Betty Boop's eyes

It is ironic for me to notice that since I moved back into the city from my almost remote country side town along the Dutch canals, all I do is end up in places that are green and possibly full of animals in one way or the other.

Well, one could argue that the subway is one such place: green with sticky dirt and certainly full of various species of animals. I won't take that road though... The target is too easy.

Instead, I took the subway to go to the agricultural fair in Paris. This is a major social event for the beasts as well as their keepers and the city dwellers (and business, obviously). The media go nuts over the little lambs and the hen's eggs and pictures of cows cover the city walls an hit the headlines for the whole week. All of a sudden, we remember the country side and farmers' reality and give ourselves good conscience in doing so. For 20 years, I basically ignored this highlight of the fair season (you can imagine the state of my conscience). It is always the same thing: when you have something right under your nose, you put your nose up and despise it.

After 10 years of life abroad, here I am, ready to walk head up high into the big hall of the fair! The city girl goes to market, so to speak. And I did feel like an ignorant suburban being every time I jumped with excitement in front of those bicolored piglets or started my very own conversation with the rooster nearby. Luckily, most visitors were like me: children in awe (and adults with modern time issues).

The particular smell is what welcomes you first: pungent hay, flesh, manure and grass all mixed to create an atmosphere of outdoor air even though we were indoor. The heat comes second: all those bodies, all those lights...they must have made one iceberg melt at least. At the same time, the combination of the two feels like a warm embrace. And in the third position come the colors, especially in the hall dedicated to the French regions: the stalls are laden with food and produce from every region - a good way to remind you that France also has oversea territories that bring in their culture and gastronomy. The impression is that of an incredible mosaic of cultures into one.

While tasting a big, tasty sandwich with ham from the Basque Country (the piglets did not get much older, oops), we went around admiring the variety of species and the wealth of the country in terms of agriculture. We paid shorts visits to the lambs, the donkeys and the sheep (even from Texel island!); we paid a loooong visit to the cows that were very well represented - frankly amazing in terms of color, morphology and most of the time imposing (half a ton for a female, not bad, hun?). One of them got my full attention when lifting her big, friendly eyes up: she had Betty Boop's eyes!

Bette Davis's Eyes would have been such and unfortunate choice, don't you think? Well, let's hope Betty Boop survived the stressful week and had a safe journey home.