July 2 Quixote vs. Logorama

I was right about the old ladies that run our hotel- they can't bake bread. Our morning rolls do their best cardboard mimic, and we are out the door. We keep getting told that tonihgt's show is on the beach in Paris, which we think is impossible given the lack of a large body of water, but we're open minded folks. France's countryside continues to adorn iself in a wardrobe of honeycomb grains and plaid fields of sunflowers. Windmills dot the landscape like massive, slow moving Mercedes icon tumbleweeds. I wonder if the spinning giants were inspiration for LOGORAMA...

Oh, and if your job doesn't condone swearing or cartoon ass grabbing, then this is NSFW. But so, so worth 10 minutes of your day.

Oh French animation company, you're just one more reason to love this country.

We arrive in Paris and are told by the counter attendant that we have 5 rooms. Hell yes, our first time ever all having our own space. We'll probably not make proper use of all the personal time, but the potential is there.

We show up at the venue, and Plage de Glazart is not quite what we expected. Like so many places before it, Paris says, "If I don’t got it, no problem. No beach, I’ll make my own damn beach". Tons and tons of sand have been trucked in to make a small 20'x40' beach on the outskirts of the city. And BBE plays on it. It’s some of the best sound on tour, but maybe that's my umbrella drink talking. A short rain pour drops the muggy factor from the stifling 38 degrees Celsius it was when we arrived. Beach party, rad. So rad, I forgot to take pictures.

They have some funny little courts set up, and the kids say it’s for a game called Petanque. They look at me like I’m off my rocker when I say I’ve never heard of it. It turns out to just be Bocce ball, and they respond with the same horrorfied look when I announce that’s what it’s called in Minnesota (with a little research, I learn that they’re actually two different games, but they're similar enough. Seems like if you have more space and grass, you call it bocce. If you have less space and hard ground, you call it petanque).

We return to the hotel and our good luck is exposed for what it really is: a mistake. And so we have three rooms and get to do the appropriate sharing. The other two have been occupied by unknown phantoms that apparently like to smoke a shit ton of cigarettes and play on Macbooks. We know cause that’s what was sitting on the beds when we accessed the rooms. Anyone looking for a cheap computer?