Peak Oil -
I could count the amount of SUV's and trucks i saw on one hand the entire time i was there. If people need to move shit, they either rented a truck or have a trailer to hitch up. I didn't see any evidence of electric hybrids or hydrogen stations, but there were a ton of diesels (not to mention our own rental) - diesels get better mileage and now that the price of crude is as high as it is, the price difference is negligible. I guess they've also been formulating it without sulfur so the emissions are less harmful. Oh and if you think that gas is expensive back home, how does €1.50 a liter of 87 sound - nearly €8 a gallon and almost €12 for 93? (keep in mind, thats $1.56 = €1. Hurts don't it?)
Generally speaking though, the real difference is simply the size of the cars - i doubt that the average American ego could afford to suffer the indignation of driving these little lunchbox sized bastards - but let me tell you, they sell for cheaper and as a result, people are able to afford new vehicles more often and keep them better maintained. Let us not forget the ubiquitous European trend of the scooter and motorcycle - they really are everywhere. Personally, i like the styling of European brands better - sure everyone knows about BMW, Mercedes, VW and Audi but other brands worth mentioning are Peugeot, Renault, Citroen, Seat, Opel and Fiat. Another thing was that the US markets' 'luxury' type brands like Mercedes and BMW have an entire product line of affordable, efficient cars over there, we don't see that in the states because they fear that it would tarnish the brands ability to define their owners as holier-than-thou smug pieces of shit, knowhatimsayin? The funny thing is that there were actually quite a few Fords. The only Ford i recognized was the occasional Focus, but they've designed quite a few sub-subcompact cars over there, logic would dictate that the oil crisis might have swayed Ford to offer these models back in the states, but so far, nada... doesn't make a whole lot of sense - but then again, not much makes any sense in America.
Environmental -
Generally speaking though, the real difference is simply the size of the cars - i doubt that the average American ego could afford to suffer the indignation of driving these little lunchbox sized bastards - but let me tell you, they sell for cheaper and as a result, people are able to afford new vehicles more often and keep them better maintained. Let us not forget the ubiquitous European trend of the scooter and motorcycle - they really are everywhere. Personally, i like the styling of European brands better - sure everyone knows about BMW, Mercedes, VW and Audi but other brands worth mentioning are Peugeot, Renault, Citroen, Seat, Opel and Fiat. Another thing was that the US markets' 'luxury' type brands like Mercedes and BMW have an entire product line of affordable, efficient cars over there, we don't see that in the states because they fear that it would tarnish the brands ability to define their owners as holier-than-thou smug pieces of shit, knowhatimsayin? The funny thing is that there were actually quite a few Fords. The only Ford i recognized was the occasional Focus, but they've designed quite a few sub-subcompact cars over there, logic would dictate that the oil crisis might have swayed Ford to offer these models back in the states, but so far, nada... doesn't make a whole lot of sense - but then again, not much makes any sense in America.
Environmental -
This was the biggest shocker for me. France sucks for the environment, although you'd never ever know it from looking out the window (or at my photosets). I was in Tourbes, in bed at the B&B, when i woke up in a daze around 5:00AM, i still wasn't caught up on the time difference, and back home it was like midnight, so I'm usually awake doing whatever, the first several nights the sleep i was getting was feeling more like a long nap after work that I'd overslept through and woke up in the middle of the night. Anyway, there was no chance of me going back to sleep so instead i decided to open the shutters and step out onto the balcony to chill out and read a bit. At first i took in the view, tried to saturate the color of the sunlight coming off the buildings - fairly perfect if you ask me, but something was missing and i couldn't put my finger on it. Then it hit me...
I'm a night owl for sure, i like to stay up late, but not too late. 'Too late' for me has always been that point that the sky begins to get some color back, and almost immediately after that - the world becomes inundated with a cacophonous chorus of BIRDSONGS. At my balcony at 5:30AM in Tourbes, there wasn't a single solitary peep. I began to pay attention everywhere we went and noticed that quite honestly, we're in this beautiful countryside and aside from the farm animals there's no fucking animals anywhere.
No birds, no squirrels, no deer... no lions, tigers or bears...
Upon closer inspection i also noticed that aside from ants, flies and a smattering of bees, there were no insects either, no crickets, no grasshoppers, nothing. Seriously now, it seems like they keep a few pigeons around churches for the tourists, but that's about it. After interrogating my family about what the hell this was all about (and a confirmation that this wasn't a natural vacuum in the south of France) the answer i got was: Pesticides. It would seem all that beautiful countryside and farming comes with a price - in layman's terms, they knocked out the bottom of the ecosystem with killing all the insects, which forced birds to go elsewhere for food, which in turn ran right up the chain. Its simply the result of generations of pesticide applications for maintaining crops at any cost. All of a sudden, that farmers market in Privas seemed a little bittersweet to me. Yeah. I'm an upstate NY country boy, where I'm used to seeing deer and squirrel corpses littered around as often as you see a road sign - no animals was fucking creepy.
Another BIG thing. France has got the nukes goin on. In the drive, within sight line of the road, we passed THREE different nuclear power plants, the cooling towers hovering on the horizon like monolithic paper coffee cups steaming on a cold morning. Make no mistake about it - they're a scary sight, and it was a completely bizarre contrast to see hundreds of kilometers of countryside that would rival the hanging gardens of Babylon, and then all of a sudden; the twisted brainchild of Einstein and Oppenheimer and shadows of Chernobyl.
As we got closer to the Tricastin plant near Privas, my grandmother tells us, a bit too casually, that they just had an accident there several days ago when they were forced to vent irradiated water from the cooling pool. I mean. Really? Was i getting a dose? Did they evacuate everyone? No, a routine accident. The thought of one of those babies going critical and poisoning that beautiful place just seem all sorts of wrong. Sure, they're not burning coal, but i just can't hang with that.
Health (No Fat Chicks) -
A day before i left i had an unfortunate chat with a complete stranger here at home about my impending trip:
Stranger: "So you look like you're heading out for some sort of trip"
Me: "Uh, Yeah... I'm leaving tomorrow for 10 days in France."
Stranger: "Oh really? Well just watch out over there cause none of them women shave or wear deodorant over there!"
Me: "I'm going to kick you in the teeth you fat dumb fuck."
OK, maybe not the last line as I really couldn't afford to sit in a police station the day before i left, but it just reminded me as to why i was so happy to be getting the hell out of the country for a little while. Anyway, i have to comment on this retarded accusation.
First off, it is the 21st century, ideals of beauty set by popular culture have reached far and wide and chicks in Europe do indeed shave their pits. Now, every now and then I'd spot some lovely middle aged woman that didn't shave - but you know what, I'll take a general population of chicks who don't shave over a bunch of obese sweat pant clad behemoths, that's really what it comes down to. On the average, most every woman i saw over there, whether she was in her 20's or 50's, on the whole, were prettier, better dressed and all had very nice bodies (meaning that they were neither emaciated or hauling 2 tons of ass) And nice like, without effort, it didn't seem as if every woman in Europe spent an hour at the gym everyday, it was just a natural beauty complemented with the healthy glow that came with eating right, not sitting on the couch for 6 hours a day and enjoying a quality of life that 4 weeks of paid vacation every year provides.
What good is a shaved set legs if they look like shrink wrapped bags of cottage cheese and striped with varicose veins? What am i going to do with a Brazilian wax job if its buried under some disgusting FUPA? I'm not advocating my elementary school bus driver when i say I'll take hair over fat, but look - its just the way it is, European chicks are smokin hot and a lot of American chicks should take a cue; try sexy, classy and confident without having that air of entitled vain egomania.
I paid very close attention to this phenomenon (ahem...) and my conclusion was that it all started with the kids. Did i see some overweight / chunkier people over there? You betcha, you can't predispose an entire culture to things like cheese, bread and wine and not expect to put on a few pounds. However, you know what i didn't see a single one of? Fat kids. No fat children, not a one. People feel very strongly regarding policy on things like school lunches and physical activity, couple that with a socialized health care system where everyone is getting attention and advisement, and you have a culture that even though they still suffer from human ailments like cancer and AIDS, there is less diabetes and far less obesity, allergy and social anxiety disorders. You set the precedent at a young age for health, and it tends to carry through to adulthood. I contribute this to Europe following a wellness model of health care as opposed to our sickness model. The difference is that in a wellness model, the objective is to promote staying healthy and making the choices that will keep you from getting sick in the first place, on the flip side over here, a sickness based model is one in which no one usually speaks to a doctor until they're contracted some illness or disease, its in the interest of the US economy to treat symptoms instead of prevent the ailments that cause them.
I'm a night owl for sure, i like to stay up late, but not too late. 'Too late' for me has always been that point that the sky begins to get some color back, and almost immediately after that - the world becomes inundated with a cacophonous chorus of BIRDSONGS. At my balcony at 5:30AM in Tourbes, there wasn't a single solitary peep. I began to pay attention everywhere we went and noticed that quite honestly, we're in this beautiful countryside and aside from the farm animals there's no fucking animals anywhere.
No birds, no squirrels, no deer... no lions, tigers or bears...
Upon closer inspection i also noticed that aside from ants, flies and a smattering of bees, there were no insects either, no crickets, no grasshoppers, nothing. Seriously now, it seems like they keep a few pigeons around churches for the tourists, but that's about it. After interrogating my family about what the hell this was all about (and a confirmation that this wasn't a natural vacuum in the south of France) the answer i got was: Pesticides. It would seem all that beautiful countryside and farming comes with a price - in layman's terms, they knocked out the bottom of the ecosystem with killing all the insects, which forced birds to go elsewhere for food, which in turn ran right up the chain. Its simply the result of generations of pesticide applications for maintaining crops at any cost. All of a sudden, that farmers market in Privas seemed a little bittersweet to me. Yeah. I'm an upstate NY country boy, where I'm used to seeing deer and squirrel corpses littered around as often as you see a road sign - no animals was fucking creepy.
Another BIG thing. France has got the nukes goin on. In the drive, within sight line of the road, we passed THREE different nuclear power plants, the cooling towers hovering on the horizon like monolithic paper coffee cups steaming on a cold morning. Make no mistake about it - they're a scary sight, and it was a completely bizarre contrast to see hundreds of kilometers of countryside that would rival the hanging gardens of Babylon, and then all of a sudden; the twisted brainchild of Einstein and Oppenheimer and shadows of Chernobyl.
As we got closer to the Tricastin plant near Privas, my grandmother tells us, a bit too casually, that they just had an accident there several days ago when they were forced to vent irradiated water from the cooling pool. I mean. Really? Was i getting a dose? Did they evacuate everyone? No, a routine accident. The thought of one of those babies going critical and poisoning that beautiful place just seem all sorts of wrong. Sure, they're not burning coal, but i just can't hang with that.
Health (No Fat Chicks) -
A day before i left i had an unfortunate chat with a complete stranger here at home about my impending trip:
Stranger: "So you look like you're heading out for some sort of trip"
Me: "Uh, Yeah... I'm leaving tomorrow for 10 days in France."
Stranger: "Oh really? Well just watch out over there cause none of them women shave or wear deodorant over there!"
Me: "I'm going to kick you in the teeth you fat dumb fuck."
OK, maybe not the last line as I really couldn't afford to sit in a police station the day before i left, but it just reminded me as to why i was so happy to be getting the hell out of the country for a little while. Anyway, i have to comment on this retarded accusation.
First off, it is the 21st century, ideals of beauty set by popular culture have reached far and wide and chicks in Europe do indeed shave their pits. Now, every now and then I'd spot some lovely middle aged woman that didn't shave - but you know what, I'll take a general population of chicks who don't shave over a bunch of obese sweat pant clad behemoths, that's really what it comes down to. On the average, most every woman i saw over there, whether she was in her 20's or 50's, on the whole, were prettier, better dressed and all had very nice bodies (meaning that they were neither emaciated or hauling 2 tons of ass) And nice like, without effort, it didn't seem as if every woman in Europe spent an hour at the gym everyday, it was just a natural beauty complemented with the healthy glow that came with eating right, not sitting on the couch for 6 hours a day and enjoying a quality of life that 4 weeks of paid vacation every year provides.
What good is a shaved set legs if they look like shrink wrapped bags of cottage cheese and striped with varicose veins? What am i going to do with a Brazilian wax job if its buried under some disgusting FUPA? I'm not advocating my elementary school bus driver when i say I'll take hair over fat, but look - its just the way it is, European chicks are smokin hot and a lot of American chicks should take a cue; try sexy, classy and confident without having that air of entitled vain egomania.
I paid very close attention to this phenomenon (ahem...) and my conclusion was that it all started with the kids. Did i see some overweight / chunkier people over there? You betcha, you can't predispose an entire culture to things like cheese, bread and wine and not expect to put on a few pounds. However, you know what i didn't see a single one of? Fat kids. No fat children, not a one. People feel very strongly regarding policy on things like school lunches and physical activity, couple that with a socialized health care system where everyone is getting attention and advisement, and you have a culture that even though they still suffer from human ailments like cancer and AIDS, there is less diabetes and far less obesity, allergy and social anxiety disorders. You set the precedent at a young age for health, and it tends to carry through to adulthood. I contribute this to Europe following a wellness model of health care as opposed to our sickness model. The difference is that in a wellness model, the objective is to promote staying healthy and making the choices that will keep you from getting sick in the first place, on the flip side over here, a sickness based model is one in which no one usually speaks to a doctor until they're contracted some illness or disease, its in the interest of the US economy to treat symptoms instead of prevent the ailments that cause them.
Well kids, thats it for Eurotrip 2008. Hope you enjoyed, cause from here on out, you can expect posts of the usual biting criticism, cynical observations and sociopolitical snoozers.
