Yeah, yesterday was a good day. No beer though.

[Marine]

Well... Yesterday was a good day, so I guess I was right for once.Have had the pleasant news that a local branch of FoE was opening in the city I live in. As usual when I go to this kind of meetings, I feel weird, for a lack of better words. I don't know anybody in these circles, as I am not a member of any association of this current of ideas. Let's say it's because I like my independance, in politics at least. So, people stare at me (look, she's less than 30, how come she's here ? Does anyone know who she is ?) I feel like I'm intruding, even if they are not hostile or anything (of course they aren't.) Today's session of 'who's that girl?' was funny ; one of the organisers, after greeting everyone he knew, came to me, saying 'Hi. you are... ?', probably waiting for me to say 'Oh, hi, I'm from the *** local group' or 'from the *** association, we really like what you do'. Instead, I said 'Just curious.' After sputtering a few words, he left. Is that supposed to make me feel welcome ? I didn't know I was that scary. But, if anything, it's just funny.Anyway, the meeting was nice. Not much I didn't know, but it's always nice to refocus your knowledge. The best point of it all was the attendance of representatives of two city councils. One from the very town of Lille, which is very positive because it's quite a big city and could become an example of how cities could develop sensibly. The other one was from a smaller city, which is fine too because that man told us about the difficulties of raising money for any green city development. In France there has been a huge buzz on ecology last year, during the campaign for the presidential elections, and after the elections during the Grenelle de l'Environnement, which aimed at determining French politics concerning the environment. The discussions were including a financing of city planning partly by the State ; which has miraculously disappeared from what the law has become at the end of the Grenelle. Oh, and, yeah, the law concerning the GMO, which had been censored by the French assembly, has been forced by the government. Will the Légion d'Honneur be given once more to lobbyists ? Doesn't mean anything anymore anyway.So, yeah, nice to hear from local politicians who are interested in environmental matters. And they knew what they were talking about ; let's see if they are given the possibilities to act.I guess just for that, it was a good thing to keep going to this kind of meetings, even if I think I'll probably never completely belong.And the place, even if creepy (huge cold old house with big windows and creaking wooden floor), was nice for once : we were in a room which was used for a Claude Cahun exhibit . I didn't know who the hell was this artist, and I think I like her work. I felt spied on (what eyes she had !) and didn't take enough time to look at the photos at the end of the meeting, but I like it anyway.

Finishing for today with this link to a Le Monde article (I'm too lazy right now to translate it), about how a wedding was cancelled in the very city I live in, the same city that had this nice FoE meeting and Cahun exhibit, because the bride had lied about her virginity. Because obviously, brides' virginity is still considered as something of interest in France.Thinking more and more and more of moving to Bhutan...