We Have A Car!

When the non-essential shops were allowed to open, that allowed B to go car shopping. We picked up our car on December 11. It's a manual transmission Peugeot 3008 (2018) not to be confused with the 308. This photo was taken as we approached the car for our quickie lesson ( in French) on some of the features of the car. 

It does have lots of features.

It was raining on our way to the dealer.  I decided to document part of the trip home.

Comes with GPS.

This is the area closer to our temporary apartment. Yes, this is a street! The firetruck barely fit.

Here we go down our street.

We had a clicker to open the gate.

We had to park it here! It would fit in the spot we believe was for our use but you couldn't open the car doors once parked–cement wall on one side, big row of bushes on the other.

On December 13 our first drive in the car was to IKEA. This was our best option considering COVID. Because the permanent apartment will come with no furniture we need a bunch of stuff. Naturally, we decided to get stuff we had to put together on delivery. Smart? Not sure yet. Here we go!

On the way to IKEA (not that far from the downtown area where we live) we noticed it was snowing in the mountains but not on the highway we were on. You have to look closely.

The New Abode

We have obtained our temporary residence permits (the actual ones will be mailed to us in January). We've signed the lease on the new apartment. We took possession on Dec 15. Several days later we took delivery of our "stuff" shipped from the US. Only a few furniture items have been delivered so far but we put them together and await the delivery of the rest of the furniture before the end of the year.

This is the building. We are on the 6th floor.

This is the "garage door" to the elevator to lower the car down into the parking garage. Very interesting to say the least.

I'd never heard of an elevator for cars, but they are apparently fairly common here due to lack of parking.

Out & About Again

As I mentioned in the last post, we still require a permission form to be out and about , but they opened many non-essential shops. In previous weeks only grocery, pharmacy, etc. shops were permitted to be open. Recently we visited a mall that had reopened. We saw long queues outside of a few bath, body and beauty type shops including this line outside of the Sephora shop. Note: Beginning the day after this post was uploaded we will no longer need to carry the filled out permission form.

Is this a funny name for a muscle and sore joint cream? We thought so. (B comment, we call this the dog cream)

The large Christmas tree in Place du Jaude has now been decorated.  In addition to the tree, there are other light displays in the square. There are also other light displays that have gone up around town.

A couple of pretty sunsets.

Pretty sunrise on a different day. Pretty but not calling for clear, blue skies later in the day.

Snow capped mountains. The day we took this shot it didn't snow in town. Since then, we have had some rain/snow mix, but no actual coating of snow on the streets.

A cute window display. Merry Christmas!

This looks like fun for kids! (Maybe adults too?) It is bathtub coloring so you don't have to soak in boring clear water with white suds.

Food Related

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday! While we didn't have the traditional meal, we did have a delicious homemade lentil soup, toasted baguette and a slice of deli turkey. 

A couple of weeks ago we had our first meal delivery. We were still in lockdown at that point. Here we have a company called Deliveroo which we decided to try. We got burgers from a local place. I ordered an Orangina with my meal. I hadn't had one in years. It's kind of a low level fizzy orange crush for those who haven't had one. The fries are in the takeaway-looking containers. And we got a thank you note on the bag!

We had a desire for Christmas cookies so I made a small batch of Russian Teacakes. Making these took 4 or 5 bakes. The only cookie sheet type pan I have is about 8 inches X 10 inches.  

If you are a sausage aficionado, you would love to have access to these options. These are just a few of the possibilities we've encountered so far. We tried 2. One was really good, one not so good. We will continue our research.

What a shop we found- L'eau Vive (roughly translated as living water).  This place has a parking lot- 4 or 5 spots! We'd walked past this shop and noticed it seemed to have a lot of foot traffic, but we hadn't had time to stop in. Wow! Health food store meets Whole Foods. We will visit this shop again and again.

From the outside we expected a very small space. Not! This shot was taken from the 2nd floor.

One of the things we picked up was a bottle of spiced apple juice. Yummy! They require you to bring your own bags. Lesson learned. Good thing our coats have pockets.

Lastly I include here because it smells like something you would eat. The new dish soap we purchased smells just like real, fresh grapefruit. I was impressed because there is no suggestion of how good it smells on the label. The label only mentions that it cleans well.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-L-'Assomption

During the stricter lockdown period, on a couple of our walks we took nearly the full hour allowed to walk around. The red mark shows our temporary apartment. I leave it to you to find the Cathedrale on the map. 

This location makes it difficult to take photos. It is surrounded by other buildings.

Backstory. A bishop had a cathedral built here in ~450. By 761, the first cathedral was destroyed by a raid led by Pepin le Bref against the Duke of Aquitane. It was rebuilt. In 946 the current bishop dedicated a new cathedral. In about 1000, a crypt was dug ( only to be filled in the 13th C. and then refitted in the 19th C. 

In 1248, the construction on this gothic cathedral was initiated on a hill in the center of town. Most of the current building dates from the 2nd half of the 13th C. Work stopped in 1350 for a period of 500 years due to impoverishment due to the Hundred Years War and the Great Plague. A visit by Napolean II in 1862 apparently prompted a revived construction period. The grand staircase dates from 1902. The west facade and other renovations were done in the second half of the 19th c. This is the first example of architecture using volvic stone- volcanic rock. That's why it's all grey- black. 

Sadly, the stained glass windows are covered with a metal grate probably to protect from vandalism. We hope to see the inside at some point. From the outside it is impressive.