Men in Skirts

Et alors... Voila que je suis de retour sur mon ‘blog’. J’ai décidé cette fois ci de l’écrire tout en français. Ya... that’s not going to happen. Although curiously enough, Word recognized that I was writing this in French and is now trying to correct every English word that I write. Wish I had known this a while ago. It could have saved me some embarrassing work emails.

The big news of the last week or so is that I have now moved. It’s a mixed blessing of sorts. I’ve left the ‘hood and am now in much more comfortable surroundings. Neighbourhood-wise. I’m now in Montmartre so you would now all be correct in your visions of me in sitting in a quaint Parisian café with a coffee in one hand and a baguette in the other. Apartment-wise though, I am now truly living the Paris experience with a grand total of 230 sq ft of living space. It’s good though; If I want breakfast in bed, I can actually make it from bed! Fortunately the weather has been good enough lately that I can get outside a bit more and not feel completely cooped up.

I think I mentioned it before but I think I’ve seen most of what I need to see in Paris and it’s time to take advantage of being over here to explore some areas I may otherwise not have. Thanks to those of you who sent me some suggestions. My agenda is pretty much set for the rest of my weekends. I’m off to the Alps this weekend, Corsica the next and then Normandy and Bretagne for my last weekend. Hard to imagine that this is all the time that I have left here. I’m not complaining though... it’s time to go home.

As for the last few weekends, I spent them in Amsterdam and then Alsace. The two don’t belong in the same sentence but there you go. Amsterdam was a chance to catch up with some friends and visit some old stomping grounds. The city never disappoints me in that a bizarre experience can always be waiting for you around the corner. My weekend there happened to coincide with Scotland playing Holland for World-Cup qualifications and the city was flooded with men in skirts (they were kilts in medieval times, now let’s just call them what they really are). The official tally was somewhere around 15000. There’s a point to these facts though; I was recruited (unwillingly) to play wingman for a friend who decided that she was taking home a kilt that night, with or without a Scotsman in it. I was conflicted... I barely wingman for men, let alone women but the challenge was too amusing to not be part of it in some way. Actually, I would have thought that it should have been quite easy for a cute Englishwoman to bring a drunken Scotsman home, but apparently, football weekends are all about the ‘boys’. The goal changed from taking one home to just getting a picture in one but even that was harder said than done. The legend, it would appear, is true. T’ain’t nothing underneath them skirts but what the good lord gave them. We know this because, after politely refusing, a nice Scot didn’t a survey of his friends to see if any of them were wearing their kit underneath. Not-a-one. Again, I would have thought that a drunken Scotsman would have been more than happy to parade naked around the streets of Amsterdam but there’s just another stereotype broken. (you need to look at the picture to the left to know that there is a stool in a pub on Leidsplein that will forever be out-of-bounds) Ah, but I wasn’t disappointed when we finally did find a willing volunteer (wearing shorts thank God) and for his kindness asked my friend “can I have me a little grope now?” In front of his son no less.

From the surreal to the sublime. I spent last weekend touring around the Alsace region. Not much to report on that. Walled medieval towns, great food, a new wine region to explore. Very French with just a little bit of German in there to remind you how close to the border you are. However, as if someone knew that I was writing a blog, the town of Riquewihr was kind enough to be holding a roll-playing game convention that weekend. Think Star-Trek convention but with a Dungeons and Dragons theme, bigger nerds and more elaborate costumes. Interesting side note here; there is no French word for nerd. I tried to explain what it means but the concept doesn’t exist. The spirit definitely does though.