A minor cultural observation: In Canada, there are annual complaints that the stores start selling Christmas merchandise even before the trick-or-treaters have egged the last car of Hallowe'en. Well, in Germany Christmas displays start going up in September. Here in France, on the very first day of October the morning light revealed that all of the streetside ice cream vendors had been magically transformed into roast chestnut sellers, all in booths shaped like minature steam locomotives (I'd appreciate it if someone could explain the chestnut/locomotive link, by the way - the one on Phillips Square in Montreal had a similar set-up).
I have to head out to French class now, where my classmates and teacher all believe I'm some kind of paranormal expert, which better reflects my supernatural ability to mangle the French language than my actual interests.