Or perhaps it is Through the Looking-Glass? Remember the White Queen who says:"Jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam to-day."?? I tried to book a hotel room in Paris on the internet. It would allow me to book an overnight stay on every date in the month, except the one I wanted. So I called the hotel directly. Here is the conversation I had with the clerk after explaining my problem:
"Yes, yes that is correct. No, you cannot stay for one night only. The hotel is fully booked. However, you can stay for two nights."
"No, I just need the room for one night."
"Ah well, then you could pay the rack price for one night."
"But I thought you said the hotel was fully booked."
"Yes the hotel is fully booked. You can stay for two nights at the internet price or one night at the rack price."
At that point, I thanked him and hung up. Can anyone shed some light on this--perhaps I should find the Caterpillar???
Marie's chocolate and pear tart. Being polite, I accepted a piece and actually found the combination to be very tasty. Then there was Claudine's chocolate mousse. I ate it all and actually enjoyed it. For my birthday celebration Marie made another pear and chocolate tart and this time I had two pieces! And finally, I tried hot chocolate and loved it too. What is happening to me? Feeling peckish this week at the university, I chose a chocolate bar from the food machine—a French version of a Mars bar. It was horrible and I had the same sick feeling that is normal for me after eating chocolate in Canada. I wonder if I have never had good quality chocolate before these dinners in French homes. Now, I must experiment. I am off to the chocolate shops!
We went for a quick lunch the other day in a boulangerie. When we arrived all the seats were taken but we hung about wondering what we would eat if we stayed. How can anyone resist the 'formule'? You could have one delicious looking sandwich for €6 or the 'formule' for €4.80. Here it included a sandwich, a drink and a dessert. We, as always, were hooked (thus the difficulty in moving the 10 lbs—see Performance Review). At this point, the boulangère asked if she could offrir us a coffee while we waited. Offrir means to give you a gift so we were thus hooked in further. And finally, she ousted two women who had finished their meal so we would have seats! The lunch was delicious—crusty French bread filled with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes and lettuce, a piece of custard tart and a bottle of water. All this for only €4.80. There were 18 seats and most people stayed for quite some time. Even in a boulangerie, people don't rush through their meals. Take-out was available and we saw a few people leave with their lunch. However, there were at least five people employed here-- two bakers and three women behind the counter. Like the restaurants in our street, we wonder how they can possibly make enough money to pay their staff. The current minimum wage in France is €8.82. In Ontario at the end of this month it will be $10.25. At the current rate of exchange, this gives the French worker an extra $2.45. However, the cost of living here is high by comparison. Unlike many young waiters in small Canadian businesses, these young French people are always smiling and gracious. We wonder how these young people survive financially and why they are so good humoured. How to explain the difference between them and their Canadian peers?
David keeps close watch on the various construction sites around our neighbourhood. There are lots of them: three large buildings have been gutted and are being rebuilt, two new facades have been installed, shops are being redecorated. Now the street works have begun. Following the new plan to reduce cars in the city centre, a street beside the market is being narrowed and the sidewalk widened. At the same time, the sewers and wires are being replaced so everything has been dug up. David has watched with fascination as the sidewalk has been rebuilt. For the past four weeks, five or six workers have been carefully laying down a sidewalk of paving stones to match those in the rest of the area. Mr. Engineer has been calculating the cost to La Rochelle for this sidewalk compared to the concrete Toronto ones. The difference is huge. It is interesting to live in a place where aesthetics trump cost effectiveness. What would Toronto look like if we had a similar approach? And finally, who could imagine that sales, les soldes, are regulated all over France by a government department: DGCCRF (Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes)? Yes, right now I know that the summer sales will begin on Wednesday, June 30 at 8 AM on the dot and end on Tuesday, August 3 at midnight. Soldes are different from promotions. Promotions can happen throughout the year at prices that somewhat lower than usual. Soldes, on the other hand are destockings of the current merchandise and merchants are permitted to sell at a loss. And since last year, merchants are allowed to have two weeks of another kind of solde and various regulations govern the when and the how of that! I learned all this from a web site designed to help shoppers get the best of the soldes: http://www.soldes-astuces.com/ .This year, in La Rochelle, the sales did begin exactly on February 6, the merchandise was clearly that of the store (not ends of lines imported from somewhere else) and was very much reduced, more and more as time went by to the end on February 9. I will be waiting for June 30. Now that I know the drill, I will also have checked out stores in advance and know what I am looking for.
