I Feel Funny Stories in My Future

Beziers, France

March 3, 2024

Dear Family and Friends,

The past week got crowded with life administration. That’s not all bad, but it’s not very fun to read about. So I’ll try to spare you the details at the moment.

On Saturday, February 24, I went on a day trip with my new friend Najma to Narbonne. If you’re following my Instagram you may have seen the pictures that I posted. It was about 30 minutes by car. It’s very quaint town. Smaller than Beziers, but it seems to have a vibrant cultural scene and has beautiful market and old city area full of shops and restaurants and layers of history. It even has a section of the Via Domitia that I mentioned in a previous post. That old Roman road that was built about a century BCE.

As you stroll through the tiny streets that make up the old part of the city it’s easy to get a bit confused. Buildings at least three stories high are on either side of you and the street is sometimes ten feet wide. It’s a bit like being in a maze. You can only see in front of you or behind you. There were shops on the left and shops on the right, we came to a corner and took a turn to investigate a square that we could see in the distance. When we got to the square we were surprised to find that we had actually crossed over the canal without realizing it and were back where we had started.

The cathedral in Narbonne is a perfect example of the ravages of time and is quite striking as it wears the scars of time with a elegance and grace. In the picture you can see the bones of what was on the left are connected to the beautiful structure of what remains. Aren’t those some beautiful flying buttresses?

And while we checked out the interior we were fortunate enough to hear the amazing pipe organ being played. That was a real treat! Be sure to check out more pictures on Instagram or explore with your Narbonne, France with your favorite search engine.

In the meantime, I moved out of the short-term rental and into the apartment with Lisa. I believe I've mentioned that getting heat and hot water was a journey with many twists and turns and I want to give Lisa credit for the persistence that was required to navigate those twist and turns. The language barrier was of course a part of the challenge. It’s hard to speak with gestures when you’re on the phone. But then, once we found out that the power company had an “English” phone line, things moved along much quicker for a moment or two. It was then that she discovered that she couldn’t find the gas meter because the previous owner had it removed. But of course, it was not as simple as getting a new meter installed and the gas turned on, then she had to find a technician who was both skilled enough and brave enough to turn the boiler on.  As you no doubt know, when she did it was a cause for great rejoicing and when the apartment was warm Lisa moved in almost immediately while I hung out in the rental with the convenience of a kitchen until the beginning of this past week.

I moved in just in time for the demolition of the walls that are being removed to prepare for the installation of the new kitchen. Needless to say, we’re living in a bit of a dust ball at the moment.  I have been in this situation before, and we’ll clearly survive, but life administration became a bit trickier as you might imagine. Everything from feeding yourself, to washing your laundry is more complicated as I’m sure you can imagine.

Somehow, we’ve been fortunate to have great opportunities for fun on Saturdays. Yesterday was the Carnaval du Occitan in Beziers. Lisa and I made it over to start of the parade to watch the drummers kick of the celebration before quickly making it back to the apartment to watch the parade pass from the balcony. Don’t get attached to the poor chap at the front of the parade because he gets torched at the end of the parade.

Even though life administration has definitely become more difficult and time consuming, it certainly got in the way of my posting anything earlier this week, the good news is there are stories that will need to be told. I’m sure they will be funny. Carol Burnett is credited with the phrase “comedy equals tragedy plus time.”  There are several other versions of the phrase, and the sentiment has made its way into many different popular tv shows that I’m sure many of you are familiar with.

I’m not claiming any tragedies at the moment, but I think we’ve all experienced things that even though in the moment they are unpleasant, they become funny stories to tell in the end.

I feel funny stories in my future!

Bonne Journée!