Month: January 2026

Happy 2026! We didn’t stay up for midnight, but we did follow some of the French traditions. For dinner, we had moules and crevettes (mussels and shrimp) but no huîtres (oysters). They were delicious. We watched Macron’s presidential address, which was exactly as expected. I did wake up at 11:53, just in time to hear some of the fireworks go off. There isn’t an official fireworks display or anything, just random people setting them off in the street. Luckily, Totti didn’t get too upset. She noticed the sound and then went right back to sleep.

At home, we always see the new year’s resolution crowd jogging around the neighborhood or going to the gym. We saw a few people getting exercise, but not many. I’m sure the weather has a lot to do with it – it was only 21 when we woke up, and isn’t supposed to get higher than 35ish today. We took a walk over to the exercise course – surely the new French gymbros would be running around there today! Nope. Only 2 other people were taking a walk. The course is pretty nice, a mix of flat trail and slope, with some exercise equipment mixed in. There are also two decent-sized lakes in the center of the course, and both were frozen over. Not enough to walk/skate on, but a nice crust of ice.

There were some donkeys in the field next to the running course. And some metal – so Z decided to see if his tongue would stick to the metal. Spoiler alert: it did.

And a few more random photos from the view around Confolens:

It looks like a big storm has hit the UK and is headed towards the rest of the continent. Today is supposed to be clear, but cold. We have a couple more days of clear weather before the chance of snow hits on Monday. They keep putting snow in the forecast, then removing it, so I’m not sure if it’s really going to happen or not. Just in case, we took Totti on a nice walk today while it’s warm and dry enough for her to enjoy it.

We took a walk over by the rugby stadium and saw a couple of interesting things. There were a bunch of birds on the practice field, they look like water bird but today they were field birds. We also saw a tractor passing by, but the farmer didn’t seem to interested in setting up a blockade of the roads. There have been quite a few protests recently with farmers blocking roads, or dumping manure in front of government buildings.

We took a new route that goes under the main road and then through the older part of town without crossing the street at all. It seems like a good path to take in the future as there is less traffic there to worry about. This took us past a few old buildings that we haven’t really noticed before now.

When we got to the fountain, it was even more frozen than the other times we’ve passed by. The bottom section hasn’t frozen, but there was slush on the ground and lots of ice in the top area. It’s right in front of an antiques store. I keep thinking that I need the rooster in the window – just because it would be very French but also one of the most difficult things possible to bring back with us!

This morning we woke up to realize that there was no heat and the house had become quite cold. Our bed has a thick duvet and blankets, so it’s nice and toasty and we didn’t wake up due to the cold, but as soon as Z came downstairs he saw that there was a problem. Not only were the radiators cold, we had no hot water! This led to furious Googling about what the problem could possibly be.

Luckily, I had paid attention when we first arrived and I knew where the hot water heater was. When I looked at it, I saw that an error code was blinking. More importantly, I saw the button next to it that said RESET. I pushed the button in a gamble that something would happen, and guess what? The heater turned on, the water got hot, and the radiators started working. Crisis averted.

Totti didn’t seem to notice the cold, but maybe that’s because we wrapped her up nice and comfortable in a blanket!

It’s pretty cold this morning, and the fountain was even more frozen than before. Snow is forecast now for all of next week, so I think it will freeze further.

We walked over to the Intermarché today to pick up some groceries and took a little detour to the cemetery. Maybe it’s weird to visit cemeteries in places where you don’t know anyone, but French cemeteries are really beautiful. The tombs and the graves look very different from those in the States, and there is a lot of history there – so many graves from people who died in both world wars. There are also too many graves for people who died very young – children who may have died of disease, young people who may have died of infection, women who may have died in childbirth.

In the Confolens cemetery, there is an entire row of graves for men who died in World War 1. They were all in the same unit. This was common in the first world war, and military leaders learned from it. There were programs where buddies/brothers could sign up and they would be assigned to the same unit so they would be able to serve together. Unfortunately, when an entire unit was destroyed, this meant that the young men from a family or town could be wiped out. In some towns, all of the young men were killed. In England, there is a registry of towns/villages where all of the men returned after the war – they are called Thankful Villages. There are only 12 such towns in France.

After this happened, the commanders of the armed forces in many European countries realized that these “buddy units” weren’t a great idea – it was better to mix soldiers from different areas so that no particular village was hit so hard. The Confolens cemetery has quite a few graves of those killed in WW1, quite a few who died in WW2, and we saw one who was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

There are also some older graves – not quite as old as in Nice or Paris, but from the early 1800’s. There were quite a few that are marked that they will soon be removed as there is nobody around to pay the bills to keep the plot. As families die out or move away, these old graves are no longer visited and many of them start to fall apart. In France, it is normal to pay for the gravesite on a limited basis – although you can choose to pay “in perpetuity.” For the ones that are removed, the remains will be cremated and put in a columbarium.

Along the way home, we passed by the old washing street. This is where the laundry would have been back in the day. The old water trough to wash clothes is still there and full of water, but nobody uses it for anything these days.

Last night we had our first galette des rois. It was a basic frangipane one, the traditional flavor. We picked up a cake with a Naruto theme. We don’t really care about Naruto, but that’s the one that Intermarché has on sale as a loss leader this week.

Zbyszek ended up getting the fève, which means he’s king for the day. It also means that it’s his job to get another cake! He wants to try the chocolate/nutella one. I wouldn’t mind the apple or some fruity one, but I guess he’ll make the decision. He wore his crown for a little bit and then handed it over to Totti. She wasn’t interested.

This morning we trudged upstairs to do our morning workout. We’ve been using a resistance band and the exercise bike. It’s nothing like going to the gym, but nice to have something available. Totti doesn’t seem all that interested in what we’re doing and maybe she’s a bit confused. We’ve been taking her outside to play “bally” and go on walks, but she’s more reluctant as the temperatures get colder.

While we’re not in Alsace, Z wanted to try something typical of that area of France – choucroute garnie. It’s a very Polish/German dish of sauerkraut with potatoes and several types of sausage. Intermarché sells a kit, so that’s what we had. It’s basically like bigos without the mushrooms or tomato paste, I guess. It was OK, but he liked it so I guess that’s what matters. The whole house smelled of sauerkraut afterwards, though!

We took a walk to the other side of the town to see how cold things were – when we got up this morning it was -4 Celsius. Sure enough, the fountain was even more frozen. There are some places where the water leaks onto the cobblestones and it’s turning into a very precarious, very small ice patch. As we walked home, the frost on the trees started to blow off and fall onto the ground. Not snow, but that should be coming tonight. The news is talking about the colder than normal temperatures and the big storm that is coming, and the forecast calls for 2-4cm of accumulation overnight. I guess we’ll see what happens in the morning!

Today happens to be St. Edouard’s day, so anyone named Edouard is celebrated. I have a former student who is getting his master’s in Paris, so I hope he’s celebrating today! Saint’s days really aren’t a thing in the US, but they are important enough in France that every agenda/calendar lists them. I always find it funny that for a country that makes such a big deal of secularism, they still celebrate these days. Tomorrow is Epiphany, so the official end to the Christmas season. The next big “season” is les soldes – starting on January 7, stores all over France will have their big semi-annual sales. Legally, they’re only able to do this twice a year. There really isn’t much in Confolens to buy, so we’ll end up skipping this. Maybe when we get to Angouleme on the 15th we can stop by the mall to see if there’s anything worth buying.

We woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow on the ground and the roofs of the buildings around us. It wasn’t a lot, but enough that the salt truck came around and sprinkled it on the sidewalks. We started the morning doing our upstairs workout and checking on the pigeons who have made their home in the upper story of the building next door.

We needed to get a few things from the store before the big storms come – the rest of the week is supposed to be full of rain and/or snow – so we headed to Lidl. There’s a garden center next door and we picked up some seeds to take home and try growing. The cashier was very interested in hearing about what the weather was like in AZ – he was pretty wistful when we told him it was 25 celsius this week!

Our big purchase today was the galettes des rois. Z really wanted to try the other flavors (chocolate and apple) as well as the southern-style cake. They won’t go bad, so we got one of each to enjoy in our last 9 days or so here in Confolens.

We took a new route back home and saw some of the more modern homes. They looks like they’d be warmer and more energy-efficient than the village houses, but probably less character. There is a new development of 16 lots going up.

We had tacos for dinner tonight. I let Z pick out the tortillas and I have to say that they were the WORST tortillas I’ve ever had. They were a mix of corn/wheat with all of the downsides and none of the upsides of either ingredient. They were dry and crumbly like corn, but without the taste to make them interesting. They were white and tasteless like flour, but without the softness and pliability. And they say on the packaging that they are the favorite tortillas of French people!!! Maybe WEIRD French people.

After dinner we had a bit of the apple galette. It was pretty good, softer and fresher than the frangipane one we tried earlier. We didn’t look for the fève – and it’s still in the remaining part of the galette. But we did pick our queen for the day.

We woke up this morning to weather alerts that snow was expected within the hour. Sure enough, it started right on schedule. It was fun to watch through the window, but we wanted to take Totti on a walk so we got bundled up and went outside. It was cold enough and the snow was falling pretty hard, so it accumulated on the ground. Our walk started when things were just a little bit covered with a light dusting, but by the time we got home it was starting to crunch under our feet.

Confolens looks different with the snow – it’s quieter and more peaceful. I can easily imagine what it looks like here in the summer, with the trees full of leaves and crowds of people. Now that I’ve seen it in the winter, it gives me a full picture of the seasons around here.

We spent most of the day inside, staying warm and dry. The snow turned to rain after a few hours and then stopped. It’s still cloudy and gray outside and tomorrow’s forecast calls for warmer temperatures but more rain/snow. It’s supposed to get to the low 50s at some point!

It got much warmer today – 52 for the high, which is a big jump from the past several days. It was rainy off and on throughout the day, so we tried to time our walk for when it was only lightly drizzling rather than pouring down.

We tried a couple of new streets on our walk and saw more interesting buildings. We ran into a neighbor and her dog, so Totti got to play a little bit with her friend. There are a lot of different places in the house for her to watch things happening – from the neighbor in the yard, pigeons next door, or people walking by on the sidewalk, she doesn’t miss a thing!

We stopped at the boulangerie for a fresh baguette and they had something new – a Dubai chocolatine. I bought one to see if it was any good. It wasn’t great, wasn’t bad – but I’m not a huge fan of Dubai chocolate. Pistachios are great, but the combination isn’t anything particularly special. I like their almond croissants better, or even just a plain pain au chocolat.

We have one more week in Confolens before we move on to our next adventure. Tomorrow is probably going to be a grocery day. It’s supposed to rain again, but maybe it won’t be too much. This cold wave has hit many places in Europe quite hard – the UK, Amsterdam and Paris all had a lot of snow that affected transportation. Hopefully it will be done by the time we need to go anywhere!

At the bakery were a couple of new flyers. It looks like there are some exciting things happening in February in Confolens. Too bad I won’t be here to win big at the Super Loto or try the tartiflette.

The storm that is hitting right now has a name! Storm Goretti has been hitting the UK and now has come to Brittany and Normandy. Luckily, we aren’t getting the big wind and heavy rain that others are getting. Hundreds of thousands of people in Normandy are without power at the moment. For us, it’s been rainy all day and pretty windy, but nothing horrible.

We started the day with a nice workout in our upstairs gym. Totti loves to go up there with us and watch out the window. She also loves licking legs and arms when you try to do any exercise other than the bike.

We took advantage of a short break in the rain to take her out on a walk. We wanted to go to a new park that is on a hill overlooking the town, but we found that the route there required walking on slippery, steep stones. So…we’ll wait until it dries up to do that. Instead we walked up on the ramparts and by the original old gate to the city.

While Confolens is not in any danger of being invaded, there are still remnants of the defenses. The old gate has space for a portcullis, and you can see the thick walls of the ramparts.

As we walked around, we passed by two of the public restrooms. It’s a pleasant surprise that they have two restrooms available for people to use, completely free. In the bigger cities, almost all public restrooms are paid. One of the ones at the train station required you to use your travel pass/app to open the door. So to just have bathrooms open here in such a small town is kind of weird. I’m sure it’s for the summer festival that they have them, because it does get very busy here in the summer. One thing bothers me, though – and I’ve seen this all over France. The doors are open to the outside, and the urinals are visible from the outside – so any poor dude trying to pee in private can be seen from anyone happening to be walking by.

Another thing I’ve seen all over the place is little bowls of water and cat food. I guess there are a lot of stray cats in the town, but I haven’t seen a single one until today. We think they are staying inside the abandoned buildings and don’t come out much during the day.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a sunny day, and a little bit warmer. We plan to go to the grocery store for a final “big trip” before we leave on Thursday.

We had a nice day without rain! The rain may be coming back in a day or two, but today was actually nice and sunny. Still cold, but nowhere near as cold as it was. We went to the grocery store for our last “big” shopping trip. We’ve been very mindful of planning what we buy each time so that we don’t end up with too much left at the end of our trip and it has worked out well for us – we will use up pretty much everything we’ve bought just in time to leave on Thursday.

On my trip to Europe with the kids back in 2018, one of my colleagues asked how on earth I was able to afford a month-long trip to 9 different countries with 4 people on a teacher’s salary. I know there are lots of people who would love to travel, but it can just be too expensive. So I’ll explain how we travel so that maybe it can help someone else.

First, I have a credit card that gives miles. I started with the United card, because they gave a huge bonus after spending a certain amount in the first few months, but I’ve since added an AA card and an Air France card. I make sure that every single thing that can possibly be purchased on the card goes on the card. I pay it off in full – usually every Tuesday I pay off all of the cards, but you could do monthly. I also check the apps for the cards, because some of them give bonus miles if you purchase a ‘gift card’ through the app, then use it to pay the store. Something that would have earned 25 miles can then earn 100 miles.

If you use your card to pay all of your expenses, the miles can add up very quickly. We usually earn enough points each year to buy 4 round trip tickets to Europe. Since we don’t go every year, this is plenty.

Second, when I buy our tickets for travel I keep my eye out for saver deals. For this trip, we didn’t really have a date in mind, just that it would be after our son’s wedding. I watched my emails and the ads that the airlines run and when Air France had a huge sale of 30K miles for a premier economy seat, I jumped on it. We didn’t buy our return tickets until later. When I travelled with the kids, I did something similar – we had dates in mind (over summer vacation) but no specific destination or departure date. I got an email from United offering a special rate for travel to Dublin, so that’s where we ended up going. The more flexible you can be on location and date, the better your options and the more you can save.

Of course, I do use my card to pay for everything – airline tickets, lodging, rental cars. This usually comes with travel insurance and rental car insurance, and they are really good about working with you if a problem arises (as it did in 2023 when KLM left my luggage in Bordeaux until after I returned home to the US).

Third – lodging is the biggest expense of your trip. If I am staying somewhere for only a day or two, hotels are fine. But any longer than that and I prefer and AirBNB. Having a washing machine and drying rack in our apartment is super important, because it means only bringing 3-4 outfits instead of 7-8. Most importantly, it gives you access to a kitchen. Sometimes, it comes with other perks – our upcoming stay in Gdansk is in a building that has a 24/7 fitness center. We looked at the cost of a monthly pass for a gym in Gdansk and it would be $120 for the two of us and require us to travel a bit to get there. Now we don’t need to travel at all, and the cost for this particular apartment is no more than one without a gym would be.

Also, if you stay somewhere for a month it’s often cheaper than staying for 2 weeks. If you have the time to do so, there are some really good deals out there. If you want to explore a bit, find a place where there are trains to other cities and then take day trips. Nice was a great home base for us, because you can easily get to other cities on the riviera from there. This won’t work if you are trying to see a bunch of different cities and countries, obviously.

Another hack that you can use IF you have dual citizenship – or if you travel domestically. We joined trustedhousesitters.com (affiliate link) last May so that we could start building our reviews in the hopes of doing house/pet sitting in Europe. We started with a few sits in Arizona and the one in California. Basically, you watch someone’s house and pets in exchange for free lodging. We are currently watching a dog here in France, and have been here for almost a month without paying for lodging. Keep in mind that you must have the right to legally work in the country you are sitting in, or you can run afoul of immigration law!

At first, Z wasn’t a huge fan of the pet sitting idea. But now he’s found that it’s an enjoyable way to get a view of what life is really like in different locations. We’ve stayed in an amazing hacienda in Tucson, a beautiful home in Carefree and a cute beach bungalow in San Diego – all in exchange for taking care of a dog and some cats. We plan to continue doing sits once we return home as a way to see more of the US. You can (and should) be picky about which sits you take, and recognize that it’s a huge responsibility – people are trusting you with their beloved animals, and you should plan to spend time with them rather than leaving them alone while you run around to museums.

Fourth – food can be a HUGE expense and also a time-suck. Luckily, everyone in our family prefers to eat fresh food, home-cooked meals and things bought at the market or grocery store. Shopping at a foreign supermarket can be a fun thing – they have so many different things to try, and it will ALWAYS be cheaper than going to a restaurant, at least in Europe. We go to the story every 2-3 days and pick up whatever is on sale and looks good, then cook our meals at home.

While it does take time to shop and cook the food, it takes time to pick a restaurant, go there, order food and then wait for it to be prepared – but it’s much more expensive. When we went to Burger King in Paris, it was $26 for one meal for the two of us. Today we went to the grocery store and spent $26 on enough food to last us three days. Eating out can be fun, and you shouldn’t deprive yourself on vacation – but I’d rather buy groceries for most of my meals and be able to stay 4 weeks than eat at restaurants and stay for 2 weeks.

Another thing to consider – if you are used to eating a certain way at home and then visit a new place with different ingredients/spices/preparations, you might find that it causes stomach issues. The joke is often made about Montezuma’s revenge in Mexico, but these problems can happen anywhere. Having to run for a bathroom because something disagrees with you is not a fun way to spend a day away from home. Even if the food is great and the restaurant is clean, you can still end up miserable. In France, I find that the fatty sauces and overuse of butter can make me feel pretty queasy.

Fifth – think outside the box for souvenirs! You know those cute little whatevers that they sell with the name of the place on them? The plastic doodads, the tee-shirts, the tote bags and hats with the city name? Yeah, those. They’re all made int he same place, and it isn’t the country that you’re visiting. We noticed on our trip in 2018 that every big city we went to sold the exact same plastic magnets, just with the city name changed. They were all made in China, probably in the same factory. Those aren’t great souvenirs unless you really love magnets, or you don’t have room for anything else in the luggage. And they tend to be overpriced.

I prefer to buy souvenirs in regular stores, where local people shop. This is often the grocery store. Whether it’s chocolate, cookies, or jam – they probably have something good. We stopped by the gardening store and picked up some seeds that we’ll bring home to plant. I can say for sure that the fancy Breton cookies you can get near the Mont Saint-Michel for $8/tin are available at every grocery store in France for $2. You also don’t have to fight the crowds in the gift shop if you get your gifts at the grocery store.

Anyway…I didn’t take a bunch of photos today but I did take 3 shots. Today is Guillaume’s day, or William in English. So that would be my dad’s name-day. It’s not a huge thing in France, people just say “bonne fête” and maybe get you a pastry or something, but the local sign mentions each day who is being celebrated. And I’m sharing a couple of photos from the store – our grocery cart for our last big shopping trip in France and a fun flyer they had all over the place for a pork sale. There was a LOT of pork on sale and many people were stocking up.