Houston we have a problem…

Living in Europe, one gets quite used to small. Estate agents call it quaint or charming, when really all it means is cramped. What with little apartments, little cars and narrow roads, one forgets what space feels like. So, you can imagine the non culture shock of a trip to Texas.

The Lone Star State: big, huge, open, sprawling. There is one thing they aren’t short of, and that’s land. Another thing in plentiful supply is gas. No, I don’t mean from the black beans I mean gas for the trucks. No, not trucks like 18 wheelers, I mean trucks for you, your woman, lil'uns and shopping bags. I have no idea why the Europeans are worried about the emissions from their little 1.4 diesels, and giving green incentives etc…. The US of A must be home of global warming, you can almost feel the desert forming behind the monstrous 5.4 gas slurping pick up trucks as they make their way across Texas, probably about 5 Frances worth of expanse. Everyone is whinging about the all-time high gas price; three and a halfish dollars a gallon. Yeah right, you get no sympathy here, how about scraping your trucks and buying a normal car?

A new theory; humans fill what space is available. I don’t mean spread out either. You see, Paris is cramped, little cute roads small shops and elbow bumping restaurants. Houston is huge, just keeps going, 6 lane highways with four lane service roads, front yards, back yards, shopping malls and trucks. Just like each of the cities; the French are thin and Americans are huge. I guess it doesn’t help having food everywhere. Every company we visited had a food preoccupation, and no ways do you have a meeting without first feeding your face.

What a stark contrast, but something about the states works. People are open and friendly, if you would like to consume it you can find it, and wait for it… clients actually get service, now that’s something the French could try.

If you are looking for charm you may as well give Texas a skip, but if you want some great food, and lots of it, big cars and don’t care about global warming then you can find your headquarters in Houston.

Just up the road, only a dirt cheap tank of fuel away, is Austin. Now here you find charm. Small enough to understand and big enough to have everything, what a great town.





















View of Austin from the Capitol.





















A view of Texas from the capitol.





















And, a view of the capitol itself. Another version of the same can be seen at my flickr page.

Wishing you dirt cheap fuel and great fajitas.