(no subject)

July 9-10, 2003: assorted highlights of getting to France, and the first day there, as excerpted from, added to, or just plain rewritten from the couple of pages in my tiny notebook that I carry for just such a purpose:

( At Logan airport )

( In the air over the Atlantic )

( At CDG airport )

( Lyon )

July 12, Pont-l'Abbé

I want to skip ahead a couple of days, to the evening of July 12. We're in Pont-l'Abbé, a large town in the Pays Bigouden in Brittany, not far from Quimper. It's a festival weekend. J. and Michele, our kindly hostess, are talking in French about politics with a woman who turns out to be a Jehovah's Witness, while I stand by largely uncomprehending. In the background, fireworks explode (properly) accompanied by a mix of the Amélie soundtrack, Breton music, and Lisa Gerrard (also singing Breton music)(*1). Not far from there, a Bolivian band, badly scheduled, play to an empty square.(*2) An aged woodworker, one of the traditional craftsmen displaying their prowess for the festivalgoers, keeps crouching down near the Jehovah's Witness woman's legs. As she explains, oblivious, why God should be in charge of the government, he is trying to give her little dog some beer. J. notices what he is doing, and he winks at her.

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(*1) With Breton singer Denez Prigent; a song from the "Black Hawk Down" soundtrack, I later learn. Perhaps it's time to add to my "soundtracks of movies I have never seen" collection.
(*2) Don't worry; they have an enthusiastic audience later on when the fireworks are over, including the most unrhythmically hand-clapping blonde woman in all the EU.

Some headlines

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/20/bush.poll.ap/index.html

Bush's overall job approval dropped 8 points since May to 55 percent,
according to a new CNN-Time poll.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/07/21/bush.terror/index.html

President Bush on Monday accused Syria and Iran of continuing to "harbor and assist terrorists," an act he called "completely unacceptable."