TGV photo taking

In Sept, when we went to the open house for clubs and associations to sign up tennis lessons and karate lessons for the boys, I walked around to look at the other offers.

There was a photography club. I decided to sign up for their discovery classes. 7 lessons spanned over 10 months for 10€. I had been to 2 lessons and learnt how to use the aperture mode and the shutter speed mode of my camera.

During my trip in Florence, I focused mainly on using the aperture mode. To improve my skill with the shutter speed mode, the trainer organised a date to take photos of the TGV, the fast speed train that could reach 300km/h. There was a TGV track just 10 minutes drive away. We gathered at a car park on a foggy sunday morning and walked 100m to reach the best spot to have a clear view.

The trainer advised us on the settings to use and we waited patiently for the TGV. I had my lucky shots with the first train. Below are 2 of my best shots. Subsequent shooting of two other TGVs did not give good results. 

If the sun had cleared the fog away, the pictures would turn out clearer. But well, I am proud of my photos given that I am just a novice. 

At the end of the course, we were encouraged to submit photos for a competition titled 'Colors'. I have no idea what to present. All colorful ideas are welcome!

Blessing in disguise

Yesterday, Seb left at 5am to catch a plane to Italy. As it was a monday and I had to go to work in La Defense, the boys' grandparents came at 6.15am to take care of them and to bring them to school.

Yesterday was also the day where the french government applied a new measure to combat the seemingly unhealthy air pollution in Paris and its surrounding. Only cars with odd number car plates were allowed to circulate into Paris and its neighbouring areas. Over the weekend, public transport in Paris was free. While I applauded the free public transport gesture, the one on alternate days circulation for cars was just not feasible. Many people lived very far from Paris in small towns where there was no public transport to connect them to their offices in Paris. They were also people living in Paris who needed to drive to their offices outside of Paris.

I would have no issue going to work on monday as my car had an odd number car plate. But alas, when I started my car at 6.25am, it won't start. The battery was flat. A1 played in my car on friday. I had driven to do grocery shopping earlier on before picking up the boys. On Sat morning, I realised that the signal light was on and quickly unlocked the car and switched off the indicator light. Over the weekend, we used Seb's car and I did not check if the signal light had used up the battery.

The grandparents tried to help me start the car. We could not jumpstart the car as we did not have any cables for that. As it was very early in the morning, I waited until 8am to call for help. I had no choice but to work from home. I felt bad that my in-laws came over for nothing having to wake up so early.

I called the VW service center where I serviced the car. I was surprised to learn that as I had used a VW service center, I was entitled to free assistance within 24months from the last reviewing of the car. I called up the VW assistance center and in an hour's time, a service man came. He took a portable battery and cables from his car and jumpstarted my car. We then let the engine  run for 15mins. I was told to drive for 10mins to charge up the battery further. I explained to the service man that with my car plate number, I would have gone to work in Paris if not for the flat battery. He told me that there were blockages on the main roads to Paris along the highway and it was a mess entering Paris. As usual, the french did not care about this rule and even number car plates vehicles tried to enter and had to be turned back by the traffic police. There were reluctant drivers trying to convince the police and creating jams.

So it was a blessing in disguise that the car did not start. Still, I learnt my lessons. No more letting the boys play in the car without my supervision even for a few minutes. And always go to the VW service center for car reviewing. It came in handy this time.

The decree for alternate days driving was called off. The pollution level had returned to a normal level. Furthermore, I think the authorities had realised the mess they created yesterday and the unhappiness of the drivers affected. As for me, I will go to office on thurs. Seb will be back tomorrow. If the decree continues, I will use Seb's car on thurs as his has an even number car plate. Or to avoid the mess on the road, I can also drive to Rambouillet train station and take the trains to La Defense. Just that, it would take me 1.5hours to come home instead of the usual hour.

To end off, I went to fetch the boys from school yesterday on FOOT!

How we travel with the kids

In France, car seats for children are mandatory and the law is strictly abided. I rarely see young children not buckled in one.

However, in my short visits in Singapore each time, I saw on many occasions mothers who held their kids on their laps sitting in the front passenger seat. Or even kids not buckled up playing at the back of the car. This is disturbing for me. I had experienced minor car collisions twice in my life and the impact was strong even if there was no big damage done to the cars. Having a seat belt helped. If a child is not properly buckled on, in the event of an accident, he can be seriously injured. I questioned my friends and they said 'Oh, it's just a short distance.' Still, if you don't bang other cars, these other cars might bang yours. We never know.

Recently, a friend put on facebook a video of her 2 year old singing in the car. The father was driving, the mother was in the front taking video of her daughter who was standing in the middle and holding onto the two front headrests as support. I can't imagine how they could allow that.

OK, critics aside. If I had to travel in a car without a car seat (taking a taxi or my mum's car in Sg), I would sit at the back of the car, put my kid on my lap and buckle him with me. That won't replace the car seat but I was doing my best.

The photos below were taken during our trip in Lyon. Toddler A1 was in his comfy car seat. As usual, he did not want his photos to be taken. Toddler A2 was in his baby coque. He used this since birth. Soon, he will be upgraded to a road facing car seat as he is getting too big. We will be getting a bigger car seat for A1 and as usual, A2 will use the hand me down of his brother's.

Sam's second visit

It had been a year since Sam's visit. This year, he came again during Bastille Day. We met up for lunch on 14 July and for tea, we stopped by La Durée. It seems that we are keeping up with tradition.

This time round, Sam brought along his friend Ian who was visiting him from Australia. We had a delightful time chatting and Ian took some beautiful photos of baby A.

The next day, history repeated itself when Sam missed his flight. This time round, there were problems on a few train lines including RER B which goes to the airport. I myself was affected on the way home after work. Due to the hot summer, there was bush fire along the rail line. Sam was stuck at Gare du Nord and the taxi queue was way too long. He came over to our place for the night. I actually remembered teasing him just the day before "Hey, don't miss your flight this time round, ok?" Guess Paris loves him too much.

Plane crashes

Recently, France was hit by two sad aviation news.

About a month ago, an Air France plane flying from Brazil to France fell into Atlantic Ocean. The 200 plus people on board all perished. It seems that the speed sensors for the Airbus 330 was at fault during the stormy weather. Air France had since then replaced all the speed sensors of this airbus. A brother of an acquaintance we knew was among the passengers. Though we do not know the person, we felt sorry for the man's family.

And when we were sending my mom off at CDG airport last tuesday, there was a crowd forming at the information counter. Airport officials were present too. Seb was already guessing that there was another crash. In the car on the way home, we heard from the radio that a plane heading to the Comoros Islands had crashed into the sea. Only one teenager girl had survived. There is a huge comoros community in France and the people are upset. The Yemenia Airbus 310 is banned from France as it fails in the routine maintenance checks. What happened was that the passengers boarded on a Yemenia Airbus A330-200 from France and at the Yemen airport, they were transferred to the Airbus 310 heading for Comoro. I bumped into the guardian of our residence today and during our greetings, he shared with me that his younger brother was on that fateful flight. He left behind his wife and a 18 month old baby. I felt so sad for him. He added that since 8 years, the Comoro people has constantly requested the authority to do something about this "avion poubelle" (rubbish plane). Originally from Comoro, he had took this plane once to visit his family. He prayed very hard during the flight from Yemen to Comoro as the state of the plane made him scared. Now, he travels only with Air France to go Comoro.

In France, a black list of airline companies exist. Usually these blacklisted companies offer low-cost flights. As people travels more frequently, it is hard to resist to such offers.

And as usual, as I dwell into these tragedies, my husband has a way of breaking the ambiance. He mentioned that these losses are just a tiny fraction of the number of road victims in France each year. Well, he is right. Good thing that news casters only sensationalize plane crashes. If they do that on road accidents too, I had to throw the television away to avoid being depressive.

Public transport in Paris (Ile de France)

As a student in Singapore, I used a monthly bus ticket to go to school. It was a concession ticket for students and with it, I did not have to pay for bus rides. As a working adult in Singapore, no such concession ticket was available. We had to pay full amounts when taking public transports to work. It cost me about SG$4 a day to go and come back from work. In a 20 working days month, that would be SG$80. This obviously did not include afterwork appointments with friends in town area or weekend outings.

Quand j'étais un étudiant à Singapour, j'ai utilisé une carte mensuelle de bus pour aller à l'école. C'était une billet à titre de concession pour les scolaires et dans les bus, je ne payais pas. Quand j'ai travaillé à Singapour, il n'y avait pas ce type de billet. On devait payer le plein tarif quand on prenait le transport en commun pour travailler. Il m'avait couté SG$4 par jour pour le trajet aller-retour. Dans un mois avec 20 jours de travail, ça coutait SG$80. Ce montant n'incluait pas les soirées après bureau ou les sorties du weekend.

In Paris, various tickets are available for the public transports. I have a monthly ticket which I can use as many times as I want in a day and even on weekends. I can use it freely on RER train(regional express), suburbs trains, Metro, tramway or bus so long as the zones I travel in are within the limites of my monthly ticket. Actually what I have is a touch card known as Navigo. It is very much like the EZLink card used in Singapore except that it is personalised. Each month, about 67€ is deducted via GIRO. As the public transport network in Paris is extensive, I travel around with my Navigo card most of the time. On top of that, in order to attract people to work in Paris, employers absorbed half of the public transport fees. I have no idea who decided this (Paris city hall or labour law) but it sure is a good deal. So each month in my pay slip, about 33.50€ is credited as transport allowance. Of course, we have to provide justification that we own a public transport card.

A Paris, plusieurs types de billet sont disponibles pour le transport en commun. J'ai une carte d'orange mensuelle et je peux la utiliser autant fois que je veux dans une journée et même les weekends. Je peux l'utiliser dans le RER, le train, le Metro, le tram et le bus du moment que je voyages dans les zones indiqué sur ma carte. En fait, j'ai changé à la carte Navigo à la place de la carte d'orange. C'est similaire à la carte EZLink à Singapour sauf que Navigo est personnalisé. Chaque mois, environ 67€ est prélevé de mon compte bancaire. Comme Paris a une vaste réseau du transport, je me déplace souvent avec ma carte Navigo. Afin d'attirer les gens de venir travailler à Paris, les sociétés remboursent la moitié du prix. J'ai aucune idée qui a décidé (le mairie de Paris ou la législation du travail) mais c'est une bonne plan. Donc, chaque mois, environ 33.50€ est crédité dans mon salarie comme indemnité de transport. Bien sûr, on doit fournir un justificatif d'achat.

I really appreciate this Navigo card. The pricing is by zones. Zone 1 and 2 covers Paris and the greater paris. I live in zone 2 and my office in La Defense is in zone 3. Each morning, I would have to take the RER train from home(zone 2) into central Paris(zone 1) and change to another RER train to La Defense (zone 3). So my Navigo card includes zone 1 to 3. Looking at the map of the public transport (it does not show the bus routes), for 33.50€ a month, I can visit anywhere in Paris anytime I want.

J'apprécie vraiment cette carte Navigo. Le tarif est par zones. Zone 1 et 2 couvre Paris et le grand Paris. J'habite dans zone 2 et mon bureau à La Défense est dans la zone 3. Chaque matin, je prends le RER chez moi (zone 2) pour aller dans Paris (zone 1) et ensuite, je prends un autre RER en direction de La Defense (zone 3). C'est ainsi que ma carte Navigo comprend les zones 1 à 3. Regard le plan Ile-de-France (il ne monte pas les bus), pour 33.50€ par mois, je peux aller partout à Paris quand je veux.