Félicitations Emmanuel!

Félicitations Emmaneul et Ingrid ! Comme elle est splendide !

One of Xavier's oldest friends (and one of my favorites) just had his second baby - a little girl, Daphné. Welcome to the world, Mademoiselle.

A fresh start of les grèves.

Ah, yes - a new bout of strikes is here. La belle France. Currently, it is the postal workers - they refuse to deliver mail today and tomorrow, claiming that they are totally opposed to privatization in any way of la poste. And then it will be the railways...expect strikes on transit October 7.

On days like today you can turn on French television and find forecasts, like the weather, but for strikes. That way, you can plan your transit schedule, anything you need to mail, and all sorts of other things that have suddenly become impossible to do, in advance. Also, there is a convenient site to reference for all your strike queries: greves.org. Sacré Français!



These photos actually depict a manifestation - not to be confused with une grève (strike). If you watch the video below, it was a manifestation to liberate Palestine. My favorite part about manifestations like this one (and strikes often look similar, but strikes mean people are also not going to work and preventing a bunch of other people from going about their business) is the police factor. Look at these dudes. They are into it. At this particular manifestation, there were more police than there were people manifesting. To me, that is a serious commitment to upholding the right of the people to publicly make their case. I don't really get how this group convinced that many police people to be behind (and in front) of them (and their cause), but every time it looks like this.



I think it must be like a parade; they book their spot weeks in advance with the police. And then the police work it, they really do. They go to the length of barricading our road all the time for the purpose.



For all of these parades/manifestations I have a front seat - our balcony. I take the time to soak it all in. And it happens all the time. And yes, they are saying Liberate Palestine and Go Hezbollah (that is, of course, a very large Palestinian flag) - chants you may not have the opportunity to hear on the streets of a US town...

Baugé.

We were at the family house in Baugé this weekend...





These three were the entertainment. The three cousins played for hours out in the little stone house at the back of the garden - they even got stuck out there when a big rainstorm came in and there they stayed, sheltered under the little roof; they ate meals with 'les grands,' where we found that Marguerite had suddenly acquired the habit of yelling across the table whenever she had something to announce (we think it may have to do with being in a class of 28 kids at school); and to top it off, they slept in the same room - a dream sleepover, where Louise read stories to all.





I love Baugé for its details - for the multicolored grapevines...



And the chocolate fondant in its tiny glass, which was brought to the table and announced as a dish in which many people were going to have to indulge (there are 4 spoons hovering)...an announcement at which I smiled and giggled internally until I dipped my tiny spoon in and licked it. Three itsy-bitsy bites - that was all I could manage.



The Virgin Mary, keeping watch over the sparse garden.



And of course the main reason Baugé is delightful...the Joly family:











Xavier and I visited the local hardware store in town, "Espace Emeraude," where this chap proudly displays the gear:



And we purchased matching coveralls. Electric blue. These are going to come in handy.