Experienced travelers will recognize the two-level euro flusher on our master bath toilet. There's a little flush for "number one" and a bigger flush for "number two." You can't really see them, but these two buttons even have one bump and two bumps for the "one" and "two" functions. All Europeans worry about saving water, even though Belgium is basically one big flood plain.

Now, you'll notice that I said it's on our master bath toilet. The other two toilets have different models. We also have eight (I counted) different brands and styles of heater or radiator and about a gazillion different kinds of light bulbs. Every danged room has a different kind of bulb, sometimes two. This is all because of the way houses are built here: with lots of sweat equity. We have yet to see a house built entirely by a builder that somebody just moves in to. They all seem to be built to one stage of incompleteness or another, then the new owners take over and work on it as they have time until it's done enough to occupy, which is often before it's actually what we would call "done." Part of this has to do with money, but I think somehow it has to do with taxes, which are complex and high here. And nobody loves getting away with a scam like an overtaxed European.

Overheard

Two guys discussing their Afghanistan deployments:  "Oh, I loved Khost. Except for the rocket attacks."

Scenes from Paris

I can think of worse places to spend one's birthday than looking across the Seine at night.




From the wheel in the Tuileries we could see the Rue de Rivoli, where the Tour was going to come through. (We didn't actually get on the ferris wheel until Sunday but the night view sure makes a better picture!) And of course the batteries had died in the camera by the time we got up to the top and had magnificent views of Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, and the Invalides - not to mention the Tour de France publicity caravan that came by as we were moving back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head to the train station, before the riders came through.


So where were we again? I thought we went to Paris. Sure looks German to me!

This is a section of street in the Butte aux Cailles neighborhood, not far from the Place d'Italie (where we strolled through an excellent open air market).



Me when I get hungry...actually finding restaurants willing to serve before 8:00PM wasn't so difficult this time. We had a couple really good meals (ask David for the details) and a couple really good lunches.

The one thing that didn't work out as well as it could have was the hotel. Although it was cute and ideally located, it wasn't air-conditioned. And the weather was hot. Being Belgians, anything over 80F feels really hot to us. And it was over 80. Had to be.

Lies they tell us about Europe - Installment 1

On the autobahn in Germany you can drive as fast as you want.

Not exactly true. The speed limit on the autobahn is 130 kph (about 80 mph), just like it is almost everywhere in Europe except Belgium, where it's 120. There are sections of the autobahn where you see
the "end of all previous prohibitions and restrictions" sign. Then you can drive as fast as conditions permit. But those stretches tend to be not all that long in many parts of the country. And "conditions" include traffic. The autobahn in much of Germany is just unbelievably congested. It's like one gigantic Capital Beltway (NC readers, think I-40 between Durham and Raleigh) all the time. In more rural areas, like down south, you can actually get up some speed; but in many areas, you can't even go the speed limit because of another phenomenon: every German man thinks he's the fastest thing on the road. So what winds up happening is that everybody gets in the left lane, and you wind up driving 100. Why the left lane? Because unlike in the US, you do not pass on the right here. Europeans (well, at least Northern Europeans) are very strict about this. You drive in the right lane except when passing and always pass on the left. Passing on the right can get you a fine of several hundred euros and a chance to learn lots of quaint local gestures, some of which we also use.

End result: you don't drive as fast in Germany as we always heard you could.

Hautrage Happenings

Observations and musings on goings-on in and around the village:

We realized last week that we are in the middle of the summer church season. What that means is that some of the village churches in our commune (Saint-Ghislain) which normally remain shuttered most of the year get to host Mass for a month in the summer. July is Hautrage's turn, so today I attended Mass at Saint-Sulpice in our very own village. It was only the second time I'd seen the interior of the church. That's a shame because it's a very pretty church - stained glass windows, beautiful wooden altar, tasteful statues, and a working pipe organ.

On a different subject, we had noticed earlier in the week a hotel barge, called L'Embrun, moored at the quai down the street from us. After googling it, we learned that it sails out of Liege and one can rent a cabin or two or the entire barge for various periods of time. That was intriguing. Then yesterday we started seeing signs reading "'Seven' boot" pointing toward the canal. [Boot is German and Dutch for boat.] We tucked that one away in the back of our minds as we headed down to the village to drink a beer in the tent erected for the Belgian national day celebration.

Today we exercised different exercise options, David opting for a bike ride and me for a walk. I headed toward the canal and walked past L'Embrun, which was teaming with people, including one fellow with a large video camera. Hmm...I returned from a different direction and saw what looked like a film crew shooting a scene down the street from our house (for those of you who have been here, at the corner house, where the goats live). Turns out as David was coming back from his bike ride he had to wait for them to finish a scene before he could go past to get home. We speculate it's a university project or perhaps an indie film being made.

Back to the celebration in the village: tonight is the bal sous les lampions (ball under the lanterns or something like that) with music by an orchestra. The ball is preceded by a barbecue, which here means an aperitif, a slab of meat and frites. We thought about going but couldn't scare up anyone to go with us. Next year for sure.

Tomorrow the celebrations continue, as 21 July is Belgian independence day. At 11:00 there will be national aperitif and the laying of a wreath at the war memorial in Hautrage. Although it's a SHAPE holiday, as US civilians we still have to go to work, but we're toying with the idea of saying we have to leave in time for the ceremony.

It's Thursday and ...

guess what the weather's doing: it's raining! Yup, can you believe that? Rain in Belgium? Whoda thunk???

How many horses do you see?

Here's another game we've been playing lately. These guys (or gals) live in one of the pastures around the corner from us. They are always no more than 6 feet away from each other. And they're frequently even closer than that. The other day we drove by and they were all reclining in the grass facing each other like they were having a good gossip.