Bastille Day - July 14, 2010

 Wednesday July 14, 2010

Today is Bastille Day in France. A National Holiday. What that seems to mean, is that most things are closed.

We had decided to have a lazy day anyway, so it didn’t really matter. When we finally dragged ourselves out of the apartment we decided it was time to go to the lavamatique (Laundromat). We threw our clothes in (much easier… I can now sort of read Laundromat instructions in French!) and went out to find some lunch. It seemed like almost everything was closed but we found the ever popular little sandwich shop and each had a Panini.

Interesting fact about bread here: You can’t buy bread like we have at home at a bakery, but I did see some white loaf bread in the grocery store. They call it “American Bread”. I don’t particularly like white bread anyway… and besides when you’re in France you should eat baguettes!

While we are sitting outside the lavamatique waiting for our wash cycle to finish to young men in white shirts and ties come over to talk to us. (I don’t think I need to spell it out, I think you know who I mean!). We were very polite to them, even when they told us that they don’t believe our baptism is a true baptism (AKA no heaven for us!) and when I told them that “everyone has their own truth” they proceeded to tell me that there was only 'One Truth’. (I’m pretty sure that they didn’t think my truth was the one). Steve told them, “ that there may only be one truth but what I believe is that everyone should simply be nice to each other…I don’t care what anyone chooses to be the absolute truth or who you care to worship as long as you’re nice to everyone.” To that they agreed that they too think it is a good idea to be nice. Anyway, we managed to finally smile them away with our passive-aggressivenss. 

As we were waiting for our clothes to dry Steve and I had a hilariously entertaining time thrilling each other with all the completely inappropriate things that we could have said. (I’m sorry I can’t write them here… we don’t want you guys to know how depraved we really are!) (Steve wants me to give you a hint: some phrases began with… “In your belief system, is it okay for your girlfriend  to ________” and also some fairly descriptive scenarios about possible baptism techniques…END OF HINT!)

Next we continued with a completely lazy day until the fireworks. We headed down to the Rotonde when it started to get dark, and then stood outside for quite some time waiting for them to start. I couldn’t enjoy one of my favourite past-times while I’m waiting which is eavesdropping… if I do I can only pick out random words in French; however, I did enjoy one of my other favourite past-times which is people watching. There were lots of pretty people, cute babies, cute puppies (by the way who brings their dog to the fireworks??? They do NOT like them!) and beautiful shoes! This is a town with a lot of different and nice shoes!

Anyway, the fireworks were worth the wait! It seemed like we were right underneath them (safety rules must be different here!). They went on for at least 5 songs and there were lots of pretty and interesting ones. Steve and I really enjoyed it. After the fireworks finished they started playing Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”. Was this a not so subtle message for people to clear out?

That was our lovely relaxing day in Aix. The plan tomorrow is to have another semi-relaxing day and maybe look at the shops… we still haven’t replaced Steve’s watch!