Time flies when you’re doing nothing in particular and strangely enough, there doesn’t seem to be enough time to do exactly that. One day slipped into the next and YES, you’ve guessed it – no travel this month either – so lots of BlahBlahBlah. But still enjoyed some of the small things you forget are around you like this wonderful building right behind our apartment building on Rue Pierre Mauroy

We did the regular mechanics of life; laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, bills, haircuts, pharmacy runs. We had a bit more cleaning to take care of since our once a week house cleaner went on maternity leave and we haven’t requested a replacement. We also worked on finalizing our trip to the US next month. Our Oregon drivers licenses are expiring this year and unfortunately, for those over 65, the state requires an office visit for either license or ID. Thus, our US trip which we will also use to see family and friends. On our flight over, G will remain in Chicago, our layover, and I will continue to Portland. He will go up to Milwaukee and visit his sister and the rest of the family for a few days and I will visit with family and friends in Portland where he will continue on to meet up with me. It’s a quick 12-day round trip, if you count the travel time.

This month also marked International Women’s Day on March 8. People are urged to join marches in some 150 towns – including Paris, Bordeaux, Lille and Marseille as well as smaller places such as Saint-Malo – to mark International Women’s Day. It aims to provide a platform in the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to topics such as gender equality, reproductive choice, and violence towards women. Here in Lille it was good to see so many families out on the march. And, I caught a photo of a bike that was great from both sides. I missed getting the “R” in revolution in the photo and I loved the decal.

Still not quite over that hard flu, I found I could eat little in one sitting which left G to deal with any leftovers and as a result he honed the art of cooking in less quantity. Trust me, for him that was almost sacrilegious.

We worked on the second puzzle, which turned out to be much harder than the one we did last month and sorry to say that G will insist on giving you pictures of this one too.

On the health news, it has been 16 weeks since I started the Lion’s Mane in hopes to mimic the studies done on memory improvement (see blog November 2025 for reference to my attempt to become a drug smuggler). I’m sad to report that taking it was in vain. After choking down horse sized pills for the length of time recommended, it improved absolutely nothing in the memory department. So, I am glad that I kept the neurologist appointment next week in order to rule out any nefarious reasons that I’ve become so poor with my memory. I’d ask for a brain transplant but I’d most likely get stuck with one from the poultry family. Be very careful what you ask for.

Speaking of which, that brings me to the highlight of this month. G was bemoaning the fact that we had nothing to report and therefore nothing to show in pictures – after all, that is his bailiwick. Towards the end of this month, he got out of bed to travel down our hall to the bathroom about 3:30 am, only to walk into a stream of water on the floor. He quickly roused me and following him back, I was shocked to find a lake in our hall and a waterfall streaming from ceiling to floor on the inside wall, along the entire length of the hall. Yes, he got his wish for there are plenty of photos to show you.

I grabbed towels and mop, gave him the keys to the apartment above us as he ran out the door. The neighbors have all given us keys – I like to think it’s because we’re such trustworthy folks. In reality, we are most likely to be at home if they have locked themselves out because ‘nous sommes plus âgés’ (we’re older- the retirees). And almost everyone has done it at least once.

Once he returned, he reported to me that he banged on their door to no avail and then let himself in, yelling “Anyone Home?!!”. Also no answer but now he was standing deep in water and the bathroom sink faucet was running full on, filling the sink, the floor and the hall. He took pictures, turned off the faucet and calling out again, left the apartment to return downstairs. We spent the next hour cleaning up our place and in hindsight we should have gone back up to mop out their apartment but we didn’t even think of it as we trudged back to bed. It might have saved us some further wall and ceiling damage.

As the story played out, all four were in bed, sound asleep and oblivious to G’s knocking or entrance. And no one – absolutely no one knows how on earth the faucet was left full on. It’s a mystery to them all. Must have been quite a bender for them all to have suffered such a memory lapse. Maybe I should drag them along to my neurologist appointment.

Apartment insurance is required for each tenant. Our landlord came to help us fill out the forms to submit. Two of the four upstairs apologized profusely, the other two we have yet to see. All doors along that wall are swollen and unable to shut, which include our office, the W/C and alas, our front door. We have been forcing it shut in order to lock it but it will need repairing the most because of that. The wall is cracked in several places, water stains are abundant on the wall as well as the ceiling and plaster is starting to flake off. In the hall outside our door, chunks of the ceiling have fallen and the electricity cut to the ceiling light as well as the elevator button.

So that is our tale of the month. I don’t know what they were smoking or drinking. I just pray my memory doesn’t get so bad that I end up doing the same thing in our W/C.