:: Life Of Dave ::

VE weekend

The president waves to the crowdSlow weekend before a crazy busy week. Friday was VE day, and we went to see the president lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. This was a very different affair than in London, and we discussed extensively why that was the case (no conclusions were drawn). Certainly it seemed a much more informal affair here - we had French families on both sides of where we were standing, and the comments they made were more political than anything else.

I actually spent much of Friday watching the stunning results from the UK election roll in. I kept expecting things to shift, but in the end it was the Tories who carried a full majority. I knew Ed Miliband was a weak candidate - worse maybe than John Kerry (who coincidentally was at the VE ceremony). But I had expected Labour to win on, basically, not being Tories. Apparently I underestimated many things.

Yesterday we headed over to the Parc Floral and the Chateau de Vincennes. There was a nature photo exhibit in the Parc Floral that I had wanted to see, and as it turned out we had never been in the chateau, so we did that as well. The Parc Floral was an interesting contrast to Kew Gardens in London - free vs. very expensive, but also wild as opposed to formal. Which is the opposite of how it usually works - most gardens in France tend to be formal 'keep off the grass' affairs, and in the UK they tend to be much more 'for the people' type things.