Pave: Life In France, VI

Le jour 447 de Sarko

Paysans lighten the burdens of wedlock by making a gift of them to the neighbors.

RACY GOINGS-ON IN LA FRANCE PROFONDE
The Wife-Swapping Club Comes To Rural Normandy

August 4, 2008 (Independent) - The nearest town to our house in Normandy is a sad place which has never fully recovered from the summer of 1944. ... The population is ageing and glum. Excitement is hard to find.

A few days ago work began on renovating a long-closed shop on the town's main square. Would this be yet another estate agent selling houses without roofs to the British? Or something more interesting? A hand-written red and white sign appeared in the window. The sign read:

Ici bientôt, Club Echangiste.

Opening here soon, Wife Swapping Club.

Clubs Echangistes are an accepted part of the entertainment industry in France. Paris has more than 60 of them. That, however, is the wicked big city. An officially proclaimed, rural wife-swapping club – next to the notary's office – seemed too good to be true. On closer inspection, the red-and -white sign in the tiny shop-front added the following details.

On peut apporter son mari, son chien, son âne, sa belle-mère.

A separate sign read:

Fully booked until 20 August.

Was this meant to be a satire on the submerged, sexual oddities of rural life? I asked the man painting the inside of the shop. He shrugged. "It's meant to be funny, I think," he said.

Yesterday, a new sign had appeared next to the other ones.

By popular demand, we will open on Sunday. After Mass.

More life as eeked out in France here, here, here, here, and here.

PFFT (What is this?): Rural dullsville 2½ | Hymenaios weeps 5 | Rayonnement français 0