A Call to Arms

The people of “the cutting edge” in science, business, education, and politics have no patience with the local love, local loyalty, and local knowledge that make people truly native to their places and therefore good caretakers of their places. This is why one of the primary principles in industrialism has always been to get the worker away from home. From the beginning it has been destructive of home employment and home economies.

--Wendell Berry
"The Agrarian Dilemma"



"A free life cannot acquire many possessions...without servility to mobs or monarchs."

--Epicurus


"The revolution will not be televised."

--Gil Scott-Heron


Summer vacation has arrived here in Normandy. To what use have we put this time? The abridged version:

Increased daily consumption of delicious local produce from the numerous open-air markets throughout town.

Numerous outings with friends in the surrounding countryside invariably punctuated with lingering picnics, replete with smelly cheeses and glasses of robust Bordeaux, next to the odd 12th century monastery one's bound to come across in the region.

Bleary-eyed exercise outings each morning to prime the body and keep the spirit sharp for all the richness each day has to offer. Bravo, chérie!

Chatting with neighbors from the balcony window of our new second story apartment. Coucou Murielle!

Lazy days parked on the sidewalk curb watching the world go by.

Live daily feeds of the Tour de France, recounting the latest adventures of Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong across the evershifting French landscape.

Long hours spent together talking, thinking, sitting in the half-a-dozen cafés we frequent each week.

It's a demanding life (in all earnesty!) but someone's got to live it.

In more detailed news, about a month ago we were able to spend the weekend near Fontainebleau, a very pretty forest region just south of Paris. Our rowing club here in Rouen participated in a two day event that mixed equal parts sport, culture and entertainment. We started with 12 miles of rowing the first day on a very pretty branch of the Seine River that winds through the forest and countryside near the Chateau de Fontainebleau, former royal residence of François I and Napoleon amongst others. After a delicious French picnic (complete with wine, cheese and dessert) we set up camp with the other members of our club in a nearby gymnasium.

But there was little rest for the weary that day, for no sooner did we roll out our sleeping bags for a little nap than we were off to the Django Reinhardt Jazz festival. Amongst the superb lineup that evening was Avashi Cohen and his swinging quintet. Highly recommended.








We finally got back to our little gymnasium campsite shortly after midnight for some much needed sleep before finishing off the weekend with 15 miles of rowing the second day, complete with another picnic lunch on the banks of the river just outside the lovely medieval city of Morêt-sur-Loing. It was a wonderful weekend but probably one of the most tiring little vacation getaways we've ever been on.

















Thankfully we had the following few days to recover.














The second week of August we have the good fortune to be invited to the eastern part of France near Germany to spend 5 days with some very nice people we've recently met here in Rouen. We're excited to see another corner of this fascinating and diverse country. Each day is equal parts rich and humbling for us and we would be remiss to not mention the outstanding hospitality and generosity of the many wonderful, kind people who've taken time to welcome us into their homes and their lives. Merci encore!

We're hoping to do some grape harvesting at the end of summer in one of the numerous wine regions here in France but it may interfere with the start of classes at the university. In any case, we've got plenty to keep us busy as there's never a dull moment.

Stay tuned. Love--Matthew et Ruth