Out Frenching the French

Lately I have been noticing that when B and I go out to eat, we have starting lingering as long or longer than the people at nearby tables. Ordering wine, then coffee, sitting there until 2 hours have passed. And not just because it takes forever for the check to arrive. When did this happen?

L’Assomption

This Friday is a holiday in France, for assumption day. Most people I know are going out of town, so I decided to follow suit. We are heading up to Normandy tomorrow for the long weekend and coming back Monday afternoon. Bon weekend!

l'ascenseur terrible

A few days ago I went to the supermarket, Carrefour, which is in the Part-Dieu mall and it has the unfortunate layout where the checkout is on the top floor, so when you are done you have to take the elevator down to exit. So I checked out, and I was leaving, and I ended up getting trapped on the elavator on my way out! I was there with about 10 French people, including, unfortunately, an infant and 3 other young children, and we ended up being trapped there about 20 minutes, as the elevator proceeded to get hotter and more and more uncomfortable. There was an emergency buzzer and a phone to call for help, and the person standing next to it kept calling the number and saying, "Hello, there is an infant here, it is very important that you come right away," or "Hello, there is someone here not feeling well, and its getting very hot in here, its important that you let us out immediately." I'm not sure that made any difference, but shortly thereafter they did wrench the doors open-- we were stuck between the 3rd and 4th floors-- and they helped us down to get out.

I thought there might be a concerned Carrefour manager waiting outside, ready to soothe us with some 20 euro gift certificate to ensure our loyalty, but I was mistaken about that. Why am I not surprised? At any rate, now I remember why I hate malls, and I hate supermarkets. That will be my last visit to Carrefour. Grrr!

Today I was thinking how the stuck elevator has been a conceit in so many TV shows and movies. When it happens the characters inevitably sit down and end up pouring out their souls to each other, and have some moment of awakening and truth. Such as the elevator scene in a L Word that I watched recently. Or, the one in that Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks movie where the elevator attendant says to Tom Hanks, in a surprised yet self-assured tone, "When I get out of here.... I'm going to marry Jean. I don't know why I haven't. I love her." For the record, no such soul-baring enlightenment occurred at Carrefour. People said things like, "Does anyone have any water?" and we offered each other food and drinks and kleenex from our grocery bags.
Fortunately, all of the children and adults remained calm. I just wish a few more of them had bought some deodorant.

Day trip to Annecy

I think I'm having un peu de jealousy of all of my French coworkers who are en vacances right now. I feel like I should be getting out of town every weekend and heading down to the coast. So last weekend B suggested a day trip to Annecy, a town in the mountains, and I totally jumped for the chance. I went there before in winter, when it was bone-chilling cold and fairly deserted. This time of year, it was full of people out walking by the lake, playing putt-putt or resting in the shade. I was interested in some putt-putt action but we decided against standing in the hot sun for 90 minutes, so we ended up just wandering around and eating some ice cream.

You have to go through a mountain pass or two to get to Annecy.
B read my New Yorker en route.
There were lots of boat rental options.
The water was very clear.
Here was a view from the cafe where we stopped for a drink. There was lots o' good people watching.
We had to take this picture because the awning says, 'the epi of gold.' huh??? Epi actually means part of a piece of wheat, where it bursts out. It also means the same thing as cowlick.

Mixed feelings

Coach K is Team USA's coach?!!!???

Adieu Scotland

The rest of the trip was considerably less eventful. We drove south that night, heading towards Glasgow, and we stayed overnight in a place in the town of Tarbet, along Loch Lomond. We didn't spend much time there because we had to get up and return the rental car the next morning in Glasgow, but we did walk over to the Loch to have a look, and we had a drink in a hotel pub.

Here are the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

We didn't have all that much time in Glasgow, but it seemed like a very cool city, with a happening downtown with lots of cool restos and pubs and a good music scene. We stayed at this hotel which was very nice and central.

We did take a walking tour of merchant city and check out the cathedral.
B's flight was out early the next day, but I had a little more time, so I went to look for Macintosh architecture. Here is the Glasgow School of Art, which Macintosh designed.
Here was another Macintosh building. All in all, I think that I could totally live in Glasgow. It was a groovy city.

Near death experience on Ben Nevis

Although the weather was iffy, we decided to hike up Ben Nevis, which is the tallest mountain in Scotland, at a not particularly high 4400 feet. I have definitely been higher than that on mountains out west. But although we were going, we hadn't exactly decided how far up we would go. Along the path there were lots of people, and the further up we went, the more it seemed to make sense to get all the way to the top. So we kept chugging along.This was the view before we began to ascend into a cloud.
Conditions were not ideal, as it drizzled on and off.
When we were up around 4000 feet, my hiking boot started falling apart. The sole was coming loose from the rest. At the time, it was freezing outside, the wind was blowing, a light rain was falling, and we were in a cloud. Not a good situation.

This was just the beginning. Soon after the whole sole was flapping in the breeze.
I sat down on a rock and we began to talk with a passing older British couple about what to do. Then B pulled a MacGyver, taking a string off of his rain slicker and wrapping it around my shoe. Much to our surprise, it worked nearly the entire way down. I was almost at the bottom when the entire sole came off completely; by that time I was able to walk on what was left, which was pretty much equivalent to a moccasin.
Now I know the exact lifespan of Asolo boots: circa 15 years. They certainly chose an inopportune time to fall apart.

You know, it would never cross my mind to carry extra boots while hiking. I don't even own another pair of hiking boots! As of this writing, I have nothing, zip, nada. This all just makes me realize that I tend to go out hiking grossly underprepared. Not enough food and water, and I don't even own a waterproof slicker anymore, since I wore it to Yankee stadium and it got stolen. Well, I think I may have learned a lesson. B, for one, has become a believer in extra shoelaces. He insisted on taking these ones off my boots before I threw them into the trash once we reached the bottom of the mountain.

This was as far up as we got before we turned back.
Damn you, Ben Nevis!!!! You may have won this round, but I'll be back!!!!