We are more than halfway through March, thank goodness. I’ve always hated this month and can’t wait for it to be over. Last year, my car broke down in March and I had to pay 1200 € to fix it. That was nothing compared to the awful tragedy that happened this March though. I lost a friend on Monday and the anniversary of David’s and my PACS will become the anniversary of his death.
Mid-March also means it’s the end of the trêve hivernale. Now landlords are able to evict tenants if they haven’t paid rent. With a few exceptions, there are no evictions between November 1st and March 15th, or between 9pm and 6 am, or even on Sundays or federal holidays in France.
Today is, of course, another national strike all over France to complain about Sarko and the government, rising unemployment, the high cost of living, education reforms, etc. etc. etc. Luckily I don’t work on Thursdays anyway, plus I’m staying in bed all day with a cold, so it doesn’t really affect me.
Tomorrow France reactivates its border checks for all land and air crossings because of the NATO summit that will take place the first weekend of April. (France is rejoining NATO as a full member since De Gaulle withdrew membership in 1966.) Between March 20 and April 5, you will have to show your passport and/or carte de séjour to get back into the country. Sarko, Merkel and “Barak Obama” (as the immigration.gouv.fr’s website says) will be in Strasbourg for the summit, so security is really tight.
This week is la Semaine de la Langue Française in France. The 10 mots pour demain are: ailleurs, capteur, claire de terre, clic, compatible, désirer, genome, perenne, transformer, and vision. March 20 is the Journée internationale de la Francophonie which is celebrated by French-speakers on 5 continents. Remember in the French-speaking world, there are only 6 continents total as North America and South America are just l’Amérique.
March 29 begins l’heure d’été in most of Europe. I was liking only being a mere 5 hours difference from Michigan, but I guess I’ll have to get used to 6 hours again.
And then it will be April! Sweet, glorious, not March, maybe rainy but hopefully sunny, warmer than now April.
