Hello Again From France:
It’s a sunny Sunday and we’re hanging around the house anticipating Marlene’s pork roast dinner this evening. It’s a great way to culminate an interesting weekend.
Friday evening we dined with a French family at their home in Aubagne (it’s not aw-bag-knee....try aw-bahn). As Kiran (her real name is Rajeshree) says, “we’re an international family”. She’s from Mauritius (an island 1,200 miles off the east coast of Africa – you can look up the rest) and her husband, Eric, is from Iceland. Kiran’s heritage is Indian. They’re both doctors and their sons are 18 and 13. The oldest son is in year one of 13-years studying in France to be a doctor.
There are no photos of the experience, just memories. I was concerned about the dining selections. They asked more than once if I liked seafood or meat? That’s wasn’t much of a choice given the present circumstances. On the way to their home, I noted to Marlene that I should have mentioned how much I like chicken (poulet), in that French chicken does taste just like American chicken. Anyway, we were served champagne in their livingroom. Good start. Next came raw salmon (saumon) on toast. At least for me, that was a setback. On to the dining room table, and Eric, who prepared the meal, offered up a pie just out of the oven. It looked promising, until he asked if we all liked mushrooms? Geez, the pie looked good and I figured maybe the mushrooms were minced with something and I could slide through. Well, I took the first bite and ended up with something large and mushy, which I recognized as a mushroom and something I wasn’t going to be able to continue with. Sophia and Keaka, of course, were doing all they could to keep from laughing and settled on little smirks sent my way. All I could think about was fish coming next as the main course. I had planned ahead for such a possibility, feeling determined to eat the fish, no matter what. Eric took a large pot off the stove top and asked if we liked chicken? Good fortune! What a dish. He had pieces of chicken cooked in a light sauce and served it over rice. It was fabulous! While eating the chicken I kept looking at the four fresh baguettes on the counter, thinking how great that would be with the sauce. After the chicken came cheese, which was served with the baguettes --- just rip the bread off. And, after the cheese came banana cake from a Mauritian-inspired recipe. It worked, along with red wine with dinner and about five liqueurs. It was a 2-1/2 hour dining experience, which isn’t all that long for a French dinner.
We learned much from the conversation. Of course, they admitted being exhausted at the end of the evening, having to speak their second language, which frequently involved mental searches for the proper word in English and involved other situations of having to ask us to slowdown a little bit, so they could get exactly what we were saying. They are convinced, along with many others, that English is the international language, so everybody should know it. I guess that is reasonable, some how. They pointed out that their 13-years of education and training to become a doctor was totally free. No tuition. Of course, they had no income during that 13-year period. Eric does surgery and noted that for the particular surgery he performs most often he charges 5,000 euros (about $6,500) and that doctors in the U.S. charge $20,000 to perform the same surgery. Their system is so simple. When you go to the doctor you walk into a small waiting room and when it’s your turn the doctor escorts you into a room which includes his desk and an examining table. No nurses or assistants and for an appointment you call a central appointment center or you just show up during the doctor’s “open hours”. They charge 23 euros (about $30) per appointment and noted that they see about twice as many patients in a day as an American doctor, which with the much fewer expenses, gets them somewhat closer to the situation for American doctors. We told them it seemed curious to us that the French drive cars like they are late for their own wedding and then spend hours sitting at lunch and even longer sitting at dinner. It’s just the way it’s always been, they admitted. As we’ve observed, it’s just the culture. There is no reasonable explanation. They brought up how the French have done many great things in recent years (the high-speed train, top world awards to mathematicians), but admitted that the country still lives on the laurels of King Louis XIV, who died 300 years ago. You can look it up, but that apparently was France’s peak time in the world, and Kiran and Eric were very willing to admit that it has been a downhill slide since then. The country is very socialistic compared to the United States, and even they admit many of the France’s economic approaches just don’t seem to work. They say one of the reasons most businesses have very short hours (including closing 2-3 hours for lunch) is the cost of doing business, especially the cost of employees. Their point was that if you pay the minimum wage of 9.50 euros per hour ($12.80 per hour), the employer pays another 9.50 euros to the government, and so in many cases it is better to be closed than open. Eric makes the point that French people “don’t talk about money” and the cultural approach is to do things for all the people, often times ignoring the wisdom of an expense. To the French, it is good if it is done for all of the people. I asked why in 2010 the City of Marseille constructed a hockey arena with 8,000 seats without any real prospect of anybody ever occupying those seats or the arena ever housing a hockey team that would draw fans, and why there would not be food and beverage facilities? Eric simply said, “We know we do many things that wastes money, but we always do things for all of the people”. The taxes are obviously high! They noted that the high tax bracket is 78% to the government. So, you do see hockey arenas you don’t need, great new parks, almost fee college education, surprising multi-story underground parking garages where you can’t believe they could be built, expensive long tunnels on highways, and expensive mass transit in cities of all sizes that would never get built in the United States. We talked with a gal working at McDonalds who is going to school and studying English and she told us about her situation. She makes the hourly minimum of 9.50 euros ($12.80 per hour – a bit better than the $8.00 per hour for the same job in the U.S.) and works 100 hours per month. So, she grosses 950 euros. The government snags 350 euros and she takes home 600 euros. In U.S. terms she is working part time and earning $15,360 annually and her French tax rate is 37%, leaving her $10,307. I don’t think folks making that little in the U.S. pay that much tax. Then, of course, the Frenchman making $1,000,000 gives the government $780,000, taking home a mere $220,000. Like Kiran and Eric told us, many French find ways to avoid paying tax and many other French work less because it just isn’t financially worth it to work more. (I realize the numbers don’t all add up, but then we went to dinner, not an economic conference.)
Yesterday, we went to Toulon (you’ll have to read up on it) to see a rugby match between Toulon and Exeter of England, part of the European Championships (known as the Heineken Cup), which goes on while each countries own league is going on. See the photos (the rugby match and a photo of the old section of downtown Toulon at early evening). Great afternoon, sunny and temperatures in the low 60s, which didn’t see bad for mid-December. A 15,000 seat stadium wedged into the heart of downtown --- a great atmosphere. Marlene said she liked it more than American football and I ventured that it was better than soccer (I wasn’t exactly going out on a limb). It was quite entertaining, even when you don’t know the rules. Toulon’s downtown area was quite modern (which means post-1950), with some very old buildings here and there. Apparently, during World War II the Allies bombed Toulon pretty generously.
I also threw in a photo of Keaka purchasing some cotton candy in downtown Aix-en Provence, all part of the holiday festivities that seem to be organized in the downtown areas of all towns (ferris wheels, lots of food, Christmas goods for sale from makeshift stands along the street).
Speaking of Heineken beer, going by grocery store shelf space, Heineken is the most popular beer in the south of France (and we saw plenty of it in Switzerland and Italy). And, from the “did you know department ?”, Heineken is the most popular beer in Hawaii. Go figure.
More coming soon to clear the decks for the Paris trip, which starts one week from today.
The Wilsons
