Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Society’ Category

Our place is right at the junction of a bridge and a long straight stretch of road. Net effect is that, as people cross the bridge, they put the foot down and overtake anything and everything and in the other direction they’ve picked up quite a bit of speed before they reach the bridge so it’s time for some serious braking.

So, we have been waiting for a crash and were very surprised that we’ve been here over two years and only had the first one last night.

Thanks to the positioning of the crash we were pretty confident of seeing several more before the wreckage was taken away but just managed the one.

No photos as we figured that would end up with us being summoned as witnesses but both cars look like writeoffs.

The only other day we came really close to having a car crash was the day that it snowed. Yes, it snows in the south of France! Actually, I do mean “the” day that it snowed as it has only snowed once since we’ve been here but it did manage around 6 inches of snow that day which, of course, the authorities were relatively unprepared for as it’s so rare in this area. We waited and waited for a crash but nothing doing really and only one car managed to end up in the ditch outside our entrance.

We also managed to have our very first double booking. I was expecting this to happen last Summer but we’ve managed to keep on top of the bookings up to now and only fell down last night as we managed to put two Spanish couples down for three nights starting tonight rather than three nights starting last night.

We ended up having to put them in another auberge for the night but they’re back with us for the next two nights and took it all very well as Spaniards do with these things.

Arnold

If there’s one thing that strikes fear into Brits who are thinking of moving to France, it’s the prospect of needing to look after a septic tank.

Why is that though? There’s nothing really that scary about a septic tank. No, the main reason is simply lack of familiarity with septic tanks because many of those moving to rural France are moving from a town and the closest they get to such things is when they flush their toilet.

So what exactly is a septic tank anyway? Very simply put, it’s a method of recycling the waste that you flush down your loo into soil and water that you could drink. No, no joke: if the septic tank is functioning properly then you can drink the water coming out the other end.

Septic tanks come in various forms but the most commonly known in the UK operates as a two tank system. Everything you flush down the loo empties into the first of these tanks where it separates out into three basic components:
1) a sludge which sinks to the bottom;
2) the liquids; and
3) a scum.

The sludge sinks to the bottom and is gradually purified by anaerobic bacteria. One consequence of this is that you should NEVER pour disinfectant down your loo when you’re using a septic tank: this is a sure way of making it smelly.

The liquids run off into the second tank which usually consists of layer upon layer of stones (from large down to sand) which acts as a filter.

The scum forms on the top and will eventually lift the top of your tank if you let it build up long enough. It’s not smelly and makes an excellent fertilizer.

The second tank operates via aerobic bacteria and converts the waste water from the first tank into fairly pure water. A scum layer builds up in the second tank too and after a while you’ll need to shovel off the top layer of this.

So if everything is operating normally, there’s no smell. Where it can go wrong is when someone uses disinfectant in the toilets, thereby killing off the bacteria that make the whole system work and thus you end up with a tank full of **** which obviously smells. Also, if the tank isn’t big enough you can find that it gets overloaded and doesn’t work properly (this can happen if the tank is far too big but is less likely).

In general most people find that they need to get their tanks pumped about every four or five years but, if the tank is the right size, they really only need to take off the top of the scum layer. We had a tank in the UK which functioned without any pumping for over 20 years and just needed us to shovel off the top layer in each tank once.

Hope this lays your fears of septic tanks to rest!

Arnold

If you were thinking of going somewhere for a dirty weekend, where would it be?

The French are, of course, totally open about such things and commonly arrive at their accommodation with their mistress for an afternoon and leave the pillows in “interesting” positions.

In France, your first thought would probably be Paris and who am I to argue if you’re thinking romantic night-time cruises on the Seine? However, for an actual dirty weekend, Mas Camps near Perpignan seems to be gradually moving up in the stakes. Already it’s been referred to in Cosmopolitan by one couple who stayed a whole week and didn’t leave the room.

Anyway, for your next dirty weekend, why not try Mas Camps. Simple direct flights from London Stansted, Birmingham, Southhampton and Manchester with a pickup service taking you straight to your room.

Arnold

We made it to the bull run in Millas, or rather the bull stroll. The large scale fencing to keep the tourists safe seemed way out of proportion to the danger involved in this very tame version of Pamploma.

Today is the last of the Millas fair with the celebrations running well into the night, although at a fairly sedate pace in comparison to the equivalent events in Spain. I guess the French have been suppressing the Catalan culture for so long now that everything has declined in comparison to the original Spanish version.

Being the last day, the crowds had grown considerably from yesterday, mainly I suspect people wanting to see the bull running and the bullfight that follows a few hours later.

One odd feature of Millas is the fountain just off the main square. The locals believe that it has magical powers to cure and therefore you see a continual stream of people stopping by with anything from a small bottle to a van load of crates of bottles to fill up from the fountain. Don’t know about the magical powers but the water tastes nice and is cool even on the hottest day.

Must head on… it’ll be a busy day tomorrow as we’ve yet another almost complete changeover of rooms to do not to mention having to take the resulting mountain of sheets off to the laundry, install a new toilet (more on that soon) and the usual assortment of daily tasks.

Arnold

Got a phone call early this morning in slightly dodgy French from a Spaniard in Barcelona saying that they’d like a double room for this evening. No problem really, as the French had all left this morning and we’d only a few people in this evening. They even got someone to call back in slightly less dodgy French to confirm that the reservation had been made and that they’d be here around 4pm.

Bit of an awkward time really as they were to be running the bulls through the streets of Millas around then and we’ve been meaning to go to see that for the last two years. Still, it wouldn’t take long to get them checked in and the bulls were sure to be late anyway (well, it is France after all!).

4pm arrived and we saw a whole lot of cars parked across the road from us. Nothing really unusual in that; a lot of people stop there to check the map or whatever. However, a whole lot of people headed over. It wasn’t one double room they wanted: it was NINE!! We gotta get another floor added to this place someday to cope with such things. Couldn’t keep all of them ourselves but we were able to put enough of them up at the auberge round the corner to satisfy everyone.