visit with a french doctor

before anyone gets concerned, i didn't go see a french doctor - a student on the trip did, and gerard and i had to go along with her. it was quite different from visiting an american doctor, so i thought i'd tell you about it.

to visit a french doctor:
1. call to see if they are open. no one answers. go to his office anyway.
2. walk 15 minutes to a doctor's office. ring bell. get let in.
3. go sit in an unairconditoned waiting room for an hour. there is no place to sign in, and you don't have to make an appointment. you just show up.
4. the doctor comes out to the waiting room to get the next people in line - us. he walks us to his office. he talks to the girl in fluent english (she needed a note that said she was under "mental stress" so she could change her flight for free to go home early - which was successful, and she left this morning. more on that later - this has been our drama for the past week...). he writes a note.
5. during this talk, the phone rings. he answers it, and makes an appointment for the person on the phone in a little paper appointment book on his desk.
6. when we are done talking, he says it will be 21 euro (less than 30 dollars) to see him. i am thinking to myself, "i have insurance and my co-pay is $30. we are foreigners without european insurance and the bill is less than $30. this is crazy/wonderful." he apologizes for us having to pay, and gives us a form to file with her insurance back in the US so she can get reimbursed. reimbursed for 21 euro. i don't even think it's worth the effort...
7. he shows us out the door. i think he was the only person working in the whole doctor's office. no nurses, no receptionists, no people who work in billing. just him.

in other news, france continues to be wonderful. yesterday we took a bus to eze village, about 30 minutes away. eze was a medieval village that has now expanded, and is a popular stop for tourist buses that are driving along the coast of france. the (super) old village is on a hill leading up to a church and cemetary at the top. all of the old houses, built out of stone into the mountain, are now shops and restaurants and very fancy hotels, and the streets are about as wide as three or four people - so no cars are allowed up in the old village part. really beautiful view from the top - gerard and i stopped and had tea at a little restaurant where we could see the view. this is the nice thing about france and the slow pace (and traveling with an older native frenchman) - we take a break in the morning for tea and a break in the afternoon for limonade (like sprite) or a diabolo menthe (limonade + mint syrup - so good). it isn't go-go-go all the time...there is a lot of sitting and enjoying just being in france.

in eze we also went to a perfume factory and learned about how they make perfume, and then of course were enticed into buying the perfume that they make. did you know that it takes 1 ton of roses to produce 1 liter of rose essence to be used in perfume? well, now you do.

funny moment of the day: when we first got to nice, gerard pointed out a building labelled "casino," and said "claire, there is the casino - how convenient - right near the apartment where you are staying!" i didn't exactly know how to respond to that - do i look like a compulsive gambler? so i think i just laughed awkwardly. i found out yesterday that "casino" is the name of a chain of supermarkets. i feel like an idiot.