The More Things Change

I got back from France last night.  I took The Lish and The Silverback to meet an old friend and mentor who lives in a tiny village just outside of Perpignan, very close to the Spanish border and extremely close to my heart.  It had been 11 years since I'd last seen her and 19 years since I was a teaching assistant at the French Lycee in Andorra where she is the Head of English.  The car ride from the airport felt like a bleep of a heart monitor as I enthusiastically asked about everyone I knew and voraciously imbibed the resulting information.  The rest of our admittedly short stay however, soon became a continuous loop of sedate continental mornings, refreshing dips in the nearby lake seeping into effervescent evening strolls in the shadow of the Catalan Pyrenees.  Here is its crowning glory - le Canigou:

Though time has passed for us both in linear terms and 'stuff' has happened, nothing else has changed.  She remains a fragile and generous soul and I'm still that little girl in a big wide world (with a serious case of the mashuganahs) who arrived in 1992 in her Doc Martin boots, torn leggings and hennaed hair convinced that the local 'tabac' in a village of maybe 800 people (some of whom could still clearly remember the fascism of WWII)  would sell New Musical Express (NME) or Rolling Stone.  The village has doubled in size, the tabac still exists and continues to eschew english language music rags.  

While for me the trip has been a tonic, The Silverback got into all manner of clandestine talks with my friend about 'La Resistance' and the noble Maquis of the south, having long been into the politics of war. 

Meanwhile, I got into the politics of gender having spotted the autobiography of Baroness Shirley Williams, leader of the Social Democrat Party in the 80s (that later became the Liberal Democrat Party) on the bookshelves of the bedroom we were using.  And likewise I'm now on a mission to read Mrs William's mother's books on pacifism and gender.  I love it when I stumble on stuff like this.  I had no idea.

The Lish meanwhile discovered 'la baguette' and has 3 kilos around her midriff to show for it.  It's back on the scooter for her. 

Take your time summer, the job market sucks and Portugal signals.