Sunday, June 22, 2008

Le Café


The café - a place to take a coffee or drink and have a pause.... from the daily grind. One can idle for hours at an outdoor café here and never worried about being asked to leave. I love to people watch and no better place to sit and watch the world go by. The other morning on my way to school I saw the garbagemen (who were doing their route) taking a pause at the local café to take a coffee. Not worrying one bit about the time on the clock or whether it was okay to take a break. This is what one does here - it's normal!!. The French definitely appreciate the time they take for themselves and don't worry about production time lost - everything gets done in due time......

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

ATTACK of the Self-Cleaning Toilet

Yes, this is exactly what happened, to poor Rachel that is. The French have designed these great automatic self-cleaning toilets that sort of reassure you that it is okay to go in and use one of these sidewalk toilets because they are cleaned after each use. However, they are not designed for more than one person at a time, where one person goes out and the other one is left inside, only to be completely sprayed from all sides with water and cleaner (and frankly who knows what else). Rachel came out of one of these dripping wet, crying and laughing at the same time, trying to explain what happened. She was a complete sport about it, but you couldn't help but laugh with her!!I could very easily see this happening to me.

So beware la toilette automatique in France.....