Keeping in touch – one family’s solutions

Birthdays and Christmas, for us, are special times for keeping in touch with family, no matter where in the world we are. As the end of another year draws ever nearer, it occurs to me how lucky we are, in the 21st century, to be able to contact each other so easily and cheaply, even though we’re many thousands of miles apart.  

If your family is anything like mine, it is spread around the world. And, at any given moment, various family members may be working or on holiday away from home. So how do we all keep in touch?

Today, we can make ‘immediate’ connections whenever we like. Gone are the days when overseas phone calls were so expensive and difficult that they were made only on special occasions, and sometimes not even then. Many people who emigrated to foreign shores maintained contact only by letter (remember the old, flimsy, blue-grey aerogramme) and often never heard their loved ones’ voices again.

Not so today. We can telephone each other on cheap rates, arrange 0800 numbers so our children can call us when they go off to university or work away from home, or keep in contact by mobile phone.

Sending texts is cheaper than making a call and doesn’t rely on the person being immediately available. It’s also quick, once you’ve mastered the key pad and learned the shorthand code the younger members of the family use!

We have all learned to use the internet for emails and ecards, even if we haven’t all managed to get to grips with instant messaging. We have a family website, where we post snippets of information about what we’re doing and upload photos of our new babies, dogs, cats, … And getting feedback from other members of the family is like conducting a conversation, even if it occurs, as it often does, over a number of days or even weeks.

Then, of course, there is the magic of telephoning over the internet, great for those of us who have to spend time away from home, as well as for those who live at great distances from one another. The latest video system gives us the impression of being closer, allowing us to see our family as we talk to them. Great for expat grandparents!

One thing we don’t do as often as we could is write letters. With all this instant connectivity, there is still much to be said for pen and paper. Not least because it provides us with a lasting memory of people when they are no longer here to phone and the emails and texts have been deleted.

How do you stay in touch with family? Should we write more letters and cards so future generations will know what we’re up to today? Love to hear your thoughts.

Venturing outside the Orne

                                                          

One Sunday, my niece and I walked up through Montmartre to Sacré Coeur. It was a grey day, threatening rain, but a marvellous reward. It always enchants. The two figures, so proudly astride their chargers, seem to suggest another more adventurous age. It’s a wonderful place to reflect on the glory of something outside of our everyday selves. 

Paris is only a couple of hours by train from the Orne (Flers, Briouze, Argentan stations) and well worth a day trip on a Sunday. The Marais, at the base of Montmartre, has a Sunday market (one of several) and is a lively place. There are plenty of cafés where you can sit, rest your feet and people watch.

There are so many fabulous areas (arrondissements) of Paris and Sunday is a great day to choose an area and just walk, absorbing the sights and sounds of one of the world’s most beautiful ciites.

Paris is full of tourists all year round, so most places, such as museums and wonderful old churches, are open. The main shopping centres aren’t open but you can while away many a happy hour window shopping, if you wish. And think how much money you’ll save!

Take comfortable shoes (I did, but even so came home with very sore feet) and a lightweight jacket. And, if you avoid the expensive places, like the Champs Elysées (where two cokes cost about 18 Euros!) you can have a great day out for relatively little.  

Living in the Orne – the first year

We’ve been living in France now for over a year and I thought it might interest people to see what we’ve accomplished in our first year or so as residents in the Orne. Not as much as some people, I’m sure, but it’s kept us busy. I’ve also added some tips: things we didn’t think about too much first and could have done more quickly, or better, if we had! Remember, we were townies, to all intents and purposes, so it was a massive learning curve in some areas. So, in no particular order, here are some of our, dare I say it, achievements:

• turned our half acre meadow into a garden, (an on-going project) creating flower beds and vegetable plot (TIP, in hindsight, it would have been easier to mow the ground for a couple of years first. New flower beds in the ‘lawn’, have been easier to clear and to keep freer of weeds.)
• cut down some trees (note to self to remind H to do this sort of thing before planting new trees, shrubs, flower beds, etc.)
• built shed, - cost a fortune – probably would have been cheaper to buy one from the brico, though wouldn’t have double-glazing! (TIP, factor into your set up costs any outbuildings, sheds,  storage areas for wood, etc. you will want.)
• built raised beds for vegetables (again an unbudgeted-for item)
• bought mower and strimmers (another TIP, check what the local dealers are selling as not everything bought in the UK is easy to get fixed here, and buy from specialists, might be a bit more expensive but probably cheaper in the long run, and if you buy locally, you know you can get service and help if you need it)
• oh, yes, before I forget, built an extension (large family kitchen) should be finished soon …

What do you regard as your achievements over your first year or so of living in France? Have you any tips for newcomers to the Orne? Do share.

Summer Vide-greniers in the Orne

The rain held off for most of Sunday, the first day of June, and the vide-greniers at La Ferrière-aux-Etangs, with its large number of stalls, was well attended as a result.

The number of British people running stalls at vide-greniers seems to be growing. Looking at what was on offer on Sunday, it seems like a good way to get rid of books and DVDs, among other items. All these stalls attracted Brits, probably like us, looking for something ‘new’ to read, in English!

The stalls were the usual eclectic mix of old and new things, including clothing and shoes, various items of household and garden equipment (some of it looking as though it had just been picked up from where it was lying and taken along) books, CDs and DVDs. It seemed to me, that there were a greater number of ‘large’ stalls, but that may just be that this was a bigger venue than I’ve been to recently.

While we were there, admittedly around lunchtime, the food stalls were doing great business in the French equivalent of sausage in a bun, with mustard and ketchup, and chips. The restaurants and both boulangeries were being kept busy, too. We sat and had coffee, watching chefs and waitstaff dashing around, trying to keep up with the requests.

The ‘Calendrier des Brocantes 2008′, suggests that the rest of June, especially on Sundays, will be just as busy throughout the Orne. Let’s hope for the weather to keep improving. Somehow, everything looks better in the sunshine! 

D-Day thoughts

The pale golden sand welcomes the embrace of the sea. Catching the fresh breeze, tiny yachts and windsurfers skip across the tops of the waves. People enjoying the early summer warmth bathe, laughing and splashing each other. In the sky above, the sun glints off a hang glider and a parasurfer tries to control his chute. On the beach, a group of boys in their late teens enjoy a noisy game of football.

In the tiny town of Arromanche, in Normandy, an old soldier poses for his photo against the backdrop of the remains of the Mulberry Harbour. He’s wearing his service beret, dressed in his best and with his medals proudly displayed across his breast pocket.

The whole scene is one of peace and serenity, of people enjoying themselves on a sunny day early in June. 

Many of us have been visiting the museums and cemeteries so prevalent in this part of Normandy. We’ve seen the photos and newsreels of the events and the people involved in the D-day landings. Some of us, like the old soldier, have more intimate memories. None of us can fail to be reminded that this peaceful scene was so very different 64 years ago.

On that June day, the gliders and parachutes had a much more important mission. The landing craft, wallowing and sinking in the waves, were not pleasure craft. The swimmers on that June 6 were soldiers struggling to get to shore in full uniform, laden with kit. No laughter but the cries of injured and dying men. No time for games on the beach. The beach was a very dangerous place to be.

There are commemoration services and other events being held in many places throughout Normandy during the next few days. Although there are fewer and fewer old soldiers returning to remember their fallen comrades as the years go by, many people gather to pay tribute to the brave men and women who did what they had to do.

There are few villages in Normandy which don’t have a memorial to foreign servicemen who died in the fight to liberate Europe. Ours is in honour of several Canadian airmen, whose plane crashed nearby. The French remember them and so should we!

Lessons to learn

Those of you who are kind enough to check in occasionally will have noticed my absence for the last week or so. Those of you living in the Orne will probably remember the thunder and lightning of last Tuesday. The two things are connected.

Lessons I need to learn (actually have learned- it’s too expensive not to!) – in a thunderstorm: one, turn off the computer, completely and quickly, and two, unplug the telephone.

Yes, I know. I should have been aware of this. Well, I was, sort of, but we’d never had a storm like it before or one that came on so quickly. If the meteo is correct, there are more storms forecast, so, please, take warning from my ‘mishap’.

The modem suffered fatal damage. Thanks to my provider, a new one arrived two days later but, when we connected it up, we realised that the computer was also damaged.

By this time, it was already late on Friday and, when I called the technician, he said he couldn’t come out until Wednesday afternoon!  

All is now well. In fact, the computer hasn’t run so smoothly for ages, so something good came out of the event.

I’m still trying to catch up and hope to be back to posting regularly soon.

Lazy Sunday