A taste of French bureaucracy and culture all in the same day...

After falla hunting all over Valencia, we had to rush down to Paris as we had to go to OFII for our visa application (our friend J had kindly helped us with this, many thanks to her). We stopped by the towns of Perpignan and Vichy but as those were just places for us to rest our feet for the night, we don't actually know what's available there. We did manage to squeeze in a trip to the Millau Bridge which CS was totally fascinated by, as for me I was more taken with the view than the bridge.

The 800m high Millau bridge!!!

The OFII trip itself was rather interesting. Our appointment was at 9am but being kiasu Singaporeans, we arrived an hour earlier instead. There was already a queue outside the office though and for a moment I felt like all those people applying for PR who queue super early at the ICA building, haha... Anyhoo we finally managed to enter the building and what do you know, blur me forgot to bring my passport out!!! Of all the days to be forgetful, I had to choose that very day.... CS very nicely did not say anything except that he will go back to the hotel to get my passport while we wait for our turn. So while he dashed off to get my passport, I waited, and waited and waited for them to call our names while at the same time praying desperately they will not call our names til he returned. I also indulged in some people watching while waiting and it was fairly interesting. There were quite a few PRCs, Africans and Caucasians, some totally dressed up while some came in sweats and t-shirts. Some of them were very well-prepared and came with books/ ipods while they waited while there were those like me, totally blur and with no understanding of French at all, except maybe 'bon jour' and 'merci'. In any case, our names got called and CS wasn't back yet and that was when I first experienced the pain of not being able to express myself. I spoke no English and the lady spoke no French so it was a nightmare trying to explain to her that CS left to get something and that he will be back later. Luckily the rest of the people who were waiting took pity on me and they helped me explain that CS will be back later. The other nightmare came when she asked me to give her some documents and I didn't have that one 'document of residence' which was required. Again, another chicken and duck moment and the kind strangers helped me explain once again. The lady was unconvinced but nevertheless allowed me to go for my medical examination.

As we had met J the night before, we kind of knew what to expect but I was still a little surprised cos I thought some kind of tests (blood test, urine test, some kind of test!) will be involved but they basically took height and weight, tested eyesight, asked some rather basic questions, took a chest x-ray and that was it!!! Maybe cos we were applying for a French long term visa (which I have already explained why we needed one), it seemed that everyone there kind of expected you to be able to speak French. After all that, it was another long wait to see a doctor who will go through the chest x-ray and ask some basic questions again.

CS returned by the time I completed my medical examination so I waited for him to get his done. Though we had no official place of residence in France, I asked CS to try giving them our hotel receipt which luckily the lady accepted, but for him only and not for me since it didn't have my name on it. Another nightmare trying to explain that we were husband and wife and living together, luckily in the end she also gave up and allowed CS to write a letter to state that I'm staying with him at that address. After that long ordeal (and paying 340 euros each!!!), we finally received our visa allowing us to stay in Schengen regions for more than 3 months. Oh the relief when we finally received it....

After the morning that never seemed to end, we thought that we would take it easy for the rest of the day but we ended up doing way way more...

First, we went to visit a 200year old kitchenware shop that CS was quite excited about (Dehillerin). The shop has been around forever and the staff is famously snooty, apparently some guy asked for a specific knife and when the staff asked him what he was using it for, they said it was the wrong knife for that purpose and refused to sell it to him! Luckily for us, no one was horrible to us and we were able to wander around the shop and just look at all the stuff they have. It actually reminded us of Sia Huat, but it's obviously way older and with things arranged just the way they were 200 years ago.

We then stumbled onto Bourse de Commerce de Paris where they had this interesting ceiling with a very large dome. The paintings were rather nice (I think I have run out of adjectives to describe paintings by now) but I kind of got a neckache after a while. We then decided to go to Sacre Coeur since it supposedly offers the best view of Paris and you can see the Eiffel Tower from there. It's a bit of a walk uphill from the metro but you can take a furnicular up. We wanted to climb up the tower but after circling round the place, we just couldn't find the entrance. The church itself was quite beautiful and there were heaps of people that day so there was a certain buzz. People were just sitting all over the steps and basking in the sun, it was kind of nice actually. There wasn't much of a view though cos it was kind of foggy that day, oh well...

Bourse de Commerce de Paris

Parisians enjoying their sun

After that, we walked around Montmare for a while since I wanted to find the cafe where Amelie was filmed. There was a group of old musicians playing near the carousel and we stopped for a while and listened to them. They were quite good, the singer has that scratchy old voice I liked. We finally managed to find the cafe after a while but everything was rather overpriced, so we didn't go in. From there, it was a short walk to the Moulin Rouge where we took photos of the famous windmill!!! There was a long queue of people waiting to go in, I really wonder if the show is THAT good.

Can, Can!!!

And then, after the super long day, we went to the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie which J recommended. It was Wednesday night so free entry! Yeah for free entries, I think Singapore museums should do this more often. There was an exhibition about the Vietnam War which I quite enjoyed though some of the photographs were rather disturbing. We probably enjoyed the temporary exhibitions more than the permanent one, some of the photos were just too weird for us to understand.

And that, was how we spent our first real day in Paris, whew...

On the road – Part 2

A large part of our trip has been spent driving, as that was the main point. Though we changed the original plan from driving from London to Singapore to driving around Europe, it has still been quite an adventure.

The first thing about driving is that someone needs to drive while someone else needs to navigate, and on this front we have our roles clearly demarcated. Obviously CS drives while I navigate, haha… Actually the GPS device navigates, I just tell him the instructions in advance cos sometimes it’s just too late. In all honesty, if we do not have the GPS and had to rely on maps, the trip would probably have ended within a month since we would have argued endlessly as I am not the best person with maps. Even with the GPS, it still took us a while to get used to the instructions, things like ‘bear left’ for example sometimes really means turn left, whereas at other times it just means bear left so you can imagine the amount of grief we had in the first month. So far, the GPS has been fairly reliable other than the one time it led us down a forest road, we actually drove on for quite a bit into the trees until we decided it wasn’t making any sense. It did break down one day (the day our hotel decided to close for the day and leave us totally stranded), but otherwise it’s worked fine *fingers crossed*

We did take a while to get used to driving on the ‘wrong side’ though those Europeans probably say that we drive on the wrong side when they come to Singapore. We have also made some turns into the wrong lane though thank god there has been no major accident *fingers crossed*. We do have 2 more days before we return the car so I'm trying not to jinx anything.

Friends ask if I get sick of living out of a suitcase but in actual fact, we have been living out of our car and not our suitcase. Having the car has allowed us little luxuries, such as

1. Having things such as an extremely large stash of snacks from different countries (Haribo sweets from Germany, beer from Belgium, biscuits from France etc), extended change of clothes, shoes, hiking gear, toiletries, ample winter wear, thermal and boiler pot, cooking stuff (rice, soya sauce, oyster sauce, instant noodles), etc. All these things have made a world of a difference to our trip, whatever we want it is there, it really doesn’t feel that I’m away from home as much when I have everything I need.
2. Making detours on a whim just cos we felt like it (e.g. Mount Vesuvius, Whisky distilleries, cheese factory) or visiting places that are just a little bit more difficult to visit if we don’t have the car (e.g. L’occitane factory, Herge Museum, Cinque Terre, Isle of Skye, Museum of Witchcraft)
3. And most importantly, not having to lug our luggage from airport/ train/ bus station to our hotel!!! You wake up at whatever time you like and set off when you feel like it (more or less, subject to the other hotel's reception hours).

However it has also came with issues like

1. Finding accommodation with parking which can sometimes really be a pain. You would think most hotels in Europe would come with free or at least paid parking but that’s not always the case, and sometimes when it does come with parking, the fees are just way too expensive.
2. Navigating the streets, even with a GPS, can be an issue, and some roads (e.g. Italy) can be ridiculously narrow and difficult to drive in
3. Getting our car broken into (!!!), long story which happened in London.

As mentioned, we are returning the car soon (in 2 days!), and as CS puts it, it will be the ‘end of an era’, so here is our top five list regarding driving

1. If you have money to burn – France and Italy. They have the most tolls out of any other country so you can spend your money paying tolls as you drive. Spain earns a mention here as we had to pay a crazy amount just driving in and out of Barcelona, otherwise within Spain itself, the tolls are negligible.
2. If you have the need to take a break often – Italy. They have the most rest stops along the highway and the rest stops are the best amongst all the countries. They are often equipped with petrol stations (obviously), restaurants, convenience stores and toilets. The toilets are usually clean and free!
3. If you want to like an F1 driver – Monaco obviously. I think the F1 drivers really can go crazy driving there, and the scenery is great though the country is ridiculously small and roads ever-winding.
4. If you want to take your car to the maximum – Germany. Contrary to popular belief, there are speed limits on certain sections of the autobahn, however unless it’s stated, you can drive as fast as you like. I got freaked out when CS drove at 185km/h so he didn’t drive any faster than that.
5. If you have lots of time to spare – Poland. It took us forever to get anywhere, as there are no proper expressways, the so called highways have traffic lights. We got so bored, I ended up watching ‘The Blind Side’ while CS drove. Diesel prices were the cheapest there though so that did make up for it a bit.

I cant think of anymore, so that’s all for now :p