Living In Community Means Responsibility…

….and as an immigrant I know this from my hosts.

On Tuesday my husband and I left the house early to go to the market before I went ahead to pick our youngest girl from school for lunch. My eldest refuses to come home for this meal as she likes to ‘dine with friends’. In all honesty the menu they have at the school is far superior than that at home. Only when you’re living in France can you expect to get an answer to “What Did you have for lunch…” that begins with “Well for l’entré we had….for the main plait… and for déssert [proper inflection] we had….”.

I digress. We are fortunate that we have one, as well as local shops. Many of the villages nearer to the towns don’t as their proximity to large shops makes them obsolete with selection and prices. Yet these markets give us an opportunity to meet the others in our village, as well as buy from chains leading back to our local farmers.

Unfortunately this time I didn’t have my camera, and I’m rather shy about taking it out and snapping away so publicly anyway. I’ve included here some photos of the local market at the next town. Regularly visiting ours is a fruit and veg stand, with in season produce, a small delicatsen, some clothes, a fishmonger, a wine cellar. This in addition to the local butchers, hairdressers, ironmongers, pharmacy and boulangerie.

I must confess I am no longer used to prices of produce that hasn’t been hammered down by the enormous buying power of a supermarket chain. It shocks me that having bought an entire cod fillet we paid 20€. I bought a kilo of mince from the butchers and à tartine of pâte croûte and together they cost 14€. Needless to say the supermarket is cheaper and for someone who has virtually no physical taste (I thought it was diabolical, for instance, when they reduced the salt in Pot Noodles – If You add it back in it just doesn’t taste the same) this isn’t a selling point for me either.

Yet the importance of people and valuing what they produce is important and does convince me. Never more so than having read this astonishing article here. Unfortunately I have neither the cooking or home economic skills at present to commit successfully shopping at these places all the time. I say this because the expense means going without – perhaps we can’t have meat every day of the week, but it will be of a superior quality. In order not to have meat every day of the week and not just substitute fish I have to learn to cook meals with little or no meat, with leftovers; in other words the things our grandmothers did when produce was local and their shopping was too.

I want to do this, I feel compelled to as giving value to the food, denying the self in the process, means valuing the person doesn’t it?

Today I walked out of my front door and was met with the scene that made me fall in love with this village. The sweep of the road here is so beautiful – and our house is on the corner leading into this sweep. I remember driving through this village for the first time and being astounded at it’s beauty, constructed 100s of years ago, and lovingly developed since then.

As I walked round the area, its duck pond so beautiful which is actually owned by a naighbour, the clear waters of the river, I am aware that generations of these villages have contributed to this and I am inheriting it by grace.

I walk to the school and my presence is walmly greeted by others. They smile and are patient with my still struggling French. I am grateful for their patience and consideration.

When I return home a neighbour drops by. We walk through my garden and she gives me advice on plants and how to tend them as she knows I’m not a country woman. Again I am grateful for her time.

These people already practise the responsibility of small community. It strikes me that they are La France Periphique, those who are mocked and derided for their concerns about immigration, globalisation and the impact it has on their lives.  Yet I can tell you that I have not experienced any derision, only kindness from them. Even when I’ve discussed political issues with them and they have been vocal in their concerns in their grace they have always made it clear that it not born of hatred for the stranger, but a wish to have someone discuss and address their concerns without deriding them.

They are people I admire and I went to learn from. From their self sacrifice, their solidarity and, yes, the knowledge of this earth we share. I pray that I can be worthy of their inheritance.