Chalon was everything we remembered it to be; picturesque, quaint and very welcoming.
After a chilly 5 degree night in the marina we decided to venture once again into the town with new doonas high on the shopping list.
There were a lot of general maintenance jobs to be done on the boat and so it was to and fro to the local briccolage, 'Castorama' to check out screws, hose fittings and other boy boat stuff.
The Carrefours complex nearby, is, as the English lady in a neighboring boat said; "worth coming to France just to shop for food", and so, in addition to doonas, we stocked up on amazing patisserie, local cheeses, salami and fruit. We now have to promise to eat everything we bought!
Last year we realised that enjoying the privilege of using local services such as cheap internet and banking was fairly restricted for non EU visitors and so we set about outwitting the French bureaucracy.
We now have a French mastercard, a local internet account and an address in France. Don't ask how! This will enable us to buy diesel at marina fuel depots and use a cheque account locally. Hopefully it will also cut some of the transfer costs.
We'd be quite happy to return to Chalon for a longer stay sometime and even contemplate swapping houses with the locals. ( A delightful lady at the 'Orange' store has offered her home when she visits Australia.)
There's something to be said about the French support for the arts, even in small towns. Perhaps this could be considered for the bridge over the Torrens?
No comments:
Post a Comment