Today, we had time out... no tourist venue visited... no maps... no photos. We had the Australian Federal Election to entertain us... entertainment of sorts. The world today is small. Through the internet, we were able to watch and listen without any shortage of information... it was just as anaesthetising and painful as it would have been standing in the tally room.
Our highlight was walking through Carcassonne's new city to the Saturday markets. All the locals were out... hardly room for the few tourists. The fresh-food market showed the care and attention the French pay to food selection... handling cabbages with as much delicacy as if they were hand-grenades... smelling tomatoes as if they were roses... squeezing peaches with a lover's touch. Some stands were manned by the growers... offering giant piles of carrots... a pile of dried broad beans attracted a crowd. Again, today, we saw an unusual number of men who looked to have abused drugs. The latest tactics is for such men to have a couple of Alsatian dogs on leads... possibly to aid in escaping from law enforcement... perhaps to provide some protection while sleeping.
The other market offered clothes and nick-nacks . Its interesting feature was the number of ethnic North African French citizens in attendance... some 80% of the total. The merchants catered for the North Africans... shops downtown don't feature the latest fashion colours in saris... the latest cut in slippers. Ethnic integration looks in good shape... Afro-French look very comfortable... cool... laid-back. They seem well liked by 'white' French... sprinkled throughout friendship groups... not isolated into enclaves. The North African (Islamic) men don't stand out... they seem to to mix in the general community. That leaves the North African ladies... who still look to be finding their way. The younger girls are OK... they are in rebellion... as all teenagers should. But the older ladies move in groups... looking different... looking awkward.
Two days ago, we visited the local war museum. Its current feature focussed on African soldiers (mainly from Senegal) who contributed to the Allied forces during WWII. We were targeted by an attendant who gave us 45 minutes of his time and a life of his wisdom. The central message this guy wanted to share was that France was late in building its empire... and by that time the Brits had taken all the profitable colonial sites. He said that France invested far more in its colonies than they received back in imports. France found that French citizens didn't want to migrate to the colonies... plenty of food in France... unlike Britain and Ireland. France had missionary goals in their colonial strategy. He said that they did not 'rule' their colonies with any class segmentation. They gave indigenous people senior positions in the administration and armed forces right from their arrival. Our attendant implied that racial intolerance in France didn't exist... only the difficulties of migrating to a different culture. We have been watching the interactions between the French to see if our attendant had read history accurately.
We have had rain this afternoon... the first for a month... only a light drizzle.
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