A McBaguette with Sarko

So last month I was in France for 2 weeks of vacation, soaking up all the wonders of the french countryside, chateaux, cherries, cheese and a lot of other really wonderful things one would associate with France. You can see the pics of my time in the countryside and at the monastery here in a wonderful zooming Prezi.

But much of what I enjoyed, was soaking up the incongruities and oddities of french life and the french language. You have to realize that next year will mark the 20th anniversary of my initial encounter with French and I have been a francophile ever since.

So what would a trip to France be without a trip to McDo's (say "mc-dough") for a McBaguette (see TV ad here). Yes, McDonald's is totally into contextualization. Un petit pain baguette, ground beef, lettuce, Dijon mustard and French emmental cheese.
And because it's France, the poster says "Pour votre santé, pratiquez une activité physique regulière." (For your health, get some regular exercise). But lest you think everyone is healthy in France, everyone is smoking as they eat their McNuggets with their kids out in the McPlayground.

In Paris, I was surprised to see a little Subway tucked away immediately across the Seine from the Notre Dame de Paris. To their credit, it just looked like a little store, no big signage.

Down on the Champs-Elysées I stumbled into the high-end luxury shops from . . .  America: Banana Republic, Starbucks, the Disney store, and the Levi's "Flagship" store. Apparently only millionaires buy jeans there because a pair of standard 501's cost 119.50 € or $157. I left discretely in my used jeans from the yugo-yugo market in Africa. Oddly ironic, isn't it- Americans selling denim (originally "serge de nimes" -from Nimes) to French people on the avenue known for haute couture.

"Fire Sarkozy"

I arrived in France just a week or so after their presidential elections and was there while their new President was sworn in. François Hollande was wildly popular, yet another sign I was not in America, since he is their first socialist President in decades. 

Official election sign showing both candidates. This was in Blois. You can see that Sarko's poster has been defaced.

 As I rode my bike through a lot of little towns, I saw quite a lot of anti-Sarkozy signs, some hand-written, some more formal.
I was in France to see Hollande select his cabinet and keep his first campaign promise - exactly one half of his government ministers were women, a first for France!

One can't spend long in France without visiting some of the cathedrals. Some like Notre Dame take your breath away! Others just leave you flabbergasted. This one in Azay-le-Rideau had a little chapel all done up in PLASTIC, a material I thought was banished from all Gothic cathedrals by zoning laws. Look closely and you see the sacrilegious little fluorescent orange and hot-pink plastic chairs for the kiddos. (Actually quite glad to see evidence of some sort of Sunday School).

 I had another cathedral-related surprise. One evening I was headed back home past Notre Dame and noticed a large number of people going in and the sound of singing inside. It was a Tuesday night. Inside I discovered it full to overflowing and not with tourists but with a pro-life service. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many French people of all ages out actively participating in the worship, and standing against abortion, euthanasia, etc. Equally shocking to me was the fact that they had TV-monitors all up and down the church so you could see what's going on down front. What's next? Chris Tomlin lyrics projected up on a screen blocking the stained glass?


My musings on the oddities would not be complete without mentioning "Le Tennessee Mexican Restaurant" 11 rue voltaire, Chinon, where I dined one fine night in the middle of my cycling adventure. Admittedly one does not go to France for the Mexican food but this was as close to Mexican food as I was going to get this year. Lest you think I am making this place up, see the pic someone posted of it here.

The first strike against the place was the name: Tennessee is not really known as the heart of Tex-mex. I think they really chose that name so they could decorate with Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey paraphernalia. There were also some Mexican blankets and hats, but also photos from Route 66 and Arches national park in Utah, places from my two most recent cycling vacations but not remotely "Mexican" . 

Now to the menu. There was a "deluxe burger" made with Foie Gras, bacon, cheese, tomato, fig jam (?) and presumably beef, though none was mentioned.
You could also order 

• chicken wings, 
• barbecue ribs, 
• "Onions rings" served with barbeque sauce, 
• Kangaroo Steak, with Bearnaise and Barbeque sauce. Is it Australian? Is it French? Is it American??

There was something called Mexican rolls, described as fried rolls, stuffed with chili, rice and corn and served with the ever-present barbeque sauce. Was this a burrito? I dared not find out. 
The Mexican plate came with salad, tomatoes, 3 onion rings, 2 "mexican rolls", 1 chicken wing, 2 mozzarella sticks and salsa. 

To their credit, they had quesadillas, guacamole, chips and salsa, fajitas and a very passable Taco Salad where you could "eat the bowl". That's what I had and I was pleased to have found something fairly Mexican.
Conspicuously absent from the menu were Tacos, Burritos and Enchiladas. 

Guess I should have gone for a McBaguette with Sarko. . .

I wanna live in a simple house - well, kinda.

(With apologies to Margaret Becker for stealing the first line from "simple house")

I have been grappling recently with a call to simpler living, to giving up the earthly things that ground me or at least which provide comfort and security. A stripping away of things.

I have always been of the conviction that a single person working overseas needs his or her own space, a place that can be their home base, especially given that when we travel on work trips, we do not take our "home" with us in the person of a spouse or family. So it is good to come back to a place that is truly ours, to a town where you have had built friendships and a support group.

However, given the instability of the country where I live, I have left my apartment and my cat Tigger behind and been on the road for the past 7 weeks, 2 weeks in Burkina Faso, 2 in Thailand (for meetings), two in France (for vacation) and now back in Burkina. If conditions are right, I hope to return "home" soon, but am considering giving up the apartment where I have lived since 1999 - longer than I have every lived ANYWHERE! Moving to our guesthouse would make me much more flexible and able to leave if conditions become insecure. I would have many fewer things to manage (guard service, cleaning, rent payments, etc). And this would provide extra income for our guesthouse which badly needs it due to the crisis.

In addition, I have a job offer which may well take me to Cameroon in 2013 when my current role ends, and will call for a decent amount of time traveling from guesthouse to guesthouse. All this means giving up the stability of a place that is my own, with the comforts of a microwave, stove, fridge, French cable TV, dvd player, books, tools, bike, keyboard, saxophone, some rugs and pictures, exercise equipment, and a sweet little kitty. And a city that I know well, full of people that I know and love.

This was never what I expected. I mean didn't I already give up a house back in America, nearer to friends and family with lots more comforts? Do you really want me to give up the one in Africa that has no AC or hot water, is dusty and hot much of the year, has an open sewer running in the street out front, and seems to be in the middle of a construction zone most of the year.



Last week, my reading plan took me to two passages about the living conditions God lays out for those serving him.

Numbers 35: 1-6. In this passage, when the land of Israel is being divided among the tribes, each tribe is given land except the Levites who were to serve as priests and thus less concerned with worldly pursuits. However, each tribe is commanded to give  complete cities to the Levites for them to dwell in. "Thus they will have towns in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, for their possessions, and for all their animals".
One can conclude that it is normative that those serving God have houses  -  some sorts of dwelling places for their possessions and to live. But somehow this is to be less of a focus for them than for the other tribes.

Luke 10:1-17 is the passage where Jesus sends the 72 out, two by two, on an initial preaching trip of several weeks. It is interesting to note that in verses 4-12, only two verses have to do with the simple message they are to preach -  "the Kindgom of God is near" - and a full seven have to do with what they should take with them (nothing) and how they should accept hospitality and what to do if they do not receive it.
Jesus basically sends them out with NOTHING - no money bag, no suitcase, no extra shoes (not even cycling shoes which I lugged around in my luggage to Thailand and France last month???). As As with the Levites, God makes provision for his servants via the hospitality and gifts of others. Don't even worry about being a burden on those you are visiting - stay in ONE house the whole time you're in a town, not moving about.

God promises so much if we will let him strip away things:

"You're blessed when you've lost it all.
God's kingdom is there for the finding." Luke 6:21 (message). 

When God called Peter (Luke 5), the calling was preceded by Jesus telling them, "Push out into the deep water and let your nets out for a catch." Peter expresses that they have not caught anything all night but "if you say so, I will do it.". . . And nothing was ever the same for him.

The morning after I received the job invitation which would involve me moving to a new country, I read the call of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-2): "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." Abraham is being called from the land and the house and all that he knows to something much better, that will be a blessing for him and for many others.

Can I trust you, Lord, to go out into uncharted waters and territory? The idea is growing in my heart and head. Hope I can keep up.