Thanks to many, many of you for taking the time to share our enthusiasm about our decision to purchase a condo in Montpellier. My dear sister even sent flowers.

The purchase process moves on at its own pace that is somewhat unknown to us but we have faith that we will receive the keys around June 1. Now we are looking for furnishings and were thrilled to find a bevy of stores only a 15 minute bike ride away.

One of our French friends wanted to know why we decided to change our center of gravity from the United States to France. If you are considering such a change yourself and want the details, we are happy to share them to you. Our response can be summarized in one short word: the thrill of discovery.

We are discovering, for example, that the French are really more racist than Americans. For example, 55% of the French believe that there exists another species between monkey and Homo sapiens. This tidbit was part of a presentation by Lillian Thuram, member of the world cup champion French team in 1998 and champion of Europe in 2000 who spoke two weeks ago on his book Les Etoiles Noirs, a biography of black stars.   He has created the Fondation Lilian Thuram, education contre le racisme because he believes that people are not born racist and, with exposure to new points of view, attitudes can be changed. After hearing (and watching) him speak, I bow before his even handed courage and intelligence. Not to speak of the fact he is good looking!

Now I understand why some of our French friends have said that France is not ready for Obama. The next night there was a panel on “Tibet, une histoire de la conscience, ” on neuroscience and meditation that attracted twice as many people as Lillian.

The French are certainly more ethnocentric than Americans. You know that most French vacation in France? (So does the rest of the world. More people come to France for vacation than any place else in the world.)

In a speech sponsored by Montpellier, its religious history was described in terms of the dates and locations of the establishment of different Catholic orders. Yet Bob and I have estimated that most of the Protestant population of southern France died during the Wars of Religion, perhaps as many as two million, slaughtered by the Catholic king's men from the north. Montpellier’s parks are on land that once held a Protestant or Catholic Church burned to the ground during this time. Further, the medical school, the oldest continually operating medical school in Europe, evolved from the united efforts of the Muslim and Jewish intelligentsia seeking refuge in tolerant Montpellier from the tortures of the Inquisition in Spain. So Montpellier's religious history is filled with the stories of Jews, Muslims and Protestants. Why did he not even mention these other religions?

France is less ethnocentric than Switzerland, where new mosques have been banned. But the French police have been rounding up (and often the judges have been releasing) immigrants without papers. Every Saturday there is a demonstration in Montpellier to stop the expulsion of immigrants.

Above and below you see pictures containing a large showing of veiled women. Not with burques, which have been recently banned on public transportation in France. (It is estimated that about 1200 women are completely covered in all of France.) At the demonstration to support Palestinians below, Bob saw a young Arab woman with a scarf on her head wearing a very short black mini-skirt with black panty-hose. The human race (that would be you and me) is so full of contradictions!

Like this small olive tree in the center of downtown, we chose to support the Palestinians

unlike France’s President who has not even objected to at least five separate incidents of violence by Israeli police against the French diplomatic staff in Jerusalem, as reported in Le Monde Diplomatique.

The French are able to deal with ambiguity in their leaders. President of our Region, George Freche, got overwhelmingly re-elected in spite of his desire to partner with Israel and his derogatory remarks about Jews, blacks, and Muslims. Bob looks wistfully out our apartment window as Freche's supporters gather outside his campaign office next to our apartment to celebrate his 60% victory.

Freche is well over 70, overweight and nearly immobile, but he built the Montpellier that we love so his followers have lots of reasons to respect what he has done in the past.

Voters (only 50% turned out) in these same regional elections showed solid opposition to Sarkozy which is encouraging.

It is certainly true that the French think differently than the Americans. They are much more polite even as they argue.The net impact?  Everything takes longer. Company meals are longer. Sentences are longer. Three weeks ago, a guided tour through a small Agde museum, Musee Agathois, 5 Rue de la Fraternite with its white hats (coifs), boats, small wooden dolls (santons), and an old pharmacy lasted six rather than two hours and gave me lots of time to practice French with the other participants. Last week, another guided tour of a town and museum about writing writing with the same group required about eight hours. This visit of The Musee du Scribe Saint Christol Les Ales ended with the opportunity to practice calligraphy with feathered plumes writing on a desk built in 1900.

The French seek protection from and the support of the state for a myriad of challenges: the wear and tear of motherhood, retirement income, and being sick. They place a higher value on that safety then on their individual freedom.  Americans place more importance on individual freedom. Alain Ehrenberg presented his book La societe du malise two weeks ago in which he hypothesizes that in the United States we suffer from too much narcissistic focus on what we need to change about ourselves to succeed. In France, they suffer from too much passive analysis on what the state needs to change in order to make their lives better.

Bob took a club photo tour of Sete, a working fishing village 15-minute train ride away where even the disorder is orderly. This city founded by Italian fisherman sits on the Mediterranean and is linked with a very large lake-like inlet. It still has a strong Italian presence.

We also found time in the last three weeks to bike to the 700 acre preserve where the Maison de Nature , a tiny jewel of a museum, is filled with the sounds of the birds of the Carmargue, and one can watch a video cam of the nests of the white storks, soon to be filled with babies.

Once the babies have fledged, the stork family returns to sub Saharan Africa. 

During the last three weeks, we also (1) relaxed at a fish dinner given by our landlady after her return from three weeks in North Vietnam, (2) with 10 excellent cooks who happen to belong to Americans for Peace and Justice as we watched a movie about Howard Zinn “You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train,” (3) over a beer during a poetry/art performance by Serge Pay at the public library and (4) during a free guided tour by the very passionate curator who selected the 200 best photos owned by the city of Montpellier. (Montpellier also owns about 80 17th C "mansions" in the medieval city) Our guide couldn’t believe that we had never heard of American-based Philippe Halsman’s photo portraits and jumpology. Have you?

Life is rich.