This weekend, a friend and I went to check out the beat box concert at the lake in Enghein-les-Bains and were blown away by a few things we saw there. First, we found a great little restaurant, Paradisio, at the rue de l'arrivée in Enghein and enjoyed a salade périgourdine (for her) and a chicken breast with a gorgonzola cream sauce, accompanied by green beans (for me).
We then walked over to the lake, and were feeling our age as we pondered how the throngs of 20-somethings could get into the music we heard, wondering how much the alcohol we saw and marijuana we smelled had to do with their delight. Then we watched as the beat box turned into so many different shapes and colors, the sounds reaching such extremes that I was afraid my eardrums might burst if they let things go just a little too far, by mistake. (By the way, in the video, the rectangle in the middle is where the DJs were, mixing it up, three men taking turns.)
The whole thing was an experience well worth the having, at least once. As we started to leave just before 1 a.m., a crowd moved towards us and we saw police coming just after them, with teargas guns, making us turn and run, too. We managed to escape that mess and a few moments later, saw other police officers jogging up to another incident. When we reached my car in the parking lot, we saw police with suspects blocking the nearest exit, so had to get out from the other end of the lot. My friend and I couldn't help but think outloud that this is the world our young teens will soon be going out in. Cringe.
The next day, my family and I took a ride out to Les Andelys, near Rouen, for their annual Medieval festival that my husband and I had wanted to go to for years. Here, we played medieval games along the shady banks of the Seine River, watched artisans demonstrate skills and listened to medieval music, a sharp contrast to the previous evening's acoustics. It struck me how diverse life can be at times, which is the motivation in bringing me to write a first post about living an Expatriate life.
Even if my life may not be as different as five or six hundred years of musical history by the fact that I live on two sides of the Atlantic, it does afford me a certain diversity of ideas, perspectives and experiences. I thought this weekend of contrasts was as good as any example to represent the expatriate life that any of us might lead.
American born, I have lived in France for 18 years, married to a Frenchman and bringing up two French-American children. We have just come back from a sabbatical in the U.S. and I am writing a book about it.
My intention for this blog is to be a place for exchanges between people who live, have lived, or would like to live an expatriate experience, whatever the country. I will post excerpts of my writing or things completely disconnected from them - such as this post - and hope to hear from anyone who happens to wind up on these pages.
Bonne lecture and I hope to hear from you!
