La Grêve - Strike!

- from a 5 July 2013 article in Liberation.


Two days before our departure to Paris by the TGV, a friend casually said, “ Better check on the strike.”

Strike? Une grêve? That word instills terror in the hearts of the traveler especially when it concerns mass transit. The newscasts spoke of between 150,000-350,000 demonstrators (depending on the source). Unions asked the public to support the strike for the entire week by refraining from use of public transit.

The strike was scheduled to end Wednesday at 8 a.m., five minutes before our 8:05 a.m. departure. There was no way to get an update—the train stations were locked. Websites gave the basic information. Our TGV might leave, but we couldn’t take an early local train to Cannes. I spent a sleepless night, imaging all possible scenarios.

At the Cannes station, local trains had delays. The TGV would leave as scheduled.
We boarded, in a state of disbelief! At 8:05 a.m., our trained pulled away from the station.

We descended from the train in Paris under gray skies and joined the hundreds of other passengers, pulling rolling suitcases. The métros ran efficiently. We made our business appointments.


Our one-night stay left no time for relaxation. At the Gare de Lyon while we awaited the departure of our TGV for Cannes, we ordered our usual café gourmand, thankful the strike was no longer foremost on our minds.

Café gourmand at the Train Bleu, Gare de Lyon

Du jour au lendemain

Early September on beaches of Juan-les-Pins, France.

Colorful umbrellas line private beaches with restaurants. Small boats take tourists on tours of the coast or to the Lerins Islands.

Dateline Juan-les-Pins - Early to mid September brings the transition from thick crowds and heavy traffic on the coast to work-related traffic jams.  The clientele has changed.  No longer one of tourists or families but an increasing number of locals come because they can now find space for their towels on the sand, and retirees, who take advantage of off-season prices. 

Beach restaurants, where you wait in line for a table in high season, now have empty tables any time of day or night.   But the other cafés, open year round, will continue to draw crowds.  Boutiques return to off-season hours. 

In the late summer and early fall, the weather changes from one day to the next—mostly sunny skies, punctuated by the occasional day or gray, rainy day.  Days like this clear beaches and boardwalks.  The few hardy pedestrians are warmly dressed in sweaters or light jackets.  And there are those few people who get in a daily swim.  

A few signs advertise the end of the season.  Things will pick up slightly around the December holidays—after all, this region offers the best European climate—but only return to full season in May. 

I was an unpopular snack mom. . . . .

I was an unpopular snack mom. . . . .

At the beginning of the school year, all parents signed up to bring Kleenex, school supplies and a snack. The teachers were adamant about food--only healthy snacks. No sugar treats that gave the kids the jitters for the rest of the day.

When my turn came, I packed the carrot and celery sticks, apple slices, raisins and bananas. The teachers did specify healthy snacks, no sugar. Diet soda, not regular, and juices.

But my kids returned home, embarrassed and ashamed. The popular room mothers brought brownies, donuts. . . . .soda with all the calories. The class was happily wired. Sugar-infused behavior seemed the norm.

I was out of the loop. There was an unspoken conspiracy, a discrepancy between school rules and daily practice.

Then I remembered all those lunches my mom carefully packed. The little bags of healthy carrots and apples, the long pretzels or a few saltines. She wanted us to have good strong bodies and minds. We chomped away on our snacks, but at times we worked at trading these with friends, who had lunches packed with sweet treats--small pies with marshmallow topping or cakes with cream filling.

What snacks did you bring or trade?

Catching a few zzzzzs

The university students have returned. That means, a full night of sleep on weekends may be problematic if you have rental property behind you.

Years ago, our Gainesville neighborhoods had lots of rental properties and lots of parties. Residents with day jobs stumbled out with children or pets, somewhat bleary eyed. Other neighborhoods formed associations, talked with the police departments or the city about noise ordinances.

Turns out a lot of students hadn’t realized they were noisy, and many of the residents hadn’t realized some early morning habits (broom sweeping, neighborly shouts across the fence) could be just as detrimental to sleep as late-night parties.


I asked my friend Stan, a retired lawyer, how he handled noise. He said he didn’t want to join the ranks of old curmudgeons. Once he had made that decision, he slept soundly. I kept that in mind.


In the meantime, I moved to live on five acres of land in Provence, where the only sounds would be cicadas or owls. However, neighbors in the valley gave frequent karaoke parties that ended about midnight. Around 5 a.m. , packs of hounds began barking to be fed, and the neighbor just above me began hammering sheet metal. And there was always one sputtering Mobylette, which might not make it up the hill.


Now, I’m back in the city. To ensure sleep, I have purchased a rattling tower fan and ear plugs. Actually, the ear plugs and Stan’s philosophy are all I have needed for a good night’s sleep.

Sweet dreams! ZZZZZZs

We need a prime meridian for clothing measurements. . . . .

Years ago, longitude and latitude were calculated on the basis of the observer’s meridian, which might be Paris, Rome. . . .or London. You can imagine the confusion. Then, as of 1851, the prime meridian was established at Greenwich. Not without much debate, but that's another story.

In clothing (just as in geographical coordinates), numbers can be confusing and misleading. Here, small ranges from very, very small to large and boxy . . . .


In clothing, we need a prime meridian!

My closet is filled with cast-offs from family and friends, often from a rushed shopping expedition where they avoided the fitting rooms (after all, a size XS, S, M or L should be a no brainer, right?). Or the items sit in their packaging waiting to be returned. They are found a year later along with the Christmas paper or overdue library books and sales receipt, a reminder that purchases must be returned in 30 days.

In addition to cast-offs, my closet also has clothing from internet shopping—those irresistible final sale items from JCrew or Bebe, those Ebay purchases, custom-made tango shoes from Buenos Aires. All these items are waiting for a new home (either with friends or at a thrift shop) because they never fit me.

Sizes are inconsistent between styles and brands. Part of the problem might be the vanity sizes. As the overall girth of customers increases, clothing sizes decrease. What used to be a size 10 might be a 4 or 6 today. Then there is the problem of on-line shopping and returns. The sizing problem contributes to the high rate of returns (e.g., Zappos has an estimated 35-percent return rate).

While some companies propose high-tech methods (a body scanner to take your measurements and provide you with size equivalents in certain brands), the most cost-effective solution is for both manufacturers and customers to have measurements made with the most basic of all technology, a tape measure, as Farhad Manjoo wrote in his post, “Can Amazon Figure Out How to Sell Clothes that Fit?” It’s time consuming but you only have to do it once.

The advantage of a prime meridian in clothing will be the decrease in returns and increase in customer satisfaction. But the flipside is that the number of cast-offs I receive (or share) will decrease astronomically.

Take me home! Oh please, oh please!

We could be such best friends. Really!

These pets had a home and for some reason, they were turned in to the shelter. In the month of May 2013, the Brevard County animal shelters received more than 1,000 cats and dogs.

Many small dogs are adopted quickly. Most breeds are taken to a rescue organization, which fosters them until they are adopted. Some dogs like this mixed breed (pit bull) have been here for 30 days. . . . .

In 11 other rooms, there are cages of cats and kittens. Some have names like Jess or Patches. Others are active silver and gold tabbies, calico. . . .

Summer heat and humidity are extreme in Florida. Fans hum noisily. Volunteers and staff clean kennels and a couple hundred litter boxes as well as wash bowls and pet laundry. A few dogs bark. Most watch the halls. Some have curled up on their beds. If there are enough volunteers, the dogs will get outside on a leash for about 15 minutes a day. Many cats share a cage and hope someone will visit and play with them. The happiest moment for everyone is an adoption.

At the adoption day event on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, a pit bull named Pork Chop greeted visitors. A Belgian Shepherd, Fergie, waited for pats.

A man brought his shelter pup, adopted months earlier ,to pick out a companion pet. A Chihuahua living in a foster home found a new “forever” home.
Although the pets seem socialized and radiate smiles, they become stressed with each day confined in the shelter. Stress leads to lower immunity. Staff try to place the animals in different venues (pet supermarkets, vet offices or the humane society).

Local residents can help by adopting, volunteering or donating.

If you can’t adopt, maybe you can volunteer (you make your own schedule). You can foster a cat or dog, even short term. For example, cats with kittens may need a quiet room for six to eight weeks until the babies can be adopted. Some pets need to be isolated and given medication for an infection (e.g., an upper respiratory condition, ringworm).

Still not sure about a pet? The animal shelters have a program called Pajama Pups, where partners can take home a pup for the night--“A couch is always better than a kennel,” according to the brochure. How true! That way, people and pets become acquainted.

So you can take a dog home. . . .if only for a night! If you decide on a cat or kitten, best to take two so they keep each other company. Pets need forever homes, and people benefit greatly from interactions with pets.

Good times with pets can be shared on the bench on Riverside Drive, near the Indian River Lagoon. Check out your local shelter today to find your forever pet.

Que de parasols sur les plages - Juan-les-Pins

Tourism statistics for the Côte d’Azur suggest that between 60,000 (low season) and 600,000 (high season) visit the area. No statistics seem to exist on the number of beach umbrellas that open and spread with the summer months.

Locals grumble about the inconvenience of the waves of visitors and pets or the increase in traffic and nightlife, but the place scintillates!

The day begins early at the beaches of Juan-les-Pins. City workers clean beaches and wash down boardwalks.

By 9 a.m., beach goers begin to arrive at this public beach near the west end of the boardwalk. By noon, the place is jammed packed with tourists.

The private beaches (owned by the city but rented out) have restaurants, dressing rooms and comfortable lounge chairs. Not to mention brightly colored umbrellas. Here, for 15 euros a day, you can bask in the luxury of having space, access to food, drink and bathrooms and avoid the crowds. This is vacation after all.

The beach restaurants (which also have the lounge chairs), with parasols, enable diners to eat lunch and dinner with feet in the sand.

The umbrellas contribute to the festive atmosphere (as does the sun). In a way, everyone hates to see it come to a close in late August.


My Note:

Probably one of the more spectacular views is from the Plage de la Salis, a public beach that overlooks the old city of Antibes. But best to arrive early. It's difficult to find a space to put your towel.