It's Sunday , May 8th , and in the UK conversation probably doesn't stretch much further than discussing the afternoon's punch-up as ManUtd and Chelsea fight it out for the Premiership title.....
.....Fortunately we are out in France , walking through quiet villages in the Bearn and out here it's VE day , commemorating the end of hostilities in Europe as the Second World War comes to a close . The war memorials are dressed , the services held in the local church and then maybe a local communal lunch on trestle tables out on a side street. Spending time in France you come to understand that there is a totally different memory of the conflict to that of the UK - whilst the UK suffered the bombing raids , France suffered under occupation for the best part of four and a half years, and the collective folk memory is quite different . The war museum at Les Invalides in Paris is essentially the record and experiences of the Resistance and a country living under enemy rule. The experience touched everyone and is not forgotten - today is a day for remembering out here.
.........and back in the UK , the football - who is going to win ? Don't know, don't care........sometimes its really not that important .
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