Bonjour
Happy new year and let’s hope 2018 is one of the better ones.
After the nice Christmas/New Year break things are settling in to our new normal and we are getting more familiar with life in Cherbourg. Yesterday we went to the Saturday markets again and it was certainly much quieter than the last time which was just before Christmas when a ferry was in town. It is definitely the place where the locals come on Saturday mornings for their fruites, legumes, fromage etc and catching up for coffee. There is a bit of a protocol when it comes to buying the fruit and veg. Everyone forms a very orderly line and you wait your turn. And you certainly don’t pick up anything and help yourself, but wait to be served and tell them what you want (or point in our case). It’s easy to tell where the best prices are – just look for the stalls with the biggest queues.
We are starting to feel less like tourists and doing more things that the locals do, like catching local buses and getting a haircut. Things you don’t think twice about at home but takes on a whole new challenge here. But it’s been all good experiences and while very few locals have much English at all, they are friendly and with a bit of gesturing and pointing we bumble through.
And now to the weather. We’ve been keeping up to date with the heatwave in Australia – poor Sydney this weekend. At the other end of the spectrum we had a visit from Storm Eleanor this week. This part of the world doesn’t see many cyclones or hurricanes, but some think tank thought naming storms might be the way to go. Mind you, this was not your usual storm that comes and goes in a few hours. It formed off the west coast of Ireland and made its way across Scotland and Wales and then on to the north of France. All this took several days of howling winds and horizontal rain. The ferries across the channel were cancelled and lots of loss of power but happily there didn’t seem to be too much damage or anybody getting hurt. We saw an interview on TV where it was felt that giving this storm a name might make people sit up and take it more seriously and not take silly risks. So sounds like the strategy worked.
The storm also bought some huge tides. It’s interesting how the temperature variations here are minimal. Today’s maximum is 8 and the minimum is 6. But it’s a different story with the tides. Here’s some photos taken on Thursday of the high tide around midday and the low tide at 6pm.
That’s it for now. Stay cool.
love
L&M
thefrenchfeed 