Nice. My starting point for this was something Edward Said quoted and riffed on that I'd read years ago, but then couldn't for the life of me remember. And then , yesterday, a friend (actually the Brooklyner mentioned in my piece) sent me unprompted the very quote: "The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land."
I do not have a French licence, and BC expired. Waited too long to qualify for exchange initiative. So, I need to study the code and take thé test. La Charite is à fine small ville. Farmer's marche samedi, 2 boucherie, 4 boulangerie. Fromagerie, Delightful Vin Boutique, 2 chocolat shops, les halles de Loire etc. Long may it last.
I agree that having good ingrédients and nécessaires, in my case walking distance, is wonderful. Methinks Paris has àn exotique stimulation that thé country side, albeit beautiful and calm can't offer. This is my current dilemme, city or country mouse ?
Yes. And you don't drive, right? Your lucky you have walkable commerce. Much of my country life experiences required getting into a car and going to a hypermarché in a mall off the highway. And too often the charms of the local scene - the only café in town - was closer to something in Deliverance than a Peter Mayle book.
Very enjoyable snog of the Blarney Stone. Maybe set up the People's Republic of Chez Mooney? I'm sure you would get many applications for long-stay visas. Or better yet, short-stay and off you go after dinner visas.
Wonderful piece..I know the feeling of being there and not there ..and if you ever want to go back through the ancestors.past Kinsale...I'd love to help as for me it is a great road back into social history and full of anecdotes and fascinating wills ..love to you!.
So when you know where you want to be buried it will clear up this mishagass. This is a question that a Russian tourist asked me 20 years ago on a train between Paris and Marseille. So now I am French.
Hmmm. I'll probably opt for multiple dispersement -- Bamfield, Buttes Chaumont, Tin Can Creek in Musqueam Park, maybe deep in right field in Memorial Park...
Your expérience living away from land of birth is long, and interesting. Though, the life of étranger is not entirely comforting. There is often à desire to return from whence we come to end our adventure in thé mortal coil, and bury our souls close to rooted memory. An answer to your current misgivivings will come when you feel how you want to take care of your age-ing physical and emotional self.
Pretty sure I'll end my days here. I much prefer our present setup to any previous arrangement. I like being in a spot where I can find all my daily necessaries - food, wine, bread, books, bars, gardens, socks, locksmiths, train stations, shoelaces, newstands, gardening tools etc. within a 5-minute bicycle radius. And C. takes great comfort that Hôpital St Louis is just a block away. The only snag: toilets. We have two perfectly adequate ones, but one is up a very tight spiral staircase and the other is down a very narrow flight of stone steps. The day is coming, still a ways away but coming, when navigating those steps will become iffy, and I'll have to switch to bedpans and buckets or a curbside Johnny-on-the-spot. Or Depends. Till then, tout va bien. You?
1. I borrowed the name Tinker from a grey Clydesdale mare from Knockburnie, near New Cumnock, Ayrshire, in Scotland, who, in 1811, was rechristened with it two weeks after George Watson, a tinker, stole it from her rightful owner, John Kerr, who, along with his brother William, pursued Mr Watson and the mare under him to Kilmarnock, where William gave up the chase but John continued, following the trail – the horse had a broken shoe that left a unique and traceable track – through Fenwick, Mearns, Glasgow, past Loch Lomond to Tarbert, then Inveraray, Dalmally, Glencoe and Appin, until, a week and 150 miles later, he caught up with them in a remote glen called Benderloch. A week later George became the last man hanged as a horse thief. Two weeks later, the horse was back on the farm with its new name
2.Michael J. Fox is a retired and googleable Canadian actor from, I think Burnaby. His Foundation (https://www.michaeljfox.org/) has raised over $1 billion in Parkinson's research programs to date.
3. Slowly steeling myself for the dreaded carte de séjour cave of hell. I still have full Lizbekistan citizenship, though, right? Or do I have to renew that too?
One hopes that whatever you decide, the result will be an anecdote worthy of handing down through generations. That may require at least the risk of capital punishment…
Not EU, hélas. I'll definitely be filing for a new carte de séjour. Just trying to wrap my head around the whole citizenship process. I am allergic to paperasse.
Great writing as always. In response to your dilemma, you’ll have to renew your titre de séjour in any case given that from the moment you send your naturalisation application it could take 1.5-2 years to get citizenship.
This may not be helpful, but it sums up my approach to similar circumstances:
"Listen; this world is the lunatic's sphere,
Don't always agree it's real,
Even with my feet upon it, and the postman knowing my door
My address is elsewhere." ~ Hafez
Nice. My starting point for this was something Edward Said quoted and riffed on that I'd read years ago, but then couldn't for the life of me remember. And then , yesterday, a friend (actually the Brooklyner mentioned in my piece) sent me unprompted the very quote: "The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land."
― Hugo of Saint Victor, 12th Century
Maybe change your name to Valerie and move to Croatia. But whatever you choose, just keep writing.
Excellent idea.
I do not have a French licence, and BC expired. Waited too long to qualify for exchange initiative. So, I need to study the code and take thé test. La Charite is à fine small ville. Farmer's marche samedi, 2 boucherie, 4 boulangerie. Fromagerie, Delightful Vin Boutique, 2 chocolat shops, les halles de Loire etc. Long may it last.
I agree that having good ingrédients and nécessaires, in my case walking distance, is wonderful. Methinks Paris has àn exotique stimulation that thé country side, albeit beautiful and calm can't offer. This is my current dilemme, city or country mouse ?
Yes. And you don't drive, right? Your lucky you have walkable commerce. Much of my country life experiences required getting into a car and going to a hypermarché in a mall off the highway. And too often the charms of the local scene - the only café in town - was closer to something in Deliverance than a Peter Mayle book.
...haven't been to that part-yet.Though did stay in Dún Laoghaire -beautiful little town outside of Dublin and to Galway.Such good food in Ireland.
Oh, and I forgot another Cork-ian ancestor- Driscoll.
Perhaps get your Irish passport ,too.It's quite easy.
Or a grandmother!
Think you need a grandfather...
A bit queasy again with the horses.
I would love for the world to be more romantic-”citizen of the world” and less-“Papers please!”
Though having as many practical options at your disposal would no doubt be best in these overly bureaucratic times.
Also have ancestry from County Cork-Flynn, Feeley.
Feeley! Love it. Is it near Touchy?
Very enjoyable snog of the Blarney Stone. Maybe set up the People's Republic of Chez Mooney? I'm sure you would get many applications for long-stay visas. Or better yet, short-stay and off you go after dinner visas.
Can I issue passports?
Hey, it's your republic, so up to you - this isn't a democracy!
If you don't want to become a frog then go green and become Irish--and European!
Alas, I need an Irish grandfather, and the best I can muster is an undocumented great-great horse "thief" buried in a peat bog somewhere.
Wonderful piece..I know the feeling of being there and not there ..and if you ever want to go back through the ancestors.past Kinsale...I'd love to help as for me it is a great road back into social history and full of anecdotes and fascinating wills ..love to you!.
Kinsale! Was there last year and in 2020, just weeks before confinement. All the men looked like Uncle Lorne. Or my brother.
So when you know where you want to be buried it will clear up this mishagass. This is a question that a Russian tourist asked me 20 years ago on a train between Paris and Marseille. So now I am French.
Hmmm. I'll probably opt for multiple dispersement -- Bamfield, Buttes Chaumont, Tin Can Creek in Musqueam Park, maybe deep in right field in Memorial Park...
Your expérience living away from land of birth is long, and interesting. Though, the life of étranger is not entirely comforting. There is often à desire to return from whence we come to end our adventure in thé mortal coil, and bury our souls close to rooted memory. An answer to your current misgivivings will come when you feel how you want to take care of your age-ing physical and emotional self.
Pretty sure I'll end my days here. I much prefer our present setup to any previous arrangement. I like being in a spot where I can find all my daily necessaries - food, wine, bread, books, bars, gardens, socks, locksmiths, train stations, shoelaces, newstands, gardening tools etc. within a 5-minute bicycle radius. And C. takes great comfort that Hôpital St Louis is just a block away. The only snag: toilets. We have two perfectly adequate ones, but one is up a very tight spiral staircase and the other is down a very narrow flight of stone steps. The day is coming, still a ways away but coming, when navigating those steps will become iffy, and I'll have to switch to bedpans and buckets or a curbside Johnny-on-the-spot. Or Depends. Till then, tout va bien. You?
Most entertaining.
What happened to Tinker?
Who is Michael J Fox?
Get your carte de séjour anyway..
If you feel like going French, let’s do it at the same time and check how it goes :-)
1. I borrowed the name Tinker from a grey Clydesdale mare from Knockburnie, near New Cumnock, Ayrshire, in Scotland, who, in 1811, was rechristened with it two weeks after George Watson, a tinker, stole it from her rightful owner, John Kerr, who, along with his brother William, pursued Mr Watson and the mare under him to Kilmarnock, where William gave up the chase but John continued, following the trail – the horse had a broken shoe that left a unique and traceable track – through Fenwick, Mearns, Glasgow, past Loch Lomond to Tarbert, then Inveraray, Dalmally, Glencoe and Appin, until, a week and 150 miles later, he caught up with them in a remote glen called Benderloch. A week later George became the last man hanged as a horse thief. Two weeks later, the horse was back on the farm with its new name
2.Michael J. Fox is a retired and googleable Canadian actor from, I think Burnaby. His Foundation (https://www.michaeljfox.org/) has raised over $1 billion in Parkinson's research programs to date.
3. Slowly steeling myself for the dreaded carte de séjour cave of hell. I still have full Lizbekistan citizenship, though, right? Or do I have to renew that too?
4. Yes! Once more unto the breach!
One hopes that whatever you decide, the result will be an anecdote worthy of handing down through generations. That may require at least the risk of capital punishment…
I'm actually thinking broadway musical: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Préfecture.
Very funny writing...aren't you EU? renewing should not be too difficult if you are...next step will probably be permanent...I got that...
Good luck
Deidi
Not EU, hélas. I'll definitely be filing for a new carte de séjour. Just trying to wrap my head around the whole citizenship process. I am allergic to paperasse.
Great writing as always. In response to your dilemma, you’ll have to renew your titre de séjour in any case given that from the moment you send your naturalisation application it could take 1.5-2 years to get citizenship.
Yeah, I'm assembling the necessary for the carte. Hoping it'll all be online and snagless.
I like the staying-above-it-all option, but I guess that's not an option. Go French, and change the spelling of your name to Monet.
I've always had a soft spot for Muni.
haha. You'd be asking for it with that one.