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Lettres d’Uzès #29: low pressure

16/5/2013

18 Comments

 
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As François Hollande ‘celebrated’ his first year in office, France fell into recession, and Jill and I arrived in the country for the first time in nine months. As a result, the economy is already showing an upturn as we have, in just three days, contributed significantly to the struggling hotel, restaurant and energy sectors.

Our principal input will be to the Gaz Service organization which, each year, replaces another component in our ageing boiler. This year it has diagnosed a build-up of limestone which is responsible for the pression très faible and will cost us 350 euros to put right. Hot water being (almost) as important to us as chilled rosé, we have signed bon pour accord and are anxious for the work to proceed. But when?

C’est Pentecôte.

But that’s on Sunday. Can you do it Monday?

Monday is Pentecost Monday.

Oh, ok. Tuesday?

Tuesday is the day of return from Pentecost Monday.

Bien sûr. Silly me. So Wednesday then?

Je vous rappel. I will call you.

Maybe they will. This is, after all, Provence where there is no known word for urgent. It is precisely because of this lackadaisical approach to time-keeping, scheduling and priorities that we love it.

Except when we have no hot water for another week.

If I were a Daily Mail reader, and a distressing number of copies of that appalling rag are sold in this region, I would be drawing parallels between this experience and the fall into recession. I would be ranting on about two hour lunches and socialism and strikes and Hollande’s cronies and all the other stereotypical problems of la vie française.

But I am not, because this culture and this way of life is what I signed up for when we bought our small village house in the Gard.

In fact, the most distressing element of our arrival in France was the loss of my iPhone somewhere in Beaune on the journey south. I am discovering that I can actually live without hot water on tap, but not without my portable.

There may, however, be an advantage even in this. With an episode Cevenole (thunderstorms and heavy rain), with no texts or tweets arriving, I can focus on what I came here to do: write.

Once this blog is finished in the next five minutes, I will extract from the hard drive the thousands of words of my fiction, and get down to some serious work.

Or maybe not. 

After all, it is Pentecost. And we have plenty of chilled rosé in the fridge.

Today's listening: Stravinsky on France Musique, a radio station which has introduced too much spoken word over the years, but is still a marvellous French institution.

A reminder for new readers: As you will know, the original Lettres d'Uzès were sent by Jean Racine during 1661 and 1662 to his friends in Paris. Racine had been sent to Uzès by his family to stay with his uncle, the Vicar-General. The hope and expectation was that, away from Paris, he would put poetry aside and embrace the priesthood. He never did, succumbing inevitably to the life of a town where “one bookseller starves as a score of traiteurs flourish”. These 21st century letters bear no resemblance to those of Racine, but are nonetheless dedicated to him - with respect, admiration and a thousand apologies.

18 Comments
Mark Dalton
16/5/2013 03:37:03

Enjoyed this. But resist the call of the wine, and get writing. Even Kingsley Amis wrote 500 words before he allowed himself a drink!

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Max
17/5/2013 01:12:20

Did so, and will do. Thanks.

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Sean
16/5/2013 04:11:54

As always, this is a wonderful evocation of your life down there.
Remember Max, the enjoyment comes not from the writing but from the having written. Enjoy the glass at the end of the line.
A few of my fave quotes on writing:
Hemingway - 'There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.'
Maugham 'There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.'
Flaubert 'Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.'
Bon chance!





Reply
Max
17/5/2013 01:13:27

Having written. Love it. Thanks for your advice and those of our heroes.

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CJ
16/5/2013 04:19:03

I need specifics before commenting. Which Stravinsky. As composer or conductor?

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Max
17/5/2013 01:14:35

It was actually the Firebird Suite, composed and conducted by himself. But moved on to Test Match Special and a 1975 BB King!

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CJ
22/5/2013 02:23:36

His first project for Diaghilev, and probably his best. The BB King I assume is the new release from Wolfgang. Saw him four or five years ago and it was almost the same set as this one, even down to the same song intros.

Allan
16/5/2013 11:02:45

Like the Racine hommage and the boiler story. Hope it works out after Pentecost! But looking forward to reading the 'fiction'. Soon I hope.

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Max
17/5/2013 01:15:49

By the end of the summer with a fair Mistral.

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Allan link
17/5/2013 03:19:56

P.S. And what's an episode Cevenol? Sounds like a goats' cheese salad!

MattS
16/5/2013 23:37:40

A change of place and a change of tone. Don't neglect your weekly posts while you work on your fiction. Need to know more about these Mail readers ... What are they doing there?

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Max
17/5/2013 01:18:40

Perhaps a slightly less serious approach to life down here. We don't wake up with a sense of impending doom! And the blog will continue to appear whenever I have something to say. Mail readers? It's strange that the ex-pat community, so different in political and cultural outlook, is united by a love of France.

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myers
17/5/2013 01:06:31

"Pressian tres faible" amazing you French have a different word for everything!

Write a little and drink a lot, enjoy killing time.

Although Christopher Hitchens said,
I have not been able to discover whether there exists a precise French equivalent for the common Anglo-American expression 'killing time.' It's a very crass and breezy expression, when you ponder it for a moment, considering that time, after all, is killing us.”

Reply
Max
17/5/2013 01:20:47

Bro! Where's that from? Don't remember it. But I have been re-reading Mortality, a book which should include such musings. Good win last night!

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Daniel
18/5/2013 00:52:52

The situation in France is concerning for all who love the country and would have voted for Hollande, who seems to be combining the worst of Blair and Sarkozy, with the worst forms of gesture politics to appease the left. When the episode Cevenol is over, look forward to your views. Less Mayle stuff about central heating, more analysis please.

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Max
22/5/2013 03:09:28

Point taken. The technician is sorting the central heating as I write, and I am taking a glass with friends from the Partie Anti-Capitaliste shortly. They will put me right on the current situation I suspect.

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Parn123
20/5/2013 06:40:38

“Talented writing makes things happen in the reader’s mind — vividly, forcefully — that good writing, which stops with clarity and logic, doesn’t."
--- somebody on writing

Reply
Max
22/5/2013 03:07:32

Thanks Parn. Still trying to achieve clarity and logic!

Reply



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     Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father. and grandfather. Resident in Warwick, England.

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