I’ve been in France quite a while without getting a French driver’s license. Had I been in one of fourteen states that had repropocity with France, I could have easily transferred to a French license. Texas, unfortunately, is not one of the states which surprised me as Texas and France have political ties, at least they did at one time. In any case, I seldom drove until we moved to Provence. I was vaguely aware that I probably wasn’t legal but I don’t think Maurice was. I don’t know how but he suddenly became aware of the fact that I wasn’t covered by our insurance without a French driver’s license. Frankly, I’d rather just cross my fingers that I would never get caught especially when I found out how expensive it is to take the required classes-at least I don’t need to do the 20 hours of driving with some intructor-not to mention the fact that the classes and the test are all in French. Despite the fact that I just finished my month long intensive French class I am not hopeful.

Maurice and I went into the driver’s education office in the village closest to us. When he explained my plight and my lack of French and the fact that I had to take the test anyway, the lady in the office looked me in the eyes and said, “The test is very hard”. Just what I wanted to hear. Maurice and I went into the classroom where a video was started. It would show a situation on the screen and then ask a question and you had to pick out the correct answer out of four possibilities which wouldn’t have been too bad but they only gave you 20 seconds or so to answer before they went to the next question. Right away I realized that I didn’t have the vocabulary used for driving in France, not to mention taking a test. The lady gave me a book with all of the information in it which I have been slowly going through with a dictionary by my side. In the class they show a different section of the total test and you mark the correct answer and the lady then checks to see what we missed. No computers, I’m afraid. It’s done the old fashioned way. If you miss less than five, then you can take the driver’s license test. If not, you have to keep taking the practice sessions until you manage to make less than five incorrect errors.

Well, I was feeling depressed and overwhelmed. I’m just too old for this. But I have to suck it up, I guess, and do it anyway. We did find a class in Paris which is done in English and which sends a translator with you for taking the test. If I come up with over 1100 Euros I might think about it. I did order the DVD of all that is shown in the class here but it’s in English so I sent for that. I’m studying the book every day and hoping that there is some room left in my brain for all of this new information.
So I have some new French words that I am trying to remember:
Rouler-roll along. They use this for driving. Roulant is a smooth, good road. A Rouleuse, interesingly, is a low prostitute.
Clignotant is to blink-as in a yellow blinking light.
Ralentir-slow.
Retrecie-narrow.
Dos d’ane-a speed bump. It literally mean the back of an donkey.

You would think since I live in France that my obsession would be something really wonderful like French fashion, French perfumes, brocantes, or antiques but, although I like and enjoy all of that and love taking photos of them, I am not obsessed with them.
Surely, if you have been reading my blog since last summer and beyond you can guess. I’m in Provence. I’m in the garden every day. So my obsession is the same thing it was last summer and the summer before: snails-the white ones that you can’t eat, not that I necessarily would.

But there is a little something that has brightened my outlook. I noticed last summer when I arrived in Provence and found that some men who had been working in the yard next door had burned all of their debris in my vegetable garden plot, that not only were the weeds all gone but so were the snails. I didn’t have snails all summer in that area. So, for some time, I have been thinking that I need some sort of modified flame thrower, just a small one to scorch the earth around things I have planted. This last April Maurice mentioned that the neighbor next door to me where I was staying in Villefranche had a device where a flame came out the end, a propane burner, that he was using to burn weeds with. I mulled that over for a while and thought that it would be something good to have not only for irradicating snails but for taking care of the many weeds that we have. I can’t use it near things I have planted but I have plenty of areas that I have been spending days pulling weeds, little walkways and our driveway. Finally we bought one-not that expensive-and, while I have to lug around a tank with it and am thinking of some sort of rig with wheels, it made quick work of our gravel driveway and I used it around my vegetable garden, trees, bushes, etc, that I can burn around without damaging what I want to keep. It makes me so happy to cut down on some of the Spring yard work that can sort of get me down sometimes.

Yes, these are snails covering a pole nearby. My yard is never like this because I couldn’t stand it.

Another bright spot has been hiring a landscaping student to do some of the heavy gardening that needs to be done, such as mowing a big patch of weeds and pulling weeds around a long stretch of bushes that I have. I know we’re retired and aren’t that busy but it’s not my favorite thing to do. Plant flowers, water them, wander around admiring them, looking at the view-that’s my sort of thing. The student is the grand daughter of the neighbor who has the nearby sheep farm. When I first saw her, she looked really little and I thought she would be too small to do the heavy work required but up close she has some serious muscles.

I’m sure I will find other ways to keep busy.

I recently saw this meme and thought I would do it to show how different it is to be married to a Frenchman. Just today I read what I thought was a hilarious comic online called Sherman’s Lagoon. Sherman is a shark, married with one baby. They all have very human characteristics and personalities. This Sunday the “wife” says she has decided to get a catfish for a pet and her “husband” says he doesn’t want a pet. She says she has 51% of the vote in the marriage and, not only that, she can decorate the house as she wants and throw away anything of his that she wants. He says, “How can that be?” and she replies, “It was in your marriage vows. Look at the video if you don’t believe me.” The last frame has Sherman watching the video with his sidekick, a crab who says, “I can’t believe that you are going to say ‘I do’ at the end of this!” Sherman says, “I must not have been paying attention.” Anyway, it made me LOL as they say on the Internet. I showed it to Maurice and the first thing he said was, “A catfish?” He read the rest and just looked blank. I told him he was so French. We have the same humour about a lot of things but every once in a while I can really see the differences mainly because of our nationalities.

I’m leaving someone’s original answers from another source-I don’t remember who it was. My comments are italicized.

Here’s a chance to see how well you know your husband. Cut, paste and fill in the answers!

1. He’s sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
Lifetime Movie
99% of the time it is sports. He loves all sorts. If something American is on he will watch it, if not, European sports-lots of skiing events, tennis and soccer.

2. You’re out to eat, what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?
Ranch
Vinigarette. Nothing else, ever. He doesn’t like balsamic vinegar either. A very basic eater.

3. What’s one food he doesn’t like?
He likes everything – easiest person to feed in the world
I thought he would like just about anything, being French. I mean they eat so many things Americans never do but there are quite a few things on his list. He doesn’t like tuna fish sandwiches-he wants the tuna on a salad. He hates cinnamon. He doesn’t like chinese food with a sauce.

4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order?
Pork chops and a martini
Steak often and wine. In the States, it is totally different of course. Barbeque and beer for instance.

5. Where did he go to high school?
Verdugo Hills High
I have no idea. All I know is that he went to school in Paris and also in Nice. He has showed me the buildings but I didn’t retain the names. He had to board during the week when he was young and really hated it.

6. What size shoe does he wear?
10
8.5

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be?
Coupons
Western movies on DVDs

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich?
Hamburger
Ham on a baquette

9. What would this person eat every day if he could?
Ice Cream
Chocolate candy (which he does eat every day)

10. What is his favorite cereal?
Oatmeal
He never eats cereal. He has some sort of bread with coffee-he puts confiture on his bread or toast and dips it into his coffee and eats it-a French custom.

11. What would he never wear?
a plaid shirt
A tie, since he retired. He never wears turtlenecks either.

12. What is his favorite sports team?
Tiger Woods (and USC, of course)
In the States, University of Texas. Here, some sort of French soccer team I think.

13. Who did he vote for?
Democrat down the line
Socialist, this being France.

14. Who is his best friend?
Steve V.
Jean Claude

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do?
Just 1 thing? Sleep late in the morning
Put his things away. I wish he would close doors when he goes outside. I can’t tell you how many times I find doors open with flies all over the place (in Provence).

16. What is his heritage?
Scotch
French and gypsy Hungarian. He was born in Nice.

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake?
We’re back to he likes everything
He’d be happy with just about anything but loves a French fruit cake that I bake.

18. Did he play sports in high school?
Swimming
I had to ask him this as I didn’t know. They don’t do a lot of sports in schools here. He said he played basketball and soccer. He also played soccer outside of the school system with a club.

19. What could he spend hours doing?
Gardening
Watch sports on TV, read the paper. In Provence, fiddle around with the pool. He loves to keep it clean and sparkling.

20. What is one unique talent he has?
He’s unique in every way
Patiently fixing errors I have made on my computer. He makes a killer beef burgundy. I think the best thing is that he accepts me just as I am.

Viaduc des Arts is a wonderful walk on an old abandoned, elelvated train track. One Saturday it was so beautiful and sunny that we got outside for a walk there as it happens to be near our neighborhood.

One of the large bridges that crosses a grassed area and connects two sections of the walk.

They also built some new apartments here and the path dissects one of them.

Daffodils were blooming everywhere.

I love pink blossoms against a blue sky.

This is, again, a post I did a month or so ago. I’m in Provence right now mainly pulling weeds. I am only speaking French with Maurice but I worry that it isn’t helping my French much, mainly because we say pretty much the same things all the time-”How did you sleep?” “What’s for lunch?”-that sort of thing. I’m understanding most of what Maurice says but I often have to ask him to slow down or repeat something. I’m trying to learn a new French word, usually a verb, every day. My new word today is “verser” which means to pour. I had trouble remembering it until I connected it with the word glass-verre, as in I am pouring some water into the glass. That seems to be the best way for me to remember certain words.