Peggy R: Bio farming in Sauve

Photo Credits:  Peggy F, Peggy R,  and Maggie

On October 23, An intreprid group of AWG garden enthusiasts set out in the face of menacing clouds to visit Fabien, a young bio farmer near the medieval town of Sauve.
Following directions as in a treasure hunt, we actually pulled up in front of his property in good time -- and simultaneously with the apparition of spots of blue sky.
Time to don wellies, and off we tramped to visit his extensive garden – much bigger than it looked from the road.

Fabien shows us Jerusalem artichokes nestled .....

.....in the roots of the huge plant

We discovered that there are winter leeks and summer leeks, and that cabbages are the most thankless crop the bio gardener can grow, since they are prized by everything that crawls, flies or burrows (A word to the wise....according to Fabien, non-bio cabbage is probably one of the vegetables most heavily laden with pesticides. And to think that we thought it was good for us!)

Gorgeous black radishes

Slugs and ....

... snails.  Not the biofarmer's best friends!

Inside his greenhouse, we saw the painstaking multiplication of future plants and some exotic flowers. Since we were now out of sight, the frogs and toads struck up a chorus with many refrains.....Fabien could identify the species by the sound of its voice!
They sounded numerous to us, but according to him, he would need a hundred times as many to keep the slugs and snails at bay.

One species that does dote on mollusques, and has a healthy appetite for them is the chicken. And Fabien has a collection of magnificent ones! We wondered why he doesn't just let them run loose among the cabbages.....but apparently they like greenery with their protein, so....it might not be a winning proposition.
The bee-hives were not humming on the damp, grey day we had chosen, so we did not approach them to peek inside, not wanting to disturb the inhabitants – for more reasons than one!
However, we spent a long time admiring and photographing the gorgeous chickens. Fabien and his partner raise old French breeds, some of which are quite rare.

Pretty, "old-fashioned" chicken

Someone called this guy “the Archbishop” because of his silky purple cape.

One group which particularly caught my eye were a glistening black (with green high-lights in the sun), and magnificent red combs.
 
These all-black chickens, interestingly enough, lay pure white eggs. (Whereas the white chickens lay standard brown ones.)

Fabien the Farmer with Gerhilde (lives next to Leslie L)

At the end of our visit, Fabien sold us some of his bio veggies.

Peggy R's favourite - squash

(clockwise from L: Gerhilde, Peggy, Maggie, Pam, Louise, Peggy, Robyn)

After the farm, we repaired to the nearby Domaine de Florian, where we tasted (and bought!) some local wines, and then off to the domaine's restaurant for more of same, accompanying a three-course meal.
Luckily we were able to walk this off before setting out for Montpellier again, thanks to Louise D., who had introduced us to Fabien, and who now guided us through the medieval streets of her beloved adopted town of Sauve.

Sauve looking quite romantic in the distance

We saw ancient houses, met local artisans, and viewed the awe-inspiring source of the Vidourle river. As many of us know, the Vidourle is locally famous (infamous) for its wild flooding during certain seasons.
Seeing where these waters rise – and Louise explaining to us that Sauve is seated atop the largest underground lake in Europe, which sometimes overflows.... gave us a good idea of where this seemingly calm river (in the summer!) gets its strength.

Maquita: save money on domestic gas (power) offer from Que Choisir

Consumer group in gas price deal

October 16, 2013

 

DOMESTIC gas users could soon be saving up to 13% on their bills as consumer watchdog UFC Que Choisir launches its own cheap power tariff to rival industry leader GDF Suez.

The consumer group has set up a website to promote its new “Gaz moins cher ensemble” (Cheaper gas together) tariff and allow users to switch suppliers easily.

It says there is not enough competition in the energy market to force down prices and wants to gather potential customers and use massive purchasing power to bargain for a better tariff with an alternative supplier.

Once it knows how many people sign up it will finalise a deal to benefit customers and guarantee a minimum 13% saving. The average annual saving will be between €124 and €156 for those households using gas for heating.

Gas users have until November 25 to sign up on the “Gaz moins cher ensemble” website, with the eventual tariff being based on the number who sign up. The site opened yesterday and by this morning there were nearly 40,000 subscribers. The offer will be limited to 100,000.

GDF Suez offers gas at a regulated price set by the government and the energy regulator, but prices have risen by nearly 80% since 2005. Between 2012 and 2013 the tariff rose by 2.8%.

Que Choisir contacted gas suppliers directly over the summer to get them to tender for a service with lower tariffs, tighter conditions than the law demands and where Que Choisir would be involved in any conflict.

Lampiris France, a subsidiary of a Belgian supplier, has been revealed as the main candidate and it has guaranteed a 13% discount on the regulated October price per kW/h with a higher discount possible depending on the number of subscribers.

- See more at: http://connexionfrance.com/Que-Choisir-gas-tariff-GDF-Suez-cheap-15129-view-article.html#sthash.2ci2DrrW.dpuf

Maggie: an unusual Hope Chest, containing soutien-gorges

AWG-LR and friends helped to fill a Hope Chest with a donation of 26 new or slightly used bras which will be sent to Mozambique thanks to the project Free the Girls. 

By donating bras, we are helping to provide jobs for former sex slaves. 

Melissa Swearingen Watson, National Director of Free the Girls, asked me to extend their heartfelt thanks to my fellow club members.  She said they love their FAWCO partners!

The young lady in the Hope Chest shop on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia where I dropped off the bras took plenty of photos from which to choose.  She asked me to send the photos so she can post them on their website as well.
(My husband Serge made a silly remark about my transporting "soutien-gorges" to the US rather than staying home to "soutien-serge.") 

 

Editor:  AWG thanks Maggie for making AWG's donation for this worthwhile project.  I wonder if there is a story behind Maggie coming through US Customs (not known for being milquetoasts) with her case of bras.  That's a sexy case of underwear, Maggie!!  I am sure you handled it with aplomb.  

Katharine: an elegy for the Trib

JeanPaul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in A Bout de Souffle

Jean-Pa

m

From the NY times

Op-Ed Columnist

Adieu IHT, Bonjour INYT

By ROGER COHEN

Published: October 14, 2013

The Boulevard was long and straight. On one side there was shade under the plane trees. On the other the sunlight shone white. I would walk down the Boulevard to work, looking in the windows. It was pleasant. Sometimes the beautiful American girl was seated at the café reading the International Herald Tribune. I glanced at her. She never smiled. At the kiosk I bought my own copy of the paper. I sat nearby and ordered a cold beer. The waitress placed it on a felt pad on the table. I drank the beer. 

Repressing one’s inner Hemingway was never easy with the Trib in Paris. Now that the paper is gone it seems forgivable to indulge a fantasy or two and be romantic about it, at least for a moment.

The paper ended its days at the Place des Vosges. That would be the Place des Vosges in Courbevoie, not the beautiful eponymous square in the Marais where I spent the dog days of 1976, talking about the heat, watching the fountains dry up and discovering the Herald Tribune.

As the suburban denouement suggests, romance was by no means the whole story. Newspapering in the global marketplace has not been an easy ride of late.

Still, the romance was there. The Trib was a paper made for the world in the French capital by Americans, a trans-Atlantic hybrid that flattered Parisians, made them feel more important. Bergman to Bogart: “What about us?” Bogart to Bergman: “We’ll always have Paris.” And in Paris, it seemed, there would always be the Herald Tribune.

The paper was a refuge for the holed-up expat, a good excuse for the second chilled Brouilly on the terrace of Le Select, a discreet statement of worldliness, a ticket to membership in a borderless club, and a venue for exploration of all the French-American rivalry that turned out to be just another expression of the eternal French-American love affair.

The Trib was sexy. It got to the point while French papers meandered like the Seine through Normandy. American journalists knew how to find the facts and tell a story without frills. If anyone doubted a newspaper could be sexy, all they had to do was watch the pert Jean Seberg, wearing a Herald Tribune T-shirt, hawking the paper (then The New York Herald Tribune) in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless.” Case closed.

In Paris 35 years ago I started working for Paris Metro, a biweekly city magazine enjoying a certain vogue. Back then to write was O.K. but to write in Paris was to be halfway to becoming a writer. Metro was good but its finances were parlous. Rumors abounded for a while that it would be bought by the Herald Tribune and become its weekend magazine. There was a frisson. Nothing more glorious or glamorous was imaginable. (The talk came to nothing. Metro folded.)

Hendrik Hertzberg caught the essence of the matter earlier this year, describing in The New Yorker his arrival in Paris at age 17: “At the earliest possible moment, I did four things. I sat down at a little table at an outdoor café. I ordered a glass of red wine. I lit a Gauloise. And I opened up my copy, freshly bought, of the Herald Tribune. Only then did I no longer feel like a tourist or a high-school kid. I was suddenly something better: an American in Paris.”

An American in Paris: Four words that conjure a milieu, now long gone.

The Avenue Gordon Bennett commemorates one such American. It is named after James Gordon Bennett Jr., the publisher who founded the predecessor of the International Herald Tribune 126 years ago. Disgraced in New York, he had seen the potential, as American power spread, of an English-language paper in Europe — and of his own redemption. When he died in 1918, as the Trib’s last publisher Stephen Dunbar-Johnson noted last year, a trade publication declared: “The New York Herald, Paris edition, was probably read by more rulers, potentates and men of high officialdom than any newspaper published.”

The Trib in reality has not died but been reborn in new guise. The International New York Times, which begins life today, will bring the same global but distinctly American prism to bear on the world’s affairs, and no doubt attract just as many rulers, potentates — and women of high officialdom.

The very essence of America is creative churn. This is no time to be nostalgic or sentimental. The world has a desperate need for high-quality journalism and in-depth international coverage, however it is delivered. No brand name is more synonymous across the globe with the commitment to such quality than The New York Times. This lover of the Trib loves The Times even more.

Will the romance be the same? Up to a point, Lord Copper. These are digital times: Hemingway flops at 140 characters or less. No matter, it is time to move on under a new name in the sophisticated spirit of the Trib: A voice for America in the world at a time of American retrenchment — a reference, a refuge and a bridge.

Katharine: it's pumpkin time

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
Henry David Thoreau
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/pumpkin.html#dIV2b1Wb8RIX2gpC.99

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
Henry David Thoreau
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/pumpkin.html#dIV2b1Wb8RIX2gpC.99

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself
than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
Henry David Thoreau

Well help yourself, Mr Thoreau;  there are plenty to go around

When we lived in California, we would go over to the pumpkin farms in Half Moon Bay to pick out the right pumpkin, which was always on the far side of the field.  This photo is from England - see the sky. 

Denise: more from the Paris Regional

Photo credits:  Denise Parent

Sallie C, VP of FAWCO (from one of the Paris Clubs)

FAWCO President My-Linh K

Suzanne W

FAWCO US Liaison Lucy L telling us about our ever-increasing tax obligations

Johanna D of the Hague

Guest speaker Patti O of the OECD

One of the discussion groups - Sallie to the left, our own Maggie to the right

Sarah Colton, the Perfume Lady

Tickets were drawn for the astonishing quilt.  Lucky winner!

The usual suspects

Elysa and Linda: Regional FAWCO meeting in Paris

Photo credits:  Maggie
 
Elysa writes:  

AAWE Paris President Jill J opened the meeting on Saturday morning.  Our own Linda L, who is Region 3 Co-ordinator also welcomed the group and made some amusing remarks.

Introductory remarks were also made by FAWCO president My-Linh Kunst.

Sallie Chaballier, FAWCO VP,  introduced us to the FAWCO organization.  It is a Global organization of women with 70 clubs on 6 continents in 37 countries. Yet, it is also local which is why there are regional conferences which bring us together to forge relationships.

The main message for me is that FAWCO is a network which allows our local activities to have a larger more global connection. For concrete action look below for information on the new target project.  It is also a support network for us and can guide us in different ways (for example US tax support.)

I was also interested in FAUSA.  FAUSA is the third branch of FAWCO which is a network for expats who move back to the USA. Though I do not foresee moving back, you never know what may happen and moving back to the US may not be so easy.

Many of us are familiar with FAWCO's old target water project which came to a close in Bern in March 2013. A new project has now been launched and is Human Rights for Women. The projects are in the process of being selected. The 3 finalists will be posted November 15 so stay tuned.

FAWCO announced the new youth program for kids 13-19.  There is a video on the FAWCO website of the pilot project done in Dubai this summer.  The youth program will be linked to other existing youth programs such as the Eleanor Roosevelt. This youth program has a Facebook page as do the other aspects of FAWCO.

Suzanne Wheeler spoke on the FAWCO Foundation. One aspect that affects we women in Montpellier is the education awards. These are awards for women to go back to school. Any one of us could apply. For more information go to the FAWCO website. 

The FAWCO foundation is the nuts and bolts of our Global impact. There are development grants. Currently a grant is financing a NEEED scholarship project in Burkina Faso which is successful. So far 22 women have completed their degrees in nursing, education or midwifery.

There was a lot of discussion of the new Target project topic of human rights for women.  One of the key components is raising awareness amongst ourselves.  

The guest speaker was Patti O'Neill, co-ordinator on gender equality at the OECD. Her job is to look at the aid distributed in 27 countries and evaluate the impact. Out of a total of $126 billion in aid money, $20.5 billion goes to gender equality.  This big money helps provide the roads that are needed to get women safely to hospitals. USAID is also increasingly focusing on women's education. In this field there is still a lot that needs to be done. 68 countries don't have gender equality at a primary level and only 2 countries have equality at all levels. Rural areas are the weakest.

The pay gap between men and women is also significant.  Womens' earnings are 20% of mens' in many countries. In the USA women earn 69 percent of mens' income;  in Germany, 60 percent, which is the highest gap in Europe.  She mentioned a report called women in america 2011 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/Women_in_America.pdf)  which highlights the link with poverty.

Supporting human rights for women means supporting women's leadership and influence. Some places have quotas. In Rwanda after the last legislative election two thirds are women. The quota is 30 percent but they exceed it. She explained that placing the women candidates high on the list of names on the ballot made a big difference.

In summary there are many ways for us to get involved in this important global issue. FAWCO is recognized by the UN and has consultative status. There are several task forces and any one of us in Montpellier is WELCOME to participate in them.

AWG-LR delegates:  Kim, Denise, Peggy R, Mariannick, Linda, President Jessica, FAWCO Rep Maggie, Elysa

Another highlight  for me was hearing Lucy Laederich. She is the US Liasion. She described meetings that they have had concerning both voter registration and taxes. 

She asked that all Americans use OVF for voter registration.  In January go to the OVF website and look for the FAWCO link. This allows FAWCO to have data about how many FAWCO members successfully voted.  

Another issue they are working on affects children born abroad and their ability to vote.  Up until now they could not vote because they had not resided in that state.  As part of  Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act (UMOVA) they are advancing on this issue. 

The main topic that I found interesting was taxes.  I don't know about other AWG members but I find filling US taxes frustrating.  I was delighted to hear that there is someone advocating for someone like me. 

Specifically, she spoke about the FBAR which is the foreign bank account report.  If you are a US citizen, you are expected to file (though often not pay) US income tax reports.  If you have money in a 'foreign' bank account, you should file a form called an FBAR by June 30 annually.  Lucy spoke about  how they are trying to redefine 'foreign' - so that a swiss bank account is different from an account near where you live which you use routinely for expenses. 

She also spoke about how this legislation puts many women in a vulnerable position.  In order to avoid reporting foreign bank accounts, couples put all the money in the non-American spouse's name.  Clearly the woman is losing all rights to her money if it is not in her name. 

Lucy asked us to email her with our stories (even if they are not so dramatic). She is interested in how much we pay for help with filing the forms. She is also interested in specific stories which can help her advocate for us. She will of course take your name but she does not need your name. She can use the story easily without a name. You can reach her at  usliasion@fawco.org

At the end of the day we finished with a workshop on perfumes and understanding the art of olfaction.  Much fun was had at the more social meals and cocktail on Friday.  If any one has any questions they can ask any of the 8 members from Montpellier who attended; Kim, Jessica, Marriannick, Denise, Linda, Peggy R., Maggie and Elysa.
 #############

Linda writes:  

FAWCO, c'est formidable!

The regional conference was well attended! Fifty-one members, from FAWCO, FAWCO Foundation and FAUSA, making it the largest regional in FAWCO history!

There were a lot of first time attendees, and the goal was to inspire the participants to get involved with FAWCO, and perhaps go to the Brussels Conference in March, 2014.

Besides all the wonderfully interesting speakers, we had time to break into smaller groups. I sat in on membership, which is always one topic that affects our groups the same! How do we get new members and how do we keep them?!

It was very informative to hear from the membership chair from AAWE Paris, AWG Paris and AC The Hague.    AAWE has the membership data down to a science. They study how the applicant or inquiry contacted them, if they filled out an application or the questioner, and sent both in. New members send in an Application 80% of the time and just the questioner 50% via Internet. The majority of their new members are referrals.

The Hague has other approaches. Twice a year they hold open houses at their club house. They put their club's flyer in all international schools, and they have one activity group that is open to non members. This year it is a craft group, which draws in potential new members.

AWG Paris gets most of their new members off their website, publications, children groups and their fundraisers.

The FAWCO quilt tombola is always a treat! This year it brought in 900 euros ( for our new target program) and it was FAUSA's dynamic speaker, Louise G-C, from Saudi Arabia, that won Nan de L's home crafted quilt!

At all FAWCO events,  I always come away with stronger ties with the women I have known for years, and a feeling of joy to meet someone new for the first time! For me that's what it is all about!

Maggie: new members' Tea

The annual "new and old member's tea" provides an opportunity for new members to meet others, and to learn more about the club from the activity chairs.  This year there was only one new member at the tea, and only one activity chair, our hostess, Angela, who organizes the children's activities, so we just spent the time chatting and enjoying the coffee, teas, and the goodies on the refreshments table. 

 

PeggyF took far more photos, and will certainly share them.  Chris M-B said she will share her recipe for the fougasse au fleur d'oranger.  Many thanks to Angela for inviting us to her lovely apartment in the new Malbosc quartier. And thank you to everyone who bought FAWCO books, so I didn't have to haul them back to the car.

   

Maggie: hiking at the zoo

I'm afraid I was a bit shutter-happy during our walk through the Montpellier zoo, but the birdies and the beasties were just so photogenic that I could not resist.

I'm tempted to compare the photos with ones taken in Kenya many years ago, when I actually touched a white rhino, and the marabouts shared the garden with us during lunch at a hotel in one of the game parks.

An elegant mating dance by two giraffes ........

..... is hungry work