We had a friend visiting and it was fantastic to be out and about, spending lots of time in cafés and taking a trip to the coast.
Seeing friends from the UK no longer makes us homesick. Hearing all the news about what is going on there makes us feel quite distant.
We read the British newspapers and are appalled and concerned by the impact of the economic crisis and the degeneration of people’s civil liberties.
However, our news is the French news – that is what affects us here. Although the crisis is big news here, the response is different.
As one of the big political figures said about the general strike last Thursday: “In a period of economic crisis sometimes it's everybody for themselves... but here, that's not the case. There is a collective force being born.”
Here in Caen – with a population of around 120,000 people – over 35,000 people took to the streets on Thursday. Across France at least three million people took part.
I managed to see something of the demonstration in Caen – the last time I spent the day in hospital having my infliximab infusion – and it was an amazing sight.
Engineers, civil servants, students and women from the perfume counter at Galeries Lafayette were all marching and demanding that ordinary people get the same protection from the economic crisis as the bankers are receiving.
Not much to ask eh?
