17 April 2015

The Citroën car, springtime allergies, and the Canon camera


Today we'll be driving the Citroën C4, which I bought in February, over to Tours to do some shopping on the north side of the city, where there are lot of big-box stores. We want to go to an Auchan store (think Wal-Mart) to see if we can find some bagels and to pick up some other, less-exotic supplies.


In addition, we'll stop at a Picard frozen-foods shop to have a look around (there are no Picard stores close to Saint-Aignan), and then we'll do some serious shopping at the Paris Store Asian supermarket near Auchan. We want to get some frozen shrimp, a few jars of peanut butter, and some bottles of soy and fish sauces. We also have Japanese panko breadcrumbs on our list, for ourselves and for a friend.


Yesterday the weather forecast said that today would be rainy, but that forecast seems to have changed overnight. Now they say we shouldn't get any rain until evening, so ours will be a dry drive. One point of going to Tours — a round-trip of nearly 100 miles — is to drive the Citroën on the autoroute for the first time, just to see what that's like.


The speed limit on a French autoroute, the equivalent of an American interstate highway, is 81 mph (130 kph). On other highways, the limit is 55 mph (90 kph) most places, with just a few places, at least around here, where you might see a speed limit of 66 mph (110 kph) on a stretch of four-lane road. My goal is drive the C4 at 80 mph for an hour or so as a test of its performance and our comfort at that high speed.


I'm having a lot of sinus trouble right now. I had low-grade allergy symptoms in March when I was in North Carolina for two weeks, and that didn't surprise me. I'm especially allergic to cypress-tree pollen, and there are extensive stands of of cypress trees along the Carolina coast, as there are in California, where we used to live. It was normal for me to have springtime allergy symptoms in the U.S.


Here in the Saint-Aignan area and the Loire Valley, there aren't so many cypress trees, but when the wind blows from the south it brings a lot of pollen with it. Right now a low-pressure area bringing clouds, gusty winds, and some rain is moving up from Spain and the Pyrenees. I'm really feeling the effects of it. I can't wait for our weather to change again.


I think doing the tilling I did in what will be our 2015 vegetable garden aggravated the allergies. I must have stirred up and breathed in a lot of pollen by running the rototiller. The three or four tilling sessions I managed to finish out there really did me in. Yesterday I took a day off from garden work, but I'm not sure it helped. I feel just as miserable this morning as I did yesterday morning.


Meanwhile, I'm still experimenting with my new Canon SX700 digital camera. While the weather was sunny and warm, I took a lot of photos of springtime scenes when I went out for walks with the dog. Some of those photos are posted here. As always, you can click or tap on the images to see them at a larger size.

19 comments:

  1. Those are beautiful spring photos. We are finally in full spring mode here -- it was late in coming this year.

    I'm sure you will regret not being able to take anything back from Picard. Or are you planning on bringing an ice chest?

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    1. Yes, an ice chest and some ice blocks from the freezer so that we can transport frozen shrimp and other frozen foods back to Saint-Aignan. I'm glad your weather has turned spring-like. If I just didn't have these pollen allergies...

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    2. Chez Picard I suggest their " confit de canard du Sud-ouest" 6Euro40 for two. mmmhhh

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    3. Trop tard, Jean Laine. We went to a Picard store but didn't buy any foie gras. Next time...

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  2. Sorry to hear that you are down with the allergicks...
    I am pretty stuffed up, too... but I am allergic to Birch pollen...
    so living around yours would be very unpleasant...
    you seem to have a lot of birches chez vous.

    Whoever put that pink pot next to the magenta blossomed tree....
    needs to have their eyes examined....
    especially with the marroony-red paint on the shutters...
    that doesn't work for me....
    I wonder if they've got the colour on their TV wound all the way up, too?

    Enjoy the highspeed run...
    I've been told they like it at speed!

    Just a thought... with all those birches around....
    have you had yourself checked for birch pollen allergy?

    Tim

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    1. Tim, I've never noticed any reaction to the birch trees in our yard. Our house, in fact, is called Les Bouleaux, which means... The Birches. I think I'm allergic to Scotch broom (genêt) and there's more and more of it growing all around us. This morning we noticed that the A85 autoroute is lined with broom starting in Mareuil and all the way over to Bléré. I know I am (or was at one time) allergic to cypress pollen and to olive tree pollen — those two were diagnosed when I lived in California. Juniper, pine, cedar, spruce, and fir don't seem to bother me — we have all those growing all around us. The hardest thing with allergies is determining what exactly it is that causes your symptoms.

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  3. We're in process of finding and buying our first car in France. I just got French licence and I'm itching to get behind the wheel of our very own car. We've been looking for a Renault Scenic but it's harder than I expected. We'll go to the local dealership this afternoon and try to find one somewhere. What we want isn't in Amboise. Always complicated. Your springtime shots are wonderful... in spite of the pollen.

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    1. We had two memorable Renault rental cars years ago, when we were coming to France for vacations. One was a Mégane station wagon, and the other a Scénic that drove from Paris to Provence and back. I really liked both cars. Good luck with your search. I bought my Citroën from Renault dealer named Duvoux in Noyers-sur-Cher. I liked dealing with him.

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  4. I especially love the photo of the forsythia next to the red shutter. Oooh!
    Hope your drive has been fun today :)

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    1. It was a lot of fun. The car runs great. We bought a ton of groceries at the Asian market, plus some bagels from Auchan and from Picard.

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    2. Glad you found some bagels and that the car runs well. I hope your allergies calm down. Lots of colds around here now, but some could be Spring allergies. Most of the trees are leaved now, but I don't think the pine pollen is gone (it's hard to know since we've had rain every day this week which washes the yellow dust away.)

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    3. Even the grapes are putting out leaves here now. With the little bit of rain we got overnight, we'll be seeing more and more greenery, I'm sure. This bout of allergy symptoms has turned into a sinus infection. That's the main problem. Makes it hard for me to get a good night's sleep.

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  5. Is Walt no longer making bagels? His bagels sure were good.

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    1. He hasn't made any bagels in a while. We just thought it would be interesting to buy some. Our across-the-river neighbor Carole told us that Auchan sold them, so we went there. The store was under construction and it was a madhouse, but we found bagels and bought some. Then we went to Picard to look at frozen foods and we found bagels there too, so I bought some more. We'll try some of them today.

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    2. Followup: the bagels from Picard (frozen, of course) are better than the "fresh" bagels from Auchan, but both are good. Next time we go to Blois or Romo, we'll stop chez Picard and buy a few packages of bagels for the freezer.

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  6. Sympathies on the pollen. Would wearing a painter's mask outside be of help? It would filter the dust as you breathe. I sometimes use them inside for housecleaning.

    Lovely flower pictures, however.

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    1. I thought about a mask, but it would just smother me. When I was in California, I had to give up on gardening in springtime because the allergies were just too bad. Here I haven't had a problem until now. Might be time for a visit to the doctor's, or at least the pharmacy.

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  7. A friend of mine swears that honey helps her allergies - but it has to be local so the bees have foraged on the pollen that effects you. Worth a try?

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    1. I'm sitting here drinking hot tea with honey and lemon in it. It soothes my very sore throat. I think the sinus infection has migrated down into my voice box.

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