Setting

The Conversation by Degas, 1889: https://www.wikiart.org/en/edgar-degas/the-conversation

This story is set at the time of the Impressionist artists, like Edgar Degas and Claude Monet. Monet lived in Giverny, just outside Paris, where he had a large property. The Perche Regional Natural Park was a large park abutting Monet’s grounds. The two ladies, in this story, are from Degas’ pastel painting, The conversation . I have taken the liberty of using his painting for inspiration for the conversation.

In the late 1880’s, bicycles were the rage, first for men but eventually for women as well. As I researched my history I learnt some interesting facts: mainly that the safety bicycle impacted on the conception of the women’s liberation movement. By 1897, women began to campaign for voting rights. It was an exciting time for women who found their liberation from home life and constricted clothing.

Secondly I learnt is that ‘birding’ was a term used for shooting birds (with a gun, not a camera). There was a gradual attitude changed towards birds in the same era as woman: both eventually becoming liberated. Emily Williamson was an environmentalist and philanthropist. She founded the Plumage League which fought against the use of bird’s feathers and plumage in fashion-wear; and later co-founded the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), with Eliza Phillips; these were the early steps towards bird conservation and bird-watching.

Bicycles

We pedal into the scene of two ladies enjoying the day. Karine and Monique met at the Perche Regional Natural Park just outside the village of Giverny. They both wore their modern pantaloons outfit: long pants gathered at the ankles and a short skirt over it.  It was a joyous meeting as Karine had only recently persuaded her husband to buy her a bicycle. She had begged him: “you know, Monique’s husband already got her one last year. Surely we have the money. Please?”

Monique punch the air with her fist as she saw Karine: “YES, you got your bicycle. I knew he would get you one. You thought up all those excuses why he couldn’t buy you one, all for nothing. Well done! …AND SEE … you can ride. ”

Karine dropped her head and smiled, rather coyly: “Yes, you are my advisor, thank you. Hubby bought me one of those new safety bicycles.”   “I am glad he did. I was a bit afraid of those men’s bicycles. Now I am free as a bird thanks to you pushing me,” she laughed. Anyway, It will be fun exploring villages and parks together, won’t it?”

Monique beamed, “and fields and so much more; it will be fun getting lost, I’m looking forward to it.”

Bird-watching

It was springtime and they had packed their Galilean telescopes/opera glasses, sketchbooks, pencils and a picnic. Galileo’s telescope could see worlds outside their world: craters on the moon, sunspots on the sun, the four large moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. Later the opera glasses were made of two small Galilean telescopes; suddenly people could enjoy worlds closer up: worlds within walls.

In the past Karine and Monique rode sedately, sitting next to their ‘would be’ husbands, on tandem bicycles, allowing the men to protect and woo them. They had been ‘nature lovers’ enjoying journeys and little picnic excursions… but NOW, that they could ride on their own, they were independent and unfettered birdwatchers.

“Do you think we look like we’re defying everyone’s expectations with our pantaloons and bicycles?” Karine shouted on the top of her voice as she hurtled along. She wasn’t sure if she cared what other’s thought of her. She could definitely see that Monique didn’t care. She wished she was confident like Monique.

“I am sure we do, I think they will call us revolting women, I want them to know that we are different. We are grabbing life by the Balls.” Monique shouted back. The trail, which led them downhill, was bumpy. They chimed in unison, letting the air escape from their lungs, as the bumps vibrated their chests: ‘ahaaahuhaahuh.’ Then they raced up the next hill and stopped at the top in the shade of a tall tree.

“Did you hear my breaks squeaking? …Sounded like a bird stuck in my wheel. Is that normal?”

“Oh, it’s fine.  I had that too; it’s the new breaks settling in”

Karine and Monique had been inspired to take up bird watching when they had seen Florence Bailey’s field guide: Birds through an Opera Glass. If Florence could do it so could they. Karine was interested in matching bird-calls to the birds while Monique was interested in the details: observing how birds nested, what they ate, mating calls, danger signals and making sketches. 

Eventually after a hot morning of cycling through the fields, they were ready for lunch. A picnic blanket, food and champagne were packed out; and the opera glasses lay in the sun, gemstone decorations sparkling against their colourful enameled paintwork. This was the first time they had gone exploring together without their husbands. It had been filled with a mixture of excitement, trepidation, and exhilaration; and also an enjoyable adventure. They were quiet. Monique sat sketching a nest as she ate. She had seen it wedged in a tree, between the branches, cupping four babies screeching for food. The hungry sounds cycled through her head. Her mind drifted.

Conversation

Cuckoo, cuckoo.

“That’s the male calling” Monique said, “and the bubbling call is the female. It’s their mating call. Then they go lay their eggs in some poor unsuspecting bird’s nest”

Karine was quizzical: “Cuckoo, sounds like ‘coucou*’ His name sounds like ‘hi darling’ or ‘hey babe’.”

 “Are you saying that the cuckoo calls are a caricature of men’s courtships signals?” Monique, teased her.

Karine didn’t answer at first. She lit up a cigarette and puffed smoke rings as her eyes fell on the glint of the opera glasses; they blended with birds softly twittering in the trees. “It’s so magical” she said, passing the cigarette to Monique “and to think we are alone, without our husbands. No we are not caricatures. We are not birds. We are modern women, revolting or not, we are doing what we want. I am glad I have a bicycle now, not because it can take me into town but because I can escape and no-one can find me for a few hours. It’s blissful. ” 

 Monique smirked, and softly growled: “the cult of domesticity”

Then Monique sat up straight, while sipping her Champagne, “according to some professor…”

Karine: “oh who? I might know him.” 

Monique waved her hands about: “oh, uh.. He.. is a professor… of Religious Studies at a University.  He said that people, like religious fundamentalists who opposed cycling, said that bicycles were the Devil’s Chariot. These so called scholars thought that riding bicycles would harm the reproductive organs and encourage sexual permissiveness”

They laughed loudly.

Karine: “oh I guess they think we will cause our families and society to rot and go to hell. No! I think we’re becoming feminists. ”

More laughter; maybe they had had too much Champagne.

 “Well anyway, as I was saying, he says that men just want to keep their women in their place at home.  Just let some man try stopping me from going where I want; today has been so much fun on our bicycles.”

Karine: “Yes, I agree. We are lucky our husbands bought us bicycles!!”

Monique: “hmmm, I heard a poem the other day. It’s a version of “Mary Had a Little Lamb **

"Dear Mary," said the little lamb,
"It gives me quite a fright
To see the girls on bicycles,
They're such a novel sight.
Why is it they all Bloomers wear?
The sight my blood congeals."
Then Mary touched her forehead thus,
And gently murmured: "Wheels."

Karine nodded pensively, slowly adding “Yes, wheels…. my brother said that he saw these ‘bicycle costumes’ as a way of women stealing men’s clothing. They are trying to be like men. Androgynous he called it… I am sick of living like this… These tight corsets and men’s made up, pompous rules. I do think we are becoming more independent like the men. I think … they don’t like it because they don’t really see our lives; they look right through us – like we are transparent. My hubby doesn’t even seem to hear me when I talk to him anymore. Now that they won our hearts it’s like we’re just their possessions.” She didn’t realize that she felt so angry about it and she wondered if Monique noticed.

 “Wait,” Monique was irritated. “I am still thinking about the doctors. Some of them worry about the effects of excessive cycling. They wonder how it would affect women.”

Then she went on as if talking to herself: “Another thing doctors say is that riding bicycles is bad for a women’s sexual health. I mean! I have been riding for a year and nothing has happened to me, I can assure you. I think it is crazy. But some doctors suppose that the bicycle saddle might encourage vibrations in unfortunate places for women. Can you believe that? Outrageous, as if it’s only for men and not for ladies”

Karine interjected: “Ah, so it’s okay for men but not for us women. That’s absurd, totally incongruent? I am speechless, Pouah*! I need to ride my bicycle some more. Work my frustration out. And that’s not a euphemism!”

Monique, glanced up, a little startled at Karine’s animated appearance but forged right on: “Doctors wrote details in their medical journals about the bicycle being used for self-abuse….”

Karine clapped her hands over her ears: “Monique please! I don’t want to hear it! I am soooooo angry and I think they are just twisted, sick men. I like to think of myself as being pure in mind. And my bicycle is innocent, by the way. Those doctors are the corrupt ones thinking up such a pile of horse dung!”

Monique, whipped herself upright, she definitely noticed her friend’s mood change and poked at her: “oh? I thought it was interesting to know what they think; you think it’s a hot potato?”

Karine: “shshshsh, men! I’ve had enough, too many details from you.”

The common quail, close by, imitated Karine’s shshshs as if she was listening in.

“Even the quail wants you to shush,” Karine sighed.

Monique softened in agreeance “well the doctors should not be concerned with sexual health or sexual morality. Society thinks that ladies are supposed to be chaste and pure but we threaten masculinity by wearing pantaloons and going wherever we please. It’s inevitable. Change. You are right our husbands do understand why we want bicycles; for that we should be ever so grateful.” Monique playfully winked at Karine.

They rolled about, laughing like a gaggle of geese, at the intended sarcasm: everyone should be seen and understood by their partners. That should be the norm. Then they lay there for a while, breathing in the scent of the fields, lost in their own thoughts; thinking of all those possibilities opening up before them….

One of them said “But seriously, let’s plan a bicycle tour.  I’ve heard it’s quite an adventure. Do you think our husbands would like to come? Or do you think they don’t have the freedom because they have to work?

The other had fallen asleep.

***

A quote by Susan B. Anthony, in 1896: “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.”^[37]

*Glossery
Coucou = French for a familiar greeting like hi darling or hey babe.
Pouah=ugh or yuck

**by the playwright, Stanislaus Stange

Thank you for reading my story; I find using dialog quite a challenge and it is good to be stretched.

Take care,