Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road

The Least Boring Summer EVER!

I must say as an American who lives in France I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more exciting summer in both places. In fact exciting things have been happening on both sides of the ocean at such a pace that every time I thought about trying to write a post about it I wouldn’t know where to start. So for a while I just didn’t write anything.

Now, with a couple of months having lapsed, you will get the condensed version. Sometimes that is best. 🙂

First of all, in June/early July there were the snap elections in France, which were initially nail-biting, and ultimately both surprising and joyous, at least for people not on the far right on France. I think here I will refer you to Sara Somers, who wrote quite a nice summary of this very complicated (and very interesting) political situation. https://sarasomers.com/2024/07/09/cest-ouf-or-what-the-heck-happened-in-france/

Of course the controversy and the complications have not gone away–they have just been pushed aside and postponed by President Emmanuel Macron, who is using the Olympics as a good reason (or excuse, depending on your political views) for keeping his government in place until after the Olympics, since his government has now been discredited and he does not want to accept the choice for prime minister that the Nouveau Front Populaire (a coalition of leftist groups, and the winner of the most votes) has put forward. However, at some point he will have to choose a new prime minister. So: Stay tuned!

Here we switch the stage for a moment to a much more limited venue: our home in Essoyes, where on July 20 we had a wonderful birthday celebration for one of my sons. It was a beautiful evening (except for the storm that chased us all inside when we had planned to eat on the terrace; but actually the storm was quite beautiful also, just a bit wet. As storms tend to be.)

In fact it was the wetness of the evening that caused an unfortunate bit of drama, fortunately after a joyful celebration had been had, and our guests had left. As I approached the skylight window in our upstairs bathroom with the intention of closing it so that the pouring rain would not come in, I did not notice that the rain had already come in, in abundance; and that, as a consequence, the floor beneath the window was VERY slippery. And so I did something I had never before done in my life; I did the splits, meaning I went from a standing position to an on-the-floor position, with one leg all the way in front of me and the other one behind, quite suddenly. (See photo below for what doing the splits looks like when it is done by someone who knows what they’re doing and has trained for it for years, and warmed up thoroughly before trying it. Needless to say it did not look at all like that when I did it, and there are (blessedly) no photographs of my “Olympic” feat to show you. Trust me. You wouldn’t want to see it…)

I’ll spare you the gory details of what we have taken to calling The Incident in our home; I’ll just give you a few highlights:

• The emergency medical technicians who came to help me get up from the floor (and decided I needed to go the hospital, and took me there) were super-professional, highly competent, and very kind. Gratitude!!
• The official diagnosis, eventually, was déchirure ischiojambiers. (In English, a torn hamstring. As usual, everything sounds better in French; but it doesn’t feel any better.) Never done that before. Don’t recommend it! 😦
• My sons, and my son’s girlfriend, came with me to the hospital and spent all night with me in the ER. They are the best. (I knew that already, but that night just was more proof of it. More gratitude!)
• Healing from this kind of injury takes time. And patience. But of course, as painful and annoying as it was, it could been so much worse. More cause for gratitude.
• Moral of the story: When closing an overhead window against the rain be sure to check under the window to make sure it is not slippery before proceeding. (!!!) Duh. (You’d think…oh, never mind…)

Now, with my déchirure ischiojambiers I was limited to trying to find a comfortable position from which to apply ice to my throbbing thigh every few hours, hobble around every few hours also, so as to not lose the ability to walk at all, and figure out what else to do with my time.

Et voila! The very day after my gymnastic feat on the bathroom floor, Joe Biden announced that he was withdrawing from the US presidential race, and endorsed his VP, Kamala Harris, to run in his place. And this one thing seems to have injected what was a very moribund, depressing, concerning election year into something genuinely exciting and hopeful. (One observer in Paris noted that the announcement of the news in some public place he was in was met first with a general gasp, then a great cheer.)

To me it feels like perhaps the tide is turning, away from a frightening drifting into fascism, and back to hope for the revitalization of democracy in our country. I certainly hope so. It isn’t going to be easy: there are powerful vested interests that definitely do not want this to happen, and the mainstream media has not been helping matters. In a democracy the power rests ultimately with the people–but to benefit from that power, the people must be willing to take responsibility for using it in a constructive way.

Anyway. We had only a few days to focus primarily on this very exciting news. Now it was time for the Paris Olympics!

I will not go into a whole diatribe about the various reasons the Olympics was quite controversial; it was quite controversial, and for some very good reasons. (And most of the reasons apply to the whole general idea of how Olympics anywhere are handled, and the question of whether it is really a good idea for us to be hosting events anymore that involve people traveling by air for such long distances in such large numbers. We do have something of a climate situation on this planet that we seem to keep forgetting about…) One of my sons even wrote a song about this: https://www.instagram.com/p/C99-gRIM_e7/

Having said all that, despite all the controversy the Opening Ceremony in Paris, on the Seine River, was carried out with typically magnificent French intelligence/style/boldness/panache, I dunno, you find more adjectives, there are so many that apply. In short, it was spectacular and amazing, and it pretty much blew everyone away. (Some in a good way, some in a not-so-good way. 🙂 )You can read about it here, among many other places you can read about it. I just happened to find this particular report very interesting. https://walkparis.substack.com/p/the-whole-ceremony-was-very-you (NB: The post is long. It’s worth reading. Sit down, be ready to spend a little time reading it, don’t skim, and learn a LOT (not in just the Part One, but the Part Two that follows).

The Opening Ceremony itself also became quite the controversy, with “woke” people very happy with its message of multiculturalism/diversity/inclusion/avant-gardism etc.–and people on the right and far-right not happy at all. In my opinion, no matter what your politics are it’s worth watching, and if you are in France, you can watch the whole thing here https://www.france.tv/france-2/ceremonie-d-ouverture-des-jeux-olympiques-paris-2024/ I’m not sure how you watch it anywhere else, but I hope you can do so. (Not necessarily the whole four hours (!) surely there must be a way to watch highlights only…)

Aside from the controversies I have to say that from what I have seen from a distance, in clips on television, social media, etc, it looks like the Paris Olympics have been on the whole a very joyous affair. It looks like something worth doing, bringing all these people together. Giving attention and credit to and admiration for the athletes who have worked so hard to excel. Celebrating the beauty of Paris and joining in the joie de vivre of the French people that is sometimes eclipsed by their tendency to complain a lot, but always there, ready to burst forth with heartfelt, heart-on-sleeve emotion given half a chance. There have been many touching moments to enjoy, moments that inspire a feeling of affection for humanity to begin to rise again; and it has been especially nice to see the French people so happy with the way their city has shown the world just how wonderful Paris is and can be.

The Olympics are still underway for another week, and it sounds like aside from the Metro being a mess, things are going pretty well. I hope they will continue to do so.

Such a whirl of excitement this year that I have not even mentioned the fact that for the fourth time in the past 15 years the Tour de France passed through Essoyes on July 7. That was fun and exciting too!

Meanwhile, some things go on pretty much the same from year to year, when the gods (of weather, war, etc) are smiling on us. The farmers plant winter wheat in the fall, and harvest it the next summer. The vignerons tend to their crop all year long, and harvest the grapes in the late summer/early fall. It has been quietly busy here with the grain harvests (colza, wheat) nearing completion, and another one (grapes) soon to begin. Through all this drama in the world at large and in our home I’ve been enjoying watching the farmer harvest his crops in the fields next to our house, as he does every year; and the sound of the enjambeurs heading into the vineyards in the early mornings.

All around the world we count on the ongoing labor of farmers to tend the earth so that we can eat. And enjoy the fruit of the vine.

Gratitude.

Janet Hulstrand is an American writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France; and coauthor of Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home.

August 4, 2024 at 10:29 am Leave a comment