FRench At Last

 

French At Last

I have just been informed that my application for French nationality has been accepted. As long as I retain my Britsh nationality as well I am therefore officially half frog and half roast beef, a strange creature indeed but I rather like the idea. Also it means I can now throw brickbats at Macron as well as Johnson and whoever succeeds him. It’s taken five years and mountains of documentation and…...it seems the documentation is not over. With the official acceptance I also received a whole list of instructions to download various documents, fill in forms and…..Boy, do the French love documentation! Where do they keep it all?

I’ve sent the news to some friends and suggested that any of themwith an artistic bent should try to visualise a creature who is half frog and half roast beef and received one response; I am obviously a John Bullfrog. I think that is brilliantly inventive.

To mark the occasion, or not quite, the local tourist office has taken a photo of the front of my house and made a jigsaw out of it which it sells to tourists here. My mother would have been proud but it seems I cannot claim any royalties as the front of my house is not copyrightable. Damn! It seems that they should have sought my permission but I am not repared to quibble about that. Anyway I bought the jigsaw puzzle to give to my granddaughter.

The allotment continues to produce and I now have enough ratatouille as well as aubergines to feed an army in the freezer and jars of pickled cucumbers and courgettes despite having given a lot away. Some of the plants are giving early signs of giving up and I won’t mind now when they do. It’s been fun doing the allotment and I’ve met a new group of people. On Friday evenings, since not all of us are retired, we have a ritual aperitif together on the tables and benches by the allotments.

This winter, though, promises to be hard work to improve the soil. I’ll need a lot of anything that retains water and I can foresee a lot of digging. I’ve bought some cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage and kale seedlings, will get some radish and spinach beet seeds and will plant some garlic in November. . We don’t normally have a significant frost until December, but who knows this year? Anyway, I’ll take it from there.

Writing

 Writing

I have been writing all my life, four books and hundreds of articles published in magazines and newspapers. Since retiring, though, I have written only this blog; some pages for websites and a few translations. But I have a new projet: to write about my impressions of France and the French in the manner of Voltaire's Lettres Sur Les Anglais, akind of 21st century response to 18th century observations from the opposite point of view. A bit late, I know, but I do live in Provence. I am already well into the project and, the material is good for animated discussions with French friends. Topics range through government and administraton, business, love life and food and drink., They may be published elsewhere but, if not, I shall publish them here. Below is the Introduction.

Introduction To Letters About The French

The title “Letters About The French was suggested to me by Voltaire’s “Lettres ssur Les Anglais”, which he wrote while in England, and the objective is similar: to inform one nation of the idiosyncrasies of another., mostly gently, often humously but with some underlying insight; I avoided the title “French Letters” for reasons that will be obvious to any English person if not to every French person. My situation is like that of Babouc, one of Voltaire’s characters observing the way of life of others, though in my case not sent by an angel and I cannot claim to have a remit to report back to Heaven.

My circumstances, admittedly, ar are quite different to those of Voltaire; I did not come to France as Voltaire did to England for reasons of personal safety, to avoid getting beaten up for what he wrote. I came to France through a life-long feeling of kindred spirit with the country and its inhabitants and an appreciation of the beauty of many areas. Much as I will happily criticise the English establishment I am not of sufficient significance to warrant the former prime minister organising a beating-up for me, even if he was not beyond such measures. Our motivations in writing must be a bit different then. While mine are to entertain and inform they do not have the edge of revenge that Voltaire’s did. Although I am sad at the state of England I have no reason for resentment.

Major Thompson, the archetypal English character created by Daninos, should also probably be included in this general sweep of Anglo-French (mis) understanding. However, national service was abolished in England before I reached the age when I might have to endure it so I never became even a private, let alone a major. And my friends and others who know me, whatever they may call me from time to time, would never call me typically English. So my perceptions are unlikely to be anything like those of Major Thompson.

My experience of living in France over the past 15 years has been above all in the north of Provence so some observations may be truer of Provence than of France as a whole. The village in which I live, Mollans sur Ouvèze, was known in the 18^th century and before as the village of those with ňholes in the elbows of garments, caused by long spells spent leaning on the Bridge that dissects the village and gazing at the river Ouvèze below and thinking or dreaming of who knows what. I have not observed a prevalence of holes in the elbows of garments worn by the villagers but the attitude suggested by that is certainly evident. A local joke is that a Spaniard came to the village wanting to learn Provençal and asked what was the equivalent in that language of “manana” (I can’t get the “enye”) He was told that no equivalent of such great urgency existed in Provençal.

It may also be noted that , four centuries on, my world is vastly different to that of Voltaire. The technological advances are obvious but have not been matched by political maturity, although human nature probably remains much the same. Nowadays all is certainly not for the best in the best of all possible worlds so fewer misunderstandings can only help.

That is the background to these letters.

Renaissance

Family Visit

My daughter Nat, her husband Andy and their daughter Eilidh came to spend a fortnight with me and it went well. It was three years since I had seen them in the flesh because of COVID so a kind of renaissance as well as renewal of physical contact. Ironically they all had COVID when they came but without major symptoms. I was already well protected. They wanted a swimming pool so rented a gite 100 fards down the road from me. We met up each day for breakfast and planned the day. The agenda for Nat and Andy was to relax, apart from a four hour cycle trip that Andy did around, up and down Mt Ventoux in temperatures around 30 degree; but then he is a cycle enthusiast. The agenda for Eilidh, who has just reached the grand age of 5, did a good impersonation of a perpetual moton machine and, apart from having a good time, wanted to learn to cycle and swim. Both, I’m very happy to say, were achieved. The photos below say all the rest.

The Village Awakes

Village activities have been curtailed as everywhere but a standard “knees up” 10 days ago broke the routine. A paella and music evening in front of the Bar du Pont had people singing and dancing, something that used to be normal at this time of year but hasn’t happened for three years because of COVID. That was definitely a renaissance, repeated on the 14th of July, Bastille Day. The village letting its hair down is a sight that warms my heart and always will. A hopefully temporary camera fault prevents me from posting photos. This weekend their is the Fête Votive, more singing and dancing and painters in the streets and, hopefully, a return to normal village festivities.

My Allotment.

The allotment is proving considerable work but not a burden. In fact I’d like to do more work on it but watering every day takes time and, in the current heat, only early mornings and evenings are realyl practicable. I’ve already had courgettes, aubergines, chills, lettuces and a cucumber from it plus a few ripened tomatoes. Eilidh had to chose a lettuce for lunch one day.

 

There are obviously a lot more of those to come, the borage is in flower as are all the sunflowers and the leeks and peppers are making good progress. I’ve managed to give away some of this and hope to give away a lot more; I’ve only one mouth to feed. I’ve sown more spinach beet, lettuces and green beans so that should be it for this year. I’m already making plans for next year. Nobody seems to be taking an interest in the fence to keep out the wild boar around the allotments but I have planted Morning Glory in a pot against the fence which are doing well and a honeysuckle just outside it. I think the fence should be covered in flowers but there is a lot of it. A solution could be wild clematis (old man’s beard) which has much arger flowers here than the UK variety. I’ve made a mental note to collect the seeds when they appear in the countryside here and plant them around the fence. I’m also collecting dead heads from the flowers around my house and scattering them around the area where I have potatoes planted. I’ll dig up the potatoes at some point and will leave that area untouched next year until quite late and hope I can identify what sprouts and is not weeds. It’s all to play for!

Politics

The rich-poor divide is becoming more evident here as it already is in the UK, although I think that game is already decided in the UK but not quite yet here. The best quote I have seen about the removal of Johnson in the UK is that it is like shitting your pants and deciding to change your shirt. There is little prospect of significant change there. Attempts by the far right to to divide and rule to take over, backed by extreme wealth and what that can buy, in terms of media, influence and even members of parliaments, are evident around the world and no less so in France. Rightly or wrongly I see the EU as a counter to this, trying as it is, successfully or not, to make very wealthy people and companies pay the due taxes, the kind that everyone else has to pay. My hope for France lies in the belief that it is better at protests and less afraid of revolutions, whatever they may bring, than many other countries. We all know that the French can be very bloody minded and I hope they stay that way.

Gardening And Thoughts From My Balcony

  The Shared Garden

The allotments I mentioned in my previous post, called shared gardens here, are now a reality, with access to water laid on and each «owner» allocated a 20x5 metre space; there are18 of us. As I have found, that is quite a lot of space to fill and also quite a lot of work. One problem is that the earth is almost pure clay, which means I have had to add a lot of compost whenever I have planted or sowed anything. The other problem is that I now find that getting down on y knees and getting up again repeatedly is not an easy form of exercise for me. However I have now planted a range of vegetables and flowers and sown some seeds, although I am also planting seeds in pots on my balcony where they have a better chance of producing plants.

The other gardeners are a motley crew but all very friendly and helpful. Because the weather has been very hot and becuase many of the gardeners have day obs, most activity takes place in the evenings and ceases around 7.00, when we sit around tables outside the hut provided to store tools (and food, drink) and have an aperitif together. I find it a great addition to life here.

There is supposed to be an opening ceremony and, with work on most plots well underway it’s already a bit late. The problem, it seems, is that the cost of making the allotments available has been shared between the village, the region and the Department. So the opening ceremony can happen only when suitable representatives from all three are available. Now that is really French. We gardeners are going o have to endure considerable speech time before any drinksGardening At Home

Gardening At Home

 

This is my favourite time for gardening at home, so here is another picture of the front of the house. The key is that that there are still some irises and other plants in bloom but above all the roses are in full bloom at the same time as the honeysuckle and the colour and perfume is overwhelming. Honeysuckle is one of my favourite plants. One was areasy climbing up to the top of my house when I bought it and I shoved the root of another in a whole in the concrete on the other side. It now too has grown to the height of the house. People around just walk by, stop and lift their noses and you can see the pleasure on their faces. My whole house is perfumed. So the front is working wrll. With the extra work on the allotment I have neglected the back somewhat but it now doesn’t need a great deal of attention other than watering. I’ve planted a number of cuttings of flowering bushes in a trough there but done nothing much else and some plants are threatening to take over. At some oint I will need to do some ruthless pruning or eliminating and I am not good at that.

 

The COVID Effect

It is noticeable in the village that large gatherings, such as the pizza evenings and the 8th of May commemoration, are much smaller than in the past. Two of the formerly regular attendees at my English conversation classes have bowed out because they will no longer attend indoor events. And a noticeable number of people are wearing masks in the village, indoors or out. Several of my friends have contracted COVID and it has not been a pleasant experience but always far from life-threatening. So…..will COVID become accepted as just another type of ‘flu or will it have more significant implications? Will people readopt their formal social habits or will the damage be permanent? At the moment it is having a damaging effect on village life.

Reflections Over A Calvados On My Balcony

World news is currently dominated by events in Ukraine and the efforts by Vladimir Putin to recreate the former Soviet empire. So much for small is beautiful, make Russia great again. However that situation plays out it makes me wonder at the perceptions of those not involved in natinal power games. Trump gained power on a roposal to make America great again, Brexit was supposed to make Britain great again; but for whom?

When Britain’s power was probably at its greatest, towards the end of the 19th century or the early years of the 20th, prevalent in Britain were workhouses, child labour and prostitution and the «satanic mills». So if Britain was great as a country how did that benefit most people? Quite simply it didn’t; the benefit was, above all, for the rich and powerful, with some useful crumbs from the table for those who could see how to get them.

The rich and powerful did create monuments, estates and other great legacies to their names but ones they could easily afford and for which the general populaces was supposed to be grateful when they had access. These are generally acknowledged as good for the country and caharitable. But what did that do for the day-to-day lives and working conditions of the general populace? Almost nothing. So why, why, why will the general populace buy into the idea of making a nation great again, backing the interests of the rich and powerful, persons or organisations? When will they realise that there is nothing in it, nothing in that kind of nationalism, for them? , When will they realise that they have the power to challenge huge organisations, just as the unios did in the early 20th century? If the general populace is ever to improve its situation it has to recognise that the interests of the rich and powerful, persons or organisations, are not theirs and challenge and contain them.

 

Gardening Etc

 

Gardening Etc

The front of the house is looking quite good now, with crocus, daffodils, narcissi an irises all in bloom, as wellas the marigolds and geum I have planted  against the trees opposite. I’ve cemented stones onthe edge of the road around the trees to hold back the used compost I’ve been dumping there for the last few year. It means the compost is now deep enough for plants to survive there andn with a bit of fertiliser added, possibly thrive. The photos are of the front of the house, my kifchen window and the plots around the base of the trees. The bulbs will have finished flowering in a couple of weeks so I’ll have to think what to put in to replace them.

More gardening is on the horizon. A patch of waste ground which the village owns that was going to be a parking area for mobile homes has now been turned into a grass area and 20 allotments. Two of the allotmentsare for the school and the rest for villagers so I’ve put my name down for one  I should know in mid-April if I have got one. If so I’ll grow a mixture of flowers and vegetables.

This is the time of the year when the first flush of colour is at its peak ; There are banks of primroses and violets in shady areas in the wild and forsythia and japonica bushes by the roadsides. These too will have finished flowering in a couple of weeks although the irises will continue for another month or so. The first locally grown strawberries and asparagus are in the shops and markets so it’s the strat of what everyone hopes will be a good summer and the first normal one for three years.

It Rained

It Rained

Not news to many, no doubt, but last week we had the first rain since Christmas day. I had already been watering the pots and ground out front to encourage the bulbs I planted last atumn to get going, h first time I have watered at this time of the ear. Anyway, many bulbs are now in flower , ound 20 crocus across theroad ans a large pot of daffodils on top of my porch. I’ve also created a barrrier of stones across the road to keep the compost I’ve dumped there in place and so that water doesn’t simply run off into the road. It’s still too early to remove the ttissue protecting pots from cold nights and see what has survived so that is about as much as I can do at the mment.

How We Think And A Marking Experience

When I was quite young, 26 years ols, I became a member of a NATO think -tank through a series of accidents and coincidences. It was the 1968 meeting that coined the term software engineering and had some renown in the evoluyion of computing. I should never have been there but benefitted enormously from the experience. However I was by about 15 years the most junior and the east qualified ; everybody else was either a professor of maths or engineerig or a head of research at a mjor company so it occurred to me to wonder what I was doing there ; what could I offer. I ventured to ask the question and as told that I was a catalyst : I made others think in ways that they would not normally think.

That experience marked me. In a subsequent job, trying to identify interesting IT projects around the World, it brought me into contact with many leading lights in IT and while I pondered on what they knew and did what most intrigued me was the train of thought that had brought them to where they were. What was their framework for thinking ? That intrigued me because I had become accustomed to how mathematicians and engineers would typically approach a problem but many of these people had added something else, something « out of the box ». What I sought was less to understand what they were doing and more to understand how they had got there, to get inside theeir minds.

That itrigues me still. The more I understand about science ; physics in particular, about the weather and politics and many other things, the more I understand the huge complexity that has yet to be unravelled and which can probably only be done so in way that we have not yetur thoght of.. Ouvery culture from which we can escape only with extreme difficulty, conditions us to view the world in predetermined ways. Does Asian music sound discordant to weestern ears ? How does western music sound to Asian ears ? How can Sanskrit symbols or Egyptian hieroglyphs be tranlated into precise European words ? They can’t. The answer is interpretation, a way of thinking, a way of looking at what we believe is reality.

It’s athought, and just that, but maybe the most important thing for the future is to discover how people think and not to use that but to cget them hallenge it.

 

CCapitalism Abd Democracy

Capitalism And Democracy

My strating point is what we can rely on as most unlikely to change. Economically I think that we can assume that the world will be driven by capitalism in one form or another. Poylitically it will be driven by democray in one form or another or dictatorships. To think in terms of dictatorships would be to think in terms of almost ineviable war and destrcution of everything, including the human race. So wehave to hope for democracy and the model to follow I think is in Scandinavia.

If we examine the Scaninavian counries they all embrace capitalism and democracy with some differencies in how they do it but all do it in ways that that avoid extremes of wealth/poverty and political exremes. The tndancies to these exremes exist within them but are restricted to a large extent. The other, less obviously political etremes , are wealth and poverty which, if extreme, tend towards political ewtremes. So these too need to be factored in.

So the force against xhich democracy and capitalism have to fight is communism which, in practice if not in heory, appears to rely on dictatorship whilst promising if not necessarily delivering equitable wealth distribution. So, if we wnt democracy we have to have capialism. The question the is: what kind of capitalism?

One example of an extreme form of capitalism can be found in the USA, which has some of the wealthiest people in the world and also some of the most deprived iamong developed countries. Other countries with in the economicqlly developed orld mitigate against the extremes of capitalism in various ways, to a larger or smaller extent. It’s a question of wh has got the best balance and my bet is that the Scaninavian countries have achieved that. Wealth generated by capitalism appears to be more equitably shred in these countries which have, amongst contempories, both higher employee earning and higher taxes, both anathrma to pure capitalism. Isn’t there a lesson to be learned there?