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On Vandredi, vingt et un Decembre, we head home for Christmas and the whole team is looking forward to the break. The flight to Paris is at 6:25am, but we plan to be at the airport when it opens at 5am. We will be in Paris at 8am and leave for DC at noon.
Work is about the same. Good progress on the setup, but other issues which have to be ironed out. It looks like most of the hardware needed for setup has arrived. We just have to get it done, tested and packed for shipment to Monroe. |
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French class is getting better. I can answer a few questions and learning a lot of words. If everything was pronounced the way it was spelled, life would be easier. On Samedi, LaMont, the IT technician for the Monroe plant, and I were invited to a gathering at one of the IT guy's apartment. He had some friends over, we ate, talked and enjoyed beaucoup de vin. Dimanche it was back on the road to a dinner at another home. Great food and company and more wine.
Over the weekend Turbomeca hosted a Christmas party for the children of the workers. They had a circus and presents for all the kids. Where we visited on Sunday, the little girl had received a scooter and was riding it throughout the house.
If it had been pretty this weekend, you would have seen pictures of Pau, Toulous and Spain. It was cold and windy both days, so you get more pictures of Asset. | |
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Driving is a real trip! There are no cloverleaf's, only round about. I have seen some with up to 5 roads coming into them. You enter and go around until you find the road you need to exit on. That can be a real challenge. At each exit there is a post with signs on it. Generally, at the top is a road number and below it are all the towns the road goes to. You have to know where you are going, street signs with road names are hard to find. Sometime you will find them attached to a building, once in awhile they are on a pole at the intersection, but usually I can never find them. |
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This is one of the reasons cars are so small, the roads are narrow. This is the main road between Boardes and Asset. By the way, the other reason cars are so small is the price of gasoline, price 1.35 €per liter. Figure out how many liters are in a gallon, multiply by the conversion rate and you figure it out. In the towns the roads are smaller and the front door of the house opens onto the curb, no sidewalk. A lot of the time you will find cars parked on both sides of the road.
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| The houses are extremely energy efficient. The newer houses are constructed with cinder block walls. There are two rows and in between run the water lines, electric, cable TV, telephone and insulation. The walls are then covered by stucco. The windows are double pain and are covered by metal shades that roll up and down, or by shutters. The older homes were built out of cement and store, walls are at least 18" deep. Most of the houses have steam heat, the one I am in has electric radiators. Not real efficient, but it is used as a Summer vacation rental. Almost all the houses are surounded by a wall and some also large hedges. |
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Shopping is a trip. There are several "large" malls in Pau. They have between 25 and 50 stores and like Charlotte, most are clothing stores. The only name that I recognize is Claire's. I have been looking for things to take back that say France or something in French. Almost everything is in English or have something about the US.
Beside the language the biggest difference between grocery stores here and the US is the lack of frozen foods. The French seem to prefer fresh. The produce section is very large with a lot to offer. The meat section has a lot of different things to offer. So far no bacon, but there is finely sliced ham that is a good substitute. There are a lot of US brands here including a lot of the cereals. |
| One of the hardest things to get used to is preparing for meals. You have to plan your shopping trips because the stores close promptly at 9pm and almost nothing is open on Sunday. We have been trying to find inexpensive French restaurants to eat dinner. So far we have gone to some very good ones, but have not found something open when we want to eat. Yes, there are US options, but only once have we resorted to one. |
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