A walk in the “swamp” and my first French hair-cut

This morning I went for a long walk around town – I wanted to visit a spot on the map labeled les marais. On the map, it looks like a large park, but according to my dictionary, marais means “swamp” – so what gives?

I’ve never seen anything like this place – I’d guess the area is about 100 acres or so, criss-crossed by streams and man-made canals. The land is divided into small plots – much like a P-Patch community garden in Seattle. There are some houses, but most plots have only a small tool shed. Along the shores of the larger creeks are flat-bottomed boats in various stages of decrepitude. The paths are wide, but not paved. It’s a terrific place to walk or jog, but it doesn’t seem to be maintained in the way a park or public space might be; the entrances are not marked – it felt like I was walking up someone’s driveway, and suddenly I was in this… well, swamp.

After kicking around there for a while, I went looking for more English language books (some success), and bought some cheese (don’t judge a cheese by it’s cover – what I thought would be soft, spread-able goat cheese is a well aged hockey puck) and finally, screwing up my nerve, a hair cut.

I always introduce myself in shops by saying, “Ma Francais c’est tres limitée”, but that seemed grossly insufficient in what amounted to a uni-sex beauty parlor. In most places, I’ve been able to get by with a simple vocabulary and some gestures – but I was not prepared for how unprepared I was to describe the kind of haircut I wanted! The scissor gesture with the fingers is a good beginning, but how to pantomime “clean above the ears, tapered on the sides and back, thin it out on the top, but leave enough so it lays over”?

As ever, things worked out very well. The woman washed my hair (never had that before – it felt strangely intimate, and quite pleasant… how long has it been since I’ve seen Ceil?), and she did a terrific job with my coupe. We managed to converse a bit, though on at least three occasions, I thought she was telling me “Ok, we’re done” and I panicked a bit, given the half-finished state of my coiffure. I would begin to stand up, and then she would panic… and finally I’d sit down and we’d keep going. Too funny.