State of Emergency

Its hard to imagine that France is still in a State of Emergency and, indeed, at war - but we are.

Yesterday Kat. Allenna and I watched from the newly-sanitized Relais Occitan as two gendarmes appeared to harrass the clutch of hippies that hang out in the square. One bold soul, with a spliff in his mouth, tried to cycle away and was rudely manhandled back into line; a very short girl was screaming at them and ran away; they circled each other like barnyard animals, finally parting with satisfied looks on all sides... as Maddie said, its like the cinema but free.

Snapped the above later, while cars were being pulled at the entrance to town by our local police. Word was out, for sure, as many of our friends were using the Caderonne entrance and avoiding them :)

Allenna and I were being desk- and- studio- bound all day and celebrated nearly coming to grips with things by eating at St Gobains. Robin and Jennifer were in very fine form, laughing and joking - the chef is still producing little miracles. Here's Allenna eating fish.