If you leave

Last day
Went shopping for gifts with Varinia.. beautiful sunny day. Last night dinner with Delfine, Nicolas, Vari y Pierre Antoine, very nice, lots of champagne, wine (Medoc), and tasty food, with the inevitable rabbit.
I was showing Delfine my blog the day before and she ran into the No Offense entry, with mr French Grenoille looking so berety, and baguetteful
That was a laugh.
Nantes reminds me a bit of Montreal, in the sense that the scale is very human, but big enough to have a real cultural, gastronomic and socal scene, but always remembering the ideals of the good life, not just pure work and progress like, maybe, oh say Paris or New York.
I think Parisians in general disdain the smaller prosperous cities, unless they have a familial tie to them.

Right now I am on the TGV, heading back to Paris, my window seat lets me see the Loire river running so calmly alongside.. Now, as the track becomes faster, we start to get away from anything remotely resembling scenery which really won´t matter to much once we surpass 280 kph.

Back to the river. I think it was on Monday that we were trying to find the workshops for Royale Deluxe, the street theater troup, who have traveled the world over, and Chile at least thrice times. They were putting the finishing touches on a giant mechanical elephant, maybe 8 meters high at the shoulder with a giants backboard, where children will be able to climb aboard. It seems it will also have a movable trunk and legs.


Neil Diamond on now with 2 Bit Manchild. Somehing I ownloaded to replace the 3019 songs that just evaporated from my itunes.
Not very nice. It´s a great song, I heard it a lot back in 2002, wheen working in Spain, in Asturia,s. Every weekened I would have to drive the VW transporter about 260k each direcion to the Bilbqao aiport, and would stop in Antander whenever I had the time to stock up on CDs for the long drives (had to get home, then record cassttees or he one speakered VW rolling sqeaker model radio to work.
I must have bought 30 CDs over a pretty short period of time, more than I have ever since.

Now it´s Simon and Garfunkels turn with The Only Living Boy in New York. This is the original version, and much less well known than the spinoff by Everything but th Girl..

So, what´s my take on modern day French? They are definitely not the stereotype people have of the rude, baguette carrying cigareete smoking bicycle riding beret wearing Frenchman.
They do have a tendency to remind you if you forget basic manners, such as saying bonjour before getting down to business. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. They are quite frank and clear about whatever they are doing, and as anyone, they prefer someone who makes a good effort to speak the language.
But burocracy was invented here, And watch out if you want to do your own thing, that is not so accepted, which is a bit funny in the land of Liberté and Egalité. We had a conversation last night at dinner about a new French law that is the equivalent of chapter 11 bankruptcy. Meaning, starting anew if you really screw up your finances. I asked what happened before this new law? Suicide.

Starting over. It´s a great concept, and often lambasted b those on the high and worn end of the status quo. They have no need for things that start from scratch. Useful if you are born into wealth and privilege, but the US is still the world´s powerhouse in the economic sense because they still believe so strongly in that everyone starts out with a chance to succeed, and should they fail, they get that other chance. Risk is a fact of life, but not the end of it.

‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’

What else did we do in Nantes. Well, on the Saturday night we came in, I was picked up by Varinia, who was with Delfine and Nicolas, in their little 106 Peugeot. We checked out 4 bars, finally choosing the 5th, which was a very local style standup pub. We had started out on the other end, LED lit, electronic music, white Mac Store style décor, with obligatory coat check (2 euros). Then we popped into a place that was set up like a 60´s modern house, where you could have drinks in the foyer, living room,, replete with solid state TV, shag carpet, and formiica tables, or the kitchen, batheoom or bedroom. I thought it was pretty cool, but they all thought a place for going out needs music and it was actually very quiet. Two more with the same problem.
Delfina was very kind and offered her car to use the next days, which was great.
Sunday we woke up late, had our obligatory croissant, baguette breakfast, and drove to La Baule. This is supposed to be the second poshest beach town in France, right after Saint Tropez. You could quickly tell my the palational beach front mansions, and old money cars that it was not a tacky Cannes sort of place. We drove to where Pierre Antoine and family were at the award ceremony for the Rally of La Baule they had just finished. 400 hard km in a Alfa Romeo Giuletta 2000. They got 10th place, There were classic Porsche Carrera RSs, 356, Alpine, Lotus 7, Corvette Stingray, Mustang, even a slightly lost Lamborghini Gallardo.
Varinia and I walked along the sand while the ralliers had their final lunch, and then we met up again on the main boardwalk.
We drove along in a different car, a Toyota Prius, with its hybrid drive, and screen telling you if you were humming on electric, powered by gas, recharging batteries from the engine or through regenerative braking or whatnot.
We picked north and started going along the Breton coast, a fascinating one way road, with the waves on one side, stone houses built close to the land on the right. Lots of seagrasses, and some sharp rain falling. Every so often we saw the reinforced concrete bunkers to remind you that this was the area which saw one of the greatest battles of the second World War. You could picture the scene in your head, warships, dozens of heavy aircraft engines rumbling overhead, filled with nervous teens about to engage in a bloody battle through enemy fire, water, metal and razour barriers. I would have liked to have seen the places now, but alas we did not have that much time.

Lunch was at a famous Breton restaurant, on the coast, Derwin. I had the Moules Derwin, in a cheese sauce, and for starters, the local grey shrimp, with the fresh taste of salt brine. This is also the area famous for Fleur de Sel. Many sqare kilometers of salt drying pools.

Quickly back to reality, in Lemans, picking up more and more passangers. They haven´t checked out tickets yet, I think I have not had my ticket checked on any TGV yet.
Listening to Get off my Cloud if anyone is interested.