Completely by accident, we found ourselves in Salon de Provence on the weekend of their big Renaissance Faire. This was a grand affair that took over the entire city and featured the participation of many in the city. It went on for three days, two of which had huge parades on the main street in town.
In addition to a play put on by the local fencing club, shown here, there were a number of roaming musical groups, one with a fantastic bent, and wide array of booths showing everything from stone carving to fabric dying to blacksmithing.
We were there for one of the parade nights. In addition to officially selected/appointed characters like the Queen (this event commemorates the visit of the real Queen in the 1600's or so), and the organized participation of local groups (fencing club, dance groups, equestrian groups, etc) it seemed like anyone who wanted could join the "townsfolk" part of the parade. We had wanted to leave before it began because we were all tired, but the parade assembly blocked the parking garage and we couldn't get the car out anyway.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Modern markets and ancient water
On our first morning in Provence, we dove right into a wide variety of experiences. About 1 block away from our apartment was a huge market full of fresh produce and freshly made baked goods, sausages and cheeses. There were also some vendors selling arts, crafts, antiques, books and mass produced crap from all over the world. I was struck by the color of the spices at one table, probably all grown here.
We then hopped in the car to find an old Roman aqueduct (the Aqueduct of Roquefavour). We arrived quickly but could not find any obvious place to climb or even learn more about it. We stopped at a little hotel and asked, but it seemed like the locals took it for granted and really didn't see much purpose in visiting it. After a (stereotypical) lunch of baguette, cheese, duck sausage, fresh tomatoes, red wine, etc, (all bought at the market that morning) beside a little stream where we skipped rocks, we found our way to the nearly hidden staircase and began our climb. It was only after reaching the top that we found the sign that said to beware of rock slides.
Upon returning to the car, we played GPS roulette and ended up on our way to Salon de Provence for a surprise.
We then hopped in the car to find an old Roman aqueduct (the Aqueduct of Roquefavour). We arrived quickly but could not find any obvious place to climb or even learn more about it. We stopped at a little hotel and asked, but it seemed like the locals took it for granted and really didn't see much purpose in visiting it. After a (stereotypical) lunch of baguette, cheese, duck sausage, fresh tomatoes, red wine, etc, (all bought at the market that morning) beside a little stream where we skipped rocks, we found our way to the nearly hidden staircase and began our climb. It was only after reaching the top that we found the sign that said to beware of rock slides.
Upon returning to the car, we played GPS roulette and ended up on our way to Salon de Provence for a surprise.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Our final piece of Parisien culture: the general strike
We still have one week left in France (heading to Aix-en-Provence tomorrow afternoon), but today we will experience a truly French phenomenon: a large strike in Paris (all of France?) to protest impending changes to the retirement system. The government proposes to add 2 years to the mandatory retirement age, forcing everyone to work 2 years longer. (There are other issues, but I my French is not good enough to follow all the subtleties.) I was a little worried about how I might get to work but it turned out to be no problem at all. The Metro was running normally on my line at 7:15 this morning and the bus was on time and didn't encounter more than the usual traffic. So here I am... Since I am giving a seminar presentation this morning, it was important to actually arrive at close to the right time!
Finding our inner narcissist
Some have already commented on the rapid reduction in the frequency of blog posts... The problem is that not all the members of our family are equally interested in this medium, some of them finding it a little mundane to simply report our daily activities. I make the case that:
- if it is truly mundane then people just won't read it, and
- there are interesting observations and stories each day that aren't mundane...
If you would like to hear more from people other than me (after all, I just work all day and hang out in our apartment all night) then you should drop them an email and let them know you want to hear more!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Long commutes and strange keyboards
As I travel back and forth to work each day, I am discovering what it is like to have a 1 hour commute each way. While I am not stuck behind the wheel of a car, I have also discovered that trying to do any reading or writing on the bus makes me feel sick pretty quickly. So the 2 hours I spend in transit every day doesn't help me get any work done. It also leaves me little time for seeing much of Paris since by the time I get home, we are eating dinner and putting the girls to bed. I have peered over the shoulder of one woman who appears to be preparing her thesis (or maybe just a journal paper) on her commute back and forth. Every day, as she gets on the bus, she opens up her computer, fires up her LaTeX editor and fights with formatting issues to get everything just right.
Since I don't have any way to connect it (no WIFI) and I can't work on the bus, I haven't even been taking my laptop to the office with me. Instead, I get to work on a pretty substantial workstation with a ridiculously old OS - Mandriva 2006. Mandriva seems to be a Linux distribution of choice since it is a French effort. With only 2 weeks, I am worried about how much time I would lose trying to reimage the machine, so instead I end up working remotely on a colleague's machine down the hall.
And speaking of that.... All the keyboards here are French keyboards (what would you expect), which means they are nearly impossible for me to use. I can remap the layout to a US layout, but then I have to rely on my muscle memory to know where the right keys are. For some of the non-alphanumeric keys, this is definitely slowing me down. Even more fun, though, is that I have set up a 1-click toggle between the US and French key-mappings so that when one of my French colleagues wants to take the helm we can easily switch. About 50% of the time we forget to switch and get all kinds of interesting results.
Tomorrow will be a sombre day with France's loss tonight to Mexico!
Since I don't have any way to connect it (no WIFI) and I can't work on the bus, I haven't even been taking my laptop to the office with me. Instead, I get to work on a pretty substantial workstation with a ridiculously old OS - Mandriva 2006. Mandriva seems to be a Linux distribution of choice since it is a French effort. With only 2 weeks, I am worried about how much time I would lose trying to reimage the machine, so instead I end up working remotely on a colleague's machine down the hall.
And speaking of that.... All the keyboards here are French keyboards (what would you expect), which means they are nearly impossible for me to use. I can remap the layout to a US layout, but then I have to rely on my muscle memory to know where the right keys are. For some of the non-alphanumeric keys, this is definitely slowing me down. Even more fun, though, is that I have set up a 1-click toggle between the US and French key-mappings so that when one of my French colleagues wants to take the helm we can easily switch. About 50% of the time we forget to switch and get all kinds of interesting results.
Tomorrow will be a sombre day with France's loss tonight to Mexico!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Trocadero full of Football fans
Everywhere we turned in Paris today, there were people flying their Algerian flags in celebration of today's football game against Slovenia. This includes the majority of those who filled the Trocadero for the outdoor screening of today's game.
While it is quite natural to expect a lot more Algerian flags than Slovenian in Paris, it was a little surprising to see how excited and demonstrative the Algerian fans were even after the lost.
We are quickly learning how the kids see things through a different lens. It took a lot of convincing to get them up the Eiffel Tower ("it's just a building") and they were not very interested in the Arc de Triomphe. Their cultural highlight today may have been watching the police flush out the illegal vendors beneath the Eiffel Tower and trying to understand what was going on.
While it is quite natural to expect a lot more Algerian flags than Slovenian in Paris, it was a little surprising to see how excited and demonstrative the Algerian fans were even after the lost.
We are quickly learning how the kids see things through a different lens. It took a lot of convincing to get them up the Eiffel Tower ("it's just a building") and they were not very interested in the Arc de Triomphe. Their cultural highlight today may have been watching the police flush out the illegal vendors beneath the Eiffel Tower and trying to understand what was going on.
We've finally arrived
Our second attempt at leaving went very smoothly. We had chosen a ridiculously early flight from Madison to Detroit - good thing since the more logical alternative was delayed long enough that we would have a repeat.
Upon arrival, the only glitch was the longer than expected walk, with all of our bags, from the RER station to our flat. The girls did a great job with their loads.
After a quick cleanse, we grabbed a late lunch and roamed our neighborhood up to the Jardin de Luxembourg where we engaged in some sailing on the pond and took in a little big band concert.
We held off the jet lag until a normal bed time for us all, including watching the US-England draw at the world cup.
Upon arrival, the only glitch was the longer than expected walk, with all of our bags, from the RER station to our flat. The girls did a great job with their loads.
After a quick cleanse, we grabbed a late lunch and roamed our neighborhood up to the Jardin de Luxembourg where we engaged in some sailing on the pond and took in a little big band concert.
We held off the jet lag until a normal bed time for us all, including watching the US-England draw at the world cup.
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