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Published: July 27th 2008
If one thing is in real shortage in France, it must be asians. I cannot say how many times we've received strange and astonished looks while traversing the streets of Verneuil (which should be the most diverse city, yes? According to its huge population ...)! Just the other day, we were "bronzing" in a little park on the outskirts of the city, and a man comes along, first observing us from a distance, then finally approaching us with little more to say than,
"Eh... les jeunes! Je crois que le parc est fermé... euh, mais c'est pas mon rôle de te le dire..."
Before he got to asking us who we were, where we were from, and really! You speak French AND English? But you look Asian! And you're from Canada! My my ...
But it's interesting.
Our saga here in Verneuil continues, sadly, in Verneuil, this weekend - our plans to get to the coast and Mont St.Michel were dashed by a crazy misadventure on Friday in which we tried, and almost managed, to rent a car.
But everything was against us.
Firstly, the car rental nearest to us had rented all their cars out for the weekend by the time we'd called them. Merde. So we looked for other cities on the train line that would have a car for us, and found Dreux, which is just a couple of stops away from Verneuil.
We arrive at the train station the very MOMENT we needed to in order to buy our tickets and get on the appropriate train for Dreux, and then proceeded to wait for it for another half hour, being very late as it was. The car rental place in Dreux, then, was quite a
good walk away from the train staion. And Dreux, you have to understand, succeeds in being the only city I've seen where you seem to be walking steeply uphill no matter which direction you go!
It tilts... but never in your favour!
Badly dressed for the suddenly sunny and humid day, we trudged along, following the signs that pointed us towards Paris, which were the directions we got from a nice lady in a restaurant on the way, and gradually starting to think that perhaps she knew we were foreigners and took advantage of our aloof-ity.
Aloof-ity? No matter.
We found it, eventually, on the other side of a highway that almost made us turn back in exasperation. But there it was: Renault Dreux! Where we were going to get our very own Twingo!
Luckily, the paperwork was easy and everything was ready to go until the lady asked us for a credit card to check that we had €915 just in case. Realizing that our credit limits were barely that in Canadian dollars, Michel and I looked at each other in horror - surely, we didn't take a train and walk for miles to be told we couldn't rent the car for lack of credit!
The lady sensed our pathetic situation and, in an unprecedented fashion, decided to let us have the car for the weekend with no security on it whatsoever. Jumping for joy inside, but refraining from letting it show and scaring off the confidence she had placed in us, we walked calmly to our car. Camera in the trunk, bags in the back, key in the ignition and there it was. The gear shift.
"What? Standard?! I can't drive standard!"
Ah, pauvre Michou. Michel jumped out of the driver's seat and ran after the lady who was about to close the dealership that was going to leave us with a car we couldn't drive for the weekend. When we explained to her our problem, she smirked and merely agreed that that was something she had no power over.
Do you have ANY automatics here?
Nope, no one drives automatic in Europe!
Merde!
And so we walked miles back to the train station (uphill again somehow) and just had time to grab a couple of "American Pizzas" before our train home. Geez, what an ordeal.
But the pizza was great ...
Unforunately, our lack of car also meant that we had no way of getting to Montfort L'Ameury Méré yesterday with the others, as there wasn't enough room in JPS's car. Here we were, taking the train to Montfort with our bikes and then biking like sillies for 4 km to meet the rest of the group at Ravel's house.
But hey, it was
Ravel's house! Currently, I'm working on his Concerto in G major and
Miroirs, both of which were written at this residence in Montfont, his last, where he stayed from 1920 to his death. We saw the forest where he heard the birds for
Oiseaux tristes. He was a man of trinkets and an extreme fascination with asiatic arts. His house and garden are immaculate, his wallpapers all self-chosen and many times, self-created. His piano gorgeous ...
M.Sevilla was right in saying that visiting his last house enables one to understand Ravel much better.
Last night we had another delightful barbecue at M.Sevilla's house, this time with delicious duck and pasta salad and a generous helping of champagne and Calvados, which everyone insisted that we must try (whew! Strong stuff!). Our concert, fast approaching next Saturday, is our main concern at this point, with the newspapers advertising and the admission free, we're sure to attract a large audience. And so, today is a day to relax and practice to in order to have our concert programmes ready for Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, M.Sevilla has promised another treat - a trip to Honfleur, on the northern coast, to see the house of Erik Satie, whom I adore, and to finally visit the beaches!
Our last week will be an exciting one. It's hard to imagine that we're going on a month in France already! We miss all of you back home and look forward to seeing all those whom we're visiting in Europe.
We'll add a bunch of photos a little later on today that will accompany the news in this post. Enjoy!
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Pierre
non-member comment
Asians
I would say, about people in the street looking at you Claudia, is not really because you are asian, but maybe or surely because you are a rather beautiful young lady.