We arrived in Orléans early that evening. When we took the train from the airport, I saw lots of beautiful graffiti and thought about the youth of color in France. Of course I’d heard about the violence before I left New York. Violence meaning the violence that drives someone with little to no chance of surviving in a capitalistic country when racist people don’t want to offer jobs to a largely immigrant population of people of color. And as ‘socialist’ as you, La France, want to believe yourself to be, this problem is your slip showing and proof that you dropped the ball a long time ago. La France, your motto of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” is a joke because, right now, there are Black and Arab people in your fraternity, in your brotherhood, in your family that don’t have either liberty or equality. La France, qu’est-ce que vous allez faire? I wondered that myself as more beautiful graffiti decorated the landscape between Paris and Orléans.
You can not know how ecstatic I was to be moving these bags filled with two weeks of clothes, shoes, tolietries and electronics to their home for the next two weeks. Lugging them around for most of the day felt like it was pulling my body part, but no, there was no time to rest: Le Réveillon arrivait bientôt! We needed liquor quick and boy were we in the right country!
This provided my introduction to what would become a cornerstone of my stay in Orléans: the local Carrefour, France’s answer to Wal-Mart. They had wine for less than 2€ a bottle! That would be about $1.60! Good wine, too! And croissants, 10 for 3€! Baguettes, 0,40€ a piece! I would eventually become addicted. Anyway, we got back home, had some wine, danced some zouk and rained our “Bonne Année!”s and wine down onto the street below before heading to bed.
I am loving the travelogue!
come on , croissants are “so yesterday” next time u’ll come u have to taste some “pain au chocolat”, ” pain aux raisins”, “chausson aux pommes” (my favourite) some cake like: “mille feuilles” (thousand leafs), religieuse au chocolat…
Esso, I see - you didn’t want me to fit on the plane. Well, there’s a nice boulanger/patissier à mon quartier. Je vais essayer leur Millefeuilles la prochaine fois que j’y vais …
It’s almost like I was there. Loving the pics and your recounting of the trip.