Odds and Ends

Here are a few pictures of our first few weeks here – no connecting story just a jumble of thoughts!

One of the first things we had to do was buy curtains – I had brought two sets with me but they were no match for the 1.5 and 2 metre lengths we would need for the windows on our new apartment. We did not pick the American flag curtains but it is interesting that there is almost as much American motif stuff here as there is French motif stuff in the US – if your first reaction it ‘well, that isn’t much’ – look again – whether is something written in French or pictures of Paris and the Eiffel Tower stores like Marshalls and Hobby Lobby are filled with French themed stuff!

These are the curtains we picked for our bedroom – the name of the pattern is pure coincidence!

 
A few pictures of the countryside the weekend we arrived

And, of course, the vineyards

Lots of cows, horses, sheep, chickens, goats donkeys – always something to look at

I haven’t taken a lot of pictures of our neighbourhood yet but here are a few…

A quiet street one block away from our building

  
The Saone is just at the end of our street

    

Some of our boxes loaded to go to the dechetterie – I couldn’t help but think of my friends making shelves and looking for packing boxes.

We have been going to lots of brocantes on Sundays – it is an entertaining way to spend a few hours. This is a chair we didn’t buy…

One of the days Isabelle was on vacation we had perfect weather for a picnic on the river – as you will see we haven’t really had another chance.

 
On the left – water level on the Saone on April 17th, 2013; On the right – on May 7th, 2013

We had our picnic about 5 steps down from the last step above water.

And we can’t very well live in France and not enjoy some treats – something for the two of us while Paul was working in Clermont for the week and something for a birthday!