Saturday we went to Jardiland, which is a huge garden depot. They sell all kinds of plants, outdoor furniture, and even fish, chickens, ducks, and pocket pets. My basil plant didn't make it so we needed to get a new one, and I wanted to pick up some carnivorous plants for indoors. Once there I also ended up picking up more chives because mine are apparently the thin stemmed variety and I wanted the bigger ones I'm used to.
          Why do I need carnivorous plants, you ask? Because the concept of window and door screens for some reason hasn't appealed to the French. No one has screens, no one. Our friends from Canada noticed the same thing and made their own. So everyday I open the doors to the balcony to cool the house down, because another thing most French people haven't gotten behind is air conditioning, and within 30 minutes there are at least 6 flies in the house. The most I've counted are 11. There are also these little tiny bugs kind of like really small moths, a little bigger than a gnat, but their wings aren't as fragile as a moth and there are literally thousands that hang out outside my kitchen window.
          With no air conditioning, you'd think the French have screens but they just don't. Some apartments keep their curtains closed but I feel like that defeats the purpose of opening your doors to catch a breeze. So we got a Venus Flytrap, a Sundew, and a Sarracenia. If they do their jobs right, they're gonna grow big and strong in no time!
          On our way back to our apartment, I ran into Jeremy's coworker. She told me there was a Spring Festival being held in Revolution square just around the corner. The Spring Festival is when the gardeners of the area come and sell their plants, mainly herbs and vegetables. There are also booths selling local wines, honeys, and jams. It's a shame we got the chives and basil from Jardiland when this was happening right around the corner!

          Today, I was walking to my tutor session and approached a circle. (Side note, there are so many traffic circles here. I pass three on my seven minute walk to the tutor.) A van with two men stopped to let me pass and as I was passing, they pulled up so close to me the passenger could have touched me if he wanted, and shouted "Aren't you going to say hi to us?" using "coucou" instead of "bonjour" for "hi" which denotes familiarity. Coucou is typically only used among friends, to children, and to pets. It got me to thinking about how women are treated and expected to act in France, and I figured I would share.
          Women are expected to look nice at all times. Ironed clothes of high quality, expensive shoes, and make-up is a must. If a woman is to wear jeans, they should be skinny jeans with heels or boots. Teenagers and college kids are treated more leniently and may wear patterned canvas shoes. A scarf should always be incorporated into the outfit, regardless of temperature. Sneakers should only be worn for exercise. Make-up is typically along "natural" colors (no bright blue eye-shadow or glitter lip gloss) but still obviously apparent. Hair should be kept well, but elaborate styles are not necessary. I feel this is because since everyone walks everywhere and spends a lot of time outdoors, they know a more elaborate hairstyle would just get ruined by the wind anyway.
          To compare, the typical man is wearing a tee-shirt or button down, jeans of any fit, and canvas shoes or sneakers. Teenagers and college kids do tend to style their hair, but it is not necessary. Men may opt to look more presentable via business casual clothing and dress shoes, but again it is not necessary.
          Catcalling is abundant here as well. The aforementioned story in the beginning of my post was definitely a harsh catcall and while I have had a couple incidences similar to that one, for the most part catcalling is more passive or subtle here. A scan up and down your body with something muttered under the breath is more common here, especially in center city. The further out from center city (like heading toward my tutor) the more likely a woman is to receive a more aggressive catcall or diminutive name thrown her way, like when I got called a "vache" (cow) for no apparent reason while walking past two men.
          I don't know much about women in the workplace or politics, but a little light research shows that France is one of the worst European countries for equality. In 2013, they ranked 57th in the world for women's overall equality (the US is 19th), 63rd in political empowerment (US is 60th), and a whopping 129th for wage equality (US is 65th). In a poll, again in 2013, 80% of women in the workplace feel they are victims of sexism, 82% have experienced diminutive speech, and 93% feel excluded from the professional sphere. In fact, it was only in 1969 that women obtained the right to work without officially asking their husband's permission.
          Do I feel safe here? Absolutely. I have no fear of being physically hurt or mugged if I am walking alone during the day. That said, I don't enjoy walking by myself as I don't enjoy the scrutiny that women live under. With Jeremy by my side I may still get looks, but at least nothing is said to me. I have only been here 4 months and already I feel resentment for being expected by society to look perfect. Too bad, hopefully one day they'll learn that beauty shouldn't be determined by a price tag and how many hours are spent in front of a mirror, cause I ain't gettin' up earlier just to look pretty when I'm already beautiful on my own.

          Yesterday and today were the carnival and parade of Besançon. The carnival was really disappointing actually. It was very small, the only "rides" were for small kids, and there was only two game booths. The food booths were awful, though to be fair if I ate meat the hamburger booth didn't look too bad. We settled with a piece of pizza and a piece of quiche. Turns out they both had unadvertised, hidden meats in them so I couldn't eat either, and they were so bad Jeremy couldn't finish them and had to throw them out.
          Carnival treats consist of churros, waffles, crêpes, cotton candy, and hard candy which they call bonbons. We had the churros. They were pretty rough and it was just sugar, no brown sugar or cinnamon. For an interesting cultural difference, their "fun house" for little kids has paintings of bare-breasted women. No kids, or parents for that matter, seemed to notice or care.
          They had different bands playing guggenmusik, which is carnival/parade music, but we only stayed for the first one since there was nothing for adults to do. From 10 pm to midnight they would have a DJ play and I guess older kids and college kids would dance, but we didn't go. 

          The parade was today, Sunday, and was very fun. There were tons of floats and guggenmusik bands. People threw paper confetti and some sprayed silly string. People on the floats threw confetti and some even had confetti canons, and the children in the audience brought confetti to throw as well. It was everywhere. I took tons of pictures, but I'll try and limit it down!

          Another thing we did last week was go to a BBQ. Friday night our friend called us up and asked if we wanted to go to BBQ at La Gare D'eau which means "water station". We didn't know where that was so we had him meet up with us. On our way we stop at a grocery store to pick up liquor and I'm thinking "Okay, so is this a byob restaurant or something?" but keep it to myself. We meet a couple more friends and they have a bag full of chips and snacks so now I'm wondering if it's at someone's house.
          We keep walking and we're going through a park right next to the river. It's got a really nice view of the citadel and the restaurants nearby look fancy. Now I'm back to wondering if we are going to a restaurant and start sweating about how much this is going to cost us. Suddenly, our friend starts veering off into the grass and I notice a big group of people with some familiar faces next to a stack of pallets right by the river. It looks like we're going to have our BBQ in the park!
          We sit down and soon enough, someone breaks up one of the pallets and starts a fire right there on the grass in a public park. After a little bit I turn to JN and whisper, "Is this legal?" to the response "Not technically, but no one cares." Meanwhile a police station is within a three minute walking distance. So here's a 10-15 people group drinking and starting a fire in a public park right next to a police station. Okie-dokey. Could you imagine this happening in the US?!
          What made it even funnier was a little later, when it was getting darker and you could here the river rising and lapping just a few feet away from us, I casually mentioned we should have brought fishing rods. Everyone started freaking out, "Are you crazy?! You can't fish here! You'll get fines, maybe even jail time if you get caught too often!" Note to self: it is okay to start fires in public places, but do not fish or heaven help you.
          They cooked sausage and bacon (which according to Jeremy is absolutely nothing like our bacon) and fun times were had. It was very relaxing, especially compared to when we're all in a bar. Eventually we called it an early night (at 1 am, they party late here) because I didn't have the nerve to add to my lawless behavior by urinating in public.

          Today we went to the citadel! We decided to walk because I was being stubborn and didn't want to take the bus. The tram doesn't go up there, and I got motion sickness pretty easily on the bus. The citadel is on top of a huge hill so needless to say it was quite the hike. I had to rest a few times on the way because of my bad leg. By the time we got there, my leg already hurt. We had a lot more walking to do within the citadel, so I was really kicking myself for not taking the bus.
          The view was astounding. You could see the whole city and then some. Within the citadel is a museum for the Resistance and WW2, a museum about Franche-comté history, a restaurant, an insectarium, aquarium, noctarium, and zoo. We decided to save the museums for another day as they are each three stories, we didn't know how my leg would hold out and I was looking most forward to the zoo.
          We started out with the aquarium, which was two large rooms filled with prawn and fish indigenous to the Doubs river. There were trout, loaches, bass, and a lot of different types of perches. Outside there was a koi pond and you were allowed to pet them. When I say "rooms", it was really like two small buildings. The awesome part about the citadel is they incorporate the old fortress into all their pieces, so the aquarium is what used to be a small courtyard which now has the koi pond and water garden and two small buildings to the left are the rooms with the fish and prawns.

          The insectarium is across from the small courtyard to the right of the two small buildings that are the aquarium. You go up stone steps to the second floor and inside you will find one of the largest collection of insects in Europe (according to the website). I didn't take many pictures as I wasn't sure how many people want to see that, but it really was very neat, even if I did think some of them were gross. They had an ant colony and a spider cage that didn't have lids on them, just trusting kids aren't stupid enough to put their hands in! Could you imagine seeing that in the States?
          I took no pictures of the noctarium because it's so dark inside, but it wasn't much to see anyway. Nocturnal animals indigenous to the area (so basically just mice and rats) are in this small building that used to be for storing gunpowder, and it's completely dark with a little bit of blue light to see your way through. At night time, they have normal light on to simulate daytime, with the theory that the animals will come out during the daytime because they think it's night. The only ones who were active were the rats. They also had some stuffed foxes and weasels since I guess an old gunpowder storage building isn't a suitable habitat for live ones.

          The zoo was incredible. While they may not have as many animals at the Philadelphia Zoo, they made up for it by giving the animals amazing habitats to live in. The zoo is placed in the back of the citadel were there is a lot of open space. No one is overcrowded and the animals seem very happy. For animals that like to climb like goats and certain primates, they placed them in areas where they were able to do so, like where there was crumbling fortress wall or in a valley between two walls so they had rubble to play with. The exhibits are a lot closer to the walkways than American zoos to the point where if you reached out and a primate reached out, you could touch each other. Of course, no one does that because they know better, just like the open spider habitat.

          I also have pictures of goats and sheep with their babies, but my phone died during transfer so I will have to get them later. We also got some shots of the city overhead. It's truly breathtaking. All this for 10,60€ ($11.22) per person, cheaper if you're a student, child, teacher, elderly, etc.. We got a year pass for two people for only 40€ ($42.34). Needless to say, we will be visiting very often!

          There hasn't been much going on this week except that it's been b-e-a-utiful outside. I figured I would take the time to go over some little tidbits about life in France. Jeremy and I have been receiving some similar questions from different people in the US, so I figure the rest of you wonder the same things!
          So black and white striped long sleeve shirts and berets may not be a thing here, but baguettes are. The French are crazy about their baguettes, and rightfully so! Baked fresh a few times a day so they're almost always still warm when you buy them at 80 cents a piece, who can resist? We eat 1/2 to one baguette a day, but it's not surprising to see people going home with 3 or 4 baguettes. A coworker of Jeremy's says he, his wife, and two small daughters go through at least 2 baguettes a day. That's a lot of bread.
          It's true not a lot of French people like peanut butter, out of the 10 or so people I asked, 4 detested it, 1 liked it, and the rest just didn't care for it. Obviously Reese's are therefore non-existent here, though I did find them in a large supermarket in the "American" section: 4 little shelves selling Reese's, ketchup, mustard, ranch, and "Tex-Mex" products like salsa queso dip, tortilla chips, tortilla kits, and Uncle Ben's Mexi-rice. Before you start questioning if they have ketchup and mustard, they do, it's just different. The ketchup is more like a seasoned tomato paste and the mustard is much less, well, artificial.
          While milk chocolate is seen here, dark chocolate is much more common. The main chocolate brands here are Nestlé and Kinder, including Ferrero. Ferrero Rocher is everywhere. I've also seen Pepperidge Farm cookies here. Hershey's does not seem to exist. Remember about 15-20 years ago when they introduced Nestlé Wonderball and Kinder Suprise to America? They were fun, lovely hollow chocolate ball with a little toy inside. Then they took it away because people were suing because their dumb/too young/unsupervised children were choking on the toys. Those still exist here and were present in every pre-made Easter basket I saw.
          Another interesting tidbit is deodorant bars are not popular here. They are sold, but they're at least twice as expensive as their more popular counterparts, roll-ons and spray-ons, and are typically more "pharmacy" type deodorants for heavy sweaters. So I got the spray version of the bar I already have. I haven't used a spray-on since middle school. They just didn't work for me. I hate the smell getting every where when you spray, and I always sweat through them despite the fact that I barely sweat. But if it's what everyone uses, it must be good, right? Surely they have improved since I was 11? Nope. Also, public safety announcement, apparently you can't use them (or at least Dove Go Fresh) immediately after getting out of the shower because it reacted with the soap or water or something and now it looks like I spray painted my pits white. Looks like I'll be stocking up next time I go to the States.
          So those are some tidbits. Some updates: we got our entertainment center and now just have to build it, the shipping company won't refund us for the missing items and now Jeremy's company is getting their lawyers involved, and tomorrow we will be going to the citadel!

          Easter Monday is a national/bank holiday here. I suppose at one point someone was like "Gee, why does a national holiday like Easter always have to be on a Sunday? I never get to have off work!" and so Easter Monday came into existence. It was a gorgeous day, so Jeremy and I went to Parc Micaud, a three minute walk from our apartment. Not to be confused with Parc Cusenier, the tiny park across from our apartment, Parc Micaud is a giant park that sits in front of the river opposite our apartment, spanning from Pont Denfert Rochereau, the bridge on the left of our apartment, all the way to Pont de Brégille, two bridges to the right of our apartment. We got there by Pont de la République. Along the way, we saw that the river tour boat has started up for the season.

          We saw plenty of ducks and pigeons, of course. I've never seen some of the ducks before and couldn't find them on the one website I found for birds of the Franche-Comte region. Feel free to comment if you know what they are! Closer to the center of the park, they had pony rides for the children and also a playground, complete with jungle gym and metal slide. Remember when slides were metal in America? If you're under 20, you probably don't! Jeremy and I then spent a good amount of time discussing our memories and the pros and cons of metal slides and plastic slides. We were about 8 when they started pushing for plastic slides versus metal ones, deeming jungle gyms as unsafe, and taking away tire pits for "sanitary purposes" (okay, so ONE dead mouse was found, so what?!).

          The river was more cloudy and more elevated than usual as it rained all last week. If next weekend is even somewhat nice, our goal is to go to the citadel. I'm so excited! I've been waiting for this!

          One of my kitchen scrap projects worked! I read you can regrow celery. Cut the base of the celery off and put it in  bowl of water for 7-10 days, changing the water every few days. The celery will begin to resprout! Then, transfer it into an 8" pot, covering the base with soil, allowing only the new sprout to e above soil. Celery can be grown indoors with enough light, but check your zone (South Jersey is 6B, Besançon is 8A) to see when it can be left outside. Generally celery is from May to August.

          It started shooting up new leaves within a few days. Once this happens, keep a good eye on the water level cause I found the poor guy bone dry a couple times. It just sucked up all that water once it started shooting.

          Here in France, April 1st is known as poisson d'avril or April fish. People will try to attach paper fish to one another's back without being noticed. It's more for children, but adults get in on it too.
          It allegedly came about in the mid-sixteenth century. Until that time, the new year started on April 1st, but King Charles IX wanted it to start in January and changed the French Calendar. Some people were not happy with this decision and still celebrated April 1st as the new year. The people who embraced the new calendar would mock them and play tricks on them.
          This is where fish became involved. In the mid-sixteenth century, lent ended on April 1st and presents of fish were often given to celebrate the new year, since during lent you cannot eat meat (let's save the debate of why the majority of people think muscle from fish isn't considered meat but muscle from mammals is). Once the new year changed, those who still celebrated on April 1st began getting fake fish as "presents" from those who now celebrated on January 1st.
          I suppose over the years, people stopped taking presents on April 1st assuming it would be a prank, and this is when stealthily attaching a cloth or paper fish to a person's back instead started taking over. It has obviously stopped being used to point out those who have not changed with the times and has become more of just a trick to play among friends and coworkers.