I warn you now, this is going to be a long one, so please bear with me. The French have a name for the slightly surreal two weeks that separate the first and second round of their presidential elections. In typical French style though, it’s an unimaginative compound noun: the “entre-deux-tours”, or the “between two rounds”. I don’t remember the EDT of 2012, but then that election was a straightforward left-verus-right affair, and less was at stake. This time around I am finding these two weeks unbearable, and far too long. Current polls show Macron will win with 60% of the votes, but I am not reassured. I check the news every day, dreading what the headlines are going to say. In theory, if Macron just stays the course and doesn’t get embroiled in any scandal (and as long as there are no more terrorist attacks), he should win.
While his lead is encouraging, it’s also really frightening that 40% of the electorate are projected to vote for Le Pen. That is around 18 million people. That’s an awful lot of fascists, or at least, people so angry that they’re prepared to elect a fascist. Even more frightening is the very real danger of a low turnout. This is the only conceivable way Le Pen could win. All our French friends out here can be divided into two groups: those who refuse to vote in round 2, and those who are going to vote Macron and are horrified that people are refusing to vote.
I am seeing the same thing on Twitter too, where variations on “Neither Macron or Le Pen” are trending, and it is making me really nervous. What a tragedy it would be for her to get in because of self-righteous hard-core left-wingers who won’t vote for Macron “on principle”. The fact that I just missed out on being able to vote makes me doubly annoyed at all these abstainers wasting their voices. Our friend Olivier has declared that anyone who abstains is no better than the WWII Vichy Nazi collaborators, and should be named and shamed as such. This is a touch melodramatic but I appreciate the sentiment.
The Dordogne has always been left-wing even by French standards, so it’s no surprise that it was the only département where a majority voted Mélenchon in round 1 (although I am proud that our wee commune of Milhac was Macron). As such, I have to hope that this apathy about round 2 is more pronounced here than elsewhere, Mélenchon being the only ex-candidate who refuses to urge his supporters to vote Macron. Otherwise, I worry that France could end up dans la merde this Sunday.
Right, enough doom and gloom and onto the round-up. We went to Périgueux on Wednesday to see an Ear Nose and Throat specialist about my ongoing jaw problems. The appointment was at 1pm so we went early and called into a DIY store for some parts to fix my gym machine, which thanks to Matt, now works again. We then had just enough time for a cheeky pizza before my appointment. I had an endoscopy that didn’t show up anything odd and the doctor told me that all my issues are down to my wisdom teeth. This is ironically what I used to think too, until successive trips to dentists and doctors led me to believe otherwise. I now have a 4 month wait for an appointment with a specialist dental surgeon who will probably remove them, which should sort me out.
We had a very long and busy weekend that kicked off with dinner on Friday. We made some new friends at a BBQ a few weeks back, and they invited us to their for an Asian-themed meal. They are Marie and Christian and they’re both very interesting. He is an accomplished guitarist who gives lessons at Musique en Herbe, which I am going to start attending. She also sings and they used to do gigs back in the day, but she hated being on stage so they stopped. We have lots in common in terms of tastes in music, authors etc so the conversation flowed easily. There was only one notable divergence of opinions and that was political. They’re die-hard Mélenchon supporters, and so far to the left that they don’t consider socialists to be left-wing at all. Maddeningly, they are both going to abstain from voting in round 2 despite my repeated pleas.
After the meal, Marie produced a bottle of 12 year old single malt whiskey. Whiskey and I had a falling out back when I was a teenager and we’ve studiously avoided one another ever since. It’s the only alcohol that is for some reason prone to making me an angry drunk. I was therefore a little nervous about partaking, especially as the conversation had veered back to why they Macron is the devil and they won’t vote for him. I am relieved to report that although no-one convinced anyone to change their minds, it all remained civil and our budding friendship survived the evening. Before we knew it, it was 2:30am so we said our goodbyes, made our way home and had a short and unsatisfactory sleep involving lots of cat and little bed space.
We had a very busy but enjoyable Saturday despite not being well-rested. It was the annual spring fair in Brantôme; an event that long-term readers will remember has special significance for us as it was the moment we decided we were going to stay out here. We missed it last year as we were in the UK for my brother’s wedding, but apparently we didn’t miss much as it was a wash-out. Our main reason for going is to stock up on our favourite wine, which we duly did. The vintners were pleased to see us, and even more pleased when we told them we’d be placing a large order for the wedding in September. Afterwards we went to the garden centre for some supplies and picked up two honeysuckle plants to cover our exposed stretch of fence where the pine tree used to be. We got back and planted those, then had to chop some wood. Next Matt set about cooking and I gave the house a quick tidy.
That evening, Benôit and Virginie came over for a meal, bringing with them all the ingredients to make margaritas – something which they are particularly good it. We polished off a bottle of tequila between the four of us before we even got round to the meal so had a good buzz going on. They are firmly in the Macron-voting camp and like me, are really concerned about all this talk of abstention. Their daughter Eva is embarking on a year of travel in New Zealand this summer and we all joked that if Le Pen gets in, we’ll be right behind her. We had a Mexican-themed meal of salsa, guacamole, refried beans and roast pork, followed by Matt’s strawberry tart. Afterwards we chatted about this and that until it was suddenly 2:30 am again and we retired for yet another cat-laden and unsatisfactory sleep.
You’d think that would be enough hedonism for one weekend, but as it was a bank holiday, we crammed in one more day of activity. Sunday was Lee’s birthday and we were invited over to Villebois that evening to celebrate it. We’ve had mostly excellent weather all April, but it abruptly changed this week when it fell from the mid 20s to the low teens, and we even had a few overnight frosts. In fact, the vintners at the fair told us they and all the other vineyards in the area have lost nearly all their vines to the sudden cold snap, so there wont be any 2017 Bordeaux. This crap weather culminated in a nasty storm on Sunday with 110km gales that came from the south – ie, directly at us. Luckily, it was short-lived and no damage was done.
We got to Lee & Richards around 6.30pm, both feeling somewhat jaded. There were around 20 people there, mostly local English from the village, but also a few Frenchies too. Lots of people had brought a dish so we ate buffet style and got to know some of the people we hadn’t met before. The crowd thinned out considerably after the meal, leaving the hardcore usual suspects to it.
Unlike the previous two nights when we’d foolishly had a wide variety of different drinks, we both stuck to vodka all night. So, although it was a typically very late night (7am), I am actually not feeling too bad today. Matt has managed to pick up a mild cold that three nights of hedonism have exacerbated, but otherwise we’re surprisingly functional. We woke around noon and Lee made us all a curative fry-up. And that brings us up to date. Well done for persevering – told you it would be a long one!