Well, I phoned the garage this morning. No hope to get our car back today. But it should be ready tomorrow by 5PM. In the meantime, a couple from the church has lent us their car until, so we can move again. Continue to pray we’ll get it back in time.
Category: Daily life
Adapting to a new rythm
People sometimes ask me: “Is it difficult to drive in France with British car?” To this I answer no. All the infrastructure has been built up for cars to be on the right side of the road, so there is no choice, you don’t even think about it very quickly after you get out of the ferry. It can be difficult to overtake a Lorry on a small road, but you learn to be patient. The only risk would be late at night, when you are very tired.
It seems to be the same for other aspects of life. You just adapt, without thinking about it, no choice. It’s no easy, but you have to.
Take meal times for example. In the UK, Jean-Baptiste finished school at 15:45, we had tea (our evening meal), between 17:00 and 18:00. We kept that habit until school started last week. But since he goes to school, things are different. He finishes at 16:30, gets home, has a snack (like every French kids would), goes to play a little. By the time we get around to preparing food, it is 18:30, or later. It also means that the children go to sleep later than they would have in the UK. But that’s life in France.
It’s the clutch
I could see it coming. For 5 minutes, something odd was going on. And then it happened, while waiting at a set of traffic lights. The car started to shake, jumped. I turned the ignition off. We managed to push the car backwards and to park it on  a parking space next to where we were. It’s the clutch.
I managed to get the phone number of the local Fiat garage. A recovery lorry was there in less than 15 minutes, and dropped us in the garage, the other side of town. Maria Hartiel then picked us up, and we are safe at home.
The garage has ordered the faulty pieces, it should be ready by Friday, hopefully.
National strike (2)
Well, the strike did not affect us at all. We weren’t planning anything anyway. The postwoman came, but she only had junk mail. Yet, the regional paper estimates that about 3600 people demonstrated in Guingamp this morning. Not bad when you consider that the population of guingamp and the surrounding villages is about 23000.
National Strike
We know we are in France, because there has been a lot of talk in the media about the national strike today. I think it is mainly civil servants, but a lot of people are unhappy about recent changes about retirement age. Fortunately, Jean-Baptiste’s school is opened, so it won’t make any difference to us, except maybe avoid the town center this morning because there is a demonstration planned, and eventually no postman.
C’est la rentrée/School has started
Today was Jean-Baptiste’s first day in school. The little boy next door will be in the same class, and most of the children in the estate go there as well. The weather was gorgeous, and he had a good day. Back tomorrow.