Even the tramps have some class

That the French in general have just a little more style than the rest of us is usually pretty obvious. It extends throughout the social classes. Unlike British street drinkers, who usually gather in small bickering groups, sipping constantly on cans of Special Brew, this chap – in Paris last week – carried around a proper glass with which to drink his wine. Not sure about the mobile phone though.

This weekend, at yet another vide grenier, we were preceded by a svelte and soignée older woman as we queued for our grilled saucisse et frites. She demanded a plate and cutlery, rather than kitchen roll and a plastic box, and of course she got a paper plate and plastic knife and fork. She sat beside us at a communal table and chatted away, asking us where we lived, what we thought of the event and so on. We asked her if she lived nearby herself, and she replied that she did, at ‘le chateau’. This is a genuine, 1760s, large and imposing chateau on the edge of the village, and of course not open to the public.

So, happy to mingle with the people, share the pretty simple food available, but she still maintained the minimum standards for civilised life, albeit with disposable stuff.

Back to school....

By the second week of August, when many French people are just getting into the feel of their holidays, something changes. Every supermarket, clothes shop, and many others start hanging out banners and placards and advertising around ‘La Rentrée’ - back to school. Check this web site for an office supplies company, to get a feel.

The reason is that unlike in Britain, where all the essential materials like notebooks and pens are provided by the school, in France the child must provide his or her own.

And not just the simple things: folders, rulers, binders, plastic covers – an enormous range of things. And not just any old stationery. Every item is specified and specific – this brand, or detailed option, that colour, that thickness, this type of lines on the paper.

The stationery aisles in the supermarkets are hugely expanded for three or four weeks, and are full of anxious parents, distraught small children, and sophisticated older kids trying to beat the system by selecting personalised things. All of them have A4 printed leaflets from their schools specifying what and how many of everything they must have.

Seems dreadfully unfair to talk so much about back to school so early in the holiday break, and put so much pressure on children and their families. All part of a belief in education and involvement, I suppose. Better, anyway, than couldn’t care les kids always unprepared for their lessons, or indeed school in any way.

D-Day and on: 65 year commemorations

With the commemoration of the 65th Anniversary of D-Day itself now past, there have been many other memorials, gatherings and other marks of respect and recollection around the progress of the Allied invasion in summer 1944. Here are a few of them, picked at random to illustrate the range and variety of events, and the reasons they were held.

Canadian cemetery at Cinthaux

This is one of a number of cemeteries for those Canadian soldiers who died during both World Wars. Cinthaux is for those who died during the Caen, Falaise, Trun and Chambois phase of the invasion. There are 2980 Canadians buried there.

The former French health minister Simone Veil attended a memorial service there on August 9th; a survivor from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where she lost part of her family, she is the Honorary President of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah.

Liberation of Alencon 12 August

This was the first town to be liberated by the Free French Army, under General Leclerc. The French had been part of the D-Day forces, along with Canadians and Poles, and with the British made up the greater part of the invasion forces. The fact of the French liberating part of their own country makes Alencon a very important commemoration for them.

Bailey Bridge at Pont Farcy

There were over 1500 Bailey Bridges in Normandy in 1944, and the last one still in existence is at Pont Farcy, over the River Vire. There bridges were easily assembled , in effect like IKEA furniture, and replaced all the essential bridges destroyed by one side or the other. There has been a campaign to preserve and commemorate the bridge, and details can be found here:

http://www.christopherlong.co.uk/baileybridge/baileybridgeappeal.html

Murdered family

One of the more moving ceremonies was that remembering the Lebailleux family, who lived in St Planchers, a village near Granville. At the end of July 1944 the area was still occupied by German forces. On the night of 30 July, German soldiers raided the house and found a transmitter hidden there. They took away all four members of the family in the house: parents Louis and Ludivine, and children Louis and Simone. The next day all four were found shot dead.

Coutances – liberated but lost

The town of Coutances had 8,000 people living in it. It suffered an enormous amount of bombing on 6 June, and subsequent days. Between bombings, almost all the population (over 250 were already dead) retreated into the countryside. When eventually they returned, about 70% of the town was rubble. Page 3 of this pdf file has pictures from the time. This year there were a range of services, parades, and other memorial activities. As with many Norman towns, liberation came at a high price.

Chateau reunion

A couple of years ago a couple called Simon and Kate Howard bought a chateau at Langotiere, near St Lo. In the archives they found a photograph from 1944, showing a number of schoolchildren standing 9on the steps of the chateau. They were from nearby schools, escaping the bombardment of St Lo. An article in the local newspaper found about 19 of them still around, and this month 10 of them gathered on the same steps.

Dancing in the streets

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France in general receives more foreign tourists than any other country. Throughout the summer in particular, there are events, activities and attractions organised specifically for visitors. However, summer is also a time for all the people to want to spend time outside, and to make use of the warmer days and longer, lighter evenings. Many of the events (animations) are aimed also - or sometimes exclusively – at the locals. Tourists are obviously welcome too.

Some of the recent entertainments in Normandy have included a week of street performances in Vire (sadly, mostly destroyed in 1944, so not much else to go there for), a series of street events in Coutances, regular weekly free concerts in Villedieu-les-Poeles and St Martin de Brehal, and more formal concerts in the abbeys of Lessay, St Sever Calvados and La Lucerne d'Outremer.

In Villedieu, as an example, there is a programme of Tuesday evening events in the main square, ranging from folk dancing, through rock music, to accordion. The rock and pop was a local semi-pro band, four kids and their uncle on drums. They travel with their own fan club, mostly their grannies and mums. And why not. Next week, there are folk dancers from North Ossettia (look it up, its one of the old USSR countries near Ukraine), and a promise of English Morris dancers later.

These town concerts start of with an audience, on seats in some places, or in Villedieu sitting on the steps of the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall), but by the second number a few people start to dance. For the non rock evenings, it is almost always the older people who get up and dance in the street first. It's strange, but every time there is dancing, old people hobble and creak their way to the dance floor, and then take off as if they are on wheels, gliding around without touching the ground. And they all know how to dance properly: it used to be part of the school curriculum, but I don't know if it still is). And they keep it up for hours. And they laugh a lot.

Younger people join in, and the little kids start to run about, sometimes dancing formally with their mothers or fathers, sometimes with each other, more often just running and running. Rarely, but definitely sometimes, even I join in.

These events are advertised in small posters in shop windows, or tied to street furniture, and mentioned in the local papers, but you have to look around to find them. Apart from the events themselves, it is fascinating to see the real French people at play. Not just those whose living involves tourism, but the farmers, the men who work at the abbatoir or the local factory, the wives who make the most of an evening out, the old folk who only come to the market once a week. They all have fun, and even if the accordion is not exactly what you would chose to listen to, you can have fun too.