Our heat is on this morning and the radiators are hot. The thermostat is set at 18.5ºC, which is about 65ºF. The temperature outside is 10ºC, or 50ºF. Remind me again... isn't it still summer on September 17? Not here.
Hungry, already, at 6:15 a.m. Here are a couple of photos of a recent pasta dish we made with zucchini, tomatoes, and basil from our 2017 vegetable garden, and some whole wheat bow-tie pasta and chipolata sausages. I don't yet have a plan for today's lunch, so I have to get busy on that.
Meanwhile, I don't have a lot to blog about (as you can tell) because I've spent hours yesterday and this morning making travel arrangements on the internet. A sudden trip to North Carolina in October is coming together. My mother is moving from one apartment (which she has lived in since 2005) to another within her retirement résidence or complex. I want to be there to help her move and get settled in the new apartment.
Making the travel arrangements has involved a long phone call (including what seemed like hours on hold) to my bank in the U.S., because somehow I typed a number wrong when I was paying for my Air France plane ticket and the bank put a security hold on my Visa card. I had to talk to three different bank employees, ending up with somebody in the security department who asked me dozens of questions to verify my identity and finally lifted the hold on the card.
Besides the plane ticket, I have reserved a train ticket for the ride from here to CDG airport north of Paris; a hotel room for one night at CDG airport; and a car rental at Raleigh-Durham airport in North Carolina. I typed more carefully as I was making all those reservations and everything went through smoothly.
Now before I leave Walt and I have a lot of garden and yard work to finish, including cooking and eating or processing the rest of the produce out in the garden (tomatoes, squash, beans, chard...). I have to see my doctor for my semi-annual checkup and call Amélie to make an appointment for a haircut. I'll be busier than usual, that's for sure.
Re your credit card: with the Equifax data breach, they're probably not taking any chances.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about that, since we haven't heard a lot about it over here. Anyway, it all got straightened out and I'm good to go (but not for a few weeks now).
DeleteWe are down at Vichy now and the weather here is warmer with more sun than we had at Saint- Aignan last week. However, compared with last year when we were here at the same time, it is much more autumnal. Good luck with your trip planning - so much to do!
ReplyDeleteIt's miserable here right now. Raining and raining, cold, gray of course. We're getting cabin fever. At least all my trip planning is done now, tickets bought, reservations made, etc.
DeleteI've mistyped before also. Happens when we are in a hurry...then we pay for the mistake in time. I hope your Mom's move goes smoothly. I know she'll appreciate your help. The weather here is really nice today.
ReplyDeleteYeah, somehow, one of the digits in my card number got repeated. And then I put in the wrong expiration date for the card. Silly. My flight arrangements always get complicated because I'm buying an Air France ticket for a flight operated by Delta. The AF prices are lower, at least here in France. But then I have to go to the Delta site to choose my seat assignments. Thanks for the good wishes. I'm looking forward to helping with the packing and moving and unpacking. I'll get to MA's nearly a week before the moving date and I'll be there another week to help her get things organized and put away. I'm flying non-stop from Paris to RDU and renting a car there for the three-hour drive down to the coast.
Delete"Busier than usual"? It seems to me that you two are busy all the time. :). MA will be so glad of your help.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to helping with the move, along with my sister, niece and nephew, and some cousins. It's really only a few steps, maybe 50 yards, from one apartment to the other, but we have to figure out how to get the sofa, the freezer, and the bed over there. The rest of the stuff will be in cardboard boxes. I'm going to try to find and borrow or rent what they call a platform cart to roll things on over to the new place. I'm some of MA's neighbors will help too. We have three days, over a weekend, to move everything.
DeleteKen: Also, things have changed for traveling with credit cards. At least one of my credit card companies requires that you give them a travel notification-- dates and places you'll be gone -- or they won't approve out-of-town charges. When I traveled last year, my card was denied three times during the process of trying to book my hotels in France. First time, I called and we then set up the travel dates and places, and they said I'd be fine to use the cards during that time. Then, a week or so later, I tried to book our hotel in Angers, and the card was denied... because I was doing the actual booking in March, for the June stay. So, they knew to allow credit charges abroad from June 7-21, but, since it was March, and a French hotel was trying to charge to my card, it was denied. Again, just a phone call took care of it. Then, when we arrived in Paris, and went to the tourist booth at Galéries Lafayette to buy our museum cards, the card was denied again (now, that one shouldn't have happened, and it wasn't denied any other time after that, during the trip). So... if you do online banking, let around on the website for a spot to put in your travel dates and places, for any cards you'll be needing to use while you're gone. Or call them. (Excuse me if you already knew all of this -- it was new to me.)
ReplyDeleteMy situation is a little different. I'll be traveling to the U.S. and using my U.S.-issued credit and debit cards. I didn't have any trouble here using my U.S. cards to pay for my train ticket and car rental, because I didn't mistype any information during the payment process.
DeleteTwenty years ago, when Walt and I were living in California and coming to France on vacation every year, I would always notify the banks that had issued the cards that I would be traveling in France between this date and that date. It didn't always do a lot of good because the card was still refused many times along the way. It was maddening. When our friend Cheryl was here from Calif. a few years ago, she had an incident like mine this time. She went to withdraw cash from an ATM and entered the wrong PIN for the card she was using, which wasn't a card she used much in the U.S. She tried it two or three times before realizing that the PIN she was entering wasn't the one for the card she was using, but was the PIN for a different card. Her account was put on hold, of course. Luckily, we have unlimited calling from France to the States for a low monthly rate so it doesn't cost us anything to call the banks and talk to people, even if it means being on hold for a long time.
That happened with me , with American Express. Alerting them to travel use . I make sure I have a selection of cards with me for Just In Case !
ReplyDelete