Inevitable

If it's the Voeux du Maire, it must end up sooner or later with the usual suspects doing the Madison. No men are ever involved. I see the video I linked to last time has disappeared, so here's a more incompetent one. I doubt you'll be able to watch all the way through, but it's always more fun for the participants than those dancers make it look.

The ceremony of the mayor's New Year wishes was well attended, and as usual Serge gave a lively albeit rather long speech recounting what the mairie did in 2023, and what they plan to do in 2024 while dishing out the usual digs at national politicians, and praise for the municipal workers and all they do. Plus obligatory round of applause for the pompiers, who always show up in force to this. And as the local councillor said in her speech, they are the last universal rural public service, the people you call first in a crisis (they are paramedics as well as firefighters). We are lucky that the volunteer brigade is based in Fabrezan, barely five minutes away.

Afterwards there was the usual bunfight, accompanied with ample supplies of wine from the local producers. It was great to be out of the house and to see so many people I haven't seen for months. I did wonder what bugs were being passed around with all the bises, but I thought that even before the pandemic.

On a more sombre note, our elderly neighbour Divine died today. She'd been ill for years, and spent the last year bedbound and isolated at home. She suffered terribly, so it was really a relief all round. That's another empty house in the square.