During the May 1 rally of the party in front of the Opera Garnier in Paris, the signs of the divide were there. Never mind that three women from Femen did their usual protest thing; the real ‘ star’ of the debacle was Jean- Marie Le Pen, father of Marine, the current party leader. Jean- Marie not only appeared to be totally belligerent, but totally bananas as well. In the days following, the split between father and daughter has become ever more dramatic and unhealable. How all this nastiness will impact on Marine Le Pen’ s tilt at the presidency in 2017 remains to be seen.
Today, in another political story, it’ s three years since Francois Hollande defeated Nicolas Sarkozy to become president of France. To many people, Sarkozy had become totally unsufferable, yet his successor has in many respects been a huge disappointment, not helped by the economy flatlining over the past three years. Now comes another revelation about him that’ s less than savoury.
A group of female journalists, 40 in all, have started a campaign against the male chauvinism and patronising attitudes of so many male politicians. Male politicians in France are still incredibly sexist, with totally out- of- date attitudes. Now comes the revelation from a so-called friend of president Hollande that when it comes to dealing with female journalists, he prefers ones with big breasts.
Politicians are likely to come under even closer scrutiny, following the decision of deputies in the national assembly to pass the new laws on surveillance, brought in following the atrocities in the Paris region in January, the Charlie Hebdo massacre and related events. There’s actually widespread opposition to the new legislation over fears of what it might do to personal liberty.
Now that we re into May, the phrase ‘faire le pont’ really comes into its own. May has three public holidays, on May Day, May 1, then Armistice Day, May 8 and then finally Ascension Day. These public holidays are used as the ‘ bridge’ to create extra long weekends and only during May are there so many occasions when so many long weekends can be created, maddening for employers, but delightful for the public at large.
An interesting and important site for visitors has just opened on the Riviera, the E1027 house designed by the renowned Irish designer Eileen Gray, who lived in France for many years. She designed this house, which opened in 1929, as a showcase of modern interior design, outstanding in so many ways. But Gray, who after living for years on the Riviera, went on to spend the rest of her life in Paris, wasn’ t keen on personal publicity, and for many years, her contributions to interior design were largely forgotten. The house fell into ruin and it’ s taken many years to restore it sufficiently to allow in visitors.
She also had a big feud with Le Corbusier, the modernist architect, who took great exception to the fact that a woman could be such a harbinger of striking modern design. At one stage, he took his revenge on Gray by painting a scandalous mural in the house; he did his painting in the nude, just to heighten his sense of outrage. But thankfully, in recent years, Eileen Gray’ s prodigious talent has become well recognised.
Also on the Riviera, it’ s almost time for the 68th Cannes film festival, which runs from May 13 to 24, with Cate Blanchett leading the line- up. The big question of course, as always, is who is going to win the top prize, the Palme d’Or. Personally, I can’t stand Cannes; it and its back suburbs up in the hills are in my opinion, by far the least attractive big settlement on the south coast of France. Now it’s been revealed that the seabed off the coast at Cannes is just as unattractive. A diver has been taking videos that show industrial quantities of rubbish lying on the seabed, making it every bit as unattractive as Cannes itself.
Other festivals coming up shortly are in more attractive parts of the country, like the festival devoted to words, whether written, recited or sung, in the town of Charité- sur-Loire, from May 27 to 31. Then there’ s the classical music festival of Sully and du Loiret, in north central France, from May 22 to June 7. And in Biarritz, from May 14 to 17, the street festival takes place, with musicians, jugglers, you name it, all giving street performances. Biarritz is a lovely spot, with a fine beach and coastal walkways, while the town itself is quite striking architecturally.
Then on May 16 comes the Nuit des Musées, when over 1, 200 museums all over France will be open from 6pm to midnight, for free. Many of them will have special events, such as screenings and workshops.
And as if this isn’t enough, now is the time to sample the natural beauties of inland Normandy, where all the apple orchards have been bursting into blossom after a long winter.
While we are supposed to be in spring, the weather has been anything but springlike, not just in Ireland and Britain, but in France, too. Yesterday, a violent storm swept inland from Poitou- Charente and the Gironde on the west coast up towards Paris, unleashing deluges of rain in the process. In northern Germany yesterday, a tornado struck the town of Buetzow, near Rostock, and did a huge amount of damage, with similar effects in nearby Hamburg, where someone was killed.
There was also the death of Francois Michelin, at the age of 88. He overcame much opposition in the family- run company to the development of radial tyres, but when Michelin became the first tyre company in the world to launch radial tyres, it turned a family company, concentrated on its French operations, into a global leader, really putting its home city of Clermont- Ferrand on the map. Behind all that success, there has always been a certain puritanism. When I was working for Éditions Michelin, the tourism part of the business that produces the maps and guides, I was a little surprised to find that in its headquarters, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, the staff canteen was very puritanical. Not a drop of alcohol was to be found; it was soft drinks or nothing. The idea of long, boozy lunches so beloved of the French civil service was absolute anathema to the Michelin ethos.
Also the other day, a woman who celebrated her 44th birthday by taking a flying lesson in a microlight, the first time she had been up in the air, ended in tragedy. The woman, who was the director of a retirement home, was killed when the microlight crashed in the Dordogne, although the pilot managed to survive. She was pulled from the wreckage and taken to hospital in Périgeux, but died there soon afterwards.
And in Nice on Sunday night, a 35 year old woman was shot dead in the rue d’ Angleterre, in the city centre, right in front of her children. Shot in the head, she was rushed to hospital, but had no chance of survival. Incidents like these are all too common, so much so that they are usually reported regionally, but not nationally. Talking of hospitals, an interesting compensation case is about to come to its conclusion in Angers, in north- western France. It just shows, the French public health service often isn’ t nearly as good as it’ s cracked up to be, and with austerity cuts very much on the menu, the situation can only get worse.
The unfortunate woman at the centre of this case is Reine Cailton from Angers, now 63,who in 2006 had to go into hospital in Angers for a routine operation to remove an intestinal blockage. She suffered a cardiac arrest during the operation and when she came to afterwards, she found she was blind. She is suing the hospital, looking for €2 million in compensation medical negligence.
At least, there was a more pleasant story from Provence yesterday. A retired couple from Grasse set out yesterday on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in north- western Spain, a journey of 1, 600 km. They set out with their two donkeys, Croquant, who’ s five, and Nougat, who’ s four. Good luck to the couple and their delightful donkeys.
Also in Provence, André Aschieri, a left wing ecologist, who has been a councillor in the city of Mouans- Sartoux since 1971 and mayor since 1974, has announced that he is stepping down at the age of 78 because of failing health. It’s quite a record. The town itself, population 10, 000, is close to Grasse and a mere eight km from Cannes.
On the international front, the Milan world fair has opened, amid total chaos and confusion. Some 20 million visitors are expected to an event that’ s meant to celebrate Italian style and creativity, but which so far has only demonstrated the Italian genius for bureaucratic incompetence. The opening day last Friday was also marked by serious riots in the city.
Here in Ireland, the story that struck me most over the past few days was the catastrophe that happened to Peadar Lambe, a noted stained glass artist. He and his partner, who is also an artist, were attending an opening night in an art gallery in Dublin city centre when they got a phone call to say that his studio in Cork was on fire. The two of them raced back to Cork, only to find the studio totally destroyed, including all his records and all his notebooks full of ideas for future work. It was a devastating blow, but already two venues in the city have given him space to work in and a fundraising effort is under way.
Also in Ireland, more bus strikes are on the way. All city and many regional bus services in Ireland are run as public services, but someone has had the bright idea of privatising 10 per cent of them. Bus workers are strongly opposed to the idea, because they as well as the travelling public, will be worse off. In the mid- 1930s, many bus services were privately owned, and the situation became so chaotic that the government of the time had to nationalise them. This time round, it seems that no- one in authority even bothered to find out what the workers thought before going ahead with their plans. It’s the same with the plans by AIG, which owns British Airways and Iberia, to take over Aer Lingus. Most Aer Lingus workers are vehemently opposed to the deal, although their fat cat bosses aren’t because they will make millions from it. Yet no- one in authority has deemed it necessary to sound out the opinions of the Aer Lingus workers.
Politicians are the same where ever they get into power- just look at the way so many French politicians carry on. Commonsense, it seems, is the political attribute that’s least in demand.