Big Fish

So Paris can wait - I have a fishy tale to tell, and it's hot off the press (it happened this morning)... It's not really exciting enough to warrant an entire blog post to itself, but hopefully this will go to show just how random my life here is...

To set the scene, in Briey there is a massive artificial lake where the entire town gathers to walk/jog, go fishing or people watch (the French national sport) on sunny days. Especially old people, I've noticed, so I wonder if this is the French equivalent of mall walking. 

It's good fun to go and observe, but be careful not to stand on an old dear's impossibly tiny dog. The French really to seem to go in for small dogs, which never really seem to walk anywhere because they are always being carried by their mammy. On the TGV to Paris I saw a woman with her dog tucked into her cleavage. True story.

But anyways, Carolin and I decided to head down there this morning for a wander because the weather was gorgeous and about halfway round the lake we saw an old guy struggling with his fishing line. There was a bit of a crowd forming (the French are not subtle about their love for people watching) so we decided to join in as well and wait to see what happened. We were there for about ten minutes and I was about to leave because I was convinced the guy had just got his line stuck at the bottom of the lake, when suddenly this HUGE fish came out of the water and was flopped onto the bank. I was reliably informed by someone in the crowd that the fish was a carp, and that it was one of the biggest carp in the lake. Quite a big deal in this town, let me tell you.

Pulling the fish out of the lake

The most unsubtle crowd in the world

Pointing and staring

But fear not, someone else in the crowd explained to me that these fish weren't caught to be eaten. So after everyone had taken as many photos as they wanted to and muttered "c'est énorme" to each other, the fisherman unhooked the poor thing and let it back into the lake, presumably to be caught by someone else an hour later. It was a true Free Willy moment.

Bid for freedom

And so my fishy tale ends well... until the poor bugger gets fooled by someone else's bait and gets pulled up to the surface to be stared at again. A typical Sunday in the French countryside!

City tales next time, je te promets.

Bises,

Sophia xx