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PHOTOS: Northern Lights stun in skies across southern France
Phenomena was seen across almost all of France this weekend
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President Macron speaks out on sexual consent, menopause and fertility
‘Every woman should have free use of her body…but the poor organisation of our society must not prevent people from having children if they so wish’, he says
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France and China ease visa rules - and leaders exchange presents
Chinese President Xi Jinping is on a two-day state visit to France to mark 60 years of bilateral relations between the countries
Poetic history repeats itself
The situation in France today: a president who thinks or thought he was “royally” above the overtaxed people recalls the peasants’ revolt in mediæval England.
The rebellion failed, and the king executed its ring-leaders, who included in their number one John Ball, remembered today for a couple of lines from a poem of his. “When Adam delved and Eve span, where then was the gentleman?”
Few understand the reference to the “gentleman”.
The “gentleman”, a word of French origin, designated the oppressors of the people. Adam and Eve were salt of the earth. “Delving and spinning” (Saxon words) were the occupations of the Anglo-Saxon oppressed.
There was no “gentleman”, of course, “when Adam delved and Eve span”. History does seem to repeat itself!
Stephen BURROUGH, Charente