Difference and unity

I've taken much prettier pictures this afternoon wandering round Grenoble but keep coming back to this Kim's game of a block of flats. I think it's the bicycle. Or it might be the row of pots. It's not the parasol nor the red tablecloth.

We had welcoming speeches in the town hall today. How do they always, whether on the French or the British side, manage to be so clichéd and banal? Today's covered cultural differences (yawn), English food (yawn) and General de Gaulle (yawn). Then the deputy mayor suddenly lifted it out of the mire by mentioning Britain's offer to France in 1944 that the two counties should become one. I thought my French must be at fault until I discovered others of us, French and English, puzzling over what we hadn't been taught in history lessons. Very strange.

Sorry for the shortage of comments at the moment. Too much going on but I'll be back.