TTIP Etc

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

A current news item has really alarmed me. It seems the EU and the USA are about to sign a trade agreement, or may already have done so, with some extraordinary implications. International trade agreements are, on the whole, a good thing I think; they tend to increase trade and jobs. However this particular one apparently includes a clause, current in USA law, that allows corporations to sue governments if governments take measures that adversely affect the profits of the corporations. Moreover, any consequent legal actions and their results, fines, modifications of law, etc, are in camera: not revealed to the public. I find that monstrous not only in itself but also in that it gives rights to American Corporations that we subjects of the Queen don't have; we can't sue the Crown, which includes the major government departments. I don't imagine that will worry our current Prime Minister but it sure worries the hell out of me and so it should do for every UK citizen (and the citizens of every other EU country come to that). If ever there was a case of big power groups putting one over the man in the street surely this must take the biscuit.

Autumn

Our autumn, which arrived early in mid-August, has definitely set in now. It's not just the much cooler mornings and evenings, although the days are still generally very warm, but the appearance of mushrooms such as chanterelles on market stalls and the gradual disappearance of summer fruit. I'm making sure I get the last of the melons and white peaches while they are still around before I have to fall back on the winter diet of oranges, apples and pears. Grapes are now in the shops and the muscat grapes are admittedly delicious and will be with us for a month or so.

Despite the cooler weather, watering plants has still been necessary, if not as frequently and intensively as before. I've completed more small stone walls in the back garden to keep the soil more on a level and have planted more irises and cyclamen in the roadside across from my kitchen window. I've also some more clearing up to do before winter sets in but that is about it as far as gardening is concerned.

More Provencal Marketing

One of the local cinemas, in Buis, has been refurbished over the summer and although already up and running has its official opening next week. The next month's programme has some potentially interesting films and it is a month's programme and, what's more, published and available at the same time as the films. The other nearby cinemas seem to be sticking to publishing a three-week programme, for no obvious reason. It's a small point but a month of offerings seems somehow much more natural and easy to follow than three-week periods that begin and end all over the place.

I actually find it amazing and encouraging that a former flea-pit cinema in a place such as Buis, with little over double the popuation of Mollans, can have a refurbishment. It's all part of the French dedication to culture and determination to keep cinemas open in rural areas as an avenue for culture. I think that is admirable even if the subsidy must have been enormous. And publishing the programme on time and for a month is also a leap in the right direction. It seems to have been traditional here that the programme should not be published and disseminated before the programme starts. Subsidies in this direction are great but a little advance marketing wouldn't come amiss and might even reduce the amount of subsidy needed.

On that note, I went to the Post Office because friend Jo had told me that the village had made a DVD of the recent celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the Dauphin fountain and it was available there. She also warned me that it wasn't on display and I'd have to ask for it. This I duly did, having noticed that there wasn't any poster either advertising the DVD's existence. I was then told that payment had to be by cheque. I had credit card, debit card nd cash at the ready but no cheque book with me; so no sale. It's what passes for promoting the product around here.

Boules And House Numbers

House Numbers

The village council voted some three or four years ago to introduce house numbers to the village. To me it seemed a simple job of going along each road sticking numbers in sequence (preferably) on each house; but what do I know? For a start, many of the roads just outside the village didn't have names or, at least, signposted names, and the actual name of the road could be a subject of dispute. Anyway, over the past year road names have been officially decided and duly posted.

The job of assigning numbers, so I heard, had been goven by the previous council (some 3-4 years ago) to Jean Francois Colonnat, the acknowledged authority on the village's history. I don't yet know whether he discovered the problem of unnamed roads or whether he had a role in giving them names or whether he just threw his hands up in despair. It was a fair bet that any conclusions Jean Francois came to would be historically impeccable but also that the job wasn't going to be done very quickly. So, as the years passed I just assumed that probably something would happen sometime but I wasn't holding my breath; anyway, the village seemed to be doing quite well without house numbers. But last week it happened, in the rue du Faubourg at least, and no doubt house numbers are sprouting everywhere all over the village. My only worry is official documents, like tax returns. Because the tax authorities had got my address wrong and this year I decided to correct it, I had theoretically (only way to correct the address) to move from the Route de Buis (it passes by the end of my road) to the rue du Faubourg, where I have always been. I have always lived there at Les Bleus so the question is this. Now that I am officially number 39, am I going to have to move (theoretically) from Les Bleus to number 39? And I thought house numbring was straightforward!

When the council people came to screw the new number to my wall I said that was OK as long as the number wasn't 13. They didn't understand. It seems that that number has the opposite connotations in France to those it has in the UK. In France 13 is lucky.

Rémuzat

I've just returned from a boules tournament in Rémuzat. There was a feeling around that the national championships (for wrinklies) were becoming too serious and that the camaraderie and general bonhomie that had been a part of them was being lost. As a result, Mollans, Sarrians and Beaume de Venise decided not to go this year but to hold their own tournament instead, in Rémuzat. In fact, players from Carpentras and the Var also came along.

Despite Rémuzat being only an hour's drive, some 40kms, from Mollans I hadn't been there before. It lies in the narrow valley where the Aygues river has carved a channel through the foothills of the Alps. You soon realise you are in different territory as grape vines give out immediately above Nyons, then olive groves also peter out and the road clings to the side of steep escarpments or goes through tunnels beneath the foothills. The steeper roofs around Rémuzat itself tell you this is deep snow country. Vultures were reintroduced here several years ago and they and eagles were to be seen high in the air in abundance during the day.

It was decided to hold the tournament along the lines of the free-for-all boules days we have in Mollans, each player changing parners after each match and the partnerhips being drawn at random out of a hat. Scores are accumulated for each player rather than teams, since there are no set teams, and there is obviously a significant element of chance according to whom you are drawn with and against. Since everybody played six matches the element of luck was supposed to even out over the tournament. Anyway, I managed to get the fifth highest score out of 44 which was more than enough to satisfy my ego, even without the very good bottle of Vacqueras that came with it.