The weather turned chilly again this week, but I don't think the morning temperatures have been low enough to damage the new growth on the grape vines. I took these photos of new growth on the vines last week but have just got around to examining them.
The dry, sunny weather has encouraged me to take my camera with me on walks with Tasha. I've always enjoyed taking close-up (macro) shots with my cameras. The Sony model I'm using is 7 or 8 years old — I bought it used and refurbished.
My second stop was at the pharmacy to get my regular medications. All the clerks were wearing masks, but not wearing gloves. The man who filled my prescriptions picked up my health insurance card with a tissue, being careful not to touch it, and inserted it in the card reader. When he was done, he pushed the reader toward me and asked me to take the card out myself out so that mine was the only hand that came into contact with it. I paid with my bank card using a method that's called a sans contact transaction.
My last stop was a the bakery to get some fresh bread. I got several baguettes and other loaves for a total of just over five euros. Again, I paid using the sans contact method. I mentioned to the boulangère how practical the no-touch payment method has turned out to be, given the current medical crisis. She said she thought people were going to be doing sans contact payments a lot more in the future than ever before — before now, many people thought it wasn't secure and insisted on entering their PIN. Sans contact will be part of our new normal. Do they use that payment method in the U.S.?
My kids can hold up their phones and they have apple money with which to pay. I have to confess I don't completely understand this...
ReplyDeleteOur National Park Farmers Market, after a disastrous beginning, seems to have figured things out. Last Saturday all our orders were able to be picked up in just a few minutes. Today we got to order again for next week. They haven't added the dairy and cheese vendors in yet but we get excellent meat, bread, fruit and vegetables. My oldest daughter picks it up for me. We pay online.
I pay for my groceries on line too, but there's the option to pay at pickup as well.
DeleteWhen I was in France last summer I saw several people use thar form or payment. I have never seen it in NoVa.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember seeing sans contact payments in North Carolina either.
DeleteGreat pictures. I only use my phone, and while the pictures seem great, it's the close ups where they really have shortcomings. Your close ups are so crystal clear.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if your pharmacy was out of gloves? They are quite hard to find here and washing them doesn't always seem to work.
As someone mentioned Apple Pay was the first system in the US, Google has a similar option. Contactless cards are just coming out in the USA, American Express has started issuing them as replacements, they use the same readers as Apple and Google pay.
ReplyDelete‘several baguettes and other loaves for a total of just over five euros.’ Wow! I have to pay almost $5 for one loaf of decent bread.
ReplyDeleteI got three Rétro d'or baguettes, a small pain de campagne, and a boule blanche for €5.40. That's a week's worth of bread for the two of us.
DeleteWe have become cashless. It seems absurd to pay $3.50 for coffee on a card, but that is what we are doing.
ReplyDeleteJust for clarity, $3.50 Aus. is the equivalent of $2.20 U.S., or €2.02 (euros). Doesn't seem outrageous for a good cup of coffee these days.
DeleteI have a Capital One card that is contactless. It has a wifi fan on it. I can also pay with my iWatch without contact, but I'm not good at doing that yet and now I don't go in stores at all. Most stores can't do contactless here yet, but many drugstores do it now.
ReplyDeleteMany (most?) paying machines in the US seem to have a contactless payment capability, but I don't know how often it's used. None of my cards have it, and I'm not even sure how to get it. But when I've visited Canada, many of my relatives seem to have it.
ReplyDeleteI had new cards issued to me that contained the needed chip for that, but I've never paid that way.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to think of you two enjoying a nice, grilled steak out on the terrasse. I'm glad you got your shopping out of the way.
I should try using my USA-issued Visa card for a sans contact transaction here. It probably won't work, but it's worth a try. It has a chip and a PIN, but normally it requires my signature here to validate a transaction — in a restaurant or at the supermarket, for example. Only at the Super U gas pumps will it take the PIN.
DeleteOh, and at ATM machines too.
DeleteI first used my Visa as contactless at Costco and now everywhere here in Oregon. I'm just finishing the latest Alan Furst book: Under Occupation. Two of the Resistance go to an expensive Paris restaurant and order the steak/frites because it was each of their favorite meals! Enjoy yours!
ReplyDeleteOooh, is there a new Alan Furst book? Good news, indeed. Thanks.
DeleteI was only introduced to Furst last year! I figured this group of readers must have a few fans of many books that take place in France! This is set up a little differently. Fast reading that divides the book up into really 3 small stories that are still interconnected! Another book that adds to my historical knowledge of France/Paris during the Resistance! Enjoy Emm. This was a loaner from a friend when I dropped off 2 masks for her and her husband that I had sewn. She is an avid Francophile and is in my french class!
DeleteI read some of Furst's books years ago. But I just didn't like this one. I got part way through it then put it down. Now for novels that take place in Frace, I'd recommend anything by M.L. Longworth (Aix en Provence), and The Lost of Carousel of Provence by Juliet Blackwell.
DeleteMerci for the suggestions, Bob! I am making a note of these new authors and when the library opens, maybe I can find them! I read several interesting books recently about the resistance: The Alice Network and also The Huntress by Kate Quinn!
DeleteThanks for the recommendations Mary. I know I have The Alice Network on a list for future reading, but I'm not familiar with the other. I'll have to check it out. Years ago I read a book by a woman who was one of the key Resistance leaders, but I forget her name and the book's name. As to M.L. Longworth, it's best if you start at the beginning of the series. For Juliet Blackwell, it doesn't matter. And I put an extra "of" in the title; it's The Lost Carousel of Provence.
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