A blog about my travels and experiences dealing with public health around the world
November 10, 2009 4 Comments
I heard wine was cheap in France but I didn’t realise it until I took a good hard look in the wine aisle of the supermarket. Shocking…
This high end bottle costs a glorious Euro 1.93 which, I suspect, also includes tax.
Now we start getting into the classy stuff at Euro 1.15 (or Euro 1.59 if you dare…)
And the best for last, our prime house blend at Euro 1.09. Amazing…
November 3, 2009 Leave a comment
Halloween in France is not what I expected it to be. It doesn’t carry the same flare as Halloween does in North American and Halloween in France feels like the primordial ooze of a holiday compared to the super evolved hyperspecies it is in North America.
The holiday is new with people celebrating it for only four years or so. It has been accelerated by the club scene which decorates their walls with thematic pumpkin and ghoul cutouts but the translation for kids is not the same. Some kids do trick-or-treat and others don’t. In fact, I don’t think they get it as I found some kids trick-or-treating at 2pm. Their candy per hour ratio (a common calculation done by any experienced Halloweener – candy:time) is considerably low – and clearly they are bringing down the national average. I also barely found any decent candy in the supermarkets leading up to the holiday.
People also feel obligated to wear spooky costumes not realizing that you can really dress as anything you like. All the costumes in the stores had a witch-goblin-obese pumpkin theme to them. Silly rabbits…
For me, I didn’t do anything. I live and work in a remote part of Southern France and getting out of the area, even to find a decent Halloween event, is impossible. I miss Halloween – it is my favourite time of year.
Halloween is still in it’s infancy, like in many parts of Europe, but I hope to see the day evolve to the glorious, huggable monster it is in Canada and the US. Then, and only then, could I ever call any part of Europe home.
(by the way, only two weeks left and I head to Monrovia, Liberia)
October 25, 2009 Leave a comment
A city which reads like a formulaic romance novel sometimes opens it’s cover to reveal pages formed from square disco ball mirrors. As the light reflects, you gaze amazed at what you see. I arrived at Carcassonne expecting a simple wine festival but I got a lot more.
The festival was held in a small square in the downtown core of the city, away from the hypertouristy citadel of UNESCO notoriety. The stalls circled the open area and were filled with a local wine – a wine celebrated each year during it’s harvest. Bottles ran from a ridiculous 5 Euro to a whopping 8 Euro. Wine, as you can see, is as cheap as chips. By glass number three, I was already hearing the disco in my head.
Disco rained through the event. First, it came from one stall and the crowd lovingly congregated around the deep funky sound waves, huddled around wine barrels used as tables and freely uncorked. Then, without notice, the Docteur arrived.
There is nothing more I can say about Docteur Groove that the video cannot. Truly, the tuxedo with tails lined in zebra print are an expression of their awesomeness. I cannot imagine anything more incredible than an 8 piece brass band with added electric guitar and percussion playing James Brown and other funk classics.
My time in France has been about French food. I may never have another time to experience this food and so I have been engorging myself in all the French culinary experience possible from the bizarre french fry and duck fat sandwich to the charros to the beef bourgneon.
I had never heard of the Gibson Brothers before but they are apparently quite big here. The sing in English, Spanish, French and in the greatest language of them all – DISCO. With hips shaking, two massive drum solos and an abundance of audience participation, the disco rang large from the Brothers with two versions of CUBA.
Charlotte is a friend of mine whom I met many years ago in India. She took a small trip to Carcassonne away from her English home to meet me for the festival. It was wonderful to see her.
Sorry for taking so long to post. This was all done last weekend but it has take me a while to get my YouTube videos uploaded.
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