Thursday, April 20, 2006
Saint-Remy-de-Provence ~~ Van Gogh
Biscuit & Biscuit,
Van Gogh,
. andactivity at St. Remy
. .[[remember to click on any picture to enlarge it]
Biscuit & Biscuit is a cute little 'ceramic cafe.'
These are the owner/operators, Jill and Joy, and their dog, Igor. The brochure is in French, if you don't read French, you can still get the drift of their business.
Now we didn't do ceramics at St. Remy but at this cafe we had coffee and a snack. While we were doing the coffee, we also were using their Internet.
The Information Center had given them as an Internet point. Actually this is a service for their customers and not their main business.
While the other places were charging seven to nine Euros ($9 to $11) an hour, Biscuit & Biscuit added a nominal three Euro an hour to the customer's bill for Internet.
Coffee wasn't their main business either, it is another service to the ceramic patrons who are painting and decorating their ceramic items. Biscuit then fires the customer's items in one of the kilns.
Biscuit & Biscuit has been in operation since last December and seems to be going pretty strong. As a retired business professor who taught a course in entrepreneurship, I am always interested in how these small businesses are getting along.
We sure didn't spend all our time at St. Remy on the Internet, just enough to get e-mail and do a couple of blog entries. Not all places we stayed had Internet for us to find.
What else did we do there? Here is a hint, remember that Van Gogh spent over a year painting in this lovely little village.
A better hint:
More about this later, but for now, compare this picture with the classic by Van Gogh above.
_ _ _ _
Links to my later postings mentioning Biscuit & Biscuit:
An Afternoon with Granddaughter depicting The Mad Potter at Houston, Texas (link), and
A short post written from Biscuit & Biscuit while staying at the Domaine de Valmouriane (link).
Links to my later postings mentioning Biscuit & Biscuit:
An Afternoon with Granddaughter depicting The Mad Potter at Houston, Texas (link), and
A short post written from Biscuit & Biscuit while staying at the Domaine de Valmouriane (link).
biscuit-biscuit-has-been-in-operation
.
.
.
.
.
.
Links to my later postings mentioning Biscuit & Biscuit:
An Afternoon with Granddaughter depicting The Mad Potter at Houston, Texas (link), and
A short post written from Biscuit & Biscuit while staying at the Domaine de Valmouriane (link).
Update: Biscuit et Biscuit Céramique Café has now moved to Marseille, France (link). I am sure this is a much better location for their shop. Marseille is open year round, is much larger than St. Remy, and has a lot more tourists traffic.
.
Biscuit & Biscuit,
Van Gogh,
. and
activity at St. Remy
.
.[[remember to click on any picture to enlarge it]
Biscuit & Biscuit is a cute little 'ceramic cafe.'
These are the owner/operators, Jill and Joy, and their dog, Igor. The brochure is in French, if you don't read French, you can still get the drift of their business.
Now we didn't do ceramics at St. Remy but at this cafe we had coffee and a snack. While we were doing the coffee, we also were using their Internet.
The Information Center had given them as an Internet point. Actually this is a service for their customers and not their main business.
While the other places were charging seven to nine Euros ($9 to $11) an hour, Biscuit & Biscuit added a nominal three Euro an hour to the customer's bill for Internet.
Coffee wasn't their main business either, it is another service to the ceramic patrons who are painting and decorating their ceramic items. Biscuit then fires the customer's items in one of the kilns.
Biscuit & Biscuit has been in operation since last December and seems to be going pretty strong. As a retired business professor who taught a course in entrepreneurship, I am always interested in how these small businesses are getting along.
We sure didn't spend all our time at St. Remy on the Internet, just enough to get e-mail and do a couple of blog entries. Not all places we stayed had Internet for us to find.
What else did we do there? Here is a hint, remember that Van Gogh spent over a year painting in this lovely little village.
A better hint:
More about this later, but for now, compare this picture with the classic by Van Gogh above.
.
.
.
.
.
Links to my later postings mentioning Biscuit & Biscuit:
An Afternoon with Granddaughter depicting The Mad Potter at Houston, Texas (link), and
A short post written from Biscuit & Biscuit while staying at the Domaine de Valmouriane (link).
Update: Biscuit et Biscuit Céramique Café has now moved to Marseille, France (link). I am sure this is a much better location for their shop. Marseille is open year round, is much larger than St. Remy, and has a lot more tourists traffic.
A Site Meter report: [a fun toy for you if you want]
Susie had things going there for a while when we were absent [we got back April 16].
I don't know what happened to her face, she is not around and hasn't called back.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
..............................[Click on picture to enlarge]Our traveling companion, Gene,
...has his Sicily pictures on-line
.............now at his Web site (link).
...They are unedited, but do have
..........locations specified.
Gas [eGad] prices
&
Catching up--I can't
[that reminded me of The Little Engine That Could]
[do you remember that one?]
I'm supposed to be getting our vacation stuff put on here!
But haven't even finished with the mail yet.
.
$5.584 per gallon for diesel
40 plus miles per gallon
w/ a Ford Focus 1.4 liter SUV diesel
[The one we rented in Milan, Italy,
on April 2, 2006. This is it, parked
beside the 2006 Winter Olympic
Stadium in Turin, Italy. Click on
pictures to enlarge them.]
OR
$2.79 per gallon for regular
21 miles per gallon
w/ my '98 4.6 liter Ford Mustang GT
I just did some calculations.
The last time (last Saturday morning) we filled up the little Ford Focus SUV in Milan, Italy, diesel was 1.20 a Euro. It had gone up some, our cheapest was 1.04 Eur in Cavaillon (Provence), France, at an Auchan store. Auchan is the French competitor to WalMart. They closed their last store in Houston a few years back, and the last two in the U.S. in 2003 (link).
At 1.20 Eur for diesel, that is $5.584 per gallon. When we got home last Saturday, diesel was $2.59.
Our car BURNS/GUZZLES--gets about 21 mpg--premium, it is over $3.00 now.
Can't do this in the U.S
with the Ford Focus SUV
Why not, because they don't sell a Ford Focus 1.40 diesel model here. The best is a 2.0 gas model that gets EPA Est MPG: 26 City/34 Highway.
See Houston Gas Prices (link) for out latest here.
&
Catching up--I can't
[that reminded me of The Little Engine That Could]
[do you remember that one?]
I'm supposed to be getting our vacation stuff put on here!
But haven't even finished with the mail yet.
.
$5.584 per gallon for diesel
40 plus miles per gallon
w/ a Ford Focus 1.4 liter SUV diesel
[The one we rented in Milan, Italy,
on April 2, 2006. This is it, parked
beside the 2006 Winter Olympic
Stadium in Turin, Italy. Click on
pictures to enlarge them.]
OR
$2.79 per gallon for regular
21 miles per gallon
w/ my '98 4.6 liter Ford Mustang GT
I just did some calculations.
The last time (last Saturday morning) we filled up the little Ford Focus SUV in Milan, Italy, diesel was 1.20 a Euro. It had gone up some, our cheapest was 1.04 Eur in Cavaillon (Provence), France, at an Auchan store. Auchan is the French competitor to WalMart. They closed their last store in Houston a few years back, and the last two in the U.S. in 2003 (link).
At 1.20 Eur for diesel, that is $5.584 per gallon. When we got home last Saturday, diesel was $2.59.
Our car BURNS/GUZZLES--gets about 21 mpg--premium, it is over $3.00 now.
Can't do this in the U.S
with the Ford Focus SUV
Why not, because they don't sell a Ford Focus 1.40 diesel model here. The best is a 2.0 gas model that gets EPA Est MPG: 26 City/34 Highway.
See Houston Gas Prices (link) for out latest here.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Catching up
[the iceman mail carrier cometh]
.
.
A nice bundle was left at our doorstep and we found it Saturday night when got home around eleven. That's it in the picture, labeled United States Postal Service, and it was full.
.
Yesterday I had an appointment with my cardiologist. I passed with almost flying colors, I might have to double my blood pressure medicine. Have a new prescription but am supposed to monitor at home for a while before filling it. I do get white coat syndrome, we don't want it to be medicated to levels too low.
.
Anyway, after getting back home, I tackled this lovely bundle. Part of it I had organized Sunday night. I even paid the Sprint bill and wrote a check for the electricity that night.
.
But the picture shows my organization. You can guess my priorities.
.
1st row (on the left, starting with the apple)
a. (w/apple) Very important bills, a couple were even a few days late
b. Important--needs response or payment (or Bad/Good news)
c. Montgomery Pet Partner Treasurer stuff
d. Magazines to read in my spare time
.
2nd row
a. Fairly important
b. Must read
c. Neighbor's mail accidently left in the bundle
.
3rd row
a. All junk--have to look for identifier numbers before trashing
b. Mrs. Jim magazines to read in her spare time
c. Sunday paper that didn't get read yet. No, the mail carrier didn't bring it.
.
4th row
a. Mother-in-law's bill. Mrs. Jim will pay this.
b. Mrs. Jim's attention pile
c. Second bunch of junk mail, already in the trash
.
Now I know this is really exciting--remember my other name, Mr. Excitement--but it does show the kids and grandkids how I make order from chaos.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Catching up
[offer to get a classic pedal car]
[also, I fixed the link to the whole ad page]
.
This came by e-mail while we were gone.
Anybody can get me one with no questions asked. My birthday is negotiable, so just when you get the money.
I might get one for my next grandkid, but they are so cute maybe Grandpa needs it instead.
I think your grandkid needs one too! Perhaps you do also!
Go see (link).
MAC's Classic Auto Parts (link)
[offer to get a classic pedal car]
[also, I fixed the link to the whole ad page]
.
This came by e-mail while we were gone.
Anybody can get me one with no questions asked. My birthday is negotiable, so just when you get the money.
I might get one for my next grandkid, but they are so cute maybe Grandpa needs it instead.
I think your grandkid needs one too! Perhaps you do also!
Go see (link).
MAC's Classic Auto Parts (link)
Sunday, April 16, 2006
We are back in Montgomery again
HAPPY EASTER. We will be at our own church for the first time in six weeks. They might think we are visitors. Well not many, we mix in real good here.
It seems really hot here, it didn't hardly get to 70 in Italy, maybe it didn't.
We have pictures, lots, over 2000, and I will be putting some of them on the blog. More about that later.
Susie will continue her episodics on her own blog, Chan's Chats [http://chanschats.blogspot.com/], now. We think Bam Bam is cute. Please keep on telling her not to be whacking him anymore.
HAPPY EASTER. We will be at our own church for the first time in six weeks. They might think we are visitors. Well not many, we mix in real good here.
It seems really hot here, it didn't hardly get to 70 in Italy, maybe it didn't.
We have pictures, lots, over 2000, and I will be putting some of them on the blog. More about that later.
Susie will continue her episodics on her own blog, Chan's Chats [http://chanschats.blogspot.com/], now. We think Bam Bam is cute. Please keep on telling her not to be whacking him anymore.
Adi Can . . . . . . . Adi can meet new friends
[originaly posted April 22, 2006, at 12:14 AM]
.
[you can click on these pictures to enlarge them]
On a recent walk, Adi met this guy.
The fellow was maybe introverted a little bit, he liked to keep to himself.
He finally came out of his shell a little, but never warmed to Adi very much at all.
.
Come to think of it, this guy wasn't exactly the type Adi ran with either.
.
[you can click on these pictures to enlarge them]
On a recent walk, Adi met this guy.
The fellow was maybe introverted a little bit, he liked to keep to himself.
He finally came out of his shell a little, but never warmed to Adi very much at all.
.
Come to think of it, this guy wasn't exactly the type Adi ran with either.
It's June Bug! No, It's April Bug!!
[Originally posted April 21, 2006, at 1:38 AM] . 
[click picture to enlarge] This April bug had a lot of babies. They all came running away when I squashed their mommy. I got most of the babies squashed too. There were two real June bugs (brown) on the porch tonight. They are early, a lot will come in June. So for now, we have mostly April bugs like this one. We will be glad when May comes, our May bugs are rather nice unless one bites somebody. I forgot to add, since this is Texas, our April bugs are larger than elsewhere, unless they emigrated. Do any of you have a few of our Texas April bugs at your place? 
..[click this fellow to enlarge the picture]
[click picture to enlarge] This April bug had a lot of babies. They all came running away when I squashed their mommy. I got most of the babies squashed too. There were two real June bugs (brown) on the porch tonight. They are early, a lot will come in June. So for now, we have mostly April bugs like this one. We will be glad when May comes, our May bugs are rather nice unless one bites somebody. I forgot to add, since this is Texas, our April bugs are larger than elsewhere, unless they emigrated. Do any of you have a few of our Texas April bugs at your place? 
..[click this fellow to enlarge the picture]Labels: June Bug 1
