointment to look at a place on Monday and another on Wednesday, so hopefully we will soon find what we want.

We are considering an apartment in this building.	A view up the street from the apartment.	A view in the other direction.

14.01.2016

Today we got some catnip spray for the kitties. So much less messy than catnip and it works as well. The cats do their same behaviors as with catnip. We spray some of their fabric toys and Danny rolls on it and rubs against it. Tommy tries to eat it and sleeps on it (so peaceful, my little Tommy cat - chortle chortle).

The weather started getting colder today -- low 40s for a high. My sister Linda who lives in Colorado snickers at that. They've been having some below zero weather. I love the warm weather here, but I've read that this persistent warmth is not normal in the winter. It's predicted that the weather will run even warmer next year. Woo Hoo for me, but I guess we should find a place to buy that is a bit inland, as the oceans are expected to rise.

Read more.

13.01.2016

I received an email about the dog poop in Nice. This was in reply to the email I sent to the mayor's office about large amounts of dog poop on the streets and the associated health and safety concerns. I also wrote suggesting some public education campaigns about smoking. [I haven't received a reply yet about smoking.]

It was amusing to learn that the Communal Hygiene and Health Service doesn't address dog poop, but the Nice Directorate of Cleanliness does. I would have NEVER guessed that in a million years. Well, maybe in 60 years of living in this culture. OK -- I could have researched some more but, clearly, writing to the mayor was a good start. This is what that email I received says [first, in Google-translated English]:

Hello,
In response to your e-mail below, I regret to inform you that uncleanliness sidewalks does not fall within the fields of competence of the Communal Hygiene and Health Service.
However, your request has been forwarded to the Directorate of cleanliness Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur for action.
-------------------------------------------------
Bonjour,
En réponse à votre courriel ci-dessous, je suis au regret de vous informer que la malpropreté des trottoirs n’entre pas dans le champs de compétences du Service Communal d’Hygiène et de Santé. Toutefois, votre requête a été transmise à la Direction de la Propreté de la Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur pour suite à donner.
Dr Fabien JOSSERAN
DGA de la santé, de l'action sociale et du handicap
Direction de la Santé et de l'Autonomie
Directeur
10, rue Hancy - 06364 Nice cedex

12.01.2016

We're checking out getting new dishes -- we want something colorful but not so easily chipped as ceramic. For many years we had a large set of all white untextured Corelle plates. Only one broke and none were chipped the entire decade we had them. We gave them away when we moved. Now we want to liven up our at home dining with more vibrant dinnerware. Corelle has one set that I like - It's called watercolors, but I think we want something with even brighter colors. Something that looks like a bright colored Spanish style painting. I'm also looking at some porcelin ones. Below are a few earthenware and ironware sets we are considering. The poppies are our favorite so far.

Poppies (earthenware)    Carynthum (earthenware)    Mexicali (ironwear - similar to porcelain in strength)   

NOTE: After more reading I now realize that the "earthenware" dishes are the ceramic dishes that break and chip so easily. So no Poppies (at least not those poppies) for us. But maybe the Mexicali set. I'll look into other hand-painted ironstone dishes for other vibrant patterns.

11.01.2016

I started investigating our voting in Oregon. We can mail our ballots or we can vote by email, but it won't be a secret ballot:

Oregon elections link 1    Oregon elections link 2    Oregon elections link 3   

We don't get to vote in France until we becoome citizens, which would be in 2020 at the earliest. The French presidential election is in 2017:  French presidential election

10.01.2016

John and I are not citizens here, nor do we speak the language (although we are learning more each and every day). We haven't even been in the country very long.

We have no connections here, no local references, no friends who can show us the ropes. We have difficulty jumping through some of the hoops here. But we recognize that, in many states in America, people with those handicaps endure a much greater jumping through hoops burden than John and I have had to endure. Even American citizens who speak English suffer a great deal of irritating, if not debilitating, bureaucracy in everyday life in America.

And, while red states are depriving their low income citizens of health care, I was amazed to learn that here, in France, people with chronic conditions are given priority in healthcare and payment discounts over other people seeking healthcare. You have to pay doctors and labs, etc up front and get reimbursed by insurance (although, you may be able to make arrangements to pay only what the insurance won't pay if you fill out some forms and get approved for that. If you have a chronic condition you usually don't have to pay anything upfront and you get other discounts and benefits. Great for me - I have diabetes. And for John, he has asthma.

This afternoon we saw the new Star Wars movie in the original English with French subtitles. We can read French fairly well now (maybe a third grade reading level). So, we were comparing the written French with the spoken English, which was fun.

Closeup of the French Star Wars poster

9.01.2016

We found 3 very nice apartments in Cagnes sur Mer and I sent an inquiry to the agency that advertised them. We hope to see them in a couple of days. If we get one of them we will have a reasonably spacious abode near the beach and on the bus line that runs along the coast.

8.01.2016

John and I decided not to pursue a rental in Menton because they are very expensive. We went to a suburb of Nice (Cagnes sur Mer) today to look for a realtor and an apartment to rent for a year. The realtor sent us info on an apartment in a nearby suburb if Nice -- VILLENEUVE LOUBET. It's adjacent and West of Cagnes sur Mer. Both suburbs are very close to the airport and beach and have direct lines into central Nice.

06.1.2016

Disneyland Paris ... The winds had died down when we returned to Disneyland on day two of our January in Paris trip. The day was also warmer. I had a wonderful time at Disneyland and I even met Jack Skellington. He hugged me too! He did a GREAT job of being Jack Skellington. He spoke French and English. If you say Hi to someone here they start speaking English. John and I tease each other that we don't need to say a word -- they can tell we are American by the clothes we wear (i.e., no super tight pants and fancy boots).

Much of Disneyland Paris was like Disneyland in Anaheim. Also almost everything was in English, although many signs and voices were in French. There were designated smoking areas but MANY people ignored them and smoked wherever they wanted. I don't think anyone was smoking in line, but the lines were very short, so maybe they didn't need to.

We visited Small World and Phantom Manor (aka the Haunted Mansion) and Pirates of the Caribbean -- Les Mystères du Nautilus -- A Guided Tour 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Liberty Arcade: A Walk to Liberty (Statue of Liberty History, artifacts). We had lunch in an auditorium where youngsters were in training to be Jedi Knights. That was cute.

Jack Skellington was meeting visitors near Phantom Manor. The person wearing his costume was very tall and thin -- just like Jack, and he gesticulated a lot. His voice was somewhat higher pitched than Jack's of the Nightmare Before Christmas movie, but the parlance was very similar. Jack's greeting was effusive and he held my hands and told me how very nice it was that I came to see him. He asked my name, where I was from (and said, "Oh, America! That seems like it would be so very far away!") Then he introduced himself and asked if I knew of him or was aware of his work. I said - know of you? I LOVE you! (I do). He said, "Oh my - don't tell Sally!" He was so cute. I had fun. We chatted some more (He was quite chatty) and then he hugged me and profusely waved to me and John as we were leaving.

Ruth and I boarding the Disneyland shuttle bus	Enjoying a delicious Caesar salad at our hotel restaurant. French food is REALLY very good!	Walt Disney Studios park in the distance
Ruth with the Disneyland Paris entrance in the background	Mickey Mouse watch tower	Christmas tree in the Main Street area
Ruth at the base of the Christmas tree	Main Street, Christmas decorations and Sleeping Beauty's castle in the background.	Ruth at the Statue of Liberty exhibit
Ruth with Sleeping Beauty's castle in the background	A tickled Ruth meets Jack Skellington.	Ruth and the Phantom Manor
Near the entrance of the Pirates of the Caribbean	Fantasyland looks amazingly like Europe.	The Old Mill. One of my favorite early Disney cartoons.
Outside It's a Small World	Of course, the French are represented by Can-Can dancers	Anna and Elsa in a parade.
All signs were in French and English	John with his favorite Pixar characters	Discoveryland
Ruth in the snow	Santa in the parade	On the way back we had a two hour wait in the security check-in line at Orly Airport because of a workers strike.

05.01.2016

When in Paris ...

I continue to say 'pair riss', but the natives say 'pah - ree' (fast).

When we went to Disneyland this morning the wind was strong and freezing so we went back into town and visited Musée d'Orsay. It was impressive. Unfortunately, since we were both very tired from a long day of travel and it was late in the day, we didn't spend as much time there (only 2 hours) as the museum deserved (all day). We're going back to Paris in April to meet our friends Charlotte and Dave and we will return to d'Orsay with them as well as go to the Louvre (which we didn't get to this trip).

The Musée d'Orsay is housed in an old and ornate railroad station (Gare d' Orsay). It has 3 HUGE and ornate clocks: one facing the Seine and one in the main concourse and one inside. There is too much to say about the museum in a blog of our day to day diary, so suffice it to say one must go there -- or at least get a book about it. A book that John found at the museum is "Musée d'Orsay - Art & Architecture" by Peter Gärtner. It's available in English and in French. It's filled with the history of the building and the 19th century art it contains, pictures of the art and the building and associated descriptive text.

Large sculpture in Nelson Mandella Jardin in Paris	Memorial for 1100 children shipped to Auschwitz in World War II	Eiffel Tower in distance over the Seine. We'll visit it in April.
Ruth standing near the Seine.	Lourve Museum. We'll visit it in April.	Tired John in the Musée d'Orsay with The Gleaners by Millet
The Musée d'Orsay is a most beautiful art gallery in a converted railroad station.	The museum has three large clocks.	There were several tiny ballerina sculptures by Edgar Degas.
One of my favorite paintings by my favorite painter - Ball at the Moulin De La Galette by Renoir	Ballet Rehearsal by Edgar Degas	Dance in the Country by Renoir
Tired John again with Girl with Umbrella by Renoir	Ruth with Women of Cervaria by E.A. Herbert	Ruth looking at a Toulouse-Lautrec
The Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet	Woman Hanging Her Laundry by Camille Pissarro	Still Life with Basket by Cezanne
Montagne Sainte-Victoire by Paul Cezanne	The Water Lily Pond by Claude Monet	Les Nymphéas de Monet by Claude Monet
Two Young Girls at the Piano by Pierre-Auguste Renoir	Helene Bellon by Pierre-Auguste Renoir	The Bedroom at Arles by Vincent van Gogh. Amazing brush strokes!
Chaumes de Cordeville à Auvers-sur-Oise by Vincent van Gogh	L’Eglise Auvers-sur-Oise by Vincent van Gogh. Scene of a great Doctor Who story.	Portrait de l'artiste by Vincent van Gogh
The Afternoon Siesta by Vincent van Gogh	Vairumati by Paul Gauguin	Wooden Tahitian sculptures by Paul Gauguin
Stone Monument to Balzac by Auguste Rodin	The Seine in the evening after a very long travel day.

The tourist areas of Paris are much cleaner than the tourist areas of Nice - i.e., they have much less doggie poop and somewhat less other trash. Nice has a big problem with dog poop and France has a big problem with smoking and discarded cigarette butts. I wrote to the mayor of Nice with some comments and suggestions about smoking and doggie poop, which I hope will be helpful.

2.01.2016

Well we've never been to Spain -- but we kinda like the music... Living in a new culture is the main reason I wanted to move to Europe, but traveling easily and cheaply is another major reason. John and I are going to Barcelona for the weekend of March 12 and 13 to celebrate our birthdays. I just made the reservations. Barcelona Museums

We will visit Park Güell , the Picasso museum in 5 mansions, some of the museums listed below and perhaps other museums and sites (there is a TON of stuff to see and do in Barcelona). Later this year we'll fly to Montpelier to check it out and at that time we may take a train to the Dali museum in Figueres which is halfway between Barcelona and Montpelier. I wanted to see the Dali museum this time, but I'll wait. I don't want to extend our stay in Barcelona this trip.

Other fine, fine art museums in Barcelona:

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Art Museum
Address: Palau Nacional, Parc de Montjuïc, s/n, 08038

Joan Miró Foundation
Modern Art Museum
Address: Parc de Montjuïc, s/n, 08038 Barcelona, Spain

and SCIENCE!!!!!

CosmoCaixa Barcelona
Science Museum -- Imposing modernist building housing science museum with planetarium & living Amazonian rainforest.
Address: Carrer d'Isaac Newton, 26, 08022 Barcelona, Spain

Archaeology Museum of Catalonia
Art deco building housing an archaeological museum, with Greek, Roman & prehistoric artifacts
Address: Passeig de Santa Madrona, 39 - 41, 08038

Park Güell in Barcelona channeling Dr. Seuss	Picasso Museum	Gaudí's Sagrada Família