So this is France?

Looks like Santa Barbara, CA, to me.  We were in Côte d'Azur along the Mediterranean coast of France, but it looked like a nearby seaside area I am familiar with.  Very cozy and easy going, the soft winds and softer sand were seductive.  It is France after all, so one would expect that.

The hotel was very nice and quiet and the whole area was in the off season, so even traffic was light.  If it was not for the race venue going on, I bet it really would have been sleepy there.

There were some oddities though.  The elevator had a button that said floor '0' (zero).  Well, now...I am not sure I want to press that one.  Kinda twilight zone-ish.  I was looking for Rod Serling every time I hit that one to go to the lobby.  Yeah...'0' equals 'L'.

Then there was the language thing that made some signs kinda' interesting.   There was the one that apparently told of a public plague involving dogs.  I guess the French finally figured out the fleas/black death thing.

Or there was the restaurant that proudly advertised it specialized in poisons.  That was to fight off the plague, no doubt.

Then there was this image on a menu board in a restaurant that amazed me.  It is an ad for a soft drink called Orangina.  At first I thought it was topless which would have made sense since the beach next to us was.  In any case, it struck me as truly odd in a very French way.

 That was only matched by the service van on the ground at the Frankfurt airport that had ASS written on the side in large letters.  Really?  They carry that around in trucks now?  How about that.  In the US they would need a bigger truck to carry the average load of ASS around and that will lead into my upcoming post.  Why are French (and German too), ahhhh...derrieres...less wide than American ones?  My thoughts on that remarkable observation later.