This is cross-posted from my blog, and I will apologize in advance that I will likely not be able to respond to comments, if any turn up, for a while: I'm posting from France, and I don't have continuous internet access. On top of that, tomorrow's a travel day for me; I'm leaving Alsace and heading back to Paris for the last week of my research trip.
Speaking of France, I have been very pleasantly surprised at the complete lack of reaction (at least in my presence) when I've had to reveal that I'm an American. Everyone has been uniformly polite and nice, and nobody's given me any hassles about Bush. (Though that might have something to do with the fact that I apparently have a light British accent to my French, so they aren't automatically assuming I'm an Amerlo.)
Alors, as they say in France, today is Emperor Chimpy's big day. Personally, I hope he falls flat on his face in front of God and however many of his fanatics turn out to see his inauguration coronation. I laughed the other morning at breakfast when I read, in DNA (that's Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, by the way), that Bush was trying to defuse some of the criticisms of his big party by saying it was his way of celebrating and supporting the troops. Oh, puh-leeze! That's like saying you're supporting the poor by renting a big room and putting on a huge party--without inviting any of the poor. If you want to do something for the troops, Georgie, give them the 40 million bucks your gala is projected to cost, and then bring them the hell home, post-haste.
And while I'm on the subject of politics, I had to look twice at the television the other morning. They were showing part of Condoliesherarseoff's confirmation hearings (Barbara Boxer was in the process of ripping Condi a new one, which cheered me up for a few seconds). Thing is, the footage they had of her looked eerily like a puppet show I saw (a weekly satire, apparently; I think it was on Canal+) just after I arrived in Nantes. Evil Condi was portrayed as running a rigidly regimented castle; when things were not just so, she flew into a rage and heads rolled. They had exactly captured Condiliar's perennially pissed-off expression, just as it was subsequently on display in the news footage. Does that woman (if she is a woman) ever smile? Or at least look like she didn't have a giant sandpaper suppository shoved up her arse? L'on se demande...
On the other hand, today's something of a celebration here in Colmar. Sixty years ago today, the French First Army under General (later Marshal) de Lattre de Tassigny began the reduction of the "Colmar pocket," the last bit of French territory that the Germans still controlled at the time. Two weeks later, after some heavy fighting, elements of the Fifth Armored Division and some American forces fighting alongside them liberated this city. There were tons of army vehicles on the road today, but according to what I heard it had nothing to do with the anniversary; just a routine reassignment, apparently from Senegal, of all places.
It was also the last day of a week of strikes all over France. Today it was the turn of the public works people to demonstrate in the streets. At least given what I saw when I was walking down the Avénue d'Alsace to do my laundry, it looked like quite a few of them were taking to the streets. Public reaction was mixed; I heard a lot of horns honking in support as people passed by the demonstration, but the proprietor of the laundry I was in at the time the demonstrators marched by was vehemently opposed. "They've got their hands in our pockets," he told me, and later on he railed at them to another couple who had just come in: "Go and work if you want our support!" Me, I think it's great that they still care enough to demonstrate, unlike most American workers who can't even be bothered to join a union.
Anyway, it's farewell to Colmar for me; I finished up as much of the archival work here as I reasonably could. I found some sources just after I got there yesterday that would have occupied me all day today--and then some--but what with the strike today I didn't feel like risking ticking off people I need on my side for when I come back: and it would have been a rush job to get through all the files I'd identified, anyway. I might be able to get the same numbers (and a more complete picture at that, given that everything in Colmar is at the local level and dependent on the local authorities having kept their records, which not all of them did) in Paris, if I can get permission to visit the Quai d'Orsay. And if not, well, shucks, that just means I have to wait for the ministerial wheels to grind and then I'll come back sometime this spring or summer: and while I'm at it, I can request permission to see some of the reserved files that I couldn't look at this trip. I have most of the policy information I need; all I'd like on top of that are some hard numbers. But if I can't get them, no big deal. My main interest was the policy anyway.
So it's on to Paris tomorrow morning. I do still have some work to do in the army archives in Vincennes, and obviously at the Quai d'Orsay if I can get in. But otherwise, it's tourist time! I've got a three-day Paris museum pass and I intend to get every bit of use out of it that I can. I've also got a list of restaurants, brasseries, tea places, and pâtisseries to visit, and I intend to do my best to get to all of the ones on my list. And finally, I've got a ticket to the opera on one of my last nights in France; regrettably not at the famous opera house (the Palais Garnier), but I hear the new one at the Place de la Bastille is very nice inside, though it's thoroughly modern on the outside.