Sand and Trees

Seen recently in Paris: this sign announcing that the city administration is putting in a temporary garden. Installation was ongoing as of 17 June, and the trees were to be there, in front of the hotel de ville or town hall, or until 17 July.

As part of the tree-planting process, they brought in bales of hay and tons of sand.















This end of the place in front of the town hall was already planted.















I find the planting of a temporary garden - sort of a temporary art exhibit - just a little puzzling in an era of high unemployment and budget problems. But what do I know? I'm just a culture-less American who doesn't appreciate the finer forms of art.

But now it's gone

Well, the whole beard for Belgium thing got kind of old, and I shaved it off Sunday night. But this is what it looked like before I did. Koen Fillet of Radio Één had said that day 365 without a government was long enough. I agree.

At last...

The porch is now finished. My brother and his son came up and worked like Trojans (no offense to Trojan-Americans intended) on the landscaping for 5 days . I don't know how they feel, but I think it was worth it.

Snow and Sea

More on our recent trip to France...

As we drove along the coast, we kept seeing scenery like this: snow-capped mountains in the distance, with the Med in the foreground. Awesome. I can't remember what town this is in the background, but it was where we stopped to get coffee - a real beach town that looked, at first glance, to be completely shuttered up. Then we discovered the harbor area where all the sailboats were waiting patiently for spring and some of the cafes were open.

This is a pretty typical fortress for southern France. This one just happens to be on the edge of the sea. Of course I can't remember the name of this town either (where are the maps when you need them?). I'll do some research and get back to you.

Our City House

Remember I said the road in front of our townhouse in Saint-Chinian was under construction? Like totally torn up.

This is a view of the back of our little house. It wasn't fancy and it wasn't big but like I said, the location was great.

They don't hate everything American

They pick and choose. Somehow they manage to love Ben & Jerry's. We were in Bruges on Free Cone Day.

In fairness, you hear less anti-Americanism in Belgium than you do in France, and even there it's all among the political pundits. Most ordinary Frenchmen have a pretty positive view of American culture. Of course, it's about as distorted as our view of French culture.

That ol' timey feel

I guess you can say that the porch is now officially finished, since they came and took the lock box off the front door day before yesterday. And this is exactly the reason we wanted it, to give our house that old-fashioned feel of days long gone when we all had time to sit and relax. And surf the web.