Pictures from France are posted and other notes about visiting France

First off, the pictures are uploaded to Flickr.  I was using Picasaweb, but it is gone, and Google Photos is pretty much the definition of awful. Every wrong UI decision that could have been made was made.

All my pictures are located here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/147455986@N05/albums

Some notes and observations about my trip:

They are very traditional.  All the stores close by 6, and none of the restaurants open before 7.  On Sunday, a lot of the places are closed.

This might just be Valence, but the center of town was all pedestrians and the occasional scooter, but no cars outside of the occasional police.  There were actually 2 downtowns, one with car access one with pedestrian-only access.

They value actual social interaction.  Every morning, everybody came and greeted everyone else with a handshake.  I also noticed that when we were out walking around town, the only people on their phones were us.  

Likewise dinner was usually a whole evening and more social affair.  They were all multiple courses, and the food was very excellent.  As a cheese aficionado I was happy they use a lot of cheese, but most of it was softer cheese, like goat cheese, which I am not as big on.  On the whole though, the food was excellent.  

Given the quality of food, I am surprised at how small the French are.  I was taller than most, and am not quite 6' tall.  Most of them are skinny and slight of build as well.  To be blunt, I was the fattest person I saw in France.

While it was good that I went with others who had been there before, in reality most people in France spoke English to some degree.  Some of them spoke English very well.  If these trips do become frequent, I would still like to learn some French, but it isn't really required.

Despite being at the same latitude as New Hampshire, it felt more like Kentucky over there.  They don't get standing snow, and people were wearing jackets when it was 70 out.  The AC at the office is set around 80.

The French get a lot of flak in the US for their limited work schedules and the like, and it is true to a degree.  We arrived normally around 8:30, and were one of the earlier ones in the office.  We were often the last to leave around 6.  It isn't uncommon to take a lunch that is over an hour there, sometimes two hours.

A couple of more work related side notes for my next trip:

• Bring a nice laptop.  The work laptop was a bad idea.  It was a POS, and my laptop can remote in just as easily.
• Bring a fan.
• Get a SIM for my existing phone.  My phone should have the radios required to work over there, and the loaner phone from work was a POS.
• Bring a US keyboard.

Frame is exposed. Lots of pictures.

I had some extra help today from Stefan and Matt, and we got a lot done.  The first thing we did was organize the mess.

I finally have some clear slab again.


The pile of trash has gotten large.  Very large.


The pile of metal has grown as well.  Also quite large.


The burn pile os now so large that it can no longer be completely covered by a tarp.


Something that I noticed when I started ripping off the floor was that some of the styrofoam looked like it had been dissolved.  I think I figured out why.  There were literally thousands of ants living in the styrofoam.


Thankfully I had purchased a new can of wasp spray, and it successfully made the ants dead, though I emptied the can doing it.


The fram is now exposed however.  Unfortunately, it was never painted it appears, so I will have to do something with it.




The tanks were thankfully both empty.  The black water tank was broken too, which means it probably wouldn't have smelled too pretty if it had been used.  The frame supports are also rotted away around it, which means some work will have to be done to the trailer.


Unfortunately we removed the ducting with the reciprocating saw, and that turned out to be a mistake.  A few things got chopped that weren't supposed to.  One of the cross members was cut, and the spare tire likely got nicked.  To be fair, I didn't even know I had a spare tire though, so that is a plus I suppose.


Given that they really cheaped out at the back and how easy it has been to break a lot of the welds on the camper, I am not sure I like the idea of building an extra foot or two off the back of the trailer.  To add insult to injury, the outriggers on the frame were all plastic.


Since I may not get any more time to work on it before I leave for Valence France, I covered up the tanks.  Hopefully the frame doesn't get too badly rusted.

All the walls are down.

The trailer no longer has walls.  it was much much easier with the new saw and blades.






The roof took 4 blades and consumed the saw.  One good saw and a single proper demolition blade survived all the walls.  The blade looks like hell, but it did all the walls.  And I will probably use it for the floor too.


The mower is trapped.  I need to do something with all the cruft that has collected up there.  Unfortunately, my truck is out of commission at the moment, so maybe I need to bump it up the priority list.  Since drying everything out hasn't fixed it, I got a new cap, since the cap has repeatedly been a problem with the truck.  If that doesn't fix it (I don't actually think it will) it might be time to trade the truck and look at getting a used ranger or something.


Something else that needs a priority bump is getting the mailbox put up.  I am not getting much done during the week since I have to go straight home after work if I want to check my mail, since the post office doors lock at 6.  Once I get a mailbox up there and switch my address, I can head straight up to the property after work.