Regional qualifications

Benjamin also finally got to swim in a meet again. As with Noah's meet, parents weren't allowed to attend, so the coach took Benjamin and his teammate to St Quentin for the meet. 

 

 

Benjamin improved his times on every race, finished first in 200-meter backstroke, and qualified for regionals in 3 races. Not bad for the first meet in 16 months!

Tour du Général Mangin

 Today, with our friends who were visiting for the weekend, we went to the Tour de Général Mangin, located near us in the Retz forest. The original observation tower was a key element in World War I, and this replica was reconstructed near the original location. 

From here, you can see our village, Puiseux-en-Retz

Frédéric was not so excited about being 25 meters above the ground.

American WWII Vehicle Exhibition at Margival

We've visited Margival before. This was the site of Hitler's bunkers on the western front, built by 30,000 forced laborers. After the war, the camp was used for multiple other purposes, including the 3rd US Armored Division, a recruitment center for female personnel in Indochina, a NATO command center, air defense, commando training center, and parachutist center, before being decommissioned in 1992. Now, it's maintained by a group of volunteers. 

We visited it today to see an exhibition of American WWII vehicles and camps. One of the members of the organization took us on a tour around the grounds and inside the bunker.

American Jeep in front of German bunker

Inside the bunker

Benjamin

Noah

First swim meet in over a year

Noah finally got to swim in a meet again today!

 

Because of ongoing covid restrictions, parents weren't allowed to attend, making this the first meet ever that neither Frédéric nor I was at. 

But Noah did great even if we weren't there to cheer him on. He improved his times and came in first in 50-meter backstroke, 50-meter breaststroke, 50-meter freestyle, and 100-meter freestyle, and his team won both their relays.

Opening Up, and Poppies

Starting today, June 17, the nationwide mask mandate for outdoors is lifted except for places with a lot of people - stadiums, markets, crowded places, etc. Masks are still required indoors.

Starting Sunday, June 20, curfew is lifted. 

 

And France approved the vaccine for 12-17 year olds starting June 15th, and yesterday, reduced the wait time to three weeks between vaccines, instead of 39 days as had been the practice since March. So the boys get their first dose today! 

Poppies near our village

And wheat.

Pool Inauguration

The stars finally aligned, which is to say, it was both warm enough outside and Frédéric got the pool water clean enough to inaugurate the 2021 season!

 

Cleaning up the church

 The boys and I went to help clean up the church after the mudslide, along with one of Noah's friends and his older sister. The floor was covered in six inches of mud - and so were we, by the time we finished. 

When we got there, mud was up to the doorway. This is an "after" (or "during") photo Noah took, after we'd shoveled and scraped out a large part of the mud. There were just the right number of people helping, enough to advance quickly but not get in each other's way too much.

Vaccines and mudslides

Frédéric got his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday, so that is good news. No side effects so far. And France will allow children aged 12 and up to be vaccinated starting June 15th, so the boys ought to be able to get their first dose before our trip home this summer.

In less good news:

When you buy a house in France, a required disclosure is the "natural and technological risks." The risk in our village is mudslides. We've been here 15 years now, and so far have only really seen a mudslide once, when a chunk of hill fell onto the road about 100 yards down from our house. 

The torrential rains Wednesday night were something else altogether. The boys were meant to be swimming, but as there was thunder, and swimming was outdoors, the pool hadn't been opened. We waited about 45 minutes, and decided that was enough, we would go home. 

And then the rain started. It poured, and when we got to our village, the village employee had put his car across the road to block it off, so we had to go around the back way. That wasn't a whole lot better, with many areas where there were rivers running across the road, from one side of the forest to the other. But we made it home without incident, and being higher up in the village, our house and yard were spared.

Meanwhile, this is what happened to the center of the village, which is much lower than we are. The house behind the fence at right had water and mud up to four feet in the house.

Pews removed from the church, mud and rocks in front.

Flooded church

The main square, and the community center building

The main square, firetrucks, and town hall

The mayor and other council members and inhabitants, firemen, farmers, and road service have all been working hard to clean up the mess. The boys and I will go see how we can help out tomorrow morning.