Vive La France!

Now there’s an expression you don’t hear everyday springing forth from the lips of an Englishman, because let’s face it, England and France do (to borrow from the East End vernacular) ‘ave a bit of previous! We’ve been fighting for a 1,000 years and it doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon...just ask the poor sods in Brittany who had their houses burnt down last year for being English! Maybe they were from Birmingham in which case they deserved it but, otherwise it’s a bit thick! (That’s lost any Brummie readers I may have had!)

However, here in sunny Grenada, we have a lot to be grateful to old Johnny Frenchie for. ‘Why?’ I hear you cry when Grenada is an English dependency. Well true, it is indeed very English. The Queen is on the money and on the stamps, their legal and conveyencing system is the same as the UK, they drive on the right side of the road... that being the left of course. (Although to be fair, they also drive on the right and in the middle as and when the mood takes them). Even the plugs fit... yep bring your lamps and kettles over and just plug them in. Marvellous!

So what did Johnny Frenchie do? Well the island was used as ping pong ball between France and England for a few hundred years. Eventually England won on penalties (to mix a sporting metaphor) and the French moved out for good leaving only a liberal smattering of place names and a recipe or two.

Well not quite, because they also left a crucial legacy. Unlike the English, Dutch, German and just about every other Colonial power who occupied islands throughout the Caribbean, the French allowed ‘the locals’ to own land. If you had the money you could have the land whatever your colour or creed. This has had a massive, deep rooted and long lasting impact on the psyche of the island, because Grenadians do not feel disenfranchised... because they aren’t! So unlike so many islands there seems to be an almost total absence of resentment against incomers like ourselves. Everyone is extraordinary welcoming. It’s rather humbling, especially if you think about how things might play out if the roles were reversed.

So whilst there may be segregation in Grenada it is certainly not based on the colour of your skin. On our first Saturday night here we were invited to a rather glitzy affair at Peter de Savary’s beautiful home. It was wonderful to see ‘locals’ and expats mixing seamlessly and more importantly, completely oblivious to the fact that this is not scene you would see duplicated in all corners of the earth. I also loved the fact that the Prime Minister was there, devoid of an entourage or body guards, just chatting away to all and sundry.

Yesterday we went for lunch down the road where we were the only white people there but, we were greeted with total acceptance and kindness as if we were old friends. And it’s all genuine. Next Sunday we are going for roast goat on the beach at Levera with the workers who are building a house for our ‘landlord’ with whom we are sharing a house whilst ours is completed. All this acceptance and lack of resentment from a simple piece of legislature created several hundred years ago.

So thank you Johnny Frenchie you’ve played a major part in creating an island with more than its fair share of harmony...and no I still don’t like ‘Ebony and Ivory’.. it’s drivel!