The Ancient Name of Our Region of Interest

Bonjour et Bienvenue sur notre blog. (Hello and welcome back to our blog) Not sure if I got the French translation exactly correct but, it is fun trying.

This blog is not intended to bore you with history, I promise. It is just that I’m really excited about some of the places we will be checking out as potential areas for us to settle. I find the history is really interesting and worth some mention. So, this week I will take a little side trip to share some history of Périgueux and the Perigord. This information is from Google and Wikipedia. Just want to give a shout out to these great resources. I will learn more once we start exploring the area and I will share my impressions of the historic sites that we will explore along with some photos. I sometimes get sucked into the history stuff in museums and can spend hours soaking it in.

Of course, I will update our Rosie story and other activities regarding our moving preparations.

Périgord

In my first post, I mentioned some cities that we plan to visit while in France on our scouting trip during the last part of March and first part of April. I included Périgueux on the list. At the time I said that I would explain a little about where the name originates and in so doing share a little of the history of the city.

As I understand it, four Celtic tribes moved into the area around 200 BC and established themselves in the area known as La Boissiere and that became known as Petrocorii which is a Latin version of the Gallic word for 4 tribes. There is a river here known as the Isle River and the town now known as Périgueux grew on its banks. The name Périgueux comes from the word Petrocorii. But wait. there’s more:

After the Roman invasion the Petrocorii people spread out and created the town of Vesunna. By the end of the third century AD, the Romans had improved the city with all sorts of amenities including temples, amphitheaters and a forum and surrounded the city with ramparts and the resulting city was named Civitas Petrocoriorum. This nice roman name eventually became Périgueux.

The Dordogne department roughly corresponds to the ancient county of Perigord. As you already know, Périgueux is the Prefecture (administrative headquarters) of the Dordogne department.

Since there were 4 tribes that divided up the county, it stands to reason that there are four Perigords in the Dordogne. They are:

1. Perigord Vert (Green Perigord) consists of green valleys and is crossed by many rivers and streams. This is in the northern part of the department and its main city is Nontron.
2. Perigord Blanc (White Perigord) Named after the white limestone plateau that makes up a portion of the area and includes wide valleys and meadows. This is where Périgueux is located. It is essentially in the center of the Dordogne department (Perigord).
3. Perigord Pourpre (Purple Perigord) with its capital of Bergerac, is a wine region and is in the west and south portion of the department toward Bordeaux.
4. Perigord Noir (Black Perigord) named for the nearby oak and pine forest that surround the main city of Sarlat la Caneda. The valleys of the Vezere River and the Dordogne River dominate the landscape. By the way, the Dordogne is famous for boating activities during the summer months.

There is just so much more to learn about the area. I hope my interpretation of the Google and Wikipedia historical information gives you a sense of the long and interesting history of the Dordogne department. I didn’t even mention the ancient cave drawings found in the Sarlat area.

Rosie update

Rosie is our problem child, so Elizabeth contacted a dog trainer to help us with Rosie’s anxiety issues. We don’t want her to be too anxious during the long flight to France.

The trainer came to the house and reviewed the situation. He got to see firsthand how Rosie responds to the doorbell. He rang the doorbell and Rosie charged. He sat with us for several minutes and talked with us about taking the stress off of Rosie. Stress? I thought this dog has the life of Riley. She has no stress. Well, I guess she is stressed. The trainer showed us some techniques and practiced with us for a while.

Step one is to stop her from charging the door and barking her head off when the doorbell rings. It has only been a couple of days. I think she is making progress. Or should I say, EB and I are making progress? Wishful thinking? The idea is to get her not to worry about the doorbell. Supposedly she needs to feel comfortable that Elizabeth and I will make sure the front door is safe and that she doesn’t have to protect us. Who knew?

Elizabeth ordered a new travel crate for Rosie from Amazon. It has already arrived. I got it set up in a perfect spot. Hopefully she will get the idea that it is her safe place. So far, she has shown no interest. Sorry Rosie, we have spoiled you. Artemis kind of likes it though.

Elizabeth figured out that putting Rosie’s pill in a piece of her Pup-peroni snack helps getting her to take her meds for the high liver enzymes issue. I call that progress… big time.

By the way, we did buy some new toys for Artemis, so he doesn’t have to pester Rosie. We got this cool little bird that makes a chirping sound when Artemis plays with it. Unfortunately, he only likes to play with it at about 4:00 AM. I don’t usually hear it, but when I do, I can’t unhear it. LOL. He still pesters Rosie.

House prep update

I think that we are doing pretty well as we go through our collection of stuff, we are biting the bullet and letting our “treasures” go. Our neighborhood will have the spring garage sale soon and Eizabeth has registered our address as we will participate. We have a ton of items, including power tools, hand tools, Christmas decorations, and camping gear. We also have some medical hardware including a wheelchair, walkers, and the like. I have to get up into the attic over the garage to get it all down. This garage sale couldn’t come at a better time. Our fingers are crossed that shoppers will find these items useful.

John from across the street took our bikes to donate them. We have great neighbors! The tires are flat but, the bikes are in pretty good shape.

This weekend I finished the pressure washing task, which included the front walkway, driveway and the lanai. It all looks pretty good. I’ll have to fit washing the windows in the schedule during the week.

Scouting trip update

We mentioned to friends of ours, Darrell and Greg, that we will be traveling in France soon. They have a friend, Kim, that lives a short drive from Auch in the Gers department. You might recall that we will spend a couple of days in Auch.

We are looking forward to meeting Kim while we are there and talking with her about her experience and gather her advice.

Hopefully we can enjoy an Apero with her. (Apero time is a very serious time of day in France. Basically, cocktail hour.) The various drinks that make this time-of-day special are interesting. For example: white wine or champagne mixed with fruit liqueur which turns cloudy when served over ice with water. Also, there is a liquorish/aniseed-flavored clear liqueur. There is also a drink called Piscine. Typically, this is a champagne with a rose syrup and sparkling water served over ice. I’m told that Apero is an abbreviation for an aperitif. I think this will be an easy French custom for EB and me to get used to.

It is just about time for our Apero. Woohoo! My sister taught us how to make what we call an Aperol fizz. This is our new favorite drink for our Apero time. Let me know if you are interested in the recipe. I will share it!!

Questions

Seems like just about every time we mention to friends that we are moving to France we are asked a couple of questions, or we get a couple of comments. Here are a the most common questions:

1. Why France? Our first post of this blog goes into the why. As I said then, primarily I want EB to retire. She can’t retire without health care. Being only 60 she has 5 years until she qualifies for Medicare. I’m not even sure Medicare will be available in 5 years. I know, I know, I shouldn’t be worried about it, but I am. The thing is, in France we both will be eligible for health care in France after 90 days of our landing in France. The health care system in France is rated among the top first or second in the world. It is hard to believe but we can live in France without worrying about health care! I’m 77 so I want for us to enjoy our life together while I am still pretty mobile. From France we can see Europe relatively easily by train, plane or automobile. This is a no brainer for us. Well, this isn’t a complete answer because one could follow up with, “Why not Mexico? or Costa Rica? Or Spain? Or Ireland, Or Albania?” All are good options. I will answer that part next week.
2. Do you have family or friends in France? No, we don’t have family in France or even in the rest of Europe that we know of. We don’t have any friends there yet. We are hoping that our family and American friends will visit us in France. We plan on living in an area where we might find some English-speaking expats to get in tune with French activities that we can participate in. Our research shows that French people are a bit hard to befriend. We will see and are ready for things to take the normal course. Luckily Elizabeth and I like each other and will keep each other busy.
3. Do you speak French? We are learning some basic French. A lot of French people speak English and glad to help expats learn French. We can help them with their English, and they will help us with French. Duo Lingo is the app that we are using to get started. I think it is pretty good. I must admit that my doctor of about 20 years shared his success using the app and highly recommended it. Of course, we will take French lessons once we get settled in France.

As always, thanks for reading our blog. If you have questions or thoughts, please feel free to share them in the comments below.

Many thanks to those who have commented. Your kind words are much appreciated. New posts are published every Sunday. Feel free to share this blog with anyone who you might think would be interested.

A bientot (See you soon)