As our 2 weeks in France
comes to a close I reflect on what a great time it is to be in Europe. Enjoying
Wimbledon in real time and watching the start of La Tour de France. A
sportsaholics dream come true.
I have been test driving the espresso over here and all up Starbucks has a long way to go. Didn’t have to travel 5,00 miles to figure that one out though! Lovely to enjoy the different atmospheres and personalities of the café’s and their customers here.
I have been reading the UK
business press over the last two weeks and it is all grim. Marks and Sparks (the
big retailer) fell 25% in one day of trading and there is red figures all over the
place with more sub –prime losses to come. Curious to know if the US is sliding
into the same state. Will find out soon enough.
Pictured is our rented Ford
struggling to manoeuvre on one of Meyssac’s bridges. This bridge in fact
carries 6 Renaults each way! When will Ford / GM and every other big car maker learn??!
I have been conducting
research while holidaying out of the country. Given America uses 25% of the
world’s resources but represents just 5% of the world’s population, my
exhaustive interviews with foreigners show that they (we) should have a say in
the upcoming US election. That's polling booths for the 5,700,000,000 of us
foreigners. Buy stock in Diebold NOW…!
We spent this morning wandering around our fabulous Friday market in Meyssac. Meyssac is a village of just 500 people, one mile away from our home away from home. There we saw a true community in action. Everyone from octogenarians to newlyweds and newborns communing over a market of local fresh fruit & vegetables, tapenades, fish, bread, beef, olive oils…ugh – it was heaven. It was a million miles away from the mass supermarkets of Sydney and Portland (offering apples from Brazil, juice from Honduras and meat from New Zealand) that we are more familiar with.
So I was quite surprised to literally bump into Suzie (pictured) - a neighbour from Northwest Portland! She was in town for just two days and just happened to drop into Meyssac village for the day. Encroyable!