Sundays at Le Petite Normande

Its a French tradition, picking up a little something special for Sunday meals with friends and family.  Our favorite Patissier-Chocolatier-Confiseur here in Roanne, La Petite Normande.  Yum-Oh!

French Elections - Premier Tour

We have been following the French elections on French television since the beginning of the year.  The contrasts to the American system are striking.  Without getting into the positions of the individual candidates (we're visitors and not voters) we thought that it might be interesting to describe some of the differences between the two systems.

The President of France is elected for five-year terms by an absolute majority of eligible voters.  Persons who wish to run for President must obtain the signatures of 500 elected officials (talk about grass roots).  The system thus allows for a large number of candidates for the Premier Tour (this year - 3 women and 7 men).  If one candidate doesn't reach an absolute majority in the Premier Tour, a second election is held two weeks later.  This year, it appears clear that there will be a second election between the top two candidates (Sarkozy and Hollande).  There is an "official" election period of only 20 days during which the real campaigning takes place, although there is unofficial campaigning prior to this 20 day period.  Depending on the size of their losing margins, the candidates who do not make the first cut appear to have leverage to affect the policy of the ultimate winner, not unlike our American primary process.

The really surprising differences in comparing the American and French systems is in the strict regulation of the media and money.    To guarantee a level playing field, the role of the media, both public and private, is strictly regulated during both the official campaign period, and in the period prior to the start of the official campaign period.  During the official campaign period, all electronic media outlets must provide equal exposure to all candidates.  This means direct speech and coverage of both the candidates themselves, and their supporters.  This is strictly monitored and enforced with fines.  Paid campaign advertising is prohibited, but each television broadcaster must provide a set amount of time for each candidate to broadcast pre-recorded election spots (45 minutes per candidate per broadcaster).  For Americans, it's incredibly refreshing not to be bombarded with political ads and the hateful attack ads by special interest groups.  The equal treatment requirement also means that there are many one-on-one interviews with all of the candidates on the French news channels.  Our French is not good enough at this point to get all of the nuances but the questioning appears to be very intense and direct.  The print media, however, is largely unregulated in order to respect the principle of freedom of expression. 

There is a wonderful limit on the placement of campaign posters.  At the beginning of the 20 day official election campaign, each town puts up metal boards in a conspicuous place where candidates can put a single poster.  As we pass through tiny French towns we always look for the poster place.  All of the metal boards appear to be exactly the same size which kind of emphasizes the need to be fair to all.

Election posters outside the Mairie (Mayor's Office and Town Hall, Roanne)

Money is the other major difference.  There are strict limits to campaign spending and political fundraising.  Although I don't know the limits for this year, in 2007 the campaign spending limit for each campaign was about 16 million euros.  Any candidate receiving more than 5% of the votes is entitled to a reimbursement of about half of their campaign expenses.  Individual donation limits in 2007 were 4,600 euros per person.  Donations from corporations or any other legal entity are prohibited.  Citizens United has obviously not reached this side of the Atlantic. 

To our uninformed eyes, this all appears pretty civilized, and it appears that the French take it fairly seriously. In their report on the 2007 elections, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), an international organization that observed those elections, stated that "The overall election process appears to enjoy a high level of public confidence and offers a number of transparency mechanisms and other safeguards for the overall conduct of elections. . ."  For us, it's just been great fun to watch and to try and understand - and we can answer the phone without fearing the dreaded political campaign robocall, not that we would understand a robocall in French!

Springtime in the Port

We haven't had good internet coverage here in port, so I haven't posted anything since we returned, but I'll do a little recap later.  In the meantime, its not all fun and games here in barging land. We spent the past week prepping the boat for new coats of paint on the side.  We power washed, sanded, ground out the rusty spots, hand washed the boat with a special degreaser, treated the rust spots with a neat oily thing that stops the rust, hand washed again, and painted.  That was the red part, the lower part of the hull was power washed, the rust chipped out, cleaned again and then coated with braie vinylique.  We are nearly done! I ran out of red paint today, and its Sunday in France, the stores are closed, and we shouldn't be out painting, but we had to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather, and the use of the port pontoon.  We plan to shove off some time this month - we are having the wheelhouse settee's cushions recovered this year, and as soon as they are finished, we're outta here!!  Hopefully no later than the 20th. 

Work pontoon tied to the side, painted from the bow to the pontoon

Randy in his official workman's jumpsuit.

We are planning to head towards Strasbourg this summer.  The Canal du Centre, however, just opened, and is scheduled to close on May 20th unless there is an abundance of rain.  That leaves us only one way back, a big loop around  to either the Loing/Briare and Lateral a la Loire, or the Nivernais to the Lateral a la Loire.  So, we don't know where we'll be going for sure yet, but we sure will look pretty with our new coats of paint, new brass stars and signboards on the port and starboard sides of the bow!