Spring in Montpellier means blues skies so that biking to school adds 10% joy to my day.

We have to store our bikes inside and take them up and down these stairs. The first part of our ride along the Rive Lez is the prettiest part of the ride and lasts for a glorious 5 minutes.

A fountain in the midst of no where…..

A traffic circle half way to the univerity intersects yet another fountain (the water is barely visible to the right) as well as the tram tracks. Last Friday, students holding these white hands dressed in red and black stood in a circle singing and protesting proposed cuts in the education budget. (Spanish students first used white hands to symbolize fighting for change and peace without getting bloody hands. If you want to know more about why the Spanish students develped this icon, see White Hands.)

 

Tram tracks as well as 200 km of bike trails provide safe unemcumbered city biking as long as there are not two trams coming in opposite directions. We bike this tram track daily. The French do not avoid conflict….so pedestrians, persons on roller skates, and bikers share this space with the trams.

In Montpellier International Women's Day is marked by two days of events including a free outdoor production of Lysistrata two blocks away! Bob and I certainly understood the meaning of the narrow inflated balloons tucked in the pants of the warriors who chose war over making love when their women refused to sleep with them until peace came upon the land.

Spring is here, the February holidays are over and, like a bear coming out of winter hibernation, the community comes to life again. This weekend also contains events commemorating Environmental Week and People without Papers, the immigrants to France.

There are more beggers in Montpellier now than three years ago when we first came. With the African droughts of global climate change, more are expected in the future. A Roma man plays his accordion daily on the tram as well as in the Place Comedie. Others, with signs, just ask for money.

This Roma village right outside of Montpellier is two or three times larger than it was three yeras ago. This week’s French newspaper said that the police had “cracked down on it” due to dangerous electrical connections. It is rather a coincidence, isn’t it, that tall apartment buildings are being built next door. Someone doesn’t want their view spoiled, is my guess.

Other social issues for the spring? Paul Valery University has been on strike since Wednesday of last week. It is very hard to find newspaper coverage about the specific issues—lay offs, increasing the requirements to teach at elementary and high school levels, and replacing public research money with private. The EU countries are required to balance their national budgets. The French refer to Sarkosy as little Napolean. His ratings have never been lower.

Angry high school students join the ranks of parents of children between 3 and 5 who see the possibility of closure of their free maternal schools, university students, professors and researchers. We can feel the tension rise as the president of our university joins with the students and asks for all offices of the university to shut down. Only a few weeks ago in France 2 million people demonstrated. The economy continues to deteriorate, Sarkosy continues to issue edits without conversation. French youth, unfettered by restrictions imposed on and accepted by labor unions, have had more success in staging widespread and successful strikes than their elders. Even the arrogant Sarkosy says he is a little nervous about the greve that has been called for Marchh 19th.

Bob did some research on José Bové, the activist turned cheese maker who forcefully removed some or all of a McDonalds being built in Millau, a town in the Roquefort cheese region of France, then deposited the remains at the city hall.  He was protesting after the EU lost a case before the WTO regarding importation of growth hormone fed beef and imposition of huge tariffs on Roquefort cheese.  He is living in Montpellier at present.   His parents spent 16 months teaching at Berkeley before returning to their teaching posts in France. He is well educated himself and has been an articulate voice.

We did taxes yesterday, took a bike ride, watched the play Lysistrata and visited the Palestinian activists who just welcomed back their delegation from Gaza. When the other booths were emptying at the end of a long day, the Palestinians were still out in force with lots of people crowding around. One of their handouts was on what to boycott to weaken Israel and included— McDonald’s. (McDonald's will really miss our business!)

With Lysistrata and Palestinian activists yesterday, the whole nation heating up for demonstrations March 19th and our very own school closed down by its own president (as well as students) watch for more news next week.

Biked along the Rhone-Sete canal today for four hours of the best biking since we got here. The head wind just made it challenging, perhaps a little of the mistral (cold northerly from central France and the Alps to Mediterranean) or the tramontane (cold northwesterly from the Pyrenees or northeasterly from the Alps to the Mediterranean, similar to Mistral). Camargue bird watching and white horses are legendary. One traveler recorded 73 different species of birds in 6 days. Here are a couple.

An area of wetlands, pastures, dunes and salt flats the Camargue is a largely untamed natural reserve, inhabited by egrets, pink flamingos and ibises. The pastures provide gazing for sheep, and small white horses, ridden by the "gardians" (i.e. cow-boys), a hardy community who traditionally lived in thatched huts ("cabanes"), and still play their part in keeping Camargue traditions alive. The park is home to approx 30 herds of Camargue wild horses believed to be descended from prehistoric horses that lived during the Paleolithic period, 17,000 years ago.

Sunday morning even the path by the side of the canal was empty. A few boats were in the water. By Sunday afternoon on the way back the path was dotted with runners, families, other bikers and walkers. Later in “the season” the barges will fill the canal.