a police checkpoint

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After our practice on Wednesday Florent and I went downtown to Rouen to grab a drink with both Erics from our team. We stopped off at a Kebab restaurant for a bite—4 euros for a huge kebab wrap and a tray piled high with French fries. From there we headed down to a hip bar and tasted some worldly beers (the one I had was called ‘Kwak’—a Belgian brew. Really good one).

On our way home (around 12 a.m.) we were flagged down by a group of Gendarmes (cops) who had set up a checkpoint at a traffic circle not far from Flo’s house.

Flo was worried because his front left headlight was out, and he had not yet repaired it. The cops asked him to get out of the car and show his papers. He did so, then they asked to see my license as well. They asked him a few questions—where he was headed, where he was coming from, if he had been drinking; when he said he is a baseball coach and that we were on our way home from baseball practice, one of the guys, the younger of the two, immediately brightened up. He asked if Flo knew so and so and Flo said yes. They struck up a conversation about the guy—flo had known him from when they were younger, the policeman as well, and now the guy is playing for a university in Texas. They checked the trunk (which was filled with baseball bats—a bit suspicious under any other circumstance).

As they were doing this I remembered that I had kept the Kwak beer bottle from the bar because it was a good one and I wanted it as a souvenir. I was hoping they would not look in the back seat and be displeased to see an ‘open container’ there. In the end, they said nothing of it.

Because of this small connection through baseball the Gendarmes did not give Flo a ticket for his broken headlight. Normally it is a 45 Euro fine. ‘Tranquille,’ as they say in France, when something goes smoothly or turns out better than you thought it would.

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Comments

[Clay]

bats for fighting
I am so glad you didn't get thrown into the French clink. I am finishing up my degree and it is really hard, but I miss you so much. I hope you are taking a lot pictures. Ian got a job that pays by the hour, no more temp work. be well my brother with much love Clay