Last week in France

The rest of my time in France was a pleasure. I spent Thursday evening on my own, walking around the Marais neighbourhood as people were congregating in the bars and restaurants among friends. I ended up finding a little hole-in-the-wall Irish Pub, Stoney's, where I managed to spend the rest of the evening drinking pints of a Belgian beer called 'Cheap Blonde' among a friendly crowd of expats from the US, Canada, and various European countries. The bartender was a Vancouverite by the name of Dave that didn't speak a word of French. It was a fun evening.

I spent Friday evening with friends at a nice restaurant in the Bastille neighbourhood, Café de l'Industrie, eating good food and drinking lots of red wine. They brought along a friend of theirs, Virginie, who had spent about two years studying the behaviour of bonobos in captivity. She was pretty jealous that I would be spending the next nine months in the middle of bonobo country - something that she had never managed to do, though always aspired to. It was good to hear some of her stories; it really makes me look forward to observing the species doing their thing in the forest.

After the café, I continued the evening with two friends at a 30th birthday party/ housewarming party at a Parisian apartment. I had actually studied in Montreal a few years ago with the woman of the couple hosting the evening. Overall though, I felt somewhat out of place. I guess I'm just used wilder parties, whereas this crowd seemed fairly muted. Plus, I hadn't shaved in about a week (I didn't pack shaving cream for the jungle!), so I felt pretty scruffy.

Saturday I went to Lyon again to visit Mélanie, and ended up at another 30th birthday party. This one was very structured, with the various courses of food being placed on the buffet table at clearly-timed intervals. Champagne was served when the cakes finally made their appearance, and the birthday girl, Lorraine, made a speech. I was really tired, but Mélanie still convinced me to dance the night away to the mp3 songs of her choosing until well after 3am.

Sunday was a day of field trips. We first visited St-Etienne, which is about an hour outside of Lyon. The town has a bit of a bad reputation among everyone I spoke to, and we soon realised that yes, the place could use a bit of help. Mélanie just started her job as the transport coordinator for the St-Etienne region, so perhaps she'll be able to contribute to the betterment of the place.

Once we had had enough of St-Etienne, we continued along the train line to Firminy. Firminy is a smaller town than St-Etienne, but we both found it to be more welcoming. It's claim to fame is a big site designed by Le Corbusier, who is pretty famous in urban planning and architectural circles. For us, it was a pilgrimage of sorts, to go check out his creations. What I found impressive is that the town recently completed the last building of the complex, although Le Corbusier died about four decades ago. It was a really cool-looking church that followed the original plans almost exactly. The interior was very serene, with holes pierced in the wall behind the altar to appear as a constellation.

I headed back to Paris on Monday, and prepared for my departure. Tuesday morning departure for Kinshasa!