Some Things We’ve Learned

Today we are in a Hurricane…at least it is as close to what we think one is like (we really don’t know being from Colorado…LOL).  It is blowing 110 kph, raining like cats and dogs and is only 4 degrees Celsius which is about 39 degrees Fahrenheit.  Needless to say there was no boat work done anywhere near us.  So we chose to drive around Narbonne and run a few errands.  Here is what we learned:

1)  When in France, it is easy to buy an “Orange” phone sim card and charge it up with minutes from “Orange”.  You must have an un-locked phone though.  But now we can call locally very cheaply as they gave us a local phone number.  It is a cheap way to keep in touch internationally as well.

2)  The Europeans have adopted a Chip system in their credit cards that the American credit cards don’t have.  We have run into issues at a couple of restaurants already that can’t accept our credit cards because of this so we have learned to carry more cash than usual…just in case.

3)  When parking here, they have a “validation”  machine located somewhere in the parking lot but you need to pay for your time there BEFORE trying to get out the exit gate.

4)  When buying produce in the grocery stores here, you must take it to the “UPC” lady who prints the UPC code for you.  Otherwise you get to the check out lane and there is much confusion and anger as they try to explain the process to you in FRENCH…LOL