Curiosités

First and foremost I acknowledge that as of today, Keith and I have been married eight years! Yikes. Where did the time go and what have we been up to you ask? Well over the past month we have been doing some more exploring in Marseille and Provence, and the job hunt for me is over. I now have two part time jobs. To fit with the title of this blog both jobs were acquired by me simply emailing institutions out of the blue, instead of responding to specific adds. I know this is not unusual, but in the teaching profession which is so structured in Canada this is a bit of a strange way of a getting a job.

Now that the update is over we can get on to the other curiosities I have been encountering lately. The first has to do with the weather. It has been windy for the past week and a half now, and when I say windy I mean gusts up to 90 km/h. So the mistral has chased away all of our nice weather and I have been wearing jeans. Just when I thought I was getting used to the heat, I have to deal with temperatures in the low twenties. It better smarten up, so that I can get some more quality beach time in soon.

With regards to the weather curiosities have continually been popping up the form of summer fashion. Unlike in the winter, when everyone in Marseille seems to wear blacks, greys and taupe, colours are now part of everyone’s wardrobe. This includes wearing brightly coloured bras and sometimes underwear that can purposefully be seen through shirts and dresses. Women must buy specific bras with coloured straps which are meant to be shown by shirts that sit off the shoulder. I know being a high school teacher you wouldn’t expect me to be shocked at this, but when it is perfectly acceptable for women over fifty to wear these types of outfits at the office I am can’t help chuckling at how uptight we are in North America about these things.  I must be fair and say that the fashion police here would be arresting equal numbers of men. Since summer has arrived, shirts have become optional for men of all shapes and sizes. One of the most common sights are groups of teenage boys riding their bikes down the street in their bathing suits, no shirt, no helmet, just a towel around their necks.

The highlight/lowlight of summer fashion observations was on the bus a couple of weeks ago. The perpetrator was a large woman who was dressed for the over 30 degree weather and showing a considerable amount of cleavage. After finishing a loud phone call, she decided to use her exposed cleavage as a shelf to store her mobile on. This was one of those situation where you really didn’t want to look, but how could you not!

The photos below demonstrate how many people in the ancient buildings of Marseille move. You will notice that it is perfectly acceptable to block off the street for the day to let the movers do their work. 

The other local curiosity we have been embracing is the game of petanque. A couple weekends ago, the park near our house hosted the World Championships (they are always in Marseille by the way). The event was chaotic. Imagine a big family picnic with everyone playing bacchii and that is basically what this was. There were over four thousand teams. Each was assigned a general area where they played, but really one team could be playing right next to another and the crowds were continually walking in and out of the games. Unlike in Canada where there would be concerns about heavy steal balls causing injury as they are being rolled and thrown ten metres, there were no boards, partitions, or divisions. In addition to this, it is humorous to see someone at a World Championship smoking as they play.

Measuring while the crowd loudly voices its opinion.

Even the children look like old men when they are playing.

Probably the funniest thing about the petanque World Championships was that there was a prize for everyone. Yes, every team got a certain amount of pastis (the local drink of Marseille) and then if the team made it through for rounds of play, they started on the cash prizes. Needless to say with single elimination, many teams were walking around with cups full of pastis by mid-afternoon of the first day of play.

To enable enough playing surface for all of the teams in the tournament, every path and paved section of the park was covered with a fine gravel to enable. This was promptly cleaned up two weaks ago and then new gravel was brought in for this weekend for another tournament. The tournament this weekend was for the Game Provencial. This is the ancestor of petanque and could be considered more athletic, but don’t worry many competitors were still smoking throughout. The differences include the playing surface which is extended from 6-10 m to 15-20. The players must throw balanced on one foot and if he/she is trying to remove a ball he/she can take three approaching steps or leaps, but must throw the ball before he/she hits the ground on his/her third step. For this tournament they actually had hay bales set up to stop the balls from careening into other players and onlookers.

Our mission continues as well to discover local curiosities.  This past weekend we went to the Panier district of Marseille. It is the oldest area of the city and really does have its own ambiance. In fact, walking around in this neighbourhood felt like we had left Marseille completely. We wondered the streets, went to an exposition on orientalism paintings in Europe, visited one of the oldest churches in the city and visited the former Roman docks.

These large jars were where various products were stored after arriving in Marsillia.

The other weekend we rented a car and did some touring around Provence. Our trip included a stop in Roussillon. This hilltop village is built from local stone and painted with the natural occurring ochre which is bright bright red. Below I have included some of the park you can walk through to see the Ochre cliffs.  The ochre is everywhere and stained our sandals and feet into looking like we got really bad fake tans. More on our past explorations in Provence to come soon.

Angleterre

So as promised a quick review of my trip to England about a month ago. I had a splendid time and I’m so lucky to have a belle-soeur  to travel with. The highlight of the trip was, as you see above, visiting Pemberley. Okay, it’s really called Lyme Park, but it was magnificent and totally fit being cast as Pemberley in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. The inside, was equally amazing with an immense library overlooking the park, but sadly photographs weren’t allowed.

Our visit to Pemberley was simply by chance. We randomly decided to head into the Peak District and it was only once we were there that we discovered our dream destination was just an hour away. We stayed at a lovely hotel which provided a relaxing contrast to our busy days snooping about Manor Houses.

Yes this was our hotel!

Some of the other houses we visited included. Erdigg in Wales, note the sign in Welsh and English, and it included an interesting tour of the “downstairs” servant’s quarters, as well as the usual decorative and opulent “upstairs” rooms.

In some cases, the house was eclipsed by the gardens that surround it. This was the case with Tatton Park and Packwood House below. It is completely understandable why the rich built these homes as retreats and hunting lodges. The natural beauty of these places was a welcome contrast from my own city life, and I can only imagine that they would be a welcome oasis when one lives most of one’s  life in a fourteenth or fifteenth century dirty metropolis.

The garden’s of Packwood House made me think that at any minute a white rabbit with a pocket watch would be popping it’s head around a corner.

History was all around us, but some of the history which intrigued me most and has been a point of interest for some time was that surrounding the reformation in England. We saw an example of a Catholic Bible from the time of Elizabeth the first at Lyme Park. It would have been hidden away somewhere in the house but included annotations about how much the family hated the local protestant minister. At Baddersly Clinton (below) we also saw the reconstruction of the hidden chapel that the household used for worship and three priest holes which would have hid Jesuit priests from the local Sheriff who would periodically search households suspected of Catholicism. It is difficult to imagine keeping one’s faith so secret and it is interesting to think about the political significance these prominent houses played, which remained Catholic at heart, but Protestant in everyday life.

Elise finding her intials. Is it a secret code.

The hidden chapel.

I also had a grand time meeting Elise’s English mates and I was able to sit in on one of her classes. Stevenage is quiet suburban place, but it was an excellent jumping off point for some local sights. These included Hatfield House, Cambridge and of course London. All in all a wonderful and much needed week of English and relaxation. If only I could travel all of the time! (sigh)

Cambridge

Cambridge

Fun at the Cambridge Market

The grave of Robert Cecil, spy master to Elizabeth I, at Hatfield House.

Hatfield House

Est-ce que tu faisais?

Yes, once again blogging has been pushed to the end of my list. Don’t worry, it has been taunting me for the past couple weeks causing a guilty tick every time I look at my list. This leaves probably all of you with the question “Well, what have you been doing?”

My first response is as always; not much. But then if I seriously look back on the past month. I have been quite busy. Firstly, I was in England for over a week. This deserves its own blog and will be accompanied by the top pictures of that vacation, as always. The rest of my time has been divided among a variety of pursuits. Needless to say, I have not been sitting still.

French classes continue and I think I have reached a plateau of understanding a majority of what is going on around me at the moment. Although, I did get a bit mixed up with my tutoring agency this week and have sent an email hopefully to correct the error. On the whole though, I feel like I am better able to navigate my way through daily conversations and confrontations with webistes, paperwork and the prefecture.

Speaking of the prefecture, we now have our French drivers’ licenses. Check out the size of these things in proportion to a regular sized business card! Even when they are folded up, they are still huge. 

I feel like actually getting the drivers’ licenses was a bit of a victory. One more thing done on the list of settling in, and once less bureaucratic hassle to deal with. Coming soon taxes and making my way through more tutoring agency red tape. Good thing I’ll be taking an intensive French course for the next four weeks. I am really looking forward to the change of pace and am ready to put in the extra hours that recently have been devoted to other things.

One of these extras is of course my French Harry Potter quest. I must also let you know that I am right on schedule with my Harry Potter reading. So far six months, six books! I simply have to finish the last book before the end of July and I will have succeeded. Regardless of the fact that I got a bit side tracked and read about four English books while I was in Britain (and bought another three English books), I think I will be able to enjoy Voldemort and Harry battling it out one last time before the month is over.

In the upcoming months, I will have a bit more time on my hands. My tutoring has finished for the year and I must say I am a disappointed to say goodbye to some of my students. Some I will see in September and some have even been emailing me for a bit of extra practice, but some are moving on to other things and other places. For some of my students I am still awaiting the results of their major exams and praying that they did well. I hope that all of them have a safe and happy summer. They have fed my vocation over these past months and for that I cannot thank them enough.

The other major monster that has consumed my time has been job hunting. This has been a bit of an on and off activity, as I rode the roller-coaster of frustration with French websites and either a plethora or total lethargy of motivation. Well it has started to pay off. I have a part time job at a school that teaches English! It is not a lot of hours, but it is a start. Once I am done my training which has basically gobbled up all my time this past week, I think I am really going to enjoy the structure and consistency of this job. In addition, the people are great. Since this is only part time, the job hunt/tutoring student recruiting will continue, but perhaps with a little bit less of the ups and downs of the past months.

Aside from all this I have started to do some painting and continue to agonize over which photographs deserve to be hung on the wall. Keith and I have been busy each weekend with something new and different. We had one of my tutoring families over for dinner last weekend and we went for our last walk in the Calanques the weekend before that. The Calanque trails close in the summer because the risk of forest fire is so high. As the dry heat sets in here and the reality of this risk become more apparent because although the sea is just minutes from our door, the lack of moisture is clearly obvious as the glaring sun reflects back from the white sand and dry dirt around us.

To embrace the heat the summer we went to the beach (properly) for the first time yesterday.   As Canadians we automatically link beach and swimming. This is not the case in Marseille. Many people go to the beach with absolutely no intention of setting a toe in the brilliant blue-green water. They are there to lay on the their towels and tan.  No book, no fun fruit and jello snacks, just pure sun absorbing. Needless to say Keith and I went swimming, read our books, and watched the people around us. Having the beach only ten minutes away is going to be fantastic! Of course Keith does have to work on his sunscreen application skills (notice the bright red burn on his right chest). Hey, at least we know the sunscreen works!

More to come soon, I promise.

L'équilibre

So, I know that it has been a while, but hence the title of my blog. L'équilibre. Balance. Join me for a cup of British tea while I share my resolution about l'équilibre de vie.

Balance has been something I have struggled with for many years. Just ask my mom. When I was little I wanted to do everything: music, dancing, swimming, soccer. Unfortunately there have never been enough hours in the day. In fact, some of the most stressful decisions I have had to make have been with regards to how I should alot my time.

This battle to find balance has continued in France. The most frustrating part about it is that I thought since I wasn't really working, I would have oodles of time to get other stuff done. Hmph. Obviously, as you have observed, this has not been the case. My blog has been neglected for a month, I have over a thousand pictures to organize from my trip to the Loire, and I haven't done any painting in the last month either. With these and many other things left on my list to be crossed off, I decided to start tracking what I was doing each day. The goal was to be able to tell myself yes I have been getting things accomplished and hopefully tracking things would also motivate me to get to things that maybe I hadn't done in a long while.

Well the results are in and the majority of my time does seem to still be spent on work. I have to say that this is simply a confirmation for me of what I have known for a long time. I am a teacher through and through. I enjoy spending time working with the students I have and preparing things for them. And there is nothing wrong with me spending time working on this. The other things that seem to be taking up my time is job hunting. This one I am not so positive about. I think that I tend to get sucked into the ether of the internet when looking for a job and end up reading (horribly constructed French websites) and contemplating opportunities that really shouldn't be under consideration for a variety of reasons. To round out the top three occupations of my time is studying/reading French. I am also happy that this is where I have been spending my time. So really two out of three ain't half bad.

Regardless my tracking list has made me realize that for me balance is a bit of a fiction and that is okay. I seem to work on things in waves. I have to simply let go of the idea that I must do everything all of the time, the multiple projects that I always seem to have on the go get done eventually and everything does work itself out. This little experiment has also decidedly highlighted for me the importance of vacations. As I sit in Lauren and Elise's living room writing this, I am so thankful for the opportunity of a week's holiday to not only see some great things and meet Elise's British friends, but also to just simply enjoy being a bit lazy.

So far it has been a nice break and a step back from the heat and bustle of Marseille. Perhaps it is the weather or perhaps it is because I am in suburban Stevenage, but things just seem a bit more calm here. The franticness of the French is sometimes very amusing, but can also be somewhat agitating. Last week I had to go back to the prefecture (again) to deal with the crazy lines and our driver's licenses, and on the way home I saw a woman with a magpie on a leash. Later that day, I had a conversation about the use of different past tenses in French and English with my eleven year old tutoring student! I would be surprised to find many Canadian eleven year olds who knew the names and usages of four different past tenses in their mothertongue. Hence for the sake of balance, to let my mind slow down a bit, I am going to enjoy the wonderful week I have with my belle soeur and perhaps use my time in some different ways!