Funny stuff from France

Funny stuff from France is my last post about my 2-week trip to southern France. This is a picture heavy post because it is so much easier to show a pic with a short description instead of writing a lot. But, I will start with a story. On the first Wednesday of every month there is nation wide alarm siren as a monthly reminder. It sounds for just 1 minute, at noon. Nobody bothered to tell us, not even the receptionist at the hotel. For someone who actually heard the sirens in a country at war which meant that bombs could head towards us, hearing the siren was a bit strange. I was on my laptop and I knew we were not attacked, but it might have been different if we were out&about.

I grouped the pictures by theme, so they are from different cities in France.

First, the transport in France. It is good in big cities, incredibly poor in village and small cities. For anyone in a small city, there are only a handful of trains or buses at awkward hours. On the “bright” side, some big cities have no bus service on Sundays, so that’s pretty similar for everybody. This cute tram is from Montpellier, which offers free tickets to residents. I haven’t seen that before and there are clearly less cars in Montpellier. For visitors, like us, the tram ticket was 1.2€, so not that bad.

The tube in Marseille is ok. The seats have a rather unappealing colour, but the funny part comes when people get off the train.

One of the passengers needs to open the train door when it arrives in the station; if you pull the level while the train is slowing down in the station, the door will open. That’s crazy for anyone who is familiar with the London tube!

This small bus is perfect for the narrow streets of Avignon. I haven’t been in a bus which is so small. It also has a pretty unusual feature – the skylight visible in the picture below.

Going back to the hotel in Aix-en-Provence, we had a rather unusual bus ride. We were in a not too crowded bus, but still with some people in it when the driver turned left, as he was supposed to and saw that the road was closed for roadworks! He waited to see what is happening, then asked one of the people working there about the repairs. The driver had no idea the road would be closed. After an “Oh, mon Dieu” he called the dispatch to chat with his manager. In the end, the road was briefly opened for us to pass. As you can see in the picture below, there was heavy machinery on the street, in use! That must be one of the strangest bus rides I ever took.

Now, let’s talk about trains, because there are a lot of funny things on French railroads.

This very “clear” numbering of the train tracks. At least this one is A – B – C and E, with D being skipped. But I also saw a 1 – A – B and E. The E is a smaller track, seen below. It takes a bit of head scratching to get to the right track, in the beginning.

So, the tickets need to be validated before entering the train and their online system automatically validates the ticket when it is bought… which is unnecessary. What’s the point of validating a ticket if the validation is done at the same time the ticket is bought? French do love their bureaucracy.

CVs can be submitted directly at the train station using this screen. I haven’t seen something like this, but I think it is a good (and funny) idea.

Pizza dispenser in Marseille, but there are other pizza dispensers in other cities as well. The pizza can be bought either hot or cold (refrigerated to cook at home). I haven’t seen something like this in Italy, so it was surprising to see it in France.

“Cafe” in a museum, which is not the sit-down with nice crockery sort of cafe. The cafes in museums are so much better in the UK.

Marseille nail salon, as a kiosk close to a parking lot. What is even more surprising is that inside it looked very nice and prices were quite expensive.

Notarial office on a sign board, another nod to the French passion for bureaucracy. It is au par with a hotel and marina in importance, which is very funny.

Besides the notarial office, one can buy rubber stamps from a stamp shop from a busy shopping centre. In UK small businesses are not required to have rubber stamps, so this kind of shop would be out of business pretty soon.

To continue talking about shops, this is the sort of things people can buy from French supermarkets – snails and the morally questionable foie gras. The thing in the jar besides the snail looks awful, didn’t check the label.

Truffle shop though is a delight. I bought truffle salt from there and it is amazing. I use it so often and it smells and tastes as truffle. I love it and I would buy oils and salt with truffle from France again. Of course, the prices reflect the quality with the salt being 20€ and the oil a bit more expensive if I remember correctly.

Chocolate fish in a sweet shop. Why would anyone want to buy something like this? I think these were vegan, so I could have bought, as there was dark chocolate and colouring on top. There are realistic items made out of chocolate in UK and I bought some, like pasta, DIY tools, but fish is a bit too unusual for my taste.

I found out where the Romanian name of tirbuşon comes from – the French tire bouchon. The Romanian special character of ş is read like the s in sugar. It is very Romanian to get 2 words and blend it into one, add a special character and that is it.