The challenge of jogging

For anyone who is unaware of the situation, I will be living in southern France for one year in order to work on a research project focused on the Campi Flegrei volcanic caldera in Italy. I will be working on seismic data collected in the area in an attempt to image part of the caldera structure below the surface. I arrived in late August and after a protracted search found a small studio apartment in the quaint roughly 500-year-old village of Biot. My modes of transport consist of my two feet and the chronically late bus.

In this blog I'll just be writing about various occurences and things that I observe while I am living here. It will be pretty random stuff. I may post a few photos here but mostly I will use Snapfish for picture sharing.

To start out I will just relate what occurred yesterday afternoon when I attempted to go jogging near Biot. First, some general description of the area outside the village. The terrain: hilly, lots of trees, houses scattered everywhere. The roads: narrow, no shoulder, no sidewalk. The traffic: cars, buses, small trucks and vans, motorcycles and mopeds - all driven by people who appear to be in a great hurry. In odd juxtaposition to this I have often seen people stop and put on their hazard lights then jump out and run a quick errand while traffic builds up behind their car. Amazingly, no one gets angry, beeps their horn, yells obscenities, etc. I figure people must drive like mad eejits (Father Ted reference, for the uninitiated) to make up for these delays.

This all makes up the first challenge of jogging here: finding a safe route with low traffic volume. Consulting my map, I spied a possible loop I could make through the residential area in the small valley next to Biot village. Things started well; traffic was light and the trees provided nice shade. Just as the road started to head uphill there was an automated gate like you might see at a gated community. The map didn't show any such gate and it was wide open even though no cars were passing through so I figured they must close it at night and jogged right through. Beyond this were many fancy houses all with their own firmly closed gates and a few with security cameras as well. It made for interesting scenery. When I reached the point at which the map showed I could connect to a roughly parallel road and loop back towards my starting point I found my way blocked by large gate like the one I had breezed through before. I could not find any way to get the gate to open from the inside so I was forced to turn around and head back the way I came. Of course, now it occurred to me that the other gate may be closed now as well and then what would I do? The only way around either gate was to climb a large fence. As I sprinted back to the first gate I decided I would just have to wait for someone who actually lived there to come through in their car.

Sure enough, the first gate was now closed. Fortunately I didn't have to wait too long for a car to come along on its way out. I exchanged grins of "oopsie" with the driver as he drove up to the keypad. However, his code didn't seem to work and he had to try to call someone to let him out. Luckily we were both saved by another car coming in. I escaped! Other than that it was a good run, but I don't think I'll attempt that route again. This leaves me with no way to do a decent sized loop while still avoiding heavy traffic so I'll have to try to come up with something else.

Some other random observations that I have made so far:
- most businesses and shops are closed from noon to 2 pm so you can forget running errands during your lunchtime
- coffee eclairs are very tasty, but coffee in general is very strong (espresso) and comes in very small quantities (no giant lattes that will last one a good hour or so and so far no iced coffee of any kind)
- grocery stores carry a staggering array of cream-related things and desserts but finding non-fat anything (yogurt, milk, etc.) is very difficult
- compared to cream-type stuff, cheese selection is limited (I have only seen French cheeses so far, but then I haven't yet been to a grocery store as large as your average american supermarket)
- at least in this part of the country, people view a car or other personal motorized transport device a necessity (people look at me pityingly when they find out I have no car here and no plans to get one due to the expense)
- cars are generally small (very few SUV-type things) but lack hilarious model names like those found in Japan (e.g. Opti Beex, Me Lady, Scrum)
- people who drive mopeds or motorcycles all must have a deathwish - they do not slow down or stop for any reason unless absolutely forced to, they pass other cars on narrow two-lane roads even on blind corners and will often drive down the center line on two-lane roads with cars going both ways

All for now...