Welcome to France

Semaine Quatre
Santa showed up for Christmas in both France and Charlotte. The family was happy to see me. I arrived back on the 21st, but what a pain traveling that close the Christmas. Every flight was full and delayed.

I was able to spend time with both extended families. It was great to see everyone, but the stay was too short. Now I'm back in France, hard at work, and working hard to learn French.

First a little old business....French TV. First of all it is all in French and it is full of American shows, like Walker Texas Ranger (hits just as hard in French), Missing and CSI. Interesting thing is while Missing, like the other shows, is dubbed in French, the timeline is in English. Those who watch the show will understand. They do have several French knock offs of US shows or maybe it is the other way around. They include, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader (I was not but then all the questions are in French), Wheel of Fortune and French Idol. There are some interesting camera shots, but this is a family site and I will have to discuss these in person. They do not run many commercials, so you get two shows in an hour.

The new digs. At the end of the first week, Lamont and I moved to a new house. You can see pictures of both (Lamont and the house that is), check week 1. We are in a Bed and Breakfast in Laroin. We have the 3 bedroom house. There is also a 1 bedroom apartment. If you are looking for a nice place to stay in southern France, check it out. I will check to see if I can put the number on the web site.

The house has been in the family for generations. The house we are in was the main house and was built in 1804. It is very nice. A small kitchen, living area, bedroom and bath on the first floor. On the second floor you will find two bedrooms and two baths. Be careful going up or down the steps if you are over 5'8", you might bump your head.
The house has two main features that really sold us:
     Satellite TV with some English channels including CNN. We are able to keep up with the news and elections back home.
     Wi-Fi (pronounced we-fe in French).  For the non Geeks reading this it means Internet access. You know, the thing that Al Gore invented. For the first 4 weeks, we had to drive to one of our co-workers' place and use his access. Now he comes here for TV.
First thing I did was check out the Capital Steps web site to get an update on the Elections. Between my directions and remote access, Jonathan was able to get my SlingboxTM installed. I finished the configuration just in time for the New England-Jacksonville playoff game. We watched till half time, about 2:30am France time, then called it a night.

The village of Laroin is similar to the other small villages in Southern France. It has a couple of restaurants that we want to try.

Pictures of Main Street in Laroin

The Church, the bells ring every hour.
On the left side of street, restaurant, market and several medical offices.
Right side is a hotel and homes. Behind the hotel is a recreation area.
A view of the mountains from outside the restaurant.

This is a shot of the entire house. It is hard to get a good shot because of the trees all around. The main house is on the left. It was built as the cow barn in 1770. You can not see our place, it is attached to the main house, to the right behind the white car. The brown building on the right is the garage. It was the pig house, built in 1935.
On Sunday we took a ride into the Pyrenees. The road is full of curves and has several areas where there are covered bridges. We stopped by a ski resort to take pictures. There is a small town at the base of the resort, but the resort is just there to ski. At the resort, these are no shops, restaurants or lodge. Just a maintenance building and trailers for Les Toilettes, ticket sales, and snacks. By the way, the snow is natural

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