Cool Weather Cycling

Our Saturday morning bike ride swells to as many as 80 riders in the summer but has as few as four to ten riders during the winters which are mild in Alabama. Why the difference? Riders complain about cold and wind with their fingert and toes being numb and I suspect also it is just harder to leave a warm bed for a cold outdoor ride. Cool rides actually are my favorite, much more so than hot rides. I also noted that the Swiss tend to ride rain or shine in hot or cold weather and seem to do fine. I think the main variable is personal comfort and if you dress well for the cold, it is actually a fairly pleasant experience. So how do you dress for the cooler temps?

When I first started riding bikes in the winter, I would just pile on more clothes until I felt warm. I was so overdressed and overstuffed that riding a bike was tough but I was warm, and quickly became hot with no place to store the excess clothes as I heated up other than to tie jackets around my waist. Most of the experienced riders, particularly the race oriented ones, seemed to have little on and what they were wearing fit them close to the body rather than flapping around like my jackets and/or sweatshirts. What I've come to realize is that there are two dressing components to staying warm; fleecy (i.e. thick) clothes for warmth, and, wind blocking clothes to keep the apparent wind from reducing your body temperature. In looking for clothes for cool riding, look for things with a fleecy nap. For example in the photos below, the grey top which is a Patagonia expedition fleece underwear top has much more nap than the straight polypro blue shirt on the left. Both are great for wearing under a bike jersey and the grey one is very warm. The reason is that the nap holds body heated air which gives you a thermal blanket around your skin that is much warmer than that of a thin undershirt.

Even more important than the thickness of the undershirt nap is the ability of material to block the air from coming through your clothes and whisking away the warm air around your body. My favorite cool weather piece to remedy this is a vest that goes by the tradename Windstopper  produced on Gorewear products.  I'm sure there are other equally good similar materias as long as they stop the air from moving through your clothes. Racers of yore for example would put newspapers under their jerseys over their chest which actually is a pretty effective way to stop the breeze through your clothes and insulates your body. The Gore Windstopper vest fits close to the body, completely stops the wind on your front, and has a mesh open back section to let out water vapor to keep you dry.

 Pictured at left is the back and front/side of this piece worn with a normal short sleeve jersey, a polypro undershirt, and arm warmers. This outfit along with biking pants that cover the knees will carry you well down into the low 40's in comfort. For colder weather, you can get the windstopper in a thin jacket with sleeves or add a more substantial fleece long sleeve undershirt or jersey. Gore makes a long sleeve heavily napped fleece jersey with windstopper and riders that wear it suggest that by itself or with a thin polypro undershirt, they stay warm down into the 20's. The way your body works is to shut down blood flow to the extremities if the trunk is cold to better preserve your vital organs. Therefore, you can't have warm hands or feet without a warm trunk.

The arm warmers are handy for cool weather particularly when the day starts cool but warms up. They are made of Lycra which is stretchy to hold them in place, but not particularly thick or warm and the air will blow through them making them better at cool weather than cold. They are sized (S,M,L,XL) based on your arm girth, so be sure to get the right size or they will continually slip down. In addition to stopping the wind from blowing by your trunk and pulling off the thermal air layer, your head has to be protected from the cold. Due to the high number of blood vessels in the scalp, a great deal of heat can be lost through the head.

There are a variety of head coverings bikers use ranging from helment covers to full head, face, and neck covers such as a Balaclava. Some riders wear neck covers and others favor ear muffs. For really cold days, the Balaclava (pictured at far right) is very warm and versatile in that the face opening can be pulled down to expose the full face or pulled up over the nose to only explose the eyes which are usually covered with sun glasses. I personally find the Balaclava to be too warm. Further, it traps moist air from your breathing making it wet in front of the face if it is pulled up over the nose. There are a variety of caps or head coverings such as a bandana that work well depending on the temperature. My personal favorite is a wool watchman's cap that is not too thick but has the advantage of being rolled up or down to cover or expose the ears depending on the extent of the cold. Because of the way your ears stick out, they can become extremely cold to the point of frostbitten in very cold weather when riding. Take your helment with you when purchasing any head covering to be sure the head covering will fit comfortably under a helment. Both of the two pictured head coveringswork well under my helment.

Lastly, hands and feet. Obviously long fingered gloves are mandatory in the winter and the colder it gets, the thicker the material should be and the more wind resistent they should be. When the weather gets very cold, lobster finger gloves or mitts are better than gloves with individual finger compartments. I found a variety of good biking gloves that were made for snow skiing. For your feet, in cool to cold weather, follow the trunk recommendations and go for something with nap/thickness like wool socks and something that will stop the air from running over your feet and pulling the warm air away. I've tried several things ranging from thin shoe coverings (at left in the picture) that don't work well to thick neoprene toe covers that work much better. Peter Wolf and others including the founder of Rivendale Bikes have a theory that loose fitting shoes or even sandals with a thick wool sock is much warmer than a tight bike shoe. The difference is the ability of the foot to move blood around and keep the feet warm in a loose shoe or sandal rather than a restrictive shoe which cuts off the blood flow. I think Peter has a valid point and I plan on trying biking sandals with thick wool socks for warmth and shoe toe covers to stop the wind. We'll see. Try some of these ideas and see if you don't find yourself better prepared and more comfortable in cool or cold weather riding without feeling overdressed.

Sabbatical in Geneva - Wine Tasting

The weather around Geneva in October turned cool to cold, occasionally rainy, with a low hung grey cloud over the valley. Occasionally the sun broke through, it warmed up and turned picture perfect gorgeous. Think of an extended fall with sunshine in New England. The trees and bushes all orange and yellow, the sky and lake piercing blue. It was that way the weekend of November 6th when Nancy read about a wine tasting in Switzerland just a 15 minute drive from our house in the Jura Mountains overlooking Geneva. Several small adjoining villages including Preissy and Chulley held the Festival of St. Martin, a Saturday filled with free wine, food and entertainment put on by the vineyards of the area. Having never been to one, we weren't sure exactly what to expect and it turned out being a mixture of wine tasting, eating,  and partying lasting all day. 

Entertainment was provided by both the locals and hired entertainers. Some turned out in costume including the Monk pictured here and a fellow decked out as a Count complete with embroidered waste coat, frock, and three corner hat. An odd ensemble pictured behind the donkey played American favorites such as Elvis songs and hit fine jazz notes by a few talented horn players. In addition as with all festivals Swiss, three Swiss horn players moved around with the crowd performing some Swiss favorites including several Mozart pieces. They played with music written on three clefs with each taking turns playing the soprano, melody, or bass parts which occasionally moved through wonderful harmonies.  There were also jugglers and other street performers. 

The Monk and his Steed

Swiss Horns

Tasting Cave

The wine tasting in this event was from four or five different producers all located close to each other in the century old stone wineries serving their wares in Caves such as the one pictured at left. Some had entertainment, some had wine pourers dressed in costume, and others were just wine being poured as quickly as the pourers could pour. Several of the wineries had food and one told us they had sold out of all their bottled stocks except for some 2008 wines they were pouring. I don't pretend to know a great deal about wine but have learned that Swiss wines are generally produced in small vineyards in small batches and are considered some of the best wines in the world. They rarely make it out of Switzerland and probably can only be found in the states in a few large cities. Of course they are non-existent in France. The wine tasting in this case was similar to a pup crawl where the crowd, mostly from Geneva along with numerous English speakers, walked down the hill from one village to another sampling the wares. As you might expect, as the day wore on, the crowd noise increased and the pourers and drinkers became increasingly convivial and rowdy. Amazingly, Nancy was talking French and numerous Swiss seemed to be babling English with her.

We saw several storage rooms with wine stored in barrels, see picture to the right. At one winery, they were taking bags of the leftover grape skins and boiling and pressing them. The run off called Mars (I think) was a clear liquid that tasted like liquid fire. Apparently it is 80 proof and seemed to be a big hit with the locals. It was poured into enormous wicker covered glass jars. As we left later in the day, we noticed the wine fields around the area on the side of the mountains had dropped their leaves and most of the grapes picked. We stopped and picked a few clusters that had not been harvested yet. The grapes were delicious on their own.

Sabbatical in Geneva - More on Oman

Service of a local treat

  In my previous post I mentioned that while in Oman we were treated as VIP guests and served Arabian coffee or tea with every gathering and on the above occasion, we were given a local favorite sweet treat. It is a combination of sugar and flour that apparently is boiled to death until it becomes a sticky paste and then nuts are added and the entire goop is congealed in a bowl with the consistency somewhere between jello and mousse. You eat it with a small spoon which everyone does from the bowl. It was great. After I found out it takes about 3 hours to make, I felt even more like a VIP. During our entire meeting, the fellow serving us stood in the background on the ready with more coffee as the cups are small and need frequent refilling.
  After returning to Geneva, I read an article about Oman with information I would like to share here. The country is a monarchy ruled the past 40 years by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said who took over the rule from his father. His picture is everywhere from the Interstate crossings, to the clock faces, to being in every government office. It is always the same solemn picture except at the airport where he is smiling and waving goodbye when you leave.  Forty years ago, the capital of Muscat was a small walled city where at night a cannon was fired at dusk and anyone found roaming around outside was subject to being shot. There were only 6 miles of paved roads in the entire country, only a small number of boys receiving any education, and they were isolated and fearful of outsiders. They believed radio and TV were the work of Satan and most of the population lived as they always had and were uneducated. It was an extremely conservative country. The Sultan Qaboos opened the country up and declared that all Oman citizens, men and women, would be provided a free public education which was a radical departure. Now Muscat is a growing modernizing city with satellite dishes sprouted all over the landscape, the overuse of cell phones like everywhere else, traffic congestion on the Interstate, English as the second official language, the government is friendly with their neighbor Iran, and they are pro-western with good relations with the US and Europe, and it is obviously a prospering economy.  An amazing transformation in just 40 years. It is no wonder that the recently freed American female hiker who was captured and held by Iran was released to Oman on her flight home. Their neighbor to the east is Yeman which is still more like the Oman of old and a hotbed of terrorist training. The point made in the article was that the policy the US has had toward the middle east has relied on war and bombs to solve problems and it has been unsuccessful. Oman is an example of what education of the population can achieve. Yet, even though Obama pledged two billion dollars in educational aide in the middle east and apparently has not lived up to that pledge, we are spending ten times that on implements of war. I haven't checked out any of these facts but it does play into my belief system that more can be accomplished with education than war.

Oman Bizarre

We were shown and shopped in the new American style malls that rival anything back home. However, we were more intrigued by the old style bizarre in the older part of Oman. There were numerous entries into the bizarre and it kept separating into different alleys and side streets so that we were good and lost in short order. The vendors have small open stalls mostly off the walkway and in some, they opened up into larger warehouses in the back. The picture to the left is a typical scene other than the bizarre was as full of women as men which this picture doesn't show. We were there early evening and the longer we stayed the more the business picked up. The fun thing about the bizarre was that you can haggle over the price, the bad thing was we were never sure we did well. Our guide and friend Salam Salim Al Kindi advised us that whatever price we were told to offer half or less and work from there. I bought several things including an Omani hat like the men on the left are wearing. I had seen them in the mall for 20 to 30 rials so I was not surprised when the merchant I was talking to asked for 20. I offered 8 and he countered. I ended up paying 12 and the samefelt pretty good about it. As we were walking through another section, a vendor called out to me to buy Omani hats for 3.50 Euros, around $5.00. The ceremonial Kandjar knife is a possession of all Omani men and is now strictly ceremonial. It actually is a poor quality knife in an elaborately decorated silver scabbard. The picture below shows a collection of older ones from one of the many shops we visited that sold them. They are a great tourist sell. Come by the office and I'll show you.

Kandjar Knifes

Sabbatical in Geneva - The Sultanate of Oman

Receiving a Welcome Gift from the Rehab Center Director

  In the work of the International Labour Organization, a unit of the United Nations, different countries, businesses, and organizations support their work through country dues or donations. Countries can make requests of the ILO to help out their country in any area of need related to labor such as vocational training or vocational rehabilitation. The ILO has it’s headquarters in Geneva Switzerland and has a series of regional offices in Beirut for the Middle East, Peru for the Americas, in Bangkok for the Asian countries, etc. The overriding purpose of the ILO is to work with governments, employers, and labor to promote decent work in the member countries. This would be work with a decent wage, decent working conditions, that is distributed fairly to all participants in society, and provides protection for the most vulnerable. The unit concerned with disability used to be a separate department but has shrunk to two people assigned to the skills and employment department. In responding to a country’s request for technical assistance, the ILO can hire technical consultants and/or send their staff to work on the problem in what they call a mission.

  My main assignment on this sabbatical working with the disability section of the ILO is to assist them in developing an online training program for their staff, interns, and others related to disability. As a coincidence, the ILO received a country request for the Sultanate of Oman for assistance in modernizing and improving services in the Al Khoudh Care and Rehabilitation Center located in the capital city of Muscat. There had been a previous rehabilitation mission in Oman that recommended work be done with the Al Khoudh center because they only serve two impairment groups and train them for one of six occupations and the previous consultant felt they need a vocational evaluation program and to modernize their services. Since this exactly fits my background, I was asked to go on a mission to Oman with Debra Perry, senior disability specialist from the main office and Mary Kawar, a regional ILO employee from the Beirut ILO regional office.  The three of us formed a mission team to answer the request from Oman that was submitted by our contact, Salam Salim Al Kindi who had been the director of the center and now is the ILO project manager for this project working for the Oman Ministry of Social Development.

  Oman is a country of 3,000,000 inhabitants of which 1/3^rd are ex-patriates brought in the country to work, which include mostly Indians with small percentages from the various Asian countries. It has been led the past 40 years by the Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said who has dedicated himself to improving the standard of living of all Omani’s through modernizing the country and diversifying the economy from primarily oil production, farming, and fishing to other venues such as tourism and manufacturing. Oman is located beneath Saudi Arabia on the Gulf of Oman at the Strait of Hormuz next to Yeman and a short distance across the Gulf from Iran and Pakistan, above the eastern end of Africa and near the Western end of India. It is close to Aubu Dhabi and Dubai located above it in the UAE. Oman is a small desert country with sand mountains that roll down to the sea. We did not get to see it but inland there are natural springs, more desert, mountains, and a variety of differing scenery, unusual animals, and fruit production. Oman is on a the same latitude as Central India, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii so that it is tropical hot but in their desert country, it is extremely hot rising to over 125 in the summer and up in the high 90’s in October. Because of this, the Omanis often work until 1:00 pm, take a break until 4:00 pm and return until 8:00 pm. It was pleasant to be out in the morning and evening but blistering hot and bright in the afternoon when we were there in October. Like the southern USA, they have air conditioned everything and need it.  Oman is an Arab country with English as the second language everyone takes in school and my experience was that there was more English spoken than in Switzerland. Being a Muslim country, large Mosques are scattered around the city that broadcast the call to worship five times a day. We visited the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, a magnificent marble and sandstone structure surrounded by green grass and trees making it appear an Oasis. It boasts the largest crystal chandelier in the world weighing over 8 tons and the largest hand woven carpet in the world.  A typical Omani male wears a long white tunic over white cotton pants and a tee shirt with sandals. They uniformly wear either an embroidered pillbox hat normally, or, for more formal occasions, a turban that is used much like Americans put on a tie. For even more formal occasions, a black open front robe is added over the white tunics decorated with the Kandjar knife on the front waist held in a distinctively curved ornate silver scabbard that is ceremonial. The women wear a black floor length tunic with a black headscarf and a few also wear the face vale (not a Burka) with just their eyes showing. In the modern mall, some teen girls had their tunics opened on the front to reveal torn jeans and a tight shirt or tee shirt typical of U.S. teen garb. Others wear more western clothing. I found the Omani people to be proud of their country that is modernizing on every front including massive building all through the town of Muscat. The Omani’s treated us as special VIP guests and did everything they could to make us feel welcome and special from providing us a driver full time to serving us sweets and Arabic coffee or tea multiple times during the day. I was told this was done for special guests rather than being an everyday occasion.

 Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

  Our purpose was to look at the rehabilitation center but prior to that, we visited with staff from the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, the previous head of a disability advocacy group, and toured a renovated vocational training school that is just now allowing people with disabilities admission for training. They seem to have fully bought into Inclusive education and services in regular and vocational education. As we rolled up our sleeves and began work at the rehab center, I was struck that after a day at marveling at our differences, the same issues, students, and concerns showed up as at any other rehab center I’ve been in. The clients were curious about us and talked with us as we toured the six training areas and general literacy programs. We had a number of recommendations to help them modernize and fit within the Omani school and work structures as well as some recommendations on improving their tests and testing procedures even though we found they are doing a great deal of assessment in the right vein.

  Unfortunately, we were unable to get to the interior of the county and have to contend with books that show those pictures. I felt that in the few days we were there we made good friends with several Omani’s and I would welcome and relish the chance to return or have them to the USA. It certainly wasn’t like being in Alabama.

Girls Learning to Sew

The Shrinking American Dollar

  I suspect somewhere on the news it mentioned that the dollar has devalued again. This is the second or third time in the two months we have been in France/Switzerland. Apparently, many countries are encouraging weakening their currency and the USA has been printing more dollars to help the dollar devalue so that our exports will be more attractive as a way of stimulating growth. Generally, I pay little attention to this but it's killing us living here. Living in France, the French require that you show proof of renter's insurance and to purchase it, we went to one of our local banks where it only runs a reasonable $50.00/month. In order to get it however, the bank requires that you open an account with them which I did with the idea that it would also help reduce the $80.00 I've been paying each time we do a wire transfer from my Auburn bank to the landlord or school or anyone here we make payment too big to go on the debit card. Thank goodness, I transferred a large amount of money to that account a few weeks ago before the dollar devalued again. When we arrived the Swiss Franc was worth .96 cents, it is now worth $1.05. The locals tell me that it used to be 12 Swiss Francs to the dollar. The Euro was worth $1.24 when we arrived in August and today it's worth $1.41. In practical terms, this means that our rent went up about $250/month from just the dollar devaluation. Had I paid Chris's school tuition in August, I would have saved $1,400 from what it costs today and unfortunately I only recently paid it. The good news for the rent is that I do have the money stored in Euros now so I'll benefit there but things I'm paying here on my AuburnBank ATM are steadily rising.
  Things just are more expensive in this part of the world. Beyond the dollar devaluing, everything is more expensive here. Most Swiss live in rental apartments and the ones we looked at ran $3,500 to over $4,000 for a two bedroom 1,000 square feet place. Interestingly, in France and Switzerland near Geneva they are building apartments as quickly as they can. Unfortunately for as beautiful as their old architecture is, these modern apartments are large cube or rectangular cement structures that are extremely unattractive - kind of like the rush them up condos at the beach during that boom. While I've been told that most Swiss don't own their own home, there are many homes for sale in France due to the same housing problems here we have been having in the U.S. The prices seem to run $600,000 to millions for what looks to me like a plain small three bedroom home on a small lot. How do they do it? The bank will finance your home here for 100 years and apparently this type of loan is popular.  Food is high particularly eating out that costs $50 to $100 but even at the grocery store food is high. And for the ultimate high, gas is $1.96/liter or slightly less than $8.00/gallon.  Another practical example, I was looking for a small backpack and our local sports store sells Dakine brand packs. The one I was interested in was 55 Euros. That is $77.50. I checked the catalog stores and in the US, the standard price for that backpack is $45.00, a 42% difference. Guess I don't really need it.
  In some ways living in Switzerland since I work there and Chris goes to school there might have been easier. Switzerland didn't join the EU so they maintained their own currency. France, of course, is a big EU member and thus uses the Euro. This means that we have to have Euro's and Francs at all times as vendors in each country will not take the other currency. I'm heading to Oman tomorrow and need to get Rials to spend there so I'll be toting three currencies next week. As I've said before in these blogs,  Visa Carte du Credit is the ultimate equalizer of currencies. As is typical, my Visa debit card from my French bank costs $100, what did yours costs from your bank?
  On the other side, Wines, bread, and cheese are fabulous and we rarely pay over $10.00/bottle of wine. Now that's a bargain. Wonder if I can get it home for Christmas presents?
 

Zurich

Switzerland is a small country anchored by Geneva on one end and Zurich on the other and it only takes three hours on the Interstate to drive between the two cities but as a friend said " the Swiss look at traveling between the cities as a major excursion." Our trip actually started at Chris's school during his discovery week. It is a week in September where the kids do something entirely different than regular school with some going off to other countries to live with host families, some taking on new week long courses, and other signing up for an experience, such as cleaning up the town. Chris wanted to take hang gliding so I signed him up. In filling out the form I asked what should I put down for his second choice. He wouldn't respond and after multiple times asking him, he said to just put down anything. I did and he got it - Salsa dancing for an entire week for six hours a day, I've never seen him so tired. From that he was telling me how much he enjoyed dancing to Santana and of all coincidences, Santana is on tour and appeared this week at the Zurich arena.

It also was my birthday so a Zurich Santana trip was on. On the way, about an hour out of Geneva we passed through a series of tunnels. As a detour, the Europeans love to have tunnels and we've been through them all over western Europe whereas in America we seem to just bulldoze down the mountain. Not sure what that means other than it is an interesting difference. We came out of these tunnels and our old familiar Exit ramp sign which is Sordie in French was replaced by the more guttural Ausharft. We had crossed into the German Swiss area that encompasses more than 70% of the country where we were to find that more than the language had changed. Switzerland has four official languages based mostly on the geographic location to another country. In our area, Geneva, we are surrounded by France and the French language, customs, and traditions are prominent. Towards Zurich are the German Swiss and there are Italian Swiss and a small group of Romanian Swiss. I was told that each region studies their regional language for six years of school and the remainder of the time they study English so that they all can speak English. Not necessarily so.

In our area, there are many English speaking Swiss but I find as many that do not or will not speak English so we struggle along with our French which actually is good for our learning. I was surprised to find in Zurich that everyone we talked to spoke very good English with us. We couldn't be more delighted because while our French is limited, our German is almost non-existent. So Roads which had been Rue's became Strasses and the entire sound of the language took on a different flavor. Additionally, we ran into the Germanic rigidity and high standards of which the Deutch Swiss are famous.  It really paid off in our room which was scrubbed sparkling clean, spacious, quiet, with the European style of two single beds pushed together with down duvets instead of sheets and blankets. The best was the breakfast delivered to our room and a total feast: several kinds of cereals, a basket of breads, meats and cheeses, yogurt, pots of coffee, hot and cold milk, etc. It was spectacular. At the hotel, there was a key to do everything including unlock each floor on the elevator and enough rules to need a book. The people were gracious and kind and it all made for a great weekend birthday experience. Oh, and Santana was in excellent form too, a great concert!

Sabbatical in Geneva - Shopping

  OK, I'm a shopper and happily admit it. When others are looking at the Roman ruins or ancient churches, I'm checking out the stuff for sale. Geneva, near the old town area and down the hill from the largest church that overlooks the city, the Cathedral du Saint Pierre, is the main shopping area of the city complete with an Apple store, multiple jewelry stores, and every big name apparel store you can name. About every third store in Geneva is a watch store of some description selling the finest watches in the world, many of which are made here. But those places are expensive and not so different from London or New York. I'm wanting to talk about the more mundane places to shop where the locals go and my experiences there. 

  Every Saturday, our town of Ferney-Voltaire in France has a Saturday morning market that takes over the central village. It goes up the Main Rue which is a cobblestone street lined with outdoor restaurants and up and down the Rue de Voltaire that crosses it. My sister-in-law pointed out that many towns have markets, however, the one in Ferney is a look into the past where people bought their food at the market which is open once or twice a week and rotates from town to town. Ours apparently is exceptional for it's size possibly due to the proximity to Geneva. From the main crossroad and going three or four blocks in two directions, the Ferney market sells food. It's not like the grocery store. The food is often recently picked, caught, or slaughtered, very fresh, and in the open in crates, boxes, and bowls. On display are: fresh (and sometimes live) fish, crabs, oysters, mussels, eel, shrimp, etc. on ice taking up one block; multiple vegetable dealers selling local vegetables and fruits; olive vendors with tables of olives and fresh squeezed olive oil; butchers with their wares either packaged, in coolers, or hanging; sausage makers; cheese makers with stacks of various cheeses; wine makers from the region offering taste of their wines; bread and pastry makers with tables of fresh baked baguettes and croissants; and spice dealers with bowls of fresh spices. When business is slow, the vendors cut open their wares and offer free samples while some openly hawk their foods. Most however are too busy weighing and wrapping foods and taking money. On the other two streets are multiple dealers of all kinds of clothing and other items such as oriental rugs and hand made shoes and toys. It is a true bizarre and it's packed with people buying their clothing or weekly foods. The locals bring roll behind carts that they stuff with food for the week. Even though we have several good grocery stores, the ability to buy fresh in the portion desired and often at a better price is irresistible. It's open from early Saturday morning until about 1:00 pm and often vendors sell out. On Wednesday morning a few of the vendors are back but nothing like the Saturday morning market. Last week, we had a two day Potter's market in addition to the regular Saturday market and the central village was blocked off all weekend. We're hooked and regulars. 

  The regular stores are open from around 9:30 or 10:00 am until noon and then they all close until 2:00 pm for lunch and open again until 6:00 pm generally with very few open beyond 6:30 pm and everything is closed on Sunday. We needed some batteries on a Saturday night after 6:00 and found we were just out of luck until Monday. As American's we keep forgetting about the hours and get out to go the store before 2:00 pm or after 6:00 pm and realize we wasted a trip. It's really hard when you work full time because it's difficult to schedule in shopping or haircuts during the week and as expected on Saturday, things are mobbed. So, we end up shopping less and spending more time between noon and two in restaurants having long lunches or coffee. As an aside, I love the coffee here. It is generally expresso based and either Cafe (a small cup of expresso with a slice of chocolate on the side), Cafe au Lait (an expresso put in a regular cup with streamed milk), or Cappachino (an expresso in a regular cup with frothed milk and often unsweetened chocolate on top). I never see people get more than one cup and you sit and savor the experience and your one cup. There is a Starbucks presence in Geneva and other cities and they do a brisk business and taste the same as home except a good deal more expensive. I'll take the local places. 

  Having a large presence in France is the Carrefour market which I've mentioned before since we have two in Ferney and are much like a WalMart. They actually are the #2 retail store in the world behind WalMart and apparently are all over Europe and Asia. They offer the usual WalMart experience of few people to help you and massive isles filled with mostly groceries but also electronics, school supplies, and clothing. There are differences however. They don't provide bags for your goods and you have to use coins to get a shopping cart. The shopping carts are outside with each cart secured to the next with a chain.  You insert either a Euro or half a Euro into a slot on the cart and it frees it from the chain so you can use the cart. When you are done, you take it back to the other carts and secure the chair which pops out your coin. It's not a bad system for keeping the carts in the right place. Aggravating though if you don't have coins. More aggravating is the lack of bags. They have bags but you have to purchase them and they are sturdy reinforced plastic bags with handles that are expensive. We keep going to the grocery and then realize we forgot our bags and have to purchase new ones. 

  Today - a Saturday, I popped into a giant Carrefour to pick up some milk and a few other things. I picked up a carry around plastic basket and got my items in three times the time it would take me back home because I don't know where anything is located. I got up to the checkout and it was and always is packed with people backed up halfway down aisles waiting to check out. I'm waiting when a fellow starts carrying on with me in French and pointing down the way. I realize he is pointing to a self-checkout area where people with hand baskets can check out so I Merci him and go down. When a spot opens up, I begin taking my stuff from the carry around basket and haul it to the scanner because they won't let you carry your basket in the checkout area. Although there is no one is in the store to help you find things, there always are basket police to be sure you don't violate the basket rule. Once my stuff is situated to check out, I realize that I don't have a bag so I run over to the bags and get the cheapest looking plastic one I see. The instructions on the check out are in French which I don't understand so I begin to push things on the screen and the buzzer goes off and the circulating red light at the top begins to spin. After standing there an eternity, a girl comes over and turns off the buzzer and light and shows me how to scan my items and how to get instructions in English. Nice. The first question is if I have my own bag and I answer yes then realize they mean paid for bag. I can't get the machine to back up and the light starts going off again. Here comes the same girl. She turns off the light and leaves. I begin scanning my items and putting them into my bag. About every forth item freezes the scanner and starts up the red light. She makes about three more trips and I notice the line has gotten long but I'm afraid to make eye contact with anyone in the line since I'm taking so long. I finally get completed, use my saver card, and pay with my credit card which takes another trip and another flashing light episode. I go to leave and my unpaid for bag set off a different alarm and the gates wouldn't open. The same girl glad to be rid of me, opened the gate and I was happy to escape with my few expensive items and stolen plastic bag. A typical shopping experience for me at the Carrefour. I believe I can wait until next Saturday's market to buy anything else.