St. Jean Baptiste Day celebrations where taking place in all Québec towns and villages. La Fête Nationale du Québec is a very important day and is much more celebrated in this our Belle Province than Canada Day. Newspapers remind us that friction still exists between French and English population and report that some Francophone musicians are facing heat for inserting English words in their songs and that 'déserteur' is an unfair term for those who left Québec in the '70s and and and......
Then, ha ha, as I was driving through a certain area in Montreal, an overpass reminded me of Sunday afternoon outings. This is going back 50 years. We had no car then but our good friends did. On hot and humid Sunday afternoons Greek Adonis would come over to tell us that he was taking his boys on a car ride and invited J., Pasha and I to join them. We all lived in apartment houses without swimming pool. Females did not go into streets wearing shorts and mini skirts did not exist as yet. Greek Adonis drove us to an overpass from where we could look into the back yard of one of the few high rise buildings of Montreal suburbia. No, not to suggest that our families move there but to allow him and
2 comments:
Your words carry the summer heat. And they touch on changes over time and on those things that remain the same.
What is it about the Brits and the French? I think the onus of responsibility tends to lie with French speaking communities. Why do I say that rather than 'blame' the Brits, when there is clearly anti-French feeling amongst some English speaking people?
I think it is because ever since the Revolution, which few French people like talking about, (mention the guillotine and a hush descends) there seems to be an attitude that says, "Which ever way the English do it, we'll do it the opposite way." It's National Ego (sometimes known as 'patriotism') gone mad.
I cringe whenever I hear such expressions as 'we are all children of the Republic', or eulogies about the 'French Republic' giving by ousted French presidents. For all their apparently revolutionary fervour, the French are as socially and culturally conservative as they come. But clearly, they do seem to have a chip about Anglo-Saxons and the way they conduct their business affairs.
In so many ways, as with other nationalities, the French are lovely. I just wish they'd drop the de Gaulle approach to life. Remember the phrase, "Vive le Quebec"?
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