Phone, St. Tropez, and autre detritus

I received directions from mademoiselle at the front desk to a phone store, to le Geant, a WalMart with a French name. I drove out of town looking despairingly at the stalled traffic attempting to enter and found the phone store. (Not before seeing two camels grazing by the side of the road, apparently part of a fair. Hunter Thompson indeed.) The very nice man at the store attempted to fix my phone to no avail, I ended up purchasing a new, very cheap one; not at all like my tres moderne Razr but it works, which is very much better. Function before form, after all. The good news is that I conducted the entire day in French, getting directions and figuring out the phone. They understood me, I basically understood them and no one had to repeat themselves. I try to imagine what I sound like, imagining someone speaking heavily accented broken English, and hope that it's not too bad. I'm sure I get points for trying and I've achieved all my objectives so all is well.

On the way home, while sitting in traffic, I called Tim to check in and get Colin's number. Tim informed me that at that moment, he learned that Adobe and Macromedia had merged, which caused a long moment of silence on my part while I absorbed the information. It is not particularly surprising when one thinks of it, but I hadn't thought of it. I have six more weeks of travel, so it will be some time before I fully grasp the implications.

I am now in an Internet cafe - Le Giraffe - with a fine, hardwire connection and a panache (beer and lemondade). I’m going to take advantage of the connection and upload some photos for your visual enjoyment. Bon soir.

Comments

[Hans Omli]

A moment of silence shared by many I am sure, though I agree it makes perfect sense.