Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

The French people and the French State are, for the most part, extremely proud of their revolutionary history and the motto of the revolution – Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood – lives on as the motto of France today.

Yesterday the French Socialist Party elected Madame Ségolène Royal as its official candidate for next year’s presidential election. The fuss surrounding her candidature over the past year has been, or should have been, a real eye-opener for those who take the ‘equality’ bit of the motto at face value. Comments from old stalwarts in the Socialist Party have included such gems as ‘ if she becomes President, who will look after the children’!

Ok, you might not be too shocked by that. It’s all part of the knock-about of politics isn’t it? Well yes, but the issue goes much deeper than that in French society. As examples, women in France were awarded the right to vote only at the end of the Second World War, 20 years later than in Britain. In France, only 4.5% of company directors are female. In China the figure is 20%. The Assemblée Nationale (the National Parliament has only 71 female representatives out of a total of 577. In a league table of female inclusion in national politics, France lies 74th in world, behind – and this is truly staggering – Iraq and Afghanistan.

And yet, the people we talk to seem quite unconcerned about this. One intelligent, and ambitious young woman we know, when faced with the comment about who will look after the children said that they had a point. Our local education department has been full of anxiety recently because the old boss is leaving. There’s nothing unusual in that until you hear that most of the anxiety has arisen because the new boss is female. And when you hear that most of the anxiety has come from female employees, what can you say?

Of course, the lack of gender equality in the workplace, in the boardroom and in politics is only one manifestation of a questionable commitment to equality. There are many other serious examples surrounding ethnicity, the ruling classes etc. However, I quite liked a relatively trivial one we encountered recently. When Mrs A was applying for her job, she was advised that because she was writing to ‘the big boss’, she should sign off ‘With profound respect’. Dear oh dear. I guess if he – and it will be a ‘he’ - enters the room you are expected to prostrate yourself.

Howay Ségo!

Spiders from Mars…

… and other ‘petites choses’

Toussaint

The Christian Festival of All Saints (1 November) is big news for chrysanthemum producers. The tradition in France is that on this day, or the nearest Sunday, everyone buys chrysanthemums and places them on the family tomb. For many, of course, this involves a lengthy journey from their current place of residence to their family roots. It also means that for days beforehand you can’t move in shops and markets for great pots full of chrysanths.

Toussaint is also a ‘jour ferié’ (bank holiday) and the point at which the schools have half-term.

Spiders from Mars

We decided to spend part of the half-term in the Charente Maritime. We were able to do this thanks to our friends A & B who kindly allowed us to use their holiday home for a few days. The weather was fantastic and unseasonably warm – 28°C in the lovely town of Saintes on the afternoon of 27th October – and we were fascinated to find that the air was full of drifting spiders webs, some carrying small spiders. These were sticking to cars, trees and, most irritatingly, people. How we smiled when we saw an immaculately dressed, made-up and coiffed lady pass by, streaming behind her long webs. Smiled, that is, until we realised we were doing the same. By the Sunday, whole fields were covered in webs. It really was a spooky sight. (Unfortunately, we were so excited by all this that all the photos we took were too high resolution for this site so you’ll just have to take our word for it.)



Bucking the trend

One reason we wanted to go to the Charente was that it provided an opportunity to visit our nearest Anglican Church community. On Sunday 29th there was a special service for those recently bereaved and, as that applies to us, we wanted to be there. The service was wonderful and we were glad to have had the opportunity.

We are used to reading about declining church attendance in Britain and in France too. This English-speaking church is definitely bucking the trend. About 10 years ago, an English couple who had retired to France began holding house groups for about 10 similarly-minded friends. The demand grew to a point where about 5 years ago they approached the Intercontinental Church Society and asked it to provide a Chaplain (to be funded entirely by the congregation). Regular attenders now number towards 300 and the Chaplaincy, which has expanded its territory into the Vendée, has trained 2 people for the priesthood and has more in the pipeline. Remarkable!

Currying Favour

The Charente area has a very large number of British residents and holiday home areas. We therefore weren’t too surprised to come across a sizeable shop in Saintes selling lots of things the British seem to miss like the dark chocolate Bounty, curry pastes and Ruddles County. We were a little more surprised to find on a market an Englishman selling his home-baked cakes and another selling curries.

Extreme Music

Mrs A is searching for a music-related injuries clinic. She has developed tendonitis from over-vigorous bowing of her ‘cello. (It’s true.)

What a Beemer!
An Englishman recorded travelling at 225 kph (140mph) on our local motorway (speed limit 130 kph) has had his new, 100,000 euro BMW M5 confiscated by the Courts. He was said to have dissolved into tears when he heard the verdict. Who thinks the French have lax rules of the road?