Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘France’ Category

What is the view from your computer right now? As I type I am looking out across miles of vineyards; the leaves on the vines, having been relieved of their bunches of grapes in the recent harvest, are gradually turning green and gold as Autumn sets in and gives way to Winter.

Beyond those vineyards is the long grey column of the Fenouilledes; a mountain range that goes on seemingly forever that once divided France from it’s long held enemy of Spain. At dusk, as it is now, they are a formidable sight. Especially the sight of Chateau Queribus reaching out from the peak of those mountains into the grey sky above it.

I am sitting in the same place as the Romans sat 2000 years ago when they decided this part of France was a viable option for a campsite…namely because of the fresh water spring that flowed here, and still provides us to this day with a source of water. Of course, they would not have gazed out at Queribus back then…it was not constructed by the Cathars until into the early part of the 12th century but they still would have sat and observed the same row of mountains that I am observing right now. And no doubt pondered on their mystic beauty.

The outline is still the same; Queribus, the vineyards and I are relative newcomers to the scene. It’s good to see that some things never change though.

We have been incredibly lazy over here on the whole but we’re planning on getting back into the swing of Tai Chi and Tai Combat in the not overlly distant future.

The snag is that when you’ve had a bit of a break from it, it can be quite extremely difficult to get yourself fired up to do exercise classes or even the thought of them for that matter. Not only that, but it’s obviously pretty crazy to start straight into a class at the gym when you’ve not done any serious exercise for a while.

So, the game plan is to ease ourselves back into it again and to start with we’ve already started on a little bit of hill walking which, much to our surprise, didn’t finish us off. After that, we’re going to work up via the treadmills and other machines to a nice gentle class to begin with (definitely not Tai Combat!).

In that insurance companies operate across national boundaries, you’d expect that the standards they adhere to would be international ones. After all, it would be too complicated to run with one set of rules in one country and a totally different one in another, wouldn’t it?

You might think that, but it ain’t so in France.

In France, once you’ve signed up for car insurance with one company it’s not possible to shop around each year as you’d do elsewhere in Europe because to change your insurance company, you must cancel your existing insurance by recorded delivery letter at least two months before your renewal date. However, as you might expect that’s before they’ve told you what it’s going to cost ie you’ve nothing to compare it against the price another company might quote.

We on the other hand are in the “fortunate” position that our previous car was wrecked and therefore could go into another insurance company for the quote. We’re also in the unusual position of knowing what the renewal premium would have been for the little car pictured and that our new and somewhat larger car was around EUR 200 cheaper to insure!

Not that you can totally walk away from the old company of course. You obviously need something to say what the discount you’re entitled to is and that’s what we’re trying to get now with, so far, no success.

What about the payout from GAN for the old car? We were wondering about that too. The car accident happened on May 23rd yet we still have had nothing from them which is why we’re now with a different company.

I found this little missive carved on the arena in Arles yesterday.

Whilst today, the worst of the grafitti is scraped on with a penknife, in times gone by it looks like they were at it with a hammer and chisel for quite a while. Who was D Leon that he had the time and the inclination to carve his name so deeply into the rock?

But then, it’s verging on being “historic” by now of course and in another century or two may even be deemed worthy of preservation.

We had a really full day in Arles yesterday.

Unlike most of the towns in the area such as Nimes and Avignon, it doesn’t rely entirely on medieval and Roman remains for its attraction as it also has Van Gogh to play with as well. Another big plus point of the town is that all of the attractions are within walking distance so you can cover all the major sites in a day with ease.

If you’re a keen fan of Van Gogh naturally the only place to eat is in the Cafe de la Nuit, isn’t it? It’s still there and decorated in the same colour scheme, but why not eat in the cafe next door and sit just where he was when he painted the other cafe? It’s quite a busy spot at meal times so if you’re planning on doing that, it’s best to get there early.

Within a few hundred yards of that spot you’ll find the Roman arena which is pretty well preserved. A ticket to that includes entrance to the Roman baths.

Sadly you can’t visit Van Gogh’s house as it was destroyed during the second world war. However, it’s now the Hotel Terminus et Van Gogh so you can stay in exactly the same spot as he did.