Bastille Stormed; no one cares


"Il mai être Bastille Day, mais c'est comme tout autre jour: Bugger à faire et tous les morts ennuyeux" said the monsieur buying Le Monde at the local equivalent of Nairns-I think I caught most of les mots, bon or otherwise correctly Having made his third unsuccessful attempt to sell me last Sunday's Sunday Times Monsieur le Propriétaire dug out today's Guardian -three Euros for a very slimmed down version.

14 July is no big deal in L-Etang La Ville. Shops open as normal-even Shoppi, thelocalsuper marche; tout le monde is out of town for a long weekend and Paris is pleasantly empty

It rained in Duns yesterday says Metcheck.

Quel Domage

Something must be going on somewhere-these planes flew over yesterday -or very similar-so I assume there is a fly past.

Labels: 14 July, Bastille Day, L'Etang La Ville

  ¶ 12:01 PM (1) comments

  THICK AS TWO SHORT SCOTCH PLANKS S'IL VOUS PLAIT


For pirates to be able to walk the plank into crocodile infested waters, you need a plank. We found two flimsy ones which had to be strongly taped together. So an expedition to the partly open Etang La Ville, recovering from a dejeuner break 12 a 3.

Nous cherchons ruban pour emballer quelque chose-I explained to Monsieur Maison de Presse-ruban tres fort. He produced some brown paper-Non-pas de papier brun-Ruban-pour un paquet peut etre. Puzzlement. I enduged in pantomime tres drole.

Le centime tombe: Ah, he said, backing into his inner sanctum and came out with a roll of heavy duty parcel tape: Comme Ca?

Comme Ca sur les stilts.

Le Scotch he said

Of course! Silly of me

Labels: L'Etang La Ville, Scotch, tang la Ville Paris

  ¶ 3:01 PM (0) comments

 
Boxing Day in L'Etang la Ville is rather like Boxing Day anywhere else. Its grey. The cold sunny weather has been replaced by a frigid Gallic Dreich. Some shops open, others firmly closed and a bitter blow this, La Maison Des Journaux is open, but the nouveau Guardian n'est pas arrive.'Peut etre cette apres midi, Monsieur-vous preferez le Herald Tribune?' 'Monsieur did not and the long uphill trek home, emtpy handed.

Only les hygiénistes environnemental lifted my spirits. Today is recycling bin day. All kinds of stuff are removed to be recycled and sent off to provide raw material for the French arms industry. Unlike Hutton glass goes as well. But the quality control at point of collection is ruthless. As I passed a bin under scrutiny a rummaging homme de refuse pulled out a collection of polysterene and kicked it in the general direction of the pavement strwing most of it over the road. A fierce rebuke from Le Capitan des hommes de refuse who then personally made a neat pile of polysterene. Stood back to admire his handiwork and then

Kicked it on to the pavement.

Quelle Finesse

The image typifies the overflowing bins. Surprisingly the rubbish blokes did not seem to mind collecting from outside the receptacles. It just had to be

The Right Stuff

Labels: Christmas in France, L'Etang La Ville, Rubbish

  ¶ 10:18 AM (1) comments

 


An Englishman in Gay* Paree

Unlike Hutton L'Etang La Ville has shops. It was most refreshing to be greeted by the guy who owns the small newsagents with ' Bienvenu Monsieur Nous avons votre Guardian' or words to that effect(Last saw him in July) and after some small talk (in my case,very small)he reminded me: n'oubliez pas L'Observer arrive a dix heures le Dimanche. They go like hot cakes (Approx translation) They do indeed as the area is lousy with Brit expats-more of the Fascist Sunday Times variety but enough Grudian readers to provide healthy competition for les oiseaux de passage like Huttonian. Indeed the local railway station St Nom de la Breteche is known as St Nom de la British.

A Dimanche said my friend. Not so: I'll see him to day for a second helping og the Gerdian-if I am spared.

It is -10 C

And falling

* In the old sense. For Nouveau Gay scene see Lonely Planet Blog-ed

PS Note the clever French nomenclature for a newsagents. The third image is of the village christmas trees. Duns (Pop 3000) has one, L'Etang la Ville (Pop 300) has two point five

Labels: Christmas in Paris, English in Paris, L'Etang La Ville

  ¶ 8:20 AM (0) comments