France

The quest for authority in France

Eric – 2015-02-19 – 00:33

This is something that I mostly notice in the workplace, but it seems to be the case generally in French culture. The people seem to absolutely love to have responsibility assigned to them. By this I mean they want, more than anything, to be in charge of some thing, place, or activity. These responsibilities are often minimal. For example, perhaps there is some piece of equipment that needs tending or a document that needs completed. In the US, these duties may be ad hoc or just a small part of somebody’s job that is rarely mentioned. In France, it is formalized and you are made to know about it.

I used to think this was all just about a cultural need to have policies and procedures in place. It may be a little of that too, but as time has passed I’ve become more and more convinced that a big part of it is to maintain each individual’s sense of importance. I believe this because of the silly emphasis on these tiny side projects. Related emails and signs give an air of importance around what is often a minor footnote in my day.

I’m sure part of it is the language, and this isn’t surprising because languages seem closely related to culture. I work in a small building with 15-25 people on a given day. If a hypothetical policy comes down from above that applies to some system in my building, really a casual note is all that’s needed:

Hey everybody they want us to start doing X to the widget, so could you go ahead and do that when appropriate?

Instead, we get an authoritative email:

In accordance with the policies that have been enacted due to the recent events pertaining to the use of university widgets, I have been assigned the responsibility of widget control officer until further notice. A new policy regarding widget use is now in place for all staff and students. You will now be required to do X to all widgets upon completion of activity Y. Any deviation from this plan is strictly prohibited.

Now I’m not saying there is anything wrong, per se, with the second email, but hopefully you can see how this comes across as excessive and self-important to an American. I’m also not pointing fingers at anybody in particular, as I see this sort of verbosity from many different people.

Finally, the point of these assignments is not productivity. If the guy who is responsible for a given task goes on vacation, it just doesn’t get done until he returns. As an example, we have a system in my lab where a single person is responsible for the reservations of an important piece of equipment. (Note that in 1.5 years, this policy has changed 3 times.) Unfortunately, we have a couple months of holiday every year in France, so he’s often gone. We cannot properly reserve the equipment during that time. Yes, we can still use it because in practice the reservation system is useless given the general lack of competition for the equipment. But this just goes back to my point about responsibilities being assigned purely for the sake of assigning responsibilities and not because a policy is needed.

Permalink | Comment (0)
food France wine

Saint-Vincent de Montagny-les-Buxy

Tiffany – 2015-02-17 – 00:03

January is the time of year when Burgundy winegrowers trim branches from their vines and celebrate Saint Vincent, patron saint of vineyards and vintners. For the second time, Eric and I attended the Banquet de Saint-Vincent de Montagny-les-Buxy. This Saint Vincent celebration is a whole day affair, involving a lot of food and even more wine.

Always on a Sunday, the celebrations begin with a small procession of vintners dressed in ceremonial garb making their way to a local church. After a religious service, they parade to the local war memorial and pay homage to those lost in the two world wars. The procession then starts again, this time headed to a local domaine. Each year a different vintner gets to be host for the ceremonial first drink of the day, and at this point the activities become more jovial. A white wine is served along with gougères. In our experience, everyone joining in the festivities usually crams into the vintner’s cold warehouse area and must jostle to get at the drinks and snacks. Perhaps the wine is too cold and the atmosphere a bit lacking, but eventually a group clothed in traditional regional outfits will step outside and perform a variety of songs and dances. Everyone’s spirits rise in anticipation of the rest of the day.

Lunch starts at 2pm, and can last five to six hours. It is held in Buxy at the Salle des Fêtes, probably the only facility in the area large enough to hold all the guests and equipped with a kitchen that can turn out hundreds of plates of food over the course of the afternoon. This year the organizers were kind to seat us next to the only other native English speaker in attendance and in close proximity to many of the winegrowers we have become acquainted with.

Over the course of the afternoon, six courses of food were served. After the first two courses, we were given a little extra time to digest between each course as the brotherhood of winegrowers performed skits on the stage. While our understanding of French is by no means perfect, the skits were still entertaining for us to watch. We wined and dined over the course of the afternoon and into the evening. Not only are local wines served with with the meal, but the tradition is that winegrowers and attendees bring in bottles of wine from their own cellars. This allowed us to taste and sip on at least 15 different wines throughout the afternoon. We were provided with a spittoon and ample water, so we could move from one wine to the next without worrying about finishing every last drop or getting too tipsy.

Every course of lunch was superb, and dessert — cake decorated with large sparklers — was paraded before the crowd before it was sliced and served. It was a lovely, gut-bursting meal.

After the lengthy lunch, the party really gets started with a live band and dancing. The music is a bit old-fashioned and polka-esque, but I wouldn’t really expect anything else given the average age of the crowd. Eric and I tempted fate by going for a spin on the dance floor again this year, and somehow we managed not to take anybody out. I think it’s safer when we just watch though. Everyone is jolly and satisfied by this point in the evening, and it is nice to take a little break from all the eating and drinking just to watch the French be French. Not too long though, because a buffet is served just a few hours after the lunch feast has ended.

Eric and I stayed until shortly before midnight, just long enough to fill ourselves at the buffet, but we couldn’t imagine drinking any more wine after doing so for the last 12 hours. Many of the winegrowers and their friends were still going strong, dancing across the floor and lining up at the buffet for more food. Eric and I practically rolled ourselves out the door and toward the hotel we had rented for the night. I have no idea how the older French ladies and gentlemen have the stamina to keep partying into the wee hours of the night after so much eating and drinking, but perhaps it is just years of practice. I guess that will give us reason to keep coming back to the Banquet de Saint-Vincent de Montagny-les-Buxy whenever we can!

Permalink | Comment (0)
food France Germany wine

Wine tasting in Burgundy

Eric – 2015-02-01 – 17:47

We have been living in Burgundy for about a year and a half now and we have really gotten into the wine culture. In the past, I have never been a huge fan of wine or alcohol in general. I drank from time to time, and I sometimes enjoyed it just fine, but it was never a big part of my life. However, wine is an important part of the culture here, and beer was a big part of the culture when we were living in Germany. So as outsiders it kind of makes sense to really embrace these drinks as a way of learning about the cultures. When living in Germany, we tried many types of beer, I toured a couple breweries, and we even went to Oktoberfest once (which is nowhere near where we were living). Now that we are in France, we have really embraced the wine culture, to an even greater degree than we embraced beer in Germany. This is a great way not only to learn about wine, but also to see a lot of small villages around the region. We rarely drink at home. Because of our relatively cheap weekend hobby, we have really gained an in-depth knowledge of these places and the people. We’ve even become acquainted with some of the producers, who have been very welcoming and generous to us.

Terroir

One thing that makes Burgundy unique, as compared to tasting anywhere else in the world, is the incredible diversity available from only a couple grape varieties. Most of the grapes here are either Chardonnay (white) or Pinot Noir (red), though there are a few minor exceptions (Aligote and Gamay, for example). In terms of differences then, the concept of terroir is very important. It’s a very complex subject, but basically the ground expresses itself through the grapes. Grapes grown in a different village or even on a different part of the same slope will have different sun and wind exposure, as well as different minerals and water availability in the soil, for example. This affects the taste drastically and, from what I’ve heard, there is basically no other place on earth with such diversity. Also, this concept is very historic here. Many of these vineyards were mapped out by monks centuries ago, because even they understood that different plots of land produce wine of different quality, some of which is subjective, of course.

Finding Burgundy wine events

There is a wine tasting event within an hour’s drive almost every weekend. However, one thing that I noticed when we first moved here is that it isn’t entirely clear how to best find these events. Yes, there is a website that lists a lot of them, but it is poorly designed and it lists special festivals and open houses right in the same list as tasting opportunities that go for months. There just isn’t a great events calendar for Burgundy wine tasting and certainly not in English. That said, you can check the following sites for some information:

It is also sometimes possible to look at the websites of any villages that you find interesting. They often will list local events.

Tiffany at Saint Vincent Tournante 2014 in Saint Aubin

Occasions to taste wine in Burgundy

Just to give you an idea of what to expect and the general etiquette, here are a few types of occasions on which one might go wine tasting in Burgundy:

  • Regular tasting at an individual domaine: Some domaines have an open tasting room many days of the week where one can just come in and do some tasting. In this setting it is considered good form to buy something. We usually do buy at least a bottle of whatever our favorite was from the tasting, within our price range of course, and this way we always have a collection of wines at home that are not always super fancy but very decent stuff that we like. For example, we often go to Domaine Berthenet in Montagny. They are open most days and they have quite a solid selection of good wines.
  • Portes Ouvertes: This is where an individual domaine or even an entire village has a free tasting event. For these, you just follow the signs and taste wines. Usually it does not cost anything, but once in a while they will charge a couple euro. Though it is considered good etiquette to buy something if it is free, realistically these events are crowded and not everybody buys. Our deliciousness threshold to buy at an event like this is higher, because we can’t taste at every place in town and buy something everywhere.
  • Wine festivals: This is what we mainly attend. For various reasons, throughout the year many of the little villages have special festivals. For these, you generally pay 5 or 6 euro to buy a glass and walk around the village tasting wine at each domaine. Just due to these events, we have way more glasses than the number of people we could ever entertain in our home, and each village has their own glasses so it’s a fun collection for us. Because you pay to participate in one of these festivals there is less expectation to buy bottles. In fact we’ve been to events where the producers didn’t even have bottles available for sale.
  • Expositions: Sometimes in the larger towns (think Beaune or Mâcon), there are indoor events with an admission charge. These events typically also have food available to sample and buy. The downside of being indoors is that you are isolated from the character of the town, and instead it really is just about the food and wine, but we do usually try to walk around the town afterwards.

Note that here I’ve only listed the types of events that are generally practical for our income bracket. There are some events where you pay something like 70 euro and walk around tasting wines in a vineyard. These may be cool, but we haven’t done one yet just because it’s not really necessary to spend this type of money to taste really good wines in Burgundy.

There are some events that are seasonal and they occur in many villages around the same time. For example, the past couple weeks has been filled with events related to Saint Vincent. We actually attended a banquet in Buxy (for the Montagny appellation) two weekends ago, for the second year. Maybe Tiffany will be writing about that, because it’s an awesome story in itself. In addition to these various events around Burgundy, each year one village holds the Saint Vincent Tournante. This is a big tasting event and it is worth seeing at least once if you get the chance. We went last year when it was held in Saint Aubin. However, last weekend we opted not to go to the 2015 event. It’s just not as interesting to us as the little festivals in random villages. There are crowds to fight through just to get a taste, the number of tastes are limited (this is sometimes technically the case at other festivals, but it is rarely enforced), and it’s expensive (15 euro for 7 tastes this year). Additionally, outdoor tasting at this time of year is not really great for enthusiasts because the wine is always too cold.

Stay tuned…

This was a broad overview of how to taste wine in Burgundy. Of course there are also businesses, such as large cellars and wine shops, where wine can be tasted. We do go to these sometimes, and some are awesome, but here it was my intent to talk about opportunities to get a little more culture. Hopefully we will begin writing some things about individual villages and events we like. We are not experts on wine, but we are learning. We want to share what we can.

Permalink | Comment (0)
France visa

France is broken

Eric – 2015-01-17 – 16:51

There are many things I like about France. I like the tourism. I like the cheese, wine, and cuisine, for example. We have a good time driving around Burgundy on weekends visiting wine festivals in small historic villages.

However, France is a very hostile place to foreigners trying to live here. I do not mean the people. Though the French have always been known for their dislike for foreigners and their languages, and they are becoming well known for their racism recently, that stuff is another story for another time. Overall I have not had big problems with individual people and I find that people all over the world have similar desires, goals, and needs, and really we are all the same. What I want to rant about here is the bureaucracy, though I do recognize that it is really the emergent sum of the people.

Everything here takes forever and it is often done incorrectly. First, this is true with the government. We spend a lot of time at the local sous-prefecture (administrative office) dealing with slow and incompetent bureaucracy.

  • It took us nearly a year to get our health insurance cards. We have heard stories of others taking a couple years. Sure we can still get medical care in the meantime, but it means that we must submit the paperwork ourselves. This is obviously not ideal when you cannot speak the language or understand the system, but this is what all immigrants deal with.
  • The immigration system is awful, though probably better than that in the US. They take so long (on the order of several months) to issue visas so people often end up with what is called a recipisse. This is a receipt of an application for a visa. It is valid if the cops need to see paperwork while in France, but it is not valid for entry at the border. This means that they are giving foreigners, the very people who might have a reason to leave France a lot, a document that does not allow for them to leave France. Tiffany had one of these for almost 6 months. In her case, the short story is that they lost papers and were generally slow. The sous-prefecture told her that if she wanted to leave France she should just lie to the border control upon reentry. When you have one government office telling you to lie to another because their bureaucracy provides no way to obey all of the laws, then you are dealing with a “broken” country.
  • Each employee at two different prefectures gave us a different story regarding my ability to legally drive with my license. Some of these people had a very wrong understanding of the basics of the law. This is ongoing and I hope to write more once it is resolved, but so far it has already been five months (with no driving) that we have been querying these authorities.
  • I got a photo citation more than a year ago. I still haven’t been given a court date to appeal it. But don’t worry, they made me pay immediately so they have had my money for the whole time.

This is also true in the workplace. It is comically absurd how many things are broken in our building and in our organizational systems. I cannot usually blame any one guy. I believe that the problem is cultural throughout the organization.

  • It took me about 3 months to get paid when I first started working here.
  • I work at a national university, with campuses all over France. To hire a new researcher, the paperwork must be signed by the head of the entire university. (Yes, take a moment to think about how ridiculous that is.) So this means that every new contract has to go to Paris and wait to be signed, as part of a two month process. In some cases I guess people can start working in the meantime, but it is also a roadblock for getting visas.
  • Countless things are actually physically broken. I have never before worked at a university where you cannot just call maintenance if something breaks. As an example, our building’s work centers around a large room full of virtual reality equipment, but unfortunately the light switches to that room barely work. It is nearly to the point where we will no longer be able to turn the main lights on in that room. The first switch failed in May (8 months ago)!
  • I waited more than 3 months to get a key to my new office.
  • When I go on missions, I sometimes get under-reimbursed. There is no recourse. At every level of the hierarchy, unless something goes horribly awry nobody cares about the misfortunes of others.
  • I have a bunch of vacation days (which is great), but because the system is so complex (long story) I never know ahead of time how many days I have in order to plan trips far in advance. I can email the human resources people and they rarely reply, but if I did get ahold of them in most cases they will not know the answer either.

The French always talk about their quality of life. But I ask you: How high is my quality of life when I go months without a paycheck or the ability to drive? I think the French system is unrealistic. Though it is the largest country in Europe, it is a mere footnote when it comes to the world’s economy. There are lots of resources and a good strategic location, but with all of these inefficiencies the French are increasingly unable to compete with the world around them. For these reasons and others, I do not see a bright future for France and I believe the quality of life is going to go down before it goes up.

Permalink | Comment (0)
car France

Car care in France (or “Bumper cars in France”)

Eric – 2014-11-27 – 11:51

This could be a short post. As it turns out, the concept of “car care” is somewhat mythical in France. After our first visit to France and seeing that all of the cars are dented and missing parts (mirrors, etc.), Tiffany and I decided that we had to buy our car in Germany where things are very much the opposite.

This is probably the number one reason why I couldn’t see staying in France forever. It is nearly impossible to keep a car in good condition here. French drivers (in general; there are many exceptions) treat the other cars in the parking lot as if they only exist to help them determine when they are all the way in their spot or when their door is open all the way. I always park in a nice end spot at the lab, where only my coworkers park around me. Even though Chalon-sur-Saône doesn’t have particularly tight parking, drivers can’t be trusted. In the United States this can be a problem too, but there they at least know in the back of their minds that they are doing something wrong.

The French explain it away, saying they treat their cars like tools. This is a bad attitude for a few reasons. First, driving is a big responsibility and I can’t respect anybody who does it but doesn’t take pride in it. If they can’t be bothered to avoid other cars in the parking lot, what about small children? Second, the car represents a large investment, both financially and environmentally. It’s only responsible to treat it well to maximize its life. Even if they don’t intend to keep it long, they could leave some life in it for the next guy. Finally, I don’t really care how they treat their cars (well, I like the environment so I do care a little). When they damage my car is when we have a problem.

Repair shops

Despite this, I have managed to get decent car repairs in France. The Volkswagen dealership is about the same as in any country (high priced, but seemingly solid work). My biggest problem with the VW dealership in Chalon-sur-Saône (Saône Automobiles) is that I caught the service advisor resting my door on another car one time. He said, “Oh there’s a plastic strip so it’s OK.” Some of my coworkers are pretty car-conscious and they agreed this was unacceptable.

For little stuff we can go to Feu Vert. It’s a chain of general-service garages something like Goodyear in the US. I don’t like to trust chains like this for VW-specific stuff, but they are friendly and fine for the little standard stuff. We also go to Profil+, which is another such shop. They are great because they do free inspections. In two visits they have found nothing wrong, so I guess they are pretty honest. Of course, I suppose they are also French so maybe their calibration is off. Both of these shops and the dealership have always been able to communicate with me in some combination of English and basic French with no problems.

Finally, I discovered a place called L’Atelier Self Auto. This is a really cool concept where they let you rent shop space to work on your own car. They have tools, lifts, and fluid catch pans. For extra, they will allegedly help with the repair. I just went there one time to do an oil change and I was very happy with it. I’d like to see more of these places around the world. I suppose liability is tricky but it’s really awesome to facilitate car owners trying to learn about their cars. Plus I get to do the repair the right way with the best parts.

Permalink | Comment (0)
Arizona food USA

USA todo list

Eric – 2014-09-07 – 14:37

We recently spent several weeks in the US. I made quite a tour (Connecticut, Arizona, Nevada, and Ohio). Here are the things that I missed and made sure to have when I was there.

General

  • Root beer: It’s very hard to find it in Europe. In Paris, there are a couple international grocery stores where a 12-pack can be purchased for about 24 Euro, which is too rich for my blood. On our first night, at a diner in CT, we enjoyed root beer floats!
  • Wendy’s Spicy Chicken sandwich: We do have American fast food here in Europe, but not Wendy’s. I’ve always had a thing for the Spicy Chicken so this is always on my list when I come home.
  • BBQ: I didn’t go to any specific BBQ joints, but I did have some meals with BBQ components.
  • American breakfast: They don’t like to eat hot food for breakfast in Europe. This is a problem for me because a typical American breakfast is just about my favorite meal in the US, regardless of the time of day. All I need is eggs over easy, breakfast potatoes, and wheat toast.
  • Boating: I miss my boat. It is in storage at the moment, but some friends have another one that we took out for some wakeboarding two times while I was in Ohio.

Phoenix area

  • Chino Bandido: This might be my favorite restaurant in Arizona (though there are at least two locations). Normally I go to the Chandler location, but this time I met up with a friend at the old one in Phoenix.
  • Four Peaks Brewing Company: Or is this one my favorite? I prefer the Tempe location, and I always get the Four Peaks Cheeseburger, medium with pepperjack, and fries. For a drink I always go with the Oatmeal Stout milkshake. When I lived there it felt a bit too rich for my blood at about $6, but now that Four Peaks is a special trip, I always get one. I’ve heard good things about most of the menu, though I haven’t experimented much.
  • Cheba Hut: This place has started to spread around the US a bit, but I guess it started in Tempe. I generally go to one in Mesa and this trip was no exception.
  • XTreme Bean: This is my old coffee shop hangout around the corner from the house in Tempe. It can get a bit crowded but it’s close, conducive for working, and pretty tasty.
  • Steve’s Espresso (deprecated): I used to really like this place because they use a French press and are very conveniently located in Tempe, but this time I discovered that they got rid of the WiFi. I understand there are principled debates to be had about the desired atmosphere in coffee shops, but WiFi is generally non-negotiable for my needs.

My primary regret is that I didn’t make it to Waffle House. I could go for some grits.

Permalink | Comment (0)
France visa

Applying for French Residence

Tiffany – 2014-06-22 – 20:26

If you’ve ever heard anything negative about French bureaucracy, let me just confirm for you right now that it’s true. The French have really perfected the art of creating tedious, drawn-out, ineffective, and incomprehensible government processes. If you ever have the pleasure of living in France, you will, without question, experience fits of hysterical laughter and from time to time shed tears of overwhelming frustration after interacting with the French bureaucracy.

Today I’ll be explaining the nightmare of attaining a French residence card, the carte de séjour. First, you have to have the right type of visa to enter France and apply for residence. You cannot merely enter the country as a tourist and convert your visa status. Before moving to France, Eric and I lived in Germany, and therefore we had to obtain our French visas through the French consulate in Frankfurt. As I recall, Eric had an extraordinarily difficult time emailing back and forth with the consulate to arrange an appointment, and we were required to have an appointment. Eric had to have this one sheet of paper from the university before we could apply for his scientifique-chercheur visa and my conjoint visa. It took at least a month to get this piece of paper, because it had to be completed by Eric’s lab, signed the university president, and then get a special stamp from the local French prefecture. This document had the least extraordinary appearance of all the documents in our application package, but naturally it was the most important one for obtaining the correct visas. Once we had all the paperwork submitted at the consulate, the process took two to three weeks before we could go retrieve the visas.

After entering France, the real fun begins. Within two months of entering as a conjoint, you have to apply for French residence at your local prefecture. When I first arrived I had very little idea what this entailed, and a few well-intentioned locals told me all I had to do was mail in a couple of documents. My request was denied. My documents were mailed back to me along with a checklist of about fifty documents one might possibly need to apply for residence, 10 of which were checked off for me. I gathered up all the documents I needed, and submitted them in person to ensure there were no problems. At my local sous-prefecture they are nice enough to accept submissions in person, but some prefectures require you to mail in your application.

Weeks passed by with no communication from the sous-prefecture. The expiration of my three-month visa drew imminently nearer, and still there was no news. I took measures into my own hands and visited the sous-prefecture about two weeks before my visa expired. They issued me a récépissé, a receipt of my request for residence. At first I thought this was a success, but then I researched the document. You can’t travel on a récépissé for your first request of residence. If I traveled, it would essentially be illegal for me to try to re-enter France without applying for another visa while I was out of the country, an excessively burdensome requirement. When I asked the sous-prefecture about this issue, they would only tell me that it was “risky” to travel on a récépissé.

Well, as long as I had no plans to do any travel by air, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Three months passed by, and OFII, the French immigration and integration administration, finally contacted me for the required medical exam. I was checked for TB a full five months after I first arrived in France; if I had it, I would have spread it to everyone in Burgundy by that point, I’m sure. There was also a brief French language test, but the required level of knowledge was very low. OFII gave me a bunch of papers that they said I would have to turn into the prefecture when my carte de séjour arrived.

My récépissé was set to expire about a week after the OFII appointment, and the sous-prefecture told me I would need to get another récépissé. However, the sous-prefecture would not issue a new récépissé before the old one had expired. I explained that I would be out of town when it expired, and that I didn’t want to go without proper documentation of my status. The administrator at the sous-prefecture treated the prospect with a blasé attitude, and told me to come back as soon as possible after my récépissé had expired. I did so, but did not get my new récépissé until after they wasted a day trying to locate my misfiled dossier.

Well, nearly another three months has rolled by, and two weeks ago I went into the sous-prefecture again to check the status of my carte de séjour. Initially the answer was that nothing had happened with it yet, and I would have to obtain a third récépissé when the current one expired. I again asked about the travel situation, because I may travel to the US at the end of the summer. This time the administrator basically told me that if I am still on a récépissé by the time I travel, I should lie to the immigration officer when I re-enter the Schengen area; I should hide my récépissé and pretend to be a tourist, and because I’m American it should not be a problem for me to re-enter this way. Yes, the French government told me to commit fraud to regain entry to their country. Then the administrator asked me if I had had my OFII appointment yet, and I replied that I had, back in February. Her eyes grew wide, and soon the truth unraveled. Apparently I was supposed to bring those OFII documents to the sous-prefecture before they could process my carte de séjour, not after it had arrived as OFII indicated. I took the documents in the next day, and hoped for the best.

Last week we had to go down to the main prefecture so Eric could begin the process of renewing his residence status, and I was able to find out that my carte de séjour is now in fabrication and should be ready the day after my current récépissé expires. How it possibly takes more than 10 minutes to “fabricate” a card, I have no idea. Leave it to the French. So now I am waiting to see what happens when I next visit the sous-prefecture. Hopefully when I finally get this card, it will be valid at least long enough for my summer travels. I really have no idea though, as it could possibly expire as soon as August when Eric’s titre de séjour expires.

Permalink | Comment (0)
food France Germany technology

Apps for travelers and expats

Eric – 2014-06-17 – 20:45

Technology allows us to travel and move much more efficiently than would have ever been possible 20 years ago. I do try to be as minimalist as possible in my technology usage. Having accounts all over the world can present security threats. Additionally, simplifying our technology means less to carry around when traveling and moving, and less data to be stolen or lost. But, that said, I also like to be prepared. I have a 3-year old Macbook Pro and Tiffany has an older Macbook. These are pretty versatile, light, and have good battery life. For phones, I use a Galaxy Nexus and Tiffany has an iPhone 4. We also have some external drives for Time Machine and storing TV shows and such.

Keep in mind that we don’t just travel, but we are also expats. Every day is sort of like traveling for us, so our needs are broad. I will be listing the apps we use for our Macs and our phones (the OS in brackets just tells where we use it). Also I will break them into categories for general travel apps, apps for traveling Germany, and apps for traveling France.

 

General travel/expat apps

  • Aperture [Mac]: This is important for me, because I take a lot of photos when we travel, and I usually post the best ones to Flickr. This is why I’ve included it, though realistically it’s generally the sort of thing that you just need once you get home. Aperture is Apple’s pro photo processing app. If you are serious about photography, I highly recommend it.
  • DEVONthink Pro Office [Mac]: We use this to manage our paperless office. There is a lot of bureaucracy in France, and a lot of paper. I scan every paper we get, use OCR in DEVONthink (available only in the “Pro Office” version) to convert it to a searchable PDF, and file it in the database. Tiffany and I are currently sharing the database using the built-in Dropbox sync feature which saves the “sync store” to a shared Dropbox account. Note that you cannot store the database itself in Dropbox as this can lead to corruption, particularly if you access it from two computers at once. The Dropbox sync feature locks the sync store during writes, to prevent corruption. Unfortunately this makes use of Dropbox’s “Apps” feature, storing the files in a directory that cannot be shared using the normal sharing mechanism in Dropbox. To get around this, we both share a single Dropbox account. I must say that we had a sync problem last week that led to some changes being lost after a really big revision on one computer. But, I think if we are more careful when making large changes going forward we will be fine. I chose this solution over others, like Evernote, because I wanted the ability to control the database for security reasons and because free solutions go away.
  • Dropbox [Mac], JottaCloud [Mac]: The cloud is important when traveling around. If my laptop is not handy, or broken, I may need to access files from another computer. You probably already have Dropbox (if not, click here for referral), but it’s a good way to have free cloud storage. The NSA undoubtedly has access, but it is more mature and stable than JottaCloud. I use JottaCloud for files that don’t change rapidly, due to past experiences with sync bugs. The nice thing about JottaCloud is that it has no operations in the US, meaning that the NSA will have a harder time getting access. JottaCloud doesn’t have a referral link, but if you ask me I can refer you with an email address.
  • Skype [Mac, Android]: I don’t like it much. It’s closed-source and buggy. But for some reason everybody uses it so it’s a must-have.
  • Google Hangouts [Android]: It’s horrible compared to Google Talk, which it replaced, but it’s my primary way of messaging from my phone (which I rarely do, really).
  • Wunderlist [Mac, Android, iOS]: As expats, there are always a lot of gears in motion to satisfy bureaucratic requirements. We use the free version of this app to sync our todo lists.
  • Tunnelblick [Mac]: This is an open source VPN app that I use with the VPNBook service. I also used Hotspot Shield for a while, but I didn’t like the ads. Sometimes things (videos, etc.) are blocked in certain countries or establishments. These apps can often get around that. They can also  I don’t have any loyalty to a particular app or service, but it’s a good idea to have one installed if living overseas.
  • Google Authenticator [Android]: This mobile app generates verification codes for 2-factor authentication on many websites, including Dropbox, Google, Linode, and GitHub. Security is extra important when traveling. If a laptop is stolen or data is intercepted on an insecure wifi network, 2-factor authentication provides great additional security to prevent unauthorized access to your accounts. Of course this means you should try not to lose the phone, but even if you do most accounts will still allow you to login from trusted devices for some time period before requesting a new code. In this way, you can likely still access Google from your laptop even after you lose your phone.
  • Google Maps [Android, iOS]: This one is kind of a staple and its use should be self explanatory.
  • Google Translate [Android]: This translation app even allows me to take a picture of some text, highlight it with my finger, and get a translation. Between this and normal keyboard-based translation, it’s very handy.
  • OnTheFly [Android]: ITA Matrix is the most powerful flight search engine, accessible via the web. You still have to buy the tickets on another site, but I know from first-hand experience that searching here can save you money. In my understanding, many other search engines actually use ITA Matrix under the hood. This is the mobile app. I don’t use it much, because normally I book from my couch. But I figure it’s a good idea to have for unexpected itinerary changes.
  • TripAdvisor [Android, iOS]: We use this to look at restaurant reviews almost every time we eat while traveling, though I guess it also works for other attractions.
  • Where’s My Droid [Android]: I’ve luckily never used it, but it should help find a stolen phone.
  • Undercover [Mac]: Again, I’ve never had to use it, but it helps locate stolen Macs.
  • Moni [iOS]: Tiffany uses it to categorize our expenses while we are traveling.

Germany apps

  • DB Navigator [Android, iOS]: We can search for trains all around Germany, purchase the ticket, and just show the conductor a QR code on the phone’s screen. When I last used it, I had a German bank account. I’m not sure what the payment options are if you don’t. However, the app is extremely valuable even if you must go to a machine and buy paper tickets. For example, an ICE ticket can be used anytime in a given day so this app makes it easy to search for alternate trains if you miss one or one is late/cancelled.
  • VBN [Android]: This app allows me to search and plan tram and bus routes all over Bremen.

France apps

  • FreeWiFi [Android]: If you live in France, Free is an inexpensive choice for home internet (also TV, phone, and mobile phone). The home internet package comes with a router that can broadcast two SSIDs, one private and one public. If you have Free and enable the public SSID (I have, but my box must be broken because I don’t see it), you can access Free hotspots all over the country. This Android app saves time by automatically signing me in.
  • TheFork [Android]: This is the mobile app for LaFourchette, a restaurant search engine that is used around France. In the big cities it can be used to find discounts. It is easy to save 30-50% at a nice restaurant in Paris, for example, if you book through the app.
  • Voyages-SNCF [Android]: This allows for searching and buying train tickets in France. We don’t travel by train much here, as train service is much worse than we are used to from Germany, so we don’t use the app much. I recall that you can only buy tickets through the app if you have a French phone number.
  • SNCF Direct [iOS]: This tracks trains in real time.

One final tip: I always keep scans of our passports and visas on my phone.

Permalink | Comment (0)
food France

Easter Weekend: Wine Tasting and a Château

Tiffany – 2014-04-29 – 16:54

For Easter weekend Eric and I decided to save money by staying local. Luckily there were several wine tasting events to keep us occupied. First through, I have an observation about Easter celebrations in Chalon-sur-Saône. I have never thought of Chalon-sur-Saône as a particularly religious town, primarily because the largest market of the week is held on Sunday mornings right in front of the most prominent church. I thought surely Easter Sunday would be an exception and there would be no market. When I asked some of the locals, the general response was along the lines of “why wouldn’t the market happen?” Sure enough, there was the usual large market just like on any other Sunday. Other than a small choir passing along our street at 9am in the morning, it seemed like any other Sunday morning.

On Saturday we went to the 11ème Printemps de Monthelie. Monthelie is tiny vineyard town in the middle of the Côte de Beaune, adjacent to Meursault. Most of the wines are red there. At the festival we purchased wine glasses for five euros a piece and could taste as much as we wanted at 16 cellars. For lunch we had some regional favorites that were for sale at the local community hall. Eric had boeuf bourginon and I had a plate of charcuterie and cheese. It was a satisfying lunch before we continued our wine tasting. We had a pleasant afternoon, and the wines were generally good.

After we finished the tasting, we decided to visit Meursault. While normally the main activity in that town would be wine tasting, we decided we had already done enough of that for one day. Instead, we admired the views across the vineyards, visited the small local church, and took a walk to one of the châteaux in the area. Then we enjoyed a couple of hot chocolates at a local café.

On Sunday we visited the hill town of Dezize-les-Maranges, on the southern edge of the Côte de Beaune. There was another spring wine festival there, with nearly 30 wine producers offering wine tastings. The best we tasted were the reds at Domaine Edmond Monnot & Fils. For lunch we had French street food — a crepe with egg, ham, and cheese; a sausage with a potato; and a waffle with a dusting of sugar. The village was delightful to walk around.

After the festival, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon visiting the Château de Germolles in Mellecey. This ancient home was once owned by the Dukes of Burgundy, and then later by the King of France. Though it was partially destroyed in the French Revolution and has since been transformed into a private home, it is still worth a visit. There was a lovely farm area behind it. The history and meaning behind the interior decorations were interesting to learn about. Overall the tour in English was very good, though I was disappointed we could not see more of the rooms.

I think for a holiday weekend staying local, we did a pretty good job of exploring the sites and culture of Burgundy. I think all the towns we visited are worthwhile if you are interested in finding and tasting wine off the beaten path. Germolles is also a great attraction that is not too far from Chalon.

Permalink | Comment (0)
France technology

Very happy with my Apple Store repair in France!

Eric – 2014-04-28 – 20:25

In spite of what I have heard about Apple customer service/repairs in Europe, my recent experience was great. I had been experiencing intermittent lockups for around a year (sudden graphics freeze even with light load, necessitating a hard reboot) and in the past month or so my trackpad seemed to be less sensitive to physical clicks. I delayed addressing the problems due to the stories I had read about European Apple support. But, because my Applecare expires soon, I decided to finally get it looked at.

First I called the American Applecare phone support. The agent was understanding, but ultimately he claimed to have no ability to help me overseas. He said to ship it in I’d have to send it to my parents or somebody in the US first. This wasn’t really acceptable for me because it would take a lot of time and cost a lot of money to ship and insure it. He did say that the Apple Store here might help me, though curiously he did not make any guarantees that they would be willing. He tried but was unable to search for stores here, though I found one with no problem on Google.

I made an appointment for 9AM on a Saturday at the Apple Store in Dijon (La Toison d’Or location). The repair guys spoke sufficient English to understand my problems. They made me leave it but they let me take my SSD (they didn’t want it because it was aftermarket). A little after 5PM on Monday they called to let me know it was ready. We made an appointment and drove there immediately to pick it up just before closing, which is 7PM in France. They apparently replaced the trackpad and, though they didn’t replicate my problem, replaced the logic board for good measure (logic board would have been my guess as well). This took less than two business days and I’ve gone over a week now with no crashes. This is undoubtedly anecdotal, but it’s been a more successful repair than most of my past experiences with Apple Stores in the US. I’m really not sure why the Applecare representative didn’t just tell me to go to the store in the first place.

Permalink | Comment (1)

« Previous Page — Next Page »

« Previous Page — Next Page »