Leaving France

My sejour in France is coming to a close.

I don't have a ton of time, so I'll give a recap of my weekend in Esterel a little bit later. In brief, I went rock climbing on Rhiolyte (the volcanic form of granite) which climbed somewhere in between limestone and granite. I met a cool dude named Mika, who works as a "cordiste", that is to say he works at heights on a rope. He's a slackliner and has set up highlines professionally for outdoor sports festivals, among other things. Mika was excited to do some easy gear climbing, so I did that with him instead of trying hard stuff. He showed me (briefly) how to set up a really long slackline with pulleys and ascenders, and fun was had by all.

As a way of saying goodbye to this place, here's a list of French contributions to the world:

1 Wine
2 Stinky cheese
3 Baguettes
4 Sport climbing
5 2-hour lunches, even for high school students! (See #1)
6 The bic lighter
7 Reserved courtesy (as in "Bonjour Monsieur" every time you go into a bakery, followed by "Au revoir, passez une bonne journée!)
8 Bureaucracy
9 Universal Health Care
10 Electronic music (Daft Punk, Vitalic, M83, Justice, Team Ghost, Air, et cetera)

Tomorrow I'm heading towards Millau to do some rock climbing with Alfred, Kassy, Stu, and Guillem. There's a folk festival that we'll try to get to as well. It promises to be an excellent time.

As for the Anarchy Breakfast, I won't be able to put up a playlist before I leave. The podcasts may continue from Montana, but if I get a radio show things might change a bit.

It's been a lovely year. The sun is shining, like it has been for the better part of nine months, and it will be sad to leave the "gastronomie française" and all of the bulletproof limestone behind. But that land of milk and honey is calling me: The West. It's time for The Journey Home.

Au revoir, France.