News and New to Me

Sorry, no photos today.  The news coming from France is that plastic bags are BANNED as of tomorrow!!!  I have seen the bigger supermarkets preparing for this for some time now--not even offering plastic bags for sale.  I have finally learned to take my bag with me when I go to the market, but I will miss the plastic ones (that I got from the vendors at the open air markets) for my peelings and other food scraps to take to the bin at the end of the street.  I will find another way to deal with that.  I am so happy that France is leading the way in getting rid of this blight.

Nighttime view from my living room window

Other news:  everyone is excited about the quarter-final soccer match this coming Sunday evening.  France is playing Iceland, who so courteously eliminated Great Britain from the tournament.  The big Festival is upon us and will begin on Friday as well--music and dancing everywhere throughout the city.  

And in the news to me department: 

I had a completely new experience last night--I was a passenger in a right side driver car.  After 50+ years of driving in the US, I cannot begin to express how weird it felt to get into the normal "driver's" side only to have no steering wheel in front of me.  The world tilted for just a second.  

I visited the home in Villeneuve Minervois of my Irish concertina-playing friends for a "slow session" of Irish music learning.  What I don't know would fill an ocean.  But  I have stumbled onto world class teachers and I hope I am worthy of their time and effort.  It's not easy for this old girl to learn new musical tricks, especially when they fly in the face of all I have known and practiced for the past 35 years....

Latest Bar 98 session

I have an American/Irish couple coming for dinner on July 4--burgers, potato salad, watermelon and maybe sparklers are on the menu. I will spend Tuesday with my friend from Pittsburgh and her visiting friends from the US. Wednesday is an all-day traditional music event up in La Cite--my Irish musician friends will be there and in the evening, there will be another traditional dance.  And on Friday, I venture to Toulouse to fetch my friend Betty.  Busy times are ahead.

PS--I changed my mind about the photos.