Saturday 26th April

Began my day at Cafe Cheri again. I wanted to check that my dissertation form had been received and thankfully it had. It was such a beautiful day. Bright blue sky with no cloud and really warm - strap-top weather. After the cafe I walked over to Mary’s, with a book in my bag, to give her the music to take to the radio show later in the afternoon. And then went back to the fountain to sit in the sun and read. All was well until a man on roller blades rolled up to me and spoke a babble of french. ‘Uh, je suis anglais. Je ne comprend pas.’ He knew a little english and in a mixture of english and french asked if he could watch my shoes for a blog he was writing. Yep, I think I looked a little shocked, so he said he would sit on the bench nearby and just watch my shoes. ‘OK’. I was only sitting there anyway. After about 5 minutes he came back over and asked, in very bad english, if I could take off my shoes to see my feet. Ok, now it was weird and so I made my excuses ‘I have to meet my friend’ and started to put away my book. Roller boy babbled a blog address at me (i only got the word plied - perhaps if I type in feet in rouen?) and thankfully went on his way to find another victim. I on the other hand went to Monoprix to do some food shopping and went home for a spot of lunch and to go over in my mind what had just happened. That afternoon I went out to try and do some more reading. This time in a cafe. Everywhere was packed but I eventually found a table in the sun, got out my sketchbook and waited for someone to come and take my order. I waited while the two men next to me got served. I waited while the lady and her daughter got served. I even waited while two americans tried ordering without even the smallest attempt at french. ‘I would like a strong coffee, with no milk please.’ Finally, after about 10 minutes the waiter, who had a proper french style moustache, came over and I managed to order an orangina. 20 minutes later, when my table had disappeared out of the sun, I was tried to pay the bill and that too took another 10 minutes. After popping back home to change books, I headed out again, this time to the Vieux Marche where I found a bench to sit on. I was enjoying the sun and the chatter of everyone walking by(there was a lot of english voices), when three tramps decided to come and sit my bench. I wouldn’t have minded sharing a bench but they smelt bad, so i had to move again. On my way to find another spot to sit I suddenly heard some drum beats and shouting and went to investigate. It was a marching brass band led by a man in a white wig and coat tails. Not sure about the outfit but the music was good, and a large crowd was following them. I decided to go back to the square where I had the orangina, but instead of sitting at a cafe I found a piece of wall to sit on, which is where I stayed for the next 45 minutes or so, reading and watching some kids and their tiny dog play football until I felt like I was burning. I wish everyday could be like this. Everything seems so much better. Back at the flat I got on with some artwork and had dinner and then watched Hideous Kinky which is a film i’d never heard of before but which I thought was brilliant. Set in Morocco about a young mum and her two daughters from London who attempt at a new life, the film is a story of love and loss, anger and strangeness, and full of amazing colour.