Hurrah! The blockade was resolved late last night, I think with a compromise of a 30 centimes reduction in petrol, and we are now free to roam the island once more.
This led to a fascinating discussion with Bertie about the political system here, which I will run through and bore you with...
France is made up of régions (26 I think) which in turn are made up of départments (usually 3 or so to a région, and nearly a hundred altogether). Guadeloupe, which is a DOM (départment d'outre mer) is both a région and a départment. As a région, it has a Président du Conseil Régional, and as a départment it has a Président du Conseil Général. As a région, it also has a Prefet, who is the top bod, and is based at the Prefecture (in Basse-Terre). He has just arrived from France in the last month as the previous one was promoted, and as we watched him signing the agreement he looked very hot, even in our cool season!
Within each départment there are many communes, and each of these has a maire. Sometimes the maire is also a member of the Assemblée Nationale (corresponding to our House of Commons) and called a deputé. This, and the Sénat, make up Parliament.
For those of you who made it this far, I shall reward you with some exciting news...Papy's pig has been sighted! Two eyewitnesses testified to seeing it wandering away from Pika, so he is going on a hunt for it later today. It is nice to know that it wasn't stolen and as it had plenty of food, we can only assume it was missing Papy and going in search of a bit of company. Thank you for your concern!
This morning I dedicated some time to CassCass whilst Baby JoJo slept, and we had great fun doing puzzles together. I kept asking her names of objects on her cards, and it was interesting that some of them she only managed to name in french! Including, strangely enough, socks - this is not exactly something we see much of here! Before and after school we are looking after LissaLou's friend Jade which CassCass is looking forward to. I think she enjoyed LissaLou being home these last few days and playing together.
Bertie's brother Richard is home from St Martin and so has taken his car (hyundai). Agathe, whose car we use, is having her final chemotherapy this week and so should be able to take her car (citroen) back soon. So we are hoping for another option to become available - otherwise Bertie will be on his bike all week!
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2 comments:
"This little piggy went to market, etc. etc. etc and this little piggy decided to go for a ramble cos he was lonely." How cute!
Glad it wasn't a case of Tom Tom the piper's son (stole a pig and away did run. Tom was beat.The pig was eat. Tom went howling down the street) or Tomas even.
Isn't it more likely he was missing Mamie?
good news about the blockade too.
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