Being in the Haute Vienne recently, Heritage Days are always a good way to know my new area. The initial motivation was to see the premises of France 3, which opened its studios to the public for the first time. Then Caroline and I consulted on Internet for a list of locations to be visited this Saturday, September 16, 2006 in Haute Vienne and have done our program: France 3, Chateau de Royère, an exhibition "old tools and farming" and " furniture former farm, Jourgnac castle.

It’s the morning, we are preparing, Caroline, our daughters and me to go to our Heritage Day. As it is a little bit cold outside, I put my long skirt light brown from Anderlandinger, recently bought, a shirt brown with blue lines, and my big shoes rising brown colour. When I saw my whole family ready, it made me smile: Girls and woman of the house were all three in front of me in pants, and me, the only man, I was in skirt.

 

Arriving at France 3, the hosting agent warned us that there were 2 hours waiting. With 2 little children it was too long. We heard someone from France 3 saying that they did not expect such a passion. To remedy to this, she suggested we sign up for another Saturday, which would be restricted to persons enrolled today.

We decided therefore to go to the castle of Royère. The house’s owner welcomed us in the aisle of the castle with a large smile and with great friendliness. The visit took place in 2 phases: one in front of the towers with the main explanation of the history of this castle by the owner and another on the terrace. The owner invited us to wait for the 2nd phase as the first group already listened to the history of the castle. We were going to listen to the 1st phase with the 2nd group.

 

When the 2nd phase began, we joined the group consisting of at least 20 people. Some people, including myself, took pictures. The owner asked not to disseminate pictures of the castle, especially for commercial purposes, this has already happened (hence the photo trouble in this article). The owner said:” today we can see a lot of things and, therefore, we are no longer surprised at anything”, with a little look at my skirt.

 

During the 1st phase, as we waited for the 2nd group, we made a tour of the property including the castle chapel. There were representations showing men in tunics or skirts (see pictures). I was not surprised because I have never seen the depiction of a man in trousers in a church.
 

It was only after a quarter of an hour when the owner decided to start the 1st phase of the 2nd group. Because very few visitors for this group, we were able to discuss with the owner until we would come back to the car to the car.

 

It was noon and everyone was hungry. We stopped therefore at Mc Donald who was on our journey to the exhibition "tools and agrarian old" and "old furniture firm" in Isle. We met one of my colleagues and his family. One of the girls told her mother "look, he wears a skirt” and her mother showed no reaction. While we were queuing, Caroline took one of our girls to go to the bathroom. While she was coming back a woman looked her showing me and making a head that meant  "How silly that one." Caroline joined me, the lady understood that, in fact, Caroline was my wife. Caroline returned to the toilets with the second of our girls and saw the lady in question. The lady looked at her strangely.

 

Then, at the exhibition a woman accompanied by two other people received us very well. We did the tour of the exhibition and at the end we signed the guest book. I signed, "Man skirt. The exhibition was very well done and it has allowed me to see things I saw when I was a kid with my grandparents rear. At the time to leave the exhibition, the Lady started to make the conversation with us and offered a sweet to our daughters.
 

It was time to leave for our final destination: the church and the castle of Jourgnac. Again, the church contained representations showing men in shirt or skirt.

 

The castle is wonderful. There were a lot of people and therefore the visit was much more impersonal. But children were tired, we made a tour of the property without waiting for the next tour, and then we came back home. 

CONCLUSION:

 
Like my other trips in  skirt, the day was enjoyable and without real surprise. Except the Lady in Mc Donald, we saw no negative reaction (but this does not mean that people do not think less, we do not know). On the contrary, those participating in the program have very well received us.

 

I have so little reaction from people that it is difficult for me to find sentences in connection with the wearing of skirts to put in the articles of my blogs. But if those who have positive experiences do not, then who will? And who will show an example to men still hesitant to go out in skirt?

 

We will therefore continue, because this is not a single negative reaction to a full day that will stop us...