Bonne année / happy new year

2018 has been quite a year - ups and downs like most years but overall we continue to have " never had it so good".

We have now lived here for 8 years and have never once regretted our decision to make our retirement years an adventure in French life. When we came I certainly thought it would be for a limited period and then we would "go back home". Now this is home, even without the issue of brexshit, the thought of going back to live in the UK holds no appeal. We miss family and friends of course but we still see them and spend quality times together sharing our wonderful life here.

Every year we seem to get busier, Trevor is playing more and more music and his band is doing great, we do traditional occitan dancing several times a week,  I have enjoyed doing some bilingual calling for celidhs, I still take the English class in the library on Wednesday afternoons ( a fun version of teaching) , my patchwork obsession continues, the garden is doing well and during the summer months we have a constant stream of visitors (the aforementioned family and friends).

Breaking my shoulder by throwing myself off a stepladder could well have brought everything to an end - I was lucky to get away without more serious injury or worse. Thankfully after 5 months of physio I can move my shoulder well and have only occasional aches. If this accident rates as the lowest point of the year the highlight has to be Anna and Martins wonderful wedding festival two weeks later. It was a wonderful day, full of music ( including musician friends from France and from Stoke) , so relaxed and informal and it was so nice to see Anna and Martin so happy. It was certainly a day to remember and a wedding like no other.

The worst part of 2018 has without doubt been watching the brexshit fiasco going from bad to worse to ridiculous. Another decision we have never regretted is getting our French nationality secured last year, but despite being in a secure situation personally it is just so heartbreaking watching the future of UK being sacrificed to placate the nationalists, the racists, the selfish, the misinformed and the Tory right.

this cover from 2016 has not been bettered!

So we enter 2019 with some trepidation but with plenty of things to look forward to in our family and friends bubble. At the end of January it will be 50 years since Trevor and I "became friends" - we have had some great times together and are fortunate indeed to be spending our "freedom years" in our own little paradise.

                              aiçi sén pla

when the mob rules

I believe I am a socialist, I believe I am a democrat but populism / mob rule worry me .

It has  given us brexit, it has  given us Trump, above all it has given us the threat of the extreme right and fascism. Despite the fact that many of our leftish French friends have supported the gilet jaunes protest I have failed to relate to the cause. It started as a protest against fuel taxes but developed into a mass movement of people united in but one thing - they were pissed off - mostly about Macron,  but also almost anything else - everyone could think of something.  No leaders, no organised campaign, they were always going to be manipulated by extreme factions working for their own ends. The only published "demands" included some that were extremely suspect,  racist / anti semitic and definitely antidemocratic. The influence of social media is also worrying - fake and old videos circulating on both sides to stir up further discontent.

I feel for people in this area who have been put out of work this Christmas, it is also sad to see towns already struggling losing out once more.There are, and will always be, inequalities and injustices to be identifed and fought against, and campaigns to be fought - I believe they should be carefully and thoughtfully chosen. Campaign yes, protest yes, march yes , withdraw labour yes  - but bullying, threats, intimidation, vandalism and incitement to violence are not the tactics of  civilised and democratic people in this land of egalité, fraternité et liberté.