Foreign Perspectives

That applies to pretty much everything in fact. In a French supermarket, you get French cheese. In a UK supermarket you get UK cheese, Swiss cheese, German cheese and, of course, French cheese. Whereas even the largest French supermarket has only a tiny “ethnic” foods section, a typical UK supermarket doesn’t have an ethnic section at all because the food in the aisles is from everywhere. There are hardly any Australians living in Belfast yet it’s possible to buy Vegemite in Tesco; in France you’d need a really major supermarket to stock it.

Some would say: why shouldn’t it be French food in France? Well, obviously you would expect to have more French food in France than anything else but in every other country in the world you seem to get a reasonable representation of a selection of other cultures. The closed mentality in France makes that the rare exceptions to the “France only” rule very pale in comparison to the equivalent elsewhere.

As usual with French events, all the publicity is in French and there’s little distribution of it outside the local area so it’s a great opportunity to see a good rally without the usual crowds.

This year the route of the Fenouilledes Car Rally starts on Saturday in Ille-sur-Tete, heads up into the mountains through Belesta and Pezilla where they loop round through Rasigueres, Panezes and Latour de France finally turning at Estagel and heading back over the hill to Millas and then towards Ille-sur-Tete. The Sunday route is similar but goes through Ansignan after Pezilla, descending into Maury before once again crossing the hill at Estagel towards Millas and finishing at Ille-sur-Tete. There’s a map of the route Fenouilledes Car Rally Map 2006 and some photos of the key points on the route at Key Points on Fenouilledes Car Rally 2006 with complete details of the stages at Stage Details for Fenouilledes Car Rally 2006 and the participants at Participants in Fenouilledes Car Rally 2006.

By co-incidence, Auberge Mas Camps is in one of the better places to watch the race and have been fully booked by the rally organisers, ASA-Roussillon.

All being well, I’ll get some decent photos for a later posting.

For the most part they don’t, of course. A few weeks ago we had Halloween here. For a start, it’s a public holiday in France (November 1st is All Saints Day) and they haven’t gotten the hang of Trick or Treat and instead wander round the streets demanding bon-bons (sweets) from the locals.

Obviously they don’t mark November 5th as being anything special but the next special day was Remembrance Day which “obviously” is an international thing, isn’t it?

Well, sort-of. Yet again it is a public holiday here but they don’t seem to have the minutes silence at 11am. Neither do they have poppies which I’d always assumed were the standard symbol around Europe, if not the world although Wendy tells me that it’s a sprig of rosemary in Australia. I’ve not seen the equivalent of either in France though they do take the day quite seriously with small ceremonies in every village in France as you can see.

For a start, the actual holiday is November 1st (All Saints Day) when just about everything in France closes, much to the surprise of foreigners who are more used to Halloween being just for the kids and being the day before.

Secondly, it’s not really a French traditional holiday and they haven’t quite got the hang of it yet. Imported from America (no doubt to the disgust of a number of the French), there are numerous outfits for the kids and, of course, the usual Halloween goodies seen elsewhere. On the other hand, they may well have the outfits and troup round the houses but haven’t worked out a proper translation of “trick or treat” and therefore just go round the streets calling out for “bon bons” (sweets). The householders, for the most part haven’t got the hang of it either so the vast majority of houses remain closed and it’s noticeable that the groups of kids are very selective in the houses that they call on.

Anyway, if you’re on holiday here around Halloween, don’t forget to buy your petrol etc. on the 31st of October and wonder at the spread of an American holiday to France.