French Rules

August 29th 

We spent today driving back to Beaune so thought I would take this blog post to share a few gems we have learned in France this year.

The first one has to to with biking of course.  We have noticed that most of the time the French do not give a warning as they blast past you on the trail or road for that matter.  We asked our friends in Annecy about this and they said if you say anything at all it would be "a droite" which tells the person to get the heck over to the right 😂.  We are a little more polite in the states as we say "on your left" warning of passing on their left.  I hope we don't get confused when we get home and use the incorrect terminology.

Another thing we were told is that cars on the right always have the right of way.  Now that is pretty usual but what is unusual here is that cars coming from the right just jet out into the street without even so much as a glance (if there is no stop or yield sign).  We experienced this last year when a van pulled out from a side street with stone walls so we couldn't see him coming.

I think I mentioned before that at some gas stations you must have a European credit card because a signature is required for American cards.  We were lucky to find a BP station where Jay could pump the gas and then go inside to pay.  And it is mostly necessary to make dinner reservations wherever you want to have dinner.  We rarely eat lunches out so I'm not sure if the same applies for mid-day meals.

As we walked from the car to our apartment we stopped to make a reservation at the Italian restaurant La Roma so we would be assured of not having to miss a meal 😜.  Our first stop however was at our favorite happy hour place, Bar 66.  We enjoyed a glass of wine while chatting with a couple from the states who live north of Paris near Chantilly.  They moved here in 2021 but have been coming to France for 40 years.  They encouraged us to move here and even gave us their special attorney's name who will take care of all the paper work.  They have it pretty easy since their daughter lives in France now too.  I don't think a permanent move is in our near future with our littles and their parents all in Wenatchee. 

Dinner at La Roma was great and we recognized our server and asked her if she worked at this restaurant last year and she said she had worked at Clos 8 and that's where we saw her.  Her name is Cindy and she was a wonderful server!

Salade Caprese

Pasta with Truffle sauce and Jay's Carbonara