Our season of goodbyes has begun. This past week we had our final French lesson with Sylvie, who has urged us on in our studies with skill, warmth and a sense of humour. We will miss her and certainly hope a trip to Canada will be in her plans.
And now, Monsieur Grue is gone! After all the months of watching him build the apartments, read Sartre (or play games on his phone!) and climb up and down the ladder, he and his crane have left the skyscape. David has been watching the progress of the buildings and had been predicting this for some time. We knew it wouldn't be long when we saw him swinging dumpsters full of leftover detritus out to the street. Then one morning, I noticed that a new and different crane had been added to the skyscape and then this is what I saw.
This man was joined by a mate and together, agile as mountain goats, they clambered in and out of the crane. From where we watched, it looked like the demolition of a Meccano project. They would unscrew large bolts at the end of one section, clamber back inside the adjacent part of the crane and wait for the new crane to remove the unscrewed part. Then on to the next one. All the while, M. Grue was in his cabin, reading (or playing games on his phone), waiting for instructions to move one part or another of his machine. True to French custom, everything stopped for an hour while they all went for lunch and then the painstaking procedure resumed. The removal of the 'grue' took the whole day so we couldn't restrain ourselves from going to have a closer look. As in all countries, there seemed to be an inordinate number of men standing around watching so we joined them and watched too. It was interesting to see how skillfully all the huge pieces were manoeuvred out over the roof into the narrow street below where a large flatbed truck was waiting.
The apartments are nearly finished and look very nice. They, like most of the new buildings in the city centre, blend in well with the rest of the neighbourhood and will provide much needed housing in the area. Now our skyscape is curiously empty.
I miss watching M. Grue, admiring the skill of his work. hearing the humming of his crane. Goodbyes, even to crane operators, can be difficult!
