Thursday 26th March

The thing I notice most is that here in London (again, but just for three days) it is all rush and bustle.  People are almost breaking into a run as they scurry (me too, of course) like rats along the subterranean tunnels connecting tube lines.  Everyone is in such a hurry, literally bursting to get onto that packed train, shoving their way on.  And another will be here in two minutes, but somehow we (for I am one of them) cannot possibly wait.  What, let a train go, packed as it might be, when, who knows, the next one might be just as full…

And so it is all rush and bustle, the more so as it contrasts so vividly with Eymet.  Here, there is more of a stately procession, as the day wakes up.  It is an hour later there, and yet by nine there is little sign of any activity at all in the town.  Shops supposedly opening at nine may, if you are lucky, start to wind back the shutters at a quarter past.  The French do not go in for bright lights in their shops anyway; quite often you think the place must be shut, only on pushing the door to discover that it is actually open and in dimly lit interiors there are even one or two customers.  Even in the larger stores in Bergerac opening times are vague at best.  Most still close between twelve and two, and start to stop you even entering the shop at eleven, forty-five.  And yet this slower pace of life where the average worked hours per week are significantly less than here in Britain does not mean that the country crumbles.  Life goes on in its meanderingly slow way, and by and large I would say that the people are happier.  We are so driven here by the work ethic, and the sure knowledge that staying late or taking work home is not only condoned but encouraged that we make ourselves miserable with work.  We grab a sandwich for lunch and eat it at our desk which would almost be considered a crime in France.  And at the end of the day we are too exhausted to even cook, grabbing a take-away or microwaveable ready meal on our journey home. The French take their food seriously and take time preparing and eating it.  You tell me which system is best…