3/9/10 Bozel, France

We said a sad goodbye to our friends and now we are on our own in their awesome house. We decided to walk down to the nearest town (Bozel) to try to get some cash, drop in at the visitor's centre and search for some wi-fi access. We were not very successful. The visitor's centre was manned by a lovely woman who even spoke a bit of English but did not know anything. Is there another bank in town other than that one across the street? Don't know. Is there somewhere we can pay to make an international call? Don't know. Is there a bus to Courchevel? Don't know. I'm pretty sure she was just there to lock the door after we left.

My impressions of Europe (and by Europe I mean half a day in the Geneva airport and a week and a half in France) are:

1.It's gorgeous here. I mean seriously WOW gorgeous.
2.The people are much friendlier than I thought they would be (as an American, I assumed that all the French would be inclined to spit at us if given the chance. Not a fair assumption but this idea was ingrained in my head in college when a friend came here and more than one person apparently spit at her. Now I wonder what on earth she did to provoke people?).
3.Fewer people speak English than I hoped and it's harder to speak French to an actual French person than I thought it would be. I memorised all these French phrases but then we it comes to crunch time, I panic and forget and/or speak Spanish instead.
4.Europe is expensive. Especially after being in Thailand. I knew this before we got here but knowing ahead of time has not helped my sticker shock.
5.There are more types of cheeses produced in the region we are in than I knew existed in the entire world. The French are serious about their cheese.
6.The wine is the one cheap blessing we have found. About $3.50 US gets you some really yummy stuff.
7.I love the way the villages are tiny and the buildings are all piled on top of each other. There are wooden shutters on the buildings and balconies and slate roofs and flower boxes and it's all very European and quaint.
8.Australian ATM cards don't work at French ATMs.

On that last point, we managed to get 400 Euros out of an ATM when we first got here (not before trying 3 different times). Since then, no ATM will give us any cash (the machines say the transaction is not possible and we should contact our bank). No one takes credit it seems so this is definitely an issue. We've contacted our bank, who has no record of the 400 Euros withdrawn a week and a half ago (this would seem like a good thing but I think it's connected to the fact that we can't get more cash out) and assures us that there is no problem on their end and we should be able to get out money with no issues. So, both ends of the problem are blaming the other and we are down to our last Euro. We've named it “un”...which is French for 'one' (for those of you who speak French as poorly as we do), but we've made sound like a guttoral, flemmy grunt.