4th of July Party in France
By Chris Sherrod
14 Sep 2008
My girlfriend and I did a few home exchanges in France and Italy this last summer. Our first one was in Rennes France. Up in the northwest part of France.
The people we were home exchanging with told us that a friend of theirs were going to have a 4th of July party for us Americans and if you could attend. We, of course, said yes.
After a day of touring a medieval town with castles we came home to the entire street being blocked off. We had to park a few block away and walkedbback where we joined everyone in the middle of the street. They had many tables lined down the middle of the street with food and wine on it.
The people on the street had to get special permission from the major of Rennes to close the street. We were incredibly flattered. People we didn't know were sharing their favorite bottle of wine from their own town, their homemade liquor and food, talk about the food. They made hot dogs for us plus a dozen other things. They even cooked up a steak just for me since I don't hot dogs. Very very good.
One little boy came up to us because he had never seen an American before. He just looked at us and then joined his friends playing nearby. It was funny. And the oldest lady on the street within minutes of arriving at the party poured us some local liquor and encouraged us to drink up. Every few minutes she would come by to refill our glasses.
The played one song over and over "Double Je" by Christophe Willem. Our friend Mark who was visiting us from Manchester UK was dancing with all the women of the street to this song. In French the song says I know what I want. Funny to see Mark surrounded by French woman you are singing I know what I want. They know what they want and it is to enjoy life to it's fullest. We partied until 2am and only quit because of exhaustion.
A few days later the neighbor Marie-Claud that organized the party came over to drop off the CD by Christophe Willem. We talked about the grand time we had. These neighbors were nicer than our own back home.
To all my friends, home exchange neighbors, Marie-Claud and everyone in France. Viva La France. I felt very welcome here during our summer visit. You have a wonderful country. Thank you for the Statue of Liberty it was a mighty fine gift from our friends in France. And thank you so much for helping us out to get rid of the British royals during our own Revolution.
After staying in Rennes for three weeks were moved to our next home exchange in Paris France. We had the best time in Rennes and really felt like we didn't ever want to leave.
