Sometimes I ...

Since moving back to the states, there are some things I do now, just because I can. Sometimes I ...

... Go buy groceries at 11pm at night. Because the stores are open. Not only are they open, but the crowds are gone.

... Stare in wonder at the selection of biscuits and waffles and pancakes and sausages and breakfast burritos on the breakfast foods aisle.

... Get slightly choked up that the grocery store book and magazine section has more English language reading than I saw in the biggest bookstores in France.

... Can't help but laugh at the insanely huge and bloated vehicles that Americans drive. V8 hot rods I can understand, but why would anyone want to have to struggle around town in something as ungainly as a Hummer?

... Want to just lie flat and stretched out on the cool, air-conditioned floors everywhere. Last night a store manager came and apologized to us, and gave us free cinnamon twists, because the AC wasn't doing a very good job in his Taco Bell. He hasn't been in a movie theater in Nantes in the summer.

... Go to mega-bookstores like Barnes & Noble, and just sit in the magazine section and absorb the mass of English-language media, and revel in the sheer presence of it all. Can't do this for long, because people think you're weird if you just sit there, so I have to grab something off the shelf and pretend to read it while I sit being thankful. It is an odd world when you can have an entire magazine devoted to collectors of classic Datsuns from the '70's.

... Wish the USA had more political parties. I like the Libertarians and vote for them often, but no one is ever going to take them seriously enough to give them media coverage or put their candidates on stage for presidential debates. Why can't we have Greens and Tories and Socialistes and UMPs and a Centre Nationale des Independents et Paysans (a party for independents and peasants, literally - that's me on both counts). Europe can keep their National Fronts, though. We have enough of those nuts already.

... Am absolutely stunned by the variety of stuff on the frozen food aisle. Super U had eight kinds of frozen pizza. The Wal-Mart grocery has a whole aisle devoted to pizzas. And another for chicken wings.

... Reflexively point in delight every time I see an entire restaurant devoted to hot wings. Or Cajun food. Or Japanese, or Indian, or Jamaican.

... Am amazed by customer service. When you don't have it for a long time, it's a pleasant but bizarre shock. The guy at Woodcraft exchanged a power carving collet for us, without a receipt, just because he recognized us. And when a replacement wasn't in stock, he took one out of a packaged box from a carving kit and gave it to us, and took the box off the shelf until he could replace the collet on his own. In France it would have been a month before we got our replacement, if ever.

... Go out driving in the evening just to see the night life. Traffic is everywhere, people are out shopping and dining and seeing movies and generally running about. After 7pm, Herbignac was as dead and empty as the abandoned movie set of a 1940's Frankenstein movie. The only nightly sound was the creaking of the metal Super U sign as it dolefully clicked through its time and temperature displays.

... Wonder constantly what various friends in France and Europe would think of things. In the parking lots, "Gosh, what would Claudie think if she could see all these giant vehicles?" At the Fresh Market, "I wonder what Marcel would think of the selection of international spices and ingredients?" At the mall, "I wonder what Camille would think of all the odd fashions?" Out for dinner, "I wonder if we could ever get Beate into a Cajun restaurant?" One thing I do not have to wonder about is Pipe & Pint, because our French pipe collecting friends would love it. Guillaume, you need to fly over here just so you can enjoy open humidors of tobacco, cigars, good pipes, great beers, and wine and lambic all in the same shop...!

John Denver was right

So, here we are again at last, back in North Carolina! And what a long, strange trip it has been. I've been across the ocean and right through hell; I can be forgiven for one hackneyed expression. I've given this blog a bit of thought, probably more than it was ever worth, and have decided to keep it running and keep writing in it from time to time. It was that or shut it down for good... I gave that idea some consideration, on the grounds that I already had the Pipe Blog to write and another blog was one too many, but in the end I opted to keep this going for the simple reason that it's open-ended. The Pipe Blog is a focused subject, with limits, while this one better fits a wide range of rambling and digression. The near future will probably bring a good bit of commentary on what it's like to be back in the USA after seven years abroad, but for this evening, I'll let John Denver sum up my feelings best:

There and Back Again

Biz News - Fans of the more unusual Talbert Briars might want to take a look at this Ebay auction, on an odd piece done a couple years back for a special order. No new pipes from me, though, for reasons that are about to be obvious....


It seems like it has been a terribly long time since I have updated this blog, especially since the days when I could manage new posts each week, sometimes even every couple of days. Not so in 2008 - For us, like so many others, it has been a very difficult year and I have been too busy simply trying to stay fed and sheltered to keep up with my online writing. This may change soon, though, for today's picture is the harbinger of major news -

My wife and I are moving back to the United States!

We've lived nearly seven years in France. It's time. There are a multitude of reasons for the move - some expectedly angry and unpleasant, others fortuitous and perfectly timed. I may tell some harrowing stories in the future, but I don't want to dwell on specifics for the moment. Suffice to say that in one bright swoop, circumstances lined up ideally to enable us to make another transatlantic hop on our shoestring (nay, non-existent!) budget, and we chose to grab the opportunity. I write this sitting amidst packed boxes of books and clothes, and if all goes well, we should be leaving Brittany to return to North Carolina sometime in late April or May.

I depart France with the same jumble of extreme feelings I've had through all my time here. The people are wonderful, the bureacracy is a nightmare. The scenery is stunning, the communication is an eternal struggle. For every incredible vista of ruined castle overlooking rocky seaside cliffs, there are a dozen entreaties to government offices and business administration officials. It's nation where complete strangers will fly halfway across the country to bring you a bottle of their favorite wine, yet you have to literally scream and threaten violence just to get a fonctionnaire to acknowledge a fax. Living here has been like life with a beautiful trophy wife - lovely to look at, yet terribly difficult to maintain. But I know I will miss the place terribly, despite all the hassles, as we settle back into the relaxed, insular, Shire-like rythym of life in North Carolina. I can't help but think of Frodo Baggins, and wonder if I, too, will feel as though I'm "going back to sleep".

One aspect that I'm certain won't go back to sleep is my pipemaking - Talbert Briars will continue and carry on as always, and I look forward to once again being able to compete with the ranks of American pipemakers on an even footing, unhampered by the horrible dollar-to-euro currency imbalance that has dogged so much of our time here. It's also going to be a wonder to really be able to focus on my work again, without the pressures and immense weights of worry we have suffered for so long. All pipemaking will be shut down for the next several months, and our workshop is now closed in France. Some of the French machinery may be sold, some is definitely going with me, but it will take a long time to design and build our new workshop in the US, and until then there will be no new pipes (For those who may be interested, we have exactly two pipes remaining in stock for sale - one Ligne Bretagne and one Talbert Morta. Contact us soon if you're interested in either, before they get packed!)

I know the pipe community will probably have questions for us, but I'd ask that they be either posted here as comments, or held back until I can assemble a FAQ for this move, which will answer some of the obvious inquiries like, "Will Mortas and Ligne Bretagnes continue?", "Are you selling any of your stock and tools?", "Will your stamping change?", "Will your pricing change?", and so on. I have enough to do with the move, I'd as soon not have to type replies to the same questions many times over! And some questions have no answers as yet... The Ligne Bretagne stummels and hardware are going with me, for example, but I have not yet decided if they will change name. Morta pipes may continue if I can secure a reliable source of high quality blocks, but the material is hard to come by, and I am not interested in producing a substandard product. Time will tell...

In the very near future, the website will go offline except for a front page linking to this blog and our "Life in France" blog, where I hope to chart the progress of our move and our reactions to re-immersion in the American lifestyle and culture (Things I look forward to - KFC, good Mexican food, easy talking, and being able to get things accomplished without fifteen notarized attestations from the mairie and the préfecture plus stamped copies of every utility bill we've ever had and our marriage license. Things I do not look forward to - Loud, belligerent people, US non-health care, and Paris Hilton... though I think we have managed to foist her off on the Brits now). People interested in this social stuff may want to add us back to their Favorites for a bit, because the blogs are likely to be more active soon.

And speaking of, I'm currently looking for a good title for the "Life in France" blog if anyone has any ideas, since "An American Pipemaker in Brittany" won't work anymore. I'm going to miss sights like this being outside my front door...