Day 114, 115 and 116

"Festivus for the Rest of Us." . . . Day tripping on the western coast of France.

Happy Holidays!  Once again, I am forced to combine posts as the tempo of our long Holiday weekend has prevented me from my usual writings.  Holiday, you ask?  Pentecost Sunday of course.  Residing in a Nation where Catholicism rules, the Holy Days of Obligation come fast and furious.  To be honest, I can't keep them all straight.  Many of them end in "ion" and all sound similar to the uninitiated.  Between ascension, assumption and conception, I find myself hopelessly lost.  You could mix in initiation, emancipation, and proclamation and I wouldn't know the difference.  My only hint that there is a holiday on the horizon is that the kind folks at the international school bid us a good weekend and indicate that they will see us on Mardi rather than Lundi.  My wife is usually a little more "in tune" given that she too has these days off from work.  All cultures have their norms and I am in no way being critical or poking fun at the Catholic faith.  Quite to the contrary, I find the pageantry of it to be quite fascinating.  Exhausting, but fascinating.  It makes me wonder, if I were to put pencil to paper, exactly which world culture would prove to be the most "festive".  I am afraid we American's fall way down the list.  We have our own unique celebrations (4th of July, Thanksgiving and the like), but there still seem to be fewer throughout the course of the year than we have experienced here.

That being said, we would make the most of our extra family time and do a little sightseeing while we had the chance.  We are in a bit of limbo with packing in that if we go too much further, we will have to start breaking down furniture that we actually have to make use of for the next couple of weeks.  The down time found us searching from some relaxing diversion.  The rainy weather showed signs of breaking up a bit, so we made a run for the coast.  We would spend one of our days on the Atlantic letting the salty shore heal our wounded souls.  It is hard not to find this activity relaxing.  Our destination was a small coastal town only an hour north of the city that actually has one of the better beaches that we have visited since we have been here.  The additional time for reflection had me taking stock of another cultural difference that I find fascinating.  The French seem to be quite keen on "renting" their recreation.  They seem to take lessons for everything and endeavor in most of their activities on rental equipment.  Generally, if I am interested enough in an activity to test the waters, I buy entry level equipment and give it a go on my lonesome.  Perhaps it is the American spirit of exploration that has us willing to learn a new activity without the aid of lessons.  Or, perhaps it is our gross commercialism that has us buying sporting goods that only get used one time.  Ever been to a garage sale in the States and NOT seen a pair of inline skates for sale?

This is  not to say that we don't take lessons and use rental equipment in the US.  Ski trips, float trips and long weekends at the lake often have us renting boats and skis to have ourselves a good time.  And often, some of these activities require a certain amount of taught skill (skiing for example) to prevent death and dismemberment.  The French however, do this with EVERYTHING.  You want to learn how to skateboard?  There are lessons for that.  Inline skating?  Lessons for that too.  Cooking Italian?  Lessons.  Cycling?  Lessons.  Breathing?  Lessons.  Actually, that last is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.  They seem to like to be told how to do things.  I myself can't stand that.  I like to learn through trial and error.  The American way.  No need for long explanations and theoretical technique.  We "just do it".  Damn, sorry for the horrible Nike sloganeering, but the saying speaks volumes.  If I were to have to boil the difference in our attitudes relating to recreation into a couple of sentences, it would be this:  American's only take lessons if they are free and only rent equipment if it is cheap.  The French are glad to pay for cheap lessons and the equipment rental is almost always free.  I know, I know, this is a gross generalization and horrible stereotyping.  I try to avoid that, but I am serious about my recreation and wearing rental shoes, let alone pants, creeps me out.  For now, I will keep buying my equipment and teaching myself through trial and error.  Anyone have a parachute they are looking to sell? Thinking of taking up skydiving.

Having exhausted ourselves at the beach, we headed back home for a late dinner.  Rather than cook, we ordered a couple of pies from the local Domino's Pizza that just opened up near by.  We won't have the option for delivery service at our new home in the country, so we decided to make the most of the opportunity while we still have it.  With our bellies full of Bacon Groovy and Chickenita we slipped into a nice slumber to rest up for the next days events.  The final day of our long break would have us searching for another day trip to keep the kids from vegging out on the couch all day.  We decided that we would check out the local zoo.  I love the zoo and realize after the day's tour, that I am a bit of a zoo snob.  I am not a tree hugging, granola loving naturalist, but I don't like to see animals in captivity that are not provided for properly.  The facility was clean and relatively well maintained, but the enclosures were terribly small and the animals looked miserable.  In addition, you were more than welcome to feed the animals popcorn.  Now, I wasn't paying alot of attention in 7th grade science class, but I am pretty sure that popcorn is not part of the natural diet of the Simian Monkey or the African Giraffe.  That didn't seem to stop any of the patrons from flinging morsels to the animals who seemed quite used to receiving this extra dietary attention.  I did my best not to get on my soapbox and start a fight with the locals, but I did have to vent my frustrations to my poor wife.  Keeping my opinions (mostly) to myself, we enjoyed the afternoon communing with the White Tigers and watching the French children free the unattended petting zoo animals from their confines to roam the concession area.  I couldn't help but giggle a little, when one of the freed goats headbutted the offending children's mother in the crotch.   Sometimes nature has a way of evening the score . . . karma can be a real bitch.

All in all, a nice weekend spent with the family with memories that will likely last us a lifetime.  I will now bid you a good evening and wish you a Happy Festivus.  Speak to you all again very soon, provided my decision not to pay for the skydiving lessons works out for the best.