Oh, dear me.
Well, here is the deal. Last night, while watching the municipal election results roll in from around France, I was pacing the room violently, sloshing the red wine in my glass as I did so, until worked up to a fuming pitch, I swore to myself that I was going to write a tirade of a post today.
And yet, I just can’t quite do it. Not yet, at least.
Am I angry/afraid/appalled that the extreme right Front National party made such a large advance over their numbers from four years ago? Indeed I am. So much so that I find myself slightly stunned and waiting eagerly for next Sunday to arrive for the final round of voting with a desperate hope for a “Say it isn’t so” moment.
Here in Arles, Herve Schiavetti, the current mayor, has the lead but with only 38% of the vote, while the FN candidate has a whopping 24%. Really? In Arles? Such a second place status was rampant, especially in the South of France and in nearby towns like Avignon, Saint-Gilles, Tarascon and Beaucaire, the FN so far has the lead often with just shy of the 50% needed to have won in the first round.
So, for lunch today, I knew just what to make. It is one of my favorite winter into spring salads but is also quite bitter. Parfait.
Endive, beet and blue salad
for 2 people (any more and you might have political disputes)
3 heads of endive, sliced into rounds and sliced in two
Top with:
cooked beets, diced
sprinkling of dried cranberries and/or golden raisins
a sliced apple for crunch
ample amounts of crumbled good blue cheese (I used a bleu d’Auvergne)
sliced nuts on top
Sweet mustard vinaigrette
2 soup spoons of Dijon mustard
2 soup spoons of a sweet vinegar
(I used a mix of crème de noix – aka nuts – and balsamic with lavender honey)
4 soup spoons of good olive oil
salt, pepper and herbes de Provence to taste
Whisk the mustard and vinegar together then add in the olive oil by two’s, adjust to your preferred consistency and taste.
To read an article in the New York Times on this subject (not the salad): please click here.
For those of you wishing to learn more about the background of the Front National party, please click here (and don’t miss the founder’s denial of the Holocaust and the current interest in deporting unemployed immigrants…*cough cough*)
To read a previous post that speaks of this party, please click here.
As for Ben and Kipling?
They have both made their point of view clear: “Wake me when it’s over.”
Just to balance out the amertume?
Here is the beautiful opening to the new collaboration between Bonobo and Late Night tales. The entire album is just wonderful…
Have a great week everyone…
PS. Thank you all so very, very much for your overwhelming response via comments and emails about Remi’s first story in National Geographic magazine. We both are extremely moved and grateful.
I fear, and strongly suspect, that the FN party will win the next presidential election in France 🙁
On a much cheerier note… while I was at the airport waiting for Gregory and Fifty to arrive, I bought Remi's National Geographic! I have been showing it off and bragging all about my friend Heather's awesome partner! I'm beyond chuffed for you two xx
The rise of the FN and their ilk is tragic, infuriating and terrifying…and a call to activism for those of us who find it so. I will be waiting to hear from you about the result of tomorrow's elections. Yours in solidarity, Leslie in Oregon
If your political nerves whipped up that salad, I'd like to see what you cook if they win.
Dear Heather, I am so busy right now I hardly find the time to write a sentence on your blog!
And yes, me too I am in rage, I am sad, speechless and badly disappointed of my dear French neighbours!
Especially as I am German and EVERYBODY knows the German History and the History of the Second World War. And therefore everybody SHOULD really know certain relations of the FN contents and the German National Socialism Party during the Second World War!
This is not "just" politics this is about about avoiding a human catastrophy. And trust me, this is not just another Hollywood Production, this is real life. And the latter is sometimes not funny in France for people who think different.
As a German it was a weird feeling to have extreme right wing advertising in the mailbox on a daily basis when we were in Arles!
Also, La Provence is not only "belle" it was also one of the centers of "La Résistance" (against German atrocities) during the Second World War who's leader was Jean Moulin.
The beautiful "Alpilles" that we were so happy so see on this blog are crossed by a road called "Route de la Liberté" because Jean Moulin took a shelter there for one night. Every third beach on the Côte Azur is called: "Plage du Débarquemet"! On those beaches landed the Allies to free Europe from the horrors of the National Socialism.
Yes, in the South of France they are proud of their Résistance and for good reasons. But that does not stop tem to vote for a party that is Anti-Semitic, Racist and Homophobic! France has a lot of problems but they won't get solved with the FN.
Of course one cannot completely compare the time of the German National Socialism with the FN Party in France. But there are obvious tendencies and similarites in their "values". And their gains of power with a program that is based on Anti-Semitism and Racism is already a political catastrophy.
And the politics of Racism concerns us all wether live in America, Europe, Australia etc, wether we are interested in politics or not, we should be interested in Humanity!
To say something positive finally, the responsables of the Avignon Festival will restist and cancel the whole Festival under a FN Government!
You know how I am about politics in the US, so I dare not chime in on France's situation which I know nothing about. Thank goodness, none of the politicians are permanent, this is the only way I can view it. To me, every single person in office in DC needs to GO, we need to start over with courageous (maybe independently wealthy) people. Once again, BRAVO to Remi, and I do love those dogs.
LOVE the recipe — can't wait to try it out this weekend.