How to act at PBP (Paris-Brest-Paris)

(posted to randon@googlegroups.com)

In this thread I've seen some comments which suggest to me that the "Culture Shock" and similar series of books would be a good read for anyone planning to visit France this year, even if it's only for a few weeks.

In each country there are behavioural traits and knowing them will help you possibly avoid frustration with the locals. I think it's just as important to study this type of material as language material. You will gain some insight on how the locals think and look at the world, and also how some of their systems work.

Of course, learning basic expressions in any local language is a very good idea, but so much can be accomplished by being patient and using hand gestures. I found the expressions s'il vous plait, merci beaucoup and j'ai une probleme very good to know, especially the last one--a french speaker knows right away that you need help, and I was pretty amazed at how helpful they could be.

Reverting to your native tongue really is not that useful unless your conversation partner can speak it, and switching is very frustrating to a listener and can be very upsetting. Learn as many words as possible, and one entertaining way to learn is to use Wikipedia--look up something you know and then look at the left column for a link to the same topic in French.

e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris-Brest-Paris has a click-through link to the same topic in French at http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris-Brest-Paris_Randonneur

Now to the bookstore, or the library:

Culture Shock! France
http://www.amazon.com/dp/155868929X

The French Way
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071428070

France-Culture Smart!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1857333071

Xenophobe's Guide to the French (this one is essentially for fun)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1902825284

Dorling Kindersley Visual French Dictionary
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0756612977

I'll leave it you to find your own speaking/listening material for
learning French!

--
Michael Poplawski
BC Randonneurs Cycling Club
Victoria, BC Canada
Ancien 2003

PS My favourite story about French helpfulness was at a grocery store. In France, produce is usually weighed and priced by the purchaser using the honour system, and I didn't know this. The person behind me in line at an Auchun (a huge multidepartmental store) took my produce to the scale about 50 metres away and about 5 minutes later came back with my fruit and vegetables priced. I could not believe it--this exchanged happened with me simply being a Canadian schmuck not knowing what to do in a mall. The PBP experience featured its own helpful highlights, too.

Phone Cards

After my experience with WinTel, a service which provided me with inexpensive long-distance service until they started charging me a monthly access fee totally out of the blue, I found myself once again facing Telus Mobility long-distance charges, and even the spectre of not being able to make calls to Germany at all from my phone. It's a cell phone, and by default they are not able to make overseas calls, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense until you happen to leave your phone somewhere and someone unscrupulous picks it up.

I called Telus Mobility to have my phone activated for overseas calling. The customer agent was intelligent (and honest) enough to tell me what I should look for is a calling card, and after she explained where I could find one, I didn't have to get my phone switched over after all.

This being 2006, there is now a whole industry relating to calling cards with byzantine rules and rate schedules. In fact, the card I bought allows me to use two different plans from the same company using the same PIN--the card features a hybrid of two plans called Liberty and Premier Plus. For about 4 cents a minute, I can call Germany. (When I had a long-distance relationship with someone 200 km away in 1998, I was paying several times that, and by the time I moved in with her, I was broke!) Thank you, Internet!

Odds are very good that this will all be obsolete by the time you read this, but if you are interested in making long distance calls for reasonable prices from any phone, have a look here.

After the headache of figuring out what a phone call was actually going to cost, I called my aunt to tell her how much progress I was making with my trip preparations. It was very nice to speak to her for 16 minutes, and all for 67 cents. The world gets smaller!

Flüge gebucht! Deutschland, ich komme!

Flughafen Stuttgart-Echterdingen

Ich habe heute meine Flüge gebucht--ich fahre fast direkt zu Riederich, wo meine Tante wohnt.

Ich bin froh dass ich nicht nach Vancouver mit der Fähre muss und dass der Flughafen Stuttgart (Echterdingen) nicht zu weit von Riederich ist für die Freundin meiner Tante mich vom Flughafen abzuholen.

Abfahrt von Victoria ist am 13:35 Mittwoch, April 11 und ich lande in Stuttgart 14:10 Donnerstag, mit Umsteige in Calgary und Frankfurt. Die Fluglinien sind Air Canada Jazz, Air Canada und Lufthansa, hin und zurück, also, das übliche Kanada-Deutschland Fahrt.

Ich war auch etwas überrascht wegen den Preis meiner Karten... in August 2003 bin ich nach Paris geflogen, Rundfahrt, und es war ziemlich teuerer, wahrscheinlich aufgrund die Jahrezeiten (August, gegenüber April u. Oktober).

Willkommen! Welcome!

Hello, Guten Tag,

As you may know, I'm from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and have six months leave from work in 2007. I will be visiting Germany (and spending some time in France, as well) to improve my German fluency, to upgrade my French, to cycle, to cheer on the eleven, to enjoy the country, to visit bookstores, libraries, etc., etc., etc. There will be no shortage of new experiences.

This site will be both a place for reference for me (see the links on the side of the page), a way for me to keep track of where I've been, and also, if anyone is interested, to see what I've done, and maybe even inspire someone out there to do the same thing.

I'll be writing in both English and German depending on what I'm writing about, or how I feel that day.

Also, jetzt geht's los!