Oops. Our weekend continued.

Continued from the post below. Sorry hit the wrong button








Anyway, we left the village fat and happy, but not before visiting the facilites. Lane and I were fine with the turkish toilets, Dana made due, Audrey had a bit of mental block. We'll have to work on that.

Yes that's a picture of it. Use your imagination. Here's a hint though should you ever use one. Stand back before flushing.

Back to Switzerland. Our guide, Jennifer, wanted to say goodbye to some friend of hers that were leaving Geneva and heading back to the states, so we headed to another country. We Americans often equate our travel from state to state to Europeans travel from country to country. The difference of course, we assume, is customs officials and prideful welcomes. I drove into Iowa once. It was a bigger deal. There was a sign welcoming me and everything. The drive into Switzerland? No such sign. I can only guess that there are larger, more important, border crossings. But why? If we can get over on a two lane road in the hills without a whisper, why bother with any crossings at all? Can't figure this one out. The bummer is that we didn't even get a stamp in our passports. From what I hear it's actually quite hard to get them. You have to purposely stop at a customs crossing and ask for a stamp. Odd.

So there it was our first trip to another European country. Not as eventful as the many to come, I hope. But fun and very beautiful. I've posted some pics on the website. Paris is just 4 days away. We can't wait.

Our weekend

Today, we went to Switzerland.

We hadn't planned on it, but we were so close we decided to head on over (more on that in a minute). The real purpose of the trip was to head to Yvoire, France, a still intact midieval era village. We were very excited to go as this was really our first trip anywhere outside of the Grenoble area since we moved. Luckily, our friend (and tour guide) was willing to go and even offered to drive. The trip there was pretty uneventful except for one thing, French toll roads.

You can use the national roads to get anywhere for free; however, these roads are meant to get from one village to the next, not travel any kind of distance. So, most people opt to spend twice as much versus taking twice as long. How much could it be? Oh, about 30 Euros to drive 2 hours and back. I'm seriously beginning to wonder how people afford to live over here.

The village was great. It sits right on the shore of Lake Leman (probably better known as Lake Geneva). The village also boasts being over 700 years old. I've got a brochure that spells out some of the history of village. It was interesting, but it didn't mention how many years it's been a tourist trap. I'm guessing less than 100 or so, but you never know.

Alright, I'm being cynical. It wasn't that bad. Actually it was quite something. It was full of stores and shops full of hand made potter, crystal, and about anything you could think of. I think I still have a slanted view about how things will be. When I heard "medieval village" I was hoping it extended beyond the buildings. But, alas, there was no blacksmith, jousting, or even stocks (which might have came in handy for Lane :-)). On the bright side they was no plague and no chamber pots being dumped in the streets.

So, we left the village with some pottery and gifts in our hands and fresh perch and ice cream in our bellies.

3 Little things that make the biggest differences

Toilets

Ok this is a huge category. Where do I start. First, no little levers to flush. Instead two separate buttons await you, one of which may or may not be larger than the other. When forced you can easily decide what the two buttons are for (think about it, #1 and #2); however, the first time you use the facilities, it really throws you for a loop.

Secondly is the toilet paper. Standard white toilet paper is a rarity. Yet, if is pink or peach scented toilet paper that you want, no problem. Who wouldn't want their backside to smell like a fruit salad?

Finally is just the attitude towards public restroom. The easiest way to explain it is that in the U.S. usage of bathroom is a right. Over here it's more of a privelege. Most stores don't have facilities, only restaurants have them. Even at the mall, it'll cost you 50 cents or so to even get in. Just odd to have to put so much effort into planning how and where you'll use the restroom during your daily errands.

Plenty more oddities in this category, but I'll save 'em for later. Besides I'll probably need some pics to illustrate.

Pocket change

Got a little change in your pocket going jing a ling a ling? There could easily be 10 or 15 Euros in there. No bills smaller than a 5 with 1 and 2 Euro coins used instead. I actually like this difference. No more looking in your fat wallet to discover that somehow you've ended up with 12 one dollar bills. Also, it's much easier to buy a coke at the vending machine. The days of trying to iron out a crumpled bill on the side of the machine are over.

The only problem with this is that money seems to disappear faster. Back home I used to toss spare change into a big glass jar. If I get into that practice here, we'll end up with more in the jar than we do in the bank. Plus lots of things cost a euro or two, so you've always got to have few in your pocket (more on that in the next section).


Shopping carts

Probably the oddest little change that is very hard to adapt to. First, you need a euro to get one. You put it in this mechanism on the cart and it unlocks, the euro then rides around with you while you shop, then when you're done you get the same coin back. It's so simple, yet unbelievably effective at keeping the carts together without the need to pay some teenager to do it. The only problem is that I would expect these two benefits. 1) Cheaper prices. WOW! I'd hate to see what a pork chop would cost over here without this system. 2) Less damage to vehicles by shopping carts. Pretty much a moot point. Cars over here may be 3/4 the size of cars in the U.S., but parking spots are easily less than 1/2 the size. It's almost impossible to get out your car without bumping the car next to you.

Also, on a shopping cart, all 4 wheels pivot. Don't laugh, this is a much bigger deal than you think. When I go to the store there is no danger of my poor French giving me away. Long before I speak, I am spotted as a foreigner by my huge, out-of-control, turns from one isle to the next. Honestly, I don't know how they do it. People are buzzing through the store at full speed and here I come looking like I'm drunk and on ice. The kids think that it is hilarious and I'm worried about crashing into some 80 year old woman who'll probably then break her baguette over my head.

Well that's enough for now. I should have some good pictures after this weekend. We are driving 2+ hours each way to visit a pottery shop in a small village. If I were living in the U.S. right now this would not be a happy sentence, but over here I'm actually looking forward to it.

Castorama

Castorama. I'm not homesick yet, but when I get there, I'll probably go here. If I were to wear earmuffs and walk around (without reading labels) I'd swear I was back in the U.S. Other than the language it is virtually indistinguishable from your run-of-the-mill super hardware store in the U.S.(Lowes, Menards, Home Depot). It is strangely similar right down to the seasonal isle chock full of stainless steel grills and lawn furniture. The kids and I had stopped by once before to look into buying a new swingset/play area. We found one we liked and tonight we returned to purchase. Now our vehicle is a VW golf. If you're not familar with it, well it's not an SUV, let's put it that way. So, my options were to either haul it to my house in 18 separate trips or have them deliver it. Not as easy a decision as you might think since setting up delivery requires much more conversation (in French). Luckily our new best friend from Cat, Jennifer(not just because she speaks both languages) offered to go with. So I put away the rope and tie downs and decided to go with the delivery.

If you've been keeping track of my blog, you should know that there is more than just a language barrier to deal with. Their is also a cultural one, which means that this was the beginning of the story. Things are just done differently here. Not worse or better necessarily, just different. Let me lay out our trip to buy one, albeit rather large, item. I'll break it into steps, should you ever need to visit a French mega hardware store. Keep in mind I am catching only bits of each conversation and even our translator is not fluent.

1. Check the outside display models and select the model that you want.
2. Go to the information desk to inquire where to purchase the swingset.
3. Go the "Jardin" area as directed by the info desk. Find (easier than at Lowes, I must say) and consult with a member of the Castorama Jardin team. He will tell you that yes the item is in stock and that you need to set up a delivery date before purchasing said item. Okeedokee.
4. Go to the Delivery desk. Explain your situation and recieve a tenative delivery date.
5. Go back to the helpful "Jardin" employee and assure him that you have a delivery date. He will supply you with a printout of the catalog item that you will eventually need to use to pay for the item. I say "eventually", because you must first have the price of delivery added to your ticket. Soooo.
6. Go right back to the delivery desk and have a seat with one of their helpful friendly workers (seriously). Here they will actually set up the delivery and add it to the ticket. While here you must also try to give directions and draw a map to a home that you yourself couldn't find without the help of Mr. Tom tom.
7. Take the newly revised ticket to the cashier and pay for both the item and delivery.
8. Hope like crazy you did everything right and that next Monday you don't have to explain to your kids why the swingset isn't here yet.

And as the the French say "Voila". There it is! At least I hope so.

Update of Friday and Saturday.

First and foremost I may have been premature with my praises of the French medical system. After only one dose of medicine for Audrey and I, I realized that we clearly did not have enough medicine for the required 8 days. This was of course after a short frantic period of thinking we were overdosing. Anyway, after much discussion and a call to the Dr through an interpreter it was painfully clear that we were going to have to go back to the Pharmacy and explain the problem. We fretted about this for a while and I final decided to just learn a few numbers and phases, suck it up, and go. I did decide to go to a different pharmacy (they're everywhere), not wanting to mistakenly place blame or insinuate incompetence. Plus, I thought, there is always a chance that a pharmacy in one village thinks the people in the next village's pharmacy are idiots, couldn't hurt. Soooo, the kids and I marched in with our medication. I struggled through with my poor French and explained how many doses were needed and how many I actually possessed. The woman behind the counter listened to my terrible attempt, punched a few keys on the calculator, looked at me and said "You'll need another bottle". Great Thanks.

Later that day, I also managed to go the post to pick up a package, buy a book of French stamps, and a book of stamps to send mail to the U.S.. Again, I had practiced a few phrases before I left, but it was still extremely satisfying to walk out with all three desired items after not having spoken or heard a single word in English. It's amazing how fast you start to pick it up when you have to.

On to Saturday.

We went to our first real "brocante" today. It's basically a flea market, but with some nicer things. The old saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure" seems to be especially true when everything you look at is of a foreign nature. Almost everything we saw would have been a pretty good find at a regular garage sale. Luckily, our newly acquired VW golf (used) doesn't have much trunk space and I have yet to learn how to say "do you deliver" in French. I'm sure we'll be back.

Then after lunch in a cafe, we went on a hike with a new friend. It was over 2 miles out and (obviously) over 2 miles back, during which time we saw numerous waterfalls going down the mountain. Several of these were actually on the path itself and we had to cross, much to Lane's delight. Supposedly there was a very large waterfall, not crossable, towards the end of the trail; however, we wisely turned around before we got to it. Wisely, because with 1/4 a mile left in the hike, we lost Lane. Not physically, but mentally. It got bad in a hurry. It took pizza and a movie back at home to get him back to normal.

All in all, a great day.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY CASEY!!!!!!

Wish we could be there, Case-man! At least we get to start celebrating his birthday before everyone else.

First trip to....

We all went for a nice 2 hour drive this morning through the French countryside. Trouble is it was broken into 4 - 30 minutes drives to and from the same doctor's office. Audrey and I picked up a chest cold and a nasty cough so after a day or two of hoping it would go away we finally scheduled a visit. Now before you go thinking that our two trips were the fault of more French red tape, let me stop you. We were amazed and a little leary of how easy the French medical system is. Basically a trip the doctor goes like this. Ring the bell, walk in, maybe wait a little in the waiting room (we didn't have to), shake hands with the doc, tell them your name and age, hop on the table, get a diagnosis and a prescription, pay your bill (22 euros per person per office visit), then say "au revoir" and leave. I didn't even pick up a pen during the visit and it took all of 15 minutes to check out both Audrey and myself. The reason for the two trips was our fault. I mentioned that Audrey had been on an antibotic 2 weeks ago, and the doc wanted to know the type so she didn't double up. We forgot to bring the information, so off we went.

The trip to the pharmacy was equally easy and cheap. Nothing to fill out, no insurance card just pay for the drugs and go. Actually, French nationals have a card that make prescriptions really cheap. When you say "Non, je n'ai pas" (No, I don't have), they wince and apologize for the price. 2 rounds of antibiotics and 2 rounds of prescription strength ibuprophen = another 22 euros. Crazy how cheap it is.

Yes you could multiply every euro amount by 1.5 or so and make it seem more expensive, but we try not to do that as it'll make you not want to buy anything. That and it's not really Europe's fault that the American dollar stinks right now. Food is one item that is a little expensive over here, even without doing the conversion. It's worth it though. Gas is another. Ok, it's not a little expensive. It's really expensive. Americans not blessed in the art of unit conversion are bound to think they are getting a deal at first. The signs look good when you see numbers like "1.50". Seems like pre 9/11 again. Then you start to calculate. 1.50 per liter times 3.79 liters per gallon equals 5.69 per gallon. Then if you want to convert euros to dollars, it really gets bad. Somewhere between $8.50 - $9.00 per gallon is where you end up. Be sure to think about this whenever I post pictures of their tiny little cars.

One last thought, if you've got our vonage number, feel free to call. I finally got it working the other day.

And thanks for leaving all the comments.