Zola literary pilgrimage to Médan

An event today that I would not have missed for the world! My colleague and good friend Clive Thomson was one of the two invited lecturers -- along with former minister of culture Jack Lang -- at the annual Zola literary pilgrimage to Zola's house in Médan, now the "Maison Zola/Musée Dreyfus". Clive gave an excellent talk, a tribute to the Zola scholar Henri Mitterand who had been a mentor to Clive and died last October. 

It was great to sit with our friend M and his parents, and to see other colleagues again for the first time since the pandemic. The rain came down hard at one point and the speakers had to contend with loud trains and even noisy birds, but it was very moving to see such a large group of people gathered in admiration of Zola and in recognition of the continued relevance of his work.