The last weekend of the school holidays I spent hanging out with my
friends as much as possible. Saturday we
had dinner at a friend’s place and then I stayed the night there. The next day after much chilling out
(pain-au-chocolat for breakfast, coffee etc) we decided to brave the weather
and go out for a run – a habit we had started.
The weather I might add that week had been atrocious with moments of
sun, then cold, forceful showers filled with hail. So we headed out for a run but before we got
out of the car it poured down, so we went for a drive and then it cleared so we
stopped in this gorgeous little village and went for a run in the countryside,
which was beautiful at the time with its bright yellow fields of rape seed in
bloom. On our way home we passed a
church that dates from the 12 century, so my friend pulled over his car and we
had fun exploring the surroundings of the church. It just blows my mind that in the middle of
rural Normandy there are buildings that are hundreds of years older than my
country and we would have driven past it and not even appreciated it.
This particular Sunday was the first round of the elections for the new
French president so it was back to L’Aigle to vote. My friend kindly and willingly, because he
loves showing off this stuff to me, let me come with him and I was able to see
how the system works, which is a bit different to NZ. They go in and all the candidates names are
printed out on bits of paper and you pick up either all of the bits of paper,
if you want your vote to be secret, or just the paper of the person for whom
you will vote. Then you pick up an
official blue envelope and you go to the booth, put in the paper of who you are
voting for, go to the box, put the envelope in the box (keep the other bits of
paper), sign your name off and leave. I
now have my own copy of the bits of paper and an envelope thanks to my friend –
but funnily enough, one of the names is missing! Which one...? Then it was off to another of our friend’s
house to watch the results being announced on TV.
The last week of school went by quickly (as has this whole time!), I did
pick up swimming in the last week and have discovered a new fantastic form of
exercise, we also made the most of the sauna and the water slide – lots of fun!
A lot of socialising and late nights in the last week, making the most
of last few moments left with my friends.
The last weekend was spent on the coast at Gouville. Where one of my friends had booked a
gite for the weekend (it was a long weekend) for her 30th birthday
party. It was a great night with a lot
of laughs as someone had bought dress-up clothes and we proceeded to pick’n’mix
and share the outfits – mostly wigs, while taking photos. Very hilarious. There was lots of dancing until the very small
hours of the morning. After that, even
though it was a long weekend, most people headed home Sunday afternoon (some
people did have work Monday). I got a
ride back with my friend and we ended up going past his parent’s place on the
way. After the usual yummy four course
meal they seem to put on whenever I am there, we were rather too tired for
another 3 hours of driving back to Mortagne so we stayed the night. Monday we spent most of the day meandering
back visiting little villages and Caen.
We also went past Coutances to see its famous cathedral and there
happened to me a whole lot of priests outside in gowns for some sort of
procession and we found out that there had been a ceremony to beatify someone – the step
before they become a Saint. There is so
much Catholicism here, it’s very interesting for me to try and get me head
around.
Back to Mortagne and the next day was May 1, the equivalent of Labour Day. My friend and I were just about to head out for another run when he got a call from another friend saying he was off to take part in the Worker’s Parade in Alencon, so off we went. It was mostly unionists and lefties (especially active with the upcoming second round of presidential elections) and quite an interesting experience (another uniquely French one). My other friend is an art teacher and does photography and is currently into street photography, so we had fun taking photos. Here’s a link of what he does
 |
| The black flag of anarchy - awesome! |
Then it was my last day, I spent it running around doing all my errands
and then had a ‘last supper’ with my French besties who have just been so kind,
loving, accepting and generous. I said a
very hard good-bye to my running buddy (we had hung out a lot!!) and then
stayed the night at another friend’s.
The next morning she dropped me off at the train station and it was one
of the most difficult things ever saying good-bye. We just sobbed and I waved goodbye through
the train window and she stood on the platform and waved back and we cried and
cried and cried. It was awful. It’s so crazy to believe that this part of my
life is over and that I don’t live in L’Aigle anymore (that reality hit me when
I had to fill in a form and had to put my NZ address instead of my French one) and
that I won’t be living there again doing all my normal daily life stuff with
these guys, zumba, running, Corto (the local bar), Chez Irene, the pool, my
op-shop where I volunteered, LeClerc, Lycee Napolean, speaking French, being
immersed in French, learning stuff all the time (about architecture,
philosophy, art, language etc etc), the food ...
I just have to look at it as a chapter in my life that has now come to
an end, but it was amazing and full of so many wonderful memories, and now is a
new chapter. I have no idea what is in
store in the next chapter, it’s still to be written...
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