France

A Visit to Cluny

Tiffany – 2014-04-11 – 20:17

Eric and I have been doing a lot of traveling lately, and I am way behind on posting about all of our adventures. Hopefully I will catch up one of these days, but that’s probably just wishful thinking. One of these adventures was to the town of Cluny, a rural Burgundian town that is steeped in history in a grand way. Cluny is notably home to the Abbaye de Cluny as well as the Haras National (the national stud farm), but on this visit we primarily kept to the abbey.

Upon arriving in town on a Saturday morning, we found a pleasant market with a good number stands selling the usual fruits, vegetables, meats and cheeses. I recognized some of the vendors as the same ones that come to the Chalon market on Fridays and Sundays. We bought some white mulberries to try in our morning oatmeal, and they turned out to be unique addition with a strong floral quality. They were a nice alternative to the standard raisins or cranberries we usually mix in. Unfortunately, I haven’t found these anywhere else yet.

For lunch, we ate at the Café du Nord, close to the entrance of the abbey. Our meals were adequate and the price was fair, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the food. It did seem popular though and the service was reasonable.

After lunch we moved on to the abbey and spent two or three hours visiting it and wandering the grounds. The history of the abbey makes this a fascinating place, but visiting requires one to use a great deal of imagination in the process. The abbey was founded in 910, and over they centuries it developed into the epicenter of the powerful Cluniac order of the Benedictine monks and the largest church in all of Christianity until St. Peter’s Basilica was constructed. The order began to decline in the 12th century, but the church remained intact until the French Revolution. Sadly, during the French Revolution the abbey was seized as public property and was largely dismantled. All that remains today is a small part of the transept. There are some augmented reality screens throughout the grounds that will help you imagine what it used to be like, and for more context you should try to find the remains of the church that extend into the present-day town. The grounds of the abbey and the cloisters are also delightful and will give you an impression of just how large and important this place once was.

After the abbey we visited the abbey’s archaeological museum, which is free with a ticket from the abbey. It displays some of the remains of the church, including the abbey’s carved emblem. Another site in town worth visiting is La Tour des Fromages, or the Cheese Tower. It has a good view over the abbey as well as the town. We also discovered other churches in town and saw some examples of Roman houses.

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Uncategorized

Travel in depth, not in breadth

Eric – 2014-03-29 – 14:06

This comes up often when planning trips and over this past week I have thought about it some more while traveling around the area with an American friend. I would like to argue for focusing on depth in travels, as opposed to simply maximizing the number of cities visited (though the latter would improve my map).

There are two general reasons that I like to choose a home base and spend time exploring a single region (travel in depth) rather than superficially seeing many regions.

  • I minimize overhead. One could argue that time spent in the car or on a train is still time spent sightseeing, but these activities have additional costs beyond the actual travel time. Every time I take the train, I must price options, book tickets, and possibly pick up the tickets. If there is a problem, such as a missed connection, I have to spend time and possibly money to fix it, often using limited resources on the road instead of from the comfort of my home internet connection. I will also need accommodations in every city I choose to stay the night. This means that my schedule is dictated by check in/out times. I also will need to find the place, and possibly parking, in a new city. I will have to deal with problems like, say, if the safe in my new room doesn’t work or if I need to figure out the internet options. In fact, internet is often unnecessary if I avoid moving around. If I have a home base in a single place, from which I depart for day trips, I minimize much of this overhead.
  • I get to see, in my opinion, more interesting things. Yes, I generally do go to major tourist attractions when I am in a city. But if you are only in a place for one or two days, that may be all you get to see. It takes longer to really learn about a place. When I visit a city, I want to have interesting stories and notes to compare, not just the same old points of interest.

So go forth and properly explore the cities you visit. Of course trips will always be limited—Tiffany and I often make a one-night stop in a city—but consider staying for a few days when possible, rather than skipping around a country. You will save money and reduce stress while making better use of your time. Unfortunately Americans often optimize for map completion rather than experiences.

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food France

An afternoon in Buxy, France

Tiffany – 2014-03-09 – 15:37

Another nearby village we recently visited was Buxy. We had a very French day in Buxy filled with food, wine, and cheese. Unfortunately we were stuck wandering around in the rain again, but it was still a nice visit.

The first thing you notice driving into town is that there are some prominent towers and rock walls that remind you of a fortified castle. There is no castle, but there are some very nice ancient buildings. We started with lunch at Aux Années Vins by the Tour Rouge (the red tower). Their lunch hours are very brief, from 12h to 13h15, but we were the first ones to arrive. We had very good meals. I had salmon with a carrot mash, and Eric had the three course menu with a shrimp and smoked duck terrine, a main dish of chicken and crayfish with vegetables in a creamy sauce, and then fromage blanc. I guess we were lucky we got a table without a reservation because I saw the staff turning away others without reservations when most of the restaurant was still empty. The restaurant filled up throughout the course of lunch, with couples and some groups enjoying the cuisine and wine. The cheese cart looked wonderful, but we decided we were already full enough at the end of our meals.

We next wandered around town until we couldn’t take the rain anymore. The church looked particularly interesting, but naturally it was closed that day. Mostly there are interesting old stone buildings around town, but nothing of significant historic importance as far as we could tell. Perhaps the tourist office would have more info on the buildings in town, but we didn’t attempt to ask because was not located nearby in the center of town. It is actually a bit out of the way along the Voie Verte cycling path, across from La Cave des Vignerons de Buxy, which we visited next.

Buxy Stone House

La Cave des Vignerons de Buxy is the storefront for the local wine co-op. We tasted a variety of local wines, but decided not to buy any this time. La Cave des Vignerons mostly sells wines produced at the co-op combining the grapes various producers, though were were surprised this time to see there were some wines offered from specific domaines, i.e. individual estates. In the fall we had visited the co-op during the harvest season and got to see the grapes going into crushers. The tastings are free here, and it seems you can taste any of the wines in their large collection.

To complete our day trip, we drove down the road a couple of kilometers to Les Filletières to pick up some cheese. La Chèvrerie des Filletières is a goat farm where you can visit the animals and buy a variety of goat cheeses at very low prices. It is a small production, but it offers some our favorite local cheeses. Some of our local friends recommend going the “extra mile” to this place even though goat cheese is widely available in the markets, so you know it is good.

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food France

A day trip to Givry, France

Tiffany – 2014-03-05 – 16:36

A few weeks ago we started our new mission of visiting a small town or village in the region every weekend. Our first town was Givry. Though we had passed through Givry before when we were on a bike ride, we had not seen any of the sights.

Givry is about 10km west of Chalon-sur-Saône, and is known for its red wines, which were supposedly a favorite of King Henry IV. It is a quaint town of old stone buildings, monuments, and vineyards.

We first tried to visit the church, Église de Givry, a surprisingly imposing structure just outside the center of town. Sadly every door was locked, but perhaps if we go back during tourist season it will be open to the public.

We next walked towards the old hôtel de ville, which is a building with a large arch built over the main road into the center of town. The arch is a unique site, and it is decorated with a “France moderne” emblem on one side, and an emblem representing Givry on the other side.

Givry hôtel de ville   Givry vineyard

At the center of town there is an ancient grain market, the Halle de Blé. It is a round structure with a spiral staircase at the center. It too was closed, but we peaked in the glass windows.

Across the street is a cozy restaurant where we ate lunch, La Cadole. I had the Œufs en Meurette paired with a local red wine. Eric had some type of white fish covered in a creamy sauce and accompanied by vegetables. We also had a wonderful cheese plate of mildly sweet to pungent cheeses. One cheese plate between the two of us was plenty. Our simple meals sated us for our afternoon of exploring.

After lunch we walked over to the local tourist office and picked up a some information about the area. They suggested a self-guided walk around town showing more sites. Supposedly they have the pamphlet for this walk in English, but on the day we were there they only had German and French versions available.

We first stopped to do some wine tasting at Domaine Thénard. The tasting was free, and we liked both the local reds and whites. We purchased a red to add to our “cellar” of whites. Our “cellar” consisted of three whites placed on the fireplace mantel, which Eric thinks we probably won’t ever drink because we always go wine tasting rather than drink at home.

We walked around the town getting soggy in the perpetual rain. We saw the local lavoir, as well fish- and sea-themed fountains. There was also a statue of the town’s protector built into old fortifications. On our walk we wandered off course when we spotted the vineyards. We were rewarded by finding an area with vineyards that surrounded old stone houses or possibly sheds halfway up the slope. The view was quite nice on a wet February day, and I want to return in the summer to see the vineyards in their full glory.

We had a nice time in Givry, but I am looking forward to going back in better weather when there might be more picturesque photo opportunities.

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food France Switzerland

Raclette and Fondue in the Alps

Tiffany – 2014-01-29 – 21:46

When Eric and I visited the French and Swiss Alps a few weeks ago, a friend told us to try the Raclette and Fondue in both countries because of the regional differences in preparation. This was good advice for the Fondue, but I didn’t notice much difference when it came to the Raclette.

Raclette is a dish where a hunk of cheese is melted by a heat source and then the melted part is scraped onto boiled potatoes and dried meats, accompanied by pickled pearl onions and gherkins. For the best experience, you have to eat fast once you scrape the cheese onto your plate, because the cheese hardens again after a minute or two.

Raclette is a fun meal to share with others, and the cheese is tasty. It is a simple meal in terms of ingredients, but it does require special equipment to melt the cheese. I wonder if it is not better in a home setting though. Since we only had it at restaurants during our trip, our vegetable selection was limited to the potatoes, pickled onions, and gherkins. You could easily have a more interesting spread of vegetables at home.

When we had Raclette in France, we were served half a wheel of cheese. Needless to say we did not come close to finishing it. In Switzerland, however, we were only served a block, probably around half a kilogram or one pound of cheese, which we finished. The amount and the style of heating device were the only real differences we noticed between France and Switzerland.

Raclette in Annecy, France    Fondue in Chamonix, France

The Fondue was delectable in both France and Switzerland, but there were some differences. Since there is a variety of regional cheeses in this part of the world, the cheese used in the Fondue naturally changes from place to place. In France we had Fondue savoyarde with Comté and Beaufort. In Switzerland we had “moitié-moitié,” or half Gruyère and half Vacherin Fribourgeois. The Swiss one tasted the closest to what I expect traditional Fondue to taste like, but they were both deliciously cheesy. I think the French one had more white wine in it, or perhaps omitted the classic Kirschwasser in the recipe.

As with the Raclette, I think you could have more interesting Fondue dinners at home by picking out your own veggies and sides. In the restaurants our choices were limited to bread and potatoes. To me, this got a little boring before the meal was half-way finished. Overall it was still an experience to eat Fondue in the Alps, and it would be interesting to try even more cheese combinations in the future.

For now we are back to eating cheese the normal way — on a baguette — but another Alpine cheese specialty we may try this winter is a baked hot box of Mont d’Or (Mont d’Or au four ou boîte chaude)! I’ll report back on how that is another day.

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France Switzerland

Travels in the French Alps and Swiss Alps

Tiffany – 2014-01-16 – 23:29

Over the winter holiday, Eric and I took a week-and-a-half long trip to the Alps. First we visited the French Alps in the towns of Annecy and Chamonix. Then we toured the Swiss Alps around Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). All the areas we visited were breathtakingly beautiful.

French Alps

The French town of Annecy is a lovely lake town. We toured Lac d’Annecy on one of the tour boats and there were many great views around the lake, including several other towns and villages and four chateaus. We also toured the Palais de l’Ile and Château d’Annecy. The Palais offered a historical perspective on the region, while the interior of the Château was more focused on artistic installations. Since we visited the town a few days before Christmas, the Christmas market was in full swing near the Church of St. Francis. There were many free samples and a wide array of products on offer, though I would say it was one of the more commercial Christmas markets I’ve been to in that many products were not regional and most vendors sold goods intended to be gifts or consumed at home, as opposed to food and beverages intended to be consumed on location. Finally, Annecy also had a ton of gourmet food shops. I imagine you could have a fantastic picnic along the lake in the warmer months with food sourced from the fromageries, charcuteries, patissieres and boulangeries. We settled for buying some fancy caramels to eat in our hotel room as it was too cold for a picnic. Also, if you are in town on a market day you’ll find even more tasty morsels on the streets and alleys – the market was impressive for a town of that size.

Tiffany in the Alps, near Chamonix

We next drove to Chamonix, a French town known for its views of Mont Blanc and skiing. Chamonix is a very touristic town given its popularity as a ski resort. We stayed there over Christmas, and were pleased to find that many shops and restaurants in town were open even on Christmas Day. Thus, the potential nightmare we faced by running out of toothpaste on the morning of Christmas Day was easily averted. We didn’t ski while we were there because we decided it would be too expensive since we would have to rent and/or buy all the gear – one downside of moving to Europe with nothing but two suitcases. The conditions were pretty poor for skiing anyway – there wasn’t much snow and about half of the trails were closed. We even heard they were making snow on one mountain, something Eric was affronted by given that we were in the Alps! The weather was also poor for viewing Mont Blanc from the Aiguille du Midi, so sadly we did not get to go to that observation point. We did take the Brévent cable car to get a view of Mont Blanc across the valley. The views were nice, but the hot chocolate we had at the top at “Le Panoramique” café was terrible.

The day after Christmas Chamonix and the surrounding area were hit by a snow storm. We finally got the snow Eric had been hoping for on this trip, but we also had to drive through it on our way to Montreux, Switzerland. The drive was quite an experience as we got to try out snow chains for the first time. Even with them we nearly wrecked the car twice on a particularly treacherous village road just over the border in Switzerland. Due to the snow it took us most of the day to get from Chamonix to Montreux, with a few stops for food and sightseeing; the GPS had estimated a mere 45 minutes.

Swiss Alps

We next made Montreux our base for four days while we explored the Swiss Alps. Montreux itself was mostly just OK. The old area of town, Vieille-Ville, was quite nice to walk around and take in views of the lake. The promenade along the lakeshore was also a pleasant place to walk. The main attraction, Château de Chillon, is about two kilometers outside of town, and accessible from the promenade. We toured Chillon and learned a great deal about the local history. The tour was quite extensive, and we felt rushed to get through it all before closing time even though we probably spent 3 hours there in total. The views of Chillon from along the lakeshore are particularly nice.

While staying in Montreux we also visited the Gruyère district. We visited La Maison du Gruyére, a operational cheese-making museum. The cheese-making process was interesting to see, and we got to sample three different ages of Gruyère cheese. We also visited the old town of Gruyères and the château there. The Château de Gruyères was another lovely place to visit. The interiors of this château are a bit more current than the others we visited on this trip, as it was lived in until the 1930s. Thus, the feel of the place is more Victorian than medieval. As the château sits atop a hill, there are some fantastic views of the countryside. We also visited the Cailler chocolate factory in nearby Broc. This was a fun place to visit, but be warned that when we went, there were masses of visitors and tour groups. We had to wait about 2 hours for our tour to begin, so we had to entertain ourselves in the gift shop and movie theater beforehand. At the end of the tour you get to sample as many chocolates as you can stand to stuff your face with, so don’t pig out on purchased chocolate before the tour like we did. (If Eric goes back, he’s bringing a water bottle of milk.)

Vevey is just north of Montreux and has a very nice old town and the best photography museum Eric and I have ever been to. You could spend a whole day in this museum because the audio guide has several minutes of audio (in English, among other languages) for almost every single display case, and there are five levels to the museum!

Further north along the lake is Saint-Saphorin. This place is a spectacular little village amid the Lavaux vineyards. It is all old stone houses and cobbled roads, and there are footpaths that take you up into the vineyards. It is an incredibly tranquil place.

We spent the New Year in Lausanne on the final leg of our journey. For New Year’s Eve the tradition is to light up the cathedral at midnight. Eric and I went to see this, and it was OK. We looked at it for about ten minutes and then left. Lausanne itself was just mediocre as a destination — there are some nice shops and churches to visit, but not too much more to recommend it.

When we headed back to France, we found several more cute towns along the shores of Lake Geneva. Morges, Saint-Prex and Nyon are all worth a visit. Morges has a pleasant old town and harbor area. Saint-Prex is a small, peaceful town, and if you can find your way up to the church, the view is worth it. Nyon has a nice château with exhibitions covering the town’s history as a center of porcelain production and the history of the château as the municipal prison.

Switzerland was mostly a good place to visit, but at times it was breathtakingly frustrating and expensive. As for the frustrating bits, they were mainly due to either the universally poor standard of customer service in Switzerland (for example see Eric’s post on Hôtel Bon-Port) or due to the timing of our visit. As we found out, visiting Switzerland just after Christmas and into the first few days of the New Year is not an ideal time – many restaurants, especially in the small towns and villages, close up for several weeks to take their own vacations. Of those that don’t close for several-week vacations, many of the remaining close up on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. So, just watch out for that if you take a trip there yourself around the winter holidays. Also, parking seems to be terrible in all major Swiss cities. There is virtually no overnight parking, and if there is it tends to be very expensive. The high cost of visiting Switzerland was inevitable, but even though our hotels and meals cost more than we would have liked, we found that most of the attractions were relatively inexpensive. The hotels of Montreux and Lausanne actually offer special cards that get you free public transportation within the region, and the one for Montreux gives special discounts at many of the nearby attractions.

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food France

French Fromage

Eric – 2014-01-12 – 17:01

In addition to learning about Burgundy wine, we have also been testing out many of the cheese (fromage) in France. Every week or so I have been buying a new variety for my lunches at work, with advice from my coworkers, and Tiffany has been getting another one at home at about the same frequency. We are really trying a lot. Of course the ultimate goal would be to eat every cheese on this Wikipedia page, but that may be a while. In the meantime, I made a fromage map on Google showing all of the regions we have tried cheeses from. If you click on a region marker, there is a note about which local cheeses we have tried. I hope to update it frequently.

On the wine front: Look for an upcoming post describing our thoughts after attending the Burgundy wine growers’ banquet next weekend.

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car Switzerland

Hôtel Bon-Port in Montreux, Switzerland, molests cars!

Eric – 2014-01-04 – 09:30

On my winter vacation (2 weeks mandatory time off!), we went to the Alps, staying in a few different cities in France and Switzerland. I’ll post more later on some of the things we saw during our trip, but here I wanted to rant a bit about a terrible experience we had at Montreux’s Hôtel Bon-Port.

Minor stuff

We stayed at the Hôtel Bon-Port for four nights, taking day trips around the area. The hotel was relatively cheap and it seemed to be in a decent location. There were some minor issues that I’ll describe first and then a major problem with poor management and customer service that I’ll get to below. The room was mediocre and small. The safe in our room never did work, even though the manager said he was going to fix it. There was no free WiFi. For some reason they made the circa-2000 decision to instead provide a PC for guests by the lobby, and charge 5CHF per half-hour for WiFi in the room. Trust me when I say that providing a computer will never be as cheap for a hotel as just providing free WiFi and it will also mean a significantly worse experience for guests. Most people who need internet have their own devices, so it just doesn’t make sense to do it this way. I used their computer a couple times and it was laggy because of all the software on there. Notably, somebody had installed some sort of internationalization app for one of the Asian languages that I believe was causing problems. Also, even before getting to the stuff below, I knew the manager didn’t really understand hospitality after I heard him yell at some guests for ringing the bell at the desk more than once.

Major stuff

Now to the real issue that brings Hôtel Bon-Port down from a mediocre three stars to a pitiful zero stars: Parking in Switzerland is terrible. I’ll try to post on this in more detail, but basically Swiss cities don’t seem to want visitors because they provide basically no overnight parking spots. This hotel offers underground parking for 15 CHF per night. This seemed like a decent deal considering that there were no other options closer than a 10 minute bus ride. Plus the car would be indoors. We had just paid a bunch of money to get it detailed (washed, waxed, etc.) right before our trip, so it was fairly clean. We thought if we kept it in the garage it could stay that way and be safe from damage.

On our last night we came in late after driving in a bit of snow coming down the mountain. When we got back, only one spot was available, plus another easier spot that said “no parking” but which we knew from previous nights people were sometimes allowed to use. To make my life easier, we chose the no parking spot and gave the keys to the manager in case he needed to move it, as we had also done previously.

Our car after a night at Hôtel Bon-Port our car next to a concrete wall at Hôtel Bon-Port

The next morning, we came down and found the car moved (which was fine) to the other parking spot. We noticed right away that it was a terrible parking job. He had parked it next to a concrete wall such that we had to put it in neutral and push it out before I could get in. If he had pulled it forward just a few more centimeters, it would have been no problem. Before attempting to move it though, we noticed a large white streak across the side of the car. The streak was about one meter long and we really didn’t know what had happened. We immediately informed the employee at the desk and she called the manager. I spoke to him for about 20 seconds before he actually yelled at me and accused me of accusing him of things. I told him very clearly that I wasn’t accusing him of anything, but that I was paying him 15 CHF for parking and I want to know why my car has a big streak on the side. We had no idea at that point what exactly had happened and we were mostly trying to ensure that the paint hadn’t been damaged. It was dark down in the garage and we had not yet pulled it out.

After we got it out of the garage and into the light, we pieced together what had happened. After his awful parking job, he exited the car through the driver’s door and squeezed himself (he’s a big guy) between the car and the wall. He must have rubbed himself all over the car when doing this, rubbing whatever salt residue and dirt there was into the paint. We didn’t find any scratches that we could positively link to this, but any time you do such things it is bad for the paint/wax in the long term. The girl working at the desk agreed that this is probably what happened and she told us that he would email us later in the day. Now it is 5 days later and he didn’t contact us. We see that he billed us the full amount for parking that night, even though our car looked terrible until we got back home and gave it a wash.

Stay away from Hôtel Bon-Port!

Note that I have no general problem with giving my keys to somebody. I used to be a valet at a resort in Scottsdale, so I have parked a lot of very expensive cars (Porsche, Rolls Royce, etc). I took pride in it and I took good care of the cars I drove. So I am fine with somebody else moving my car, but that comes with responsibility. There is no excuse for rubbing oneself all over a customer’s paint job. There is also no excuse for the manager of a hotel to be mad when he is asked to talk to upset customers. The correct move would have been to not charge us for the final night of parking, but this manager was not a big enough man to swallow his pride and admit that he may have accidentally caused this issue. He needs to realize that Hôtel Bon-Port is not a panini joint.

Please don’t stay at Hôtel Bon-Port. I’m sure many people have no problems there, but the moment you do have a problem, the manager yells at you instead of solving it.

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Uncategorized

India debriefing

Eric – 2013-12-22 – 21:59

riding on an elephant in India

A few weeks ago we went to India for a friend’s wedding. I thought I’d share my thoughts.

The wedding was in Bangalore, for an Indian friend of mine who lives in the United States. Tiffany and I flew there from France and met up with my friend Mike and his girlfriend (all 4 of us pictured above on the elephant). We were only in town for a week, so we didn’t get to see as much of India as we might have otherwise. We spent a couple days in Bangalore for the reception and wedding, and then traveled around the state of Karnataka for a few days.

First of all, the reception and wedding were pretty awesome. We bought some Indian outfits to wear to both. For the evening reception we wore what would be considered more flashy outfits, while for the actual wedding we were told to get something more traditional. Interestingly, we managed to buy everything we needed in just a couple hours in the afternoon the day of the reception. Both the reception and wedding were held at the same venue. The photography setup really surprised us. They had a video camera on a boom over the crowd, plus a few other cameras. As at a sporting event, there were large screens that would switch between the camera feeds. The reception consisted of lots of food for the guests while the bride and groom stood on the stage for three hours as each guest came up and gave gifts and got pictures taken. The wedding ceremony itself was the next morning. During it, they did all sorts of things that I didn’t really understand. The bride and groom would mix some spices or something together, then get up and step on them. Sometimes it looked like the groom was putting something on the jewelry worn by the bride. Sometimes the stage was full of guests to help with the rituals. At one point, we were up on stage and we got to pore water on a coconut that they were holding. Then we had to sprinkle rice on the coconut. I almost grabbed the rice with the wrong hand, but I was quickly corrected by the crowd (pro tip: don’t grab anything with your left hand).

In the afternoon after the wedding, we left to tour Karnataka a bit. It seems most of the tourist sites in that region are temples, so that’s mostly what we saw. We stayed two nights in Mysore and one night in Hassan.

The driving conditions were probably my biggest shock of the week. When we first arrived, there was quite a downpour which I guess was unusual and due to tropical storms in that area of the world. Some of the roads from the airports were pretty flooded, which made driving conditions even worse. Luckily we had skilled drivers, which I guess most Indians are. The traffic was nuts. There was no concept of lanes. People and cattle meandered across the road as they pleased. They use horns and high beams completely differently than we do in the west. The horn means something like “look out, I’m over here,” and the high beams mean something like “I’m coming through.” So basically the roads are a sea of horns. Also they are brazen when passing. It is not uncommon to be on a two-lane rural road, with a car in front of you, a motorcycle oncoming, and the driver decides to pass. The motorcycle will get out of the way just enough that you’ll all fit. Also often we came within meters of hitting oncoming buses during passes. After dark, it gets even more terrifying. People walk in the middle of the road, just as they do during the day. Rickshaws and motorcycles often have no taillights. But one way or another, there aren’t that many accidents. In fact, the cars were in pretty good condition, maybe better than in France.

The driving conditions also made for interesting walking. On some streets in Bangalore, there really are no crosswalks. You just have to meander across traffic. We had an interesting incident doing just that. We needed to cross a multi-lane road and Mike had the idea that we should follow a group of Indians who were also ready to cross. This was, in theory, a good idea. However, when we had almost reached the other side, we heard squealing tires and saw that a motorcyclist was coming toward the group. He apparently had tried to aggressively pass a rickshaw on the right, saw the Indian group we were crossing behind, and hit the brakes, sliding on sand and ultimately going down. The motorcyclist and his passenger were OK. We weren’t in any real danger because the Indian group was blocking for us. However, I did get a nice scrape on my arm, that has not yet completely disappeared, from Mike’s girlfriend grabbing my arm in fear.

We were lucky to have very good, trustworthy drivers for the whole time. The wedding party arranged them for us. They picked us up from the airport, drove us to the shopping street, and brought us to the wedding. Then, one of these drivers also drove us all around the countryside over the next few days, seeing temples and tourist sights. As a westerner (with the exchange rates), everything is extremely cheap in India so it makes a lot of sense to spend the money getting a driver you can trust. India can be a daunting place. It can be dangerous for tourists. But having these drivers made it less of a concern and we were never really afraid for our safety.

So overall it was a great experience. I recommend it enthusiastically. The flights were long and expensive, but everything there (hotel, taxi, food, clothes) was so cheap it kind of made up for it. We’re minimalists on souvenir purchases (and in general), but we did buy a couple scarves for Tiffany and a couple ties and a polo shirt for me. It also seems that they accept US Dollars in some places. I hope to write another post sometime about my experiences traveling India with a nut allergy (there were some problems, but we learned) and perhaps Tiffany will write a bit more about the outfits that we bought.

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France visa

Getting Indian Visas as Americans in France

Tiffany – 2013-12-10 – 21:36

Eric and I recently attended a friend’s wedding in India. Before our trip, we were excited to be adventuring to a new country and new continent; however, for us to travel to India, we first needed to obtain tourist visas, which turned out to be a rather expensive and somewhat stressful process.

First off, we didn’t fully consider the visa issue while we were trying to make up our minds about whether we should take the trip. In retrospect, that did not show great foresight on our part, because we delayed and delayed the decision; then with one month before the wedding we realized we definitely wanted to go and that we would need to acquire visas for this trip, ASAP. The timelines we found for acquiring an Indian tourist visa in France without going to Paris directly were not quick.

In France, to get an Indian visa you must use the services of the company “VFS”. From what I gather, the Indian government has basically outsourced the entire visa application submission procedure to this company, both here and in other countries. Luckily for us, their website for France has all the information available in English as well as French.

To apply for a visa, you first have to fill out several form pages on an Indian government website. You will possibly (probably?) have problems with the website’s security certificate. I did in both Chrome and Firefox. This is not a very inspiring sign, given that you are about to submit a ton of personal information over the internet. Obviously you always want to use due caution with such issues, but this is apparently a common issue with this website — several online guides on how to fill out this form, as well as the website itself, mention that you may need to download the security certificate. The output after filling in these form pages will be a two-page long pdf.

You’ll need to submit this along with any additional supporting documents requested and your passport to VFS. Submitting our passports was something we were really uncomfortable with, given that we are foreigners in France and our passports contain our French visas. Handing over our passports for days/weeks is not something we had ever been required to do in the past — when we have applied for other visas while in Europe, it was understood by the governments we were working with that people who are foreigners should generally retain possession of their passports during the visa process. Luckily we did not have any problems while VFS had our passports.

The woman we worked with at the VFS collection point in Lyon indicated that a month “should” be enough time to get our visas, but mildly scolded us when we affirmatively answered her question about whether we had already purchased our plane tickets. Ultimately our passports were returned to us by post after approximately two weeks processing time.

Unfortunately, being a foreigner in France meant we paid a premium for these visas. The price was somewhere around 140 Euros per visa, and that was only for 6-month validity, single entry visas. This included a bogus 25 Euro fee because we hold US passports. If not pure greed, why US passport holders are subject to a special fee no on else gets stuck with is beyond me, especially when there is already a 30 Euro fee for all foreign passport holders.  We were a bit disgusted when we found out our American friends who had obtained their visas in the US were able to get 10-year, multiple entry tourist visas for only about 50 USD more than their base price (which was also much cheaper); we would have paid at least an extra 100 Euros per visa for that privilege.

Hopefully in the future the visa process will not be so expensive or such a hassle. In my research on the visa issue, I found out that extending the “Visa on Arrival” program to US and other nationality passport holders has been proposed. If that proposal is put into practice, I imagine it will make traveling to India a much more enticing prospect for many tourists.

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