Today is the first day since last Monday when I haven't needed to be in the car and on the road by 9 a.m. I'm relaxing, and enjoying going back through some old pictures of our little village outside the town of Saint-Aignan.
On Tuesday, I had to take the car in for a repair and then go to the supermarket. About the car, a month or so ago the driver's side rear view mirror got broken. Long story... It took my mechanic that long to find me a replacement mirror, what with the holidays and other complications. But he didn't yet have it on Tuesday, so I wasted my time that morning. Or maybe not — he needed to take the broken mirror off my car and make sure he knew exactly what model the replacement mirror needed to be.
The village church seen from the cemetery
On Wednesday, we had to go to Tours, which is about an hour's drive each way. Over the holidays, we had our marriage certificate, issued by the State of New York, translated into French by a court-licensed translator. The translator, an Englishwoman married to a Frenchman, needed to see the original certificate before she could put her official seal on the translation. We decided to drive it over there rather than put it in an envelope and mail it because we didn't want to risk losing it. We took advantage of the trip to do some shopping over in the big city.
The cemetery and the church tower in a wider view
On Thursday, the mechanic had finally located a mirror. I had an appointment to get my hair cut at 9 a.m. by the woman who recently took over Mme. Barbier's hair salon in the village. As soon as I got out of the barber's chair I headed back to the mechanic's garage, over on the other side of the river. This time the repair got done and my car is back in business — pretty much as good as new.
At the end of October, people set out many pots of 'mums on the tombs
On Friday we had to go to Romorantin (a 40-minute drive each way). We needed to go to the big Centre Leclerc "hypermarket" over there for a few things, including a SIM card for a cell phone. This morning we'll need to figure out how to get the phone working. We've had the telephone itself for a few years (thanks E and L) but have never used it before. We have decided to jump feet-first into the 20th century...
To me, with my quiet life of blogging, cooking, and walks in the vineyard with Callie the collie, all this qualified as a whirlwind of activity. It'll take me all weekend to recover, and next week I'm going to be much lazier.
Sounds like a big change to your daily routine :) You certainly keep yourself busy and productive every day, so adding in several car trips and errands in towns near and far really would make for a change in routine.
ReplyDeleteLove the the mums in the cemetary :)
You've gotten a lot done this week! That cell phone we gave you is seriously old-it will be interesting to see if that phone will work.
ReplyDeleteEvelyn, the old phone seems to work fine. It's charged up, we have the number, and we're reading through the manual to figure out how it works.
ReplyDeleteThe Leclerc Mini+ plan costs €1.50 per month, prepaid, and includes 15 minutes for the month. That'll be plenty for us. More minutes cost 9 cents each.
Judy, problem is when I need to leave the house at 9 and it's my morning to walk the dog, the sun doesn't even come up until 8:40 a.m. so it's sort of a scramble...
I've never seen so many flowers in a cemetery. Did they know you were coming?
ReplyDelete