France has so many things to offer.. including free money

Banks in France are funny. You can open a bank account and put absolutely no money in it. They will charge you 35 Euros total for your bank account deposit and your debit card and will simply leave it as a negative on your account until you put money into it. When you are overdrawn, there are no consequences. In fact, if you need money from the ATM, simply insert debit card and withdraw money. Sure it may be money you don't have but your French bank account does not care. It only cares that it has fulfilled your request. All the while, you can go however long you want with that one straight line in front of your balance as the only sign you are in the negative. How has the French banking system not collapsed? How can I be overdrawn for almost a month and have received absolutely no notice whatsoever and no overdraft charges?

Interesting system they have here...my American bank account is to the rescue though as I look sadly on at its rapid decline. My own misfortune and consequence is I did not bother to convert more American dollars to Euros when the going was good. Too bad I am not a European living in the U.S.... I could be rich.

My Home Comes with Room Service

Traveling.. it is amazing all the places you can travel and even more amazing how a hotel room becomes more comforting and normal looking than your own home. All I want at this point in time is for one single weekend to spend in my home, no constant running around, no quick trips to Paris or Florence, no planning required except for what our next great meal will be... Pure laziness with the Playstation and Wii in its very best form. I do not believe this will ever be in my future...although I do have high hopes for a calm relaxing month in possibly March.

If I knew a fortune teller with a crystal ball, she would have a field day with how un-boring my life is. All of her fortunes would come true. You will meet someone new. You will go on a great adventure. You will have a romantic night with the one you are thinking of. It is virtually impossible not to experience all these things at once when you have a new city to explore. Too bad all I really want is to not leave the house for two days.

Since the middle of May, we have been to Strasbourg, FR; Lyon, FR; Beaune, FR; Mulhouse,FR; Besancon, FR; Zurich,Switzerland; Antalya, Turkey; Istanbul, Turkey; Paris, FR; Florence, Italy and countless little towns. I have only been here for 15 weekends! I have seen more churches than they have in the "Bible Belt" and crossed enough water ways to wonder why our main transportation in Europe is not by boat. I have gotten up at 4 am to be on a train for 4:19 am. I have been in Switzerland and France at the same time in the Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg a.k.a. EuroAirport. I have taken trips that not only require travel by foot, train, bus, taxi and airplane but also a transfer to a completely different airport within a city all for ONE trip! Life has been exciting, adventurous, crazy, physically and mentally tiring and absolutely gorgeous and stunning in every way.

Now please, everyone join with me, in holding out hope for a uneventful weekend to come my way soon. Although not this weekend... we are going to Basel, Switzerland. Enjoy your weekend!

Old but not in a good antiquey way....

We went to the movies last night...boy, was that a treat! I believe there were only 2 people working the entire theater, the guy who showed up 15 min before our movie started to sell us our tickets and turn on the lights to the theater and the guy who pulled out the film from behind the movie screen and walked it back to the top to begin the film. The seats did not recline and the armrests did not have coke holders. The vending machines for "movie snacks" gave us water instead of coke (it must have sensed I had been eating too much chocolate) and I got a French version of Reisen's. We had one preview before the movie started and with almost the entire place empty were super comfortable in our child size seats with less room than a coach class flight. It was wonderful. Woohoo for movies in their original English version though!