Heritage Days--Journees de Patrimoine

Polished up for company

Every year, this weekend in September is dedicated to celebrating Europe's heritage.  Often, buildings and institutions that are normally closed to the public open their doors to show off their treasures (in my snider moments, I think they show them off to the people who paid for them).  Such is the case with the Prefecture here in Carcassonne.  

Tapestry hangs in the entry staicase

Coveting this desk--not all the French--its lines are too clean

Red carpeted staircase

Gardens were off limits this year

Lovely mid-September day

Last year I got to visit the gardens, which were closed this year.  But the building itself was open--and I got to see the furnishings and art that Monsieur le Prefect enjoys.  I came away with some strong covetous feelings....some of that furniture is splendid.

Chandelier in main stairwell

One word comes to mind--parlor

Rug is rolled up--shall we dance?

Really really coveting these nesting tables

I am confident that these appointments pale in comparison to anything in Paris or some of the larger cities.  But the Aude has every right to be proud of its accommodations.  The rooms are spacious, not cluttered, full of light and ease.  The Prefect's office is huge and there was work on his (and his secretary/s) desk.  Nice to know they are earning their salaries.

Such a French piece

Dining room table is set

Gold around the fireplace

I found this room most inviting

The Presidential bedroom

At the end of the tour, there was an art collection, full of whimsy.  I wished that the artists themselves had been there, and that the work had been priced.  I might have been tempted to come home with one of the pieces.  On second thought, maybe it was just as well, because I might have been tempted to come home with one of the the pieces!

Don't you love the floor?

Love a yellow chair

The Prefect/s office is bigger than my whole apartment

There's work on the desk

Shapes in the stairwell

Normally we see this from the OTHER side

Lines of planter boxes

Made me chuckle--or cackle?

Whimsy

Habingers of Autumn

First split pea soup of the season

As I mentioned in the last post, I am celebrating a year in my new apartment.  Now that the stinking hot weather is safely behind us for another year, I am indulging in some "fall" housecleaning and "fall" activities.  

I needed a break today from my computer and the second draft of the translation of the history of La Cite.  I can take only so much sitting and even less of academia--boy have I ever changed!  It seemed like a good time to get into the closet, which  for this first year has been a repository for everything I have no other home for.  I cringe still at how many grocery shopping bags there were folded and stacked on one of the shelves.  

Now there's a mess in the living room

I know that I have friends who will understand this next part....it's why organizing and household chores sometimes take days.  While taking stock of what exactly was in this closet, I came across some curtains that were a gift from a lovely woman at the church where I attend.  She gave them to me last year when Denise, the president of the congregation announced that I was moving into an unfurnished apartment and if anyone had household items they'd like to sell or donate, I would be grateful.  These lovely curtains have been in this closet for a year now.  Today was the day I chose to take them out and sew casings into the top ends so that they can be hung.  I could have put them aside and continued with the organizational work of the closet, but oh no---now I have curtains and sewing supplies draped and strewn over the dining room table--and a still unorganized closet.

Fading with autumn

Ah yes, but I did get the geraniums deadheaded, and the first pot of pea soup of the season made.  I made an apple crisp yesterday--what says fall louder than apple crisp and pea soup?  I needed bread to go with the soup, but didn't want to be tempted by all the downtown storefront windows so instead of going to my favorite boulangerie, I got a gas station baguette from across the boulevard You have gas station food--Slurpees and Slim Jims--we hav baguettes.  And, the truest harbinger of autumn??? I have closed some windows!!!!!!

The afternoon's tools

These curtains are going to look great.  I am hoping they will admit light into my office and yet cut down on the glare of the lowering autumn sun.  Like the millenia of Carcassonnaises before me, I am telling time by the position of the sun.  Should the glare on the computer screen really disappear with the hanging of the curtians, well, then I will have no excuse to not work on the typing of the history.  Oh well. 

Anniversaries

September geraniums gleam

September is a month of anniversaries for me.  I moved here two full years ago tomorrow.  That's anniversary number one.  This means that every September, I have to make an appointment and show up to the Prefecture to present my self and my justification for being

allowed to live here in France.  

It's not necessarily a complicated process, but you do have to have all your affairs in order.  I have to bring copies of my passport and my current carte de sejour, along with proof of sufficient resources to live her as well as proof that I DO actually live here.  And that proof consists of an electric bill in my own name.  There is the required handwritten statement, in French, swearing to forego all work--believe me, the French jobs are safe from me!  And of course, you must bring the tax stamps (now 269 Euros)--actual stamps, like those that you'd put on a letter;  I went to the Finance Office, paid my taxes and got my little stamps placed in an old fashioned envelope.  You'd think a receipt would do, but they] clerks at the Prefecture need the stamps to glue onto various documents that are then hand-stamped with great thunking gusto.

My interim "papers" until the laminated card arrives

I confess to some anxiety every year, starting when this anniversary appears on the horizon. But this year was relatively easy--I am not in the throes of moving as I was during this time last year, so the paperwork wis much less complicated this time. I had to furnish paperwork for only ONE address. I was in with my dossier and out with my provisional "papers" in less than half an hour; the people were pleasant, as usual and except for the dreaded fingerprint difficulties, all went without a hitch.  I had lunch out to celebrate having "that" behind me. 

It's now one full year that I have been in my "own" apartment.  I am now officially in year two of a three year lease.  I have cleaned the apartment, and furnished my nest with items that make me smile.  My plants love it here and I have derived great contentment from playing with the geraniums in the window boxes. 

Happy birthday apartment at #4

 The renewal date for my habitation and civil liability insurance is September 1, as is the renewal date for my health insurance mutuelle policy.  I have brought my carte vimtale (French health system I D card)  up to date, it too is set to turn a year old.  Because  I have not yet had to use it, I had to go to the health coverage office and let them know that I am still around.   

Fall has always been the start of the year for me; I know lots of people feel that way because September marks the start of the school year.  September does indeed mark a new year for me--that's the consequence of having an early September birthday.  But September truly does mark new beginnings, a new year for me and every year seems to get better.