French quarantine 2.0, day 30

7,007 steps More rain! My laundry out on the line has now been washed...many times. 

A bassoonist friend and I played a few Christmas songs with Eric on piano. No rehearsals except playing through everything once right before, because covid. 

An American friend gave us a plate of Christmas cookies. We tested each of the 3 varieties and the kids declared it a 3-way tie. "We need to get the recipes!" Zari declared. 

We played Cover Your Assets after lunch. It's a fun card game for the whole family. Since one of the kids was always on my computer playing their 15-minutes-per-day of Minecraft, we played musical chairs and swapped players every 15 minutes. 

By the late afternoon, the kids were getting a bit stir-crazy. Eric kept saying, "C'est trop de bruit, les enfants! Trop de bruit!" Finally he took Ivy and Inga out to the park. 

Zari, Dio, and I watched several episodes of Les Jérômes. They are two friends/business partners who are restoring an old chateau, doing all the work themselves. They also are big into ecological living, gardening, apiculture, and more. It's a really fun channel to watch if you speak French. I get tired watching how much work they do! 

I learned some new vocabulary yesterday: "réaliser une saignée dans un mur en béton/brique avec une rainureuse." Most walls here are built of stone, brick, or cement blocks (for newer construction). To cut channels for electricity or plumbing, you need the right tool. But I didn't know what the tool was, or what the channel was even called. 

I was imagining taking a jackhammer to the wall. But with some Googling, I figured it out. It turns out there's a specialized tool with diamond-tipped blades that cuts a channel as wide and as deep as you want it. Then you have to chisel out the bit in the middle by hand or with a small hammer tool. Well...now I have another tool I need to add to my wishlist: a rainureuse! 

A picture from our evening walk: the Monument des Morts.