The first round of regional elections took place yesterday. There are A LOT of parties in France. To name a few there is the Front Nationale (FN, the extreme right), the UMP (l'Union pour un Mouvement Populaire - the right), la Parti Socialiste (PS- the left), le Modem (centrist party), and l'Écologiste Européen (the left). Claudie voted for the Écologiste Européen party. She explained that she voted for this party during the first round to show what types of policies she wanted in place, but will vote for the PS in the second round because she wants the left to win. Sarkozy is the UMP and most of the French people that I've met and from what I can gather, they don't like him.
These are regional - not presidential - elections. Our region is the PACA (Provence, Arles, Côte d'Azur). Being just the first round of elections, any party that doesn't earn more than a certain percentage of votes (I think it's 10% but I'm not positive) can move on to the next round but has to "buddy up with another party" or something like that. If you get over a different specific percentage point, you can pick your candidate to present in the 2nd round. If you are under a certain amount, you're out. The big news was that there were a record number of voters who didn't show up to vote (a record number of abstentions) - over 55% of voters didn't get out and vote. Claudie was very upset about this and has told me multiple times that she is going to remind and make sure all of her friends get out and vote next Sunday (the 2nd round). In the PACA, the UMP and the PS got the same percentage points (about 26%) and the FN got 20%. This is a huge jump for the FN, which bodes not well for policy. Claudie described them as a party that puts forth racist ideas and who are bigots. My history professor put it more gently and described them as the party that is majorly against immigration and blames the immigrants for all the problems - unemployment, the economic crisis, etc. My Poli. Sci. professor described them as fascists.
We watched a news broadcast show where they were updating the voting outcomes and rotating through the different "deputés" of the parties for discussion. It got really heated and really amusing to watch, though difficult to understand because sometimes 3 people would be trying to talk at once. I don't think I could even understand that in English!
I had 3 classes today because we had a double session of history to make up for one the professor had canceled earlier in the semester. It was a little tiresome having class 11:30-1pm, 2-3:30pm, and 4:30-6pm. In between 1 & 2, I ate lunch, and then in between 3:30 and 4:30, I fixed/sewed the buttons onto Mirel's jacket.
We were supposed to have dinner tonight to celebrate Claudie's mother's 89th birthday. However, it got canceled. Claudie's daughter's, Gabi, cat got loose so she had to find the cat before leaving, thus missing her train, etc. Therefore, she won't be arriving until Wednesday and they won't be doing the birthday celebration until Friday or Saturday. I won't be here Friday or Saturday because I am headed to Amsterdam this weekend. Therefore, I will still be able to meet Gabi, but I won't be able to participate in the birthday celebration.
But because of that, Claudie had made a huge meal and bought a cake. We had cooked zuccini and squash with garlic and herbs, and then spicy Indian chicken. The cake she had bought at a bakery. It was chocolate and orange with sugared/dried (kind of reminded me of the texture of marmalade) oranges on one layer, a layer of chocolate mousse on another, and a layer of something else. On top were some tiny macroons (not to be confused with macaroons) which I thought would be amazing, but I don't feel like they are anything special. But the cake was delicious!!!
We watched a movie called, La Verité, with Bridget Bardot. Then we watched a movie called something like, Paranoia in Las Vegas, (that is my exact/rough translation from French - I know that's not what it's actually called in English) with Johnny Depp. While watching the movie, Claudie began re-apolstering a chair with black and red fabric. She and Michel are definitely all about the black and red interior decorating.
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