The Things One Misses

"Bob really misses the Macy's Parade."

Ourselves

Autumn has been slow to arrive here in the Dordogne. It's well into October and we are still enjoying sunny days and temperatures in the 80’s. As summer seemed to go on forever, so too did the literally hundreds of local festivals in our area. And even now some festivals still diesel along with these fine warm days. 


The early morning autumn air is crisp. But there is something missing in the mid-day air.  Gone are the bubbling sounds of foreign accents-- Dutch, German, American, and crisp Parisian accents (Parisians are considered foreigners down here.). The last festival -- for pumpkins-- is still ahead of us. But there are no more the town wide yard sales with hundreds of sellers and miles of walking, gawking and occasional shopping. Gone are the elbow pushing mornings at the weekly markets.  No more can we slip ourselves into someone else's vacation video.

With this seasonal quiet time we are all more playful, more laid back, and are able to linger and visit. The now-occasional weekend events have become more quaint. They are put on more for the locals than the tourists. One event is to raise money for an old dog's retirement home. Another proudly touts the advantages of ecologically-minded farming. A third is a festival of recycling and re-using household trash (Tom calls this the "Fete de Garbarge")

It's fun to see children engaged in the activities and hear the sing-song country French of our neighbors. 

The hustle bustle of summer was grand but how wonderful to just be with ourselves for a while.

Friday's Petite Aquarelle

Town Band, Riberac

No French No Problem

Believe it or not.....

Amazing but true there are people that live in our region that do not speak any French. Well they can mumble hello, good bye and please, but not even a thank you.

Here are some alternative forms of communication that I have seen, and at times had to resort to myself, mostly gestures and drawings with a smattering of english spoken with a French accent. Not one thing to do with a real french word or phrase.

“Where is the rest room?”

The kindergarten hop from one foot to the other while holding ones crotch.

“Do you have a philips head screw driver?”

Standing in the hardware store with a sample screw in one hand and the other hand moving around above the screw, like a magician trying to conjour up the right tool.

“Will I need flood insurance?”

A scribble of a house with a river flowing through it. Or was that a boat out on the ocean?

“I would like that cake in the window.”

Zat one, no zat one, no zat one further over, no no no YES!

“Two please.”

Dear reader: try this-- hold up your fingers to show that you want two of something. Now change that to your thumb and second finger, because this is how the French do their fingers for “two”.

Now you see why non French speakers end up with three of everything.

“I would like a cantaloupe, a zucchini, two peppers, a pound of green beans and enough pork roast for three people.”

Point, point, fingers up point, run down the line of people standing at the market stall, point, motion handfuls, and then motion mouthfuls.

Tom’s favorite:  In failing to be understood by one Frenchman, The non-French speaker will try to get another Frenchman to understand and to act as a non-French-to-French translator.  This invariably ends up with a small crowd forming, everyone having a different understanding of what is trying to be said.  Soon everyone is just talking about the weather.

Why would one speak the local language when not doing so gives one the chance to awaken the communicative creative side in all of us?