This and That and No Recovery

In no particular order . . . 

Being in Europe makes me realize how much automobile noise that we put up with in the States,  It's oddly quiet when we sit down for a meal or to enjoy the sun in a square.  The downside is that parking can be a bitch.

Men in France wear a lot of scarves.  I'm very, very open to different wardrobe choices but I don't know about a scarf draped around my neck when it isn't cold at all.  That and the sweater tied by the arms, flung over the back.  Wad it up and stuff it in your pocket like a guy.

Saw this word on a tourist marker: "Planified."  An excellent word that we should introduce into the English lexicon; as in, "Did the fair get planified OK?"

French rap music is beyond ridiculous.  I laugh out loud when I see a young person zip by in a teeny, tiny car with French rap music blaring.  Dude, it's not intimidating.  Lady GaGa has more intimidating songs.

I enjoy the pace of life as a break in my Type A routine.  I can see Americans sit down for a meal or a cup of coffee, with their engines on and revved.  It looks like they could be launched into space at the push of a button.  It looks like the sitting is an unknown and very uncomfortable.  They look like they're getting ready to go go go.  We use phrases like "killing time" or "wasting time."  I can't imagine people over here would do that.  

The counterpoint is that sometimes I feel like I'm wading through molasses, especially when meal times come around.  Often we buy a sandwich instead of going to a restaurant and enduring the glacial pace of the service and the utter disregard for getting the check in my hands as soon as possible.  I mean, you have to beg to pay the bill.  I don't wait for the check anymore - I head into the restaurant and confront the server directly; not in a mean-spirited way but in a get it done way.  I don't want to linger too long - I got stuff to see.

I think I've taken more video of bathrooms and markets than anything else.  I love going to a grocery store here and trying to decipher the food.  And the bathrooms are a wild ride in a fast car.  They're pretty standard in the States: accessible, usually clean-ish, unwavering in their conformity.  Over here it's a experiment.  Yesterday I went into another one of the self-cleaning stainless-steel space pods.  I'm never sure that the self-cleaning isn't going to start when I'm in there.  I can never find water or soap or towels.  I'm usually just trying to get out of the thing.  This one had an automatic door that reminded me of the Star Trek main cabin - push a button and it slid open with a whisper.

Packaging stuff:
Soup with pieces.
Packaging innovation!