Sometimes you have to stand on a tagged trash can to get a good panoramic photo
It was nice to be back in a warm beach climate after the winter weather in New Zealand. The beaches in Nouméa were beautiful despite being marred by graffiti. Everything was tagged — trash cans, park benches, picnic tables, bathrooms. I find tagging ugly, unnecessary, and uninspired. But when we ventured into the city, we discovered that some of the graffiti was actually art.
Some of the graffiti in downtown Nouméa wasn't bad
We soon began to notice that we were surrounded by triathletes in the beach areas. We would often share the sidewalk with runners, see others on expensive racing bikes in the street, and watch swimmers in caps and goggles training in the ocean. When you’re on vacation, it’s strange to be surrounded by exercise fiends. It made me feel like a bit of a slacker.
Speaking of sharing the sidewalk, Mr. HalfFull and I had to retrain our brains after 1 week in Fiji and 3 weeks in New Zealand doing it the British way. New Caledonia is French, so they drive and walk on the right side of the road, like us. It was surprising that this was actually a retraining exercise, since walking on the left had originally felt so unnatural.
The other surprising thing we discovered on the sidewalk was a complete disregard for other humans. Fiji was an exceptionally friendly culture where strangers yelled, “Bula” as they passed us on the sidewalk. But each time we said, “Bonjour” in Nouméa, we were met with silence. Perhaps it’s the cool aloofness inherited from the French.
We were also bewildered by another unfriendly sidewalk practice. Generally, Mr. HalfFull and I walk next to each other. But if we see another person or group approaching, we move to single file until we pass the other party. In Nouméa, no one else did this! They could be walking with five people across and make no effort to move over and allow us to pass. Eventually, it became a game to see if they would actually run into us; I put Mr. HalfFull in front for those experiments since he could block better.
City workers play pétanque in Nouméa
On the other side of the spectrum, we witnessed the relaxed, playful side of New Caledonian culture in the form of daily pétanque matches. Pétanque is a French game similar to bocce. Around 11 AM each morning, we would see the city workers park their trucks and congregate to play on the court adjacent to the beach. They played for hours; I wonder if they were on the clock. Mr. HalfFull thinks this might be his next career.
I have mixed impressions about Nouméa. At times, people made it feel cold, but the joy of the city workers meeting to play was a nice contrast.
- Does graffiti change your impression of a place?
- Do you exercise on vacation?
- Did you need to retrain your brain after travel?
- Do you acknowledge and/or greet strangers on the sidewalk?
- Do you practice sidewalk etiquette?
- Are the pétanque players lazy or are they fostering meaningful camaraderie?
#1 by Sarah P. on January 13, 2012 - 1:52 PM
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Sometimes I’m friendly on sidewalks, and other times I have my head in the clouds, or I’m on the phone. I do *try* to practice sidewalk etiquette, and am trying to instill the same in our kids… it can be quite a challenge to get kids to not run ahead, not hog the sidewalk, etc!
I think the petanque playing sounds wonderful. I’m tired of this derogatory term, “lazy.” I think our culture DOES way too much, and has made “doing” too much of a religion. I may be a busy mom, but by our culture’s standards I have way more leisure time than most. And I wish I had more!
#2 by Ms. HalfEmpty on January 14, 2012 - 10:03 AM
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I think sidewalk etiquette depends a lot on the location. If other people say hello, you’re more likely to continue to say hello. But if no one else does it, you will eventually be conditioned to stop. Thanks for teaching your kids sidewalk etiquette!
That’s a great point about doing too much. But does it matter if you’re on the clock, in uniform, with your company’s vehicle? Are you really entitled to leisure time while you are getting paid?
#3 by Mr. HalfFull on January 14, 2012 - 5:40 PM
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My favorite random sidewalk moment in Noumea was stumbling across that movie poster for “The Hangover Part II” which translated into “Very Bad Trip 2″ for French audiences.
It was about a month after my face was painted like a warrior in Fiji and my baby sister commented about how it reminded her of that movie (which we still haven’t seen!).
#4 by Sarah P. on January 17, 2012 - 11:46 AM
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Yeah, the concept of being “on the clock” is totally different. I’m not sure it’s a great concept, period, but it’s certainly a major part of our work economy.
“Very Bad Trip Part 2″ is hilarious!
#5 by Ms. HalfEmpty on January 17, 2012 - 6:45 PM
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Do you think that means the French have no word for “hangover?” Perhaps their tolerance is too high for that!
#6 by Sarah on January 21, 2012 - 10:16 PM
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My favorite travel graffiti was in Maraise (Paris). Van Gogh lived here and there were tags all over the place that looked like his ghost was still roaming the brick streets…can I upload photos?
#7 by Ms. HalfEmpty on January 22, 2012 - 1:57 PM
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Sounds amazing! I’d love to see the photos. If you already have them online somewhere, you can use the html img tag to put them in a comment. Otherwise, email me the photos and I’ll upload them on my site.