Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category

Using a foreign credit card anywhere in France over the last 18 months or so has been even more of a nightmare than usual. Why? Well, 2004/2005 was when just about all the countries in Europe decided to move to the EMV standard with their cards ie to add a chip and require people to use a PIN when buying things; this was also the period that France decided to upgrade their card processing machines to accept foreign chip cards.

Net effect: chaos in the shops. Whilst in years gone by it was a nuisance if your card didn’t have a chip, over that period it was a nuisance if it did as the shop assistants hadn’t a clue what to do with foreign chip cards with many being refused. The reason for that was simple – the banks gave no training whatsoever when they upgraded the software on the card machines. Also, as things were in transition elsewhere there were three different types of foreign cards with chips: those with a chip but no PIN, chip with a signature and then proper chip & PIN cards. Worse even as there are two types of chip & PIN cards: those that require you to select a language first and those that go straight to English.

We found that in some shops you just couldn’t use some foreign cards. What happened was that if you had a chip card requiring you to select the language, a message came up on the shop assistants terminal saying “wait” whilst on the keypad it said “select language” so they wouldn’t give you the keypad and then said that the card wasn’t working.

But we now seem to be almost into the promised land…. Carrefour’s petrol station in Perpignan now accepts foreign chip cards. So, at least foreigners can buy petrol on Sundays once more, after a gap of around 10 years.

Arnold

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for French tourism. Not just the French either as a number of countries in Europe have chosen this particular week to have a major public holiday.

Anyway, net effect of that is that just about all accommodation in France is full this week and has been for several weeks if not months. That, of course, doesn’t stop the last minute people trying to get somewhere to stay and, if they’re determined, most people will manage to find somewhere. So, the morning was filled with phone calls from increasingly desperate French who, for a change, rarely quibble about the price or even whether the room is ensuite or not. Usually you get people phoning to ask for particular dates but by now they’re not picky and will take more or less whatever is available: more “what have you got, we’ll take it” than “we want X”.

To top it all, we’re down a few rooms at the moment as we were getting air-conditioning installed in one room today and are upgrading two others. Still, they’ll be in good time for next year.

Unfortunately, the large number of people trying to book “something” leads to some days with a lot of over-nighters. We’ve been quite lucky this week with almost everyone staying a few days and one family just about half-way into a two week stay but tomorrow just about everyone is leaving so it will be all hands on deck.

We’ve three separate rooms booked for people coming from the UK who’ve not cancelled yet but with all the security hassles on today I’m not sure if any of them will manage to make it. As you’ll gather from the above, we’d have no problem rebooking the rooms even at this point but since all three are guaranteed reservations we need to hold them which means a “no-show” charge if they aren’t able to make it here tomorrow as all three have already passed the free cancellation period.

Arnold

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