Month: April 2013

End of Week One

| Tracy

Now that we’ve completed week one here are a few things we’ve learned so far.

1) If you set off the smoke detector three times, the hot water stops working.

2) If you stand still in Gambetta Square the pigeons will come after you like a scene from Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”

3) If you walk a 2-pound Chihuahua all stereotypical attitudes of French people no longer apply.

4) Not every gathering with flags and drums is a parade. Sometimes, it’s a strike with color and music and people dancing in the street.

Here are a few fun photos from week one.

Carcassonne Pizza Kiosk
Carcassonne Pizza Kiosk

Just around the corner and down a block is the Pizza Kiosk. Don’t all French neighborhoods have a Pizza Kiosk? No. Well we think they should!

A French staple?
A French staple?

No grocery store we’ve visited has had French Dressing, but they all have American Sauce.

Local butcher uses "scent advertising."
Local butcher uses “scent advertising.”

Business is slow around here on Sundays. Our neighborhood butcher has found an ingenious way to get the message out that he is open for a few hours on Sunday. The smell of rotisserie chicken and duck can be smelled the moment you open the front door. But we need to be sure to get there early, by 11 a.m. they are all gone!!

Oops, not naked dancing girls!!
Oops, not naked dancing girls!!

One must take a second look and READ the signage before guessing what a business actually is. At first glance we thought this might be a topless bar, upon closer inspection we found that it was a beauty school.

What We Know About the French Train System (So Far)

| Alan

Tracy’s MacBook waited until after we arrived in Carcassonne to start having difficulties, so a trip to the Apple Store was in order.  That accelerated us making use of the French train system sooner than we anticipated.  While we have taken trains in Europe before, it was never with a set appointment at the other end so we needed a bit more planning.

Some background first.  France has three levels of train service run by the SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français), the French National Railway Company.  That includes the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) high-speed “bullet trains,” Intercités for long distance express passenger trains, and the TER (Transport Express Régional) for urban and regional passenger rail travel.

Since we are now retired and on a fixed income, we are very aware that we need to save money where we can on everyday items to have more money to spend on the luxuries.  Twenty of France’s twenty-seven regions (a region being roughly equivalent to a state in the US) with TER service has a discount plan that allows discounts train travel for residents within a region.  Within our region of Languedoc-Roussillon, for 26€ a year you can purchase a Carte Via Liberte discount card for up to four people to receive a 25% discount on weekdays and 50% off all weekends and school holidays.  There are some additional discount plans for outside the region too.

With my trusty Carte Via Liberte’ in hand, Tracy and I strolled over to the Carcassonne Train Station (Gare de Carcassonne) which is .6 miles away from the apartment.  The train station was built in 1857 and has one of those classic clock tower passages .  It is located next to the Canal du Midi, the canal connects the Garonne River to the Etang de Thau on the Mediterranen Sea and along with the 120 mile long Canal de Garonne forms the Canal des Deux Mers joining the Atlantic to the Mediterranean in 1681.  A barging canal like the Erie Canal in New York, it is kind of the French equivalent of the Panama Canal connecting two major bodies of water.

My French is very, very basic at this point.  My old “police Spanglish,” high school-college German, and Italian are all better than my French.  My “go to” method at this point is to anticipate what I need to request and to pre-write the questions that I translated using Google Translate into my handy pocket notebook (some police habits never go away).  If the ticket agent doesn’t speak English (and we are finding very few people do speak English) I hand them my notebook so they can read my request.  That and a friendly bonjour, big smiles, and many s’il vous plait and merci.

“S’il vous plait Madam, est‐ce que vous comprenez l’anglais?”  Good Karma day for me.  The very helpful ticket agent spoke English fairly well. She scheduled Tracy and I for our round-trip ticket from Carcassonne with a train change in Narbonne for final arrival in Montpellier.  Since the trip was on a Saturday we received a 50% discount with our Carte Via Liberte‘.

The TER trains are modern, clean and very comfortable.  They arrive and leave on the minute to their schedules.  (Although there has been rail strikes in the past.) We travelled  second class, the only real difference between first and second being reservations and seats three abreast in first class and “first come – first served” and seats that are four abreast in second class.  There are large windows to watch the scenery go past with sunshades on all the windows. Arrival and departure times are indicted on electronic display boards throughout the stations, although in French but easy to puzzle out.

While no one checked our ticket outbound, on the return trip our tickets, along with my Carte Via Liberte’ was checked by friendly conductors.  Apparently some people try to ride for free.  They are escorted off the train by the conductor and met by Surveillance Générale, which I understand is SNCF’s private security that has limited police authority.  My understanding is that riders without tickets are fined on the spot.  There are also divisions of the Police Nationale that work on the train lines and metro in Paris and its suburbs (Police Regionale des transport) and major rail lines (Service National de Police Ferroviaire.)

The trip to Montpellier was a pleasant way to do some sight-seeing from the train, get Tracy’s MacBook repaired, and better understand the train system. And we get to do all again in a week or so when Tracy’s MacBook has been repaired.

Trip to the Apple Store in Montpellier

| Tracy

We had to make a trip to the Apple Store today. My baby is sick and needs therapy. Those of you who own Macs will understand. The average PC just needs a medic, a Mac needs a therapist. The actual report listed a “panic attack.” Apparently that is what it’s called when your MacBook doesn’t understand what it’s supposed to do next, it has a panic attack and reboots, all on it’s own. It’s kinda freaky to experience since Macs tend to be pretty hardy, at least mine have always been, so when it got sick I got worried. Thankfully we anticipated future issues when we bought the MacBooks 2 1/2 years ago and purchased the Apple Care Warranty so the new logic board will be replaced free of charge.

I was a little worried that with practically no French language skills that it might be difficult to explain the problem, so last night I stayed up late and used Google Translate to translate into French the problems I was having, what the report said, and a couple of helpful phrases like “May I use one of the computers to open Google Translate.” This trick has been pretty helpful over the last 6 days. When we get stuck with pronunciation, we just hand the person the notebook. Alan did this at the train station on Friday when we had to purchase tickets for today’s jaunt to Montpellier (a 2 hour train ride from Carcassonne, with a transfer in Narbonne — you really want to get the right tickets). Amazingly, though, today I didn’t really need it as the young man at the Genius Bar spoke very good English, and with a Scottish Brogue — which is always pleasant to the ear (Cheers Gregory).

We have found that by using this little trick of anticipating what we may need to say and then attempting to say it in French prior to handing over the notebook is actually getting us a really nice response from the French people we’ve been interacting with. In nearly every case, the person has switched from French to English — except the poor gal at the Post Office, but sign language helps too, not as in American Sign Language, but that sign language you would use with a small child or an animal where you point to something and then to something else like the section on the certified mail receipt and the address your sending mail too. But it’s been working and we’re getting by without too much trouble.

The people that intimidate me are the ones that start speaking in French after you’ve said “Bonjour!” and think you may actually know the language, it’s kind of sad and a bit of a poke to the ego to see the look of disappointment come into their eyes when they realize that’s all the French I know. Oddly enough, Kiara doesn’t seem to have the same problem. Apparently cute is cute in any language and the “aww” that escapes peoples lips when they realize she’s a social butterfly sounds pretty much the same in English, French, and Japanese (at least I think they were from Japan, they were super friendly regardless).

Anyway, for today’s adventure we had to navigate the train system, Carcassonne to Narbonne, a switch of trains then Narbonne to Montpellier, then outside the Gare du le Montpellier, Saint-Roch (train station) to the tram across the street to the Odysseum Mall. We found the Apple Store with an hour or so to kill so we had coffee and danish (chocolatey, warm and yummy) and wandered through some stores. We came across a place called Geant Casino and it’s like the Walmart of France. Great deals, huge lines and an entire aisle of hair care appliances. YIPPEE!! While they did not have the In-Styler I was hoping to find, they did have something similar, and that was good enough for me. Blow dryers are nice by they are not exactly a styling tool, the girls out there will understand.

We also found that the Montpellier IKEA was in the same area so we decided to check that out after the Apple Store appointment. Swedish meatballs . . . need I say more. While we did see Subway and McDonalds franchises, we passed right by those without a second glance. But when we found the cafeteria in IKEA and the sign showed Swedish Meatballs on the menu, that was right up our alley. I am a pretty good cook, but I’ve never been able to make meatballs that don’t taste like little round hamburgers. It was like Mecca for the tummy. And they serve wine, by the glass, by the bottle and even from a miniature wine cask where you can fill a tiny carafe with about 6 oz of wine . . . Alan liked that very much. I cheated and had my first soda in a week, not my first choice but red wine when I’m cold and wet has the same effects as taking a sleeping pill for me.

On our way back to the Gare du le Montpellier, Saint-Roch we noted that we still had about 90 minutes to kill before our train was leaving, so upon arrival at the tram stop, we headed over to the Jardin (garden) at the intersection of the train and  tram stations. It’s obvious spring is on its way here in the Languedoc with everything budding up ready to bloom, but I was still surprised to see the amount and variety of flowers already in full bloom in the jardin. It was raining and we were fully loaded down with purchases from the mall, but I still managed a couple of photos that were not half bad.

After a few minutes of wandering through the garden, we had had just about enough of the rain and headed to the Brasserie du le Gare and ordered up a couple of espressos and sat in the warm, cozy interior until it was time to head to the train.

Upon arrival in Carcassonne, we hopped off the train and started the .6 miles back to our apartment. It is rather amazing how fast a half-mile can become a “short” walk to someone who no longer owns a car. We have been averaging several miles per day on foot and after six days, it is hardly even noticed anymore . . . the rain however, is another story. We are looking forward to the dry season, as one gets plenty tired of being wet really quickly. On a side note: I now own a new umbrella!

At Gare de Carcassonne for our first train trip!
Yeah! Almost Time to Go!
A nod to the daughter, Dallas, who is also quite talented with a spray can and canvas.
Full bloom at the Jardin

Funny French Foods

| Tracy

Now that we’ve been in Carcassonne for a few days, there are a few differences that we’ve noticed when it comes to how food is packaged. Not difficult to deal with, but rather an interesting difference to what we are used to seeing in the U.S.

Mayo in a Tube

It looks a bit like Mayo Toothpaste. It is not white but a light yellow color, but has the same texture and flavor we are used to having with Best Foods.

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Dijon Packs a Powerful Punch

I love dijon, spicy, yellow mustards, but wow you really need to go easy on the French Dijon Moutard. A teaspoon of this stuff has the same amount of flavor and zest as an entire bottle of Dijon Mustard in the U.S. Which is probably why it comes in a little tiny jar. If you have a sensitive palate as I do, take it easy for the first use.

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Milk on a Shelf

We double-checked this a couple of times, but YEP, milk in France is sold unrefrigerated in the same aisle as your cereal. In all honesty, we haven’t actually tried it yet. But we’re keeping ours in the fridge.

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Two Carton Sizes for Eggs: 4 or 6

We chose the 6-count carton because Kiara likes an over easy egg every couple of days and well, we like to spoil her. But think about that next time you’re at the grocery store picking up and 18-count carton of eggs – how many of you would decide to give the kids cereal if those were you only choices. Additionally, we have yet to see white eggs. Perhaps all the white chickens live in the U.S.

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The Sweet Scent of Strawberry

We bought this pack of strawberries, it smelled so fresh it literally stopped you in your tracks. I do not care for strawberries as I find them more tart than sweet. These thinner French ones are so sweet they taste like strawberry flavored candy. Absolutely delicious. Totally a keeper!

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Wrinkly Tomates

French tomatoes (tomates) look like a cross between a tomato and a pumpkin and they are kind of orangey as well. We haven’t tried these yet, we bought the ones still on the vine, yummy. These are definitely on the list to try though!!

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Brown Sugar in Small Hard Chunks

Brown sugar, or what I believe to be brown sugar (it could also be raw sugar — jury is still out on this one) comes in a box full of small hard chunks. It breaks up pretty easily and tastes like the light brown sugar at home and, even better, still works with my special dressing/marinade which I made this afternoon. Not bad!

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Tiny Jars of Soy Sauce

The only soy sauce we’ve come across so far are smaller than the ones used in Chinese and Japanese restaurants in the U.S. It tastes fine, it made the list cause it’s kinda cute.

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City Wine

The Carcassonne Wine. Haven’t tried it yet, but is was actually the least expensive wine in the store, so we had to try it to see what it tastes like, really big bottle, really little price . . . my kind of wine!

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Icky Cheese

There are over 600 varieties of cheese in France. It was just our fate that this nasty palette ruining 80 grams of icky was one the first we bought. It is creamy like a cream cheese and it spreads very nicely. The damage isn’t done unti you open your mouth and taste it . . . definitely going on the NEVER AGAIN list.

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Yummy Cheese

This is our friend Camembert (the “t’ is silent). Cam is a wonderful cheese, it tastes incredibly smooth and is almost sinfully delicious. This is is definitely a keeper!

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Dog on a Plane (Part Two)

| Alan

Finally, D-Day (Departure Day!)

On Easter morning, Sunday the 31st, we checked out of our hotel room and headed to Reno-Tahoe International Airport with all our (much downsized) worldly possessions and Kiara the Chihuahua.

I dropped Tracy, Kiara, and the bags out in front of the main terminal and swung around to return the rental car.  As I walked back to the terminal I found our niece Lyssa, her husband Chris, and baby Selah saying farewell to Tracy and Kiara. Tracy also had for Lyssa a bag of 110 volt hair care appliances that would completely “self-destruct” if used with Europe’s 220 voltage system. With final good-byes complete we headed inside to check-in with Delta Airlines.

To our surprise we found that our two checked bags would go all the way through to Toulouse. No having to reclaim the bags for customs inspection in Paris. Yippee!

The we met Delta agent, Sarah. What a joy! She was extremely helpful ensuring Kiara was booked for cabin travel with us on every leg of the flight. She made sure we had copies of Kiara’s cabin booking to show the gate agents in Salt Lake City and Paris, if needed. Especially in Paris where we would switch from Delta to Air France.

Interesting to note that with the exception of asking if we had Kiara’s veterinary and USDA clearances, no one ever actually examined the documents. Although we will need the documents for the French veterinarian for Kiara’s EU Pet Passport, apparently we could have flown without all the effort of seeing the vet and USDA. But we operate on the “better safe than sorry” principle and we didn’t want the nightmare of being stopped at customs in Paris and refused admission or worse, Kiara being quarantined.

Although Kiara had to stay in her carrier aboard the plane, the gate agents in Reno-Tahoe, Salt Lake City and Charles De Gaulle airports graciously allowed Kiara to get out of her carrier, stretch her legs, and “strut her stuff” as an international jet-setter, a status she has long aspired to.

Kiara slept quietly and did not seem upset by the flights, although she would have been happier in one of our laps. Tracy did the closest thing possible to that with putting Kiara’s carrier in her lap with slipping her hand through the zippered door. No problems even medicating Kiara while enroute, though Tracy did forewarn the flight attendants that it would be necessary to do so because of her medical condition. Thankfully the flight attendants were more than understanding regarding the medication issue.

Upon our arrival in Toulouse we had the most amazing surprise of all . . . our checked luggage actually arriving with us! It was quite the relief to realize that there IS an airline that can get both you and your luggage to the same destination, at the same time. A feat that United, US Airways and Continental Airlines have never, ever been able to accomplish . . . ever!

Our final surprise was that our new landlords, British expats Jason and Annette, happened to be in Toulouse dropping off some paperwork for their daughter and offered to swing by the airport to pick us up rather than Tracy and I taking the train to Carcassonne. They were kind enough to drive us (and our luggage) the 54 miles to our apartment. That let Kiara ride in our laps for the final lap to our new home, and gave us a chance to get acquainted with another expat couple.

In all, the trip for Kiara (and us) was minimally traumatic, although our new “Miss International Diva” believes she now merits living in the adjacent castle of  la Cité de Carcassonne. In the mean time, we are settling into our new apartment . . . without issue, well mostly without issue.

Today’s Lessons

| Tracy

Some people learn by watching others, some people learn by reading and doing, some of us learn by trial and error. Here are today’s lessons:

Our daily routine has suffered a bit being nine hours off of a lifetime schedule. We have found over the last few days that naps help, but that we also get up at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m. when we have had one. That being said, this morning at 6:30 a.m. we found out several truths about making friends with our neighbors.

1: 3 a.m. is an unreasonable time for any living person, over the age of 30, to be wide-awake.

2: 6:30 a.m. is an unreasonable time for any living person, who is retired, to be wide-awake.

3: Being wide-awake for hours on end in the dead of night does not help one make good decisions.

4: Breakfast at 6:30 a.m. is a reasonable idea if:

a: one remembers that one is not alone in the building

b: one remembers to turn on the fan above the oven

c: one remembers to not burn anything when the fan is off

d: one has the slightest clue where the shut off switch is to the smoke alarm

Lesson 1: One does not make friends, in France or elsewhere, by waking them up at the horribly early hour of 6:30 a.m. with a screaming alarm for nearly 20 minutes. Suffice it to say that we are extremely blessed that no one called the fire department as we do not have the language skills to explain ourselves.

Lesson 2: When moving into a new apartment learn how to turn off things that make loud noises.

Lesson 3: Turning off the main power switch from the circuit breaker does not cut the power to a hard-wired smoke detector with a battery backup.

Lesson 4: A man of 6’4″ and a cane of 3’4″ does not equal enough height to remove the battery from the smoke detector of an apartment with 15 ft ceilings.

The award for French faux-pax #1 goes to the Husband. And I must add that even after 20 minutes of trying to silence the smoke detector my eggs were wonderful if just a bit chilled. Tomorrow we should try them again without the alarm!!

First Visit to La Cite

| Tracy

Our first visit to La Cite was quite an experience . . . and we still haven’t made it past the second wall! La Cite is a double-walled fortress here in Carcassonne and it is quite magnificent. It sits atop a hillside east of our apartment across the Pont Vieux (old bridge). The walls are well over three feet thick and dwarf anyone standing near them. It doesn’t take long for you to start imagining yourself as the leader of an army attempting to gain entry into this fortress.

La Cite has over 3 kilometers of outer wall, nearly 1.6 miles, and we wandered through approx. 500 yards in all on this first visit. We headed over from our apartment about 20 minutes before sunset and approached the avenue that goes up the hill to one of the entrances between the two outer walls. From our vantage point we could see seven of the 52 towers on the outer walls.

The wall was built over centuries and it is apparent even with this first visit that the architecture of the times changed throughout the building process. We noted both romanesque and gothic arches built within a space of a few feet of one another. Overall the outer wall appears very romanesque in design which makes sense since most of the walls were built over the original Roman foundations from approx. 100 BC.

The colors are amazing in the early evening, the sky is very, very blue and the grassy hillside is very, very green which gives La Cite an almost cartoonish feel of color, especially in photographs.

While we were exploring we met a group of people on their way to the round tower to the left of area we were exploring and on our way back home, we noted there were flames and fire spinning and drumming happening in that open turret.

Not a bad first experience.