Meanwhile, in sunny Talence, France, I decide to stroll the ten minutes or so to get a couple of pizzas at 4:30 p.m. on a Monday. It’s off Boulevard Georges V. There’s a Domino’s, which I’m not very fond of, but another place two doors down that calls itself “Artisanal” . . . that’s always promising. And putting your pizza place two doors down from a Domino’s is pure cojones.
But the place is firmly shuttered with one of those pointless roll-down metal shutters (I can’t see any rioting in this neighborhood in the near future) so I reluctantly decide to go to Domino’s.
Umm, not. It’s firmly closed as well. “18H, m’sieu” says a fellow sitting with a woman on the stoop outside. Hmm . . . he’s got a long wait.
The sign on the door says “Ouvert 7J/7”.
Reminds me of that Stephen Wright joke: man comes up to a store that says “Open 24 hours”. But the owner is locking it up. The man says “But your sign says you’re open 24 hours!”
And the owner says “Not in a row.”
Monday, October 22, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
More observations
Some more observations about the peculiarities of Bordeaux (at least to me): the stop signs all say “Stop”. “We don’t have a complex like they do in Quebec,” was the way it was explained to me. Indeed, the weekend is “le weekend” and “You’re welcome” is NEVER “Bienvenue” (which actually means “You are welcome to this space/house/place”) but “De rien/je vous en pris/c’est moi qui vous remercie (or just c’est moi . . .)” among other things that would never fly in Quebec.
The cars are all mini-to midsize here
(but not as small as the car pictured above) because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to fit on some of these streets. People park facing either way on the same side of the street. In the residential areas the sidewalks are about three feet/one meter wide here and are usually studded with people’s garbage containers, so it’s almost impossible to walk two abreast.
And it seems most streets, which are wide enough for one car, are two-way. At least Bordeaux is pretty flat, so you can see all the way down to the end of the streets, which seem to have no plan or pattern to them — they aren’t parallel at all but sometimes just come together at strange angles for no apparent reason and you get intersections of three streets or or even four streets . . .
Sundays everything shuts down after noon. Supermarkets close at 8 on weekdays.
Yesterday I got paid for a translation job: 1800 euros (about $2500). So I decided to go to the store for some beer and groceries, but I obviously didn’t want to take all that money with me so I grabbed a 50 from the wad. Got to the store, made my purchase, around nine euros and whipped out my fifty, which was a 500 . . . I blanched and so did the cashier. (I had no idea they’d have a 500-euro note here . . . it’s crazy! Lose that and you’re in big trouble.) Well, the store manager had to be called but everyone behind me in line was highly amused and I was duly given my change.
Other random notes: no one has screens on their windows. And I mean no one. And there is plenty of insect life . . . I have become newly reacquainted with that bane of my African-era existence, Anopheles latens and the extremely large Bordelaisian houseflies.
Yes, I highly recommend Bordeaux, the land where vegetables must be weighed . . .
The cars are all mini-to midsize here
(but not as small as the car pictured above) because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to fit on some of these streets. People park facing either way on the same side of the street. In the residential areas the sidewalks are about three feet/one meter wide here and are usually studded with people’s garbage containers, so it’s almost impossible to walk two abreast.
And it seems most streets, which are wide enough for one car, are two-way. At least Bordeaux is pretty flat, so you can see all the way down to the end of the streets, which seem to have no plan or pattern to them — they aren’t parallel at all but sometimes just come together at strange angles for no apparent reason and you get intersections of three streets or or even four streets . . .Sundays everything shuts down after noon. Supermarkets close at 8 on weekdays.
Yesterday I got paid for a translation job: 1800 euros (about $2500). So I decided to go to the store for some beer and groceries, but I obviously didn’t want to take all that money with me so I grabbed a 50 from the wad. Got to the store, made my purchase, around nine euros and whipped out my fifty, which was a 500 . . . I blanched and so did the cashier. (I had no idea they’d have a 500-euro note here . . . it’s crazy! Lose that and you’re in big trouble.) Well, the store manager had to be called but everyone behind me in line was highly amused and I was duly given my change.
Other random notes: no one has screens on their windows. And I mean no one. And there is plenty of insect life . . . I have become newly reacquainted with that bane of my African-era existence, Anopheles latens and the extremely large Bordelaisian houseflies.
Yes, I highly recommend Bordeaux, the land where vegetables must be weighed . . .
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Still here
Okay, I’m not sipping a Bordeaux, but I am in Bordeaux. This place is magical. Cool, in a way that Paris isn’t. Yesterday went to the wine country and walked around Smith Haut Lafitte winery — the perimeter, that is (you need reservations for a tour). It took a full hour.
I’m still trying to figure things out. Grocery stores (maybe all stores?) close at noon on Sunday and are only open till 8 on weekdays. There are no 24-hour places here. The first time I went to the local grocery store (Atac, in Talence) I tried to get a cart but found that they were all chained together. Then I noticed that you had to put a euro in a slot on the handlebar to unlock the cart, so I did. Fair enough, thought I — a euro for a cart.
When I was done with it I left it outside so someone else could use it without paying a euro. The next time I came, a woman was wheeling her cart back to the cart place. I said, “Are you done with that?” She looked at me like I’d just stepped off a flying saucer. I said, “I’ll take it if you’re done with it.” She said, making an “O” with her thumb and forefinger, “You’ll take it if you have one of these.”
Puzzled, I held up a euro. “But I do,” I said, but she just rolled her eyes and kept pushing the cart. Turns out the euro is just to get the cart out, not to rent it. You get the euro back when you put the cart back. That’s two carts I left out with euros in them. They got a free cart plus a euro.
And then I went to the cash with my haul. Ten people behind me, and when he came to the first of my many vegetables he said “You have to weigh this before you come to the cash.” Huh? Turns out there’s a weighing machine that you put your vegetables on and buttons with each vegetable portrayed on a panel and you have to push the right button and it spits out a label with a barcode that he scans. Who knew. No vegetables that day.
Anyway, Bordeaux is great. Following are some pics that have no captions, as I don’t know how to make them. But check out the St. André's Cathedral, that makes the Oratory look like a shed behind your house.
I’m still trying to figure things out. Grocery stores (maybe all stores?) close at noon on Sunday and are only open till 8 on weekdays. There are no 24-hour places here. The first time I went to the local grocery store (Atac, in Talence) I tried to get a cart but found that they were all chained together. Then I noticed that you had to put a euro in a slot on the handlebar to unlock the cart, so I did. Fair enough, thought I — a euro for a cart.
When I was done with it I left it outside so someone else could use it without paying a euro. The next time I came, a woman was wheeling her cart back to the cart place. I said, “Are you done with that?” She looked at me like I’d just stepped off a flying saucer. I said, “I’ll take it if you’re done with it.” She said, making an “O” with her thumb and forefinger, “You’ll take it if you have one of these.”
Puzzled, I held up a euro. “But I do,” I said, but she just rolled her eyes and kept pushing the cart. Turns out the euro is just to get the cart out, not to rent it. You get the euro back when you put the cart back. That’s two carts I left out with euros in them. They got a free cart plus a euro.
And then I went to the cash with my haul. Ten people behind me, and when he came to the first of my many vegetables he said “You have to weigh this before you come to the cash.” Huh? Turns out there’s a weighing machine that you put your vegetables on and buttons with each vegetable portrayed on a panel and you have to push the right button and it spits out a label with a barcode that he scans. Who knew. No vegetables that day.
Anyway, Bordeaux is great. Following are some pics that have no captions, as I don’t know how to make them. But check out the St. André's Cathedral, that makes the Oratory look like a shed behind your house.
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