Ma vie quotidienne
While this post’s title may be “my daily life”, I do have a couple of interesting updates to share. They simply don’t involve a lot of travel — particularly long treks involving ferries, trains and cabs while crossing borders!
Transportation The first bit of news is that I am driving again. After a full year of being primarily a pedestrian, I finally broke down and leased a car. I started investigating longer term car rentals, and it turns out Peugeot has a short term lease program (minimum three weeks, maximum about six months) for non-EU residents that is more affordable, as it eliminates a lot of taxes and fees. I have always loved Peugeots, but for now they are not available in the US. So I picked up my car on Monday. Luckily I have been a lifelong stick shift driver (“la vitesse”, the same word for speed). Otherwise my options may have been close to non-existent.
I did buy the driver’s education handbook (La Code) to study up on the local rules, regulations, road signs etc . But of course it is in French, as is the owner’s manual for the car, and the GPS navigation system… yet another chance to further expand my vocabulary. But once I started driving around, I have found it to be pretty manageable. I relocated enough times within the US to learn to adjust to new road systems pretty quickly. Although I am not sure I could have handled taking on driving on the other side of the road in Scotland! So far driving in France seems to be going better than anticipated — but it is still early days, so I am sure I will have new stories to tell about driving in Europe. But it really feels good to have a car again, and the independence that it provides. I had not anticipated the immediate sense of freedom I would experience once I got behind the wheel again. Although I have not attempted to drive on the Expressway yet, which probably won’t be that hard once I master the toll booths. (I can just pretend I am back in Chicago). I have now also experienced the sticker shock of filling the tank of a small car here, which cost about $60.
To start, I have limited myself to the surrounding smaller towns and villages, which can have their own challenges with very narrow roads and understanding who has the right of way when there is not room for two cars to pass. But Lyon is either the second or third largest city in France, depending on how you categorize it in terms of urban/metropolitan area. Marseilles is the other city that vies for the #2 spot. But I have already mastered the trains, tram, metro and even the bus… so at least I have that under my belt. I want to study up a bit more before attempting driving in downtown Lyon, and of course parking is going to be a bit challenging. Just another big city with slightly different signage and traffic patterns to get used to — I hope!
New activities I have also started to expand my social circle, bit by bit. In the countryside, near Claudie’s in La Drôme, I actually started taking yoga classes at the local “gymnasse”, offered by an Iyengar teacher. I have been trying to keep up with my yoga practice a bit with occasional home practices, but honestly I am not very good at self-motivation if I don’t have a class to attend. Turns out that showing up somewhere with my mat is much easier than just throwing it down and guiding myself through my own practice. It felt good to be back in a class setting — even though the vocabulary included names for some body parts that I had not become familiar with. So much for assuming that Sanskrit names for poses would provide more of an international language platform. There weren’t a lot of “posture du chien tête en bas" (downward facing dog).
I also connected with a young woman, Alexandra, who lives in another small village near Claudie’s. She is in her last year of high school and preparing for the baccalaureate (the big exam all French students take to qualify for university). She and her mother met me to have a discussion in English and French, to provide her with more opportunities to speak with a native English speaker as she studies for her exams next spring. It was actually the owner of the local independent bookstore , who knows everyone and everything that goes on in the small villages around here, who connected us.
Speaking French, or “When will this get easier?” It is always good for me to speak with more people as often as possible, as my lovely hosts here have learned to slow down and often use simpler vocabulary to make it easier for me. But sometimes I just need to be challenged, and corrected. I also found a great French tutor, so I am seeing her weekly for lessons. We Skype if I am in the countryside but I met her in person yesterday at a cafe in Lyon. I am doing everything I can to improve my language skills so that daily life is not so tiring! It can be really frustrating to no longer be able to communicate with ease. Something we all take for granted every damn day.
I am still translating in my head, which not only slows you down but sometimes gets you into trouble. Not only with things like choosing the wrong preposition, but there are always new “faux amis” — the same French and English words do not always have the same meaning. There are lots of examples of these, and I thought I knew most of them. But I stumbled upon a new one: “preservative” in French means condom. That provided a few laughs! I also went to the coiffeuse yesterday in Lyon, whom I had been to a couple times before. But when you start attempting to discuss the subtleties of hairstyles and hair color, especially when you want to try something a little different, it can be a bit unsettling when you are not entirely sure what you just agreed to! (Luckily it all turned out okay).
My latest discovery came when I stumbled upon a group called Franglish. They basically took the concept supplied by speed dating, and used it as a model to connect native French and English speakers. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but was more than pleasantly surprised. Every event seems to sell out for French speakers, so they base the number of people in each meeting on how many English speakers sign up. I had a two-to-one ratio for each of my 15-minute conversations. They all seemed like really nice people, and I look forward to going back. Many of them come to every single group meeting, as they have a hard time finding anglophones to practice with, and English is increasingly the primary international language (especially for business). So there are a lot of Europeans who are motivated to improve their English skills. Bottom line was that I had a great time, and it was fun to have a structured way to meet a lot of new people. I will definitely make the effort to go back as often as possible — which should be easier now that I have a car.
Next undertaking: Dominique was kind enough to pick me up from my Franglish group — it was the day before I got my car, and on Sunday nights the buses and trams from the last metro stop had already shut down for the night. Interestingly enough, she immediately noticed a shift in my energy. So she felt inspired to point out that she was worried that I was “hiding out” in the countryside at Claudie’s, and as comfortable as that might feel, it may not be in my long-term best interest. The last time I was here I was waiting out what I hoped would be a long enough stretch to increase my odds of successfully crossing the border back to the UK again, and return to Orkney. But now I have a different agenda, and that is to explore whether or not it will be possible to stay here. She reiterated that in order to do that I need to build a more independent life, start to meet new people and network for job opportunities. What she said hit home, and I know she is right. Even though I have become a bit more of a country mouse over the last year, that may be more of a retirement strategy and I am not ready for that yet, on many levels.
I believe my next endeavor will be to try and find a rental in Lyon. Obviously it will be a little more challenging with Sasha, but she has been such a trooper so far that I am confident I will be able to find an open minded AirBnB host (or some equivalent). Especially as tourist season will be waning soon, and November/December should be better (and cheaper) months for finding a furnished apartment rental.
But I also hope to take a road trip to Lugano, Switzerland sometime in October to see my dear friends Carla & Fabio and Lolli. These are friends I met on one of my previous European explorations, back in 1986, and even though I only see them about once a decade, it always feels like no time has passed. It will actually be easier to drive there as the road trip is about five hours by car, but much longer when you take the train and have to go around the Alps. Will need to spend some more time getting accustomed to driving on the Expressway before I attempt that trip…
In the meantime I don’t have a lot of photos in this post, so thought I would share some of Sasha’s daily life. Since she is my co-pilot on this journey, I may have to let her share her POV as a guest blogger on a future post.
Until next time,
Kelly
