Sold!

 My favorite quote from Mark Twain is “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t.”

If we were to write the perfect introduction to a city and its residents, we could not have created an experience as wonderful as the one we experienced in Angers, no one would believe us. (I won’t be using names out of respect for privacy.)

Wednesday morning we met with M, P, J, and M. The library is fantastic and we could visualize ourselves becoming part of that community. We were given terrific advice as folks shared their experiences in Angers.  J’s situation mirrors ours quite closely and she had many useful tips. We planned a follow up meeting with M for Friday.

Thursday morning we met for dessert and coffee with J and S from the PNW. Once again, we found ourselves sharing common experiences and J and S were so kind and helpful. They shared many resources that will help us with our process. We might even become neighbors!

On Friday we met again with M, who invited us to her home. She took us on a walking tour of her beautiful neighborhood and helped us understand more of the ins and outs of renting and buying property in France. 

We spend the rest of our time riding the tram and walking miles in different neighborhoods to get a feel for what might be our new home.

A huge part of our life in Oregon is running at Minto Brown Park. We agreed that this would be the most difficult part of the move...until we discovered Parc Saint Nicolas. This park surrounds a lake and has many different trails and plants that actually felt familiar. Then we spotted a pine cone with little mouse butts. Really? Douglas fir trees in France? We were stunned. The main thing we were going to miss had just been presented to us. 

We still don’t know if we are cut out for big city life, but there are so many options for us in Angers. The library and its community is something no other city has to offer. This sense of belonging is comforting and calming.

We have two other regions to explore before we make our decision.  I don’t see how they can compete, but we must at least rule them out.

This sweet fellow was in the park. He was the biggest donkey we have ever seen. Donkey in French is âne. We named him Jay. Get it?

 Âne-jay!

from Galerie David in Angers

Residential neighborhood near our park.

Parc Saint Nicolas 

Pedal to charge your phone.

On our way to Angers

View from our room

Crossing the Maine and Loire 

No, we aren’t mad. Angers is pronounced on-jay. Ironically,  Angers may be our happy place.

Known as the “Garden of France” Angers is also home to the Bibliothèque Anglophone. http://ellia.org

I reached out to the BA to ask if they could connect us with some American expats, so we could learn from their experiences. We have been overwhelmed by their outpouring of kindness and friendship. 

Librarians Mandy and Phoebe are hosting a welcome coffee meeting on Wednesday where we will meet them and some other library members. Thursday, we meet a couple with ties to the PNW. We have had a delightful video meet up with another couple who returned to WA state and are still missing Angers. 

Angers already feels like home.

Tours was a fun city to explore and Michéle, our hostess, already feels like family. Tours is a central point for visitors to the Loire Valley’s many chateaux and wineries. Having lived in a tourist destination in Florida, we have absolutely no interest in revisiting that experience. 

Angers is on the edge of the Loire and is mostly bypassed by tourists. Our concerns here are the size 180k in the city +400k with the burbs. Also, humidity in summer. We are unaccustomed to big city life and we are used to having our own space. That will be a problem anywhere we choose as we will need to live where there is strong mass transit. We would like to be car-free. Reality may change this.

Maybe we will find a quiet apartment with proximity to the BA and gardens and find that this is our ideal. We would love to volunteer at the BA and partake of all the fine arts Angers has to offer.

This sculpture is in the Jardin des Plantes in Angers. The title is “The Matinee” 

The grand opening must have been really something!

Nespresso machines are France’s Keurig. We hate Keurigs and the waste they generate. We believe Nestlè is an evil company so we try to avoid supporting them, but we need our coffee. Just pop in a pod and voilà! Nope.

Yuck! Watery espresso, no foam. Five tries in, it was all milk. What gives??

That’s when I noticed the different color pods. I was making either all milk or a full cup of a short espresso. Now we have 3 espresso pods left and a bunch of milk. Yuck. Live and learn.

Apartments in France are often rented with no furniture or even kitchen appliances. It is up to the tenant to purchase their own refrigerator, stove, washing machine, etc. We think this furniture looks perfect. Just blow it up and when you are ready to move deflate it.

This is from a walk through the local cemetery. Gorgeous!

More thoughts on France…

Mushroom museum growing 85% of Paris’ mushrooms.

 A wide sidewalk 

John has a thing for boars and warthogs

Chambord Chateau…400 rooms 365 fireplaces 

Loire bike path

View from our gîte 

Biking

Blois tunnel where they secretly taught 70 children during Nazi occupation. We thought distance learning during Covid was bad.

Market day

Park

Visiting with an eye to moving changes how you see a place. As a tourist, you see the high points. You get there, absorb the culture and leave.

As a prospective resident, you see things differently. 

Does transit reach your destination? Does is run on weekends and holidays? We have walked an average of 8 miles a day. Sometimes of necessity as we wanted to see something, but transit wasn’t nearby or timely. 

We used bikes one day to augment our train ride. Where there are paths, this is actually a good option. Even on the roads between towns you feel safe. Cars are small, drivers are used to bikes, and the law protects bikers really well. There are no big trucks with aggressive drivers who menace bikers for sport. It is a different world. Bike lanes are everywhere and so are bikers. Would we want to ride in 45 degree windy, misty weather? Probably not. 

Walking can be a challenge as sidewalks are not like in the States. Often, they are ~18 inches wide, crumbling or heaved asphalt and obstructed with all kinds of things. Then you must step into the tiny street where bikes and/or cars have no room to avoid you. Constant vigilance is required to stay safe. As in the US, whenever we come upon other pedestrians, we are invisible and must step off the path to avoid colliding. (Invisibility is a sucky superpower.)

John has not lost his superpower for stepping in dog poop. Although with ever-present fecal matter this is no longer much of a superpower, but just annoying. We are starting to keep score. 

All of this is to say that making your way can be tiring and challenging. As we find alternate routes, walking becomes pleasurable once again. That comes with familiarity and experience. We must remember that takes time. 

Park bathroom. Nope.

What does this mean?

Park potty for men. Of course John used it!

Let’s be Franc…

 Many people have preconceptions about the French. What drives us crazy is people will tell you how unfriendly and rude the French are when they have never been here or interacted with any French people. They tell us there are only hole-in-the-floor bathrooms and you must bring your own toilet paper. Today we dispel some myths.

The first thing you must learn when traveling to France, is before you interact with any French person you must greet them properly, otherwise you are considered very rude. A bonjour madame or bonjour monsieur will open more doors than a doorman at the Ritz. No greeting? No response.

It is a school holiday in France right now so many things are on altered schedules. We arrived in Blois via train and needed to catch a bus. There was no indication of where this bus might be. We stuck our heads into the doorway of a bus that was going the opposite direction and the kind driver left his post and walked us down the platform to where the one we needed would show at some point. People are happy to help when you show a little effort and they realize how bad your language skills are compared to theirs. Even if they don’t speak any English at all we manage to figure things out. Speaking like Tarzan and acting out charades have done very well for us.

Our Airbnb hostess has left us treats in the morning like fresh homemade butternut squash sweet potato soup with a vegetarian base. She offered to drive 20 miles to pick us up from a garden. Tonight she brought us fresh organic apple compote that she made. This Airbnb is immaculate with ironed and starched sheets and tea towels. It is not like most Airbnbs where we must clean when we arrive and the towels all seem to be sour.

The public restrooms have all been free, which I admit is a change. We used to have to pay a euro. They do not provide toilet seats, I guess it is one more thing to clean. The men’s room is interesting because often there is a woman in there cleaning when a man goes into use it. Nobody seems to look or care. The bathrooms are clean and more plentiful than I remember. As for toilet paper I am including a picture of the dispenser from the ladies room. I was curious to know if the men’s only had one because it looked a little boobish. What I love the most is the doors go from floor to ceiling with no crack down the side. Total privacy. Gender doesn’t matter because nobody can see. This is not particular to the French but all over Europe. Why do most Americans have a big gap in the bathroom door?

People do not pick up after their dogs here so there is dog poop everywhere. Paris has street cleaners that come out every morning but smaller towns do not have that. That is a negative.

People don’t smoke like they used to. It may be due to Covid and masking, but we rarely smell cigarette smoke. The perfume isn’t as strong as it used to be either.

The sun rises later here. I’m attaching a photo of one from almost 9 o’clock this morning. It was the end of our good weather but now it is absolutely pouring. It is in the 50s so we are still very comfortable. 

Yesterday we took an 18 mile bike ride along the Loire to Chateau Villandry to see the magnificent gardens. We still managed to walk 6 miles! 

It was 68° yesterday. The French must be immune to heat. The picture of the ladies in the puffy coats and scarves show the typical dress. Everyone wears puffy coats and scarves. John and I were in short sleeves and jeans and dying. I don’t know how people can wear this much clothing when it is almost 70°. Places tend to be kept very warm as well. Maybe it’s because the French are so thin?

The final observation is that Well we have seen very few berets, it is very common to see baguettes under their arms at the end of the day! Now, that is a custom we can follow!

One additional photo I had to include was the quick reads dispenser at the train station. To promote literacy, you could get a child’s story or a grown-up story printed out on receipt style paper. How cool is that!

Tours, France

Tours! Our hours of tours in Tours...or as the French would say, “To! Ou urs to da To.” or something that only involves pronouncing a few of the letters. Why use them at all?

Our hostess, Michéle, has spoiled us. She provided enough (farm-sourced) produce, honey, goat cheese, etc. to have breakfast for a week. Our gîte is a stone house in her garden and is one block from the train station, but dead quiet. 

We are in the Loire Valley, or Valley of the Kings...which looks much like the Kings Valley in Oregon, but with Chateaux. No wonder the French revolted. Many of these 100-room second homes were never used or only used once. Insane.

Today, we visited Chateau du Clos Luce, Leonardo da Vinci’s final home. It was a humble chateau with beautiful gardens located in Amboise. John was in heaven studying the many scale models built from LdV’s designs. What a genius! 

All has been great except for some issues with technology which seem to have been fixed, and credit card fraud, that turned out to only be on John’s card so mine will still be paying bills while we are gone. Whew!

Now, if I could only sleep between 1:30 and 5:00 am. Any tips for beating jet lag? We are walking 6-8 miles a day and no caffeine. Still awake.

OK, blogger absolutely sucks on a mobile device. I can’t modify photos or see what I am posting beyond two paragraphs, so if everything is funky, I apologize. I will let you figure out which pictures go with which commentary.

Tours’ City Hall (Hotel de Ville)

Baguette vending machine at the train station. Hot and fresh anytime!

DaVinci’s bike and spring-powered car)

Looks Like We Made It!

 

We arrived in Paris with enough time and energy to play tourist for half a day!

The flight from PDX to ATL was stuffed. We were the last 2 passengers allowed to carry on bags. The remainder had to check them in. It paid off once again to travel light! ATL to Paris was only 10% full. Spencer, the wonderful flight attendant advised us to grab two center rows before anyone else grabbed them. We were able to stretch out across 4 seats and sleep! 

We checked in at 1, got a day pass for travel and by 3pm we were touring the Palais Garnier, Paris’s opera house. Afterwards we grabbed a sandwich and pastries and watched the sunset over the Eiffel Tour.

The only hitch in the day was on the return to the hotel. There was a suspicious package at Gare du Nord that shut down all trains headed north. Thousands of our new best friends were scrambling to find alternate transportation. We managed to grab an airport shuttle bus and made it back to the room a little after 9. So thankful for transit options, a shower and a bed.

Off to Tours today. We learned it is pronounced “to”. More on our bad French to come.

Sorry for the upside down and sideways images. Loading on mobile has been a challenge. I will work on this!

Well, we're off!

Off? As in mentally? Physically? Metaphorically? 

Yes!

Follow along as we explore the next chapter of our life. We are so glad to have you along for the journey.

BTW - This is a Citroen Ami - check it out here. It may be our only option for driving if we can't get a FR license! But more on that later.