Intergration

I have just returned from our local shop / café / bar / post office.

This village shop is run by a husband and wife, in their fifties who make am excellent team and have always welcomed us since we arrived 6 years ago.

After all my letters had been weighed and stamped, the lunchtime baguette purchased I settled myself at the bar with a small cup of deliciously hot strong coffee. Not long after, a woman breezed into the shop giving Joelle four kisses, quite normal practice for close friends and family, but her husband received just a nod of the head, which to me seemed a bit odd. The woman and Joelle chatted for a while and after she left I asked why Yannik had received such a cool reception. They both laughed, and Yannik replied ‘Although I have lived here for thirty years, I’m a foreigner like you… my grandmother isn’t buried in the village cemetery !!’