Caught the tram to France today.

(I like the sound of that.)

(I also didn’t pay a cent because Sarreguemine is inside the SaarVerkehrsVerbund region covered by my semester student ticket. Woohoo!)

You know you’re in France because the tram announcement is no longer “Nächste halt: Kleinblittersdorf” and instead it’s “Prochain arret: Sarreguemine”; because the signs are in French; because people are speaking French instead of German (including the people on the tram…); and because there’s dogshit all over the footpaths.

Also, rather unexpectedly, because every second store is a “chocolatier” or a “boulangier”. One was the size of a small supermarket. (Well, a big 7-11, perhaps.) Yum. Unfortunately my dream of popping over the border for un café et un croissant under an umbrella in the sun was not realised, since I couldn’t find an establishment that seemed to offer this service. Instead I bought a pan aux chocolat in a paper bag and ate it on the grass opposite the Palais du Justice.

While I was waiting for the tram in Saarbrücken (and snapping photos to while the time), a young lady (well, my age) approached me and asked why I was taking photos in this part of town, it was ugly and boring, and I should go to X and Y because the people were much more interesting there. And had I ever held eine “ausstellung” of my photos (the English word slips my mind here), because one of her friends does that every so often and it’s so cool! To which I answered, um, er. In fact I think she probably has a point, my photos of today are probably going to be dreadfully boring, due to the lack of people. But then, I’m not completely comfortable taking photos of complete strangers. They might not like it. And at the end of the day, I’m left with photos of people I don’t know. I guess I could at least have taken a photo of this young lady, as a reminder of the (somewhat bizarre) experience of meeting someone at a tram stop who took an immediate interest in my work, just cos I was pointing my camera at the surrounding buildings…

Speaking of photos, I took three rolls in to be developed today. Unfortunately I picked a relatively cheap place, which means they don’t do it on-site, so I have to wait 3 or 4 business days. Poo. Well, patience is a virtue, they say…

(who are “they”??)

Oh, by the way: a bottom update. I think all the bum posters are advertising underpants. That might explain the lack of anything else on the posters but a bum and a witty slogan. (Saw another one today that said “why not walk past again?”)

Today was the first day of the Saarbrücken Spring Festival. Which means, lots of stalls and street entertainers in town. Instead of cooking dinner, I bought a Schwenker (mmm, barbecued pork slab) from a hut that was basically a small barbecue and a huge serving-lots-of-customers-sized schwenker in the very center. Now all my clothes smell of wood smoke. T’was very yum, but very fatty.

This morning I completed all my paperwork for IMPRS.

Hmm, I’m getting tired. Perhaps it’s time to see what dubbed entertainment the idiot box is bringing me tonight. (Watched Star Wars last night. That was rather entertaining. “Dass hier ist Err-zwo-dii-zwo, und ich bin Zee-drei-pe-oh!” “Obi-van! Den Name hab’ ich schon lange nicht mer gehört…” The “Rasender Falken”… “Die Macht sei bei dir, Luke!” Oh dear! Once again, profound apologies on the lack of photos…

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Story of my life, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.