Happy Holidays From France:
We’re going to wheel through a couple of blogs or so, such that everything prior to our Paris trip has been shared. Nothing great, but as we’ve said, if you’ve taken the photos you want to use them.
Back in September we were in Montpellier for hockey and stopped in Nimes (Neem) on the way back home. The big attraction in Nimes is the Roman arena, which we usually refer to as a coliseum. Whatever you call it, Nimes has one that’s pretty impressive. Nimes dates back to 118 B.C. and the Romans built the arena in the 1st or 2nd century A.D. There are numerous such arenas (arenae if we’re going to go back and use Latin) in the south of France and Italy. Hold on now, we’ll get to the arena in the next blog.
Today Nimes is a city of 145,000 and is a big tourist stop along with Avignon and Arles. We grabbed some photos (we were there on a somewhat rainy Sundayafternoon). The fountain is in the center of the old city in a large square over a large underground parking garage. I’m guessing they tore down what would amount to 6 square blocks, built the garage, and then built the beautiful modern square above it, and made to look at old as possible. Also, the Palace of Justice is an impressive structure right across from the arena. There’s a photo of a church steeple in Nimes, and neat building shot from inside the arena, a typical French café/brasserie and a typical street/walkway with old French architecture.
We’re celebrating our wedding anniversary today (the 18th---that’s the date, not the number of years). That means taking an MRI of Sophia’s hip to the doctor, taking the kids to Marseille to get computers, and Marlene taking Sophia to get half of her hair dyed blond (I’m told it’s the look). I’ve got a fresh ravioli dinner ready to go. If time permits we’re going to a romantic.........handball match. Team handball is big in a number of countries, including France. The Aix-en Provence team is in the top French league. It looks like a combination of soccer and basketball (played indoors). If we get there tonight, we’ll report back.
Marlene tells me that 23 million baquettes are sold everyday in France. There are 66 million people in the country. Isn’t that a lot of baguettes? That would equate to over 100 million loafs of bread sold everyday in the U.S. Could that be?
Over the last few years we’ve noticed that many cars are designed with a slopping windshield/roof, creating a low slope at the top of each front car door. We’ve always wondered how folks get in and out of cars like that without hitting their heads. We have such a car (2013 Peugeot) and now we know how it’s done. You simply hit your head when you get in the car.
You may be getting tired of hearing about McDonalds, and I’m talking about never entering one when we return to the United States, but they serve French fries, which they simply call frites. McDonalds does have ketchup, but they typically give you “pommes frites sauce” with your frites. It’s a mayonnaise-like sauce with some unidentifiable spice in it. It’s what the French have with French fries (they don’t use the word French). Not bad, but it’s not ketchup.
And what an exciting day it was. Up until today we’ve had to get a French-speaking friend to call and make doctor and dental appointments. Today I got brave and called the hip specialist Sophia has been referred to. In the first phone call I learned the woman did not speak English. So, I used Google translate and called back. I gave her my best French, one simple sentence at a time. I was pretty excited at the end of each sentence when she said “qui”. Anyway, I got an appointment without a word of English, until she told me the time of the appointment. I only know 1 – 10 in French. She consulted with someone in the office and came back with “one, six, four, five”, which at 16:45 means the appointment is at 4:45 pm, which is great, as it won’t interfere too much with school. I’m making language progress.
I may be getting redundant......let’s say it’s likely I’m getting redundant......so, be patient. I’m not going back to reread what’s already been written, so we’re depending on recollection.
Next, to the Roman arena in Nimes.
The Wilsons
