Villefranche-sur-mer 2017-1

Dear Friends,

As you may recall, Jane and I have spent about a month in Villefranche-sur-mer, France in January for the last several years.  We are here again for six weeks to escape reality, responsibilities and the worst of the Minnesota winter.  When I awoke this morning to the wonderful sound of the bells from the local church, it was 42 degrees, a little on the cool side, but it is sunny and the temperature is rising quickly and should reach a high today of 61, the perfect weather for walking and absorbing the beauty of the Mediterranean.

Villefranche-sur-mer is a little town just east of Nice on the coast.  It boasts the only deep water harbor on the north coast of the Mediterranean.  The old town where our apartment is located is very quaint and picturesque with most streets too small for cars.  Here are a few pictures I took this morning.

Our street from our back windows

Across the street from our back windows

the view from our front windows and balcony

We love reconnecting with friends we have made here and the various merchants we come in contact with.  Very little changes from year to year.  Marie Claire, the rather elderly woman who runs our favorite boulangerie looks just the same as does her shop and greets us warmly each time we enter.  The butcher and his shop have not changed at all.  The pork chops we had from there last night had a wonderful flavor, not like in the US.  The Petit Casino (a small chain grocery store) and the Picard Surgele (a chain of stores that sells frozen foods of all kinds) have not changed at all, although the personnel are constantly changing.  The Primeurs (fruits, vegetables and cheeses) at the main plaza is still run by the same family but the store has been rearranged to be brighter and more welcoming and the wife is more present.  We have not yet seen Bernard, another primeur who has a very small place in a small square by the church, but we probably will today.  Chez Betty, which in the past I would have described as a dive bar where students from the l'Institut would drink and do their homework, has had a complete renovation and is now very modern but Betty continues to run the place so at least that has not changed.

We had a wonderful dinner at one of the fancy restaurants right on the water, L'Oursin Bleu on New Year's Eve.  I did a review for Trip Advisor which you can read if you are so inclined here.  We have also eaten at our favorite place Le Serre owned and run by Sylvie who is wonderful and greets us like long lost friends.  If we are tired and just want something to eat without having to cook, we go there (it is just half a block away) to split a pizza and green salad.  We can also go there for a very nice dinner.  Sylvie has specials each night that are really gourmet meals.

While we like to think that we are escaping reality, we are not.  Everybody we meet is aghast that we have elected Donald Trump as President, but they are also concerned about things in their own countries.   The French worry about the rising popularity of the Front National lead by Marine Le Pen.  The Brits cannot explain Brexit.  The other day an Australian who lived in Istanbul described to me the horror of the night of the coup in Turkey and the ongoing demonstrations and arrests taking place there.  Fortunately he and his wife have been able to sell their home there and leave, even though they loved living there.

To try to keep some balance in my life, from time to time amongst my critique of Donald Trump and calls to action, I will try to write about this wonderful little town on a beautiful stretch of the Mediterranean where the people are friendly to all.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Selma, White Privilege and Me

Dear Friends,

I watched the movie "Selma" tonight.  While those brave people were risking their lives, I was safely ensconced in my private high school and then private college.  Since then only on a few occasions have I gone to the streets to protect others.  No more!!  As I pointed out in my prior post "democracy is in the streets".  We cannot sit back in our comfortable homes and watch President-elect Trump destroy our country and our world.  We have made painfully slow progress on some types of equality.  We must not go back.  In fact we must move forward and not at a painfully slow rate.  We need to accelerate progress.  Democracy is in the streets and that is where we need to be.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Resistance is the answer

Dear Friends,

As we begin the New Year, I am filled with fear and anxiety about our country and the world.  I worry about what President-elect Trump and the Republican Congress will do.  But it is time to stop being depressed, anxiety filled and frustrated.  It is time to take action.  We cannot let Donald Trump's presidency become normalized because there is nothing normal about him.  One of my New Year's resolutions is to perform at least four acts of resistance each week.

I have subscribed to wall of us which gets its name from this tag line on their website (here):

he promised a wall.
he will be stopped by a wall of us.
FOUR CONCRETE ACTS OF RESISTANCE
DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX EACH WEEK

By subscribing (here), they will send you an email each Sunday with four concrete acts of resistance. I have done many of them.  Please join me in subscribing and then taking action.

There are, of course, many other ways to resist President-elect Trump.  We must take to the streets in acts of civil disobedience.  The current online version of The New Yorker contains a commentary by Jelani Cobb entitled "The Return of Civil Disobedience, the sixties produced a conviction that 'democracy is in the streets.' The Trump era may echo that." (here).  I do not know where the quotation: "democracy is in the streets" comes from, but I think that it is completely correct and that we must all take it to heart.

So in addition to writing letters, making calls and supporting organizations that will help in the resistance, we must be in the street because "democracy is in the streets".

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal