When we were in the cable car, a Frenchman heard our Englishness and asked if he could give me something. I was hoping that it wasn’t advice about what to do “now you aren’t Europeans”. That has been said a couple of times and I’ve allowed myself to be drawn into a discussion once but that was enough.
This was different. He passed me a UK driver’s license, saying that he’d found it the day before and asking if I could do something with it. I only had time to ask where it was found and he said Courchevel and then he melted into the cable car ‘crowd’ again and I lost him.
The license has the driver’s name and address on it and so I made a quick request to members back at Peelies base and within a few minutes, following up these basic details on the internet, telephone contact details were provided, not for the ‘youth’ featured on the license but his Dad’s business!
Peelies base sent the Dad a message aaking him if he could confirm his Dad position and of course telling him that his son’s license had been found and was only a few kms from Courchevel.
Dad seems to be a man of few words or manners and simply confirmed it was his son but after a prompt, agreed to tell the boy and pass on my phone number.
I was wondering how I would feel if contacted this way about a travelling daughter. Probably nervous.
I waited. Nothing happened. I waited longer and still nothing. Then I thought he’d probability lost other stuff including his phone and started to worry, just a little.
I went to bed and in the morning checked my phone and nothing had happened overnight. I waited until the afternoon and then decided to contact Dad directly. He said, via Whatsapp, that he had told the son yesterday but “he’s now back in the UK”. I suggested that as the son hadn’t got in touch with me that his Dad might like to remind him that politeness would be appropriate.
I did then get a response; a grateful and thank you but curiously, he was working in the ski resort last winter and had his coat stolen in November. He was presumably more chilled than I was about it and his Dad certainly was! Funny thing is that the licence looks brand new and must have been somewhere warm and dry for several weeks.
Do I ever have a little rant, or maybe just complain too much? Yes probably. Well here we go again.
In France…
Fuel (diesel) can’t be bought for less than €1.65 and that’s at supermarkets (UK £1.45)
A litre of pasteurised milk is €1.40 but varies (UK £0.70)
Everything edible in a supermarket is considerably more expensive than England
Lots of small places have great sport facilities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, scooter (was skateboard) ‘tracks’
Roadside verges are maintained
I haven’t seen any roadside litter
Villages have council workers maintaining grass, watering beautiful flowers in beds and containers
They poll their trees so that they stay shapely and work properly as shades. They don’t let them go wild and lift pavements and then have to chainsaw massacre them under cover of darkness
The roads are in good condition, not because they don’t get as much use but because they get maintained. I’ve seen them doing it all over.
It’s still often free to park, or cheap
Many roads have cycle paths and these are properly maintained
All villages and towns seem to have ‘traffic slowing’ arrangements. Usually these are timber chicanes but can be anything. They appear to have freedom to place them where and whenever
Yet the working population retire at 62 It might be raised to 64 but that extra tax income hasn’t started yet
So, what am I missing? What are we spending our taxes on? Where’s the money going?
We have driven for three days now to be ready for a 09:50 tunnel crossing in the morning. The drive out of the Alps was steep and twisty and then we took a route through the Jura, Having been reminded a couple of weeks ago by a camper that my watch has an altimeter, I can confidently say that much of the Jura is well above 1,200m and it’s something of a winter ski destination.
We have driven across the vast prairies of eastern France where the grain harvest is underway. We have pulled over for combine harvesters and got stuck behind tractors and trailers but we are here now, in the Calais hinterland, on a familiar campsite, Manoir de Senlecques. Tomorrow we will be back home.
Camping Nature at Luxemont - very handy N4 between Challons en Champagne and St. Dizier
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