Smoke and Rabbits

She smelled like smoke and she was eating rabbit. Her roommate Sam is friendly and a great host. He is the French cliché – he smokes all the time, he sells fancy cheese and wine to shops all along the coast and is planning to do the same in NYC next year, he doesn’t speak much English, he listens to old American hip hop and great French singers from the 60’s, he wears cool hats,he smokes continously, he paints, and he cooks – three nights ago it was Tartiflette- a traditional French meal of the mountains…onions, potatoes, cream, and some very good and very smelly cheese, and last night it was plat mijote du lapin – a special marinated rabbit dish. Dinners are late, with French pop idol in the background and some fairly interesting snippets of conversation – whatever she could muster with her French - about everything from the family’s tradition of dining together, to abortion rights in France, to favorite political activists.

This morning she forced herself out of bed early, which is difficult to do with no natural light in the room, and puttered around until early afternoon. Layering up for the chilly temperature outside, she grabbed a scarf and off - following cobblestone alleyways until she reached the river. Across a bridge dodging traffic that never ever obeys any city signs,she reached the isle de nantes- the recovering industrial section of the town. A large yellow crane still stands as testament to the once thriving ship-building industry that powered Nantes, but now wharfs and equipment are a nostalgic attraction. The city was celebrating the christening of a new boat - a huge creation - built for speed and power (in some foreign place) and completely out of place in a village where everything moved at its own slow pace and where industry was pretty much nonexistant. Still it was here, for some reason, and small windsurfers and skippers skirted around the massive sailboat floating flags that proclaimed "I'm Free" in french and english.

Across the bridge back over to town where on her two hour walk she encountered - a small street band comprised of a banjo, an accordion, a guitar, and a full size base, a flour-covered mime, a petting zoo outside of a cathedral, a traditional french marching band and dance group in the town square, a hepatitis c awareness event that released hundreds of colored balloons into the sky, and the tail end of a fashion show (its backdrop a cheap and bright carousel).

So much stimulation in such a small space- it was incredible- pockets of life and culture trying to break open into public space wherever. Hundreds of people swarmed around gazing at attraction after attraction.

She wonders if this is a normal Saturday and she is exhausted but smiling.