Les Impressions

We’ve been in France for nearly a week and I love the place. There are a lot of unique idiosyncrasies about the place that remind me of my time in Montreal.

Le Driving – the French can smell fear, I swear it. The slightest vehicular-hesitation and we lose our spot. I’ve got a massive Renault Transit van – great vehicle and it increases our street creed. I love their use of yield signs – minimal use of traffic lights and lots of action.

Le French – the locals take a lot of pity on my French. So far the best situation was when I was struggling to sign up for the gym. Eventually, a guy came by and said (in French) to the receptionist that she’d better speak English to me or we were going to be there all afternoon!

Les doggies – the French love their dogs. I wonder what the per capita ratio-de-chiens would be. They are well fed and well loved so they don’t hassle cyclists or runners (so far). Le poop is a bit of an issue but it’s their country.

Le maison du pain – we are staying at friends of Monica’s. It’s a great place and they are very kind. However, there is a large basket with 4-6 types of bread placed on the table at every meal – quite challenging for a starch addicted person such as myself. I really do like their way of eating. We all sit down properly for lunch and dinner. Ced talked about when he lived with an Aussie guy – “he ate everything between two pieces of bread”. He also said that after a few weeks, the Aussie guy asked him why he was always laying out a plate for him. I guess bread was just fine…

I’ve been spending 8-12 euro per day on parking meters. Ced recommended that we simply buy a 1 euro ticket and leave the car for the day. He said that they don’t write tickets for anyone. We laughed at the French solution – you “kind of” follow the law. Anyhow, I bought my one euro ticket and came back a few hours later.

Found an 11 euro ticket on my windscreen.

Guess they knew I was Canadian.