Tonight is New Year’s Eve and it’s nice and chilly in Confolens. The tub of water outside has frozen and Totti doesn’t seem thrilled to go out so much. We don’t have big plans for the evening – supposedly there are fireworks set off, and since Totti isn’t a fan of them we will probably try to keep things shut down inside so she can’t be too upset. In France, New Year’s Eve is referred to as “Saint Sylvestre’s” as it is that feast day. This is something France has in common with Poland.
We have some shrimp and mussels for our dinner, and we may watch a bit of Macron’s New Year’s Eve speech – a tradition that the French President does each year. It’s always the same – great job, French people! We’ve had an eventful year and there are lots of challenges ahead, but I wish you all the best.
Zbyszek and I have been keeping up with our workouts here, even without a gym. There is an exercise bike upstairs and we bought a resistance band that we’ve been using. Totti LOVES to lick, and when Z is doing his sit-ups and stretches on the floor, she enjoys licking him. A lot. He can’t really complain, as one of his qualifications when we went to adopt Bigos is “a licky dog.”
On our walk around town, we stopped at the little free library and found a new book for Z. There are quite a few Dutch and English people living here, so often the libraries will have books in languages other than French. It’s kind of cool to be able to drop off a book you’ve finished and maybe pick up something new. In both Nice and Confolens, we’ve found these little libraries and they’re surprisingly well-stocked!
I took a few shots of some interesting things around town, it seems that every day we notice something new on our walks. There are a lot of tiny little shops that I’m amazed can stay in business, but I guess they do. I do know that a lot of the buildings are empty post-Covid, but also because small towns in France are really struggling. Young people don’t want to stay, because there aren’t a lot of opportunities unless you enjoy farming. I can’t really blame them – after all, how can you live here and raise a family when there isn’t a pediatrician or child care nearby and you may not be able to earn a living? If more people could work remotely you may see these smaller towns come back to life, but without that I don’t hold out much hope.
