Leading question

I went, earlier today, on one of the walks organised by the leisure group of the next village to ours, of which I am a member.  They are usually well attended, this time twenty three people set off on the walk, but numbers swell back in the “clubroom” after the walk when wine, hot chocolate and biscuits are served, conversation flows, on the two long trestle tables, predominately one for the men with the wine and another for the women with the hot chocolate.  Donc (then), in time, as always seems to happen with such gathering in France the cards come out, and I usually take my leave with a cheery au revoir and even sometimes an à bientôt, or see you later!  Here, I’m reminded of a day I once said à bientôt, to the artisans working on our electrics, as I left to go back to our rented house for lunch.  They suggested, with a suitable twinkle in their eyes, that that wasn’t the best thing to say in the circumstances, as they were on a tight schedule to get the work finished for us to be able to move in, as although it means see you later, later in this context could mean anything from later that day, the next day, to several weeks hence.  I quickly changed my leave-taking to “See you this afternoon!”

But, back to the beginning of the walk, assembled outside a recently beautifully restored 14^th century church, in a nearby village, just about to be led off, when a small indistinct man sidled up to me, in much the fashion of a pre cold war spy about to say something profound yet meaningless, such as “The birds are flying high today!”, by way of introduction as well as recognition.  His opening line, in crisp cultured English was however, “Are you Great British?!”, to which I was somewhat taken by surprise as usually all the participants are French speaking apart from a friend I sometimes walk with, who was otherwise engaged today.  Further, my surprise made me answer in the affirmative, itself something of a surprise, as with apologies to my friends from over the various borders, since the days of devolution I have tended to tell people I’m English, and indeed perhaps apologies aren’t needed as thinking of these friends they would all, to a similar question, answer that they are Welsh, Scottish or Irish as appropriate.  In fact perhaps these days, I should answer, in defiance of the likes of some short sighted people that no I’m not Great British, or indeed British or English, but European and hope to stay that way for many years to come!  But, I’m sure that sentiment would be lost on a lot of people, particularly the French, as despite the cultured English accent of my questioner he turned out to be, who seeming to be quite European in many respects do, rightly so, remain fiercely independent of their “Frenchness”, which I guess we buy into having chosen to live here, which neatly brings me back to the question: “Are you Great British?”

I found myself pondering this question a little as we strolled through the surrounding countryside.  Certainly, there had been a time when I would have said I was British, possibly not going as far as to say Great!, and seeing “old blightly” from a distance, would I still regard it as being Great?  Here the response might well be in the negative, particularly as recently Cameron, in posh evening suit and white tie, at a lavish dinner surrounded by much golden tableware, announced that austerity was here for some time to come, hardly a “great” statement in the circumstances and also at a time when the coalition cabinet is made up largely of millionaires, in May 2010, have they really been there that long!, it was 23 out of 29!  I wonder how many of them will have tightened their belts over recent years and will continue to do so!!

However, I have another dilemma, nay identity crisis.  The longer we live in France the more we realise that French bureaucracy has to be seem to be believed, it’s almost as bad as in India, although there they have at least three people doing each job, so sometimes the questions are asked in triplicate!  No, our dilemma is just who are we, or at least where do we come from, as each of the many and varied forms we are obliged to fill in, sometimes even those originating from the same office, when asking you to select your nationality from the attached alphabetical list, could be any of the following: UK, United Kingdom, Royaume-unis, Great Britain / British, Grand Bretagne, Britannique, as well as others!!   One day, maybe I’ll have the nerve to tick other and put English, or at least Anglais!