Carl Tyler's Blog

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The dog has packed her bones and my suitcase is packed. A long day for the dog tomorrow, but at least she'll be able to go for a long walk on Tuesday. So there have been a few perks whilst I've been staying in Paris, I've been able to catch up on some British TV and sports, the timing of the whole thing meant I was able to watch Wales get the grand slam in the six nations! A few observations about Paris, UK TV and other stuff European:

• Pro Biotic Yoghurts - these have been popular in Japan for years and years, and now the marketing folks have sensed an opportunity in Europe. They're basically a single gulp of yoghurt as far as I can tell and a waste of packaging. They may be good for your insides, but I bet they're not good for the environment.
• Cars in Paris are shorter than the same car somewhere else in the country - If you park you car in Paris, be prepared to come back and find it 1 inch shorter in the front and rear, people here really don't seem to care about smashing the hell out of the car in front and behind to fit in the parking spot.
• No matter what they say, I have actually found the French pretty friendly, I always made a point of saying hello when I went into a shop or restaurant, and trying to order food etc in the native tongue (I think my nieces are still laughing of my impression of a chicken in Carrefour when trying to find an egg bolier), I think the dog may have helped, and I never referred to them as surrender monkies.
• Travelling Paris to London, or London to Paris? Take the Eurostar, it's a no brainer, it runs on time, and if you always get a leisure return ticket, it works out pretty cheap.
• Dogs can crap on the pavement but not on the grass, it took a while to realise the park attendant was telling me off for that and not the fact the dog was off the lead
• 95% of French people work for the park authority. OK this is probably an exaggeration, but I swear it was a different park attendant working every day I was here
• Every other show on TV in Britain is now about a house being done up, auctioned or buying stuff from a car boot sale. I found these to be very irritating after a while, although I am going to miss Kate McIntyre in Bootsale Challenge each morning who I could always make time to watch.
• Also too many TV adverts for ambulance chasing lawyers in Britain now. The downside of Lawyers working on commission
• Bins, as in the container that holds the rubbish bag, in Paris are amazingly expensive, seriously a Brabanta Silver kitchen bin is about 200 bucks at the end of the street. Crazy
• Something about Americans in Europe just makes them stick out a mile, they can be whispering 12 rows behind you on the train and everyone can still hear them
• Bagettes are yummy
• Everyhour after about 7pm, the Eiffel tower lights up with sparkly lights, very nice, but sadly looks pretty crap when captured with a still camera

Anyway time to let the dog out to crap on the grass one last time....