There Is Just One Moon and One Golden Sun...

The carnival has arrived in Angers for the month of November. Yesterday Peter and I each got a shiatsu massage, one after the other. I made the mistake of going first so that after this completely interesting hour (I had never had a full shiatsu massage before) I emerged to find that Soren had seen all of the crazy light-up rides across the river and that Peter had promised that I would take him "to the slide" as he referred to it. It turns out Peter was actually sad not to be able to go himself, but I took it as an invitation to purgatory.

We made our way around all of the huge trucks (they are building a ton of public transportation in Angers) to the bridge. The carnival reached us before we it, the sort of noise, light and sugar-filled monstrosity that leaves no doubt as to why ADHD has been on the rise in recent decades. The little gnome was entranced by it all--teenagers slamming a punching bag game, kids ingesting mountains of cotton candy, incandescent roller coasters loaded with screaming passengers. I noted that no ride had a height or age minimum, although I saw no unusually young children on them. Perhaps the french trust in the common sense of their population? Eventually we happened upon Babyland, a space filled with rides for smaller kids.

I am not so heartless that I denied Soren the chance to drive the batmobile on a carousel circling to the tune of It's A Small World Afterall. I crouched next to him and we circled slowly. I doubt Batman drives with a trail of drool hanging from his mouth. The proprietor of the ride swung some sort of animal rump on a string over the riders, like a pinata, but instead of candy inside this rump dispensed a detachable tail good for an extra ride. Soren "won" the tail, thanks to the proprietor lowering the rump on a string into his seat in the batmobile so that the tail stuck to Soren's head and detached. He circled for a chorus or so with the tail wrapped across his face until I removed it.

After the second turn we returned to pick Papa Peter up from his massage, And a Smile Means Friendship to Everyone ringing in our ears. On the way out we spotted an old lab parked near his person's concession stand, inured to the noise and lights. It's a world of laughter and a world of tears, old dog.