Newsletter June 05

NON! Can’t you always trust the French to do the right thing and put their foot down at the most mind numbingly critical moment? I love their intransigence and arrogance. It would definitely be the French who felt the infringement on their culture the most deeply and were not prepared to sacrifice it in order to be popular in the European Union. It is great that Europe does not want to sign up to a constitution that turns us into a homogenous land mass, centrally governed by un-elected bureaucrats.

We must not forget that France invented champagne and America invented MacDonald’s. Uniformity just doesn’t suit Europe. We are all glad to be different here, even though this underpins most of our disputes. What each European country has in common is that our differences are what make each of us unique and together that’s what makes us strong. We believe this is worth fighting for. The French always remind us of that. The Dutch value their individuality too and will get off their bikes and vote. The British tend to queue.

OUI! I have spent most of this month in France clearing the river banks, making sure the ducks have somewhere to paddle, the fish have somewhere to mate, the squirrels have somewhere to bury nuts and the ragondins have somewhere to dig. Grace and Amie came over and spent a lot of time studying the movement of the sun. Though to their credit Grace weeded a bunch of nettles and Amie washed a car. We all love the markets though. There is one a day at a different local village. Next month and August there will be night markets where we can buy trinkets to adorn our sunburned limbs as well as crazy sunglasses. I am now going back to my IRSC codes. Don’t ask!