Foreign Perspectives

For the most part they don’t, of course. A few weeks ago we had Halloween here. For a start, it’s a public holiday in France (November 1st is All Saints Day) and they haven’t gotten the hang of Trick or Treat and instead wander round the streets demanding bon-bons (sweets) from the locals.

Obviously they don’t mark November 5th as being anything special but the next special day was Remembrance Day which “obviously” is an international thing, isn’t it?

Well, sort-of. Yet again it is a public holiday here but they don’t seem to have the minutes silence at 11am. Neither do they have poppies which I’d always assumed were the standard symbol around Europe, if not the world although Wendy tells me that it’s a sprig of rosemary in Australia. I’ve not seen the equivalent of either in France though they do take the day quite seriously with small ceremonies in every village in France as you can see.

The other thing that we found, which is not advertised anywhere outside the Port Aventura park, is that there is very, very little for children under 1.2m high even though they charge almost full price for admission (EUR 35 for adults, EUR 28 for 4 to 11 year olds at the time of writing; under 4 are free). In fact, the height limitations had no overall consistency with rides wanting anything from 1m, 1.1m, 1.2m and 1.3m plus others with age limitations (usually 5+) and others with both. We found that something like 90% of the rides required a height of 1.2m so if your child is over 4 but not yet 1.2m then it’s probably not worth going. Most of the small-child-friendly rides seem to be in the “Wild West” area of the park which tends to be the last area that you reach if you follow the main route round yet there is no indication of that.

We were expecting to be in the Port Aventura park until well into the evening, yet despite advertising night admission in a number of places we found that the park closed very abruptly at 7pm. In fact, it started closing up considerably before that with various shops and the like finishing up more like 6pm and by 6.30pm the security people were noticeably sweeping people towards the entrance. At the time we were there, sunset was around 7pm or so and the mosquitoes were out in force by then. Perhaps you think that they can’t do anything about that? Well, Disney World is built right in the middle of a swamp which ordinarily would mean millions of mosquitoes yet there are none so it is definitely possible to do something. As it was, we are covered in bites.

Anyway, if you’re going to Port Aventura, March to June or September to October should be fine and leave before the mosquitoes arrive around dusk.

Barcelona extends for quite a bit and it’s very easy to get lost in the city. Net effect is that, despite numerous visits, our navigation within the city is dreadful so we were very surprised when we managed to arrive in the Rambla area with no wrong turns along the way.

We started off with lunch in El Corte Ingles (a Spanish version of Marks & Spencer). The view from their top-floor restaurant is spectacular as you can see. Unfortunately the prices for the less than brilliant food is equally spectacular. The portions are very large though.

Our next stop was the Rambla, of which more in a later posting.

One thing that I was particularly looking for was a large but carryable Spanish/English dictionary. The snag is that Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia and so a lot of the books shops are Catalan, so lots of Catalan/English and Catalan/Spanish dictionaries but it was quite a while before we found a bookshop with Spanish books. Although, you’d think that the selection of Spanish/English dictionaries would be as large in Spain as it is in the UK, in fact it’s much smaller and the dictionaries are, on the whole, more expensive for comparable quality. The sole exception to this, at least in the bookshop that I looked in, was the Collins dictionary which is pretty much the same price (allowing for the difference in currency) and even adds a version of the dictionary on CD which isn’t available in the version of the book on sale in the UK. They change the name of the dictionary so the full Collins dictionary is called Universal in Spain, the Concise edition is called Master but otherwise appears to be identical.

Normally in Spain, car park prices are pretty low but that’s definitely not the case in central Barcelona where the prices are comparable to those in London so do check the prices if you’re planning on parking all day.

Barcelona is spread out quite a bit with a number of separate centres, but if you’re thinking of a short break to Barcelona, you’d not go far wrong basing yourself in the Rambla area.

For a start, the actual holiday is November 1st (All Saints Day) when just about everything in France closes, much to the surprise of foreigners who are more used to Halloween being just for the kids and being the day before.

Secondly, it’s not really a French traditional holiday and they haven’t quite got the hang of it yet. Imported from America (no doubt to the disgust of a number of the French), there are numerous outfits for the kids and, of course, the usual Halloween goodies seen elsewhere. On the other hand, they may well have the outfits and troup round the houses but haven’t worked out a proper translation of “trick or treat” and therefore just go round the streets calling out for “bon bons” (sweets). The householders, for the most part haven’t got the hang of it either so the vast majority of houses remain closed and it’s noticeable that the groups of kids are very selective in the houses that they call on.

Anyway, if you’re on holiday here around Halloween, don’t forget to buy your petrol etc. on the 31st of October and wonder at the spread of an American holiday to France.