les Davey de France

The Bordeaux Town Hall has put up posters in the city carrying this message. The words come from Gisele Pelicot, the woman who was drugged and raped by her husband and many other men. She came forward to denounce him, testified in court and explained why she's taken her courageous stand. She's not changing her name. She says that she wants her children and grandchildren to grow up having a reason to be proud of the name Pelicot. She said that it's not for her to feel shame. Victims should not bear shame. It's the perpetrators who should feel ashamed. "La honte doit changer de camp" - shame must switch sides. She's become quite a figure in France, where domestic violence and sexual aggression is too common. The town hall posters advocate for no tolerance of domestic violence.

The cold snap arrived n Bordeaux on Tuesday and coincided with us being on duty in the café. This 'cold snap in Bordeaux' means minimum temperatures of 2°C and maxima of just early teens.With impressive lack of foresight I had not unpacked or even located my warm winter clothes, so I suggested we travel by tram.  Bike is better. Thankfully the café has a new and advanced system controlling its electric radiators. It's a system installed free, paid for by the electricity producers. It enables them to switch off your heating for short bursts in order to control peak demand on the grid. It also enables you to control thermostatically and by timer old electric radiators without such controls. It's great! So the café is warm when we arrive and stays warm while people are there. We turned on the heating for the toddler group about a month ago, but now it's on whenever the café is open. Cycling back and fore has been much nicer than the tram. It's only really cold firs...