This is from an American point of view. I know most of you are Brits, but I think you will still find this interesting.
It is indeed interesting and sobering. I also have a growing intuition that the people amongst whom we live in rural Normandy are tolerant of us Ć©trangers rather than happy to have us here, where we make a small but important contribution to the local economy and keep our gardens tended and our homes unshuttered in daylight hours.
I think I have seen a certain provisionality in the welcomes we receive, as if they sense a small degree of provisionality in our allegiance to France, and to them. They have long had to hedge their bets in dealing with foreign āvisitorsā, and donāt trust anyone.
As previously mentioned here, my next door neighbour has two wounds inflicted by a bullet when he was 7 years old. One was the entry point in his upper chest, the other the exit point in his lower abdomen. His survival was miraculous, but we was a tough little kid. He never knew who shot him, or why. A German, a GI, a Tommy or a member of the French resistance? I was 5 when he was 7. But we were never over-run by the enemy, nor exposed to the cross-fire and the score-settling of occupied France.
I take that bit of shared history in mind in my ādealingsā with all French folk, especially the older ones.
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We live in a fairly prosperous part of France.
We are included in many social gatherings and have made true friends.
No one wears flashy clothes or drives gas guzzlers.
My car is fifteen years old.
I wouldnāt want to live in a part of France which is very different from the life I lived in UK.
We are more rural, but Macon is experiencing growth and every time we go there are new businesses and houses being built.
I am trying to remember a quote by former president Nicolas Sarkozy. I believe it was something along the lines of āLa France est ingouvernableā, this in the wake of attempted reforms (which failed to be passed of course).
I have lived in France for more than 20 years, and still I see a reluctance for change, certainly sudden change, which is kind of ironic for a country that had a revolution. Having said that, the revolution was spurred by a majority of folk feeling left out of society and whipped up into anti-ruling class sentiment, so perhaps we are not so far from that today.
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Macron has gone about things the wrong way and is now paying the price, he should have paid more attention to problems at home rather than try and compete as a world leader.
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When those who govern set themselves apart from those they deem must and will be governed, the conditions essential for ungovernability have been established, and their fate at the hands of the people is sealed.
Sarkozy didnāt say that. I did.
I met Sarko once, shook his hand, tiny tiny man.
Ah that explains a lot then ā¦ it is alleged that small men lean towards tyranny. 
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Of courseā¦ they can only leanā¦ they canāt actually reachā¦ too shortā¦ 
for so many thingsā¦ 
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Rank pygmyism 
As Garfield would say ā I am not overweight, I am undertallā, how I love that cat ! 