Three Months in France March 31 – June 28, 2007

Today’s Photos

We stayed home today to wait for the IBM repair-man to show up to fix my broken laptop. Unfortunately, late in the day, IBM called to inform me that they had ordered the wrong part and that they wouldn’t be able to help me until Tuesday. It’s a little bit dissapointing but at least I have my mom’s laptop to use in the meantime. And I am in France…so its hard to get too upset about it.

Despite staying home we had a very nice afternoon. My aunt Carole and her family brought over some lunch consisting of nice breads, pâté, prawns, and various deli meats and cheeses. Definitely a french-style lunch and it was delicious, especially the cheese. I’ve tried quite a few cheeses since arriving and they are all so good. Since it was sunny and about 20 celcius we ate outside on the patio. Life is good!!

Jacques, the husband of the lady who runs this gite (vacation home) raises various types of birds such as pigeons, and chickens and he regularly enters competitions with these animals. This is much like dog competitions in Canada where you have these perfect pure-bred dogs except that instead of dogs, we’re talking about pigeons and chickens. We had a chance to speak to Jacques today about this hobby of his. Many of the pigeons that he raises are homing pigeons and some of his birds are capable of travelling 1500 KM to return to their home location. They perform this amazing feat through some sort of built in compass which allows the pigeons to detect the earth’s magnetic field. Too cool. We watched in awe as Jacques let out groups of these birds to fly off together. They travelled as a flock in circles above the house in groups of 20 or so and then returned to their coups shortly after Jacques blew his whistle. The birds seem to think of Jacques as father figure. They seem completely comfortable when he picks them up and they don’t offer any resistance or show any stress at all. Its quite something to see and Liam and Emma were quite fascinated by all of this.

Jacques also has chickens that lay dark brown chocolate-coloured eggs. These eggs are much darker and richer in colour than the typical brown eggs one finds in the supermarket. Apparently these hens are of a special breed and are called Marans hens. The eggs produced by Marans hens are extremely tasty according to Jacques.

Just before dinner I snuk away for my first bike ride in France. There’s a nearby hill, whose grade is 15 percent, thats been taunting me for the last few days and so I decided to see if I could climb it. My legs burned and my heart pounded as I struggled my way up its steep incline and I wanted to give up and rest partway up the hill but my slightly stubborn side prevailed and the hill was conquered. After that the rest of the ride was leasurely and I was able to enjoy the pretty countryside. One observation though: the highways here in France appear to be very well maintained but the local roads are very narrow and full of pot holes. Despite the less than optimal conditions on the local roads, cars will often travel down them at speeds considered crazy by North American standards and so one has to be very careful when walking or cycling along these country roads.

Bonne nuit de La France.