House work

That's what we've been up to this weekend: for me it was outside work...giving a much needed hair cut to the Yucca tree we inherited in the garden and cleaning up all the crapy shrubs and plants that had grown wild alongside the house wall ...pweh! surprisingly i enjoyed it --got a nice sense of accomplishment from it, both from the physical effort it required and from the final result. Lucian on his end spent time with the many spiders of the attic while blasting his favorite country music (!:) We planned to go see a movie in the nearby city of Saint Junien tonight but of course in typical marie fashion i messed up the days and the movie isn't playing until next week arghh! &&#$%^&*!.... Oh well, that will give me time to continue my much needed research to figure out what social status i should adopt --what?!! yeah, i need to figure that out so i can get medical insurance, retirement and pay my taxes, hum do i really need to? ...i've step into the joys of the french administration with both feet. i figured i have 2 options: independent or "societe" and they both have really specific and extremly convoluted rules ..oh yeah, it's going to be much more fun than if we'd gone see a movie!:)

A little star

My little niece adelia is ADORABLE! I spent most of the weekend with her, listening to old fashioned children songs -which my mom digged up from when my sister and I used to be little and we played on an ancient LP player- dancing to the music and starting to walk. She is turning 1 in about a month and she is going to walk soon! already she stands up and walks with help. She is full of energy and very giggly, smiley. I'm guessing she'll grow up to be a gymnast - from the way she puts her legs behind her head (no yoga needed for her:), OR a dancing perfomer from the way she wiggles her body to the sound of her musical phone :) Either way she's our little star.

Boheme

We had a nice dinner at the terrasse of the Boheme bistro downtown limoges last night. The weather was still hot so that we were eating outside past 10:30pm, unheard of in foggy windy san francisco. I enjoyed our dinner quite a bit although the meat dish i had wasn't very tasty -funny in the city of the limousine cow (!)- but they made a good gratin and the chevre chaud salade appetizer was enjoyable. Lucian thinks I could talk about food in my sleep:) and i don't deny it. We walked around and explored a bit, the center is nice enough with its small cobbled streets, has quite a few cafes/bars with outside terrasses full of young people. And i stumbled upon a number of nice clothing store fronts, pweh! i hadn't seen anything the few other times we were in limoges, i feel better, i'll find clothes!! not that i need anymore really but ya know, i'm a girly girl when it comes to clothes. Tomorrow, we're heading to my parents for the weekend where i'll see my sister and the little adelia , eat the nice cake i know my mom will have prepared, and of course blow the candles!

Movies and birthday

Addicted to netflix, i looked around on the french yahoos and googles to find something similar, not quite as flexible and good values (which is consistent across many services here) but they are several options out there. I opted for cinesnap - the name reminded me of the old snap.com search engine started by cnet:). It seems straightforward enough and has a good selection. The most popular titles section is quite telling - very different from what i was used to in the US. On cinesnap user favorites are classics/older movies like Nuremberg (!) or US TV shows, in fact Six Feet Under tops the list - nothing to say about that, i loved that show! Scrubs is there too along with When We Were Kings, a 2004 movie about Mohammed Ali. Humm...I bet on netflix it's more like one of the latest mainstream blockbuster movie. I put a whole bunch of french movies which i had no idea about on my list - i'll have to remember to ask friends what were the good flicks here in the last 10 years or so, I have a lot to catch up on!
Today's my b-day and it's a milestone one! i won't tell it here cause i'm having a hard time admitting it quite yet. The good part is that we're going out to explore "the city" on that occasion, note that i'm not saying The City which is how i affectionately called SF. But what i've seen of Limoges seems nice enough and i have no worries about eating good food:)

La tete dans les etoiles

My parents came to visit us this weekend, along with their little white bichon Julie. It was their first time seeing the house and I think they liked it quite a bit, although it's always difficult to say because they're not the verbal type. It was a lot of fun! we prepared meals together, cleaned up some areas of the garden, talked a lot, and of course we went to see the fireworks for the 14th of July. We went out to the lake in Rochechouart, a small historical town nearby featuring a beautiful castle with a suspended bridge and impressive fortified walls. Not being a huge fan of fireworks I was happily surprised by how beautiful they were! it was packed with people and well worth the half an hour wait. One of the effects I remember the most: a million sparkling golden stars bursting out of the sky and hanging out above our heads as they fell back down on us-- it was like having "la tete dans les etoiles" (head in the stars).

Summer....you said Summer?

Yes! we finally got a hot typical summer weather today....to celebrate our 1 month mark here maybe, or just in time for Bastille day fireworks tomorrow? we were longing for hot weather, sick of the rain and storms. Encouraged, we got a couple of plastic chairs, a table and an umbrella at good old Carrefour and tomorrow, we shall sit outside and have a nice drink on the terrasse:) We also got our first Limoges kitchen set-- a very modest one, plain white, the cheapest but still very elegant and it says Limoges France in the back so that's all that matters right? My parents are coming to visit tomorrow so we needed a few more plates besides our 2 plastic flower plates that we brought back from San Francisco. We're getting set up in our house little by little, discovering the joys of the french countryside and its inhabitants...besides the 3 owls that came to visit us, we've personally met with 2 lizards, a gazillion billion spiders, strange little insect creatures with many legs that run at the speed of light, and today 1 snake...hum, who said it was quiet around here?

The taste of tomatoes

I had forgotten how real tomoates taste! and smell...mais "rien a voir, du jamais vu!" as would say my great friend Nadia:). One of the many delicious foods we are now lucky to enjoy. Tomatoes and apricots, bread and cheese, ok i've got to get over the cheese or i'm going to swell up, there will be no turning back:) Other than food, the main news is that WE HAVE INTERNET ACCESS!! we are BACK!, connected, plugged in, amazing...we have no fridge or washing machine yet but we have internet and that's all that matters. SFR - our service provider for better or worst- pulled through, after many phone calls, let's hope they will keep it together.

My red Clio

It’s SO cute and red!! and so easy to drive even as a stick shift! I love all the stereo controls at the wheel. And it's small, I can zip around and park anywhere in no time...

It's been busy, fun and scary with all the stuff we have to buy, all the decisions, the cleaning, not to mention getting acquainted with spiders and owls which had taken over the house for the last 2 years... My main complaint is the 3 weeks it takes to get internet access set up (!) which is making us commute between my parents’ place so I can work and back here to set things up. One week’s already passed, two more to go…got to adjust to the new pace here. On the plus side we’re eating tons of cheese and drinking wine like water:) And I love being back into the french mood: the cheesy songs on the radio, the news on tv that starts to talk about the summer migration that happens every year as people take off for the beach, but above all being around my mom and her extraordinary cooking.

12 La Valade

That’s our new address! Here’s a picture with Lucian in front of the house the day we got the keys. Our closest neighbor is a charming farmer whose name I already forgot but who came to greet us and ask if we wanted to continue having his sheep on our property- given it’s pretty large that’s how the previous owner mowed her lawn!:). Yes, we’re surrounded by cows and sheep and that’s pretty much the only noises we hear (at least so far- there’s a possible noisy neighbor on the other side - so we heard). The house is big and neighbors aren't so close so I can make as much noise as I want, and we can stretch! we’ve already decided that we’re each taking a room for our respective offices- I got the one with the prettiest view of the countryside fields. It’s beautiful, especially around 5 -6pm when the light is soft. Quite a change from our little apartment in busy Nob Hill San Francisco! I love the peace - will the novelty fade? time will tell....