France, October 2019, Album 2

[Energy Conservation in Housing]

France, October 2019, Album 2

Backroads -- Biking and River Cruise from Paris to Normandy, 2019

26 Sept to 3 Oct 2019

The biking trip with Backroads was an 8-day river cruise on the Seine River, 

going from Paris to Normandy and then back to Paris.

After we finished the Backroads trip . . . . 

We did NOT head home.  We started another month of vacation in France.

This was all part of our big retirement trip.

After 8 days with Backroads, we met up with another "just retired" couple, and toured France, from Paris to Nice.  Overall, we spent about 42 days in France

These photos start with our last 2 weeks in France, which was in Nice. 

And we did some side trips, typically getting there by trains.

We typically got around in France, using trains.  

We had all obtained a  “Eurail Pass” in advance of our trip.

We finally returned home by 2 November.

+++++

Clarifications of captions from some of the photos.

30.  Renault “Twizy”

This was the strangest car I saw in France.

45 years ago, I had a Renault Dauphine car.

The "Twizy" appears to be a single passenger car, which is also fully electric.

(Renault is actually pronounced “Ren-Oh")

31. Renault "Twizy"

There is a sign on the back, which I think says something like "22,000 km without gasoline"

Cars in France.

In general, most cars I saw in France were smaller in size than in America.

Also, the car manufacturers were different.

The most common car makes I saw in France were Peugeot, Citroen, and Renault -- all French made cars.

I was particularly focused on “Renault” -- because 45+ years ago, my first car was a Renault Dauphine.  At one point, (1973) I had 3 of the Renault cars, and I was trying to swap parts (engines, transmissions, and body parts) to get working cars. When I was done, I had two functional Renaults, and I had the third hauled away as junk.

While in France, I did some random surveys of cars (as I was waiting at bus stops, for the next bus). I would count the number of passing cars, and notice the makes of each. Out of 50 passing cars, between 10% and 20% were Renaults. And it seems there were more Peugeot vehicles than Renaults, and about just as many Citroen vehicles. Usually, over half of the cars on the road I saw were these 3 makes of French-built cars.

And these are cars you just don’t see in America.

32. A toilet without a toilet seat

I saw this way too often in France. This was the third toilet in a week, that I saw like this, in a bathroom at a Museum.

You would think that a "Picasso museum" could afford to maintain their restroom facilities. Yet in France, you have to be almost thankful to find bathrooms that are available, and that work, and that you don't have to pay for.