Meanwhile, in the off season

So skipping forward a few chapters we quit our London jobs and are now living in Paris. Hooray! Well, technically we're just outside of Paris proper in an area called Pantin which has been described as 'the hood' but we've been assured the part we're in has been gentrified and looking around it certainly seems that way.

The great thing is we've arrived for the summer festival season so there's heaps going on even out here. Last weekend was the fete de Pantin complete with street parade, loads of kids stalls and a live band with accordion playing French classics whilst retired locals were getting down on the dance floor (doing the Cha Cha says P2 - still looks like line dancing to me).

In the evening there was some cool performance art over the canal itself. An acrobat pulled some interesting and very expressive maneuvres suspended from a rope counterbalanced by a large wooden bucket of water. He'd use the canal to adjust the water level/weight of the bucket allowing him to do different movements. Extra atmos was provided by a solo alto sax paddling around in a boat.

Next weekend there's a fete de musique happening locally. Once we look into what's happening in the rest of Paris I'm sure my head will explode but for now, we've settled into a nice holiday routine of sleeping in and enjoying our petit dej before walking along the canal looking to feed 4 fluffy ducklings P2 has adopted.

Last night P2 suggested we try out escrime (aka fencing). To my relief the instructors were friendly and welcoming despite my limited French. I'm sure P2's smooth talking had something to do with it but when it came time to receiving instructions things got a bit tough. P2 understood most of it but there was little time to intepret before the instructor started calling "En garde! Riposte! Recule!" and I had to do my best to muddle through. Fortunately no harm came of my confusion but it occurred to me that French language lessons might be more immediately beneficial.