So, back to school, back to work, back to getting on with your life now that the relaxed, do nothing, don’t bother months of July and August are rapidly becoming nothing more than faint memory – it’s “La Rentrée”.
La Rentrée is like a second start to the year in France. It not only marks the start of a new school term but more like a start of a new year for all. A new year that runs between September and December of course.
La Rentrée was a non event for me because I was in Lyon all throughout August and spent most of my time moaning how my local butcher, hairdresser, tabac, boulangerie, traiteur, market and you name it were all closed. Oh, how I now wish I had cherished those moments of peace and quiet and free car parking now that the craziness of city life has taken over again.
Never was there such a reminder as to what hell living in a city can be as this Monday. A simple trip to the garage and back to pick up my car. When we dropped it off before La Rentrée, a round trip took a maximum of 40 minutes. This was to reach the other side of Lyon, driving through the city centre and back.
Not to be this Monday. No, it took no less than 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete the drive there and back. This was certainly not helped by the fact that the education workers were striking and had decided to march right through the centre of Lyon, exactly the same route that we were trying to take!
Each time we turned into a street we were greeted by the barricade of police blocking the street so that those who were on strike could march their way through. As we weaved our way desperately around the city, swinging a left turn here and a right turn there we gained speed on the procession but lost lots of time on the clock. It was rather like starring in our very own PacMan arcade game; desperately trying to escape the demonstrations and reach our destination before they did.
When we did finally reach the garage I was dumbfolded to see that the protestors had arrived before us. Upon closer inspection it didn’t look like they were protesting at all, they had a marching band, a singer and seemed in very good spirit, not upset about anything at all! Maybe they were extra pleased as they’d beaten us there?
On a side note, I didn’t realize that this was not the main strike and that there was a national strike on Tuesday. I doubt those that protested on Tuesday were in such high spirits mind, it absolutely peed down with rain all day long…
I saw the strikes on the news – it looked like it was sunny in Paris, not p*ing down like it was here.
No more fondue lacerations or anything to report?
Hope you’re doing ok! My blog visits are a bit sporadic
How about a blog on 1001 things to do with courgettes? I know you did one a while back, but you can’t have too many courgette recipes! Meanwhile, if there’s anyone in the Creuse who wants free range eggs, we’ll pay you (not really) to take them off our hands.
Back to la rentrée, our hairdresser closed for the day, and changing the subject, just how many businesses close for the whole of August? Haven’t they heard of tourism? And do the ones that remain open get extra stock in? No.
The French make me despair as you would over a child that couldn’t grasp the basics of tying shoelaces.
Hi Gillpj! How are you keeping? I find it hard to visit blogs often during the summer too, especially as the weather was a bit hit and miss, whenever it was nice I longed to be sitting outside!
Nothing major to report here (yet! I hope to have something MAJOR soon!) apart from me turning into Ugly Betty… No fights with fondue sticks anyway
mmm, courgettes… I’ve gone right off courgettes at the moment, I can’t stand the sight of one yet alone even contemplate eating one. It may be a while before I can pluck up the courage to cook with them again. Maybe I can do 1001 ways to eat without using courgettes (this is already proving hard as many of the recipes I know have courgettes in them!).
I love how you compare the French and your desperation to that of a child trying to tie shoelaces, excellent!
July and August are quickly turning into a faint memory, I really don’t know where the time has gone.
La rentrée is different here, everything gets quiet and the village returns to a ghost town as everyone abandons their holiday homes. Wish there was some sort of in between. I definitely don’t want to be stuck in traffic for 2 hours but lord it’s quiet here!
I don’t know where the time went either, it’s pretty damn scary.
I am not sure if I’d like to have everything go deadly quiet after a busy summer, is it a bit like the day after a party?
I’m thankful not to be living in a large city any more. I live on the outskirts and my job is also on the outskirts 5 mins away, so I can avoid all the heavy traffic going into the centre.
It’s the little things that make a huge difference to quality of life.
Hi Sarah, your comment has set off a whole new set of ideas in my head about the little things making a difference to quality of life. I’ll develop more as ideas and plans progress but a big THANK YOU!
No great difference out in the sticks between the holiday months and the rest of the year.
The duck stealer went off on a coach trip with his wife…presumably scouting for more duck stealing opportunities…but that was about it.
His son didn’t even go away for a weekend this year, now he’s reached the magic age of forty which seems to mean that you are on a curfew and have to be home by night.
Unless you’re out scouting for ducks, like Dad.
hmm, worth considering the sticks then… looks like I’ll be fine so long as I don’t have ducks?
Does he steal rubber ducks too?
Everybody gets all worked up in September. There seems to be a frenzy of activity. As for the strike, well they are always planned for early September to give people another little break.
yes! and how about the one planned for next week? They have managed to plan yet another strike for the only day in September I am due to travel (to Montpellier) by train. Arggghhh! What will it be? Their third day off in September?
i can understand about needing a break though, it’s damn hard actually working rather than pretending to work as I was doing during the summer
People are really motivation in September until Touissant hits and all is lost! Then it’s back to slacking off for the rest of the year…
I think the slacking has already started in my industry
Quite a complex conspiracy against you. Thank God I’m just a nobody
Seriously, we get a lot of parades and processions here and yes, it is irritating.
LOL! I don’t think I would mind parades and processions as much, it’s just all the negativity about strikes and how it is always the same people striking here – most of them already have more job security, more benefits than the rest of us, makes me sick to the teeth especially when I spend hours driving around to get from to A to B because of them. BARRGGGHHHHHJJJJJJJHHHHHHHHHH angry me!
I can get almost everywhere her in Aix faster on foot than I can in a car. Until yesterday. I got stuck in a crowned of happy strikers outside the prefecture. The street is so narrow and they all seemed to want to be right in front of the door. Who knows what they were striking about. I don’t even think that they knew! But it was definitely THEIR street and I had to find another way around.
oh Happy Strikers! There’s a new one! Isn’t Aix a bit big to walk everywhere Delana? You must be very fit! I can imagine if they’re striking in the streets then it could be quite difficult to get around the narrow streets, maximum disruption as always then!
How is the quitting smoking going?