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Zvláštní Austerlitz 2005
[Scene at the bus stop]
Czechs: [translation] Hey, is that our bus?
French: Oui.
Czechs: Well, what are you doing on it?
French: --
Czechs: Yes, going to the frolic, no doubt. Oh boy! So are we. What a strange trip this is.
French: Oui.
Czechs: Pardon us, do you have any grey poupon? We have only the cheap yellow kind.
French: Oui!
[Konec]
On Saturday, 2 December 2005, I went with a group of Fulbrighters and friends to see the battle of Austerlitz rise again. It was on a field with scale-model model houses and things that actually burned down. From our vantage point, the people looked like scale models too. ("Hey, is that grey dot on the white horse Napoleon?" "Yeah, I think so." "How can you tell?" "Well, see he's wearing that funny hat." "No, I don't really." "Well, it's very small." "Ah yes, a scale-model original.") The original battle, in which Napoleon's army of 75,000 routed the combined Austrian and Russian armies of 90,000, has become rather legendary. You might have guessed that the French won from the dialogue above. But you probably didn't since it may have given the impression that the French were all driving around on a snowy field in fancy cars insulting the Czech's cheap yellow mustard. In reality the re-enactors (French, Czech, Austrian, Russian alike) were overcrowding the city transport and drinking too much cheap Czech beer. Overall the re-enactment was, well, small and far-away. The most dramatic part was the burning church and barns, which you can see by clicking on the picture at left (click on the slideshow feature at the right when you get to flickr.com). "Vive la France!"
My classic "scale model" Breugel photo of the re-enactment is here, others are gathered at my Austerlitz tag on flickr.
Tags: Austerlitz, czech, brno, photos
Czechs: [translation] Hey, is that our bus?
French: Oui.
Czechs: Well, what are you doing on it?
French: --
Czechs: Yes, going to the frolic, no doubt. Oh boy! So are we. What a strange trip this is.
French: Oui.
Czechs: Pardon us, do you have any grey poupon? We have only the cheap yellow kind.
French: Oui!
[Konec]
On Saturday, 2 December 2005, I went with a group of Fulbrighters and friends to see the battle of Austerlitz rise again. It was on a field with scale-model model houses and things that actually burned down. From our vantage point, the people looked like scale models too. ("Hey, is that grey dot on the white horse Napoleon?" "Yeah, I think so." "How can you tell?" "Well, see he's wearing that funny hat." "No, I don't really." "Well, it's very small." "Ah yes, a scale-model original.") The original battle, in which Napoleon's army of 75,000 routed the combined Austrian and Russian armies of 90,000, has become rather legendary. You might have guessed that the French won from the dialogue above. But you probably didn't since it may have given the impression that the French were all driving around on a snowy field in fancy cars insulting the Czech's cheap yellow mustard. In reality the re-enactors (French, Czech, Austrian, Russian alike) were overcrowding the city transport and drinking too much cheap Czech beer. Overall the re-enactment was, well, small and far-away. The most dramatic part was the burning church and barns, which you can see by clicking on the picture at left (click on the slideshow feature at the right when you get to flickr.com). "Vive la France!"
My classic "scale model" Breugel photo of the re-enactment is here, others are gathered at my Austerlitz tag on flickr.
Tags: Austerlitz, czech, brno, photos
Posted 07 December 2005 at 01:00.
A graduate student in music and anthropology writing a dissertation about music in Moravia, the eastern third of the Czech Republic. At some point, the Czech Republic's "second city" (that would be Brno) captured my attention, and I've since been blogging about events, arts, music, and other stuff—basically whatever interests me in and around the cityscape. I'm not living in Brno now, but I keep up with the cultural pulse from afar as best I can.
Comments:
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10:29 AM, December 07, 2005
Another thing (just looked at the photos). Maybe you should put more photos on the blog. I almost missed finding the slide show option on Flickr. It's very easy to imagine it's only going to show the one photo.
10:37 AM, December 07, 2005
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