Three Brides, Three French Bulldogs, and a Ferret

Just a typical weekend in Valence. On Saturday morning, I got up and set out on a jog in search of one of the public pools- no such luck. After viewing a lovely residential area and yet another park, I set out in defeat back towards centre ville. I spent an hour or so walking around the little streets, poking around in stores and trying to get some sort of mental picture of how everything spread out. I came across some very beautiful things and places! If I had all the money in the world and didn't have to ship back to America- I could get a place looking pretty nice with what they have over here. I also came across no less than 3 French Bulldogs in the course of about an hour. Definitely the dog of choice here, that or some sort of terrier. Unless you're a homeless youth, in which case you have a mutt that weighs no less that 70 lbs. If anyone has interest in having an actual French French Bulldog (French^2 Bulldog), let me know.

After making a quick lunch with Nicole back at the apartment, I set out with another assistant to play tennis in the park! The tennis courts are tucked back over on one side of Park Jouvet, near one of the entrances. While we were playing, some sort of wedding procession began taking place along the path that ran by our court into the park. Over the span of about an hour, three 3 brides decked out in their white dresses with their whole wedding parties paraded past our court. Some of the posses had musical instruments and drums, and all of them were shouting and chanting. Although the brides were dressed in a very typical western fashion with poofy white strapless dresses, a lot of the other women around them were wearing head coverings, and their chanting was in a language that I didn't recognize. Someone mentioned to me that there happen to be a lot of Armenians in Valence, so that could be an explanation. The groups would walk about 10 feet, stop and sing and dance and cheer, then walk another 10 feet, etc.

At one point, I also saw a crowd of small children gather around a woman on the path. I went over to the fence to try to get a look at what they were all looking at, and I saw that this lady had a ferret on a leash. She was walking- or, more appropriately, dragging- this ferret around, and all the kids had gathered to observe this bizarre occurrence. Is it a terrier? Is is a cat?...

I came home and got cleaned up and decided to act on an email I had received about a young people's night (offering pizza) that was sponsored by the church that my friends have gotten involved in. I walked about 5 minutes down my street and found the group, which turned out to pretty much be a youth group! It's for 13-25 year olds, but there were only about 5 of us over 20. I knew two German guys from a free french class, and I recognized the two guys who were programming activities from the bible study I went to. I made small talk with them, then we all ate pizza together and then broke into small groups for an activity. It was such a neat experience to hang out with tween-age french girls and take part in a night like that. This morning, I tried out the church myself, and everyone was so welcoming to all of us assistants. An older French couple invited me and two other girls over for lunch and proceeded to serve us the most amazing 5 course meal!