Student Strikes and Fairy Tales

film|mensonges, trahisons… et plus si affinité
|2046
lit|l’enfer – rené belletto
music|mon h.l.m. - renaud

I took a quick look on CBC this weekend, and I saw that all the fuss about the CPE here in France had finally made the international news. Hélène hasn’t had class in two weeks, and as for me, well, besides blocking my way to the damn computer lab once in awhile, all SUEE (International Student classes, i.e. me) are allowed to continue. I think we’re just not worth the hassle. I’ve also discovered the easiest way to cross the blockade is simply to speak horrid French with a heavy American accent (which probably isn’t all that different from my French anyways, but you get my drift). However, the way the blockade inevitably adds five minutes to my journey to class… which of course means I am now regularly five minutes late for class. C’est la vie.

The best part of this blockade has been its impact on my work. At the high school where I teach English the students have occupied the school (like something straight out of the 60s, sit-ins with bongo drums and guitars etc.) and the teachers are on strike against the CPE as well. Translation, literally one week after I actually began teaching classes I am now on strike, and I will still receive my bursary. Score!

So Hélène finds herself on premature vacation, and I’m finding work to be a lot less work than I originally imagined. There is going to be a huge nation wide strike Tuesday, so nothing will be open and no one will be working. In French culture, this concept is also known as Sunday + downtown protest. Simple really.

The whole debacle behind the CPE is really quite interesting. Essentially, for the last 10 years the French youth unemployment rate has been about 10% higher than the national rate, and so after much toil and trouble the government is proposing this solution: to encourage employers to take a chance on young workers, the CPE will give them the right to fire them without cause during the first two years of employment. This of course addresses the problem of a lack of experience, but not the problem of the marginalization of youth in French culture (and has actually made them feel even more marginalized), and the youth have responded. So the question is whether the government will repeal the law, and if not, how the population will respond. Stay tuned.

So with our new found free time, Hélène and I did a wee bit of hiking the other day with a few of our friends around Clermont and partied a wee bit too. I’ve included a few photos for your viewing pleasure (including one of us profiting from low cost French wine, and of the introduction of the Crazy Creek to the French community).

As for those of you who are still in Canada, do not miss the Matthew Good solo acoustic tour! It’s killing me to know it’s going on while I’m away!! The setlists look great, and even better he’s telling stories, going on rants, and taking shots with the audience all the way through with as much passion as ever. Plus he’s playing Can’t Get Shot In The Back If You Don’t Run – love that song! If it ain’t sold out, go get tickets, so that I may live vicariously through you.

I’m proud to announce that I’ve triumphed over my second French novel, which wasn’t half bad, a detective story that prides itself on breaking every rule that detective stories typically use. Nothing mind blowing, but y’know, it was 400 pages long, so I was proud of myself for getting through it. As for film, I’ve seen so many movies these last little while, but two cool ones I saw are listed above, a funny comedy about a writer who writes celebrities autobiographies for them (my favourite is when he’s having a meeting with the captain of France’s football team, and he asks him to write his autobiography “like Baudelaire”, and then hands him a copy of the The Flowers of Evil telling him “don’t worry, I’ve highlighted the good parts”) and then the other being a really crazy film from China, worth watching for the visuals but the story is interesting too. Finally, I’m starting to get into French music because we’re studying it as poetry in class. French music is striking for it’s lack of real harmony, but deep lyrics which I still have trouble completely understanding. M. Renaud is a good example, he just adores slang. But the song Mon H.L.M. is somewhat a portrait some of the awful personalities that exist in France, and of couse, some 30 years later, nothing much has changed. My favourite is the beauf – slang for beau-frère or borther in law – which is kind of a sleezy Frenchmen who works out a lot and has slicked hair, who is very conservative, and loves to vacation in a sort of trailerpark / camping environment. I suppose think Julian of the Trailer Park Boys, but French and not as funny.

Finally, Hélène and I both just returned from Tours after spending the weekend there, where I took in some more incredible castles, such as the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty (Ussé), and the castle where Leonardo DaVinci is buried (Ambroise), and finally another castle built on water (Azay-de-Rideau) which was really cool, but not as cool as my favourite, Chenonceaux, which I saw my first visit to Tours. I’ve enclosed a few photos, including one where it looks like I’m lost in a fairy tale. The nights were also great. Friday night we grilled up a storm over an open fire in a Cave of a friend of Hélène’s parents. This was literally somewhat of a summer home dug out form the soft rock of the area, perfect because inside it’s always the same temperature and thus great for storing wine, partying etc. Our Saturday night was really fun, we spent it partying down by the Cher river where a whole bunch of students and artsy type people (as well as street people) were gathered to celebrate essentially nothing more than it finally being warm enough outside to party. There were people playing all sorts of instruments together, just giving ‘er and not carrying about anything, which created a great atmosphere but some gawdawful music. Imagine Broke Social Scene gone terribly, terribly wrong. But it was a great time, it was too bad I didn’t have my camera with me to get a pic, between the setting, the atmosphere, and the characters wandering about it was definitely something else.

As for the more artsy posts I’d promised last time around, I haven’t really gotten around to it, but I will sometime soon, lately I’ve been too busy writing damn compte-rendus and chapters for a French novel (seriously, but we’re writing it all together as a class, I’ll explain another time).

I’m also sending in my application today for an internship with the United Nations (!) so everyone keep their fingers crossed for me. Also, write a message to me dammit, I’d love to hear from ya! In the next posting, you can look forward to crazy stories from Amsterdam, as we’re spending our spring vacation celebrating Queen’s Night and Queen’s Day there! Supposed to be the craziest party that Amsterdam has all year, so I’m really looking forward to it (and if the difficulty we had tracking down a hostel is any indication, it should be a blast). Until then…