Epilog

I thoroughly enjoyed our drive through France; what a beautiful country! One thing that was noticeable by its absence in comparison to our trips in Germany (Wanderungs 2 and 5) were large electric generation windmills. That was just an outward sign of France's very different approach to power generation. About 75-80% of France's electrical power is generated by nuclear plants and the government is considering building new nuclear plants (as Finland is currently doing). In contrast, in Germany under the influence of the Green Party no one in government even discusses building new nuclear plants but rather they have proposed decommissioning some of the nuclear plants that are already operating in favor of alternative energy such as windmill farms. In the U.S. the government is relaxing clean air regulations so that dirty coal burning plants can produce more power and there has been little more than a preliminary discussion of building new nuclear plants.

The antipathy of the oil companies in the U.S. to alternative energy is demonstrated clearly by Exxon's TV advertisement directed against wind power (the one that features the Eiffel tower converted to a huge, silly-looking windmill), and neither Republicans nor Democrats have a political platform that would subsidize a massive alternative energy production such as Germany's 8% of total electricity produced by subsidized wind power. The Europeans do not seem to even consider new fossil fuel power plants because they are seriously worried about global warming, whereas in the U.S. global warming is lumped together with other "unproved scientific theories" like evolution that seem to excite political antipathy rather than support. These cultural differences in values and assumptions will have very real long term and short term consequences for the economic and environmental future of each country. On our drive through France, one immediate consequence of the French decision to depend on nuclear power was that the air was clear and unpolluted and the skyline was free of windmills, so we always had a good view of the mountains, fields, and towns of the French countryside.

The countryside was an ever-changing mosaic of natural and human-crafted environments that I found very pleasant. The patchwork of tiny fields in some way reminded me of the fields of rural Ireland (Wanderung 9), but the French farmers raised some kind of white cattle rather than sheep, and the borders of the fields were verdant green hedgerows rather than the bare gray of stacked stone walls in Ireland. Given the French fondness for wine and viniculture, I was not surprised to see extensive tracts of vineyards in many of the valleys, but I was surprised to see how the rows of vines marched straight up the hillsides rather than being placed on any kind of contour. The leaves on the vines as well as the trees were all turning gorgeous fall colors during our drive through France, and the total effect was wonderful. We were there in what is possibly the most scenic time of the entire year, and I often I felt just like we were driving through a real life picture postcard.

I could relax and enjoy the scenery partly due to the good habits of our rental auto, a Renault "Modus". Altogether I found the Modus to be a very efficient diesel; in total we spent 80 Euros for diesel fuel to drive the 1400+ kilometers, which was not nearly as expensive as I had feared after hearing about France's $7 a gallon gasoline. Since regular gasoline was in fact 1.25 Euro per liter, it did cost the equivalent of about $6 per gallon, but diesel fuel was considerably cheaper ranging from 1.05-1.20 Euro per liter. In the U.S. in contrast, we have noticed during our Wanderungs that diesel prices are almost always higher than regular gasoline. For the entire drive through France we used about 75 liters and that worked out to about 19 kilometers per liter or about 45 miles per gallon, which is a lot better than I would expect from any Ford, GM, or Chrysler vehicle in the U.S. Makes you think, doesn't it?

But the most important factor for enjoying the scenery while driving in rural France was the relaxed, accommodating driving styles of the other drivers. Although French drivers did not typically use their turn signals, we did not see any crazy, pushy driving such as abounds in Washington, D.C., until we were circling Paris to get to the airport. In all other parts of France other drivers seemed to usually be quite forgiving of my slow and cautious driving; I got honked at only once or twice in 1400+ kilometers of driving. I saw a big red "A" on the back of some cars, and I think that may indicate a beginning driver in France. If so, the next time I come I'll print up a big red "A" to put in the car's front and rear windows just like I printed the big red "L" for use while driving in Ireland.

Driving in general was low stress. The toll roads were just like U.S. interstates and clearly the equal of the Autostrada in Italy and the Autobahns of Germany. Since the upper speed limit was 130 kilometers per hour and the fastest traffic drove around 140 kph or so, we did NOT have the huge speed differentials I had experienced on the German Autobahns due to the 200+ kph Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes traffic there. The lower speed differentials on the French toll roads made it far less stressful (and dangerous) to pass. Signs for curves in the mountains and the shoulders on the 2-lane highways in France could have been better, but otherwise the road signs and pavement were quite adequate. Reacting to signs took a split second longer than normal because all the text was French, but that only became a real problem when we encountered the large, complex signs that detailed what cities would be found to the left, right, or straight ahead.

More generally, not knowing French added a little stress to everyday activities such as eating out, shopping, and renting a hotel room as well as driving. That did not happen in Ireland during Wanderung 9 because they had only a few limited areas where Gaelic was the official language, and even in those areas most folks spoke fluent English. That was definitely not true in France; in the rural areas we were often confronted with folks who did not speak any English at all. This language issue made the overall stress level for living in France slightly but noticeably higher than it was for us in Ireland (Wanderung 9) or Germany (Wanderungs 2 and 5). However, the stress due to language was still not that bad in France because we could certainly read the letters and in many cases we could, if given enough time, puzzle out the meaning. When I drove through the northern part of Finland 20 years ago this linguistic stress level was much higher because they were using the Cyrillic alphabet and I could not even read the letters, much less puzzle out the meaning of signs, billboards, messages and so forth. I expect that in other lands using completely different alphabets or ideographs such as China I would also feel a high level of linguistic stress, but that remains to be seen.

The food in France was very tasty and in particular we of course enjoyed really crisp, flaky croissants for breakfast every morning. We were typically offered croissants with chocolate chips in them as well as the plain ones, and I enjoyed those although it was admittedly strange to have chocolate chips for breakfast. However, staying on a low-fat diet in France was a real problem. I had to search high and low in the stores for cartons of skimmed ("ecreme") milk, and it was never offered in the buffet breakfasts. Sliced chicken and turkey we could find easily, but neither of us ever located low fat cheeses anywhere in France; I expect that is due to having less flavor and being completely unacceptable to the French palate. Similarly, we never saw low fat yogurt or anything else advertised as "low fat", for that matter. Having this unavoidably high fat diet was a change for both of us and was possibly the source of some problems with indigestion during our trip. Conversely, we never ate anything in France that tasted bad and were never, ever, rushed to finish a meal at a restaurant, cafe, or coffeehouse. Having relaxed, tasty meals was certainly pleasant even if the lack of low fat fare was frustrating.

It was also hard to stick to a low fat diet while on the cruise ship around Italy. On the whole, however, the cruise ship Astor was, like other cruise ships we have been on, a wonderful experience and a great way to see coastal cities. Effectively, you live in a floating four-star hotel that moves around with you. I am no expert in haute cuisine (obviously!!), but I think the meals on the Astor were really high level culinary achievements. Each night on the Astor, we were magically transported to another interesting Mediterranean coastal town in the most painless way possible. I don't know if we just had calm weather or the Astor had really efficient underwater wings, but we never felt any swaying until the last night we were at sea and a storm kicked up some big waves.

The downside of a cruise ship, besides the unfortunate tendency for us to gain weight, was that we were locked in to the scheduled times in port. That's the same disadvantage that we have found with bus trips on land, and it can be pretty frustrating. We would have loved to see Heraculeum while we were in Naples or Ostia while in Rome, for example, but with just one day in port that was clearly impossible. Rome itself really would take several more days if not a week or a month to really savor, so we just had a glimpse, so to speak.

In fact, the consistent feeling we had with Wanderung 10 was that we were traveling too fast to see things as thoroughly as we would have liked. Almost every place we stopped or even paused a bit was worth seeing more thoroughly. For big, beautiful cities like Rome and Paris, we would like to take a week or two or three and just walk around the main attractions and see some of the neighborhoods and so forth. For other places like the islands of Malta and Sicily, I felt like I would like to rent a motor scooter and drive around to see things. I think a 250 cc scooter would be big enough for both us and yet still be easily parked in any nook or cranny along the way. Besides, you get a panoramic view of the countryside while riding a motor scooter that you just don't get while riding in a car, and both Italy and France had lots of magnificent countryside.

One thing I really missed on Wanderung 10 was getting my normal dose of museums. I actually stopped counting the museums that we were passing by as we walked and drove different places because it was too depressing to think about all the things I was missing! So as much fun as this tour was, we would really like to go back some day and "Play it again, Sam", but more slowly.