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.
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| Pews removed from the church, mud and rocks in front. |
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| Flooded church |
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| The main square, and the community center building |
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| 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.
