W & S Francom Family: Vinon and ITER

Vinon sur Verdon is another small French town about 8 km southwest of Greoux. Every time we came from or went to Aix, or went to Mike's work, or went to the Carrefour supermarket, we wound through the narrow streets of Vinon. M & M lived there before they moved to Greoux.

The first time we went through Vinon was on the way to Greoux from the airport. We stopped at a lovely boulangerie/sandwich shop in town to buy some baguettes on the way home. Mike ordered the bread and some treats then discovered that he had left his money out in the car. Our helper spoke no English, but she found it humorous that while Mike went to the car, Wayne whipped out his VISA and paid the bill with no problem.

We drove by the town park with many tall trees but no grass--only dirt or gravel. Every time we passed it, no matter what time of day, there were men playing Petanque in the park. I never saw any women playing. Perhaps they are not allowed or have better things to do. The goal is to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball while standing inside a circle with both feet on the ground. It is similar to Bocce.

The Carrefour supermarket in Vinon was very nice. It seemed odd to find it on the outskirts of an old French town. It was similar to a Harmon's supermarket here and we found that VISA worked very well there too. It even had a gas station and loyalty card program.

Just a few km southwest of Vinon on 180 hectares of land donated by France, is the ITER project. China, Japan, Russia, Korea, India, United States and the European Union are collaborating on this global energy project. Mike works for the project in their finance department and was able to get us a tour. It was fascinating. Probably the best place to find out more about ITER, its history, its project and the science, is on its website at : www.iter.org