Streetscape: Bourges, France.
Fri. June 20, 1980. (notes from my sketchbook journal: The Johnson County girl comes out).
Well! I am writing this so I will remember how I feel but won’t write that home. We are in Bourges in an Auberge de jenuesse. It is the pits. There is a festival going on in Bourges so there is a huge group of 15-16 yr. old girls from Brittany. It is quite pungent.
The bus couldn’t get on the street to the Auberge so we all had to get out of the bus and pick up those little Italian cars so we could get by. In the meantime, we caused a HUGE traffic jam & people were furious. Lots of yelling and gestures.
Dinner was at 7:30. It was a sort of dormitory place. It consisted of 1/2 grapefruit (pamplemousse), some kind of mystery sausage that looked like hormel sausage uncooked, rice, cheese, & apple. Then everyone stacked up the dishes and scraped plates, at the table. Then we sponge off table and dry the silverware. The curfew was 11:00 pm and I took one look at the 8″ of water standing in the shower & decided not to bath for two days until Morzine. You can imagine how wonderful I am in this sort of environment.
We did go to a town carnival after dinner which was a lot of fun. [my motivation for Thursday night’s visit to carrousel in Wichita, June 9, 2011]. All the same bumper cars, games, rides, lights, but beignet & gauffre (thick waffles with whipped cream and berries) & escargots instead of popcorn, cotton candy, and hotdogs.
Cindy (Bean) and I ran at 10:00 pm. It was still light and no one bothered us (3 mi.). Talked to Amy and Ginna Getto outside for a while. We all agreed to travel in groups of 3 & save money for hotels. The truth is finally out after we all tried to be cheery on arrival.
Tomorrow I’m going to the Festival here & the Bourges Cathedral. Au revoir à demain!
P.S. Bedtime
There is a sheet sleeping bag you stick your feet in and a horsehair blanket! 🙂
You would be proud of my attitude here, though. I have been thoroughly pleasant. Much nicer than I would be with my own family.
P.S. June 10th, 2011. I read this last week. And, as I went to yoga, I noticed that a Carnival was setting up in the parking lot behind Siva next to the Baseball Stadium. This area used to be the old airport runway. Friday evening after my class, I could not resist.
the best horse!
and the best shoes!
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Oh Paula, I remember that Auberge. It was so gross.I guess we had been spoiled up until that point. I remember going on a carnival ride there and being terrified because it was so rickety.
There is a later post about the carnival, Ginna. I forgot about how rickety those rides were. I saw a carnival the other night after reading about our adventures at the carnival and rode the Merry-Go-Round. Yes, some of our safety considerations are certainly a lot better in America.