Normandy - The discovery continues - January 2023

I am continually reminded how lucky we are to be living in this current Nomadic way. On my birthday, we had a wonderful day celebrating with the Rislepattes, our french walking group. There are over 40 members in the group and although we are not the youngest, we are the newest and only non French recruits. There are several walkers who have taken to calling us "Les jeunes" or the "young ones!" This is hysterical to us; as we are definitely not feeling as young as we used to be (I just turned 57 and Herman will be 60 this summer). The walking group had a special anniversary lunch after Sunday's 10 km walk which happened to fall on my birthday! It was a terrific way to celebrate. There was a 4 course meal at a local restaurant. I couldn't possibly eat all that was served, but the meal ended with a special frangipane cake which is eaten in France throughout January called the galette des rois (literally "the cake of the kings"). 

We continue to slowly navigate the process of getting my Dutch Citizenship. We finally received an apostilled new copy of our marriage certificate from Portland, OR after starting the request in early October. It cost about $200 to get the document with all the appropriate stamps from Portland, to Tessa in Bellingham, back to Salem for the apostille, back to Tessa and then finally here to us in Normandy. We are hoping that is the final piece of paperwork we need for the process. I have my next appointment in Paris at the Dutch Embassy on Feb 6th. Fingers crossed it is the last one before the swearing in ceremony which can take up to a year from submission of the paperwork. What a process! Expensive too. The test was 350 euros, the application is 945 euros and that does not include all the special documents like that marriage certificate and the trips to and from Paris each time we need to be there. Let's just say, I REALLY must want to be a Dutch citizen to jump through all these hoops!
 
Jan 22nd walk in Normandy

January 22nd walk in Normandy

A bit of England in Le Havre (February 2023)



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