This is a “medieval” town, which means the streets are small, hilly, and windy. It’s a perfect little town to visit for a day trip with kids.
When deciding the logistics of getting our stuff from the states to France, we decided to try to sell as much as possible and to then mail over the rest. We didn’t own anything worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it was easier to just sell everything. We did have a family member mail over a number of boxes for us though, which was very helpful. Here are some things to note from our experience.
Here are tips on packing that will help smooth things along during the whole mailing process.
This box we received prompted this post (image).
Mailed Box, Ruined
Coffee and euros
Tipping in France is something that’s drastically different than in the US. Of course, if you pay no attention to this note, then you’ll be fine anyway. Everyone in France will love the American that tips generously for apparently no reason. French people, however, do not tip in normal situations.
In France the gratuity is included in the bill, no matter what the waiter says. Even if you were to actually tip in France, the expected amount is ridiculously small. For example, I talked with the pizza delivery guy and he told me that when he does get a tip, it’s because people don’t take the change that’s left over from the euro. For example, if the pizza costs 11.32 euros, the pizza guy gets 12 euros and keeps the change, so he gets a 68 cent tip.
| Desired US Tip Percentage |
Customary France Tip Amount |
| 5% | 0 euros |
| 10% | 0 euros |
| 15% | 0 euros |
| 20% | 0 euros |
| 25% | < 1 euro |
| 30% | 1 euro |
| 35% | 1 euro |
| 40% | > 1 euro |
When going out to lunch with my coworkers, which has happened about 5 times now. They have never ever, not even once, left a tip.
To make things more clear, here is a simple to use table which you can use to convert a customary tip in the US into a customary tip in France. The left side displays the tip percentage in the States (a percentage) and the right side displays the tip amount in France (in Euros).
You may be thinking, “how will the waiter know I liked him?” or “this is what makes French waiters terrible!” or “Well I’m going to tip him anyway.” Well that’s just fine, please fell free to send me your money also. I did provide this page to you after all and I think I deserve some recognition! Seriously though, the best way to make a french waiter happy is by leaving a very small tip, and the best way to make any french person in general happy is by trying to and learning to speak french.
For some ridiculous reason, many (or perhaps all) shows on hulu.com cannot be watched when outside of the United States. This is the message you get when attempting to watch a video while in France.
We’re sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed within the United States. For more information on Hulu’s international availability, click here.
If you’re inside the United States and believe you’ve received this message in error, please click here.
This also applies to the following problems, which conveniently gives me the opportunity to include some keywords directly in my post.
VPN (Oversimplified)
There are simple solutions though. The simplest is to visit http://hotspotshield.com/, download the free version, install and enjoy.
Should Hotspot shield ever stop functioning or should hulu block access via hotspot shield, there are a number of other free Virtual Private Network (VPN) services to choose from (see http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-completely-free-vpn-services-protect-privacy/).
The basic idea is that whenever you visit a website while using a VPN, the VPN acts as a go-between for you and the website. The website thinks it’s dealing with the VPN when in reality the VPN is passing all of the information on to you. Generally this is not the main purpose of VPNs – they are used for security. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vpn.
| © 2012 Stinky Cheese |
