Honest to Goodness!

Yesterday I went to the bathroom at the beach. First of all there all these little huts that look like they are bathrooms but they are not, they are just cute changing rooms that you can rent to change your clothes in. I find this extremely odd, since in France topless bathing is the norm. Why on earth would a changing room be necessary? Speaking of topless bathing, the first time the kids were swimming at a water park, I thought it bizarre that all the little girls were wearing just their “knickers” (I LOVE that word, but you have to say it with the English accent) but of course I then realized that girls don’t have to wear tops. I wonder if their swimsuits are less expensive. Sorry for the digression. Anyhow as I was in the bathroom at the beach, I spent exactly five minutes trying to figure out how to flush the toilet. Now I’ve been around some seriously foreign flushers before, and finally I just had to turn in defeat. And you know what? When I turned the handle on the door to get out, the toilet flushed. How about that? At the BEACH, for goodness sake. It’s pretty ingenious. Can’t skip town without flushing in France!

Speaking of toilet habits, since that seems to be my focus – it is perfectly acceptable to pull over to the side of the road and pee in France. The things you learn when you’re “all in the family.” I find this perfectly fine in the countryside but last night I actually saw someone peeing on a cathedral. Now that is just plain tacky, I don’t care where you are and whether or not someone’s going to wag their finger at you – That is disrespectful. I found it such a dirty picture -an ancient town with a gorgeous cathedral and some idiot using it as a toilet! And it wasn’t some drunken bum. It was just some normal guy. Then I started noticing that in many of these small towns there is dog crap on the pavement. Honestly there seems to be some serious toilet issues.

Since hygiene seems to have taken over for the subject matter of today, Greg was completely shocked when I told them that the French have a reputation for being on the smelly side. Of course it came up because HE was complaining about someone’s B.O., I didn’t say anything because I already knew what to expect. Ha! Sniff that up your French nostril, Greg! OH boy I hope the French family doesn’t read this because they will NOT get my humor. That said, I’m going to make a traveling comment and tell you what traveling has done for me and what I think it does for everyone. The truth is that every culture has its stereotypes. And the truth is they’re only partially true. But you have to be able to laugh at that partial part. You have to embrace it, because it’s what makes life interesting. So American’s are known for being rude – we say it like it is, we’re honest. The French on occasion can smell – So does their cheese. Good, bad—bad, good. Depends how you look at it. One of my favorite sayings about traveling or just life in general is this:
A honeybee will fly in a field of crap but find the one single flower. A fly will fly in a field of flowers and find the single piece of crap. Are you the honeybee or the fly?

That said, I’m going to end with some serious Nectar! Any country that deems it perfectly acceptable to eat chocolate for breakfast is a country worth spending time in. I’m getting fat on pain au chocolat and large bowls of hot chocolate for children is a must in the morning. Furthermore, a country whose people know to serve coffee with a hunk of chocolate deserves serious merit as well. So I saw a guy pee on the cathedral, but every morning I’m assured this country knows heaven on earth.

Cheers & Ciao for Now, Gina