Fish, Frogs and Cheese

Today was April Fool's Day, or Poisson d'Avril, as the French call it. I have absolutely no idea where their obsession with fish comes from, but it appears that the pinnacle of Gallic wit is to pin a paper fish onto someone's back when they're not looking. Very bizarre, but then again, we are talking about a country where Mr Bean is still found amusing.

It's getting towards the end of my stay here, so my lessons have become a lot more lighthearted and self-deprecatory. I gave one class a list of bizarre sports practiced in Britain, such as bog-snorkelling, gurning, shin-kicking, the Bognor Birdman, zorbing, and so on, and got them to decide which were real and which I'd made up. They were amazed to discover that they were all true, leading to declarations that, "Ils sont fous, les anglais!" Just in case our reputation wasn't bad enough.

They were particularly struck by cheese rolling. For those unfamiliar with British rural pastimes (we really do have top-notch eccentrics), this is a race which takes place in Gloucestershire every year. A large Double Gloucester cheese is rolled from the top of Cooper's Hill, a very tall and steep hill, and hundreds of people run/stagger/fall down after it in an attempt to catch it. The person who manages to grab the cheese first is the winner, but since it can reach speeds of up to 70 mph, there are usually plenty of injuries, although so far, there haven't been any deaths.

There are some great clips of last year's event here, although I'm slightly disappointed that they've gone all health-and-safety mad by now having lots of races with smaller groups instead of everyone at once. Still, there aren't many times in your life you get to hear someone yell, "Get the cheese!" at the top of their lungs.

My students were absolutely dumbfounded; after I explained how it worked, there was a stunned silence followed by a bewildered, "But... WHY?"

I looked at the girl. "You spent today trying to stick paper fish to people, right?"
"Well, yes."
"And you think the British are weird?"


Of course the real answer is that if you have to ask why someone would want to roll down an enormous hill, risking serious injury, while chasing a 70-mph cheese, then you're simply the kind of person who will never understand.