Last days at the Cooperage

Yesterday was my last day at the cooperage with Grand Fred and the rest of the coopers. I was invited to Seb’s house in Cognac, which was an honor for me. He lives in a humble old house that looks very stereotypical of French living. It is not what we think of as a house though; it is like 200 year old apartment building. It just off a main street, so I could see many people walking back from the bakery and other little shops with bags full of food for that night's dinner. He introduced me to his wife and his two little girls and his parents and his father-in-law.

Interestingly, in France the whole extended family live very close and they see each other every day. We had quite a funny episode just after meeting Seb's father-in-law. He was giving Seb and his wife his old washing machine. (A side note: the washing machines here are maybe about 1/3 the size they are in America. It looks like you can only wash about 3 shirts and 1 pair of pants, but that is nether here nor there.) So, Seb and I carried it through the very narrow house to where the old one was. We set it down and I went out to meet his little girl, when I came back Seb was fighting with the water hose in the back of the washing machine that was spraying out of control, drenching him and the entire kitchen. It was very funny.

We stayed in Cognac for a few hours and then went back to the cooperage to meet Nico (one of the owners of the cooperage and with whom I am staying). He was showing some friends his prototype called “Oxo Lift” that is like a fork lift that is smaller and is pushed opposed to ridden. We played a few games of Petanque (a very popular game in France) with Seb and another person from the cooperage and some of Nico’s friends.

We went out to eat at a restaurant that is owned by a friend of Nico. It is right on a river and on Sundays is a popular place for elderly couples to go dancing. Some of the coopers invited me to go out to a popular club in the town of Saints, so Seb was going to take me and we would meet up with the coopers later in the night, but before I would go with the coopers the group that went out to dinner went out on the town. Nico and his wife headed home at about 1:30 when we went to the club. It was a very big club and had 5 different clubs inside one club. It had a techno, a house, a disco, a rock and a rap club inside this one mega club. It was very impressive and I had never seen anything like it, however I do not frequent many European “Discotheques.” It was called La Vegas and was a very fun experience to have for one of my last nights in France.

I am very happy that the coopers enjoyed having me around. In the beginning, I most likely made much more work for them due to the fact that I had no idea what I was doing. This is because I am not a master cooper and when they explained what I was to do, it was explained in French and very broken English; but after working with them, joking with them, yelling with them, and many “thumbs up” and other hand gestures we have established a very funny friendship. A few say they are coming to live with me in California for a while, so next summer I may establish a new American branch of Tonnellerie Baron.
--Drew