This month zipped by at an amazing speed, especially considering that we did absolutely no traveling. Yes, once again all you will get is an incredible amount of blah, blah, blah. You may just want to close this and wait another month because we’ve truly got zero to impart except our daily living in France. Yes, we are still in winter with some foggy days, some snow days, and very few sunny days.
Due to many doctor appointments, deliveries to and worker appointments at, the apartment that have a window of time that we need to be home (i.e., 8:00-13:00), workers coming to the apartment to assess, measure, replace, fix, and in some cases, return again, all required that we be physically at the apartment. But, as a result, we had our boiler checked out by the plumber, Jerome – its annual inspection and update, plus he fixed our kitchen radiator that has never worked since we’ve lived here. Also fixed were windows, one cracked since we’ve been here, another that became more irritating as it vibrated heavily with vehicles traveling through on the street below. All completed projects continue to make our lives more tranquil.
Probably the most confusing technician to come this month was a representative from GRDF, the gas company. You can skip these next few paragraphs if you don’t want to know the minutia of gas supply in Europe. G found it fascinating to research considering that much of Europe has needed to find new sources of gas as it has weaned itself off of Russian-supplied gas. This, however, has nothing to do with Russian gas.
Apparently, customers in northern France (Hauts-de-France) are the only ones affected by a vast 600€ million operation initiated in 2019 by GRDF, the gas supplier. It concerns 1.3 million gas customers, including 340,000 in the Lille metropolis. Individuals, companies, industries and hospitals in the region are historically supplied with natural gas from the Netherlands, specifically from Groningen, the largest deposit in Europe operated since 1963. But the Dutch have decided to end the use of this gas deposit by 2030, thus ending the supply contract with France. At issue were earthquakes that shook the homes in this Netherlands region. Consequently, it was necessary to turn to another source of supply that comes mainly from Norway and organize a regional conversion plan. Only one difficulty: the gas of the Netherlands is a type B gas with low calorific value, that of Norway a type H gas with high calorific value. This means that it releases more energy due to its higher methane composition.
All installations (cooking plates, water heaters, boilers, etc.) have to be inventoried and adjusted, when necessary, before the total changeover in 2029. Last year, we in Lille were asked to go online to our GRDF account and indicate what equipment in our homes was supplied by gas. We were also asked to upload photos of the model and serial numbers (found on tags) of all equipment. GRDF is now going to all homes to verify the compatibility of the installations. These inventories and any adjustments are conducted by appointment and we have to be home. We were originally scheduled for March 3, but the technician showed up this month. We were just informed by text and email that it has been rescheduled to March 7? Who knows. G suspects that the technician will need to return to our apartment building to check on any neighbors who were not available when he came earlier. If anyone’s gas equipment has not been confirmed, it will impact the entire building and the gas will be temporarily shut off to the entire building.
More than 600,000 households in the region have already switched to H gas. In the metropolis of Lille, the conversion is planned for October 2025 for our Lille aréa and 2026 for other regions.
Also, Valentine’s Day was the highlight of the month, which we celebrated with a lovely meal out – a pizza place touted to be the best in Lille. Since we don’t eat pizza often, I’m afraid that we’re poor judges on that front but we can report that it was very fresh and tasty and the place was packed. Only 14 small tables but still impressive.
During the long winter, my hands have always been freezing despite the number of layers I wear and G gave me a pair of fingerless mittens to wear indoors. Very thoughtful and they worked fabulously, allowing me to work regular tasks without suffering from popsicle hands. As G doesn’t eat sweets and needs for little, I found him a nightlight of our galaxy, even labeling all of the planets. Small things but fun items for us both.
As I said earlier, we muddled along with doctor appointments – the human body is worse than a vintage Citroen car. You’re always having to tinker with it, make adjustments and attend to pieces that aren’t working right. All to say there are scant photos because quite frankly it’s tacky to take shots of waiting rooms.
G worked hard on preparing our taxes for our accountant in the US, an annual ritual, but so important for filling our French declaration online in April. Both US and French tax filings require identification of foreign banks, account numbers, and for US, approximate euro balances kept in each, and identification of any investment accounts. Needless to say, a good amount of organizing that will pay off later for French filing.
I did work on the last kit – the mushroom kit, which I talked about last month. After meticulously following the instructions; cutting things up, mixing whatnot, sticking it in the dark then soaking it for 24 hours before putting it proudly on a plate in the kitchen. Everything matched the pictures beautifully. It was watered daily as required and as the box began to deteriorate steadily, looking sadder with time, our hopes began to flag. The required 15 days passed, the box lost its bottom altogether and the stuffing began to leak out the front panel. There was and still is absolutely no sign of a single mushroom, much less the multitude which was promised to sprout from both the front and the back. We’ll give it another 15 days before letting it go the way of the other kits – into the bin.
The best part of the month involved Ana, a friend of ours. We’ve known her, her husband Max and children for a few years now. She worked at a kiosk in a food court – one of the few Mexican outlets in Lille. She was the cook and we particularly loved her posole, a wonderful chicken and hominy stew. The manager was not supportive when she was treated roughly by a coworker and she ended up quitting. Although the kiosk closed, we still remained friends and saw them regularly in both our homes. In a complete turn around, she ended up leasing the same spot in the food court and owns the Mexican outlet herself. Fabulous to see a happy ending for her and on her opening day, we were first in line for the posole we missed so much.
One last project I worked on was tweaking our business cards. Since we’ve lived here in France and had them printed up in Paris, we’ve discovered that some changes were needed that would help us and anyone we use the card with – businesses, professionals, new friends, etc. We ordered new ones online and have been awaiting delivery. Last notice we received says that UPS indicated the cards were refused, but of course, we’ve not had any notice of delivery attempts. Life goes on.
Like I said, no travel, not many photos and certainly not a heck of a lot to talk about but we’re still having a great time. Sorry everybody – we do have boring times but did want to say hello to all.
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