France 2004

My Name is Bett. On May 5th, 2004, my husband Tony, my 20 year old sister Abby, and 17 year old sister Christy went on a vacation of a lifetime to Paris and Clermont France. This is a rough journal of it. I say rough because its missing a lot of stuff. I hope to go thru it and add things as I have time. You can comment on entries. I hope you enjoy reading and get a glimse of how wonderful France is. Trip Pictures

Friday, September 03, 2004

France Adventure Part 1

The flight from Miami to Paris was very comfortable. We rode on Air France. The chairs were comfy, and the service was great. I slept quite a bit on the way there. It was about an 8 hour flight. We left at 5pm EST and arrived at Charles deGaulle airport about 9am French Time.

We were all pretty tired when we got off the plane, but I didn't want to pay money to a taxi driver so we decided to take the train to our flat.

It was quite an adventure, but we figured out how to get to the station were we were staying. When we got there we were so excited. We got to see some of the small towns on the outskirts of North Paris. There was much grafiti on the walls of the track. Then we started to enter more densly populated areas, and then we went under ground.

When we finally emerged onto the street, after taking two other subways to get to the right one, the city looked so different than anything we had seen before. The streets are lined with buildings all connected to each other. All along the side walks are little cafes and stores. Also little produce stands and news stands. Lots of people also were walking quickly in all directions. The streets were narrow and packed with tiny cars and moter cycles. On the side walk people were walking fast and dressed warmly. The tempature must have been about 60. We had all our luagage, so we quickly figured out which way to go and headed that way. Our street was just a block up and we turned down it. It also was lined with buildings connected. Just different color doors and over hangs told them apart. Also they were differing heights. We got up to the flat and found our tiny little home. The flat is 225 sq feet. After we put our bags away and used the restrooms, we went out to see the town.
A little bit of breakfast set us back 41(E).

Then I decided to buy some clothes, since I only brought 1 pair of pants and 3 shirts. Also I was freezing. Luck was on my side when I found a used clothes store at the foot of our street. I bought a pair of green pants which I wore the rest of the trip except one week when I was in Clermont when I washed them. They were so comfortable. I also bought a jacket. Each of these items were 4 (E) .


The next day we saw The Palace at Versailles, and I broke the anti terrorist scanner at the palace by pushing a red button-- I guess I was used to pushing buttons around town. It seems we push buttons to get out of the trains and out of buildings, so I assumed it was another button to push so my bag could go through the x-ray machine.
My sisters did notice the lady operating the machine smiling a little, I quess because she couldn't believe that the machine was taken down by a customer simply pushing a button :-)

France Adventure Part 2

We saw the Eiffel Tower. I stayed on the first level(57 meters--171 feet). This made Tony very nervous. Abby, Christy and I walked to the second level. The third level is well over 300 meters--over 1000 feet!!! But it was closed for something.

While my and my sisters went to the second level, Tony ate a hot dog and drank some coffee in a restaurant on the second level--it was really cool. The whole city of Paris stretched out in ever direction. There were many tourists.The thir level was closed so we had to stay there. We filmed all around. On the way down we ran into an indian guy who wanted something from us, but we weren't sure what it was. He kept showing us his passport. He also had headphones and kept wanting us to listen to them.It was quite scary. I taped him incase he didn't something weird so we could show the police.We finally broke away from him and got down to the second level.When we got back to where Tony was and we all drew and painted. We stayed on the second level until the tower closed--11pm. Then we walked to the Champ De Elysees. We ended up eating some tex-mex food on our walk.
We went to Channel and the different clothing makers--window browsing. A pair of blue jeans cost 2100 euros.
Daylight seems to be very long here. We found out sunrise is at 6:15am AND sunset is around 9:25pm!!!
You don't realize how late it is because of the long days. We are walking a lot all over the place.
Today we plan to go to the Louvre Museum.

France Adventure Part 3

These key boards are very difficult to type on. The keys are close and they moved things around.


The euro (E) to dollar exchange was 1E to $1.32. I bought two pairs of chauasers ( shoes) one regular canvas tennis shoes(7.99E) and one pair of sandles(19.99E). I also bought une pair of pants (4E), one polar flece sweat shirt (4E), one sweater(4E), kahki trench coat(5E), and six pairs of stockings because its freezing here. I bought the pair of pants the first day and I have worn them every single day unwashed till yesterday when I washed them in our friend's real washing machine! We wash our socks and underwear out in the sink and dry them on the lines we have strung about our apartment in Paris. Here, in Clermont, they have a washing machine so we washed all our sweaters and pants.


I was going to bring a bunch of dirty undershirts with me but I forgot them at the little apartment. So when we (Tony and I) got here we only had the clothes on our backs. Well I did bring an extra pair of panties, but tony didn't. The girls had all their bags and didn't forget any. Right now I am wearing Cecile's PJ's since all my clothes are on the line. We have been taking showers only every other day because of the lack of hot water at the apartment in Paris. The water lasts about 3 minutes and must be conserved. You get used to not showerings. Old Spice deordant really works!!!


Cecile is really cool. At 32, she is a school teacher of English for 11 to 16 year olds. She is 5'3 110 lbs, brown redish hair, big brown eyes, and looks a bit like Juliette Binoche. She is a lovely person and I am having the best time talking to her. She speaks English perfecly and has no problems speaking fluently in it. She has been teaching me French as we walk along the tiny roads of this town.


Dan is 31 year old American who moved here when he was 19. He is working on his distertion which is on the problems of translating. He teaches English to French college students in Paris. The reason they own the tiny apartment in Paris is so that he has somewhere to live while he is there. Right now he is on the summer break just like we all are. Cecile's school goes for a another month. They are they nicest people in the whole world.


Baby Mark is learning both French and English. Dan speaks to him in English and Cecile in French. His first word was Cheese. He is always smiling and hasn't cried one time. He wakes up at 10am if they let him and doesnt wake up at all at night. He loves Christy the best and is very cuddly. I have never met such a good tempered baby.


This town, Clermont-Ferrand, has 130 thousand inhabitants who mostly work for Michellin Tire corp which is headquartered here. It is high up but I can't remember the exact meters. Its quite large and looks alot like Paris except for the "highways" which are alot bigger than anything in Paris and alot smaller than our regular roads in Tampa. The town is built on a dormant volcano. The foliage and the grass is a bright vert (green). The buildings are a dark color and the cathedral is black because they are made from lavac rock. Its very very gothic. Tony is taking lots of picture. The roads of the street are also made fromt he black stone.
There are tons of college kids hanging around the streets looking gothic and very cool because there are two colleges here: Baisle Pascal University and another one which I forget the name of. There are also lots of shops catering to the punk kids who live here. We haven't had a chance to check them out yet.


The apartment which we are staying at now here in Clermont is quite large. Just a little smaller than your house I think. It only has one WC and then the bathtub and sink are separated by a few rooms. Tony and I are sleeping in their bedroom, Christy is sleeping in Mark's( their 16 month old baby) and Abby is staying in the library. It has wooden floors, one master bedroom, one childs bedroom, one library, a sitting room, a formal dining room, one WC, one bathroom, one junk room which can be turned into a guest bedroom, one kitchen/eating area, and 600 square foot yard. They have a washing machine just like Alfredo’s but it doesn’t have the drying part. Althought it is the first floor apartment in a 4 story building, the yard is not shared with the other occupants. They bought the house from her family. She grew up here and her parents live 5 minutes away.


Dan, Cecile, and baby Mark are staying at her parents house while we are here. Her parents are retired and are vacationing in Italy right now, I think. We will be eating our meals at her parents house becuase it is much bigger and has a dishwasher. Yesterday we had lunch and dinner there. For lunch we used a Rachette Set which we melt the cheese in a little oven set in the middle of the table, then we pour the melted cheese over potatoes. Cut ham, sausage, endive, and radishes are also served. We ate a bit late : 2pm. So for dinner we only had soup de poisson (fish soup) and du pan (bread). After every meal we eat formage.


Yesterday, after lunch, Dan and Cecile took us to a castle about 30 minutes from their home. It was a small castle with small well sculptered gardens. It was up the mountain and it was bitterly cold. We had a guilded tour of the inside in French. Dan translated it for us when she finished, but it wasn’t very interesting. Mostly only telling us where things were from. I want to know how they lived.
Being built in the 15th century, the castel walls were a meter and a half thick. We have pictures of the outside. We weren’t allowed to take pictures on the inside, but it doesn’t look like much. There was a chaple in the first chamber.
The next room to the left has two windows facing a valley with bright vert grass and dark green ever green trees. The room itself is painted baby blue with white molding of fluers (flowers) and birds. The moldings are all over the walls and not just in the corners. It was a bright and happy room.
The next room was a dining room which is still used by the current owners, who are not noble. It had a bronze Dutch chandler. The room was darker only having two deep windows. I think the walls were stone. It had a Spanish Renessance painting.
The next room we saw was the kitchen at one time but now is a sitting room. The next room was had the well. It was also stone walled and very dull. It had some broken stone statues which had been found in the garden during a restoration in 1900.
The next room was the pantry and had lots of tools for harvesting wheat, combing wool, hanging meat and other such things. There was also a deep place to put ice they collected in a cave near by to keep all year long.
And that was it. Not very much. Also when we got out side Dan told us that castel owners would knock out the dividers to make two windows into one to reduce their taxes becuase they got taxed for the number of windows they had. I thought that was interesting.


France Aventuré Part 4

France Aventuré Part 4
The apartment in Paris is 225 sq feet and probably would rent for 1000E a month. Their apartment in Clermont-FD is around 1000 sq feet.


We have been in Clermont-FD for five days. We were planning on leaving tomorrow, but we have decided to extend our stay one more day. The reason for this is because we are having such a great time and the Heinkles were expecting us to leave on Tuesday and had planned another day of fun for us. So we rebooked our train tickets for Tuesday at 12 :55pm. Time is measured on the military time. Shops close around 19h.


The train we took wasn’t a high speed train, but Tony estimated that it went 70 miles an hour. The train ride took 4 hours. We left at 12 :11pm and arrived in Clermont-FD at 4 :15pm on Wednesday the 12th. The total cost of the round trip for 4 people was 141E. We got several discounts. One for those of us under 26. Another for us traveling in a group of 4. Its funny how they like giving discounts. Cecile said that she gets a discount of 25% just for bringing little Mark along with her on the train.
Europe uses commas for decimal points and periods in place of the commas. A number like 100,000.42 would be written as 100.100,42. Bread can be bought for 0,60E a loaf. A package of presliced Rackette formage is 2,65E. Eau from a machine in the metro can be bought for 1,50E.


There are naked womens breasts and thong painties in advertisments all over the both cities. They often paint out the nipples, but sometimes they are there. The strange thing is that the women dress very very modestly. Hardly any leg is seen on them. These fasion observations mostly apply to Paris.The young women wear either just pants, or pants with a short to knee length skirt over them. We found out the reason they wear pants beneather the skirt is because the Arab men were grabbing at them. Older women wear shorter skirts with nude colored nylons. I haven’t seen a younger woman wearing a short skirt, unless she was also wearing black nylons and high boots. This style is occasionally seen.
In Clermont-FD most women wear pants. I don’t recall seeing them wearing a skirt of any length. The women here are mostly younger, at least the ones walking in the places I have been, and they dress more like Americans than the ones I saw in Paris. One thing is for sure, everyone dresses up all the time. Their clothes all have some fashion to them. No one wears just a plain t-shirt. I have seen a few men in shorts now that its warmer. And some girls in strappy tank tops. Also some men with sleeveless shirts. But still they look fashionable. Just about ever man could pass for either Metro sexual or gay in the states. It’s really quite nice.


France, I don’t know about the other EU countries, has public toilettes costing 0,40E . These clean themselves once you have left them. Inside the look pretty regular. There is no soap in them. Also there is very little tissue. I only used them once and I was only able to tear off a very very small piece, perhaps a square inch. There are also public free toilettes, although they are extreemely rare and very dirty. There is no soap in them and no toilette paper at all. There is also no toilette seat. So far I have only seen one of the Turkish style toilettes of which I had heard so much. I used it and it wasn’t bad at all. I started carying my own soap a while back and it comes in handly. Of course I bring my own tissue as well. The girls also bring their own tissue. Today I went in a ditch behind a bush.


Yesterday Samedi (Saturday), and Today, (Dimanche) were packed with fun and adventure. We saw four things yesterday, and three today. I don’t have the names of many of the churches we say. I’ll supply them later along with the photos. The weather is quite warm now.
Yesterday, we visited an Abbey, castle ruines where we had a picnic, the largest cathedrale in the region, and walked thru the streets of another city called Le Puy-en-Velay. Le Puy-en-Velay had quaint streets looking very much like Paris and Clermont, but it also had the most modern and stylish looking resterants. They had neat lights on runners and pink or orange painted walls. Tony took a few pictures and so you can see what I am talking about. We walked quite a bit to a Romanesque chuch. The church was not very interesing. Mostly just grey walls and a few boring paintings. But what was intersesting about the city, which was quite large, was that it had two jutting rock/moutain things in the middle of it. One had a massive church and the other had a huge stature of the virgin Mary. Reminded me of Brazil. The pictures will be good at this point.
The city famous of their lace, knives, and dark green lentels. We didn’t get to try them though, and I thought about buying some lace, but what would I use it for ? Also they had even cooler styles of clothing in the windows than Clermont-FD or Pairs.


After a long day we ate at a Cafetera. It was a strange place. There was a stand in where you could pick out formage, du pan, salade, desert, yogurt. Each item had a price next to it. Desert was 2,50E for example. Salade was 1,50E. Then they had a cooking area where they would serve you the hot food. They had turkey with a white cream sauce, which is what I got, and chicken in a brown sauce, they also had half a hen of some kind, which is what tony got. They had steak, but I don’t know what it was like. The food was excellent. They gave us a little cover to keep it warm. The French are very picky about food, except picnics it seems. The whole meal including desert and drinks cost us 44E for the four of us. Dan and Cecile bought their own food.


Aujourd'hui (today which is sunday) we went on a hike up the tallest volcano around here. The trail was a little more than a mile, and the mountian was a little less than a mile high. It was a very steep slope and I pulled a muscle in my upper thigh. I also hurt my ankles, but I think its just soreness. Tony might have strained his ankles a bit. Everyone else seems to be ok. Dan carried little Mark on his back the whole time.
After we finished it in about an hour both ways with an hour break in the middle, we headed over to a lake to have a picnic lunch on the grass. When I say on the grass I really mean on the grass. There was no blanket or plates. They put the break and cheese on the grass. It was a very difficult time for me. I manged to eat though because I was terribly hungry even though my bread was on the grass. Did I mention the part about eating on the grass ? ? ? ?


Lunch out of the way, and the time being 4, we headed to the chuch for the 5pm service in English. Dan knew of an English speaking chuch which we attended. The building was built in 1894. The sermon was about God ‘s name : I AM. It was intersting. Abby, Christy, and I sang in front of the church because we were the only ones who knew a song that the minister was introducing to the congregation. The congregation numbered 20 or so. Lots of children. Most of the people there worked for Michelin. They were very friendly and we talked to several of them after the service.


For dinner tonight we had escargo in the shell with butter pesto sauce. It was light flavored, not too chewy. We used two prong forks and a shell holder to extract the snail. We also had a string beans, canned red pepers, garlic, vinegrette dressing, . After every meal excpet breakfast, the French have Formage. We had ice cream for desert.


The bread tastes good. I am not a food critic so its hard for me to be detailed about the taste of the bread. They have many kinds. The whole wheat bread tastes alot like my mothers home made bread. The white bread tastes more creamy, if that makes any sense, than the French bread in the States. When its warm its a wonderful. The blue formage is probably my favorite formage. My favorite bread has lots of whole grains in it and a nutty flavor.


Everything tastes good, but its hard to know whats my personal favorite. We eat alot of sandwiches for lunch made with formage, ham, sausage, paite, tomatoes. Even in Paris before we were taught what French people eat, we made sandwiches with formage and bread. Then we’d eat a tomatoe on the side.


I have been able to talk to Dan and Cecile about their views on different subjects. Dan’s main interest is in Phonetics and language. Cecile says he is better at French than she is. They both have been teaching us about English. I would like to learn more about both languages. Cecile is interested in History. But both are extremely well educated and well read. I feel so absolutly illiterate when I talk to them. They know a great deal about local history and lore, and tell us details of the people who lived here in the past.


For instance the ancient French cut all the trees down and all the trees that are now seen have been replanted. They used a lot of the wood for fires to boil sea water to make salt. There is a little town which was given a certain volcano after the revolution. The volcano’s picture is on a bottle of water of world wide popularity. The town is suing the company to have a small amount of money given to them for every bottle sold. The suit is stilll in court.


Unrelated to this area, Cecile told us that Hounderas which Chicita Bannans is having problems with reproduction. Male fetuses aren’t developing fully and usually die before birth resulting in a 80% female birth rate. Those males which do make it end up becoming homosexuals. Very interesting ? I can’ t find the article in English.
Dan and Cecile are also well educated on art history. And Cecile studies American history. She likes reading biographies and just finished one about John Adams. She has read some terrific books which I also read and more which I haven’t.


Dan is from Oklohoma, has 3 brothers who still live in the States, speaks with no accent in both English and French, and doesn’t miss the States.
There is really no reason to miss the States. Other than family, everything a person could need is here. Its really beautiful and they get 5 weeks off a year to go on vacation.The average person’s work week is 36 hours. If you lived here you can travel to many other countries. The beach is 5 hours south. The life here is very different. Here people enjoy their lives all along, not just when they are retired. Their family is what is important. They spend their time reading and studying the things that interest them. Food is the main importance each day. They really live life to the fulliest. They love their history and they can see it everyday.
Life here is completely different, and yet still the same. There are good things and bad things about living in France. Working here is more difficult in some ways. To find a job is very hard. The unemployment rate is 10% right now. You absolutly have to have an education to get a job, but having a degree doesn’t guarentee that you will get one. Education is very cheap so everyone has a degree.


Working as a school teacher is a state job and gives little freedom to the teachers as to where they can work. Cecile has to drive 45 minutes to her job becuase the school system picks the location of her job and she doesn’t get to have any say. Dan works in Paris and has to take a train there during the semesters. Then he comes back on the weekends. When Cecile has off she goes to Paris to stay with him.


Somethings are more expensive here, and some are cheaper. The gas here is very expensive and cars are heavily taxed. The income tax isn’t that different from the States. Food at resterants is heavily taxed at 19%. Tips are included in the price. Wine is very cheap here. Dan says you can get a really really good wine for 10E and the 1,50E bottles are also decent wines. At the supermarkets a wine for 1,50E will not be good, but if you buy it at a wine shop for 1,50E it will be good and much better than you can get in the states for $15.


If someone likes culture they would like it here, perhaps if they liked American Football and driving 45 minutes to the beach they might miss Florida. Also its cold here, but its easy to adjust, and with 5 weeks off you can take the winter off and rent a villa in Lyon by the beach and be warm. The stores close pretty early, so you have to get your shoping done earlier. Things are also smaller here. It was hard for me to find a pair of shoes to fit me. I have slightly larger feet than normal in the States, but I am a giant here. I imagine finding clothes could be hard too, but I havent had any problems yet.


Not having a dryer becuase you don’t have room for it in your small home could be a problem if you aren ’t used to hanging your clothes on the line. I don’t mind it because it gives them a nice crunch feeling, but it also wrinkles them a lot so you have to iron them. I don’t like that part. Looking good here is hard because there are no public restrooms to powder your nose in. Not that many women wear make up from what I can see.
There are people from everywhere and they sometimes wear their native dress. I saw a black man wearing a long green dress yesterday. There are lots of black women wearing head scarfs and dresses made of colourful fabric. I see them mainly in Paris, not as many here in Clermont.
We will not be visiting any other countries durning this vacation since we still have to see The Louvre, The Midevil Museum, and the Modern Art Museum. I also need to do some shopping back in Paris. Is there anything you guys want ? So far we have spent less than 1.600,00E. We haven’t used our credit card or debit card yet. Dan and Cecile are giving us a suit case to bring back with us.