Taking a break: tops and flops

I'm taking a break in France from today until Saturday. I'm going to do an hour's work a day anyway so I may do some recreational blogging while I' at it, but don't count on hearing much from me as I do need to recharge my batteries for some hardcore by-election winning when I get back.

France is so far, so good. On the positive side;

• The Metro newspaper may, theoretically, look like London's Metro but the Paris version is actually a newspaper not a string of celebrity gossip and gardening tips.
• I'm really liking the double decker trains - really smart way to do things. Although after a full six hours journey they had to wring their hands in apology. Six minutes late you see!
• Fonts. Perhaps this is just what you're used to, but I'm quite taken with the fonts they use for signs.
• The incredible heart warming and genuine smiles of people in Paris was wonderful, particularly as we passed through it in the morning rush hour. The London tube it ain't.

On the same old, same old side;

• For some reason I was expecting the coffee to be something special. So far it's basically just coffee.
• Probably to do with the time of day we went through Paris but basically people seemed to dress pretty much the same as they do in London.
• Pain au Chocolat. I'd been led to believe that the French were very protective of their language but here they are using exactly the same word as we use.

Me being me. Negatives;

• Puddles. There seems to be a lot of them.
• Power lines. The countryside seems dominated by them, although that could just be chance, obviously.
• I saw five fields of sheep. All of them had one black member. Tokenism gone mad.

I also saw the most hilarious bit of parking with a sports car in a busy car park parked across two bays. And yes, they were both disabled parking spots.