Bonne annee a la famille et aux amis
Hope you all had a very happy Christmas. From what we hear it was pretty hot and sweaty on your side of the world. It was a quiet time in Cherbourg and so we bunkered down with Christmas lunch and then the obligatory annual viewing of Love Actually.
On Boxing Day we met up with some other Australians and there was much comparing of notes about our experiences and impressions so far. It’s surprising how many of them have bought their pets along. Apart from a rabies shot, there is no problem with bringing animals here to live. Going back home will be a very different story – 6 months quarantine and about $7000 for each pet. A couple of these animals are getting on in years so there could be some very tough decisions when the time comes to go home.
We hired a car for a few days and have been able to get out and see some of the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately there was only one day of reasonable weather and so we drove to the most north-western point of France. The coastline was beautiful and quite surreal when you see memorials in tiny villages to local residents (women and children) who died in that area as a result of WW1 and WW2. We stopped at one place where the scenery was spectacular and the bunkers are still intact with views across the Channel to England.
One of the tiny villages on our road trip was Gruchy in Greville-Hague, the birthplace of Jean-Francois Millet. We’d never heard of him, but definitely recognize some of his work – e.g.
We didn’t waste the opportunity to go shopping while we had the car. Just outside Cherbourg is Le Glacerie (originally named because of the glass that was manufactured in the area). Now it is home to all manner of warehouse style shops and so we picked up lots of household type things that should get us through. Which meant more disposal of packing and cardboard boxes (sigh). Happy news – we are getting our heads around how to get rid of rubbish. Baby steps but very satisfying.
Speaking of shopping, that is an experience. Another topic which could take up pages. But (and perhaps it has something to do with where we have been shopping) for a country that makes recycling your rubbish so complicated, the amount of food that is sold in packages is astounding. Everything from ready made sandwiches, meals, snails and sliced meat. Here is a small section of the aisle that sells yogurt in tubs. There’s plenty of other shelves of tubs of every possible type of dairy item you can think of.
Another interesting and good to know piece of information is that the local nuclear power plant is required to conduct a test of their emergency siren on the first Wednesday of each month. It is so comforting to know that we get the heads up in case of an emergency. What we are supposed to do if/when that happens is anybody’s guess. Apparently there was a survey conducted in France in 2013 and it was found that only one in five people knew what to do if the emergency siren in sounded. (Short answer – stay inside and seal up all vents and places where air can get in).
Today (because it’s somebody’s birthday) we went out to a French restaurant for lunch. It’s definitely not the done thing to whip out the phone and take photos of your food, but service and presentation was excellent and food was good to very good, depending on the course. Everything had lashings of butter and/or cream but when in France……
Finally, we hope everyone who reads this has a very happy, healthy and safe 2018.
love
L & M
thefrenchfeed 