A French Letter

The air is full of dandelion spores here at the moment. It’s a remarkable sight that can best be described as a slow-motion horizontal snowfall. The grass is growing as if it’s been given a megadose of Miracle Gro, but temperatures continue to be well below normal. Percy and Pam Pigeon are back in position on my telephone wire. My resident mole is making a nuisance of himself. The family of Coypu at the West End of the property are mooching about with their young in the expected manner. There’s a nightingale warbling away outside my bedroom window. The wisteria is in full bloom. The bamboo has, at long last, begun to fulfil its promised task of rendering the Maison d’amis more private. The roses are covered in buds. The herb patch is choked with weeds. The rabbits are digging holes in my drive.

So much for the natural science. By contrast, the socio-political landscape of France is rather foggy.

The newspaper Sud Ouest (regional newspapers are still important in France) has just done a massive survey of French attitudes after A Year of Macron. The bottom  line seems to be that the new Napoleon is still seen as the candidate of The Rich and the enemy of The Working Man, but he has carried out some useful reforms. Everyone is clear about what the reforms are, but less clear about why they are a good idea.

29% of French citizens say they have been inconvenienced by the SNCF rail strikes, and compared to past industrial disputes, support for the strikers is at best tepid.

As most of you will no doubt have seen, President Macron appears to have developed a homo-erotic obsession for President Trump during his Washington visit, which has no doubt rendered Brigitte insanely jealous.

As most of you will not have seen, the May Day celebrations in Paris were marred by clashes between riot police and Far Left demonstrators kitted out in standard Antifa guise. Analysis of the 284 arrests made subsequently revealed that a staggering 85% of those taken into police custody were not French citizens. So the international  rent-a-mob bankrolled by George Soros continues to sow violent confusion as the rationale for ever more harsh clampdowns by the Alt State.

All the best news bulletins end on a note involving pets and what they get up to. This one is no exception.

There is a pandemic of feline obesity in France. Felix le Moggie cannot regain entry to the suburban family house any more, for his body now so closely resembles a First World War dirigible, he’d be struggling to get through the kitchen door, let alone the cat flap.

French vets have identified fast food (in the shape of high-calorie cat biscuits) as the culprit. The Government is seriously considering legislation to ban said biscuits.

For several hundred years, the French were ruled by Bourbons. The fact that Republican France is now prepared to ban a biscuit (even if it isn’t a Bourbon) shows how far the country has come since 1789.

A bas des aristocrats!