Protests, Paintings and Markets

Friday was a day like none other. It was actually kinda like 5 days in one. I had a class at 8:15am and almost froze in attempting to get there. The sign at the pharmacy said 6.9 degrees celsius - but I swear it was lying. The class was good, except for the part where I didn't know that I had to teach the group (I still don't know why teachers think it's ok to not tell you their plans for the first class...). The students in this class are really talented. They range between 17 and 21 years old, and are very well spoken and very interested in teaching. I didn't even need to do a lesson because they had so many questions for me and general interest in the difference between France and the US. I'm really excited to work with this group - also, they are specializing in design and architecture, so will get to talk to them mostly about art and architecture (love it!).

After class I finished up my social security paperwork and job paperwork - so now I officially have health insurance and might actually get paid by the end of October! The excitement of being done with forms put a spring in my step, so as I left work I couldn't have been in a better mood. I caught my first bus, had a nice ride and then waited for my second bus. And waited and waited and waited ... The 5 was not coming. Another young guy was waiting with me and we started talking about the situation (and he understood me!). A different bus pulls up and tells us that the 5 isn't coming because of an agricultural protest blocking transportation in the city center... well crap. Where I live is a bit too far to walk (and I was wearing high heels since I had just come from work) so I decided to do what any logical would do - go and see the protest!

As I was walking toward the city center I was stopped by a man who handed me a sack with an apple, an onion and a whole bunch of wheat grains. Then he asked me to sign some form - I said I was American and he said no big deal - so I signed it mostly so that they would leave me alone. What I signed? I have no idea. So then as I'm walking along I pass a truck that's hurling 5 kilo sacks of potatoes onto the streets.

A group of people eventually gather around the truck asking the man to throw them more gently because they want to eat them - so pretty soon I find myself in the crowd being handed a huge sack of potatoes. So there I am, in heels and work wear with a sack of apples and onions AND a 5 k sack of potatoes. I sat down for a while to watch the action - there had to have been at least a couple hundred people marching and yelling being followed by several farm trucks (one of which almost ran me over). I was content to just sit and watch until they started firing guns into the air - then I decided to leave. I started walking toward Caitlin's place (hoping to unload the potatoes) and meet a woman in the street who kinda follows me around for a bit asking about the potatoes - I eventually give her 1/4 of the sack worth of potatoes (I tried to unload the whole thing on her, but she said it was too heavy to carry). I finally make it to Caitlin's place - and decided to meet up with Seamus for lunch. On the way out I run into an English teacher who wanted to come to see the protest. So back out we went.

Most of the action was over by the time we got there, but we did discover the streets to be covered in rotting food and regular food as well as a pile of tires on fire in the middle of the road along with a pile of manure on fire. We also found out why the busses had stopped running - the farmers had created a blockade with a huge amount of tires which was blocking off the main road for transportation. Along with all the food in the streets were a handful of French people rooting through it attempting to find anything edible (and therefore free). In the end I had 1 head of lettuce, 1 sack of onions, 1 sack of potatoes and a handful of beets (I ate the apple for lunch).

In the end, it felt a lot like being in the French revolution. Things burning in the street, rotten food everywhere, people rifling through to find a free meal and exchanging their finds to end up with some of everything. Here's some pictures:

Crushed onions

rotting food in the streets

manure + protest sign

potatoes + tires in the fountain (and people trying to salvage the good ones)

harvesting potatoes and beets in the streets

barricading the streets

The amazing thing? The streets were clean by 5pm and by the next morning it looked like nothing had happened. Amazing.

After all of this we had a very lovely lunch following by a really fun evening.

Yesterday Caitlin, Seamus and I decided that it would be lots of fun to make paintings of the Joan of Ark statue - best experience ever! The three of us perched ourselves on a little window ledge, busted out our 7 tempra paints meant for children and went to work. Everyone walking by looked very entertained - some even stopped and chatted with us. The three paintings turned out pretty amazing - but you wouldn't know that we were all painting the same thing! Best souvenir ever! Here's what the square looks like, sadly I don't yet have pictures of the three paintings:


This morning I ventured to an outdoor stuff market (like a flea market, except very french). I ended up with an amazing copper pot for my mom and a great postcard from the 1900s! I love France!