So East it's Ouest

The worst part of traveling...wonderful people.  You shouldn't envision a world where you drag your friends and family along with you everywhere you go but it is tempting.  Thank you FaceTime and the Internet for making long distance friendships bearable.  But still I'll have to wait another few months in order to hold my cutie pie nephew again, sigh. My brief teaser of a visit with my family was a nice little reboost and I do declare it is difficult to spend more than a few months without seeing them.  But on the flip side when I'm back in the US I want my frenchies, can't have it all can we?   They all surprised me with a surprise dinner in Elkhart with my grandparents and to quote my grandma 'I started cooking but I don't know what happened I just kept going...!'   I got to bring back a lot of clothing and the like and do some important paperwork while I was back.   I also got an animal fix as well,  although my crazy kitten Elby doesn't recognize me

Just got back from this winter wonderland.  As if I haven't explained already why the south west is prime location in France we will hang another little carrot our there. The Pyrenees, this fine mountain range between France and Spain that calls itself home to the country of the Andorra, fluffy dogs, sheeps milk cheese and some beautiful slopes also is known for several therapeutic mineral hot spring spas.  So once again recap.  Surfing, duck, wine, cheese, mountains, hot springs, warm weather...etc let's continue shall we.  Our little group headed out Thursday evening and ended up in Loudenvielle in the Louron valley the Pyrenees 3.5 hrs away.  We passed through Auch another cool south western city.  We settled into our little chalet shaped lodging up 5 flights of steps, I got top bunk of the bunk bed yeah and awoke to...rain.  It decided to rain on us but no matter we visited the village and when the sun decided to peek out while we were picnicking we ran to rent some skis an

So I've mentioned a little thing called 'CAF' in the past, it's a little way to get some of your rent paid for by the government.  What hit me this time while I was filling out some of my paperwork was the differences between American welfare and the French social welfare systems.  In fact welfare isn't even the right word.  Welfare is what happens in the US, it's looked at as being for people in DIRE need and it isn't seen in the best of light, it's great if you can figure out some good programs but France is very different.  It's looked on as a sign of being savvy if you can figure out how (and the patience and diligence it takes to jump through bureaucratic hoops) to get reimbursed by the government, because in basis that's what it is.   Taxes in France are much higher than the United States, somewhere in the 40% income tax range and France loves to add on other taxes as well.  In your taxes you automatically have CAF, work accidents, care for