The Will of the People

Somehow, bizarrely, JM and I have now come to be considered a part of "the will of the people."

During my duties this past month as substitute librarian, I have met many citizens of the Possum Kingdom whom I didn't know before. One of them has a plan to create a training center for various metiers that would also function during the non-school months as an adult vacation/learning facility somewhat along the lines of what ElderHostel does in the U.S.

JM and I agreed to become a part of the Association which is going to help to get the center off the ground, and during our inaugural meeting last night, we discovered that we were part of "the will of the people" necessary to go to the various official entities who will be needed to finance the entire operation.

As you can imagine, we found the whole idea of our status quite amusing and couldn't stop making references to it between ourselves throughout the evening.

Still, joking aside, this is exactly the type of activity that the community needs to generate jobs and revenue streams here. There will be students here throughout the school year who will need to be housed and fed and who will certainly want to go out into the village during their spare moments. There will be staff who will need to be engaged for both teaching in the various areas (we're still working out the details) as well as running the housing, cafeteria, etc.

Then, during the off-season, if we can manage to draw people interested in studying various subjects, there will certainly be economic run-off for the village businesses. This could be a nice little earner for Chalabre, as Arthur Dailey might say.

Having never been involved in anything like this before, I have no idea of how likely it is to take off, but hope that it does for the sake of everyone here.

Ciao for now from the Will of the People!

Randy

What's a vacation?

We just got finished with one of the biggest vacation getaway weekends of the year here in France. Almost everyone who takes a holiday in the summer includes the week of August 15th in their plans.

Since the 15th itself is a national holiday, when everything is closed, it makes sense. If, as it did this year, the 15th falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, then lots and lots of people make it a four-day weekend. The autoroutes tend to be a mess, especially on Saturday, and any interesting tourist destination is packed.

Our usually tranquil Possum Kingdom was no exception. It definitely seemed to us that there were more people around than last year. I know that all of our friends with B&Bs are booked solid and running off their feet.

Monday, we had dinner with artist friends. One of their other guests was expecting visitors who had planned to spend the night in Carcassonne; they could not find a room anywhere in town and had moved on to Limoux, which also appeared to be totally sold out. They were happy to accept camping out on her floor as an alternative to spending the night in their car.

I don't know if the people who deserted France last year for vacations in Eastern Europe have returned, or if it's just a general upswing in tourism, but it has certainly been good for the local economy. One day last week the bakery ran out of croissants by 9 am and had to quickly throw in a new batch.

JM and I have also been busy, because with so many visitors from out of town, including a lot of regular Possumworld readers, we've been having our own fair share of guests, even if it's only for a chat and a cup of coffee. It's quite nice to put faces to the emails I receive.

Even our little library is booming. After being closed since Friday afternoon, I've had 15 clients in the first hour we've been open.

So, although I'm not getting much rest, it seems that the whole rest of the world is enjoying their summer vacation.

Ciao for now.

Randy