Jour des Morts and Breathalyzers
It seems like Halloween is celebrated in France similar to Canada. Children dress up and say "bonbon ou un sort" (trick or treat?) and we did see a few costumed kids in town yesterday. This has become more and more popular in the past 10 years. We live on a quiet little road a bit out of town so we had no one knocking on our door. There are no decorations in stores or homes and we never saw a jack-o-lantern (in fact few pumpkins). But the real 'celebration' happens the next day sometimes called Toussaints, or Jour des Morts (Day of the Dead), or All Saints Day. It's a public holiday and knowing what I know about Nov. 1 in schools all over Canada, it likely should be a holiday there as well!
On November 1, people take flowers to the cemetery and we noticed quite a few cars beginning to stop by the local one yesterday. Apparently chrysanthemums are popular and there have been a lot on sale lately - now I know why. At other times of the year there are a lot of plastic bouquets on the graves and one flower shop we went in had 90% plastic flowers, much to Alanna's dismay.
Also starting on November 1 in France a new law, which took effect in May, will be enforced. Drivers are required to have a breathalyzer kit in their car. Apparently this will not take the place of the police breathalyzers but I think they're intending it to be a self-monitoring device. Ross had read up on this when he was trying to figure out all the driving signs so a few days ago we set out to buy one. So far we've looked in 6-8 dozen stores and nobody seems to have them. So if we get stopped, hopefully the police will have enough trouble trying to figure out what we're saying that they'll forget to ask about it!
On November 1, people take flowers to the cemetery and we noticed quite a few cars beginning to stop by the local one yesterday. Apparently chrysanthemums are popular and there have been a lot on sale lately - now I know why. At other times of the year there are a lot of plastic bouquets on the graves and one flower shop we went in had 90% plastic flowers, much to Alanna's dismay.
Also starting on November 1 in France a new law, which took effect in May, will be enforced. Drivers are required to have a breathalyzer kit in their car. Apparently this will not take the place of the police breathalyzers but I think they're intending it to be a self-monitoring device. Ross had read up on this when he was trying to figure out all the driving signs so a few days ago we set out to buy one. So far we've looked in 6-8 dozen stores and nobody seems to have them. So if we get stopped, hopefully the police will have enough trouble trying to figure out what we're saying that they'll forget to ask about it!
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