The Entente Cordiale?
It’s the middle of May, although looking outside the window you wouldn’t think so.
For the past two weeks the weather has been atrocious — not once have we been allowed to sit outside on our new ‘sun terrace’ because it has been either two cold, too wet, more often than not both, and we are beginning to question why we ever moved to France in the first place.
Of course, the weather back in the UK is equally pitiful, so we hear, but at least that is to be expected.
With all this solitude and isolation I remain indoors, in the peace and quiet, in a heated office and come to terms with my own thoughts — and write, create, eat, drink and sleep after all, what else is there to do, apart from the ongoing renovations on the house.
It’s 19 May 2021 and in France restaurants, cafés and bars have reopened their outdoor areas today after over six months of closure, along with museums, cinemas and other cultural venues. The national curfew has also been moved back to 21:00.
I’m not sure how this will affect life in Culan, although I did notice the local tourism office is open again, so maybe the town will reveal another side to itself in the coming months?
When we went back to the UK at the beginning of the month, Britain and France were in a dispute over fishing rights around the Channel islands as both nations flexed their muscles the spat played into all kinds of stereotypical behaviour from both sides; the little Englanders’ Dad’s Army brigade ready to take up arms against an invasion from pesky foreigners — and the belligerent and cocky French mob threatening to blockade harbours and cut off the water supply to Jersey.
The pantomime soon runs its course, but resentments linger. The UK government is cracking down hard on arrivals from the EU with shocking and upsetting stories emerging in the past month of EU citizens being handcuffed at British airports, made to sleep in parked vans or prevented from accessing medication after being denied entry into the country under Brexit rules.
Such is the alarm, and anger on the continent, the leaders will formally call on Boris Johnson to respect the rights of their citizens according, to The Guardian.
France and the EU, meanwhile, are less than clear if a formal attestation d’accueil (travel permit) from the host’s mairie is required for UK nationals coming to visit friends and family in France.
Lawyers have claimed that the official €30 document is only required, as part of the visa process, for visitors of nationalities requiring short-term Schengen visas to visit France. This does not include UK nationals.
Then there is the COVID-19 tit-for-tat scenarios. France is on the UK amber list, meaning you can visit from the UK but will still have to quarantine for up to 10 days and take two tests on return.
And even fully vaccinated Britons could still be told to quarantine at their EU holiday destination due to concerns over the Covid variant first detected in India and a failure to allow Europeans to visit Britain freely, according to Brussels.
To be honest, neither the French or the British governments instill any confidence in their handling of the crisis and there is incompetency on both sides, which on that point we can agree.
Who comes out on top is another matter, but after his triumphs in UK local elections at the beginning of May, Johnson looks the stronger, while President Emmanuel Macron may still be the favourite in France, but he has no shortage of opponents hoping to take advantage of his blunders, not least the Far Right’s Marine Le Pen — president of The National Rally.
If Le Pen does get in, then all is lost and we would be no better off than living back in the UK, crap weather an’ all.
