Feeling a bit weary from all the hard kms on the bike so attempted a rest day, hard as it is to resist the temptation of getting out there in mountain paradise. I was tempted to travel over to Valloire to watch Stage 15 of the Giro Italia but with all the road closures I would have had to travel half way around Europe to get there, so a rest day it is.
I thought I'd share some interesting observations on some of the things they do differently here, most of which I think are great:
In the Supermarket:
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| Huge range of fresh produce |
- You bag up,weigh and put the price sticker on your own fruit and veggies while you shop.
- Wine, spirits etc are all available on the supermarket shelves mixed in with all the other items, and they are so cheap!!
- The range of fresh food is phenomenal, meats, cheeses, salamis and so many other delicacies, quite overwhelming.
- They don't have plastic bags at the checkout, you either bring your own bags or buy a recycleable one at the checkout (its taken me a bit to get used, finally remembered to bring my bags back last time).
- The checkout, the checkout staff don't bag your items, they simply scan them and toss them down the counter for you bag, combined with the fact that they don't have to weigh anything it makes for a very efficient and quick process.
Hours of Business:
This is one area where think the French have really got it right, not such thing as 24/7 trading here unless its an unmanned service station.
Not only do they not trade 7 days a week but some shops take a few hours off during the day, a small supermarket down the road from me is closed every day between 12.30pm and 3.30pm, a bakery might close for part of the later afternoon.
Many shops are closed on Sunday and if they are open on Sunday they may have another random day off during the week, sometimes you never know sometimes its advertised (or maybe I just understand the French writing).
Also you'll find shops closed for several weeks or days at time while the owners have holidays.
Oh how I wish it was like this at home, I really hope they hang onto this tradition.
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| No household garbage collection |
Rubbish:
They don't seem to have a household garbage collection as such, instead there large bins situated everywhere for you to place you garbage and recycleables, they seem for recycle conscious with the separate bins for each recycle type. Not a bad system I say.
Cycling:
Cycling is a big thing in France, especially in this cycling haven, the infrastructure and acceptance of cyclists is something to behold. There are cycle lanes on most of the main roads, there is signage advising motorists to give cyclists 1.5m clearance and the big one is that motorists actually respect this. Motorists will slow down and follow a cyclist until its safe to pass rather than get impatient and try and dangerously squeeze past.
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| and the motorists respect this!!! |
It really is quite refreshing and I haven't witnessed a agitated motorist anywhere!!
That's just the few things I can think of for now, I'll keep you posted on any others as they come to mind
No work today, it's Sunday!!
Briancon is the highest town in Europe, I spent my time there exploring the Cite Vauban of Briancon, a medieval old town that was a military city in the eighteenth century and is surrounded by fortifications. It was very easy to spend a good half day there wandering around in absolute awe of the structures, views and history.
