chouette
1. (adj) great
2. (noun) owlSo this time last week, we were in London, and it was fantastic. The noise, the traffic, the shopping, the restaurants, the sirens, the 24-hour supermarkets, the grunge, the grime, the crowds on the underground... all of it
exhilarated me.
I really do love big cities. But Gap is not a big city.
Now, it didn't take the trip to London to make me realize this. But after a few months in this sleepy little town, I had almost forgotten what it is like to stand packed into a crowded subway train, amidst people of all shapes, sizes, and ethnic backgrounds and to feel the excitement of all the
zillions of possibilities that cities have to offer.
Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of good things about Gap. It's little and charming and you can walk across town in ten minutes or less. People are usually friendly and you never have to wait very long in line (except at the Post Office, but don't even get me started on that...) I often bump into my students or my neighbour when I go to the bank or to a
boulangerie to buy a baguette, which give me a nice feeling of belonging. You can see the surrounding mountains from pretty much everywhere in town, and it's sunny almost every day.
But it's
small. And often less-than-exciting. That being said, the novelty of living in France hasn't worn off yet, which means that I still get a thrill out of loading up my basket with produce at the Saturday-morning market or ordering
"un petit café" after lunch out. I am very happy to remark upon and enjoy the small everyday details that remind me I am in France. I think what it comes down to, though, is the
lack of those endless possibilities that the city offers.
We bought "Time Out: London" upon our arrival in the Big Smoke last week, and just thumbing through the pages of listings for movies, live theater, museums, special exhibits, clubs, restaurants and pubs made my head spin. In my mind's eye, I pictured myself flitting from art gallery to chic boutique to trendy restaurant to up-and-coming club. (The reality was more about sleeping in, eating English breakfast while reading "The Guardian", picking a bit of London to wander around in, and then taking a break for tea at a café or a pint at the pub when our feet got tired.
But hey, we were on vacation!)
Samuel Johnson is the one who said,
"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life". Well, I'm definitely not tired of London or of life, but I'm maybe a little bit tired of living in a town of 40,000 people. So what to do?
I have resolved to find fun things to do here and to make an effort to get out and about as often as I can. I'm sure that I can find enough local happenings to make a (slim) issue of
"Time Out: Gap" if I try hard enough,
non ?
So, first up on the
"fun new things to do" list?
"La Nuit de la Chouette", which is basically
"Owl Night". Yep. It's an event organized by the Federation of French National Parks and the
Society for the Protection of Birds that takes place once every two years all over France (and in Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Tunisia, really!) This year is the 8th edition, whee! Basically, tomorrow night we will show up at a meeting spot in
Les Écrins, the local national park, armed with our hiking boots and our flashlights. We'll see a film about
les chouettes and then, accompanied by a park ranger/bird nerd (!), go tromp about in the woods and try to find us some owls.
Now THAT'S something you can't do in London!(P.S. Yes, I have tons of photos from our "city break" and will post them shortly... just as soon as I'm done with all this owl business!)
