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Dreadful Nonsense

"I've read your blog. it's really funny. you should write a column." - Jon Ronson


We are now in Marseille for the day, on our last day on holiday. Down the south of France, in the second most popular holiday city in France for French people - what shall we do with our time? Ah, cyber cafe! Actually, the weather is a bit pathetic and drippy, the city isn't all that it's made out to be, and quite frankly we'd rather not stare at any more French buildings if we can help it.

Avignon is likewise a bit of a let down - I think seeing things outside of the normal tourist season has it's advantages, but one of the main features of the South of France is supposed to be the weather, so constant gale force winds in Avignon, and rain in Marseille means that they're not quite giving their best to us.

We spent some of last night in one of the two Irish pubs we have spotted in Avignon so far, as it seemed to be playing some quite good music, and was full of young folk with their chat and merriment. But it smelt funny after a while, so we left. The girl behind the bar was Irish. I found that quite confusing. They also played a Joe Dolan cover of a U2 song, which I thought was just great, and made me feel homesick for about 2 seconds until I came back to my senses.

The one thing I think I would always find disturbing about living in France - other than Bigdil - is the way that virtually every French man feels that it is well within their rights to unashamedly STARE at every woman that happens to be in their eye line. We've had every kind of stare, the sly glance all the way up to the out-and-out turn your head as you're driving your car up the road kind of staring. It's really really annoying more than anything else. I've taken to staring back, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. This morning in the train station, two men stopped what they were doing, stood directly opposite us and stared at me and Susan for FIVE FULL MINUTES while we drank a cup of coffee. I don't know what they were waiting for us to do.

Tomorrow, back to London, proper telly, our own beds, vegetarian food (thank God), understanding what people are saying and driving in a normal manner. We are both quite sad to be finishing our holiday, even though it has lasted forever plus an extra couple of days.

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