France Telecom & Orange: Seeing Red

You have reached the service desk of Orange/France Telecom. If you are calling about a domestic phone, press “1.” If you are calling about a business line, press “2.” If you would like to speak to an agent who speaks English, press “JAMAIS” (Never.) You will not be charged for this call as long as you are calling from a phone for which you have a contract. All agents are busy right now. You may want to try to resolve your problem by using our “on-line assistance” service. Your call will be answered as soon as an agent becomes free. Please know that this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes.

“Can you help me, please? We get a bill for telephone from France Telecom and another bill for internet from Orange but I thought that the two companies were together – that we would get one bill for telephone and internet.”

“If you want the two bills together, you need to tell us. Are you requesting that we combine the services?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. From now on, you will see that you will have one bill that will include both phone charges and internet charges.”

Three weeks later…

You have reached the service desk of Orange/France Telecom. If you are calling about a domestic phone, press “1.” If you are calling about a business line, press “2.” If you would like to speak to an agent who speaks English, press “526247 for JAMAIS” (Never.) You will not be charged for this call as long as you are calling from a phone for which you have a contract and we find your call interesting. All agents are busy right now. Your call will be answered as soon as an agent becomes free but, of course, all agents are at lunch and will not return until 14:00 hours. You can wait if you want but we suggest that you call back when we are busy. You may want to try to resolve your problem by using our “on-line assistance” service which is available 27/4 (27 minutes per day, four days per week – though we will never tell you which days). Please know that this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes.

“Thank you for your assistance during my last call. I still have a question. You combined the billing format online—though you are still billing me separately for each service, of course--but the phone charges remain the same. I thought that the phone bill would be lower.”

“The only way to reduce the phone bill is to use the telephone-over-the-internet service. That way, you will be able to maintain your unlimited long distance calling but the cost will be part of your internet bill and you will be able to reduce your land line phone charges. Would you like me to change that on your service plan?”

“Yes.”

“Please use the instructions that came with your internet connection to add the phone to your internet service and thank you for using Orange/France Telecom.”

“Thanks.”

Three weeks later…

You have reached the service desk of Orange/France Telecom. You will not be charged for this call as long as you are calling from a phone for which you have a contract and we find your call interesting or not as stupid as your last call. If you are calling about a domestic phone, press “1.” If you are calling about a business line, press “2.” If you would like to speak to an agent who speaks English, press “526247 for JAMAIS” (Never.) All agents are busy right now. Your call will be answered as soon as an agent becomes free but, of course, all agents are at lunch and will not return until 14:00 hours. What did you think would happen when you called at 11:00 AM? It is, after all, lunch hour in Cairo. You can wait if you want but we suggest that you go online and use our online services. Our agents prefer online assistance especially when your computer problems relate to “failure to connect to the internet.” That usually delays your phone call by 30 to 45 minutes. Please know that this call may be recorded for our amusement .

“I need your help again. Friends have told us that they have called our phone but we have not answered (because we never heard the phone ring). I have followed all of the instructions on how to repair the service but end up not understanding the answers.”

“You are calling us from 04 90 ……. which is your land line. You should be using the phone number for the internet line.”

“I thought that by combining contracts, we would also combine phone numbers so that we could use either the internet line or the land line with the same phone connections. But your diagnostic shows that I use either a land line connection or an internet connection. Every time I use the internet connection, it interrupts internet service and it is at those times that friends report that they cannot call us.”

“Well, your friends can’t call you when you have your phone set up for internet calling and they are calling your land line phone number. You will have to ask your [so-called] friends to call on the new internet-based phone number. And furthermore, our records show that you don’t have any friends. Please know that when you use your land line for international calling you will have to pay for it at our usual long-distance rates.”

“We understand paying for long distance at the usual rates, we have seen our bill on-line uncombined so we also know that “usual” means “high” rates. What is the solution?”

“Buy another phone. Then you can have one phone that answers internet-based calls and the other that answers land line calls. Thank you for letting us at Orange/France Telecom serve you.”

“What number do I press to begin swearing in English? “

Inauguration 2009: Give Hope a Chance

« Les Américains ne s'y sont pas trompés. Ils ont vécu mardi 20 janvier un moment d'histoire. Un de ces moments qui transforme la vie d'un pays, n'efface pas le passé, mais porte l'espoir d'un autre avenir. » Le Monde, 20 janvier 2009

"America got it right this time. Americans have lived a historical moment on January 20th, one of those moments which transforms the life of a country, does not erase the past but nourishes hope of a better future."

« Laissons sa chance à l’espoir. Depuis l’élection de Barack Obama, l’avenir a changé de camp. Il a retrouvé un visage humain. » Libération, 20 janvier 2009.

"Let's give hope a chance. Since the election of Barack Obama, the future has taken a different course. It has regained a humane face."

Thanks to Marie for editing and improving my translations.

Over the weekend, I had suggested to Ellen that we find a café in town that had a television so we could watch the inauguration from a comfortable seat in a bar. Ellen pointed out that what they run on French television would probably be in French and she didn’t want to miss a word of the address in English. We did some internet searching and found that CNN was running live streaming for the whole inauguration. We tuned in at 3:00 PM (9:00 AM DC time) to be sure that all of the internet connections were in place, and then we watched until we went to bed.

It was a truly wonderful adventure and event. We saw all that was broadcast on TV, along with the comments of Facebook participants who were watching from a variety of places around the globe. C’était merveilleux! It is a new regime in Washington and a new sense of hope around the world. There I go with that hyperbole thing again. – But in reality, we have heard so many people expressing their new optimism and hope, not unlike the news articles.

Tonight, we had wine with some British ex-pats who now live here. They, too, see the optimism of what the future in the US portends for the states as well as the world. We all have lived through a world-transforming event. As one of my oldest friends (from the first grade!) wrote on Tuesday afternoon: “Yes, we can! Yes, we did! And yes, he is... President Barack Obama!” (Thanks, Lynne). The only negative is that we are six time zones away. It would have been so exhilarating to have been there to share the experience with friends close by.

We will be ready to roll up our sleeves and to join all of you in helping make this new dream become a reality – in a few more than 60 days… ;~ ( & :-)

Sunday Walks in the Park

Ellen and I went out this Sunday afternoon for a walk. The sky was deep blue and the thermometer on our balcony read 19 degrees (70 F). We had no specific destination in mind, so I suggested that we walk past the tennis courts to see if there was anyone there (two good matches going on). We walked from the tennis courts past the Cultural center and into the “quartier” (neighborhoods) north of town.

Everywhere we walked, we encountered couples walking: Old couples (older than we), young couples with kids, all of them out in the afternoon sun of Vaison. Many of the couples were well-dressed – as if dressed in their “Sunday-go-to-meeting” attire. Two young Muslim women were sitting on the wall in the sun by the side of the road with a baby in a baby carriage.

I am sure that visitors to Vaison in the summer might miss this – a tradition of spending Sunday afternoon with loved ones (a loved one/partner) by having a good luncheon meal and then going for a walk in the quiet surroundings. In the empty parking lots of Vaison winter months, the locals rule the streets. In the summer, the population doubles and the traditions/habits of the locals get lost in the shuffle;

If Ellen and I weren’t so close to the median age of the promenadeurs, I would suggest that it was cute and a real sign of love as the couples and families walked arm-in-arm. Alas, we ARE members of the median/mean age group and proud (?) of it. At least, I like the image of being associated with such a loving tradition.

Sunday in Vaison (and proud of it!)

Apologies to Georges Seurat for using his painting with my trivial posting

Snow in Provence, Mme Paris, Nile Perch and Gigondas

Tish was at the apartment packing her suitcases (trying to see how many “baginbox” wine cartons she could fit into her suitcase) because she had to leave in little more than 12 hours. . When Ellen and I returned to the apartment, we told Tish about what we had heard about the snow – not the dusting that we had in Vaison but the 30 cm that fell in Marseille. The authorities had closed the Autoroute between Marseille and Bollene (north of here) and they had closed the airport. A quick look at the airport website confirmed that flights had stopped sometime close to noon.

Tish and I had gone out to the hardware store – the bricomarché had a sale on radiators and I needed to replace one in our apartment. When we left the store, it was snowing but at a rate that our experiences would have discounted as a “dusting.”

But in Vaison la Romaine, a dusting is serious. People had seen the weather news and, just as in Lansing when there is a prediction of a heavy snow, the stores’ supplies of bread and milk were depleted. Our neighbor had told us of the weather predictions two days earlier so that we could beat the other residents of the town to the few supplies to stock… After what no one who lives north of the 40th degree latitude would rate as “real” snow, the village was quick to act. I watched small dump trucks (small so that they can fit on the narrow streets of Vaison) with two men standing in the back shoveling a mixture of sand and salt onto the streets as the truck moved slowly down the street. We were spared the brunt of the storm. Marseille, 100 km south of us and on the Mediterranean Sea got 25 – 30 cm. of snow (10 – 12 inches). According to those who keep records, this is the most snow that Marseille has had since 1987. Worse yet, the snow and the winds of the Mistral had dumped a bunch of snow on the autoroute and the authorities decided it was best to close it. (One traveler said that it took three hours to go from Avignon to Cavaillon – 18 miles.) By the way, today on Saturday, it was 10 degrees centigrade (51 F).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tish had decided that it would be smarter and safer to postpone her departure. She spent about an hour ON HOLD until she got an Air France agent who worked with her start to finish. (What is more frustrating than waiting on hold for 25 minutes only to have a connection “coupée” in the middle of a conversation? – except rhetorical questions?)

Tish left this AM with clear skies and dry roads and wrote recently that she was safely back in Cairo. Having spent time driving here, I think that the French road system is excellent – for one-way traffic – but if they continue to permit big trucks to travel in the opposite direction, they need to widen the roads! (There is one road between here and Avignon that actually NARROWS in direct correlation to the depth of the ditch on both sides of the road!)

French with Mme. Paris

In addition to all that Tish did to help create our blog, she also helped me get us enrolled in French classes. We had gone to the Tourist Information Center (again) and, while there, Tish suggested that we get information on French classes. We did. We enrolled and spent last – and future – Thursday and Friday mornings in French class. Thursday is for advanced French, Friday for beginners – both of which are instructional because the instructor – Mme. Paris – has such a good style of teaching. And, for those who want more English language time, the classmates usually go to the café after class… I don’t think that Ellen and I should be in the same class because in the last class, the instructor gave Ellen two “très bien” and I got only one…

Nile Perch

Since Tish does not eat meat, I tried to put together menus that were meatless. One item that I discovered in our markets is “Nile Perch” – the same fish that we used to eat when I was in the Peace Corps in Tchad (Chad) which was called “Capitaine” there. (The first time I heard “Capitaine” referred to as Nile Perch was at my sister Ann’s house at a meal with some of Ann’s & Alice’s friends.) I tried to replicate some of the Senegalese recipes that I loved – with minimal success. Bottom line: Nile Perch is an excellent fish for cooking and using Nile Perch and a recipe from Patricia Wells, I cooked the fish in a spicy tomato sauce and we had a wonderful meal – (the KEY is the orange zest!) We also made spanikopita – and learned how hard it is to find “feta” cheese here (probably because there is a French equivalent for which we don’t know the name…) When I made the spinach pie (spanikopita), we saved enough to share with our downstairs neighbor and with our friend the chef who had never tasted spinach pie. I told him to use the French grading system (20 points) and, if my spinach pie rated more than 11, he should tell me. If fewer points than 11, change the subject…

Gigondas

I know that I tend to go on about Gigondas, but it is such a wonderful wine! When we first purchased the apartment, French friends would ask why we bought an apartment here. I would reply “Gigondas!” to which the French would purse their lips and reply “but of course.” When I heard the same question from Americans and provided the same response, most Americans would look at me and try to understand… (not being familiar with Gigondas)

Tish quickly saw (tasted) the difference and took as much as she could fit in her suitcase back to Cairo. There is something VERY special about the “terroir” that makes Gigondas unique. It is a smooth wine on the palate but has a peppery finish which is what I love. I know that this is parochial/chauvinistic, but I love the flavors in Gigondas more than ALL of the right-bank Bordeaux and many of the left-bank Bordeaux – and at one third or one fourth the price… As the Emergency Room Physician had suggested when I saw him in October, I should spend my time collecting good Gigondas to resell in the states (to pay for my time here.)

Even though “baginbox” is the best way to package wine, few vintners here – or in the US – use the process for their good wines. There ARE a few wineries in this area that put the same wine in boxes as they put in bottles, but most have decided that people expect that wine in bottles is better… Too bad.

Les Dentelles de Montmirail

Les Dentelles de Montmirail

I have discovered one thing that I don’t like about France: walking along a mountain path with nothing but scrub bushes and an occasional rock protecting me from imminent death. That I survived to write about our adventures through the Dentelles means that I may have used hyperbole in describing the dangers of our trek, but I have concluded that I don’t like heights. On the other hand, the vistas were better than any photos that we have seen.

Tish had stopped at the Tourist Information Center in Vaison la Romaine and picked up another guide for hiking. As a result of Tish’s research, we have discovered that there are walking paths all around the area. Unlike the guidebook that I had found earlier which rated hikes in terms of expertise and ease, the new guide showed distance, the height of the climb, etc. but no ratings. If the new guidebook had showed a rating, I am sure it would have rated the paths that we took for experienced climbers – though we were passed by a man carrying a baby in his arms, two guys who were running the trail and a couple with whom we walked for a part of the trail.

It was a gorgeous, sunny Sunday and Tish wanted to go for a hike. We looked in the new guide book for a short-distance hike and found a four km./two-hour hike with a climb of 200 meters. I am sure that the book is wrong. We climbed up for at least one km before we started to walk along the cliff (more hyperbole). I must admit that the views were spectacular. The Dentelles are mountains that you can see from the autoroute – about 30 km to the west – and we were walking along the mountain ridge just below the peaks. The vistas were breathtaking – looking north at Sablet and beyond, looking east towards Mt. Ventoux, looking down (oh no, don’t look down!) on vineyards. It was awesome. Being up so high, we were above the air pollution that seemed to range out there below us. I can only imagine how the views would have been if the pollution index had been low.

I always thought that the “Dentelles” referred to teeth – because when you look at the limestone cliffs, they look like bad teeth. In fact, the name refers to “lace” – though I don’t see the connection. The Dentelles are part of a mountain chain called Montmirail. While I thought we were high enough to break through the atmosphere, the highest point is only 734 meters.

The Dentelles are extremely popular as a hiking location. We parked in the designated parking area with about 25 other cars. From that point, one can go in a variety of directions to paths of differing difficulty and distance. That is probably why we saw so few people on the trail that we chose. I laughed when Tish found our well-marked trail head for “Les Dentelles sarrasines” and pointed up. I shouldn’t have laughed. What I should have done was be a little more attentive. When the Guidebook says that the hiker will “grimpe, marche, chemine” (climb – I would have translated it as crawl, – walk and hike), I should have looked more closely at the topographical map… We got so close to the top of the Dentelles that we were actually walking (for a short distance) in the afternoon sun. (The majority of the walk was on the shady side of the mountains.) There we were: Mark scared out of his wits and the Newmyer girls – Tish and Ellen – walking along and talking about all sorts of topics except the fact that we were walking right along the edge of life…

To get to the ridge, we first climbed through pine and scrub-oak forests, then to mostly shrubs and then to heaven. All of the way up – mostly straight up – we kept hearing what sounded like a bell that one would put around an animal’s neck. Tish said that the little bells were popular among hikers as they thought that the bells would frighten off predatory animals. I thought the bell might be on a sheep – though there were no pastures in sight in any vicinity to our location. It turned out that bikers had put a bell on one of the dirt bikes and it was that bell that we heard for so long.

Sheep!

The hike across the front of the Dentelles was not our only excursion. On New Year’s Day, we drove up to a hiking trail on Mt. Ventoux but walked only two kms. as the snow-covered trail had become icy. We decided to go to Bedoin and take the walk around that village. While driving to the path, we passed a sheep herder and his flock of sheep. The sheep were protected by big dogs and the herder was being followed by a half dozen sheep-dogs.

Wine!

After our hike through the Dentelles, we stopped at the Cave du Gigondas and tasted and bought some wonderful wines from my favorite wine region. The whole area at the base of the Dentelles is filled with vineyards. While the vineyards seem remote – almost unreachable – they produce the grapes grown in the limestone of the mountains that create such marvelous flavors in the Côtes du Rhone wines of which my favorite is Gigondas. I can’t get Gigondas at the local Cave Cooperative though they do sell very good wines there. I regularly go to the Cave to get our five-litre jug refilled…

The pictures attached to this post are from Tish and even though they are great photos, they can’t capture the beauty of the route we took.

December Notes

December 2008 in Vaison

Rain & Flooding

The Sunday after Mark & Dan left, we were awakened by rain hitting our bedroom window. It had rained most of the week, but this morning it was raining hard and the Mistral winds were pushing the rain drops towards horizontal. The rain continued all day, all evening and through most of the night.

Rain is a big deal here as it is in most agricultural areas. The winemakers want rain early in the year and then almost drought-like conditions so that the grapes will develop better sugars. This year, for instance, gets mixed reviews from the winemakers. There was a lot of rain early in the year, then mostly dry, then rain again in July – causing mold on the vines. If the vintners don’t remove the mold, it gets in the grapes and then the grapes have to be removed. To make things worse, it started to rain again at about the same time as the harvest was to begin. One winemaker reported that they had a good harvest but a small harvest.

The truffle hunters like a lot of rain as it keeps the ground moist, thus promoting the growth of those very valuable mushrooms. Our market had truffles for about 800 € per kilo. Our friend Benoit told us that they sell for over 1,000 € in Paris. Such news makes me want to buy a truffle-sniffing pig and start searching!

Rain is also a big deal in our town as most adults from here remember the flash flood of ’92 where rain waters swelled the Ouvèze River to the point of going over the 2000- year-old Roman bridge, destroying 150 homes and killing 37 people. Though other bridges in the area were destroyed by the flood, the Roman bridge survived; in fact, it remains a main entry point into the town. Just west of town, the Rotary Club created a park in the flood plain dedicated to those who lost their lives during the flood. One day when Ellen and I were walking there, we met a man who pointed to his house at the edge of the plain and said that his house had three meters (almost 10 feet) of water during the flood.

Since our apartment overlooks the river we had a special interest in following the progress of the rise in water level. By Sunday evening, all of the little “islands” in the river were under water and the river kept rising. I watched an uprooted tree go floating by at remarkable speed. We were spared any damage – the flood line is 1.6 meters above normal and the river rose only 1.3 meters. The downstream village of Bedarrides and the town of Cavaillon both had to evacuate residents from their homes.

December weather - go figure...

We have enjoyed spectacular days here where the sun just warms everything and the skies are Colorado/Montana blue. I played tennis outdoors in December and played in a T-shirt as it was so warm. Most mornings, there is frost on car windshields and on roof tiles but the temperature gauge – in the sun on our balcony – reads 50 degrees or higher. On cloudy days, the temperature hovers around freezing (We use our balcony – the shady corners – as additional refrigerator storage.) There is also the pervasive smell of wood fires, as many homes here use wood for heating.

Santa

Probably more fun than going to French karaoke night at the local bar with Karlice, Ed, Dan and Mark was being asked to play Père Noël (Santa Claus) for the Christmas party at the crèche [day care center] next door. They provided me with a Santa suit but Ellen and I quickly determined that it needed some help, so I bought another Santa suit at Bazarland, our local dollar store, for three € and used the second suit to create a better beard and look. Since the crèche is only for little kids (age three and under), there were a lot of frightened kids who watched Santa from behind their teachers. When they learned that I had candy to give out, most of them overcame their shyness. Ellen came along as my photographer and, if we can get the photo shop to retrieve the pictures from the camera disk’s “CF card reading error”, we will have some good photos to share. There is now a whole group of kids in France who think that Père Noël has an American accent but, as an acquaintance asked: “Is that better or worse than kids believing that Père Noël has a Marseille accent?”

Tish comes to visit

The day after Tish arrived we went hiking in the hills in the shadow of Mt. Ventoux. (Tish brought sunshine with her.) We had found a book on hiking trails at the Tourist Information Center in town and picked an easy walk. [Ellen’s comment: “Easy! You call this easy?”] The elevations changed enough to get us to snow-covered areas. After completing the hike, we decided to drive to the little town of Faucon nearby where there is a bakery/restaurant that makes wonderful vegetable tarts. Our new acquaintance Marie had introduced us to the place in October and we wanted to take Tish there to enjoy a fresh-baked lunch with us.

The only other diners in the restaurant were an English-speaking family with their dog inside and their baby outside. This explained why Mom and Dad alternately kept jumping up from the table to go outside every few minutes: Their baby was asleep in the car just a few feet away and they didn’t want to wake him when they arrived for lunch. We enjoyed the irony of Tish coming from Cairo and ending up seated next to English-speaking people at a restaurant in the south of France! Later we met the couple’s infant and I told the parents that I had been Père Noël at the crèche just a few days earlier. The father of the infant said: “Excuse me for saying, but you look a good fit for the part.” – Note to self: exercise more…

Christmas traditions

Tish, Ellen and I all played “Père Noël” and delivered home-baked Christmas cookies (chocolate chips) to our neighbors and friends in town. With some help from the internet and good counsel from chocolate chip chef par excellence John Cooper, we baked a big batch of cookies. It is not clear to me whether distributing plates of cookies is a tradition here – probably not as everyone seemed surprised – but we had fun doing it and we got to meet another neighbor who had just arrived from her home in Corsica.

We went to the apartment of Benoit and Marie, located above their restaurant in town, for apero on Christmas eve and got to meet all of Benoit’s family. They opened champagne and served amuse bouche (appetizers) as we talked about Christmas traditions and Père Noël. In their family – and they said it was true for most families in France – Christmas eve is the big celebration time. They talked about families going to midnight mass, then having a BIG meal and opening presents afterwards.

We also discovered that “the place to be” in Vaison la Romaine on the Sunday afternoon before Christmas was at the Christmas Concert. We were there but with standing room only as we arrived to claim our tickets after the seating was sold out. Vaison has developed a reputation for choral music (Choral city of France) and the holiday concert was excellent. The conductor chose music that aired well in the 11th century cathedral where it was played and sung, just a few minutes’ walk from our apartment. Though our neighbor Helene spends Sundays with her family and couldn’t join us, she enjoyed hearing about the music and the event itself later in the week.

Randonnee

Before coming for the holidays, Tish had done a lot of research on hiking trails in France and discovered that there are many in the Vaison area as there are throughout France. We used the detailed maps Charlie had bought and left for us during his and Marge’s visit (thanks!) to find our way to the trail head for “Grand Randonné 4”. Tish and I then walked over the Dentelles de Montmirail (local mountain range) to Seguret. The trail provided many Kodak moments but the view of the Rhone valley from the top of the last hill was spectacular. Once in Seguret, we tried to find the connecting route and asked a biker (a guy older than us out for a weekend ride) for directions. He suggested that we return on the same route – in fact the route he planned to follow back to Vaison – but we wanted to see some different terrain so we asked if the road behind the church would connect to the path. The biker’s response: “You can go that way if you want, but you will get lost.” We wished him well on his bike ride and told him we would see him in Vaison. We have not seen him, so I can only assume that HE is lost. ;-)

November 2008

Pictures:

Ellen and Mark standing in front of a 100-year old Olive tree (near Pont du Gard)

Karlice and Ed standing in the snow of Mt. Ventoux

Dan and Mark standing in the snow of Mt. Ventoux

Pont du Gard - the aqueduct built by the Romans in 19 BC - built so that its height dropped 34 centimeters for every kilometer!

LA VIE QUOTIDIENNE: EVERYDAY LIFE

Obama Awareness Everywhere: We learned about the results of the election probably minutes after people in the USA as our friend, John Cooper, called at 5:06 AM Wednesday morning (France time) to shout out the results. This time is really exciting. The election of Barack Obama gets a lot of positive attention here: on the radio, in the market, in nearly every new exchange when people learn that we are Americans. The French think that the election marks a new page in French-American-international relations. We have had fun encounters when people realize that we are American and begin to ask questions about Obama. On one occasion we were talking with a man who had followed us out of a store to give us advice on where to find the best local olives. (Who says the French aren’t friendly and helpful?) As we turned to leave, Ellen thought she noticed an Obama button on his bag. Ellen tentatively said: “Obama?” He turned and replied: “Yes. . . . (pause), we can!” Everyone laughed and we went on our separate ways.

One sunny afternoon we were out for a walk to one of the high scenic points in town: the statue of the Black Virgin/Black Madonna. We were near but hadn’t yet found the right path. We asked a man walking his dog but he said he was just visiting nearby and couldn’t help. When we found the right path with help from some other passersby, he decided to walk with us. Having learned that we were Americans, he immediately launched into questions about the elections in the US. After we walked and talked for a bit and saw the spectacular view from the hill, we started on our way back. He asked if we had had lunch, then asked if we would like to join him--at his aunt’s house--for lunch.
We politely declined, saying that we had eaten lunch and were out walking before making our way to the store. He then invited us to come for a glass of wine and to meet his wife and his aunt. When he changed the invitation to wine and also told us his aunt (age 75) had lived in Vaison for a long time and knew the town well, how could we resist? As we walked into the courtyard, he announced to his aunt that he had invited us for lunch and that we should start with a bottle of champagne. He told her that we lived in town and that we had voted for Obama. Those were magic words as his aunt started asking questions about the election and our views as we toasted Obama. We sat on the terrace in the sunshine drinking champagne and talking about world affairs.

As the afternoon went on into the evening, we learned a lot more about Aunt Magdeleine. (She insisted we call her “Mag”, the way she prefers to be addressed.) Mag thinks that Obama won because he is smart, exciting as a speaker, with a solid approach to governing. She hopes he can have a positive leadership approach in foreign policy, something we have not had for the past eight years. She likes the view from the other side of the ocean and, at the same time, realizes (as many of us from the US do) that there is a long road ahead. We ended up spending most of the evening with her, long after Philippe and his wife had departed for Nice. He really was “just visiting” for the day on the way to a vacation!

Though Obama and world affairs were the entrees, Mag gave us a lot of other insights into the French and French culture. She had been an art gallery owner in Vaison and spent some of her earlier life in Paris. There she had met some of the great artists, poets and songwriters of France. One of her acquaintances was Georges Brassens, an icon in French culture for his poetry set to music; he was a great rebel of his time and his songs are still played every day on French radio. We bought a Brassens CD the next week at the market and feel an almost personal connection to a part of French history. Thanks, Mag!

For Better or Worse and Even for Lunch: Our lives together (après retirement) have taken on new but similar patterns. Our eating habits have not changed much though the foods that we eat have changed. I had never cooked leeks or fennel or potimarron (a pumpkin-like squash). We like to go out – any reason will do – to get beyond the walls of our 400 sq. ft. We have walked through most of the neighborhoods of the town and I can always think of something that I forgot to pick up at the market. Of course, if I don’t write it down when I think of it, I will be standing in the market wondering what it was that I wanted to pick up. We don’t have a car now, so all of our shopping and outings are done on foot, but the MOST distant grocery store (supermarket) is only 1.5 miles with most everything else available in a matter of blocks from here. (We are about 4-5 blocks from the center of town.) By the way, the grocery stores do NOT ask if you want paper or plastic. You must bring (and fill) your own shopping bags. There are huge shopping centers in Avignon, but most of the retail done in Vaison is handled in little shops. It has been fun figuring out where to buy this or that and at which shop we want to spend our euros.

Breakfast usually consists of bread (purchased daily) with jam and butter or goat cheese and café au lait. Ellen often has cereal with yogurt or with milk. You can buy boxes or plastic containers of milk off the shelf (not refrigerated) OR from the cooler. We learned to look for lait écrémé, skim milk. We have been enjoying local pears and apples but if we want to have oranges or warm-weather fruits, they come from Spain or Morocco at this time of year. Our favorite fruits are probably the ones that use the same word in French – though you can usually point at an item if you can’t remember the word… We eat a lot of clementines, oranges and bananes. Ellen’s sister Karlice laughed when I told her, but we really like the prunes (pruneaux) here – they are soft and sweet (and not at all like chewing leather). We have been here long enough to know where to get a good baguette and where to get Ellen's favorite pain au cereal (multi-grain bread). There must be at least a dozen bakeries in this town of 7,000.

Since most of the stores in town close from noon until 2:00 or 2:30, the hours for lunch are pretty well set. (This is changing a little as the two supermarkets are open from 8:30 until 8:00 PM.) We eat dinner at about the same time as in the states – 8:30 or so. On market day, lunch is often à emporter (take out) from a market vendor – paella, roasted chicken & potatoes or fried rice with vegetables. We have not tried the take-out pizza yet.

Market Day Reigns on Tuesdays: Tuesday is my favorite day of the week because Tuesday is market day. Market day is so much fun despite the snail’s pace (escargot’s pace?) of trying to get through the crowd of shoppers, most of whom have their shopping bags or their wheeled carts so that they can load up for the week. The French seem to know how to pick the best quality foods even though the foods they buy don’t always look the best. They want local. They want to know not only where the food came from but where the grower lives. FRESH makes such a difference in food flavors! (How’s that for taking a stand?) I should open a cooking school like the one that Patricia Wells runs here in the summer! We have not met Wells but we have met several of the people that she mentions in The Provence Cookbook.

From about 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM rain or shine, fifty-two times per year, the streets are closed to traffic and filled with vendors. There are at least a half dozen vendors of any product that you might want and some items you might be surprised to find. The market fills up the town square, the parking lots, and the main streets. Booths start about two blocks from our apartment and go to the other side of the center of town. In the 16th century, the Pope permitted (sanctified) Vaison to be a market-day village. You can find new/used CDs, clothing, cloth, table linens, candies, breads and other baked goods, olives & olive oil. (Nyons, the olive oil capital of France, is about 20 km from here.) There are meats, fish, vegetables, fruit, cheese, honey, tableware, pottery, antiques, hand-made items and plants and flowers. There is a vendor who raises and sells all sorts of fowl – quail, chicken, guinea fowl, pheasant, duck and turkey. In the event that your market shopping is too tiring, you can stop for a coffee at any one of the cafés.

Since shoppers have so many choices, the vendors are generally very engaging and helpful – and many of them seem to enjoy practicing English. The vendors who sell olives also sell tapenade and olive oil. I like to go to these counters to taste the various olive oils. There are so many different flavors (and colors)! A cheese vendor got us to try three kinds of Comte cheese, all from the same producer but one was from this spring, the others from 2007 and 2006. What a difference! In Lansing, I would consider myself lucky to find Comte, let alone have the option of choosing the year in which it was produced! Last week, “my” cheese vendor said that she was going back to Savoie, in northern France, to take care of the farm but that she would be back in the spring. When she wrapped my cheese, she also gave me a bottle of rosé – a gift that she was offering to all of her “regular” customers. C’est moi!

Thanksgiving in France: Even though we didn’t celebrate a “traditional” Thanksgiving, we celebrated it nonetheless. Ellen’s sister Karlice and her husband Ed were here as were Mark and Dan, our friends and former next-door neighbors. Karlice made coq au vin-nouveau (chicken with WHITE wine instead of Burgundy). Dan had the idea of making rabbit with a port/prune reduction. With rabbit from the market and local white wine, we proceeded to have a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner. If we had eaten at 1:00 or 2:00, we could have eaten outside on the terrace, as the day was sunny and warm. Prior to dinner Ed led us on a climb to the village of old Crestet, up the very steep road adjacent to the house they had rented for their stay. On the way to the top, we met an older (than we) woman out for a walk in the sunny late afternoon. She, like all of the others who learn we are Americans, asked if we were as excited as she was about the Obama election.

Mark Schmidt--now officially known as Dr. Mark after successfully defending his dissertation on December 11—and I served wine. Thanksgiving is a great holiday to spend with friends, even when it is on the other side of the ocean and the French don’t celebrate it. At the same time we have NOT been deluged with Christmas carols on the radio or in the stores. Only at the beginning of December did the city put up its few holiday lights and the stores began setting their displays late in November, most very understated. Of course, there are ads for holiday shopping and the local supermarkets are open on Sundays in December, unheard of during the rest of the year. Ellen’s sister Tish will join us for the holidays. Hopefully, she will help us figure out how to celebrate. We did not have space to bring Ellen’s lighted reindeer.

Off to Paris or La Vie Non-Quotidienne: During Mark (Schmidt) and Dan’s stay after Thanksgiving, we had talked about visiting the town where Mark lived when he was a high school student but the weather reports were dismal. Dan suggested that we go to Paris where, even if it is cold and rainy, it is still Paris. Schmidty went online and found train tickets at 3 EUR round trip (12 EUR for the four of us)! That's less than the bus fare from Vaison la Romaine to Avignon. In spite of our thoughts that it couldn’t be true, how could we turn it down?

We had three fun-filled days in Paris even though it was rainy there as expected. Dan bought a coat; Mark found jeans. We had a GREAT lunch at A la biche au bois, a restaurant that serves game (venison, warthog, rabbit and more) and that we have made part of our “Paris agenda” every trip we have made there. We cooked several dinners at the apartment we had rented and had other great lunches out. Mark and Dan explored the evening club life of the Marais district where we stayed while Ellen and I stayed home and dry after 11 p.m. in the apartment.

The BAD news is that the 3 EUR offer applied only to Eurail or other special pass holders. So that's what that phrase printed on the ticket—Valable Avec Abonnement Forfait—meant! The GOOD news is that the conductor discovered the problem with our tickets only on the way back to Avignon. He was not as impressed with our special fare as we were. Alas, we had to pay for the return tickets but we went to Paris for 1.50 euro per person!!! Paris is beyond words in my vocabulary. It is filled with people who look like they spent hours getting ready to visit the cafe and spent their last check on their boots and cigarettes. At the same time, they walk past centuries of history with such nonchalance. Meanwhile, Ellen keeps reminding me to close my mouth and stop staring. Good news, bad news - ALL fun.

We had snow two nights ago. None of it stayed on the ground, but Mt. Ventoux is now snow-covered and the radio announced that the ski slopes on Mt. Ventoux have over 80 cm. of snow. Today, the sun is back and warming our apartment. It is currently 8 (Celsius) – about 48 Fahrenheit. Why didn’t the US ever adopt the metric system?