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.