French ramblings.
May 12 '06
The Bottom Line A great way to add your feelings to a subject and not be rated off topic for rambling away.
When I heard that my very good friend, Barbara, was having a write off I just knew I had to come up with something. As most of you know I am English but have lived in Florida for almost 19 years. During that time I have traveled to see family every year but never got back to Europe. I will be going to England in August for my Dad's 90th birthday.
Here are some of my French ramblings over the first almost 40 years of my life.
At school we didn't have a choice as French was our second language, after all I lived in Kent, which only has the English Channel between France and where I lived. I don't know if they teach the same way now but we learned numbers, how to say "That is the door and here is the table", but no conversational French.
So you see when I started traveling to France in my late teens I was at a loss for words. I could go into a shop or restaurant and say, "There is the window", but had no idea how to order a meal.
We often took the ferry to Calais, as it was a short trip. That was fine on a good day but if the sea was rough, heaven help us, we would throw up. So I tried the hovercraft and that was even worse. The noise gave me such a pounding headache that I was sick the whole time we were over in France.
I can remember going over a couple of times with my first husband on the booze run. This would consist of going to a warehouse and loading up as much beer and wine as the authorities would allow. I only drank when we were with company so that really didn't appeal to me. I can remember my next-door neighbor, who was Spanish doing the same thing. However all her family were smokers so she loaded up with so many cartons of cigarettes that they stopped her at the border. She was asked in English and French what she had brought into the country but all she would say was yes in Spanish. In the end they said "Stupid women can't even speak English" and let her through.
Now after my first husband died and I met and fell in love with Len we did France the perfect way. We would stay in a nice hotel and were lucky enough to be able to look out our window and see the Sacre Coeur, which is my favorite place in the whole wide world. I have probably been in there around 6 times and I feel a sense of peace that I haven't found in any other place. I have been to many cathedrals around the world including Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, but nothing compares to the white Cathedral.
One time we went on a bus trip to Paris, and yes the bus had to go on the ferry too, and there were several old people who hadn't taken enough money with them. We were left on our own to eat one night so Len and I checked out restaurants until we found one that they could afford. I couldn't believe that they expected to eat in a restaurant on the Champs-Elysees and do the Moulin Rouge on just a few francs. We made their money stretch enough so they could eat steak and French fries.
Len's daughter and her husband moved to a village just above Cannes. We would fly into Nice airport and then she would pick us up. His daughter told us that she couldn't speak French. However, when she was in line at the butcher's shop and the assistant took the people in front of her and then started serving the French people behind her, she certainly could speak French fluently.
Another time she was driving in a shopping area in a paddle jumper or 2CV and really flying around the corners. There was this little old person with a grocery bag hanging from their hand or arm, and she took it off of them. I know it sounds mean but we visualize it to this day and burst out laughing.
Then she took us up into the mountains where snow lay. It had been a long drive and we all needed to use the bathroom. We were lucky enough to find one, but when we opened the door, it was a hole in the ground. We had to steady our feet and hold the back of the wall with our hands. There was no lock on the door so we had to stand guard for each other. Again another story we talk of often.
His daughter and her husband lived there for 5 years before moving to the states. During that time one of Len's granddaughters was born in France, although she had a British passport. So some great things are made in France!
We did topless bathing every year when we visited and thought nothing of it. The guys paid more attention to the women with bikini tops on, as it was so unusual. Even ladies in their 80's went topless and my husband always said that they had no wrinkles in their faces as gravity always works.
France is one of the many countries in Europe that we intend to go back to. After all we could do 5 counties in a day. I love Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and have fond memories of them. I have also traveled Spain, Italy, Belgium and Holland too.
Thank you Barbara for letting me take a walk down memory lane. I can still see and remember so many beautiful places in Paris and on the Cote d'Azur. Please make sure you check out Barbara's page for the other entries to this 400th review write off.
Susie.
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