Getting a French Driver's license

These are a few pictures from the "Toques et Clocher" festival.  Caleb, Micah, and I went.  It was quite crowded and I can not imagine seeing more cars parked.  They were packed in every spot.  I did enjoy seeing some antique cars and some wooden models of the churches that have been repaired.  Sunday went well.  We received word that one of Angie's uncles had passed away.  He had been sick for a while, but it is still sad to hear about it, and not be able to be with the family.  We enjoyed the services in Carcassonne and also listening to the morning services of our sending church.  Today I dropped of the paperwork for our drivers license exchange.  If you do not remember the history of our driver's license issues, let me summarize.  We found out that getting a french driver's license the french way is very expensive.  We also found out that there were several states that had a exchange agreement with France.  Colorado was one of these states, and also one that did not require proof of residence.  It was actually cheaper for us to fly to Colorado and exchange our Texas driver's license than to go through the process here (classes, driving lessons, exams).  Thankfully I have a aunt that lives in the Denver area that hosted us for our trips.  When we arrived and received our Colorado driver's license we tried to exchange them, but because our visa (carte de sejour) was issued before our driver's license we could not.  We did found out that we could drive with a US license the entire time that we were students.  So we had some time to spare.  After language school we returned to the states to get our visa changed to non-students.  We arrived back in France, and received our visas (thankfully before 1 year was up, because you can only drive for one year in France with a US permit if you are not students).  All the paperwork we needed was a couple of photos, proof of residence in France, marraige license (for Angie to show her maiden name), official translation of the Colorado license, stamped and addressed envelopes, copes of our visas and driver's license.  I got that all turned in this morning and ours should arrive soon.  I didn't even have to pay, excluding the cost of the translation.  I think this could be the smoothest paperwork trail that we have done since being in France.  I will let you know for sure when we have the French "permis de conduire" in hand.  God bless, JASON   

Toques et Clochers

An aerial view of Limoux

Notre Dame de Marseilles is
 the church that will be restored.

We have had a good week.  We managed to survive the ten hours of French on Sunday.  I'm still having some French phrases slipping out when I am speaking English.  We have started the process to get our American Drivers Licenses exchanged for French ones.  So far it seems that this might be a smooth process.  Bible study went real well last night, we had four people including my langauge helper.  My stand at the market went well this morning as well. There were about 10 people who stopped by.  One reason was because there was a lot of people out because "Toques et Clochers" starts today. . . okay that might need some more explanation.  Toques (the hat chefs wear) et Clochers (bell tower) is a festival unique to this region of France.  It celebrates French cuisine and wine.  There are activities all weekend long and proceeds are used to repair one of the church bell towers in the area.  They are expecting a crowd of 50,000 people (about 5 times to population of Limoux). They have 120 police, 60 other security personell, 20 red cross volunteers and a helicopter standing by to help if someone is injured.  The main events are the concerts, meals, and wine tasting.  They have already closed many streets in Limoux.  I might stop by tommorrow afternoon to see what's going on.  I have been advised by several people, that it is not good for young children. I am a little saddened by the fact that they cancelled basketball practice.  I am looking forward to the weekend.  God bless, JASON