Farewell, my love. I hope we meet again. An adolescent emptiness swells in the breast as the love affair ends. I will see her again, but it will not be the same. We will not have that informality of friendship where one can take up again where one left off the last time. No more will we lie long and easy under the apple bough. When we meet next I will have the same yearning, but I will be in a new position, a stranger, étranger, and you will be in a different situation too, having to regard me as a foreigner. Formality and reservation will be the order of the day. Likely we will need to make an appointment, obtain a visa, before we meet. Certainly, we will be supervised by authorities who believe they know better than both of us.
I must break from you because I and my kind have insulted you or at best wish to ignore you and what you stand for. Of your three graces of Beauty, Mirth and Elegance I would add the fourth of Athena, goddess of wisdom and culture. We had graces once, now we have hubris. Our next meeting will be as through a glass, chaperoned to counter any agreements between us and quell and glowing embers of passion in case they burst into flame. My admiration of Gide, Camus, Proust and Jaques Monod must be suppressed for the new nationalism. Your love of Austen, Elgar and Higgs, whose predictions were verified beneath your soil, will be curbed simply by the awkwardness of it all.
The future for us is bleak, as even our supervisors acknowledge. They spoke of sunlit uplands of opportunity but are now engaged in trying to limit the damage. A bleaker future for me than for you. You will still have other friends you will be able to freely visit but I will be estranged from them also. Your influence will live on in me, you taught me how to eat well, about flavours and presentation of food at the table. We learned about drinks of such delight and quality as the world has ever known. As for relationships, we have had a thousand years of teasing, fighting, working together, exchanging ideas and culture.
I have travelled with you by rail, swiftly, comfortably and reliably and with little expense. By car also, we have sped to our destinations. trouble free and safe. Together we have enjoyed the magic and culture of Paris, the excitement of the ski slopes, the sun and ease of Provence and, my particular favourite, gliding through the alps past sunlit snow-covered peaks and over turquoise lakes. I have had the best of you, but my children and their children will be denied the privilege.
We have had such fun with the interplay of language. How will you manage without ‘le weekend’ and life for us will be less exciting without ‘French kissing.’ Will Franglais still be spoken, will we still be able to intentionally confuse ‘foot’ and ‘foutre’, risky though it is?
So farewell ma belle France. The Bojos, Moggs and Goves have decided that we are unsuited. I know we have had our differences, but they have been as nothing compared to our gladness. Together we both would have been stronger, more content and happier. On March 29th the good times will end; we will have to observe one another from a distance. Those wonderful things we did together, the Euro-tunnel, Concorde, Airbus, the town twinning and educational exchanges, the reciprocal visits of our children and job exchanges may still happen to a small extent. The excitement of discoveries from the Large Hadron Collider and ITER will still be there but we will play only a small part. The way ahead for us will be narrow, dark and stony.
I live 50% of my time in France, I am made welcome there, and my fellow villagers look forward to the dissolution of the EU, its bureaucracy, plans to repopulate and destroy our respective cultures, and one day hope we can re-emerge as part of a Europe of cooperating democracies respecting our own traditions. Each year we celebrate the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany and thank our US allies for sacrificing their lives for our freedoms. We hope that the faceless unelected bureaucrats pulling the strings behind our politicians will disappear and will stop their irresponsible attempts to destroy the US/UK alliance with their mad plan to implement a United States of Eurasia. When I put flowers on the graves of our liberators and hope that it will not be necessary to call on them to return.
Sorry Mike, I cannot accept this crude and somewhat emotional political propaganda. You speak of nationalism, but do not appear to understand how French thinkers, like Simone Weil drew important distinctions between the nationalism of wartime Germany and the patriotic nationalism (outside of Gaullism) of the resistance which is spoken of today. Too much acceptance of the BBC/Guardian line that Brexiteers are little England bigots, perhaps. Pride in both English and French cultures is not to be dismissed. No one is proposing an attack on French culture and promotion of British isolationim. Perhaps we could see some documents to back this up. Perhaps a few photos of Merkel, former Young Communist Party member in East Germany, together with a few ridiculous pictures of the unelected EU bosses might balance an otherwise empty piece of rhetoric.
If I were allowed to contribute here I might post a few pictures of the new people on the Normandy beaches which I took last week together with photos of armed forces guarding synagogues and even the local ice cream shop, from Merkel and Macron’s guests. Once out of the EU we might be able to help with the restoration of French culture.
Meanwhile I look forward to a complete break with the EU and a life in France sharing benefits of both our cultures. A break up of a political scam will not prevent generations of young people, like my son, with degrees obtained from Oxford and the Sorbonne from an enriched European life.
I will not be sorry to permanently leave the polluted air of Chandlers Ford – rapidly becoming what Trump describes as a sh**hole – for my Normandy village
Ah well, we are going to have to disagree on this one, David. I hope you keep your freedom to live in Normandy. I know my sister who lives in France permanently is concerned about her freedom to be there, for her health care and for her pension. If these freedoms are lost it will not be because of the EU bureaucrats.
There is an EU parliament of course, they are not all unelected.
Thanks Mike, Cheers.
I enjoyed reading your article very much indeed Mike. I have lived in the Titchfiield for 15yrs. I am from the Channel Islands and lived most of my life there. In my younger years when my children were small we bought a caravan and we took our children all over Europe and it was so easy. Everywhere we went we were welcomed. All nationalities were helpful and kind to us.
My eldest daughter told me that it was the best thing about her childhood and the best thing I ever did was getting that caravan.
Now I would be too embarrassed to go to these other European countries. I am now ashamed of being British where once I was so proud to be. Being British used to mean fairness and decency to me. Now it means something else entirely. Something I want no part of. These are not the British values my British father taught me. They are alien to me. I will never again feel the same about England. it is sullied in my eyes.
So thank you for reminding me not everyone in this land is bitter and twisted by xenophobia.
Thank you Jeanne. When I worked at the University, I got a reputation for supervising foreign students. It took a little more effort but the rewards were rich.
You should travel in Europe, the people are fine, some have a vein of sympathy.