This morning Marie-Helene and I got dropped off in Centre Ville by Christian, and we did a fundraising walk for what I guess is the equivalent of the Heart Foundation. We arrived a bit after the start so basically were walking on our own, but unless everyone arrived back at the starting point and then quickly left before we saw them, then the turnout was actually quite disappointing anyway. It was really well organised with all the streets closed off and men with luminous vests on at intersections. Actually, you see men with luminous vests a lot - there is usually a bike race or some such thing on most weekends. Well, since the weather has picked up anyway. It only cost 1 euro to take part, and you got a T-shirt with that! I gave 3 euros which still didn't seem like a great deal.
It wasn't a very long circuit, (not like the City to Surf Les - well done!) but some of it was down a street I hadn't walked down before, and Marie-Helene was able to show me the house where Christian grew up, (which you can see here),
the apartment where she and Christian lived when they were first married, and her old office in the Education Department. When Christian grew up there, many families lived in the lovely old houses, but of course the houses have nearly all been converted into studios for students now, so everything is different. But it's understandable - it's very close to Centre Ville. Well, in fact it IS Centre Ville. So it was all very interesting.
We got back to the square in front of the Hotel de Ville just in time for the speeches and prizes. Here I am having a jus d'orange after my efforts.
There were a few prizes and one was an award for the person who had come from the farthest away, and M-H was gutted that I hadn't put NZ as my address when I registered. In fact a friend of hers rushed up to tell them that there was someone there from New Zealand. But in fact I live in Poitiers at the moment and I would have felt like a real fraud winning the prize. And anyway, I have no need for a cup! (Now had it been chocolates I might have gone out to bat for myself, but.....)
I also got to meet the Mayor, as M-H knows him. AND I had my photo taken with him!
He is the Mayor and from what I can gather is also the local member of parliament. Not in Sarkozy's team. (And speaking of Sarkozy, he is flying into Poitiers tomorrow apparently, but then going straight on to Chatelleraut, another city nearby.)
Working backwards, yesterday I went for a good walk in the morning with Annick, and then later on I went to the cinema with M-H and Christian. We went to see a film called Welcome. It was just wonderful - quite sad, but superbly done. It's a French film, but a lot of the dialogue was in English which was good for moi! Anyway, if you get the chance to see it I highly recommend it.
And now it's Sunday afternoon. I have a test tomorrow at uni and also some homework to do, so I have plenty to keep me out of trouble. The photo at the start is me with Notre Dame in the background, taken while we were waiting for Christian to come and pick us up. Bonne semaine, tout le monde.
1 comment:
Good for you! You probably don't have hips that will seize up tonight like I do. I realised about 4 kms into the walk that, although I go to the gym regularly, I hadn't walked all that far for a while and certainly not for two hours! However, as I was walking in a CPIT T-shirt, another woman wearing one joined me walking and we chatted for the rest of the way. So I didn't notice the aches and pains so much after that :-)
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