Shipment from U.S. to France

It Arrived Today!

Our 7x7x4 foot cargo crate was repacked into two vans for delivery.

On November first Allied loaded our books, files, computers, bicycles, dishes, photos and other goods that we had decided we wanted moved to Europe. It was a difficult decision, deciding what to take and what to put into storage. We were given an approximate delivery time of four to six weeks. Well, eleven weeks later, it arrived! It's like Christmas, especially since we were not sure what was in the boxes. When the truck was loaded in the U.S. several boxes of our stuff had to be left off the truck, there just was not enough space. Things were hectic that day and we were not sure exactly what was in the boxes left behind and placed in storage. Some were kitchen boxes, some were books, along with Alice's jewelry armoire and a floor lamp.

We were able to track our shipment over the internet, cool. On November the cargo ship left port. On December 23 the cargo ship docked at Le Havre, France. The boxes went directly into customs and I got an email from the movers on this end.

The email basically stated:

Hi,

I'm Emilie and your stuff is here. I will arrange delivery to your house after we have received the following documents:

A detailed inventory in French with the value of each item in euros.

Proof of residence in France.

A statement from your employer that you have not been living in France and are now being transferred to France.

Proof that you have been living in the U.S. for at least the last twelve months.

A statement that these are your personal possessions and have not been purchased within the last six months and will not be resold.

 Customer will pay 10% + VAT tax of 19.6% duties and 19.6% taxes

on each bottle of wine

on whole shipment if customer's been less than 1 year outside of France

on whole shipment if customer is not moving his main residence to France

on whole shipment if customer is settling a second residence in France

on whole shipment if customer cannot provide all necessary documents

on whole shipment if customer has left the origin country for more than a year

on each item bought less than 6 months before departure. Invoice for each new item is needed.

"What the Hell!? Alice, did Allied say anything about this to you?"

"No, you handled all that. I didn't talk to them at all."

We might be hit with a 42% tax on our stuff. That's ridiculous! The guy at Allied told me they handled all the customs charges when I talked to him and he did not advise me of any of this bull."

Well, I got to work on the "requested" documents, fudged the inventory, since we were not sure what exactly made it onto the boat, listed the new pair of boots that I bought just before we left as a gift and made several phone calls and sent several emails to Emilie.

January 14, our stuff cleared customs with no taxes or duties due.

Finally on January 23, 2013 two small vans pulled up to our house. "That's all our stuff? That's it?" I asked Alice as she stood there with her mouth open, too.

Two short French men in their late forties, one with a severe beer belly, got out and introduced themselves. The movers had unloaded our cargo crate and repacked everything into these two vans. The men began  carrying everything upstairs to Alice's study and our bedroom or up to the third level office where I write. Only a few boxes went on the ground floor.

"Yes, that one goes in the loft also, second floor (which is considered the third floor in America), sorry." I told the little guy as he huffed and puffed. Good thing I know CPR, I thought. This guy might have a heart attack before he's done.

They got everything in the house and on the proper level. We offered refreshments, they accepted. Then the real fun began. Opening boxes and trying to find a place for things.

"We got the top half of the blender, but not the bottom half." Alice informed me.

"We got our outside plastic tea glasses and wine glasses," I replied, "but not our good dishes."

If I had it to do over again, I would have shipped less, or maybe nothing. It might have been cheaper to just send a few things via the post office and buy the rest here. Postal delivery of the three boxes we mailed over arrived in two to three weeks. An extra suitcase or box costs about the same as postal delivery. Live and learn.

Shipped Nov 1, 2012-delivered Jan 23, 2013.

Boxes of books are heavy, and they all go in the loft on the third level.

Favorite Place to Eat

I have a new favorite restaurant in Paris. The L'ENTRACTE, across from the Garnier Opera and a short walk from Galleries Lafayette and the Apple Store. With sidewalk seating, large windows on the ground and upper floor, there's always a good view of the people and the beautiful Opera house.
The food is excellent and the staff is always warm and friendly.

The Pergourdine salad with generous helpings of duck and potatoes is prepared with truffles. The flavor is out of this world. Served hot it is the ideal lunch for a cold wintry day of sight seeing in Paris.

Alice loves the Norwegian salad with a huge slice of salmon and shrimp. It's almost too much to eat in one sitting.
We enjoy sitting on the upper level and admiring the view out the window. The food is delivered up a food lift from the kitchen below and the staff are quick and efficient, catering to your every need without excess chatter.

Our waiter was especially helpful and very tolerant of my poor French, helping me with the pronunciation more than once, always with a smile, and only after I requested the proper pronunciation.

Salads, €16-€19

Walk in the Park

Walk in the Park

Today is another rainy day, but yesterday the rain stopped and the temp was mild, so we took a walk along the park beside the river. The moss grows thick on the trees and cliff side rocks. Even the railing has moss. It makes for a refreshing greenery in what is now an otherwise bleak winter forest.

With all the rain we have had, the little river through town is turning into a raging set of rapids, threatening to over flow its banks. It roars through the riverside park.

The natural beauty of the forest makes walks in our park very special.

The scenery here is beautiful. The mixture of the older Belle Epoch architecture and the old growth forest is like living in a fairy book.

Even the railing alongside the walking trail is like the work of elves and fairies.

Eating Out in France

Eating Out in France

Tonight, Alice and I had Magret de Canard for dinner. Tender breast of duck served with mashed potatoes and yams. The potatoes were smothered in a delicious sauce and the yams were mixed with a tangy sweet ingredient that made the entire dish a delight. The secret to a great meal in France is to find a great chef. We were lucky in that respect, because on our first trip to Bagnoles, we stayed at the Hotel Gayot. There we became spoiled at every meal. But our night out didn't start out as anything special, in fact it started as another "have to" trip to the grocery store.



"We're out of eggs, we've only got one bowl of oatmeal left, we have to go the store," Alice told me as I took a break from writing on my novel.

"I don't feel like going out. It's rainy, it's cold and it's getting late." I thought I might be able to write another chapter after clearing my head for a while.

"Can't we get something in the morning? A quiche or something?"

"Tomorrow's Sunday, nothing's open in this little town, remember?"

"Is it Saturday already? I thought it was Friday?" That's the problem of working at home, every day's the same. You loose track.

"It's Saturday and the grocery stores are going to close in two hours, it's already five. And we're out of orange juice."

Out of orange juice? Why didn't you say so to start with, Get in the car honey, we've got to get to the store!"

Of course a trip to the grocer isn't just a trip to the grocer. We had to stop and say hello to our friend Laure, it was on the way, and see her newly refinished realty office. We visited, oooed and awed at the new paint and new desks. Said our goodbyes and headed for the grocery in the next town over.

"We should stop in the hardware store and look for a few things we've been needing while we're here close. The wardrobe still needs knobs and we need a rug for inside the back door." So naturally we stop by the hardware store on the way. Fill a basket with knobs, bulbs, extra screws, bolts, a new screw driver and washers that I have been needing. The rugs are ugly, so we pass on those.

Shopping carts are chained together in the cart bins in the parking lot.

A plastic token or coin is required to unchain the shopping cart.

The shopping cart is now free for use. In order to get your token or coin back to use next time, you have to return the cart and reinsert the chain. The token or coin will then be released.

Fortunately the grocery is just across the parking lot. We put a little token in the basket, disconnect the chain that holds them all together and head for the market. (The shopping carts are not just loose in the parking lot. There is a little chain that connects each cart to the cart return area. You have to put a token into the handle of the cart to get the chain loose and get the use of the shopping cart. In order to get your token back you have to return the cart and reattach the chain. It's a different system, but it seems to work well. There are never any unattended carts in the parking lot. At first, I thought you had to insert a coin. I was upset to say the least at the thought of having to pay for the use of a cart to go shopping.)

Now you would think that shopping carts are pretty simple devices and are the same all over the world. Not so, the shopping carts in France have wheels that pivot and steer not only on the front but on the back as well. This causes the cart to fishtail all over the place as you attempt to turn corners. It also has a tendency to crab at an angle as you go in a straight line if you are not careful. It's weird. It's also hard on the knees if you try to hurry around corners.

We zipped through the fresh veggies, going down our list for a couple of recipes we wanted to try on Sunday and Monday, no idea what we're eating on Tuesday. Picked out a nice chicken and some ground beef, and a package of pork chops that looked really good, guess it will be pork chops on Tuesday. Then hit a major slow down, the cheese aisle. There is an endless variety of cheeses. Many of which I never heard of in English or French, but they all look good, mostly.

"Want to try this one, Alice?"
"Is that a goat on the front?"
"Yeah, I think so, hard to tell."
"No, let's try this one. It looks cute."

We narrow the field down to six cheeses and put them in the basket. We leave the cold refrigerated aisle, always uncomfortably cold on wintry days, select a dozen "air fresh" eggs. That's right, the eggs are just on a regular, non-refrigerated aisle, so is the milk. And the milk is marked with an expiration date over two months from today. Weird. I sort through the dozen or so different milks and settle on one that's labeled "entire milk", I think, must be whole milk, right? Right.

Oat meal, hot tea, peas, orange juice, check, check, and check. On to the wine section. Uh-oh, another major slow down. Wine is labeled by region here, not by the type of grape. We sort through the various labels, try to remember the ones we've had that we liked. Try to remember the ones we've had and didn't like. The store music stops. The lights flick once. We're out of time. Grab two whites and two reds, pick up some Perrier on the way to the check out and jump in line quick before the ladies with full baskets get ahead of us. "Bonjour."

We unload the basket onto the conveyor belt and I hustle down to the other end where the groceries are coming off the line after the girl scans them. Yeah, you have to bag your own groceries at all the grocery stores we've been to in France. You also have to bring your own grocery bags. The store does not furnish them, but they will sell them to you. I finish bagging the food and putting the bags back into the cart. Alice pays with plastic, most of the other patrons are writing checks.

We hustle to the car, load the bags, return the cart and we're done. Seven o'clock on the dot. It's only a five or ten minute drive back to our house, but now we're hungry, too tired to cook and eating out sounds good.

"Where do you want to go eat?" I ask Alice.
"How about that little restaurant near the house. We haven't been there yet."
We drive by a totally dark, obviously closed restaurant, turn around and head back toward the center of town.
"Le Rollon is still closed, he won't be open until he finishes some work he's having done."
"The Hotel Bagnole looked empty when we drove by, also." I added. There is not much open in the off season of our little tourist town.
We look at each other and simultaneously say, "Hotel Gayot."
We eat there a lot, because the chef is genuinely gifted, the staff is always pleasant and make us feel like family, and they are usually open, except for Thursdays. I park and check out the blackboard on the sidewalk. The suggested dishes are totally unfamiliar, except for salmon something or other, and I'm not in the mood for salmon, already had it twice this week.

"What do you think? We could just go home and fix something quick. Sardines, tuna, crackers and cheese?"
"No, let's try it. We can just get whatever the Plat du Jour is. I don't want to eat at home tonight." Alice replied.
"OK, let's try it."

We order the Plat du Jour. Its always quick and fresh. We've never gotten a bad meal at the Hotel Gayot. We have gotten some so-so meals, but never a bad experience. The meal comes out and the presentation is beautiful. The meal is great and we can now add Magret de Canard to our new list of favorite meals. One thing I like about ordering the Plat du Jour is it encourages you to try new dishes. You never know what's out there just waiting to surprise you.

Hotel Gayot Restaurant.

Musée Cluny

Musée Cluny


The Museum of the Middle Ages is located in Paris near the Palace Luxemburg. It is most famous for its tapestries, especially the "Lady and the Unicorn," and its illuminated manuscripts, illustrated hand written books. It is also one of the few remaining Roman sites in Paris. The site was originally a Roman Bath.

Illuminated Manuscript from the 1400's.

Wood carving, painted and gilded.

The tapestries and the wood carvings were impressive.

There was a small collection of arms, shields, helmets, swords and canon.

Manuscript illustrating fighting techniques.

One of the techniques for illustrating scenes that caught my eye was the technique of using gold and enamel on top of a copper plate. The scene was carved from the copper plate and then filled with either gold or brilliant enamel colors. The result was very striking.

These aiguière, or pitchers, were used to hold water.

This one is from the mid 1400's and was used to hold water for the washing of hands.

The Lady and the Unicorn.

There are six tapestries depicting the lady and the unicorn. Five of the tapestries depict the five senses; touch, taste, sight, hearing and smell. The most famous, the sixth tapestry seen above, is thought to depict the sixth sense, the sense of the heart, or freedom of choice. Although much is known about the tapestry, it was ordered by a powerful nobleman, Jean Le Viste, as evidenced by his coat of arms on the pennants and it was woven in Flanders, the exact meaning of the sixth tapestry is uncertain.It is a late fifteenth century work and the style is known as, mille-fleurs or thousand flowers, because of the background.
It is commonly interpreted as the Lady taking off the necklace, placing it in the box held by her handmaiden, and returning in rejection of her suitor.
We spent only the afternoon in the Cluny and that was not nearly enough time to see everything. We look forward to a return visit.

ceiling

Washers & Dryers

Washers and Dryers

The obvious difference in washing machines in France and in the U.S. is the size. In France all the washing machines are what people in the States would call apartment sized machines. And dryers are just now becoming popular. Most people in France hang their clothes to dry.

Fortunately, it is just the two of us and a small washer and dryer work just fine. We picked out the machines (after much research on Amazon and reading customer reviews) and they delivered in a couple of days. The delivery men set them in place, hooked up the water and drain and plugged them in, said good bye, and left us the manuals in French.

You know how every manual we get in America has two, three, or even seven languages in it? Well, that’s not the case here. It’s only French in almost every product we have bought.

Get out the iPad and translator. Alice did a good job of figuring out the different settings. Then I noticed an interesting aspect of our dryer. It had no vent to the outside. Weird, but it worked just fine.

Then about a week later we get a ringing from the dryer and it has shut down during the middle of a load. The door is locked. The on light is blinking. Finally, we determine there is a water reservoir at the bottom of the machine. The dryer is a “Condenser” and it sucks the moisture from the clothing and condenses it into a reservoir that needs to be emptied periodically. 

Then one day while sitting in the little water closet watching the clothes go round in the washer, I noticed something that struck me as strange. The clothes don’t just spin around getting agitated the entire time they are washing as they do in American washing machines. They get little breaks. The washer spins clockwise for five seconds and then gives the clothes a rest. It then spins them in the opposite direction for five seconds and gives them another respite from the work-out of sudsing and cleansing. Wow, even the French machines are designed with courtesy and respect, how thoughtful of the clothing to give them little breaks. 

The French are also very energy conscious, probably because electricity is expensive here. The washer and dryer both have delays so that they can be set to come on during the night when energy costs are substantially reduced. In fact one of the biggest concerns on the Amazon reviews among customers was the delay timer. 

One final note: Alice discovered that the single outlet would not power both the washer and dryer at the same time. She can only run either the washer or the dryer, but not both simultaneously.  

Our neighbor's traditional French dryer.

French Dictionaries

French Dictionaries

Our neighborhood at night.

Did you know that there are four French dictionaries? As if French was not hard enough to learn with only one.
Four French spelling dictionaries: “Moderne”, “Classique”, “Réforme 1990”, “Classique & Réforme 1990”
 In 1990, le Conseil supérieur à la langue française (the High Council for the French language) and l’Académie française (the French Academy) made a spelling reform which concern thousands of words. This reform is not mandatory. The new spelling and the old one are both considered as correct.
«Modern» dictionary
This dictionary offers mostly the classical spelling and some of the new spellings which are not controversial and widely used. This is the French language as it is written nowadays. We strongly recommend to use this dictionary, especially if you are not a native French speaker.

«Classic» dictionary
This dictionary is the «Modern» dictionary extended with alternative spellings, some of them still widely used and some others very old-fashioned.

«Reform 1990» dictionary
This dictionary offers only the new spelling, which is not very used. Some spellings are still mostly considered as mistakes by most of native speakers. (Unless you really know and approve the spelling reform, you should not use this dictionary.)

«Classic & Reform 1990» dictionary
With this dictionary, the classical spelling and the new one are considered as correct.