When I came
to France on the 1st of February 2020 I had no idea that I was about to become
a long term resident of my little village Civrac-en-Medoc.
The epidemic
hit this area in March when president Macron announced the confinement in order
to control the epidemic. I had packed for a trip of two months and thought it
would return to the United States for at the beginning of April. The old joke that
the way to make God laugh is to make a plan came into play. I planned God laughed
and here I am almost 10 months later.
Rural
communities are slow to take in newcomers. I had visited my home here in 2017
2018 and 2019 for various periods of one to three months. Getting to know
people is not easy especially when you speak French as poorly as I do.
My next door
neighbors Paolo and Celine and Salome’ have always been friendly although only Salome’
speaks English. But there's a saying that good fences make good neighbors.
Celine has a
spa in her home and has many women who come to improve their appearances. Celine
has a swimming pool in her backyard that as the year goes on, is increasingly
shaded by trees growing on my side of the fence between our yards. Several
years ago, she came to me and helped me to understand the trees in my yard were
shading her swimming pool and asked if she could have someone come and trim my
trees. She hired someone and I paid him to bring my trees down to an acceptable
level. I'm convinced that this is the
beginning of our real friendship.
This year
the tree trimming occurred in April and ever since then I have had a wonderful
surprise at my front door at your irregular intervals. It seems that's just when
I am feeling lonely or forgotten in Civrac, Celine’s smiling face appears at my
door with a luscious dessert in her hands: Creme brulee’, chocolate mousse, confiture
melon. The other morning she appeared with a piece of nut bread at breakfast
time. Sometimes she sends Salome with the dessert. These are special treats
because Salome’ can talk to me in English for a minute or two. I often return
the dish by giving it to Paolo when he is out cleaning his car or sweeping the
street or trimming the vines.
Paolo is a
friend who keeps an eye on my house. His house, yard. plants and
curbs are perfect. One day he told my friend Guy who speaks both French and
English that I needed to get the English ivy off the side of my house since it
appeared to be invading under the tile roof. Guy told me and we proceeded to
get someone to go up and take all the ivy off the wall and out from under the
tiles on the roof.
Finding
English speaking friends is much more difficult. I'm sure that Celine and Paolo
would be closer friends if I could speak French. Ever so slowly I'm learning to
speak French but until I do, this limits my friendships. I came in February I
had two English speaking friends that I had left in 2017 and had carried on a
friendship since. Guy is involved in the wine industry and Corinne runs a bed
and breakfast in her family Chateau in St Yzans. I can't remember now how I
found out about the Cafe Polyglotte that was held in the City Hall once a
month. This is a gathering of people who speak a variety of languages and once
a month gather together to find somebody to talk to in their own language. I
went once in February, the first and only time it has met since I arrived here,
and it was there that I met Anne Marie Kwiatkowski who has become My biggest
access point to meeting people who speak English. At her dinner table I have
met her family and their significant others as well as her daughter Laura is a
teacher in Montpelier and Boris her son. Her most important contribution to my
life has been her husband, Edmond who has been my ever present handyman who solved
all kinds of household problems for which I was unprepared, especially in a
French situation. He has fixed or taken me to stores to get fixed things that
troubled me in my life. I seriously called him my Polish magician because he
fixed the motor on my back window screen that has been broken for three years.
He took me downtown to his multimedia store where I diagnose the problem with
my computer screen monitor and we got a new cord for ten euros and fixed it. He
diagnosed my plant problems in the backyard as Limaces which is the equivalent
of slugs in Seattle. He found the workmen to come and fix my oven which had not
been working for three years and tonight I will grill some salmon in it for the
first time since I bought the house.
Beside being
a thorough repair man, he is a former city councilman in Civrac so he knows
everyone although he was not born here.
When I needed a letter from the mayor attesting to my residence in
Civrac he brought Beatrice over and introduced her to me and she quickly wrote
the necessary letter. I live around the corner from the Mayor’s office so we
greet each other often with a wave and a Bonjour and ca va.
When I
needed a tall ladder to change a smoke detector, I asked Edmond if he had one.
He said no but said,” give me a few minutes”. I really don't know where he went
but I suspect he went over to the city gar age and came back with a ladder that
reached all the way to my 12 foot ceiling. He Insisted on climbing the ladder and changing the smoke detector making it clear but I was too old to be up on
ladders.
Anne Marie
had invited me to Christmas dinner, but I declined because Corrinne had already
asked for me to come to their family. She told me her sister who works in the
pharmacy that will give us all a COVID19 test the day before dinner. Anne Marie told me she would go to Christmas
mass with me.
Anne Marie
invited me to News Years day lunch because curfew means you are supposed to be
home at 8 PM.
All of this
leads up to today when I was sitting at my table having breakfast, I heard a
knock on the door. Sometimes it's the mailman or Edmond coming for a visit or
Celine bring me a goodie but today when I answered the door there stood
Isabella and Friedrich. When I answered the door, they handed me a red bag and
said, “Bon Fete’.” Isabella is the mayor’s assistant and Friedrich is a member
of the city council. They explained it was a gift for Bon Fete’ from the mayor
and the city council. It felt very
special to be remembered at Christmas. I
don’t know how many others got gift
bags. It was filled with little jars of pate’ and herbs and bottles of olive oil
and vinegar. There was a bottle of
Bordeaux white wine and some chocolate candy. If you think that is the end
forget it. The next knock at the door was a tall Danish winemaker, Merete
Larsen whom I met at Anne Marie’s table. She had invited me and I accepted her
invitation to watch the process of vendange(Harvest) at her Winery, Chateau
D’Escurac.
When the
vendange was over she suggested we could have dinner in the future. The other day came an email suggesting we
have coffee. I responded and she said she would contact me this week. Today she appeared with a baguette and a
croissant for my breakfast and suggested she would come back at 5 PM for
tea. I said I was Zooming to the USA at 5. She said, “I’ll see you at 6PM.”
All these
people live in a village of 660 people.
Rural France has been warm and kind to me this Christmas away from home.
Don’t believe anyone who says you can’t make friends in France.
