Paris Motor Show | Porte de Versailles

I went to the motor show in Perth once and it was pretty boring. It was small and of no interest whatsoever. For that reason I was hesitant about going to the Paris Motor Show, along with the fact that I'm not that interested in cars. However, I would like to buy a small car soon so I went along with Ferbent, who was particularly interested in seeing all the luxury cars.

Tickets were 12 euros each and it was held at the exposition centre at Porte de Versailles in the 15th. It's not that far from my house but it took forever to get there as I had to go into Paris and then back out again on a different line. It was a pain but I made it. It was Friday night and surprisingly there weren't that many people there. Maybe the pouring rain deterred people from going.

We started off seeing all the latest small cars which I'm interested in buying. I love the Citroen C2 but it just doesn't have the features of the Peugeot 207. The 207 has 6 airbags as standard and optional leather seats and gps. The gps is an extra 2000E but I think it's worth it because it includes an inbuilt SOS button which you press if you breakdown, plus a telephone, and 5 CD player, as well as a street directory for all of Europe. That sounds good to me. I'd also get airconditioning and maybe a sunroof. With all the options I want it would cost around 19,000E. The basic car starts at 12,000E but I think I'd want the extras to be comfortable.

It was then off to see the luxury cars such as Porche, Ferrari, Lamborghini etc. For some reason I've always thought they were all ugly cars. I just don't get the attraction. I did like the latest BMWs though. I wouldn't mind the M6.

So what I thought would be a couple of hours of looking at cars actually took 4 hours but I didn't notice the time go by. Surprisingly I enjoyed going and I might even go again, in 5 years or so.

Going to the Gym in Paris

A week ago I joined a gym in Paris and not just any gym but for sure the best gym in this city. I had been thinking about it for a while but wasn't sure I could justify the expense. Why pay to exercise when I can walk for hours around beautiful Paris for free. Of course there are plenty more things to do at the gym than walk on the treadmill so I decided to sign up.

There is a public swimming pool with a small gym near my house in Boulogne Billancourt. I was going to join that because it's so close and they have a couple of large pools. I like to swim but hate having to share a lane with some slow swimmer and they're always so slow. In the end I decided against this gym because they only have a couple of treadmills and other cardio machines and having to wait to use them would annoy the hell out of me. Plus local schools use the swimming pool and a lot of parents take their children there too. There's no way I want to be swimming with lots of kiddies.

In the end I joined Club Med Gym. They have 22 clubs around Paris and I can use any of them. Only 5 or 6 have swimming pools and they are all very small but there are no kids or teenagers around. There's no way they could afford the membership at a whopping 999E per year. I can barely afford that.

I go to the club in the 16th and it's huge. There are about 50 cardio machines and plenty of weight machines. They have aerobics at all hours including aqua aerobics which I haven't tried yet but hope to. The 16th is a very bourgeois area of Paris so it's mainly professional people who go to that gym. That suits me because they are there to work out and not much else. Although, there does seem to be a bit of gossiping going on which seems strange to me.

So far I've gone swimming once, yesterday, following by a hammam (steam) and the other days I've used the gym. I haven't done aerobics yet as I don't like that it's open and everyone in the gym can and does watch those doing aerobics. The last thing I need is loads of people watching me struggling through a class. Maybe I'll do that when my fitness improves a bit.

What is most surprising about this gym is that everyone is so fit and so slim. I'm the only overweight person there. The girls are especially skinny. They must have been going every day for years. I feel a bit out of place but I'm getting over it.

I'm trying to go four or five times a week. It's a 30 minute walk there from my house so that's an extra hour or so (it takes me longer on the way home) of exercise for me which I hope will help me get fit sooner rather than later.

Travel Vaccinations

I've just created a blog for the East Perth Medical Centre. They specialise in travel vaccinations, hence the name of their site Travel Vaccination (without the s). They will be posting articles about why to get vaccinated and which countries you need vaccinations for if you plan on visiting them. They will also provide information such as what to do in case of an car accident, how to get treated for worker's compensation, who should get flu vaccinations as well as general health advice such as diet and nutrition information.

Even though they do a lot of flu and travel vaccinations they also provide other medical services. The have a number of general practitioners (both men and women), a physiotherapist, dietitian, speech therapist, and massage therapist.

They are based in East Perth at 168 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth, WA, 6004 and can be contacted on (08) 9221 4242 for an appointment.

Speeding Fines in France

I hired a car for my recent holiday and spent time driving around France and Spain. I generally avoided the autoroutes (and the expensive tolls) but did often take the national roads. These can be slower due to fewer lanes and also seeing you have to slow down when you go through a town. The speed limits can still be fairly high as was the case when I was travelling on the RN10 from Paris to Bordeaux.

I wasn't particularly in a hurry but was following the traffic in front of me without thinking too much about my speed. I was suddenly reminded of that however when I was blinded by the flash of a speed camera. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little there but I noticed the flash and I was caught speeding.

I had forgotten about it until today when I received the speeding fine in the mail - the Avis de Contravention au Code de la Route. I thought maybe I was in a 90km/h zone at the time but luckily it was a 110 zone. I was doing 122km/h so the fine was only 45 euros. The way it works is that if you pay within 15 days you pay 45 euros, if pay after 15 days but before 45 days then it goes up to 68 euros, and if you pay after that it goes up to a whopping 180 euros. I paid it already to ensure I only pay 45.

I'm also supposed to lose some points from my drivers licence (it doesn't say how many) but I don't see how they can do that seeing I don't have a French drivers licence. You can of course contest the fine but unfortunately I have to admit I'm guilty.

France Telecom is Useless

I was off line for most of last week due to a problem with my ADSL connection. I'm with Orange (previously Wanadoo) who is owned by France Telecom. I hate having to call people and speak French with them but I had no choice.

The reason I hate calling people was reinforced even more with my first call to Orange. I get pay TV via my ADSL as well as the internet and both went down. When I called Orange I had to speak to either an internet or TV support person. I chose the internet customer support and the woman was a complete nightmare. She refused to speak slower when I asked her which made it difficult to follow all her technical instructions. She insisted the problem was with my computer which I knew wasn't the case seeing my TPS (pay TV) was out too. She said TPS wasn't her area and she couldn't help me with that. She completely missed the point that the problem was related so it was most likely a problem with the line or the LiveBox (modem). She kept repeating that she couldn't help me with the TV and we should get on with connecting the internet. I tried to explain the problem but she just ignored me and went on with her instructions. So I was talking about one thing and she was just continued on with what she wanted to do. Maybe she thought the TV not working at the same time was just a coincidence.

After about 15 minutes of wasting my time fiddling around on my computer, which surprise, surprise, didn't fix the problem, I then got disconnected from her and she didn't call back. I figured she should have called me because otherwise I was going to wait in the queue again even though we had already started on my problem. So at 34 cents a minute that was money really well spent.

So I called back and spoke to someone in the TV customer service section. As soon as I told him both the TV and internet weren't worked he immediately tested the line and found there was a problem with it. He made an appointment for a technician to come out 2 days later (well, what I thought was 2 days later) and it was that simple. I don't what that stupid woman's problem was but at least I finally had a solution.

Two days later I was waiting for the guy who was supposed to arrive at 10:30am. He didn't turn up so I called them at 12pm and 5pm. They told me to be patient and keep waiting. The following day I called again and the guy told me he was arriving that day. So I waited around the previous day for nothing. Ok, I must have misheard the day but why didn't the two people I spoke to let me know I had the day wrong? Was that too much trouble for them?

The wonderful end to this long story is that they guy arrived (an hour late), fixed the problem and then offered to set up my wifi access seeing I had been using a usb commection. I was very happy until he handed me the bill of 149 euros. What! That's not bad for 45 minutes work. I don't see why I should have to pay seeing the problem was with their modem. I don't own the modem I just hire it from them.

At least now I won't be tripping over the wires everyday like I used to. Plus I can watch rubbish French TV again. Great.

Who’s electricity am I paying?

I had a strange phone call today from EDF, Electricite de France, saying that I have been paying my neighbour's electricity bill for the last 4 months. I've never heard of that happening before!

It seems that when I made the connection they set it up for the wrong apartment. A neighbour 2 floors above me hadn't been receiving their bills because their account had been cancelled, by me, and called EDF to find out why. I'm surprised to hear they called to find out about the missing bills seeing their electricity was still connected. They could easily have ignored it. I'm lucky they called because no one has been paying the electricity on my apartment and it could have been disconnected at any moment - which is exactly what happened to me when I was in Montpellier. I had 3 days without electricity in the middle of winter. That was fun.

I don't understand how this happened because I spoke to someone in English when I connected the electricity so it's not like my terrible French was the problem. I was surprised through when the guy told me it was going to cost 50 euros per month seeing I was only paying 40 in a larger apartment in Montpellier. I thought it must have been because I was in Paris where prices are higher!

So they are going to reimburse what I paid for the apartment upstairs and I'll have to pay the last 4 months electricity for this place. I'm glad someone else found this problem before it was too late. Luckily it hasn't caused any inconvenience for me.

Roger Federer vs Vincent Spadea

I saw Roger Federer thrash Tim Henman yesterday. Federer is playing so well, as usual. Henman didn't stand a chance. Henman doesn't stand a chance against most of the top player so it wasn't surprising that he barely won a point yesterday. Federer looks to be in top form so I expect him to easily beat Vincent Spadea in the next round.

I was quite surprised to see that Spadea is still playing tennis. I thought he had retired long ago. I was going to say that he is pretty old but he's my age so I'll keep quiet. I was also surprised to learn that he is American. I always thought he was European, Spanish maybe. I don't know why I thought that. Maybe it's been so long since I've heard his name that I had just forgotten.

Federer is still my number one choice to win the final, especially now that Baghdatis lost to Agassi. He's playing so well that I can't see him losing, not even to Nadal.

Baghdatis vs Agassi

Marcos Baghdatis is through to the next round of the US Open. He is one of my favourite players after seeing him do so well at the Aussie Open earlier this year. I also like to support the Greek boy seeing I am of Greek origin. I watched most of his game and it wasn't as exciting as his previous matches but I'm sure he'll only get better. He's just warming up I'd say.

I didn't watch old man Agassi but I did see that he won his match. I used to really dislike Agassi but have warmed to him slightly over the last couple of years. I'd like to see him do well in his last US Open but seeing he's playing Baghdatis I'll have to go for the Greek boy.

It should be a good match between the two but I do think the younger opponent will make it through to the next round.

Henin-Hardenne Beats Unknown

Henin-Hardenne won her first match of the US Open. Of course it's not surprising that she would beat someone ranked 45 in the world. In the men's competition, the number 2 seed against the number 45 could still be a good match but that is never the case in the women's competition.

I've never liked Henin-Hardenne as she is just plain boring. She doesn't appear particularly talented. She looks like one of those players who are successful purely because they work really hard. I hate watching people like that; I would rather watch a natural talent any day. Obviously a naturally talented played like Federer or Hingis has to work hard to be number one but it's not the same. This tennis isn't as exciting to watch.

I disliked HH even more when she pulled out of the Australian Open with a 'stomach ache'. I think it doesn't matter how much pain you are in, you can't pull out of the final of a Grand Slam. It's not like she pulled a muscle which could have gotten worse if she had continued. How was sticking out that match going to make her 'injury' worse. She just couldn't stand to lose to Mauresmo. I hate her for that.

I didn't watch much of her game today, why would I when I already knew what the result would be. This is why women's tennis is so boring. Only the semis and the final are of interest and then only sometimes.

Organic T-Shirts From CafePress

I like to buy organic products wherever possible but haven't bought much in the way of clothes. I bought my husband a few organic t-shirts and they were very nice. The material is very soft and they look just as great after washing. I would buy some more but would like to see a few more designs first.

My next idea is to buy some bamboo t-shirts. I have heard that they are even softer than organic cotton t-shirts but I am yet to try for myself. The problem with what I have seen of the bamboo products is that they lack a little on the design front. They are very plain and look old fashioned. The colours are awful and when I did try to buy something the black t-shirts were sold out, the only colour I thought I could live with.

The final option is at CafePress. I have my own shop there and I do sell some organic t-shirts. They only come in white which is a bit of a pain, seeing I never wear white and I think they only have a mens t-shirt. It looks nice though and I have sold a few. Head over to Albanian Designs if you want to look at my organic t-shirts or the plenty of other shops at CafePress.

US Open Starts Tomorrow

I was very disappointed not to have seen any Wimbledon matches this year. The Tennis is normally shown on Eurosport or France 2 or 3 here in France but for some reason that wasn't the case with Wimbledon. I didn't get to see even one match. I think it was shown on Canal+ but I have TPS so missed it. I was surprised that they didn't even show the final because Amelie Mauresmo was in it and ultimately won it. I would say very few people got to see that match.

Tomorrow the US Open starts and it is showing on Eurosport so I will definitely be watching. I will be following Federer, Nadal, Bagdahtis, and all the others. I think I will be supporting Federer and Bagdahtis in the mens and Hingis in the womens. There is not much chance of me supporting any Australians as I can't stand Hewitt and the Scud is playing Nadal in the first round. Not much chance for him I'd say.

So the next two weeks will be taken up with the tennis and a little reporting on the tennis. I won't be watching every match, of course, but will report on those I see.

Bordeaux and It's Sandy Beaches

I went to Bordeaux a couple of years ago with my husband. It was just for the weekend and even though it was in the middle of winter and freezing, I loved it. The food was great and they have the best hot chocolate in the world.

On our return we found a very green city, quite different to what we saw the first time around. We checked into a Mercure hotel which is slightly above Ibis in quality. We didn't have much to do but to go out to dinner. We found a great Italian restaurant called Peppone. There was a huge queue which to me indicates a great restaurant so we got in line and waited 30 minutes to get in. The food was delicious, 3 courses and a local wine and all of it was great. At 50 euros I was happy and after a quick walk around the city headed back to the hotel to sleep after a long day of driving.

We had a second day in Bordeaux but rather than check out the city, which we had seen before, we headed to the beach. Ferbent loves the beach so I agreed that some of our holiday will be visiting cities, for me, and the rest of the time we will be going to the beach. A number of people told me that the beach isn't far from Bordeaux but in fact it is more than an hours drive. There was a lot of traffic but we eventually made to Andernos-Les-Bains. This is a place where people with not a lot of money go to spend their holidays with their young families. There were lots of boats in the water and it wasn't right for swimming. Within the hour we were there the tide went out about 100 metres which was strange. We quickly moved on to the Atlantic Ocean at a small beach near Lege.

It was windy at the beach and not particularly hot. The sand was yellow but fine, not like the pebble beaches around Nice. The water was cool but not cold and we went for a quick dip. There were not a lot of people but I could see it would be popular on a hot day. The beach stretched for miles and some parts looked quite remote. The inland is mainly national parks so it's not very built up. It appeared to be very clean, both the sand and the water. I quite liked it there and would have stayed a bit longer if the weather had been nice.

Next beach was the more well known Cap Ferret. I don't know why it's popular, it's just a busier version of the where we were. It was very windy at this point but we went for a swim. Most people had wet suits on and we were 2 of the crazy few who went in the water. It was nice to freshen up though. There's not much else to see in the region as far as beaches go. If you had a bit of time you could explore them all and I'm sure you could find something very nice. There were a lot of people around so something but have been attracting them. My guess is the price has a lot to do with it as it is a fairly cheap area to stay for a few weeks.

That wasn't for us though, we never stay too long in the one place. We then headed for Biarritz...

Bingo Website Reviews

I have finally started reviewing bingo websites. I created a blog where I talk about different bingo sites, how to play bingo, which are the best sites, and where to find the best deals. It's pretty fun reviewing the sites so it's not really like work. I hope to add one review per day although each one does take a bit of time.

There are so many bingo sites around that it is hard to know where to start. I guess that is how my blog will be useful in the future. It can be a starting point for those looking to start playing bingo as well as a reference tool of all the bingo sites. I've got a long way to go to get there though.

I will also be reviewing skills games. These are games like cards, word games, car racing games etc. All the usual games you see around, the only difference being that you can play for money. I gave this a go about a year ago but I never won anything. I only spent $20 on it though. I will give it another go, reviewing sites as I find them.

I'm also going to review free games which is my favourite kind of games. I like to play online just as a break from work so I'm generally not interesting in doing it for money.

These bingo site reviews, as well as my other blogs are definitely going to keep me busy in the coming months. Check out Bingo Bombshell if you'd like to have a look and sign up for some free bingo credits while you are there.

Holidays in August - Paris to Tours

Our holiday finally arrived and we were off to Tours. I was very tired on Friday night but I thought it would be best to leave for our holiday then rather than to go Saturday morning. I always find it difficult to get up early on a Saturday and so we probably wouldn't have left until lunch time. That would have been a waste of the very little time we had so we headed to Tours at 7pm Friday night.

I took to national roads to avoid paying any tolls. This is much better if you want to see the countryside and small villages as well. It got dark quite early so we didn't get to see that much though. We arrived in Tours at 11pm, checked into some crappy Ibis hotel and went to bed. It was early and normally I would have gone for a walk to check out the city but it was pouring with rain. There was no way I was going to go out in that weather so that was it.

We normally stay at Accor hotels because Ferbent gets a 50% discount there but some of them are really rubbish. The older ones are terrible and some of the newer Ibis hotels have the smallest rooms you'll ever see. Nevertheless, it was cheap.

The next day we got up early and walked around the old city. Tours is typically used as a base for holiday makers to see the surrounding chateaux, of which there are many. There isn't much to see in the city itself. For us though, it was just a stopping off point on our way to south west France and Spain.

Tours is a very small city but it was very pretty, as most French towns and villages are. The Hotel de Ville was beautiful and was surrounded by flowers and water features. The old city has tiny pedestrianised streets, perfect for exploring the little shops. Most were closed due to the August holidays, when most of the country is on holiday. It seems strange that they do this seeing there are a lot of foreign tourists in August. They must be losing a lot of money by closing up shop for a month. It's typical of the French though, they don't like to work too hard.

Tours has it's share of gothic churches and other elaborate buildings. There were some gorgeous parks with typical formal displays of flowers, lawn, and hedges. It was very peaceful. I really wanted to spend time exploring the neighbouring chateaux but that will be another trip.

It was then off to Bordeaux...

Buy Organic Blog

I am back from my too short holiday and will be getting back to work today. I enjoyed travelling around France and Spain. I love travelling by car and hope to have a much longer holiday next year. I'll blog about my adventures later but for now will mention my new blog.

I have wanted to start a blog about organic products for quite a while but wasn't too sure how to incorporate it into my existing organic website. I have done it now and even though the design is not the same as the main site, it is similar. I think it looks good, I just have to work on the content now.

The Buy Organic Blog is my main priority now and I will be updating it regularly. I will talk about the latest organic products which are available in Australia, organic news from around the world, where to buy organic products, organic gardening, and related environmental issues. I have lots of ideas and can't wait to see how it goes. I hope people will be interested and will comment with their thoughts and ideas.

It's Holiday Time!

Today is my last day of work before a 10 day break. I've been so looking forward to it. I've hired a car and we're going to head to the beaches down towards Bordeaux and the Spanish border. I'm sure we'll cross over to Spain as neither of us have been there before.

Along the way I hope to visit a few chateaux in the Loire Valley. I have wanted to go there for such a long time but I don't think we'll have much time to stop and look inside. Maybe we'll go inside one but otherwise we'll just admire them from afar. I'll no doubt get plenty of use out of my new camera.

I'm sure we'll spend at least one night in Bordeaux. We went there a couple of years ago, the flight was a wedding present from my brother and sister in law (from London), and had a relaxing weekend with great food and great wine. Bordeaux is probably the only wine I like. I had the best kebab of my life there, not like the rubbish you find around here, as well as the best hot chocolate. Visiting those two places is a high priority.

Ideally I'd like to cross the border near Biarritz so we can visit San Sebastien before following the Pyranees towards Barcelona. Barcelona has been high up on my wish list of places to visit for a while but I'm just not sure we'll have time to do that. We'll play it by ear.

The only real plan for this holiday is to eat, sleep, relax, read, swim at the beach, and that's about it.

Unlimited Antiques in Paris

I went to Le Marche aux Puces de Saint-Ouen today which is at Porte de Clignacourt to the north of Paris. The first thing to note on arriving is that it is a working class immigrant area. A typical trait of this kind of area is that it is very lively which lots of cheap shops. You can buy converse shoes there for 40 euros rather than 55 which you'll pay in the centre of Paris. The first market you'll come across is full of what can only be described as junk. There are lots of low quality souvenir stalls (which is really an oxymoron as there are no high quality souvenir shops), cheap lingerie stalls, and some places selling African 'art' which looked like it shouldn't have been allowed through customs. The other popular type of shop was that selling fake designer gear such as Louis Vuitton bags and Dolce and Gabbana belts.

None of these were of interest to me as I was there for the antiques. I've been wanting to go there for ages as it is the biggest antique market in France, if not the world. My parents love antique furniture and books, as do I, and I am thinking about buying them here and shipping them to Australia. My parents can keep what they like and we can sell the rest.

There are so many different antique markets at Le Marche aux Puces. It is not just one market. It is so difficult to know where to start looking and how to go about buying something. I lot of the pieces were over 10,000 euros. That is way out of my budget. I don't know if that is the tourist price or if that is the real price. The prices generally weren't marked so they could have told me anything. As much as I like antiques I don't have any idea of value. I don't have a good knowledge of the different periods and I couldn't spot the difference between a Louis XV or a Louis XVI. It looks like I have a lot of research to do.

Are the French Cold Blooded?

The French are funny people and by that I mean funny strange. Both today and yesterday it was around 25 to 26 degrees. Quite a warm and pleasant temperature. For some reason the French don't see it that way with a significant proportion wearing jumpers, jackets, and scarves. I can't understand that at all. I was wearing jeans and a sleeveless top and I was hot when walking around. I wasn't even a little bit cool, not even in the shade. What is wrong with these people?

It's not the first time of noticed this either. In winter it rarely gets below zero here but you'd think we were in Antarctica by the way they dress. Most people wear a t-shirt, a couple of jumpers, a full length coat, scarf, hat, and gloves. People would be wearing that and I'd be in jeans, t-shirt, and a light coat. Ferbent is the same so it's not just me. The French must be cold-blooded people.

France is Smoking

Even though the number of smokers in France has decreased in recent years, there are still plenty of smokers around. There especially seems to be a lot of women smokers in France. I read recently how a lot of women here take up smoking for the sole reason of keeping their weight down. I take it cigarettes reduce the appetite and that is how they stay slim. This is also the reason many don't want to quit. They are worried that if they quit they might gain 2 or 3 kilos. Two or 3 kilos which they would hardly notice. So they would rather kill themselves than have to wear a larger size jeans, if that. Not to mention how bad smoking is for the skin. They spend thousands on anti-wrinkle creams and expensive makeup only to ruin it all with cigarettes. You can spot a smoker a mile away with the disgusting wrinkles around their lips. That's pretty ugly. In fact it is pretty sad that they think this is the solution to their weight problems, which I'm sure is more in their minds than anything else.

I can't think of anything worse than smoking. I understand it is difficult to give up but it is the only way to go. Here are some tips on how to quit smoking if anyone needs them.

Paris is Closed for Business

It's well known that most of France goes on holiday in August and even though Paris is France's biggest city, it is no exception. A lot of businesses and shops close for the month or at least have reduced hours, especially smaller businesses. This doesn't bother me as much as when I first lived in Europe. It is to be expected and I can easily work around it. If my local boulangerie is closed then I'll just walk the 50 metres to the next one. There are a LOT of boulangeries in France so that won't be a problem. My local supermarket is keeping regular hours so that's not a problem either. In fact, the only reason I have noticed that there are less people around is that the metro is pretty much empty, except for the tourists of course.

It seems that 90% of French people go to the beach for their holidays. They spend a month lying in the sun and not much else. I can't think of anything worse. I like to visit cities, walking around their old centres, exploring the little streets and different shops. That is what I would like to do when I go on holiday next week. Ferbent has a few days off work so including the weekends we have 10 days to play with. Ferbent wants to head west and drive down the coast to Spain. I'd rather head to Bordeaux, visiting all the little towns and villages along the way. We'll have to compromise and maybe visit towns by the beach. At least we'll be moving around and not staying put for a month. That would bore me to death.