La Résistance

At the beginning of October, La Poste informed our mayor Serge that because of sick leave at a nearby post office, our postal worker would have to open here only half her normal hours and then go to staff the other post office before returning to deliver the post here. "Just for a few days." It's now been two months. She is still having to work for an hour and a half here, drive to St Laurent, do the other half of the morning there, and then return here to deliver the post. Nobody is happy. Except La Poste, who save money on paying a replacement.

Don't get our mayor Serge started on what he thinks of La Poste. He fought tooth and nail ten years ago to keep a proper Bureau de Poste staffed and paid for by La Poste rather than an agence, staffed and paid for by the commune. As a result, this is both the smallest village in our group of nearby villages, and the only one that has a proper post office. Ironically, the staff of the agences in the local villages have to come and pay in their takings here.

So this is the third manif since October. The mayors of the neighbouring villages all turned up, plus local councillors, along with Serge's mates in the CGT who work for La Poste, and we got the usual fighting talk from Serge.

It is quite worrying. Our postal worker is taking a holiday over Christmas. What's the betting that La Poste will provide no-one to replace her? "Then," said Serge, "they'll say we don't have enough transactions in the post office so it should be turned into an agence." When he phoned the regional director of La Poste to complain, she replied "What's the problem? You're only 15 km from Lézignan". Steam emerged from his ears. Watch this space... "Ca va bouléguer !" he promised.

Footnote: maybe someone had a quiet word with Serge about the legal way to wear his sash :)

After this I headed over to K's house for our book club lunch. We were all there, which was great, and everyone had brought something to eat. K and her husband have just had the dilapidated former village lavoir, in the corner of their garden, converted into a lovely large dining room, and we got to inaugurate it. Much chat, back home after five ... I don't need any more to eat today.