La Lingerie, les lunettes et les écharpes are alive and well in France. I wonder if some people who do not need glasses where them because
les lunettes are definitely a fashion statement here.
Léo, a n 11 year old boy is a lovely
example of this fashion statement.
Les écharpes are worn
by men and women and
not only look great but come
in handy as the weather has been rainy for weeks.
And la lingerie? Suffice to say that some of the window
displays make a Victoria Secret catalogue look like a comic book.
Some other observations; I have stated in a previous blog that I find the schedule for the parent who works at home, almost always the woman, to be difficult; driving the children to school in the morning, picking them up at 11:30 for the mid day meal until 1:30 when they are returned to school until another pick up at 4:30, preparations of two main meals a day, no
wash and wear clothing but lots of ironing, washing machines that take over an hour to complete a cycle, stores, including grocery stores closing
entre midi, between noon and two each day, men leaving early for work in the morning and returning for the evening meal at 7.30 or 8 p.m., sometimes later. Ah some may think mistresses are alive and well in France. The only mistress I hear about is the computer where men spend copious amounts of time at home with their electronic lover. I wonder what would our households look like without computers or televisions or electronic games and where and with whom would we be spending time?
Of course these observations come from one Canadian woman living in the States and spending the summer in France listening to French women. I would like to listen to the men but they are
rarely home.
4 enfants +1 adult+1 baguette+du fromage+des pommes+ 1 treasure hunt= a great afternoon.
(I was the adult by the way)
Paul, Ludo , Yaëlle, Alec et myself toted our picnic up through a grape vineyard and onto a plateau overlooking Lessy. Immediately Paul and Ludo hunched over an old trenched road in search of treasures. Soon shouts of "regarde" were heard as one and than another found fragments of bombs dating from WWI and WWII. Another regarde, this time Alec as he uncovered the find of the day, an ancient fossil of a preserved snail. Ludo was quite imressed, "z best find of the day."
I stopped searching, stood straight to see the red roof tops stacked like playing cards fanned
out below in the village of Lessy. I looked down to my mud splattered probably-made-in- china-nikes to the earth beneath my feet.
I stand upon metal shards
of a violent past
Shards,
if gathered and glued
would piece together
a rusted, german grenade,
a made-in-america bomb
a metal patch-work quilt
fragment by fragment
that tells this story of
little legs running
through open fields
tiny fingers
picking and placing
buttercups beneath chins
and tucking daisies behind ears
7,8,9 year old
friends and cousins
huddled over these trenched roads
searching for clues of a time
when the sea ruled these hills
searching
until the bombs
fell
and fell
and fell
as in Gravelotte
a village not far
from here and now
where the children
looked up
way up
and saw
not cats and dogs raining down
but bombs
And here I stand
upon this French soil
years later
amidst unseen memorials
of book satchels,
paten leather mary janes,
momma knit vests
and tweed shorts
and I hear
"regarde."
