Food for Thought for Friday -- Lorsque Nous Etions Jeunes

It came about recently that my friend Jennifer on the Flash Poetry forum at WriteWords challenged my memory and provoked a chain of events. Here was the challenge:
Use 2 words.
No 1: Stimulation as we all need that at times.
No 2: Assumption.
in any way, shape or form.

Assumption? I thunk and thunk! So many meanings to choose from...and yet that word held a deep significance for me that I had quite forgotten about (and that Catholics will immediately recognise) -- 
15th August -- Assumption Day!

Laval de Roquecezière 1976.

I spent that summer with the Bardy family. Michel, le pere, Auguste, la mere, Aurelie et Camille, les grandparents, Elisabeth (17), Jean (14) et Olivier (6), les enfants. I was supposed to speak English to Elisabeth and Jean but they weren't keen so I got to practise my French quite a lot.

We started off in Paris, travelled to the Charentes for a wedding, then on the Saint Crepin, nestled in the beautiful unspoiled National Park of Aveyron, then to Marseillon sur Plage near Sete, back a while to St Crepin where M. Bardy's father was the tailor, and eventually back to Paris for my final week. It was incredible! It was also the hottest summer for many decades. I barely went out in the sun prefering the shade.

Tu vas attrapper un coup de lune, Oonah

They told me :) They were very kind to me -- all of them. They even arranged for me to spend a Sunday at a Baptist Church in (I think it was) Vianne.

But on 15th August, a day that meant nothing to me (being a Baptist) I was included in the Assumption Day celebrations at Laval de Roquecezière. The focus of this;  the lovely statue of Notre Dame de Roquecezière at an astounding viewpoint in the mountains.

I was accorded by the curate, the tremendous privilege of reading The Lord's Prayer that year at the service. 

I was 22. I was green and young and probably a bit arrogant and I may not have given the moment the place it deserved. But when Jennifer made that challenge, it came flooding into my heart like the warm summer of 1976,  and I suddenly longed to remember it all -- the place, the people, the prayer, the statue.

I looked it up on the internet. I wrote about my memory of the place and to my astonishment got a reply fron a M. Tourel. And he knew Elisabeth Bardy!

This week I had an email from Elisabeth Condomine nee Bardy :) 37 years later -- and I sent her the few photos I have. So few...I was able to photoshop so that the pictures looked almost new.

37 years have passed. PC's and emails were no more part of that world then I was part of theirs and yet for a brief time time I was. And now thanks to the wonders of modern technology I say encore une fois, 

'Bonjour Elisabeth.'

Food for Thought for Friday -- Vive la Mariée

Friday 24th May 2013

a very special day for our friends Sarah and John

 we are attending their wedding at 1pm

and afterwards at  
Longhirst
 (the promised menu has me drooling)

we will be helping them to celebrate their union and wishing them 

all the happiness in the world 

for many years to come.

Sarah & John

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Food for Thought for Friday -- A taste of the Upper Penninsula

All of these were made by the talented Mr. Dave Morehouse of Upper Penninsula Michigan & include:

Smoked salmon, Thimbleberry Jam, Dandelion Jelly & Maple Syrup

LUCKY ME!

Friday's food for thought -- TANDOORI MEALS & HUNGER STRIKES

Okay so I had a bus ticket that lasts all day and so, determined to make the most of it, we went to the Tandoor Mahal and nothing but Lamb Handi would do! And it did :)

BUT as we were passing the Sanderson's Arcade we noticed that the great big daffodils hanging from the ceiling were being replaced tonight by banners in purple white and green. My husband asked why. Suffragete colours! I explained.

100 years ago, (London born Oxford educated) Emily Davison walked these streets and considered this town of Morpeth her home. It was here she recovered from her injuries and hunger strikes and from here she left on her last campaign agsainst injustice. She is buried here. And today when I put my X on that ballot paper in the local elections it was for no candidate, but for Emily I did it -- as should every woman with rights who now draws breath. Emily bought our freedoms with her death.

The flower beds of Carlisle park wear her colours proudly this year. It is a privilege to be here now -- at this moment in history and to honour her memory.

Read more about Emily and this centenary