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Published: January 27th 2008
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Acrobats
Something I would NEVER try at home Just when things were falling into a comfortable routine here in Pau, the circus came to town!
I mean that both literally and figuratively. Starting last Saturday, the Cirque Amar, one of the 2 or 3 circuses that tours all over France, came to town for a 4 day engagement. So, always thinking of you, dear readers, I decided to go see the show so that I could present you with a fascinating and detailed description of how a French circus differs from an American one. First of all, there was only one ring, or “piste” as it’s called in French. They sell cotton candy, which they call “la barbe du papa”, or “Daddy’s beard”….yum! Other than that, there weren’t many differences. What makes Cirque Amar unique is that they have animals, which many of the other circuses don’t. There were tigers, elephants, and horses. The horses were a bit of a disappointment. They just kind of ran around in a circle, and some of them didn’t even do that when they were told. The elephants were pretty impressive, though. In between acts, there was a clown with a mullet who looked like a frightening cross between Michael Jackson and
Elephants
They seem even bigger in a one ring circus Billy Ray Cyrus. He’s been featuring prominently in my nightmares over the past week. The most remarkable part of the show was the women’s troop of acrobats from the Chinese national circus. Due to the Olympics in Peking, they’d struck this engagement with Cirque Amar, and they were definitely worth seeing. On a good day, I manage to walk to and from class without falling down, so it was beyond my scope of comprehension to see them tumbling and jumping and somersaulting as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Wednesday I didn’t have much to do, so I used my new kitchen in my studio to make banana bread as a surprise for the Canterots. I was able to do this partially because I’ve finally found a store that sells real brown sugar! Non of this granulated “cassonade” crap that the French try to pass off as brown sugar, but the real “pack me down in a cup” stuff! Sorry, this is only exciting to myself and other baking nerds. I found the sugar at a store called the “Little London Larder” which specializes in English and American products. It’s a bus ride away, but
Biarritz
magnifique, n'est pas? it’s worth it because, as much as I do love French cuisine, sometimes a girl just needs her oatmeal! Anyways, we had the banana bread for dessert that night after a meal of Christine’s delicious bouef burgogne. One of Patrick’s friends also came to dinner. He lives in St. Jean de Luz, on the coast, because he’s big into surfing. He says he’d love to go to the United States and go to Hawaii.
Thursday marked the 240th day this year that French teachers were on strike. Usually, this doesn’t mean much, because most of the professors still come and have class anyway, but this Thursday most teachers were absent. Things are apparently getting pretty serious as far as education reform goes. I went into town that afternoon, and there were huge demonstrations going on. Laurence Chapelle was still there, so I still had all my classes. With my 4emes I did a lesson called “with expression”, where I had them practice reading things in different tones of voice, with different punctuation, so as to encourage them to stop reading like robots. It was as much motivated by self-interest as by a desire to teach, because I get tired
of listening to questions that don’t sound like questions or oral reports that sound like they came out of a “Dick and Jane” reader. The kids really liked it though. I wrote a sentence on the board “No, I never liked bananas.”, and then I had them read it as a question, an exclaimation, whispering, screaming, crying, laughing, afraid…you get the idea. They thought it was hilarious, and then I gave them some melodramatic dialogues (very “Days of our Lives” stuff), to act out using what they’d learned. I also taught them some theatre vocabulary. Turns out I’ve got quite a little group of dramatists, although I sort of knew that already. With my 3emes, I did a lesson on stereotypes. I had them list stereotypes about Americans and French people. They were surprised to learn that Americans perceive French people as being very chic and fashionable, because they think “la mode” or fashion, comes from the US. Then we looked at a satirical article called “An American’s Guide to France”. Here’s a link to it if you want a good laugh.. http://pagesperso-orange.fr/prof.danglais/englishdepartment/US%20guide%20to%20France/US_guide.htm
This weekend, Isaac and I had been planning to go to Avignon, but that fell through
because at the last minute his responsable at his school scheduled a meeting for Friday morning. So, you’ll have to wait for another update to hear all about the Palais des Papes and that famous bridge. Determined not to let the weekend be a total washout, I caught a train yesterday to Biarritz, which is a seaside town in the Pays Basque. The weather was gorgeous and the town was absolutely breathtaking, as you can see from the photos. The first surprise I had when I got off the train was that the center of town is a good 35-40 minute walk from the train station. I kept seeing signs that said “centre ville”, but never actually getting there. The neat thing is that all the signs are in French and Basque. So once I finally found the town, I headed down to the beaches. I walked all along the coastline and saw the “Rocher de la Vierge”, where there’s a statue of the Virgin Mary. Apparently, some sailors lost at sea prayed to Mary and said if they made it home alive, they’d erect a statue in her honor on one of the cliffs. Well, they survived and kept
Biarritz
There are tons of these little tidal pools their promise. I then walked clear to the other end of the shore and saw the lighthouse, and walked the 248 steps to the top for a view of the coast that lets you see all the way to the Pyrenees and even into Spain. It’s strange, which I consider all the places I’ve been in the world, how they can seem so alike and so different at the same time. The cliffs and the sea at Biarritz reminded me a lot of Corsica and of Northern California, and yet at the same time it was unmistakably South-west France. I had a typical Basque lunch with Brebis cheese, black cherry jam, and a salad with Espelette peppers. I walked around looking at all the white, red, and green houses, and pretty much just enjoyed the gorgeous weather. I went in a couple shops and in one of them there was an adorable little boy in a beret speaking Basque. My heart melted into a puddle of goo on the spot. Once again, flat Maddie was my travel companion for the day, as you can see from the photos.
Things are going to get pretty crazy here over the next
couple weeks (some of you already know why, feel free to ask me if you don’t ;-), but I’ll try to keep blogging as much as I can. I know you all check your inboxes with baited breath for news of my latest shenanigans (hey, a girl can dream, right?) So until then, Ikus Arte! (that’s basque for “goodbye”)
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Kira
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Mardi Gras...
if that's not what you're referring to as "getting crazy" then i don't know what is! i'm so jealous that you'll have loads of fun stuff to do for mardi gras. live it up!!! :)