A little on French culture. The culture is not at all a shock, seeing as day to day life is very similar to ours, but there are a few big differences that I have noticed in my time here. The most obvious difference is the approach to the workday. As some of you may know, from 12 to 2 in France everything shuts down except restaurants. This time is a national lunch time given to employees. Nothing happens during this hour, even large grocery stores are shut down. This is very interesting to see when walking through a town at mid day and seeing absolutely nobody. Another difference is travel. First thing to note is that the French public transportation system is amazing. After seeing this, I really believe the U.S. should just start another project like the Eisenhower Interstate System but this time with trains. Not only was the system easy to navigate, but it was comfortable and fast. From Paris to Lyon (about a 9 hour drive) I sat and typed on my computer and read while traveling over 300mph. The trip took less than 3 hours and that is the entire length of France. From Lyon, I could catch a local train to anywhere within 10 miles of where I wanted to go. Another difference (not necessarily cultural) is that everything here is more expensive. Even shopping at the grocery store, I have noticed prices are much higher than their American equivalents. For one example, I pay $.99 for the shampoo I use back home, where here it is sold in a two pack for almost 3€, which is a little more than $4. Cars here are also different. Peugeot, Fiat, and Renault own the roads, with well over 50% falling under those three manufacturers. The small Peugeot 206 seems to be maybe ever 1 in 7 cars, and for good reason. Look it up online, it's a great car and the diesel version gets over 70 miles/gallon. It makes me wish Peugeot sold in the states. I actually emailed a freight company based in France and they told me they would ship me one to Savannah, Georgia for 3000€. With that kind of mileage it's almost worth it.
As more things catch my eye I will let you know, but for now those are the most noteworthy.
How about my housing? As you know, I am staying in a camper located in a row of campers just above the base. The camper is actually really nice. Not only is a very roomy, but because I am not sharing it, I can customize it to my liking. I keep the windows open because of the warm air and cool breeze, and it consistently feels good in here, even at night. The temperature has been around 80 degrees during the day and 60 at night, so ya, the weather is great. Below I have posted some pictures of my camper so you get an idea of what I am talking about.
Today is actually a holiday here in France (there are lots of them) and we just got back from the Artist's Market in town. Basically it was like an Art Festival with different booths selling different things. It was very interesting and we also walked around town a little bit. The church in town is in fact from the 11th century, so my complete guess was correct. Tomorrow I am walking into town in the afternoon, so I will be sure to take pictures while there. To give you a view of what Pierrelatte looks like as far as building structures, here is an overhead picture from the tourism office.
I will make sure to post some pictures sometime soon of the town a little closer up.
A bientôt
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