New Year's Day

New Year's Day

I grew up at the base of the Sutter Buttes, also known as The Smallest Mountain Range in the World. A nice stroll down our driveway, followed by a hop over a fence* or two, and we could hike all over! Somewhere along the line, a tradition flowered.

The Sutter Buttes, from Cordi Winery

Early every New Year's Day, hikers would meet at our house. They would bring a sack lunch, and something to throw into the soup pot. Dad would take off with the flock, making their way up to the peak, for lunch with a view. Meanwhile, Mom baked bread and put the soup on. The soup *always* started with the magic stone :-). By the time the hikers returned in the late afternoon, all was ready - everyone grabbed a bowl and dug in!

Why the stone? It's based on the well-known folktale of stone soup; my favorite version ends with the villagers rediscovering their sense of fraternity - the travelers give them the magic stone, and they use it to feed themselves and any new visitors.

Now that I'm in France, I thought it would be nice to carry on the tradition - to some degree. Our stoneless soup will be for lunch, and we will perhaps take a little stroll around afterwards - I'll keep my eye out for a suitable stone for future use :-)

We do have a mountain right out our back door, so who knows? Maybe next year...

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* always arranged in advance, and with the permission of the various ranchers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Soup

~~~~~~ en français ~~~~~~

Le Jour de l'An

Je grandissais à la base des Sutter Buttes, aussi connu comme Le Plus Petit Chaîne de Montagnes de Monde Entier. Une petite promenade dans notre allée, puis un bond par-dessus une ou deux clôtures*, et nous avons pu faire la randonnée partout ! Je ne sais où, mais une tradition fleurissait.

Chaque matin du jour de l'an, les randonneurs se rencontraient chez nous. Ils apportaient un tire de sac, et quelque chose pour ajouter à la soupe. Père partait avec le troupeau, en faisant une randonnée au pic, pour déjeuner avec une vue. Au même moment, Maman faisait du pain et commençait la soupe. Toujours, la première chose dans la soupe était la pierre magique :-). Quand les randonneurs reviennent tard dans l'après midi, tout était prêt - tout le monde saisissait un bol et mangeait !

Pourquoi la pierre ? Celà c'est comme dans le conte folklorique, très connu, de la soupe des pierres ; ma version préférée finit avec les villageois redécouvrant leur sens de la fraternité - les voyageurs les donnent la pierre magique, et ils la utilisent pour nourrir eux-mêmes et des nouveaux visiteurs.

Maintenant que je suis en France, j'ai pensé qu'il soit agréable de continuer la tradition - dans une certaine mesure. Notre soupe pas-pierre sera le déjeuner, et après, peut-être nous allons faire une promenade - je vais chercher une pierre appropriée pour l'avenir :-)

Vraiment, nous avons une montagne juste derrière notre porte, alors qui sait ? Peut-être l'année prochaine...

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* toujours organisé à l'avance, et avec la permission des propriétaires de ranch.

France with Parents!

France with Parents! What worked, and... 😵

What worked:

1. Wheelchair - Mom was recovering from a compressed vertebra, which meant that too much standing or walking was painful. We arranged for wheelchairs at the airports, and found that most museums lend wheelchairs for the visit. Even better, our local medical supply place let us rent one by the week! We ended up using it for 3 weeks (16€ per week, plus a returnable check for a security deposit), and even took it to Paris! The fun bonus - we got to take turns "pushing Mom around" LOL
2. Jetlag recovery - we spent a couple of days relaxing in Barcelona (where we landed). We had no set schedule, but had a list of possibilities for sightseeing, most of which we did by cab/Uber.
3. Different cities, Flying in and out of Europe - We flew direct to Barcelona, and Mom and Dad returned home direct from Paris. This (combined with wheelchair-help) meant low-to-no problems navigating airports, running for connections, and manipulating baggage. We didn't have any anxiety about missing a flight due to a late train. We got to have a taste of two different cities that we wouldn't have seen otherwise.
4. Flexibility - we had a long list of things we thought would be interesting to see and do. We built in some low-key days, and had a few long days. Almost everything could be done on a different day if needed. In fact, we were all pretty tired on a day that we had planned for a long trip, so we did a short one instead. The long trip was delayed, and on a day when a lot of places were closed, but we still went - and saw plenty!
5. Car rental - this was a little more complicated than normal, but it worked well! We checked credit cards for included rental car insurance (Visa), and Mom (a USA resident) rented the car, and added me (French resident) as an extra driver. We got a fairly large car (Peugeot 2008, which is big for France!), and could fit the wheelchair in the trunk for all our day-trips. A quick initial calculation showed that we still got roughly 30 mpg. Even though Mom used to be a professional driver (and I think would have liked to drive at least once), between the different road signs and aaaaalll those roundabouts, I ended up doing the driving. It had been nearly a year and a half since I had last driven in France, so it was fun for me :-). The bonus was that the rental car had a few features that are now on our must-have list. And Peugeot is off our car list...
6. USA chip-and-sign credit card - these are getting to be more useful in Europe! There were only a few cases where they didn't work (one ATM in Barcelona, and a couple of restaurants). Pretty much everywhere else (groceries, gas, "other" restaurants), they worked. We even used them for tolls!
7. Uber - we tried several taxi options, and it turned out that Uber was the only one that actually worked! I could order one from my phone - if we were out, all I had to do was turn on cell data (normally off for me) and wait a few minutes. I could confirm the total by email later. And! In Barcelona, we used the multi-stop feature to sightsee! The only not-great thing was that in Barcelona, I couldn't order a van (for the train) - either that option is not available there, or I just didn't see it until we were in Paris.

What could have worked better:

1. Sim chip - we had a lot of misfires trying to make sure we could call each other if needed. Part of it is just how things are, but part was just not researching well enough. I thought Mom's phone was a dual SIM (it's not), so we had planned on her keeping her USA number and just adding a French one. My phone can't call a USA mobile number, and their apartment didn't have a phone :-\ (pretty much par for the course these days). We drove to a place that sells chips - but then we didn't know which size! And then couldn't open the phone to find out! Well, we ended up buying a micro, then looking up everything when we got home. It needed (1) a paperclip to open the chip tray, which was (2) a nano size... Nothing to lose at this point, so I cut the chip down and tried it - voila! Now we can call each other! But now Mom's USA number is out of commission for the duration. Fortunately, there's email and WhatsApp.
2. Train timing Barcelona - we had intended to go straight from the train station in Sète to the car rental agent. But, the train didn't know the plan! We had quite a delay, and didn't arrive until after the rental place was closed. We took the bus, and returned the next day - we got lucky, and they had a car for us.
3. Train timing Paris - yet another delay... Rick and I returned from Paris by train; this time the delay caused us to miss our connection to Sète. And it was the last train of the night! Monique came to our rescue - she came and got us (including the wheelchair)! Some day, I'll have the chance to pay back all this good karma!
4. MyTaxi and Cabify - these were two taxi apps that we couldn't get to work. Cabify required an ID number in order to finalize my account, and it wouldn't take my non-Spanish ID as valid. I'm still getting email from them... MyTaxi worked just fine until the end of the ride - then it wouldn't charge my account! We scrambled for cash...
5. Local bus pass - I didn't think to get a multi-use bus pass for Mom and Dad until too late. I should have had a 10-time card from day one. As it was, we got one near the end of their stay, and it had a few trips still on it when they left.

~~~
It's been a while, but I wanted to record the good, the bad, and the ugly...

Chinese Food in France

We had been really craving *HOT* Chinese food - almost to the point of buying an air ticket somewhere!

Roomie to the rescue! My long-ago roommate saw my plea and sent me some amazing spices :-)

Tonight, I sorta-followed* a recipe for Kung Pau Chicken (see it here)

Aaaaand OH MY! It was soooooo good!

~~~
* Used leek instead of green onion, red wine instead of rice wine, added a carrot and 1/2 bell pepper, used Korean BBQ sauce instead of the sauce-from-scratch - 'cause that's what I had/could find...

French Driver's License Exchange - Completed

French Driver's License Exchange

2017 was the beginning of enormous turmoil for French bureaucrats. Not only was there a new government, aiming for changes, but Brexit became real. Suddenly, a lot of Brits who had lived in France for many years had to make sure they could stay! This meant getting French documents that hadn't been needed before - all of which went through their préfecture. Requests for nationality jumped. As that process became backed up, many also applied for residence cards. Brits also applied to exchange driver's licenses. What used to take weeks, turned into a wait of months, and even years at some préfectures.

One of the government changes was to move all decisions about driver's licenses from the individual préfectures to a single location (Nantes). The préfectures would still collect the dossiers, but then simply pass them on to Nantes. Where they sat in an ever-growing pile until someone got to them.

Meanwhile, people who submitted a request to exchange their American driver's license in the middle of all this (people like me 🙄), weren't aware of the changes and delays until these things affected their exchanges...

I had posted my exchange experience in bits and pieces - usually, I asked about the status whenever I was at the préfecture (mine is Montpellier) for something else (like the status of my carte de séjour). This post (attempts to) pull all that together, along with links to the mixed posts where you can find more detail.

My driver's license exchange timeline:

1. End of January 2017 - arrived in France
2. April 2017 - OFII appointement and Sticker in my passport
3. August 2017 - attempted to get an appointment for submitting my dossier. I should have submitted it as soon as I had my OFII sticker in my passport, but I had read an article that incorrectly said I had to wait 6 months after arrival. As many rules as the French administration has, not all of them are in writing.
4. Late October 2017 - submitted dossier and got my first récépissé. The récépissé allows me to drive in France, but nowhere else. (http://slowtravelin.blogspot.com/2017/10/french-drivers-license.html)
5. March 2018 - my first récépissé had expired, so I went to my préfecture to request a second récépissé (http://slowtravelin.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-prefecture-drivers-license-and.html). Later that month, I went back in to pick it up (http://slowtravelin.blogspot.com/2018/03/contacting-officials.html and http://slowtravelin.blogspot.com/2018/03/traveling-on-national-strike-day.html)
6. July 2018 - my second récépissé is about to expire, so I went to the préfecture for another one (hah!). This is when I found out that 2 is the limit for the préfecture. My legal permission to drive, even in France now, is in limbo. A phone call to Nantes, followed by a letter, got my dossier off the pile (http://slowtravelin.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-prefecture-drivers-license-and.html)
7. Late July 2018 - I got an email asking for the exact date that I had received my first license; you can bet I responded very quickly!
8. Early August 2018 - I got another email, saying my request was approved, and they were making the card - it would be mailed to me, signature required. Well, that's very nice, but I was going to be away! And you only get 15 days to pick up a registered letter before it's returned! Fortunately (really?!?), it took a long time to fabricate the card, so it was only waiting a couple of days.
9. August 2018 - unable to rent a car in the USA. Drove several family cars using a photocopy of my USA driver's license; I had an explanation all worked out, just in case. And I was vewy vewy caewful!
10. September 2018 - back in France, I had a rental car arranged; I hoped to be able to drive, but wasn't 100% sure my license would be ready. Fortunately, it was waiting for me at the post office (signature required), and I picked it up on the way to the car rental agency.

This was probably the most frustrating of all the French administrative tasks I've had. I couldn't face even posting about the license finally arriving until months later. From what I've seen of more recent experiences (6 months beginning to end), the timeline seems to have gotten better. I hit the process at exactly the wrong time; it looks like the wait is on the downhill side of the big hump. I'm sure it is still a task filled with anxiety.

In summary, I started the process in August of 2017, and finally got my license in September of 2018.

Slow Boats

There was a regatta yesterday, but hardly a breath of wind! These poor folks were Slow Boating!

Slow Boats

~~~
As soon as I get a good sized canvas, I'm painting this!

Sunset Sail

Sunset Sail on the Étang de Thau

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I'm so happy to be painting again!
I guess having a cold isn't all bad!

Vin Chaud

Vin Chaud

In a pot, add:

Spices:
- ginger
- 2 cardamon pods, cracked or cumin
- cinnamon
- allspice
- cloves
- nutmeg
- 1 whole anise

3/4 - 1 liter red wine
1 small Clementine / orange, chopped, peel included
1 large spoon honey
1/3 cup eau de vie (kirsch, pear, or other)

Heat to steaming, ladle into mugs
Add triple sec to taste

~~~~

I forgot to write down what I did last year :-\ so here it is!

This is pretty darned good, especially when you have a cold, and you're tired of Hot Toddies.

Running Around and Paying For It

We had a lovely time last week, enjoying a potluck lunch with one group, a buffet lunch with another, and generally running around having fun.

But now, we're paying for it :-\ We both woke up with colds on Friday... Saturday meant that we needed to stock up on sicky food, so I went to the grocery store - I could use the bus for part of it, but still ended up caught in the rain.

The good thing is that we remembered things like salt water, soup, and hot toddies :-)

And, there's no rule that says we can't have Thanksgiving a little late!

A Good Moment

Had a little laugh yesterday.
We were sitting at my doctor's desk, and he was typing, when he sneezed just a tiny tiny bit. I automatically said "à vos souhaits," but almost really under my breath. He said "merci," also very quietly. Then we both looked up and smiled.
It was a good moment.

Autumn in France

Autumn is coming to an end in France - this weekend's cold front is the punctuation mark to last week's Indian Summer.

A photo competition, focused on Autumn, had me looking for those Iconic Fall Images - I'm starting to wonder if they really exist in my neighborhood...

While I don't have any spectacular Fall-color pictures, I do have some taken in Fall, of Fall, in France :-)

Foggy Fall

At first, it doesn't really seem like Fall; there a little hints

Figs, anyone?

Grape harvester in Town

Then bigger hints...

Once-bustling places are kinda empty

Then Autumn colors arrive in different ways

Blazing Sunsets

Memorial Flowers

Rosehips and Late Roses

Even though you can't quite give up on Summer

Even if you beg

Maybe even run

Autumn, in all her personifications, will arrive...

Laval de Nize Hike

Laval de Nize was a superb hike!

We followed a stream with plenty of small waterfalls and pools. It was easy enough to crisscross on a beautiful Fall day, although we were warned that it gets pretty flooded in Spring!

Our trail ran through an oak forest - wonderful shade, still-moist trail, cool air, with just a touch of breeze.

I stopped for a little close-up

And a look ahead

Then back :-)

We stopped for lunch and enjoyed the views from on high

And made a little collection through the chestnut groves

There were certainly a few striking moments

We passed through a small hamlet, where I could not resist this photo of The Unknown Hiker...

Then down and down and down, along a narrow, rocky trail, back to the trailhead. From there, we drove back the *very* narrow "two-lane" (if you say so) road into Lunas, where we had a well-deserved rest.

By the way, I'm increasing my vocabulary! If you order "une bière," (feminine) you would get a bottle of beer. "Un demi" (masculine) is a 33cl glass of draft beer. And, "un galopin" is a 25cl glass (I had forgotten the word for this; after all, it had been a while!)

~~~
Notes from our organizer:
Hike #35 from l'Hérault à pied - 6.5km, for 2-1/2 hours, rise in terrain 248m, no particular difficulties.

Taxing Questions

We're slowly but surely navigating the tax system in France, and we've had quite a few questions (and surprises!) along the way!

We knew that France has a tax treaty with the USA, meaning that there is no "double taxation" - but what does that really mean for us? Luckily for us (really lucky, since this wasn't something we had even thought to think about), the French-USA treaty is one of the "good" ones - I'll explain...

Our income is all from the USA, and all income is first taxed at the source (another thing we didn't know).  So, we first file our USA taxes, then we use those entries to file our French taxes. On our French taxes, we claim a credit, which is equal to the amount we would have paid in France. This ends up zeroing out any French taxes.

There are some countries that have a tax treaty with the USA, but they do not allow the same type of credit - instead, you claim the amount you paid to the IRS, and that reduces the amount you pay to your country of residence.

In addition, the French have a CSG/CRDS tax, that is similar to social security. Apparently, the tax assessors often mistakenly apply that - it happened to us, but we had heard that this was also double taxation. We sent a letter* explaining this, and a month later, got this response. It says that they agree, and have removed the tax from our bill. It also says that if we have already paid the tax, it would be refunded to us automatically.

With that, our first French taxes are done! Because we weren't here on January 1st, 2017, we don't owe the taxe d'habitation this time, and because we don't own our apartment, we don't pay the taxe foncière. Done, and done!

Timing! There is so much to know about timing!

• April 15 - the usual deadline for filing USA taxes if you live in the states
• May 1 - the usual date that you can expect to be able to find the new French tax forms. These include a declaration of all non-French accounts (including banks, TransferWise, and PayPal, but not credit cards).
• May 17(ish) - deadline for first-time French tax filers (only paper filing is allowed)
• May 31(ish) - deadline for online filing French taxes (after the first time)
• June 15 - the deadline for filing USA taxes if you live abroad (and are *not* present in the states on April 15)
• September 1(ish) - French tax bills arrive
• September 15(ish) - French taxes due, if over 1000€ owed
• October 21(ish) - taxe foncière (property tax) due
• November 15(ish) - taxe d'habitation due
• December 18 - deadline for modifying French taxes
• December 30(ish) - deadline for disputing French tax assessment
• January 2019 - last, but not least! The entire tax system changes! Instead of paying taxes on the previous year, everyone will pay during the year the income is earned. (Don't ask me for details!)

We still don't know exactly how much we will owe for our health coverage, or when we will get the bill. It is assessed via PUMa, using our income taxes.

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* As we're members of ParisUnraveled, this information and a template letter were available to us.

Autumn Sailing

It's a good day for sailing!

Everyone's here!

Leaving Sète behind

Sails up!

Pique-nique time

And time to relax - this looks like a good view

Apparently, others thought so too

Coucou, Pascale !

Heading back in, Monia...

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After a long week of storms and rain, this week we're back to our sunny skys

Lac du Salagou Hike

Friday turned out to be a beautiful day, perfect for hiking!

We carpooled to the Lac du Salagou, and hit the trail...

We followed a very gentle, slow climb, with rewarding views all along

We stopped for lunch

Then met some fellow hikers...

Higher views

And even an enchanted forest!

On the way back, we drove the the Cirque de Mourèze, enjoying the dolomites.

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Notes from the organizer:
This is the “Salagou Easy Walk”, a much easier walk than the often-walked “Les Vailhés”.  This walk, marked in blue, avoids the steep rise in the traditional “Vailhés” between point 3 and 4.
This new and improved Salagou Easy Walk is only 8 km long, with a rise in terrain of less than 200m, without any steep rise, for about 3 hours.

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See the Hiking 2018-2019 album for more photos