Like every summer, I am back to Vermont and to Middlebury College French School, and there I spent another Bastille Day today. It will probably be a long time until I come back after this summer: from August on, I will have a new job, which will not allow me to enjoy the summers of Vermont, as I have for the last 7 years. to say the truth, this summer is not very summery: a cold, grey and rainy weather seems to help me not having too many regrets about not coming back.
I am not even mentioning the fact that I am sharing my small College apartment with a French family–a little bit too French for me and with two young kids who are not of the calmest kind. This also, I shall not regret.
For years, the French School has honored the tradition of a big Bastille day picnic on the lawn of the “Chateau” which we have for the summer (for some pics of our castle, http://www.hhirschmannltd.com/portfolio/portfolio-win1-322w.html) but due to the rainy weather and cuts in the catering budget, for the first time in decades, we did not have it.
We were able to maintain an “independence ball” last Saturday, which celebrates both the American 4th of July and the French Bastille day. It was quite a nice party–there was even free beer (a fact which is also becoming rarer under the pressure of cuts in the budget and the increasing difficulty to organize events with alcohol in Vermont).
On the 4th of July, we often sing the American national anthem without the words or in French–this is hilarious for our American students who pledge to only speak French here, and so cannot honor in their language their anthem. For some reason, we did not do it this time.
But we did sing the Marseillaise at lunch time with all the students today. Guess what? I was the lead singer, and it turned to be a very moving little event when a colleague from Lebanon kindly backed me up. A French man, a Lebanese citizen, crowds of American students singing the Marseillaise–I must admit there was something there.
However, there is always a strange detail for Americans: French people seem very unpatriotic in their demeanor because the sense of pride in the nation is seldom expressed through formal demonstrations such as standing up for the anthem (except at soccer games). Every Bastille day here, our students see a few French people standing up for the song, but most of the crowd staying seated. They are always a bit concerned about the proper behavior they should adopt on singing or hearing the Marseillaise.
To stand or not to stand? That is the question.
