1 October, 2000

I want to say a few things about driving. Harrowing is probably too strong a word, but it is always an intense experience unless you are in a place that is completely deserted.

On the way to a grocery store, there is an intersection in which two 6-lane divided highways cross. From the 4 lanes of both highways which are closest to the median, it is possible to make a left turn. (You may need to draw a picture). But, you don't have to make a left turn from the middle lane of each highway. This means that you have, essentially, two lanes going one way, turning THROUGH two lanes going the opposite way. You also have the third lane and part of the middle lane going straight, so they have the right of way. This means that people who are turning have to sit in the middle of this mess and wait for an opening. Not to mention all the people trying to tag on after the light has changed to make it through during busy times. If you are having trouble understanding what I've written, it's just the same when you're driving. I think that I wrote elsewhere that Stephane, a French friend of ours, said that France was a civilized country, (in mock outrage when I wasn't sure whether I could rent a truck here). In general, this is true, but not at this intersection.

Another characteristic of driving here is that people always go as fast as they can, as long as it is not possible to go really fast. For example, on a highway with little traffic, few people exceed the 80 mph speed limit. However, in town, people drive extremely fast, and they think nothing of passing you in absurd and dangerous circumstances. People will do simply incredible things to get by you if they think you're not going as fast as you can. I think that's why you see so few cars that are more than five years old. If you don't make way for them they will honk repeatedly. It's pretty aggravating, because you can't just take a leisurely drive around town without pissing people off. You always have to go as fast as you can.

However, there is another side to this that is interesting. There is no road rage here at all. Everyone's driving style is premised on this fact. If you ever get passive-aggressive behind the wheel, you could kill people very easily by simply speeding up or slowing down at the wrong moment and throwing off their timing as they squeeze past you. A narrow, apparently two lane road is really five lanes: two outside lanes for bicycles, two lanes of cars, and a center lane for high-powered motorcycles and scooters to weave through. If anyone doesn't just go about their lives in a very straightforward way, there'll be an accident. People get extremely angry, but they're almost never passive-aggressive.

In other news, I finally have all the equipment I need to work normally. That's a big load off my mind, and it turned out to be not difficult to acquire. There's a company in Paris, from whom I could order in English. They were very helpful, and their prices were almost identical to American prices.

We've taken a few trips to surrounding areas. We went to Nice a couple of weeks ago, and then Antibes as well. Nice is like a larger version of Cannes, and it's really a beautiful city. It has wonderful architecture, and the water is an unbelievable blue color. This is because the beaches are made of light gray rocks, so they really heighten the water's natural beauty. The sands in Cannes, while more comfortable by far to lie on, cause the water to be not quite so brilliant.

Antibes was strange. It's a very beautiful town, not very large, and it's completely full of English people. It's very oriented towards yachts, and there are many English bars and shops. It gave me chills in a funny kind of way, as if the English were a spreading disease. I'm not sure why. They seem to have a pervasive sense of being at the center of everything, and they don't seem to like the French. Our French culture book says "Many people love France but don't like the French. Try to remember that the French made France what it is."

Sorry, I'm not terribly clear today... One thing about living here is that I have really noticed the national characteristics of different countries. In Boulder, you are not constantly seeing groups of Germans, groups of Italians, and Groups of English. Here, you get the chance to see groups, fresh from their native soil, and see what makes them unique. It's helped me to understand how other countries might not see the world in the same monolithic way as Americans.

Last weekend we took the car down to St. Raphael. We had considered looking for an an apartment there originally, but we weren't able to find out enough about the place to be confident. It turns out to be lovely. It's quite similar to Cannes and Nice, but the energy is much cleaner and less cluttered. Cannes feels very chaotic by comparison. St. Raphael was just a nice touristy sea town that reminded us of parts of California. It especially reminded me (Gia) of Northern California with many wooded hills and trees along the shoreline.

Yesterday we went on our first major trip by car. We drove on the highway down to Aix-en-Provence. It's a lovely town, and it was really the first place that felt really French to me, in all the ways I anticipated France. It has old buildings, churches, markets, fountains, little squares, etc. etc. I'll put up pictures of all these places as I get a chance. Aix was also about 15 degrees colder than what we've been experiencing -- it was the first place we've been that wasn't on the coast.

From Aix we went to Cassis, which is a small town just north of Marseille. It was our favorite place so far, and if we had to choose right now, we would move there in December. It has only a waterfront street, and a few commercial streets behind. It is surrounded by vineyards and vast cliffs. It was really the first place that did not feel like it was in the middle of a vast industrial zone. It reminded me of St. Barth's, an island we really loved in the Caribbean.

Between Cassis and Marseille is an extremely beautiful part of the coast composed of high limestone cliffs with wonderful rocky inlets. The inlets are called Calanques or "kolonks". I took a million pictures, and I'll put them up when I get the film back. We took a short boat tour. The water is incredibly clear, and you can just look down into it and you instantly feel better. We had been having a bit of a hard time from spending too much time in the car, and it was really great to get out on the Mediterranean and see some natural beauty.

On the way back we drove to St. Tropez, just to see what it was like. It turned out to be mistake, just because it was too much to do in one day. It seemed like a nice place. I expected it to be like Nice and Cannes and St. Raphael, but it was quite different. I'll write more when we go there again.

St. Tropez had the feeling of being more earthy and grounded, but there were a lot of bugs there. They were not mosquitoes, but more of a knat type bug which bit! I would not want to live there if these bugs were there all the time.

Today we went to Anglican church services in English, just to meet some English-speakers. There is actually quite a large expatriot community here, which we have had no contact with. We are going to do more; it's apparent that we can make things much easier on ourselves by using existing anglo resources instead of trying to do everything ourselves in French.

I (Gia), have been going to french classes regularly and learning a lot. The teacher is very good and speaks only french in the classroom. I understand almost everything that she says. It is speaking it that is the more difficult part. Next week I will meet with an "echangelangue" and speak half of the time in english and the other half in french. We will probably meet a few times a week. When this class is over at the end of October I will take another 4 weeks of french classes. Instead of meeting just 3 hours a day I have decided to take the intensive class which also meets in the afternoon. Six hours of french a day should definitely put me at a higher level of understanding and oral development.

Finally, in the phone company saga, there yet another new development. I thought everything would be solved, as a friend had successfully forwarded calls to Italy. Now I have the same service as him, in the same office as him, but his works and mine does not. Fortunately, I am getting used to working with people by e-mail and by initiating all telephone calls myself. The only drawback is that no new clients can call me, even just to leave a message. This probably sounds worse than it is, though I'm not sure why.

We want to thank all of you again, particularly Barry, for being so helpful to us and staying in touch.