Looking for a New Apartment

I gave notice on my apartment the other day, so we have 3 months to find something new. Something bigger, in a better location, and for less money! Well maybe not for less money.

Ferbent's mother is coming to live with us for a while. She'll be here next month and will stay for 3 to 6 months. So we're looking for a large one bedroom although a 2 bedroom would be ideal. I'm not sure if the budget will stretch that far though.

I've already seen a couple of 50sqm apartments in Boulogne for under €1000 per month which is a good sign. One has just been renovated and the other is brand new, which is very appealing. I'm not sure I want to stay in Boulogne though. I'd much rather be in Paris.

Ferbent is talking about moving to the suburbs, like on the train line!!! No way! It's bad enough being in Boulogne but at least we're on the metro here so it's not so bad, it doesn't really feel like the suburbs. Plus we are really close to Bois de Boulogne which is really nice.

Other discussion have involved moving to Germany and recently moving to Cyprus. Ferbent works in hotellerie so he could easily get a job in Cyprus and the rents are super cheap but really, I can't see myself in a small city on a remote island (it'd almost be like being trapped in Perth again). It would be ok if I could easily travel from there but going anywhere would mean flying (which I don't like) and it's expensive to fly anywhere. So I think that option's out.

Still we might take a quick trip to Cyprus to see what it's like. We both love Greek food and the Greek way of life but I think it might be too touristy for us. I found an all inclusive holiday for €495 each for 7 nights in early September so I might book that.

All of Paris is on holiday at the moment so obviously it's not a good time to be apartment hunting. I'll probably wait until next month to start my search.

Why is Germany so Cheap?

So on my recent trip to Strasbourg, I made a quick stop over the border to the small German town of Kehl. I was quite surprised to see that the products on sale there were significantly cheaper than in France. I mean there were huge differences in prices.

I just don't understand how this is possible. I noticed it when we were in Cologne earlier this year too. Bread, sandwiches, drinks, toiletries, all at huge discounts as soon as you cross the border. It's not like the salary is lower in Germany, if anything it's higher. So why do they get products so cheap? I can only imagine it's due to lower taxes.

Some examples of the price differences:

Body Spray: France €4.25 | Germany €2.99
Shampoo: France €3.40 | Germany €1.99
Hair Dye: France €11.95 | Germany €7.95
Body Wash: France €2.40 | Germany €1.59

Cake: France €3-4 | Germany €1.50-2.50 (and for 3 times the size).
Berliner (donut): France €1.50 | Germany €0.50 (and 3 times the size).

So why am I living in this super expensive city, this super expensive country?

Strasbourg

My second trip on the TGV Est was to Strasbourg in the east of France, on the German border. I wasn't expecting too much because I thought it was going to be a very small city with not much on offer but actually that is not the case.

First surprise is that it's a really beautiful city. The historical centre is on a kind of island surrounded by canals. The typical houses are what they call half-timbered houses which can be seen everywhere and they centre around the huge pink sandstone cathedral.

There are loads of bars, cafes, and restaurants serving local and international food. There are a number of local beers and wines worth trying. I really enjoyed the Alsacian rosé wines I tried. The restaurants were quite touristy but the quality was fairly good and the prices reasonable.

The people were very friendly, not at all like your stereotypical French! They were for the most part happy to speak English with us and almost everyone spoke German to the thousands of German tourists who were visiting.

Cars are generally not allowed in the centre so the canal boat ride was the only tour on offer. The boat meanders around the canals giving great views of the pretty houses and gardens and well as the modern European Parliament and related buildings. The tour was well worth it, even if I did get a little sunburnt.

One thing to watch out for with all the canals around is giant rats. I was quite surprised to see one peacefully swimming along. It looked like a seal, it was that big. I'd heard about these giant rats in the Canal St Martin but was quite shocked when I actually saw one for myself. Someone told me the name of this common rodent but I didn't quite catch it so I don't know what it is called in English.

What I didn't realise is how close Strasbourg is to the German border. It's only 3 or 4 kilometres away. Ferbent and I love to walk so we walked over to the border. There wasn't much to see on the way there because you have to go through the port and an industrial area but it was nice when we finally got to the border, the Rhine River. There are parks on both sides of the river and we noted how much cleaner and better maintained the German side was. Typical!

So we spent a few hours in Kehl, the German town on the border. There were very pretty houses there, really well taken care of. Much nicer than the blocks of apartments on the other side of the river. We had a very cheap lunch and then couldn't resist buying some groceries because everything was like 20% to 30% cheaper there. This is the second time I've visited Germany and then second time I've wondered why I'm not living somewhere which has a lower cost of living and higher salary ie. Germany. Of course, I don't speak German but anyway...

So now I'm really looking forward to my next trip which is to Stuttgart.

You can see my photos of Strasbourg on Flickr.

Setting Up CFMail in Coldfusion

If you want to send email using the CFMAIL tag in a Coldfusion page then you need to set up SMTP server details.

The CFMAIL tag sends an email whenever the page is displayed and is often used in a custom error page. So an email is sent to the webmaster to say that an error occurred as well as the error details. This is how I use CFMAIL.

To set up the SMTP details, login to the Coldfusion Administrator then go to:

Server Settings > Mail

Mail Server: mail.securitytransfer.com.au [for example]

Submit Changes

coldfusion Mappings | Footer | CFInclude

So once you have the data source set up in the Coldfusion Administrator, you'll need to set up any mappings which may be required if you use CFINCLUDE tags.

I use CFINCLUDE to include a footer at the bottom of every page of the site.

To set up a mapping, login to the Coldfusion Administrator and then go to:

Server Settings > Mappings

Logical Path: /Templates
Directory Path: C:\CFusionMX7\wwwroot\[website]\Templates 

Add Mapping