Posted by ClearSkies on October 7, 2007, at 21:35:25
And I've learned a few things.
I love France. French people are absolutely lovely and very forgiving of people like me who try to speak their language with a grade-school level education. Patient, gracious, I managed several conversations (limited ones) entirely in French and I'm really pleased about it!
I really, really didn't like being the only person in the traveling party with the foreign language skill. I felt an enormous pressure to be the translator, to be the person ordering the food, to be the person to deal with the money... it just wore on me. The other couple didn't even make an effort to speak in French - they just spoke American and expected to be able to communicate. Grrr.
I will never, ever, go on another vacation with another couple. Ever. Too many things not to like about the experience to list, really, but here's the kicker: instead of bringing their bags up from the car to their room, at one point they were bringing up changes of clothing several times a day. That is, from a parking garage, up to the B & B. You can't make this stuff up! You should have seen them packing their luggage this morning in the middle of a one-way street! With traffic waiting, of course! You really can't pre-screen for that kind of strangeness before you travel - but all my unpleasant experiences were directly related to Those People.
All my notes about the trip - and I made them every day - are about the food!! Not a bad meal to be found. We stayed in the Cote D'Azur region mostly, but drove over to Italy for dinner one night, and stayed all too briefly in Provence, where I'd really like to go back to for an extended visit.
I missed my cat, and she seems ecstatic to see me! I missed Babble and it was very strange not to check in several times a day as I usually do. That's how I knew I was really on vacation.
ClearSkies
poster:ClearSkies
thread:787716
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20070925/msgs/787716.html