France Immersion

This blog will contain posts on the year Shereen and I spend in France. Enjoy!

Last Friday I arrived in Paris after a surprisingly short flight of less than 8 hours. Picking up the rental Renault Laguna (6 speed manual, solid car) I negotiated traffic on the way to Orleans. Driving in Paris is an experience by itself, on the highway motorcycles use the dashed line between the outside and middle lanes as their own lane. After being surprised by bikes zipping by as cars crawled I noticed that the cars were cheating to the edges of the lane to provide more space for the bikes. Fortunately I was able to quickly relearn how to drive a manual, the bikes were enough to watch for on their own.

The drive to Orleans was long, but beautiful. The French countryside has variety, with numerous trees spread among the fields and houses. Road signs were difficult for me to follow, but the GPS was more than adequate to keep on the correct route. A blaring beep from the TomTom would warn when I was approaching one of the radar boxes that automatically gives you a ticket if you are 5 kph over the speed limit (if traveling under 100 kph, over 100 kph the ticket is triggered at 5% over the limit). These are quite common in urban areas, a sign of the sway the French government holds over the populace.

Friday evening I was escorted to review 2 potential apartments (one of which we chose to rent later). As I was to discover during the weekend, apartments here are typically not furnished. Which means that the only thing in the apartment is a toilet, shower/tub, and a sink (no countertops). Everything else must be bought, including kitchen cabinets. It took a few visits to get used to seeing only a lonely sink in the kitchen.

At dinner I had my first introduction to French wine etiquette. When a bottle is ordered the waiter will bring it to the table and pour a small sample for the leader of the group. The leader will taste the wine looking for a bitter taste caused by the cork or an unatural taste. This is not to see if he likes the wine, if it tastes as it should and he does not like it he should still accept it. This is only to determine if the wine is bad, does not taste as it should. The dinner lasted 3 hours, standard as I was to learn.

Saturday morning we visited 2 more apartments and in the evening I had dinner with my boss and his family. Hopefully Shereen will be able to spend time with his wife and 3 yr old boy and 1.5 yr old girl. Sunday I was on my own and roamed around Orleans. The city is clean and small, I walked from one corner of the town center to the other in about 40 minutes. A river runs along the south side with a nice river walk for biking and hiking. It seemed like the whole town was down by the river, particularly at night. The apartment we chose is within 2 minutes walk of the river and at the end of the Rue de Bourgogne, a walking street that has restaurants and shops. I like the city, it has busy and quiet sections, modern and older areas. At dinner on Sunday I learned about the Eurocard after my credit card did not work. Most restaurants use a Eurocard that is a credit card with an electronic chip that requires a pin number, rather than a magnetic strip. We didn't see this in Italy, so I'm not sure if this is just a French thing or a recent European invention. Lesson learned to ask before entering a restaurant.

At work the next week I began to pick up on social customs. For instance when you enter the office it is customary to go around, say "Bonjour" and shake hands with others in the office. I am eager for my first French lesson Thursday, it is difficult to interact with everyone since most are more comfortable speaking French.

So far I have found people to be very friendly, and waiters are willing to struggle along with us when trying to order in restaurants. Probably will never get used to not having air conditioning. It is not very common in France and I currently am sweating through my shirt in 80 degree heat at my desk. Glad that the dress code is informal, this would not work in a suit. After a few days the TomTom is still my best friend, the streets are twisty and narrow. Nearly impossible to follow without knowing where you are going. The food is good, have had breakfast each morning at the hotel, lunch at the cafeteria, dinners at Algerian, Spanish, and a restaurant called "Le Funny Boy". I thought this would run by someone who speaks English but I was wrong. Fortunately the pannini translates the same. Le Funny Boy is one of the few places where you can complete your meal in under 30 minutes. Anywhere else is hours.

As you may know Joan of Arc, "Maid of Orleans" gained her fame at Orleans by giving courage to the French to attack and defeat the English who were laying siege to the city. At the time this was the one remaining French occupied city north of the river Loire, a strategic entry point for the rest of France. A large statue of Joan riding a horse with sword drawn dominates the Place du Martroi, one of the many open squares in Orleans.