Cultural Contrasts| Portugal vs. France Through the Eyes of Expats

[@StephenPortugal]

Great episode. Toulouse is on our list to visit. I couldn’t find the video or podcast Josh referred to when choosing not to answer if he could live in Toulouse. Which channel is that on? Thanks.

[@ExpatsEverywherePodcast]

Hi Stephen! Thank you very much. It's coming out tomorrow and we'll get all these episodes connected. Here's the episode on Michael and Cheryl's channel! kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5fMlHl7iLx-n9ksi=fXKNGsyPveSvR8tR - Josh

[@StephenPortugal]

Thanks for the link. They did a nice video on Toulouse. They have some interesting content. I’m glad I caught the podcast.

[@Hdio99]

saw the large video, did like it, by the way I live in the outer Lisbon near Sintra, I born in Lisbon when Portugal was at war in the colonies, in an Military Hospital because ate the time my father was a military oficial fighting in Guiné Bissau, but Castelo Branco was where I lived when I was young untill entered in Lisbon University, my parents still live there, so I can say what is Castelo Branco to me and what is cool, so C.B. is a very small city in the unpopulated interior, the city has not mutch to see, although it is and always has been one of the cleanest cities it has won prizes for that :) its not and important prize you dont go there to see but i mentioned, the people i would say not very interesting, although of course there is history there and nearby. when I was young and living there I used to hate it and dreamed to got out of there, thought the majority of the people where very uninteresting and not very educated, but there is an irony in this 2 things now that I am 53 more and more I love to go there and visit my parents , because first aproaching CB when nearby like 60 kms from it, the landscape is unique, it begins to be more a dry landscape but very peculiar , it beguins to see more rocky landscape and you begin to go up little by little you are entering the "meseta iberica" the biguer planatls where the biguest moutains are in Portugal , so 2 things i like about this the air is better quality and you can feel it, and second there are places very often where the horizon extends so much its like you are almost in a crater, your not but the planalt can show a very far horizon whenever you look, I dont know but that makes me feel alive and allways feel like I am seeying a big chunk of the round planet we live, the other thing is the "beirões" they dominated a lot of the last decades of politics in the country , so some they are very influencial I would say even in the world, some prime ministers where from the "Beira baixa" where CB is the capital, like Socrates the now very controversial older prime minister, and the very weel known Antonio Guterres the UN secretary General, so more influencial there cannot be. Now places to visit in CB, dont miss the " jardim do paço" garden with a lot of king statues, witch has interesting story, the statues where all made of bronze but they where stolen by the french invasion, but after that the statues where rebuilt but in Stone... its just next to the musean witch is nice to see, the city is around a mount and in the top of it there are ruins of a castle that is nice to visit, not much to see but the elevated position lets you see for example the far horizons and have an ideia of the size of the city, from there you can see even Serra da Estrela witch is 90kms far if it has snow you can clear see it. CB along with Beja are the hotest cities in Portugal and in the winter normally it can be very cold when the sun sets, the old Sé is a nice place to see but nothing to out of extraordinary, its a very calm calm city, to see to is the center that from there you can go up a little to the old library plaza (I think the library is not there anymore it moved to a more recent building in the center) this square gives a mood of an very acient town the older town inside the castle walls that you cannot see this walls are there just in small relic place but the feel is the old and very small houses that begin to ascend to the castle mount, I mean its all very near , this plaza is just there the old tower with the watch is located this tower has a big watch and some bells... there very close another thing that must be visited is the "Cargaleiro museam" one of the best ceramic and painter of Portugal, where you see collections of ceramic and the "Bordado" a very caracteristic of making tapestery witch CB is the capital of. So to sum it up the Nature of the place and this few things is what is good about it, its a very big unpopulated area, very rocky and somewhat dry landscape with a lot of some good fluvial beatches and then the near city of covilhã where the Serra the Estrela begins, there are some sites to see in the area of Beira Baixa, like Monsanto the little village where for americans was where some scenes of the very popular HOUSE OF DRAGONS took place beacuse how peculiuar is the place with houses between boulders , and the area of "Idanha a velha" where some Roman sites can be seen" the city of covilha is a bit a mountain city super hilly because its of course the go up Serra de Estrela summit at 2K kms high. and well its about of what I can say of CB area, from the video the way you 2 couples talk and i follow expats everywhere from 3 years ago so I know a bit of your journey, but you are a bit not much but a bit clueless about France, I mean France is just a superb country has is Spain and a bit Portugal to, but France and Spain are in another scale because they are mutch biguer and they are much ritcher economicaly , but France is the most visited country touristically on earth by interest, so they have almost everywhere good places to visit, they have a lot but I mean a lot of culture, art and scenary to visit, a lot of organized events , very well preserved historic sites, I can even say, Spain and France culturaly are unmatched anywhere you go on the planet, just study history and the influence they had, and they have the means to preserve and deliver places to see, I am not talking of the tourist masses , the ignorant people that go just where is movement, I mean take a car and go explore and its a marvel add italy and a bit of Portugal and you can spend and entire life and never everything is seen... the big central Europe where the higher knoledge can be touched and seen is to very outstanding, I talk about Germany, Austria, Check republic, belgium, well Europe is unmatched and americans kind of know that !!!! keep videos comming