Stuff to do With Kids

• Visit the castle (no strollers)
• Walk around the town (stroller accessible, but hilly)
• Have ice-cream

Stuff to do With Adults

• Visit the museam
• Other (see tourism office website at http://www.lesbauxdeprovence.com/)

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.

• Mailing boxes is expensive. It was about $80 per box for us. This was the cheapest option as it was a flat rate type of thing.
• Mailing boxes takes longer than letters. Some boxes took two weeks; some boxes took 4 weeks and were then held at customs until we mailed them a letter explaining exactly what was inside the boxes and the exact value of everything.
• Boxes are mistreated at the post office. Whatever your current idea of “mistreated” may be, it’s actually worse than that. We’re talking they throw it off of buildings and then play soccer with it type of mistreated (see the image below).

Here are tips on packing that will help smooth things along during the whole mailing process.

• Use a large garbage (construction) bag to line the inside of it so that water won’t damage the contents.
• Put the soft things near the outside and fragile things near the middle.
• Pack the box as FULL as possible, especially if anything fragile is inside. Packing the bag full means that the contents won’t shift while the postman is playing soccer with the box. The contents of the box help it keep it’s shape and it’s the best defense against mistreatment.
• Write the exact contents and the exact value of everything inside the box on the outside of the box and tape it to the outside of the box. The tape should completely cover (like laminating) the paper so that water won’t ruin it. Or if you’re worried about things getting stolen you may just note this somewhere. However, we had two boxes that arrived in customs for which we were asked for their contents and there was no indication as to which box was which and no way to tell them apart. It didn’t pose a problem though, so use your best judgement.

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.

• What’s the appropriate amount to tip your waiter at a cafe? Nothing.
• What’s the correct sum when having lunch at a restaurant with 7 of your friends? 0 euros.
• How much should you tip the pizza delivery guy when he shows up at your door? 0 euros.

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.

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.

• How to use pbskids.org from outside of the United States.
• How to listen to pandora.com outside of the United States.

VPN (Oversimplified)

Solution

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/).

Why It Works

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.

Peculiarities Pictured Above

Block of butter: I really prefer my butter in already measured strips that are easily used in recipes, but apparently that’s hard to find in France. It’s still butter though, so that’s good.

Bathroom (toilet), Bathroom with a bath: For some unknown reason, our hotel room and every apartment we looked at had one room for the bath, sink, mirror, etc, and a completely separate room for the toilet. …because everyone wants to be locked in a small, windowless, sinkless, room, where the smells have nowhere to hide while they’re doing their business.

Potato Pizza: This isn’t just France – this is pretty common in at least Italy too.

Things to note from France about weeks 2 and 3.

Saving money on furniture is easy when shopping at Ikea, but don’t forget that when you get it home (or when the delivery arrives) that you still don’t actually have furniture – you have to build it first. This can be interesting with small children that like to help and swallow screws.

Internet and TV service is cheaper in France than it is in the States, especially if you bundle together Internet, TV, and telephone service. Use free.fr to get the best deal. Use Bouygues to be overcharged and not have any internet service a week after the install date.

Tip: Open your bank account before you arrive. Start very early because the required paperwork is ridiculous even once you get there and already have a bank account. I also suggest trying BNP Paribas instead of Crédit Agricole (CA) as I haven’t had many good experiences with CA.

Ham is everywhere and you cannot escape. The french have it in sandwiches, pizzas, mixed vegetables, and anywhere else you can imagine. Definitely do not order a pizza with bacon and expect that it will have bacon on it. The bacon they have is “Canadian bacon” (aka) ham.

My current work schedule:

9am to 12:30pm: Work
12:30 to 2pm: Lunch
2pm to 6pm: Work

This is not an accurate representation of a typical work schedule in France, but somehow this is normal to the people at my work. My coworkers and other people have told me that it depends on the company where you work and I have seen that this is true. Work schedules vary greatly.

Vocabulary

Sometimes the french language doesn’t have enough words, so they reuse them. Some of these are words where you can’t simply say “I have a …” without any context because it would be unclear what you’re talking about.

une trombone:
1) a trombone.
2) a paperclip.

une serviette:
1) a napkin.
2) a towel.

une pile:
1) a battery.
2) a pile (as in a pile of papers).

une feuille:
1) a piece of paper.
2) a leaf.

la crème aigre:
1) sour cream. Not to be confused with crème faiche, which is easier to find but is not sour cream.