January 27, 2012-cont.
In the morning my relocation agent Valentine picked me up and
took me into Tours to get my cell phone.
I’m so glad she was there as it would have been nearly impossible to do on
my own without a translator. But, I now
have an American iPhone which I will turn on and use when in America and a French
iPhone that I use here. It sounds quite
complicated, but really made sense financially and practically. I can call the US free on my home phone
service so I just got a cell here that is good for calls here. With imessage, I can text my kids for free
which makes me happy. We can also Skype
on my phone and laptop, so that makes me seem not so far away. In case you somehow need to contact me, my
email is still the same culloch@bellsouth.net , but my French home
phone is +33 02 34 36 02 22 and our address is 20 Rue Andre Malraux 37230
Luynes France. My French cell is +33 06
03 60 12 97 , but remember if you text or call me from America, we’ll both pay
a fee. So, email and Facebook are the
best ways to contact me J
Today I also went for my first walk into downtown
Luynes. Before you get too excited,
downtown is a word that conjures in your mind many shops, but in Luynes, not
so. It is about a ten minute walk from the
house, on a tiny path like sidewalk, well mostly sidewalk. It’s a downhill walk into town, but not so
steep that the return home is very difficult.
Sophie and I set off on our adventure.
She did much better than I thought she would, before she would walk for
a ways and then kind of climb my leg to let me know she’d like to be carried
now please. Keep in mind she is only
4lbs 5 oz., so walking far is tougher on her.
But, she was so excited to go and managed to walk both ways without
being carried.
Downtown I can go to a Boulangerie/Patisserie which is a
cute little bread maker/bakery shop, so far I’m very impressed with their
products!! There is also a Brasserie
which is a bar/restaurant. They do a few
sandwiches and a plate of the day. It’s
an odd little place, but my only choice for a cup of tea or snack downtown
during the day. There are two butchers, I
only went to one so far and it scared me.
Somehow in my mind meat should never look gelatinous or be squished like
that. There were some cuts of “real”
meat, but I was afraid to try them yet. (got some nicely packaged meats at the
grocery store, at least they looked familiar!). There is also a little
superette, type store which carries one of most necessities but at a higher price
than the store. In a pinch it will do,
but not as a regular place. We do have a
pharmacy as well but I haven’t gone in yet.
I’ve been told there are a doctor and a dentist as well. Although in the next little town Fondette
(our bank is there), the dentist trained in Texas and speaks English, so that
will be our dentist of choice J
So, Sophie is allowed anywhere here, in stores, restaurants,
banks, etc. It’s amazing really, to be
out to eat and a lady has her dog under the table or sitting next to her. She and I made the rounds of a few shops, got
some apples and Brie (reduced) at the little superette, bread and pastries at the
baker and headed home. Not bad for our
first try. I didn’t even get lost!
Such an interesting time for you and Ross; I'm very proud of your acquisition of French! Tyler is learning French right now and finds it very easy after Latin and Spanish, and I've been trying to talk George into learning a new language with me. We have no excuse for not being fluent in Spanish after 15 years in Texas, but alas, we're not. His company just got Rosetta Stone for all employees, so I'm going to give it a try. Keep posting, and share your fun language gaffes (I made several a day when I lived in Austria!)
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