Les Nuits de l'Alligator

Again, I'm really behind on my posts. This one refers to a concert I went to last Thursday with an eclectic group of friends from Besançon: Franzi (German, from Ultimate), Candice (American, English Teaching Assistant), Kati (Austrian, Candice's roommate), Linda (French, Kati's friend from the Fine Arts department of the university where she's taking classes), Jack (British, another English Teaching Assistant, but we know him through Kati), Andrea (American, another assistant, who works at the same high school as Jack), and Jack's friend Sebastian (also British, also an English Teaching Assistant, but in another part of France and who was visiting for a few days).

We met for a drink before the concert and then walked to La Rodia, a very-recently-constructed concert space along the Doubs. I run by it practically every time I go out for a run, and have always wanted to go to a concert there. I heard about this one, which featured three different groups who all played folk-50s/60s rock and roll, and invited as many people as I could. (I took the picture of La Rodia below back in early November).

It ended up being really good. We missed the first group, but made it in time to hear the second act:  Lindi Ortega, who was great (her voice reminded me a lot of Brandi Carlisle). She was wearing a hat/veil just like this at the show...

Then the main act was Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis, who I loved! The band name is composed of the first names of its three primary members, who are all siblings, and whose parents play the bass guitar and the stand-up base in the band. The three siblings all play the drums, the guitar, the bass, and sing vocals (interchangeably) and Kitty plays the harmonica.

It was pretty wild! I would classify their music primarily as 50s and 60s style rock, which is just the kind of music I like to dance to. It's funny, because I wasn't aware of this until recently, but there seems to be a strong indie rock following in Europe which greatly resembles the music of the 50s and 60s. The part that's funny is that the bands and their groupies also dress like they're in the 50s and 60s. So I found myself in a crowd with plenty of guys wearing Letterman jackets and with slicked back hair. I felt like I was on the cast of Grease! Totally bizarre, but infinitely better than ripped denim skirts or sagging jeans... It would be pretty funny if those fashion trends came back in full force. I'm certainly not a huge fan of the suite/tie combo on Lewis in this pic of the band... Click here if you want to hear one of the songs I liked by Lindi Ortega, and here for one of the songs by Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis.   

Skiing with the kiddies

So it turns out that two Saturdays ago wasn't my last time down near Chapelle... Last Tuesday, February 21st, I went along as a chaperone with two classes of CE2 (3rd graders) for a day of cross-country skiing. Actually, it was more like a day of picking small (or not so small) children up out of the snow. But I was prepared for that, and agreed to go along because it sounded like fun. It turned out to be more like Type 2 fun -- an analogy Claire introduced to me a while ago and which I have whole-heartedly embraced. The quick summary: Type 1 fun is fun at the time. Type 2 fun is fun in retrospect. -- This day of "skiing" definitely fits the profile of the latter. The pic below was taken from the bus window en route to the ski station.

The event took place during the school day (in theory we were supposed to be back by 4:30pm, we actually got back closer to 5:15pm). We left on a big coach bus around 9am, with all of the kids wearing their combinaisons (snow suits) and boots and hats, etc. They were pretty adorable. I believe there were 39 kids, plus Anne-Sophie and Nathalie (the two teachers -- see pic below), 4 SUAPS students (students in the sports program at the university who helped with PE at the school), and Florine, who is my age and an aide for one of the students in Nathalie's class.

The itinerary said we were going skiing in Mouthe, which is 87km (or 54 miles) south-east of Besançon. It turns out we were actually skiing at a place called Le Pré-Poncet, another 6 km further south. So, by the time we arrived, unpacked the kids and got everyone into their skis, it was nearly 11:30am. There were two instructors from the rental center who were in charge of teaching the kids... but unfortunately they didn't explain the basics before giving the kids all of the gear and telling them to give it a try first on their own. Big mistake. We had kids and skis flailing all over the place! Only after everyone had fallen a half-dozen times and struggled to right themselves again did the instructors explain the proper technique for getting up again. I wish they had done this before giving the kids their skis, because it would have saved me a lot of arm work hauling the kiddies up out of the powder.

Luckily it was a really glorious day... brightly sunny and not cold at all. It was a bit of a tease though, to be so close to the trails but not really able to ski. We never actually went on any of the trails! After lunch the instructors led the kiddies up and down two gentle hills, and cut wide circles in the big field in front of the rental chalet, but we didn't go on the trails.

The classes is going back for two more sessions in March after the winter break, so I imagine it will be much easier the next time and they will probably do more. If I'm invited I think I will politely decline... in theory it was a day off, but really it was more like work, except with less chalk and more snow!