Cool things that people do in France - post 1

Here are some photos we took..

 

 

Weird walkers in Toulouse

medieval pinball

Salvador Dali on a carousel

 

 

Perpignan medieval black bloc

Medieval musicians

swordplay..

In France

Tonight I've spent a couple of hours talking with people about life and politics in Toronto, watching YouTube videos about the Occupation of Wall Street, the killing of Troy Davis and the amazing Stop the Cuts campaigns going on in Toronto and I've been momentarily distracted from our life here... Here in the tower in France. We went away this weekend - down the mountains to Perpignan - the closest city.

Basically because the tower is so remote that if we want to go anywhere its kind of a major endeavour. There are two buses a day, and only one on Sunday. So we wanted to go to the Medieval festival in Perpignan this weekend. We could either take the bus for an hour and forty five minutes in the morning yesterday, stay for an hour and a half, and then take the bus back, or stay overnight. So we stayed overnight and took the bus back this afternoon.

So we locked up the shutters of the tower.. seen below..

and left the town..

and headed down to Perpignan.
Perpignan is not the most glamourous of French cities, but has its charms. We stayed in the Hotel Mediterranean in a family room - a bit smokey, but do-able. We showed up early for the opening procession of the Medieval festival and it was nowhere to be found. So we went out for lunch and found an amazing place highlighting local wine, and we had the fixed price menu - gazpacho soup, bread with tuna and tomato sauce, bread with anchovies and mushrooms, and bread with jam and cheese plus a glass of wine for 5.5 Euro, which is about 8 bucks. Amazing. Then we went and found the medieval games area. There were all sorts of games that involved throwing rings on sticks, knocking down balls with pins, throwing coins in holes and then some strategic games that we weren't committed enough for. Super-bon. Then the march arrived. Interestingly the march was led by knights, crusaders, but then followed up by the Moors. They were a marching band, all dressed in black tunics with stars and crescents on them, with black cloths covering their faces. They were fierce and included most of the participants between 20 and 40 and all the people of colour. Interesting. - its hip to be a moor these days. Perhaps it always was. I don't know enough of the history - except the obvious stuff. Anyway. After the moors did fire breathing and the ladies and lords did their formal dancing, we walked through town to go to the Sirocco festival - which was promoted as a festival of 'nomadic, North African culture'. Given the large Moroccan and Algerian presence in the city, I was intrigued. But it was poorly attended, and attended by white folks largely involved in various anti-racist, and ethical consumerist movements. It was in an the Palais de Roi de Majorca  which was impressive but the performances  partly because the spotty rain meant that the main stage performers didn't perform and instead we watched skits which we couldn't quite grasp the meaning of other than that racism was bad.
Today, we took transit out to a box mall, and following a bunch of teenage goth kids, found the main area for the medieval festival. There we saw people show off with falcons, and bash each other around the head while wearing armour in the hot sun. Pretty entertaining.
Now we're back in our tower.all is well. good night! xo
A couple of other pics for you!

The town's main industry is the making of sandals. thus, the giant metal sandal.

Canoe trip...

This is being posted much belatedly, Mac, Sidney, Shannon, Lucky and my replacement Lenny went canoeing on the Spanish River in August. I was to busy with worky stress. But they had a good time. The coolest part (to me) is that the train leaves you whereever you want. Whistle stop-o-rama. It was a five day trip. Fun was apparently had. Here are the pics.

On their way

say no more..

all clean...

put the canoe on the train? seriously?

lenny at work

white water

why aren't the kids paddling?

they're tough.

Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans

We made it to our tower. And it exists. And it doesn't seem to be haunted. I'm delighted.

After meeting Mac and Sidney and spending a couple of nights in Toulouse - visiting the Cite d'Espace (Space City!), and having nightmares that our tower was horrendous, we took the train to Perpignan. On the way, skimming close to the Mediterranean on our TGV train, we saw flamingos. Totally bizarre. We waited in Perpignan for our bus. Mac in particular was exhausted from jet-lag as we drifted from spot to spot, alternating strong cofffee and cheap red wine. Finally at 5 pm we took the daily bus to our town. Its a fairly long ride to St. Laurent - about an hour and three quarters. We gradually dispersed people in villages as we climbed up into the mountains. Up and up and up, along twisty turny roads, with gorges on one side and cliffs up on the other. Finally we're here. The tower is large, on the top of the hilly town. 16th century, beside the church and the Town Hall. Everything was closed it was Sunday. Things were still closed on Monday. But today, Tuesday they've opened up. We're finding our way. The sky is blue. Sidney took his first gymnastics class. And I'm getting into work. more later with pics to come.
xo

toronto

coming back home is bitter sweet:

• time with my family is the best. My mother had just been put in a home (which is a good thing, she has advanced Alzheimers and it is getting to be too much for my dad to take care of her, plus it's a good home run by the sally ann called arthur meighan). As a result I really prioritized family. The time with my dad was really precious, and seeing my sisters, my brother in law and the various nieces and nephews is always awesome. as well, sid became closer to his cousin abby and it was great to see that he is very excited to see her, As always, he considers his other cousin jack his best friend (or sometimes his brother) and as a result they hung out together alot
• I got to see the wonderful movement our great organizers are building with (no surprise) people from OCAP and NOII, DAMN and EJ! toronto at the forefront. The mass meeting about the rod ford cuts was awesome (though we did have one a--hole with a "f--k CUPE" tshirt, however it was fun kicking him out). Seeing everyone working so well together to build a diverse and radical coalition was very inspiring, and i think it is quite possible that an anti-capitalist coalition will be at the forefront of kicking him out of his ill-gotten position. Of particular note, the daycare group is so cool! I look forward to seeing a--hole ford's reaction to a daycare opening in his office one day!
• seeing the folks dealing with court matters right now was also great, such a lovely group of people
• spending time with friends is so lovely, seeing ro and linds, karen, jenny, kelly, the lovely ms vance, hussan, leah, mandy, graeme, jo and terrance, and so many others makes me so happy!

on the downside:

• it's an ugly city (though there are beautiful parts - i was stoked to go to the island) it is quite a shock to come out of the bush (back from the lovely maynooth party)

• the fear: the fear for people going through court; the fear for people who will lose their jobs, their daycare spaces, their services, their subsidies when ford's cuts screw us all; the fear that this winter will see more homeless deaths than ever before; the fears endemic to this time of austerity
• burnout - a few organizers are working so hard, i feel terrible not being there to help (though to be honest they don't really seem to need it in terms of skills) and hope that all my friends and fellow organizers remember that we need to still be standing in ten years to see this rev through and hence take time to have fun (i am sorry this is a little preachy if it pisses you off, that's probably pretty fair)

anyho, i miss you all and love you all and look forward to fighting alongside you, living alongside you, being in a family with you all for the next many years to come, and of course, winning our fight!

rolling on the river

I am now in france but feel that i ought to write about one of the best trips of the summer (though unfortunately without lesley) - our five day canoe trip on the spanish river

the spanish got it's name through the intelligence of our wonderful european explorers who made the first steps towards the eventual theft of the area. upon arriving at this beautiful river, they came across first nations people (Ojidway) some of whom spoke a bit of spanish. It turned out that they had captured some spanish children during a raid in the south and adopted them into the nation, and hence some spanish had snuck into usage in their nation. i don't know if this is correct, but it was what the canoe route map said, and they don't lie do they?

prior to europeans taking the river over for log drives, the Ojibway used it as a trade route to the james bay area, since just north of the source of the spanish  the rivers run north to james bay

anyho, onto the trip. I went with my lovely close buddies shannon and lenny along with  sid and his best friend the unstoppable lucky! we drove upto fox lake resort and stayed two nights in a cabin aptly entitled the "foxden" for us foxes! We drank beer, sat in the wood heated hot tub (with a wood stove sunk right into it), swam and fished unsuccessfully

on the tuesday morning, we woke unciviledly early (7am!), picked out a canoe (shannon had brought her own lovely kevlar canoe) and loaded the canoes onto a trailer and ourselves into two vans. I rode with a bunch of nice folks from cleveland who had been tripping together for years

we unloaded at a train station next to a village consisting of one store and some homes. Fortunately the store was also an LCBO outlet as our beer supplies were dangerously low

only forty five minutes late, a two car VIA train pulled up. One passenger car and a special baggage car. Into the baggage car we loaded our canoes - then a dude put two racks up to the door (which is a good metre or so off the ground) and drove an ATV up the forty five degree angle and into the car! the train, which goes every two days, is the only route for people canoeing the river along with many cottagers along the river. it is a flag stop train and stops whenever someone flags it down

off we went! Along the way the train dropped the gent with the ATV and his five generators (?) and a gent who lives alone in the bush in a shack. We chatted with a cottage who lives on Biscoti lake at the upper end of the spanish. He travels by train into sudbury once a week for a poker game and lives the summers in florida (i think). He offered to give us a lift in his pontoon boat if we ever decide to do the whole river starting in his lake


The train dropped us at the forks - a spot where the two upper branches of the river meet to form the main river. Fortunately it also dropped our gear and canoes.

Almost immediately we hit rapids, at this point with the low august river, they were mostly bump and scrape - nothing too serious. However, it was lenny's first rapids, and also the boys who on previous trips had portaged around rapids (and in sid's case broken into tears when he watched us go down them). I am proud to say, partially due to lucky's intense love of adventure, the boys did every set of rapids  on this trip.

the first night we camped at a lovely spot, and lenny caught a fish! he gutted it (with some tears) and we had it for dinner, a lovely bass (we finally used my fishing license! it is now in the hands of kelly, and i hope she has better luck with it!)

Lenny was great as always with the kids and he put up very well with shannon and my habit of making all our decisions together without consultation. Hey lenny, it's not our fault that shannon and i share one brain between us!

The boys were delightful - each night they played together with their pokemon (one night they feed them all popcorn on a hill and were quite excited the next morning when the popcorn was gone) and actually paddled during the day.

the camping was mostly excellent, however, the second night we were parked right next to the railway. It is one of the main cross canada lines and we were woken by trains every two hours. The trains are big, so big that they have two engines at the front and a third in the middle! this night there was a siding above us, which had the VIA parked in it, and a third siding with a weird yellow device labelled a derailer! if anyone can tell me why they would purposely derail a train, i'd loive to know. we were only about twenty metres from this siding so i am glad it was not put to use while we were there!

the third night we camped on an island, which delighted the boys who immediately named it "lego pokemon pirate island" (see the song later in this post) however, it was also near a swamp and there were lots of bugs. The fourth night was the best, an algonquin style campsite on a rocky point with a breeze, we jumped off the rocks and into the water (thanks to lenny's keen sense of safety i actually scouted before jumping)

the food was excellent, with lenny having dried a bunch of veggies and having made a lovely pesto. My favourite was his jerky, homemade from Gasparro steaks with bourbon in it!

we saw some wildlife despite the boys doing their best to scare it off, a lot of herons, a bald eagle and a river otter. sidney swears he heard wolves - the boy has some strange commune with animals, so i believe him!

the river was awesome, the third day we hit a head wind which made paddling intense, but also throughout this day and the next two we began to hit real serious water, with some standing waves and small haystacks. This, in my opinion, was actually easier to navigate than the earlier, since the standing waves carried us over most rocks. However, it was much more exciting as our speed increased, and as when we hit the standing waves we would jump a bit into the air. Needless to say the boys loved it. They also learned a new word as i found out when we were about to go down one of these and they both turned to me and said "oh s--t" we have since talked about the appropriateness of such language

as always shannon was brilliant, tough as nails, liable to break into her wonderful laugh (mostly at me) able to do almost anything, easy going and quick at figuring out the rapids (though it did turn out that lucky is actually the best of all of us at spotting the right route - he second guessed me many times and turned out to be right)

lenny was awesome also, not only for putting up with us, but for his silliness, his toughness, his camping skills (he can light a fire anywhere!), his wonderful food, his mp3 player (all canoe trippers snear, we did listen to recorded music in the canoes!) his great abilities with the kids, his strength and his willingness to paddle ten hours (shannon and i usually give up after six) he also gave me an excuse to sleep in every morning since he likes a good long sleep as well

all in all, it was a brilliant trip. We only had rain once, and though I was unable to dry out sidney's sweatshirt until toronto, it was so warm that he didn't need it. The river is fantastic, and despite it's popularity we only saw one other canoe and three people who walked out of the bush, watched us swim naked and then turned around and walked back in

i leave you with our song:

Lego Pokemon! Pirate Island!
Lego Pokemon, Pirate Island two!

there was a wonderful canoer, lenny is his name
and when he's not in a canoe, dancing is his game
he dances on the river, in the white water he spins!
and when we come out of the rapids alive this is what he sings:


Lego Pokemon! Pirate Island!
Lego Pokemon, Pirate Island two!

 There was a woman in the stern her name is shannon green
she dodges the big rocks, best stern i've ever seen
when she gets to the camp site she drinks a lot of beer
then she starts to sing, this is what i hear:

Lego Pokemon! Pirate Island!
Lego Pokemon, Pirate Island two!

there's a little guy with a paddle, his name is sid
he likes to take of pokemon, he is a great kid
he talks to the wolves, a wilderness person's dream
and when he wakes up in the morning this is what he screams:

Lego Pokemon! Pirate Island!
Lego Pokemon, Pirate Island two!

my favourite little canoeist goes by the name of lucky
he's quite a little adventurer, you can even say he's plucky
he points out the routes in the rapids, really knows his river
and then he screams out this song, his words make me quiver:

Lego Pokemon! Pirate Island!
Lego Pokemon, Pirate Island two!

my love to my four adventurers!

pictures soon to follow

Too-lost and Toulouse.

I don’t know whether to admit how much of a disaster this day was. But I know you, dear readers, sort of love the stories of disaster. So here I go. Of course all is well that ends well – keep that in mind. 

I had been in Geneva for a week – missing my lads and all that. After the sociologists left, I knuckled down to do some work – found free internet at the university and got some reading and writing done. I was awaiting my friend Marc’s return to Geneva and staying in his wonderful apartment.  During the week, I had a fantastic fondue, and learned the various rules around it from Marc’s lovely ex Claire (no water, only white wine).  

Once Marc and his girlfriend Leela arrived home, I decamped for the youth hostel. It was good – and cheap – at least in the dorm that I was in – about 36 bucks a night including breakfast. My room had four in it. On Friday I knew I'd had to get up early. I had to catch a train at 7:30 am to Toulouse to meet Mac and Sidney the following day. I also knew I had to be somewhere at 4 pm where I could run a two hour conference call to examine someone’s Master’s degree.  I was planning to be at a hotel in Toulouse.

So I needed an alarm clock. I bought one – a cute one that had dogs on it and was supposed to bark like a dog. Butt the trouble was, it sounded like attack dogs and seemed only to stop when I yanked the batteries out. There were no volume controls. So I thought to myself. I can’t do this to the three people sharing my room. After all, I always wake up when the sunrises, at least  briefly. I’ll be fine. And so I went to sleep last night, after a lovely meal with Marc, his girlfriend and roommate. It was reasonably early so I thought I’d arise at 6ish. 

But of course I didn’t. I woke at 7 am – with a 7:28 am train to catch. I grabbed my stuff and ran to the train station, backpack bumping –  sweaty. I get there by 7:20, and try to find the kiosk where I’m to print off my boarding pass. Not a chance. I’m trying to weave through crowds, I find a kiosk, but there’s no option for Toulouse. I get to the ticket seller place and there’s a line. I’m basically crying/complaining/swearing and beginning to make a scene – and my French is getting worse. Someone tells me that you can pay on the train. I’m desperate so I just run for it. But of course I’ve missed the train.  Taking pity on me, the French customs guy tells me that RailEurope tickets are picked up in another building. I thank him shakily and head over there. Of course that building isn’t open until 8:30, but there is a small sign telling me about an office somewhere in building number one where I can pick up the tickets. Whatever. I’ve missed my train. 

I go to Starbucks (argh – even worse in a land of amazing local cafes) because there’s free wifi with expensive  coffee. I need a plan B. I check the train schedule. The only other train today leaves at 2 pm, missing my conference call – which I can’t do. Its taken months to schedule the exam.. What to do? Then I remember that people here keep telling me that flying is cheaper than train travel. My eco-sense is horrified, but I check the prices. Indeed, I can fly to Toulouse for less than 200 bucks. And get there in 90 minutes. I’m in. I book a flight. If I didn’t have the money  and a credit card, I’d be out of luck. I return to the now open RailEurope.  They tell me that I can get a partial refund on the train tickets I had paid for. Good. Off I go.

I fly to Toulouse, all is well. I take the bus from the Airport into town and get off the bus when I realize I’m near my hotel. I leave my laptop computer on the bus. I realize this as its pulling away. The driver doesn’t notice me flailing along behind him. I run, sweaty again, to the Gare Centrale. There, a cluster of military looking cops direct me to the right area of the station. The bus is there, so is my laptop and I again, shakily, sit down and try to stop sweating. It’s really hot here. I now have 90 minutes before I have to chair this oral defense via teleconference. I get to the hotel, (small, good, red-light district). I  check in and wait. I realize I should get online to see if anything has changed and realize that my computer battery is dead. I need to charge it, but the adapter that worked in Switzerland doesn’t work here. Shit. I head out and find a shop and buy one. The new one makes my computer flash with weird surges and my computer doesn’t really charge – at least not quickly. Finally, ten minutes late the call comes, the student passes, and all is well.

What a day! I’m exhausted but so excited to see Sidney and Mac tomorrow morning. They’re probably in the air now. We’ve been apart too much – what with Vegas, the canoe trip and Geneva. I want them with me to start the next chapter of our adventure.

BTW – Toulouse is full of tourists, but is incredibly pretty. Windy streets with signs in Spanish and French.  Red coloured stone. I need to learn more about the history here. I bet its interesting. But a demain, a demain.  

And yes, I would lose my head if it weren’t screwed on…

Geneve

Here I am in Uni Mail, the university building where I'm attending the European Sociological Association conference in Geneva. I've walked over from my friend Marc's apartment - sneaking out early so as not to agitate his shy room-mate. "Its gloriously European here", I think to myself in a North American manner. I walked past gorgeous churches that had been turned into theatres, shops with mysterious opening hours, boulangeries and patisseries. The sky is blue, people are riding bikes and I'm oh-so-pleased to be here. I'm also fully aware that I'm not from here. Last time I was in Geneva was probably 1988 - visiting my parents friends the Wanners. I was twenty one years old and on my grand European rail adventure. At that time, I was really open about where I might make my life. I had European citizenship of course, and so identified as British or Irish from time to time. I wanted to be European because it somehow seemed so much  cooler than being Canadian - especially given the waves of Canadian backpackers roaming around. I wanted to fit in. Anyway, twenty-three years later - I think that die has been cast - at least for the present. Other than two years in the UK, six months in Europe and eight months in Africa, I've lived my life thus far largely in Canada or the US. I have to accept all that baggage cause its made me who I am. Nonetheless - I'm happy to try not to look like a total doofus here. To try to avoid too many errors. I'm still hesitating about speaking french though. French is the main language, but the conference, weirdly, is all in english. This is particularly odd given that probably only 10% of the attendees speak English as a first language. Instead, people speak it as their third or fourth language. But I suppose its the lingua franca and I get to benefit from that. But I will. I will. Try to speak french as I roam about. I know however its meant that I've avoided doing some tasks like finding a laundrymat - 'lavanderie?' and figuring out how to get a pay-as-you-go phone. But in time. yes, in time.

The conference is interesting - especially because I was at the American Sociological Association in Las Vegas so recently. I'll try to do a bit of comparison...

ASA Theme - Conflict


ESA Theme - Turbulence

Similarities
- Best sessions in both have been about how to understand the Arab uprisings, coalition building, violence, and globalization.
- a lot of status games. People trying to impress each other. But this is more so at ASA than ESA

Differences
- Size and participation - ASA is bigger, in a hotel rather than on campus, and has a higher faculty/student ratio than ESA. Its far more junior people here.
- French theory rather than statistical correlations. Obvious difference.
- ESA had a dance last night (although it was in the foyer of a university building). People danced. Although I did go to a great dance party run by NYU in one of the casino clubs in Vegas, ASA never holds dances.
- Performance artists! - At every break in the programme, there are performance artists in the foyer at ESA. This doesn't happen at ASA. Two days ago - during one session on the Arab uprisings, one fellow, topless in a tutu walked into the lecture hall with the intention of making a scene. He was escorted out by police. It was bizarre.
- books - there are fewer book displays at ESA. Boo. It seems academic publishers are in crisis and are relying more and more on the interweb.

Anyway, that was probably not that exciting for most of you. But that's been my life in Europe so far. Oh yes, that and kebab huts. As I've been eating alone in the evenings, I don't really want to spend money in restaurants. There is basically no fast food (other than McD's which I don't do). So I've been eating a lot of falafels. They're pretty good and come with a creamy dill sauce. But they don't use pita bread - they use a roll, which is too heavy for my liking.
later gators...
xo

on the road again..

Since I last posted, I went to Vancouver, the American Sociological Association's conference in Las Vegas, Toronto as home, and Maynooth Ontario for the Loggers Games. Now I'm mildly dizzy in Geneva Switzerland. I'm ready to begin processing my travels again. So watch out!