What an adventure opening up a bank account. If any of you can recall the last time you opened a bank account or applied for a bank card, it's pretty easy and quick, right. Well, not so easy and not so quick here in France or at least here in Vittel.
First we had to make an appointment with the bank-understandable! We were in the bank for 1.5 hours just applying for a checking account and a bank card, ugh. I don't recall our application for a mortgage taking that long. Lots of paperwork to document this event and lots of signatures. You would think maybe two signatures, one for the checking account, and one for the bank card, but it was alot. OMG, we were so glad when it was over, my patience was running thin, we have no idea it would take so long! In about 10 days we'll get our checks and bank card.
So 10 days has passed now. We make another appointment with the bank to pick up our checkbook and bank card. George wanted to get a credit card for his job so we applied for that, we discussed obtaining rental property and car insurance, (a service the banks provide here) and one last thing, a money wire transfer from our US bank to the French bank (which required the French bank to give us some account numbers). This time we were in the bank for 2 hours. The guy helping us had a slip of the tongue and said it would take 5 years to get our passwords, enabling us to withdraw funds from an ATM. We burst out laughing and that was truly the joke of the evening...5 years, he meant to say 5 days. I don't think he quite understood why we found that so hilarious.
George reminded me that we had been in this French bank longer than any US bank, in our entire married life.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Buying A Car
Today was a car shopping day. We had appointments with dealers of Peugeot, Mini Cooper, and Alfa Romeo.
Alfa Romeo was our first stop. Our original appointment person did not speak English, so they called another sales person, Sebastien. Sebastien spoke English good enough for us. We test drove a car. Most cars available are manual transmissions, so I am thankful that I know how to drive a stick, but you probably couldn't have convinced anyone of this, watching us leave the lot. The clutch on the car was tight so off we go stalling and bucking the whole way out of the lot. I think I stalled it twice and they say it takes a day to experience body trauma, whiplash is what I am referring to here. So who knows tomorrow what George, Sebastian and I will be feeling.
There was heavy traffic once we get on the road, me behind the wheel, okay we know that...I did not want to stall this thing in heavy traffic. So what does a common sense female behind the wheel trying to prevent a stalling situation do - let out the clutch and floor it, you are so right. Sebastian remained calm and casually looked over at me in the front seat and said, and I quote, "Madam, you just laid some French rubber." It was all George and I could do to contain ourselves.
I can not begin to top this moment for the rest of our shopping experience so I will end it here!
Alfa Romeo was our first stop. Our original appointment person did not speak English, so they called another sales person, Sebastien. Sebastien spoke English good enough for us. We test drove a car. Most cars available are manual transmissions, so I am thankful that I know how to drive a stick, but you probably couldn't have convinced anyone of this, watching us leave the lot. The clutch on the car was tight so off we go stalling and bucking the whole way out of the lot. I think I stalled it twice and they say it takes a day to experience body trauma, whiplash is what I am referring to here. So who knows tomorrow what George, Sebastian and I will be feeling.
There was heavy traffic once we get on the road, me behind the wheel, okay we know that...I did not want to stall this thing in heavy traffic. So what does a common sense female behind the wheel trying to prevent a stalling situation do - let out the clutch and floor it, you are so right. Sebastian remained calm and casually looked over at me in the front seat and said, and I quote, "Madam, you just laid some French rubber." It was all George and I could do to contain ourselves.
I can not begin to top this moment for the rest of our shopping experience so I will end it here!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Lyon, France-January 2012
We were in Lyon this weekend, a 3 hour drive. What a delightful city. Easy walking to sights, great shopping, beautiful architecture, and delicious food. Lyon is known for its cuisine and silk industry. We found more English speaking people there.
We visited the Museum of Fine Arts (Beaux Arts) and due to a youth demonstration (police were in riot gear), we were stranded for several hours in Old Lyon, a wonderful place to get stuck. All the bridges were barricaded, no one was allowed to cross the river (where our hotel was located). By sundown all bridges were open for travel again.
Old Lyon has narrow winding streets, small restaurants and shops. Vendors were selling hot wine and hot chocolate drinks on the street. It was cold!
We found large open air markets on Sunday selling everything from puppies to fresh meats/vegetables/cheese to bras.
Here's some photos.
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjy5tybK
We visited the Museum of Fine Arts (Beaux Arts) and due to a youth demonstration (police were in riot gear), we were stranded for several hours in Old Lyon, a wonderful place to get stuck. All the bridges were barricaded, no one was allowed to cross the river (where our hotel was located). By sundown all bridges were open for travel again.
Old Lyon has narrow winding streets, small restaurants and shops. Vendors were selling hot wine and hot chocolate drinks on the street. It was cold!
We found large open air markets on Sunday selling everything from puppies to fresh meats/vegetables/cheese to bras.
Here's some photos.
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjy5tybK
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Birds
Around 5:30 everyday that I've noticed, these birds start circling around to land in this big evergreen tree in downtown Vittel. I made sure to get under an awning to take these short videos. Check em out at this link:
Saturday, January 7, 2012
La Bresse skiing
Today we went to La Bresse skiing. It is east of Vittel about 1.5 hours, in the Vosges Mountains. We got our picture taken, not once, but twice, we think, on the way. You see here in France and maybe elsewhere in Europe there are no police with radar trying to catch you speeding on the road. They have these detection systems set up and if you are detected speeding, your picture is taken and then you get a little citation in the mail. Well we are hoping it is little, but who knows. We saw a "camera like" flash twice today. If we would have known, we would have given them a good Kodak smile. The second day we were here we got a digital notification, in the vicinity of a cow pasture of all things, what appeared to be a speeding citation. It flashed --1 point. That's 3 in 1 week. Oh my, oh my. To be honest the French drive very fast here, many times we have to get out of their way, so all I can say is, we could not have adopted this habit so quickly...could we!
Anyway we want to tell you about our skiing day. After getting off the 4-lane highway we meandered a two-lane road for about 35 minutes that reminded us of Nyes Road for our Pennsylvania folks (there is nothing in Ohio like this road, since 99.9% of the roads are straight in Ohio). Maybe two short guardrails on this road, hairpin turns, narrow (a standard size (USA size) GMC pickup truck passed coming the opposite way-we practically had to get off the road), snowy/rain surface, Grand Canyon size drop offs (on my side, yikes). It was a white knuckle ride. Surely on a clear day the scenery would have been breathtaking, and yes my breath was taken away by the above described ride.
We were surprised to find that the mountain was larger than we imagined. Before we left the states we bought ourselves new skis and carried them with us as part of our travel luggage, and so we were excited to try them out. They worked beautifully through thick and thin snow, as anyone who is a skier knows, can be a challenge. The weather could have been better but being our first time out, ya put up with more than you would near the end of a ski season or ski day.
We had rain to start out with, which soaked us wetter than either one of us have ever been. We looked like we had just walked through a lake. Then came freezing rain pelting our faces making goggles useless. Then snow ahhhhhhhhh, now your talking, this is why we are here, now we can see. We rode the poma lift (for non-skiers this is a disk attached to a pole. The disk goes between your legs and you are pulled up the mountain, skis are on the snow) which is often used for high elevations or high wind conditions. High wind - an understatement! I could hardly stand up at the top. Let's throw in some fog. But wait, oh no, here comes sleet stinging our faces, again making the goggles, you guessed it - USELESS! Could it get any worse, I don't think so! They closed the poma lift by the time we got to the bottom.
These cycles of weather continued all afternoon. We finally gave up and headed for the lodge, ending our day. The food in the lodge is your typical French cuisine -baguettes, croissants, cheese, wine, espresso.
Photos of our temporary furnished apartment, our rooms are on the left front and side, first floor. And the doorway to our apartment building. The doors are super heavy-wrought iron and glass.
It has been difficult to get photos, the rain seems endless. We are told this weather is unusual. I am sure hoping.
Anyway we want to tell you about our skiing day. After getting off the 4-lane highway we meandered a two-lane road for about 35 minutes that reminded us of Nyes Road for our Pennsylvania folks (there is nothing in Ohio like this road, since 99.9% of the roads are straight in Ohio). Maybe two short guardrails on this road, hairpin turns, narrow (a standard size (USA size) GMC pickup truck passed coming the opposite way-we practically had to get off the road), snowy/rain surface, Grand Canyon size drop offs (on my side, yikes). It was a white knuckle ride. Surely on a clear day the scenery would have been breathtaking, and yes my breath was taken away by the above described ride.
We were surprised to find that the mountain was larger than we imagined. Before we left the states we bought ourselves new skis and carried them with us as part of our travel luggage, and so we were excited to try them out. They worked beautifully through thick and thin snow, as anyone who is a skier knows, can be a challenge. The weather could have been better but being our first time out, ya put up with more than you would near the end of a ski season or ski day.
We had rain to start out with, which soaked us wetter than either one of us have ever been. We looked like we had just walked through a lake. Then came freezing rain pelting our faces making goggles useless. Then snow ahhhhhhhhh, now your talking, this is why we are here, now we can see. We rode the poma lift (for non-skiers this is a disk attached to a pole. The disk goes between your legs and you are pulled up the mountain, skis are on the snow) which is often used for high elevations or high wind conditions. High wind - an understatement! I could hardly stand up at the top. Let's throw in some fog. But wait, oh no, here comes sleet stinging our faces, again making the goggles, you guessed it - USELESS! Could it get any worse, I don't think so! They closed the poma lift by the time we got to the bottom.
These cycles of weather continued all afternoon. We finally gave up and headed for the lodge, ending our day. The food in the lodge is your typical French cuisine -baguettes, croissants, cheese, wine, espresso.
Photos of our temporary furnished apartment, our rooms are on the left front and side, first floor. And the doorway to our apartment building. The doors are super heavy-wrought iron and glass.
It has been difficult to get photos, the rain seems endless. We are told this weather is unusual. I am sure hoping.
Monday, January 2, 2012
My Day Today
A friend of mine ask me if our French language lessons will be continuing. I had to tell her that everyday we have French lessons just going about our business.
Here's what happened to me today... I was at the grocery store today. In France you have to take your own bags to the store, they don't give them to you, nor do they bag your stuff. I had 2. But what I was buying didn't look like everything was going to fit in my 2 bags. So I'm at the cash register line checking out and I see the people in front of me with a cart and they are putting their things just back in the cart, not into bags. So I'm thinking- I'm gonna do the same thing, no problem, I"m good. But they had a metal cart that they probably paid for in the parking lot.
I had what looked like one of those plastic totes you can use at the store in the US. But this jobby had 2 wheels and a little bigger, a pull behind--I didn't pay for it in the parking lot, I found it inside the store. So I get up to the cash register attendant and she says something to me in French-I don't know what the hell she is saying. But she's pointing at my cart on wheels and pointing to the back of the line. WTF am I going to do now. I must have looked foreign because the person behind me takes my cart and sits it back behind this gate. So now the cash register attendant is happy and then she looks at my 2 bags. I'm like uh oh, she's thinking the same thing I'm thinking--All that's not going to fit missy! Then my credit card was giving her problems. And she says some other things in French-she could have been swearing at me for all I know. Well finally the credit card worked, Thank God! I packed up my things and Thank God again because everything fit into my bags. So that has been my day so far.
Here's what happened to me today... I was at the grocery store today. In France you have to take your own bags to the store, they don't give them to you, nor do they bag your stuff. I had 2. But what I was buying didn't look like everything was going to fit in my 2 bags. So I'm at the cash register line checking out and I see the people in front of me with a cart and they are putting their things just back in the cart, not into bags. So I'm thinking- I'm gonna do the same thing, no problem, I"m good. But they had a metal cart that they probably paid for in the parking lot.
I had what looked like one of those plastic totes you can use at the store in the US. But this jobby had 2 wheels and a little bigger, a pull behind--I didn't pay for it in the parking lot, I found it inside the store. So I get up to the cash register attendant and she says something to me in French-I don't know what the hell she is saying. But she's pointing at my cart on wheels and pointing to the back of the line. WTF am I going to do now. I must have looked foreign because the person behind me takes my cart and sits it back behind this gate. So now the cash register attendant is happy and then she looks at my 2 bags. I'm like uh oh, she's thinking the same thing I'm thinking--All that's not going to fit missy! Then my credit card was giving her problems. And she says some other things in French-she could have been swearing at me for all I know. Well finally the credit card worked, Thank God! I packed up my things and Thank God again because everything fit into my bags. So that has been my day so far.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
New Years Eve day
On New Years eve day we stumbled upon an American military cemetery in Epinal, about 30 miles east of Vittel. Over 5000 Americans who died during WW2 are buried there. While Normandy is probably our most famous foreign military cemetery, it was still a provocative and profound facility for any visitor, not just American. It is hard to describe our feeling other than it felt like home for a short while as we were on American soil, proud to be an American. The grounds were immaculate and the employees who worked there are US employees, but are French. The crosses are cleaned everyday of any bird poop or other dirt that occurs, and are replaced if they become cracked or weathered. We went to the visitors center and was treated to a tour, just George and I, it was raining so they provided an umbrella for us, we felt like royalty.
This mosaic depicts the American and allied troops entering through the south of France and then traveling north-then onward into Germany. The whole mosaic was very large maybe 50' x 20' high.
A cute little vintage Renault we saw along the way. Reminded me of my brother Bob's old Volvo-PV 53 if I am not mistaken, but his was cooler.
Something that we didn't order but we were given at dinner a night ago, was suppose to be asparagus. This has happened before where we order something and get something else. Now this might not look good and when I first saw this in July it looked repulsive. It looks like fat that is wrapped around the jelled part but is actually thinly sliced turkey. I still don't know what you call this. So we ate it and it was good.
And last night we were invited to a New Years Eve party. It was very nice but somewhat different. We had appetizers earlier in the evening and then cheese fondue and salad around 11:00 PM. Champagne of course at midnight. And then fruit and cookies after that. The French know how to eat.
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