Summer Celebrations, Nice and Brexit

Summer Celebrations

The summer celebrations here are in full swing. After the July 14^th knees-up there were the painters in the streets last weekend and and next weekend is the village fete. For me, disappointment with the July 14^th was counterbalanced by a better than usual experience of the painters. What I most appreciate about village celebrations is the carefree atmosphere, children, cats, dogs, old fogies and everyone else enjoying themselves and not afraid to make fools of themselves. That seemed to be absent on Bastille Day. The choice of band was probably wrong and anyway they didn't start playing until nearly 10.00pm; but that didn't entirely explain the total absence of any communal atmosphere. On the Saturday evening I strolled through the market that takes place in the village in July and August and perused the paintings on display. I found them of a much higher quality than in the past, with much less tourist tat on show (paintings of lavender, sunflowers, soulful children or pin-up women) and much more genuine art. The paintings I liked were all abstract but of good quality in terms of both their vision and their execution.

Nice

News of the carnage in Nice on the 14^th didn't arrive until the next day. The village was shocked, obviously, and duly observed the one-minute's silence asked for by President Hollande at midday today, Monday. A crowd of around 150 villagers gathered, appropriately in the 14^th of July Square, to observe the minute's silence but I was disappointed to notice that none of the muslim villagers were there. Those I know would certainly have shared the shock and disgust of the rest of the village but chose not to show their faces. Elsewhere I can imagine muslims fearing violence if they showed up at such a ceremony but that certainly wouldn't be the case here. And I feel, because Islam is currently so closely associated with acts of barbarism, that it is very important for peace-loving muslims to visibly show that they disown such acts. Being a silent majority won't stop islamophobia and may not be enough to stop the world plunging into the rerun of the historical crusades that the militant muslims seem to want. If there is a God who made homo sapiens, it would be beyond ironic if religion was the cause of his ultimate demise. Someone once said that if there is a God then religion is a cruel trick He played on mankind.

Brexit Footnote

Some of my French friends have asked me if the appointment of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary was an example of idiosyncratic British humour. I tell them yes, it's a joke.