Farewell Nicolas!

Finally! France has elected a new President, François Hollande.  The score was really tight.  52% to 48%.  In about a month, the legislation election will take place.  Hope the Socialist party will win this next election, if not there will be political cohabitation, and the country will be hard to govern.

Snow stom and Flood in the North of France

I have only realized today that the North of France is 200 km long, as much as the distance from Ottawa to Montréal.  For those who live in the North region, they would say : "I'm from the South of the North, or the North of North."  (je vis dans le sud du nord ou le nord du nord).  That's how long is the region, it is narrow as well. 

You can have two different weather conditions in the same region.  Yesterday was terrible.  In Lille, they had snow storm and blackouts.  From were I am, almost of the tip of the North region (near Dunkerque), we didn't have snow but pouring rain all day long.  We were flooded!

This is a little cascade in the garden.  I couldn't even get my mail.

When I woke up this morning, most of the excess water has disappeared.  I must say, I was relieved.  I could have been worse, we didn't have any blackout.

What brought me here

Some of you may be wondering  how I ended up in France.  I've been here for 6 years already.  I must admit, I have a love-hate relationship with France.  When I was younger, I have always dreamed of France, I was a francophile.  I even got married with a French guy.  But the more I got to know the country, the less I was enthusiastic about it.  Their administration, the way of doing business, are unproductive.  French people have the tendency to complexify everything. Everything takes a long time : opening a bank account, going to the Post Office, renting an appartment, etc.  If I had started my blog 6 years ago, I would probably have a lot to say about what I have endured.  After all theses years, I've become accustomed with the way things work here.  My husband has started a business 5 years ago, so we have to stick around here for a little while. We have dealt with demanding employees.  They are protected by the French Employment laws, so it was really hard for hiring and laying them off.  In my opinion, this is part of the reasons why France unemployment is so high. Besides the rough paths encountered, being in France brought us a lot of professional experience.  We got to work with Germans, Belgians and Dutch. 

This is a sneak peek of what we do: