It’s the European elections this week, but you’d hardly think it. Now, I always feel obliged to vote in elections, given what the Suffragettes went through in order to win the vote for women, but at the moment I just don’t feel well informed enough to do so. Out of the 21 candidates for our region, less than a half have bothered to put up a poster on their allocated section of the hoardings outside the Mairie. Ruadhri and I had a good look at the ones that are there this morning, and we sadly decided we had never seen a blander bunch of people. Insipid yes, inspiring no. Not one party has bothered to send me any literature about themselves and their policies, and certainly no-one has called round.

My eldest son reckons I should vote for some anti-anti-piracy crowd, although he’s not entirely sure what they’re called. They sound as good as any to me. For the record, I don’t condone piracy and I’m not going to get into a debate on the ethics of it here. But what seems way over the top is the French government’s proposal of cutting off people’s Internet if they are found to be pirating material, after a couple of warnings. I’m pretty sure that even a minor geek can easily hijack someone’s IP address in order to pirate material, leaving that person in trouble. Many gite rental businesses like ours depend almost exclusively on the Internet. Someone’s prank could cause a huge loss of income, on top of the hassle of proving your innocence. This policy, which has been top priority, is going to cause a lot of problems. Not to mention that the European Parliament has pointed out that this action goes against European Community rules and will be taking out an infringement proceeding against France in the European Court of Justice. Hmm.

Back to the elections. I’ve had a trawl on the Net to try and find out what each party is about. A good starting point is www. micandidate.eu which gives you the names of the candidates in your area. The Newropeans seem to be the most in evidence on a general search for European elections in France. They pretty much want to reform everything, nothing like being ambitious!

So what will I do on Sunday? For a start I shall enjoy Fête des Mères. We’re going to celebrate French mother’s day this year. Up to now I’ve always kept the English Mother’s Day routine, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, partly out of nostalgia but also partly because I didn’t want to wait those extra few months to get some pressies! But it was confusing for Ruadhri who makes a Fête des Mères gift at school every year, and who was getting into heated arguments with friends at school over which day Mums should be allowed to stay in bed and be waited on hand and foot.

Mother’s Day and Fête des Mères come from different directions, one religious, one secular. Mothering Sunday began in the seventeenth century. Maidservants were allowed a precious day off on the fourth Sunday of Lent to go home to their own mothers. The usual Lenten rules about fasting and penance were lifted for the day so the family had a nice feast together, which usually included simnel cake.

The French Fête des Mères comes from America. From around 1872 suggestions for an International Mother’s Day were put forward in America but the first official one wasn’t held until 1908, on the second Sunday in May. (That’s still when it’s celebrated in the USA.) In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson said it should be a national holiday. American soldiers brought this tradition to Europe with them during the First World War. So in 1918 the first Fête des Mères was celebrated in France in June. However, it was used as an opportunity to encourage mothers to have more babies! It wasn’t till 1941 that Maréchal Pétain introduced Fête des Mères as we know it today, as just a recognition of what amazing people mothers are, regardless of how many children they have! The day was recognised officially in law in 1950 and Général de Gaulle decided it should be the last Sunday in May. It’s since slipped back to the first Sunday in June, which this year coincides with the elections. And also with the Nouzerines Fête which is always a lively, interesting event. If only we could say the same about voting for our European Parliament representatives.