We’ve just had two reasonably frustrating days – first we drove to Toulouse, so that Gus could see the Airbus site, view the assembly lines of the A380, also Concorde. When we got to Toulouse, after talking to a Swedish couple sharing our ‘French Passion’ site; we discovered that you have to book in advance to get in. They had also driven to Toulouse specifically to see it and were very disappointed to be turned away at the door. The farm/vineyard had lots of nice tractors in the sheds...
So to make up for that disappointment we decided, the next day, to drive up into the Pyrenees, not far south of Toulouse – somehow we stuffed up and ended up going through a tunnel that cost 12 Euros in tolls and meant we missed the highest part, that we wanted to see – clever!
After that the drive improved though, and we stopped at a fortified village that had an obsession with witches. Within a high wall with towers on each corner, was this village, Villefranche. Every second shop was selling witches – most were handmade and each one different. It was something to do with a legend in the area that witches used to live in nearby caves over the winter; then come out in the spring when the weather improved for flying. They were fed by the people and brought good fortune for the rest of the year.
Since there’s not much to report I thought I’d give you some of our overall impressions of France:
Toilets: These vary a lot! To begin on a positive note all of the below toilets were very clean... In the cities we’ve found two sorts – the first one we saw had quite a queue outside. We discovered by watching carefully and reading as much signage as we could in our inadequate French, that the toilet automatically washes itself between each person (floors, toilet bowl & seat) – this takes a good couple of minutes, hence the queue. The door also opens and shuts with buttons but takes quite a while about it.
The second sort has a sign to say that the toilet is free to use but there is a surly (usually) looking attendant there who has a tip jar in plain view. Her main job seems to be to tell the next person when a toilet is vacant.
In the camping grounds they vary considerably, although they are usually unisex. Sometimes there are two sets of unisex toilets which we found a bit confusing to start with. The Millau Camping Ground had a variety – there were proper ‘French’ toilets, as in a hole in the ground with a place to put your feet on either side. Fortunately we haven’t had this type as the only option yet. Mostly the ‘English’ style toilets seem to lack a toilet seat, obviously not considered important. Also the men’s urinals are in individual cubicles but without doors, either facing outside or into the area where the hand basins are, quite disconcerting I find. In the last camp they had nice toilets and showers, I even found one with a toilet seat, luckily I’ve got careful about checking whether there is toilet paper... there wasn’t even a place for it – no roll holder or anything – obviously not supplied. This is ok as long as you think to check first! It’s also a little embarrassing for my NZ sensibilities to walk past all the other campers with my toilet roll under my arm. I know the Enterprise has facilities but if we’re staying in a camping ground we usually use theirs rather than have to empty our own too often. So there you go, now you know all you ever needed to about French toilets!!
Regionalism: We’ve found it really interesting that the different regions of France are almost as individual as we would expect different countries to be. There are 22 regions which are split into a total of 96 departments. They are obviously fiercely proud of their own products. For instance when we were near the painted caves we saw several paddocks of about 1000 geese, they were just kept in by 2 wire electric fences. There were lots of signs advertising foie gras. In the Limousin region, of course were Limousin cattle. This is a lovely big reddy-yellow beef breed. In the region we’ve just left, around Millau, it was ewe milk and cheese. In other areas it’s been cherries, or walnuts, or of course certain wine or cheese varieties. There seems to be a product for every region. We also talked to a French girl who was travelling with her Australian partner, and she was telling us how this regionalism extends into all areas of their lives.
Bread & Milk: (Le Pain et Le Lait) It’s taken us a bit to get used to a different way of buying, mostly because the milk lasts for a month but you have to buy bread fresh daily. The bread just doesn’t stay fresh so we’ve got used to finding a boulangerie/patisserie in any village we’re passing through to buy a baguette, looks like a French stick but is much tastier. This is also very regional and you get different types in different areas. The milk is long-life, it keeps for a month at room temperature until it is opened then must be kept in the fridge and used within 3 days just like ‘normal’ milk. Also they don’t seem to sell bread or milk at petrol stations, just other essentials like chippies, tissues etc. So we’ve got used to ‘stocking up’ on our milk at the supermarket but not the bread. In many villages there doesn’t seem to be any milk for sale at all, I guess everyone stocks up on it.
Flowers: The wildflowers are amazing, poppies everywhere and lots of wild roses, many colours on the roadsides. Gus, in his usual romantic way, thinks the poppies must be a pain when it comes time to harvest the wheat crop! I wonder if that’s what gives bread its flavour.
One of the first things we noticed about the houses in France is that they nearly all have wooden shutters, and most have geraniums or similar in pots on the windowsill and around the front door – very pretty.
We’ve just had two reasonably frustrating days – first we drove to Toulouse, so that Gus could see the Airbus site, view the assembly lines of the A380, also Concorde. When we got to Toulouse, after talking to a Swedish couple sharing our ‘French Passion’ site; we discovered that you have to book in advance to get in. They had also driven to Toulouse specifically to see it and were very disappointed to be turned away at the door. The farm/vineyard had lots of nice tractors in the sheds...
So to make up for that disappointment we decided, the next day, to drive up into the Pyrenees, not far south of Toulouse – somehow we stuffed up and ended up going through a tunnel that cost 12 Euros in tolls and meant we missed the highest part, that we wanted to see – clever!
After that the drive improved though, and we stopped at a fortified village that had an obsession with witches. Within a high wall with towers on each corner, was this village, Villefranche. Every second shop was selling witches – most were handmade and each one different. It was something to do with a legend in the area that witches used to live in nearby caves over the winter; then come out in the spring when the weather improved for flying. They were fed by the people and brought good fortune for the rest of the year.
Since there’s not much to report I thought I’d give you some of our overall impressions of France:
Toilets: These vary a lot! To begin on a positive note all of the below toilets were very clean... In the cities we’ve found two sorts – the first one we saw had quite a queue outside. We discovered by watching carefully and reading as much signage as we could in our inadequate French, that the toilet automatically washes itself between each person (floors, toilet bowl & seat) – this takes a good couple of minutes, hence the queue. The door also opens and shuts with buttons but takes quite a while about it.
The second sort has a sign to say that the toilet is free to use but there is a surly (usually) looking attendant there who has a tip jar in plain view. Her main job seems to be to tell the next person when a toilet is vacant.
In the camping grounds they vary considerably, although they are usually unisex. Sometimes there are two sets of unisex toilets which we found a bit confusing to start with. The Millau Camping Ground had a variety – there were proper ‘French’ toilets, as in a hole in the ground with a place to put your feet on either side. Fortunately we haven’t had this type as the only option yet. Mostly the ‘English’ style toilets seem to lack a toilet seat, obviously not considered important. Also the men’s urinals are in individual cubicles but without doors, either facing outside or into the area where the hand basins are, quite disconcerting I find. In the last camp they had nice toilets and showers, I even found one with a toilet seat, luckily I’ve got careful about checking whether there is toilet paper... there wasn’t even a place for it – no roll holder or anything – obviously not supplied. This is ok as long as you think to check first! It’s also a little embarrassing for my NZ sensibilities to walk past all the other campers with my toilet roll under my arm. I know the Enterprise has facilities but if we’re staying in a camping ground we usually use theirs rather than have to empty our own too often. So there you go, now you know all you ever needed to about French toilets!!
Regionalism: We’ve found it really interesting that the different regions of France are almost as individual as we would expect different countries to be. There are 22 regions which are split into a total of 96 departments. They are obviously fiercely proud of their own products. For instance when we were near the painted caves we saw several paddocks of about 1000 geese, they were just kept in by 2 wire electric fences. There were lots of signs advertising foie gras. In the Limousin region, of course were Limousin cattle. This is a lovely big reddy-yellow beef breed. In the region we’ve just left, around Millau, it was ewe milk and cheese. In other areas it’s been cherries, or walnuts, or of course certain wine or cheese varieties. There seems to be a product for every region. We also talked to a French girl who was travelling with her Australian partner, and she was telling us how this regionalism extends into all areas of their lives.
Bread & Milk: (Le Pain et Le Lait) It’s taken us a bit to get used to a different way of buying, mostly because the milk lasts for a month but you have to buy bread fresh daily. The bread just doesn’t stay fresh so we’ve got used to finding a boulangerie/patisserie in any village we’re passing through to buy a baguette, looks like a French stick but is much tastier. This is also very regional and you get different types in different areas. The milk is long-life, it keeps for a month at room temperature until it is opened then must be kept in the fridge and used within 3 days just like ‘normal’ milk. Also they don’t seem to sell bread or milk at petrol stations, just other essentials like chippies, tissues etc. So we’ve got used to ‘stocking up’ on our milk at the supermarket but not the bread. In many villages there doesn’t seem to be any milk for sale at all, I guess everyone stocks up on it.
Flowers: The wildflowers are amazing, poppies everywhere and lots of wild roses, many colours on the roadsides. Gus, in his usual romantic way, thinks the poppies must be a pain when it comes time to harvest the wheat crop! I wonder if that’s what gives bread its flavour.
One of the first things we noticed about the houses in France is that they nearly all have wooden shutters, and most have geraniums or similar in pots on the windowsill and around the front door – very pretty.
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