france part two

my renegade suitcase arrived the next evening with huge rips in the nylon fabric. it's unclear what happened to it; looks like it was attacked by wild dogs. in any case, nothing inside was damaged except, strangely, a little eraser i bought with a picture of the eiffel tower on it, which was pulverized beyond recognition. delta provided me with a brand new nylon suitcase... but not with a new eraser, alas. mostly, i was relieved that the 1000 ml bottle of cointreau i bought at the duty-free shop in paris wasn't cracked.
anyway, to get back to our trip:
we spent three days in paris and then took a really fast, smooth train west to another city called nantes, which is not too far from the west coast of france. at the train station in nantes we were met by one of our hosts, fran's old friend rick (who is from corpus), who took us back to the house he shares with his french wife odile (another old friend of fran's) and their two daughters. the house is on a little farm in a community about 20-ish miles from nantes, called st. julien de concelles. there we did the following things:
-stayed in a garage apartment
-learned some french
-met emma (5) and chloe (16)
-watched zoe and emma play and fight
-relaxed
-had amazing meals, all very simply prepared
-drank great wine
-picked vegetables from the garden
-took walks
-took pictures
-had interesting discussions
-listened to birds in the trees during the day and the complete silence at night
-played with the dog pistache
-traveled to the coast and saw mont st. michel, st. malo, a small coastal town called pornic (great ice cream!), and toured a bit around the city of nantes, which has a real live castle and a gorgeous cathedral
...and much more!
people in the states had warned me about the snotty attitude of the french toward americans. we didn't run up against this at all. my attitude is that if you maintain a modicum of respect and politeness, awareness of customs, you will be treated in kind. i certainly found this to be true. once, in the train station, i asked a man in a uniform, "bon jour, m'sieur. parlez-vous anglais?" and he turned to me and said, "do you speak french?"
he had a wry french expression on his face as he said this. i continued with my question in english and he was perfectly helpful. i learned that the "bon jour" is a very important component in terms of manners. people want to be addressed properly, starting with a hello. doesn't seem like too much to ask, does it? actually it made me more aware of interactions i had when i got back to the states, and how common it is for employees and customers never to say "hello" to each other at all. if there's no "hello," it's all about the product; ideally, if there's a "hello," it's about people instead. would you rather your life be about products, or people? just asking.
the last time i was in europe i was in russia, so i couldn't help comparing my french experience to my russian one. it's a given that i love the russians and always will; at the same time, i found the french to be much more civilized, humane, and genteel. they care about the quality of each moment; there's beauty everywhere you turn; there's a relaxed sense of pro-human advancement. in russia (at least when i was there), i saw people struggling under the weight of life; their voracious partying was direct evidence of the hardships they felt. france has produced a milder person, someone who doesn't spend all his time fighting against a system, but who moves functionally within it, for the most part.
it would be interesting to compare how the arts are affected as a result of this difference in climate. is it really true that people tend to create more interesting art when they are oppressed in some way? i found myself wondering while i was in paris, "what is the theatre like here?" unfortunately i didn't have time to find out.
(just to reiterate: i will always love russia and russians. but the contrast was interesting.)
in car drives, rick and i had good discussions. we talked about music, movies, school, china, insurance companies... he told me about france's health care policy, and talked about how the united states could improve theirs.
imagine my sense of synchronicity when, three days after my return to the united states, i saw michael moore's new movie, sicko, which takes apart american health care and even compares it to france's. the point was driven home, back home. it seems to me that those french are doing a lot of things right.
next entry: more about paris!