Yes, our little French school (IFALPES) was invited by the mayor for a reception at the Hôtel de Ville (basically like the city hall). We were greeted in a beautiful reception room with this huge glass chandelier that was made sometime in the 17th century.
The reception was nice as the assistant to the mayor greeted us and encouraged us in our study of French and welcomed us to the city. The mayor was milling around and another student and I were able to chat with her a bit. She was very nice and normal as can be and asked about where we were from and we talked about the city and the region. She told me (Adam) that she loves to welcome foreign students and find out more about their lives and are trying to do more to make the town welcome for foreign students. The mayor's office also did provide us with a nice little
buffet for our time there. Ahhh....Chambéry what a town!
As we were leaving the reception I heard some crowd noise coming from around the block with a mega-phone blaring and people responding in tandem. Yes, you're right it was a
manifestation or a political demonstration. Apparently, here in France protesting is almost a national sport. There are always political parties or other "causes" giving out fliers or marching around downtown shouting. The French seem to enjoy their constitutional right of freedom to protest the way Americans like a good cup of coffee in the morning. More power to them... freedom of speech is a good thing. I was able to receive a flyer from the man on the front left of the picture and apparently this was a demonstration of the "anti-capitalist party". An interesting thing about this group is that it was made up almost entirely of teenagers. Another interesting thing was that several of them were waving large "anarchy" flags. The funny thing about that was that all of the "anarchists" were following and repeating everything that their leader was saying. Ironic, huh? I guess someone has to lead a bunch of anarchists...but don't sign me up for it.
The reception was nice as the assistant to the mayor greeted us and encouraged us in our study of French and welcomed us to the city. The mayor was milling around and another student and I were able to chat with her a bit. She was very nice and normal as can be and asked about where we were from and we talked about the city and the region. She told me (Adam) that she loves to welcome foreign students and find out more about their lives and are trying to do more to make the town welcome for foreign students. The mayor's office also did provide us with a nice little buffet for our time there. Ahhh....Chambéry what a town!
As we were leaving the reception I heard some crowd noise coming from around the block with a mega-phone blaring and people responding in tandem. Yes, you're right it was a manifestation or a political demonstration. Apparently, here in France protesting is almost a national sport. There are always political parties or other "causes" giving out fliers or marching around downtown shouting. The French seem to enjoy their constitutional right of freedom to protest the way Americans like a good cup of coffee in the morning. More power to them... freedom of speech is a good thing. I was able to receive a flyer from the man on the front left of the picture and apparently this was a demonstration of the "anti-capitalist party". An interesting thing about this group is that it was made up almost entirely of teenagers. Another interesting thing was that several of them were waving large "anarchy" flags. The funny thing about that was that all of the "anarchists" were following and repeating everything that their leader was saying. Ironic, huh? I guess someone has to lead a bunch of anarchists...but don't sign me up for it.
Interesting! I was glad to be able to read about this, since I was being very distracted by a little boy when you were telling me about it today. I think he may have been making monkey faces!
ReplyDeleteMom