Les Vacances de Toussaint (Misadventures)

So, because this is France, I get a lot of this wonderful thing called paid vacation (well, in theory paid, but I'll get to that later...) This is what I have been up to.

The Politics of the French Swimming Pool
As some of you may know (ahem... Jodi), I hate swimming. Hate hate hate hate it. This is mainly because of two reasons: my inability to swim, and the fact that chlorine makes me itch all over, including the inside of my nose. But, because my family insists on feeding me a full three course meal for dinner and lunch and I can't run because I have a bum knee (although I did manage 20 minutes today--Yay!), I have braved the local public pool twice this week and have learned that, while still unpleasant, French pools have a lot to keep me distracted.

First off, this being a small town, the pool itself is not very big. What is more, I can only go during public hours--that is to say--when all family and small children are going as well. This means that the pool is very very crowded. In order to accommodate people who are at the pool to swim laps and people who are there to goof around they do the following. The lifeguards rope off the first lane, which is a little bit wider than all the other lanes. That is the lane for the lap swimmers. How does this work, do you ask? The answer is quite simple. Instead of doing the traditional back-and-forth flip-turn nonsense you would do in a regular pool, you do big rectangles, always making sure you stay to the right of the lane. This can sometime make for exciting developments.

Because of the aforementioned bum knee, I can currently only swim freestyle (actually, even when I don't have a bum knee watching me do breast stroke can be hilarious). This is a problem because French people seem to swim almost exclusively breast stroke and freestyle is naturally faster than breast stroke. If there are more than, say two people trying to swim laps at once and if we are all swimming in a rectangle that is a little bit more than one lane wide, and I am swimming a stroke that is faster than what everyone is swimming, it is suddenly like driving on a two lane highway. You have swim up right behind someone, and wait until whoever is coming the opposite direction has gone by and the accelerate like mad to get around the person before you end up in a head on collison with a innocuous-looking middle aged woman. On top of this, you get the added advantage of really getting a good look at the behind of whoever is in front you (usually a mild aged old lady) before you pass them. It's like being in a derby--you have to be strategic about when you pass somebody and how--I bet the lifeguards must get a kick out of it.

Bike-Riding

Another thing I did this weekend instead of running was a lovely bike ride along the ancien voie ferrée--the old railways.

My family had told me that they had a bike I could use, and that it was old. This is definitely true. It is also one of those bike that has fenders, and because it is old, they aren't really well held in place, and they bounce all over when I am riding and I sound like I am dragging a trash can lid behind me or something.

However, despite the racket, the bike seemed to work pretty well, so I set off along the trail, which was not paved. This made the bike clatter even more, and I spent a good portion of the ride calculating how long it would take me to walk back if the whole thing just collapsed on me without warning (it didn't).

I can't begin to explain how beautiful the countryside is here, especially because the last few days we have had a bit of an indian summer. The leaves are changing color but the haven't fallen yet and the autumn sun is glorious. People joke about there being more cows in Mayenne than people. This is probably the case, and the cows are pastured in large green fields. Happy cows don't come from California, they come from Mayenne. Anyhow, as I said, I don't really think I can explain, so here are some photos:There are still pedestrian walkways from when it was a railway. I love how overgrown this one is.

See what I mean? How could these cows not be happy?


This was my final destination: a little village. My mission once I got there was to procure a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant); mission status: success.

The bike ride was truly lovely--I would love to make a longer trip out of it and visit multiple towns and buy a pain au chocolat in each one. Takers anyone?

And finally... The Fire Station
I have know since I first moved in with my family that my host father was a volunteer fireman. Since I have moved in my host father has also offered to show me around the fire station, and I had always though "yeah.. that might be interesting" in a vague sort of way...

The past two days I had two friend who are assistants in Laval visit, and my host-father offered to show us around the fire station. As there are not that many things to do in Mayenne, I thought it was a good idea.

It was awesome. He not only showed us around and explained the inner workings of a fairly rural firestation (a very interesting combination of high tech machinery married with good, old-fashioned French paper-oriented management), he let us dress up like firemen:

First of all, why are French firefighter helmets so much more awesome than American firefighter helmets? I mean, when I put on this thing I felt like I should have either been in some sort of Jedi training program, or have been the 3rd member of Daft Punk (coincidence that they also happen to be French? I think not).


Once we put on the costumes, a whole bunch of silly photo opportunities ensued. I think Pascale (host father) was bewilderedly amused by our antics. On top of that, we got to try on oxygen tanks, see all the emergency vehicles, and even climb in the big fire truck. I was so excited it was like I was 7 all over again. I want to be a firefighter when I grow up.

One of the most amusing stops on the tour (after we got all dressed up) was the obstacle course that the firefighters use to do training drills. We got to do the whole course in the dark. We had to crawl over things, step on uneven ground, jump down big steps. It was better than Disneyland.

I am really really lucky to be have the host family that I do. They are warm and open and welcoming and this experience was probably one of the most unexpectedly fun things I have done in a while.

Next week I am headed to Paris--I wonder what that will be like...