Well today is going to be a short one. We woke up early after a night of steady rain. We wanted to get on the road pretty early as we were paying for a hotel room we were not using in Ajaccio.
The drive over from Porto Vecchio to Ajaccio was only 150 kilometers, but I noticed that google had it pegged at 2 hours and 40 minutes, and they base it on driving a car at the speed limit. I told Ton it looked like it was going to be a tough drive thru the mountains. The roads themselves were in good shape but it was mountain driving with multiple switchbacks and steep slopes that frequently had me down to 3rd gear. On top of that it was raining most of the way, so we took about 3 and a half hours to cover the distance. Our first impression is that Corsica is much more rugged than Sardinia was.
Next to our hotel is a Buffalo Grill. This restaurant chain is very popular in France. We have seen them in almost every large town and city here and I have told Ton we should try it to get the French take on an American steakhouse. While we were eating Ton googled the company and found out there are over 300 Buffalo Grills in France, plus a few in Spain and Switzerland. I had a hamburger and Ton had a pepper steak and we were both pleased. It is a lot like a Sizzler or a Applebees, but red wine costs the same as a coke.
One of the stereotypes of the French is that they hate all things American. But, our personal observations are different than that. We see more American themed things here than in any other country in Europe. In addition to the Buffalo Grill, there are more McDonalds, Burger Kinds and KFC’s in France than any other country in Europe, so while they might not like the best of American food, they don’t seem to have any problem embracing some parts of our food culture. Several times we have come across clubs of French with vintage US cars, police cars, or military equipment, with some of the club members even dressed as American police officers or soldiers. I mention this because we do not see the amount of Americana in other countries as we do in France. Except McDonalds, they are everywhere.
I think some of the issue is that the French are just not very good English speakers, just as we are not very good French speakers. Because of that the communication breaks down. When you can break thru the language barriers the French are just as charming as any other people we have met in Europe. It just tends to be harder than with other European to break thru the language barrier.