Friday, September 14, 2007
French Lessons
Lesson #1: Always check the price before you buy. We were exploring the market at Clermont on Wednesday. A man offered us tastes of cheeses. So I said I'll have a bit of this and a bit of that. Ended up paying 20E for two smallish bits of cheese. One of the ones I chose was 44E per kilo. Well, now we have some good cheese and some good wine. We actually paid 12E for a bottle of wine. At home that would be a reasonable price but here most bottles are 2 to 5E.
One of my desires was to buy some French sheets because they have such fantastic colors here--unlike the boring linens at home. Alas, lesson 2--sheets/beds in France come in two sizes, one person or two persons. I don't think they have heard of queen size beds, let along king. We Americans are so over the top.
All French houses have shutters. I thought they were about quaintness and history. Alas, we have found out they are about keeping the burglars out. If you go away and don't close the shutters and your house is broken into--your insurance won't pay.
Electricity is cheaper at night. The clothes washer is on a timer to come on at 5am. Then you hang the clothes out in the morning. Today is cloudy and humid so we hope our clothes will dry. We leave tomorrow for the bike trip. The first hotel is only 2 or 3 miles from here.
European toilets are not the same as ours. We are going to have to find someone who understands French plumbing. Our toilet keeps running and we can't just jiggle the handle like at home, or take the top off and pull the chain.
One of my desires was to buy some French sheets because they have such fantastic colors here--unlike the boring linens at home. Alas, lesson 2--sheets/beds in France come in two sizes, one person or two persons. I don't think they have heard of queen size beds, let along king. We Americans are so over the top.
All French houses have shutters. I thought they were about quaintness and history. Alas, we have found out they are about keeping the burglars out. If you go away and don't close the shutters and your house is broken into--your insurance won't pay.
Electricity is cheaper at night. The clothes washer is on a timer to come on at 5am. Then you hang the clothes out in the morning. Today is cloudy and humid so we hope our clothes will dry. We leave tomorrow for the bike trip. The first hotel is only 2 or 3 miles from here.
European toilets are not the same as ours. We are going to have to find someone who understands French plumbing. Our toilet keeps running and we can't just jiggle the handle like at home, or take the top off and pull the chain.
# posted by Carol Harma @ 12:02 AM 
