The big news this week is the tragedy in Paris, where a number of journalists and others were massacred by Islamic extremists. Many here have said it’s their 9/11 and although the scale is different, it’s rightly being viewed as an attack on Western values. We joined Nadine and Jean Claude yesterday at a rally in Thiviers, one of many held all over the country. An estimated 4 million people participated, the biggest gathering since the liberation of France in WWII.
In Thiviers, there were roughly 300 people who gathered in the main square. The maire spoke for a few minutes, about France and her values. Then the woman who owns the maison du presse spoke for a bit about freedom of speech. At the end, the crowd spontaneously broke out in La Marseillaise. The whole thing was over in about 20 minutes, but it was good to go and show our support.
In other news, I had my first choir practice on Tuesday night. It’s being run by Milhac Loisir, who do my convo group, and there are also a few people who joined us from Champagnac, a nearby village. The choir originally started there, but there weren’t enough people for the maire to justify funding it, so it’s now funded by the members. We have a professional choir director, a Milhac native whose father also attends. The music is going to be a mix of world music, gospel, and french classics. Despite knowing this, I was a bit surprised that our first song was Shalom Haveyrim, a Hebrew song that works well in a round. I was able to give a pointers on the pronunciation.
We sang another song in French, and then a gospel number before ending for the night. Happily, it’s about 50/50 men/women, which is rare. I’ll be singing bass, but I’m not so sure that’s right. Most people had been in a choir before, so could read the sheet music, but a few hadn’t, so that took some explaining. At the end, I chatted with one of the people from Champagnac. It turns out he and his partner moved here in May from Minneapolis, where they’d been living for the past 20 years. He’s a California native, and I believe she is French-Iranian, but I didn’t speak with her. He is also of Jewish decent. He said there’s another couple who live in Quinsac, also from MN. Who knew there were so many of us here! I plan to invite them to dinner, so should have more to report.
On Thursday, we had dinner at Nadine and Jean Claude’s. We were joined by Philippe. She has been very busy with work lately, so JC made a cassoulet. Despite being his first attempt, it was very good, and authentic as far as I could tell. We also had cheese and a tarte au pomme for dessert, followed by a bit of the prune, for good measure. In addition to discussing the recent tragedy, we also talked about free will, and whether people are responsible for their actions. It was a lively discussion, and I think I followed most of it, although didn’t participate much. It is great having people in the area to have these types of discussions with.
We had a very quiet weekend, just doing a bit of work and not much else. Before yesterday, it was grey and damp, with temps around 5C, not weather that makes you want to go out. However, it was 10C and sunny today so I had a two hour walk in the woods. I also swam on Thursday for the first time since before xmas. Will is back to working out, so he’s been a bit sore these past few days.
On the work front, we’re both busy again. Will has two sites with end of January deadlines, so he’s doing what he can on those. In both cases, he’s waiting for the client to deliver material, and both have started doing so today. I’ve got a week’s worth of work for Media Trust, moving the existing sites to a server that I will manage. I decided to focus on this, since I can charge a bit more and it means ongoing work. One of the clients from Colleen wants an online shop built, so I chatted with him for a bit about that. I also got a call from Abby who thought one of her client’s sites had been hacked, so I investigated and did some consulting on that. As usual, it’s gone from nothing to busy in a matter of days.
We also had a meeting in Perigueux on Wed am. It was with the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce who want to produce an e-book with details of navigating the French administration. In addition to the guy who runs it, there was a woman who specialises in international law, and another who does marketing. The idea is for them to write the book, and us to produce it. It’s pro bono, but we’ll get a mention in the booklet. It’s also proven to be a good contact, since the guy already sent us a spreadsheet with the names of all Brits in the Dordogne who run a business. We’ll use it once things quiet down here a bit. That’s it for today.