Resting in Paris

Yesterday, I went to Herblay, a small town outside of Paris, where Nicole and the other actors are living at the theater. Even though they have only one performance there, they are being housed for the duration of the Paris run. The trip is like going to any of the suburbs; a metro ride and a train. I did that successfully all by myself, without Lola. Well, there was the part where I accidentally went out of the station instead of going from the metro to the train section but luckily, I just walked back in. 

 They had an audience of about 150 people, including a high school group. High school groups come to every performance because this play is an adaptation of Camus' "Les Justes" and they all have to read it.
The play is about a group of revolutionaries who also have a rock band so there's some singing and rocking out. The play is based on a true story but I don't think the original revolutionaries had a rock band. Nicole is fantastic in this play; I put it in her top 3 shows ever. She plays two characters and the first move of the second character is her falling on stage. Unfortunately last night, she did it a tad too hard and has skinned her knee. It looks bad.

The high school kids sat in front and there were a few who were obnoxious, playing on their phones, laughing inappropriately. I was in the middle of the audience and didn't really notice anything but the actors were annoyed. Afterwards, the kids stayed around, asking for autographs and asking questions about acting. They are especially enamored with the youngest band member; they told him he has "swag."

Before the performance, I went to one of the town's 3 restaurants, Le Creperie and had a crepe with duck, potatoes, and cheese. It was great. They open at 7 and I got there early. As I was sitting there, I think the entire town came in for dinner, including two dogs. Dogs are fine in restaurants there but you can't wear a hat. You will be yelled at if you don't take it off as you enter the restaurant.

After the play, we went to a bar. The owner and his wife came to the show and he asked everyone to come for champagne. We drank beer instead but the owners were very nice. When someone asked the younger business partner why his English is so good, he said "I grew up in South Carolina," with the accent to match the words. He is French but his father traveled around for business so he was in South Carolina until he was 10.

Today we came back to Paris, bought some groceries and just rested because Nicole begins rehearsals here tomorrow. It's a total coincidence that I rented an apartment 5 minutes from this theater. But they're doing the show just a couple of times, going to a town 3 hours away for two days and then coming back. Unfortunately, I'll be coming home so Nicole won't have this convenient apartment.