Provence experiences

Late Hours

After dinner one night, at about 9pm, we decided to go for a walk around the village before retiring. We came around a corner to a square in the middle of town full of people - we estimated between 1500 - 2000.  There was a stage and lighting set up and lots of chairs. We figured something was happening so sat down and waited - we had no idea what for but thought all these people must know something. There were people of all ages including lots of children.
The crowds increased and at 9.30pm what was clearly a talent quest started with individuals singing - some playing instruments as well. It was great to be there and see it all. While Bob and I didn't think there were any international stars in the making they all sang with gusto - including some children as young as 10 or 11 to an appreciative audience. Interestingly quite a few sang in English. I imagine their selection of songs is wider if they use English songs.
By 10.45pm Bob and I were tired and left. What amazed us was the number of children still up and still seemingly with lots of energy. It seemed very late for young people to be performing and the concert was nowhere near finished.
Too late for us but not for them.

Then another night we went to dinner at 7.30pm which is late enough for us. We didn't have a booking but had read the restaurant was popular with the locals and well priced. We weren't sure if we'd get a seat. When we got there there was no-one else there. We were told we had to sit inside because I guess outside was booked out.
So we commenced our meal thinking that we'd just beaten the crowds. But no. The food was good but there was not much atmosphere as we were the only ones there for some time.
At about 8.15 two families with young children turned up. I guess they'd come early because of the children.
At 8.30 I noticed another waitress arrive and commence working.
By 8.45 a few more people had arrived and even more by 9pm when we left. The restaurant was just starting to buzz as we left.
Clearly dinner at 7.30 is very passe in Provence!

More Internet Issues

This apartment doesn't have internet access. It is important for us to have this when we are staying somewhere for a period so we invested in a hot spot device in Paris which gives wifi coverage, via a small clever device, anywhere that there is mobile phone coverage. So far so good. It works well in the apartment for the internet.
One reason we like to have internet coverage is that we want to be able to Skype the family regularly and also use it to phone Bob's mother in NZ. So we confidently connected to Skype with the hotspot to ring the family - nothing happened so we tried again and again - with no success. We concluded that there must be something wrong with the hotspot because normally if you can get the internet being able to Skype is a given.
Oh dear another trip to the mobile phone provider - Orange. We were pleased to find that they had a store in Isle Sur la Sorgue. The technical person at the store understood the problem and knew the answer. We didn't have enough credit for Skype. That seemed easily solved. Bob added to the credit and home we came.
Tried Skype again - nothing.
This was getting more annoying. We were going into Avignon to deal with the issue described below the next day so took the opportunity to go to another Orange store.
Now suffice to say that after going to 3 more Orange stores and getting different but authoritative advice from all of them we concluded that we needed the hotspot device "unlocked" for Skype.
This involved going to a designated technical store quite a distance from where we were. However now we knew the problem and the solution it seemed worthwhile so off we went.
Sybil (the GPS) was unhelpful and it took us an hour to find the store. We queued and waited our turn.
The technical person spoke quite good English and said that it was not possible to get Skype on a "pre pay as you go" plan in France. OK we said we'd buy a plan for a month - "Was this possible?" Yes he said that's possible but the only way you can pay for it is with a French bank account or French credit card. We said we'd pay cash "Would that do." No only with a French bank account. We left defeated and more than a little frustrated!
Now admittedly our French is poor but we (mainly Bob) were able to make ourselves understood. This did not seem to be a language problem as much as a "this is the way it is done in France issue." This attitude of definitive and different advice from many people has been corroborated by others, who speak fluent French, as being common in France.
We have since found out that you can only get a French bank account as a foreigner if you own property in France so we were a long way from achieving our purpose.

A Puncture 

One day last week we set off to see some lavender fields and decided to stop at a lavender museum on the way. It was very interesting but when we came out Bob noticed we had a flat tyre. He was able to change it himself fortunately. My only contribution was finding the security socket in the glove box, giving lots of positive encouragement and taking photos!

That commenced another saga - that of repairing the tyre. We had not taken out insurance to cover this eventuality, although we may have it through our travel insurance. 

We contacted the rental car firm and they confirmed that it would be better for us to get it repaired ourselves and avoid the administrative costs that they would charge etc. They recommended two garages who would be able to assist. 

Firstly Bob took the tyre to a garage in Isle Sur La Sorgue but they couldn't help. 

I'll spare you the details but over two days and whilst dealing simultaneously with the internet issue above we took the car to 3 more garages and went to the rental car office twice. We had tentative quotes up to 1100 Euros and two new tyres and eventually found the correct term in French and got it repaired by a garage that we'd already been to for 10 Euro.  They were able to squirt a rubber compound in to seal the hole. What a relief.

Now this was caused by a mixture of our not speaking French but also a reluctance for anyone to take responsibility and again we were given lots of conflicting advice.

I think that is part of the charm, individuality and frustration of France.