These last months have been filled with a lot of lasts. Last piano lesson, end of school concert, last day of school, last good-byes with extended family and friends, last day of work.... At the moment, I’m here in Stella Plage (https://maps.google.fr/maps?hl=fr) at the sea with the grandparents and the kids. School has been finished since the 5th of July, and the summer vacations started asap.
But before the summer vacation started, I’ve taken as much from Paris as possible.
Solidays happened. Solidays is Paris’s biggest music festival, with Rock artists, and DJ’s at night, and a large variety of artists during the day. I went during the night with three friends, and was lucky enough to see The Kills!! This was my summer festival replacement. This festival is not near as great as the Winnipeg Folk Festival... but I had a great time nun the less.
Gay Pride happened. The parade was gigantic, and much more progressive than I expected. Thousands of people from the LGBTT community walked the route proudly in support of LGBTT issues in their own personal style. For example: depression, marriage rights, aids, homophobia, same sex adoption. My best friends birthday happened to fall on this week-end, so we went out to celebrate and had a ball for my last week-end in Paris.
The «Thé Nouveau» happened. The ‘new tea’ is a big extended family reunion/event that takes place once a year. This year, we went to a modern quarter in Paris where there are many universities and schools. We started with a modern church tour, and then we walked to a library consisting of 4 towers with halls connecting them under the ground level. Placed in the centre of these four towers is a forest that has been planted very diligently. Hundreds of species of snails, and insects inhabit this mini paradise giving a peaceful view for the hard workers on the inside.
Here in Stella, the new au pair has arrived (my replacement). He and the family takes off for vacations on the 21st of July and then I will have some time to get my things together between then and the 25th. I’ll have a little party to see some of my friends for the last time then I’m off.
I think I’ll try and debrief my year in a different blog, because until I actually hop onto the plane, I won’t believe that my france adventure is actually ending...
See you all soon!
