As you can see, I have had to revise the title of my blog, as it will be more than a year in France. I've received my Carte de Sejour, making me a legal resident of France, and among other things, eligible for the French health care system.
If you've been following the blog, you know that I've bought a house. I haven't taken title yet, but think it will happen in the next couple of weeks. As you might guess, things are done somewhat differently here than in the U.S. The house is owned by a French woman, my age, who is retired from teaching English in the French school system, thus being fully fluent in English. This has made things much easier, as has the fact that she is the friend of a friend here, which is how I found out that the house was for sale. I am at work on the garden while we wait for the sale to close, as it has not been maintained for many years, prior to the current owner.
I also have a garden by the river, which I share with my friend and landlord, Alain. He is a retired vigneron, and was born here. I asked him when I returned from Paris if he knew anyone who would loan or sell one of the potagers down by the river, as I wanted a garden. He found one that the owners were happy to loan out, and Alain decided he wanted to have a garden too. So we are doing it together, he has one side and I have the other. I'm posting a photo of it before we started work, and one of the gate into it. It looks quite different now. Alain decided he would like to keep some hens, so built a coop for them and they are pecking and clucking away down there. Throughout Europe there is a tradition of gardens by the river; it's a medeival settlement pattern, the houses are clustered together for protection, and the gardens are outside the village and near the water source if possible. These in Roquebrun have probably been worked for hundreds of years. They are enclosed by stone walls and are just terribly picturesque and ancient looking. They all have wells as the water table is quite high, and some, including ours, has the tall stone column which was the fulcrum for a well sweep prior to the introduction of hand operated pumps. I have been told that these columns and the well sweeps were introduced by the Moors, and one of the indications that they got this far into France. I have just begun to plant a few things, it is still early here for summer crops. Its a big garden, probably 20 x 70, so I will have no trouble keeping busy with the two gardens and the house to fix. The garden next to ours has lettuce and cabbage family crops that have been producing throughout the winter.
My friend from England, Jan with the hordes of pets, will be here in a couple of weeks. She has lots of visitors and activity going on, so that will also help keep me out of trouble. The vide grenier season has started (the village wide garage sales, vide grenier means literally empty attic), and she and I like to visit as many of them as possible. The best thing is that we don't like the same stuff, so other than taking the opportunity to insult each other's taste, there are no problems with who gets to take something home.
Expect to hear more from me when the house sale is finalized. The photo of Roquebrun posted shows my new house; if you look in the center of the photo, there is a single house standing alone, with a large opening at the top (that's the opening to the grenier - the attic - which was used for drying chestnuts). That's the one.
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