Home » France » The Festival of Music and the Muskrat Lovers

Olivet, France<br/>
June 27, 2001<br/>
Scoreboard: 12,205 miles; 6 Countries, 20 statesv

The Festival of Music and the Muskrat Lovers

Claytononboard
2005-11-18 13:15:01

Displayed times (last time: )

gathering.

We eventually made our way down to the spectacular cathedral where Norbert assured me that I lacked sufficient flash to take a decent photo. He was right, perhaps I can take a daylight shot next week.

It's a beautiful cathedral, it's very strange to think that one of the mains goals of various invading hordes was to burn it down and/or blow it up. As a result of rebuilding from such outrages it now enjoys an especially appealing mix of Romanesque and Gothic styles.

We left a little after midnight with the party in full swing and no sign of riot cops or police helicopters. I remember in O.B. we didn't consider a party complete until at least two police helicopters hovered over the place with spotlights. Happened at least once a week.

The French have different priorities, as I learned when we attended the annual Olivet art sale on the river. The art, by locals, ran the gamut from classical to modern and was all reasonably priced. A little girl had a particularly faithful rendering of Matisse's Blue Nude that I should have picked up for the equivalent of eighty cents. Oh well, if I had she might have stopped producing originals because of their lack of commercial value. I should have got a couple of both...

The most amazing part is that the river walk, several miles along the banks of both sides and several tributaries of the Loiret, was only recently opened to the public. It was previously the property of an old and wealthy family.

Apparently the mayor and town council decided that it would be better used if given to the public, drew up the appropriate paperwork, and gave the landowners a pittance against what the fair market value would be.

"Can't they sue?" I asked, my head full of imminent domain and takings cases from the states.

"They could. It would be a waste of time," Norbert explained.

Not all of the land had been private property. One especially nice building has long been a retirement home for comedians. It was much nicer than the retirement home for normal people, though both were quite nice.

Speaking of comedians, here comes the city exterminator guy. He's been laying traps along the Loiret to catch muskrats. There do seem to be quite a few of them.

The girls like the muskrats, though. They've been throwing dirt at the traps, springing them, rendering them impotent and thereby allowing the muskrats to get inside and eat the apples with impunity.

Tune in next week. We should be to London, unless we're arrested for aiding and abetting criminal rodents, or our freshly revived Volkswagen is seized in the name of the people.