La France Tranquille

Here is the antidote to an excess of French politics and forgive a brief digression into the sky.

Seen from a thousand feet on a sunny Saturday morning, France is a picture of tranquility. For months, the French have been absorbed by a presidential campaign that enters its final week today. With its promise of change and a new generation in power, the race has gripped the country. You can hear the argument everywhere, not just in the media, but at bus-stops, work places and cafes -- and even in the sky.

When you cruise in a small plane over the towns and countryside, the densely populated Ile de France is a vision of peace, order and prosperity. It is the ideal of candidates' speeches and the idyll envied by visitors. Twinkling in the spring sun, even the banlieue housing estates -- home to the 2005 riots -- look less grim, enfolded into the rolling landscape with rivers and village churches. You can see this from pictures that I snapped yesterday, flying around Paris and Normandy from Moisselles, the grass airfield tucked into the northern suburbs, where my elderly aeroplane is based.

Central Paris is only 12 miles away, but you take off over maize fields then forest and after three minutes you are over the Oise river and L'Isle Adam, a much-painted town that was home to Honoré de Balzac.

The Oise flows into the Seine, with barges hauling the fuel and materials to keep Paris running. The sun glints on hypermarket parking lots crammed with Saturday shoppers and then the horizon fills with green and yellow fields. It is only from the air that you can see how many châteaux are scattered around the Paris area, most of them well hidden from the roads. If you fly up the Seine [left] but steer around Rouen, a carpet of unbroken countryside rolls below the wings until you are over the coast half an hour later.

[Monday election update from newspaper here]

The top picture is the cliff of Etretat, the Channel village, which was painted by Courbet and Monet and a favourite site for de Maupassant and other 19th century writers. Flying up the shore the election returned over the radio. A controller was closing for lunch, as they do in France, and wished those in the air: "Bon appétit". "Hey, once Sarkozy gets in, you'll have to stay and work over lunch," some pilot joked back.

We landed at Saint Valéry [approach to old wartime runway left]. After a walk through the lanes to Veulettes, a village resort, and the election returned during lunch on the seafront. "Ok, it's going to be Sarkozy, but, all the same, I can't stand that man," said the waitress. With the Channel breaking onto the pebbles and a plate of fruits de mer, the sound and fury of Ségo-Sarko seemed far away.

Back on the ground, they are of course hard at it. Sarko is trying to grab the spotlight from Ségolène Royal with a big rally at the Bercy Stadium in Paris this Sunday afternoon. Royal managed to hog attention for the past week with her pas de deux with François Bayrou, the centrist who was eliminated last Sunday. Now that's over and her only remaining hope of winning is to swing the balance with their debate on television on Wednesday night. Otherwise, as the polls today suggest, her goose is cooked. Sarkozy's lead has shrunk a little, but a clear gap remains: 52.5 percent versus 47.5 for Royal, according to today's Journal du Dimanche.

A few aviators have asked me about the plane. It's a Robin Aiglon 1180. One of the all-metal models produced by Pierre Robin of Dijon in 1979-80. It's a bit tired and thirsty (180hp) and likes long runways, but it's extremely sweet to fly. Pictured here landing on Saturday 

[Dog is my co-pilot]

Comments

[D.Strohl]

A propos Sego : let us hope that her "pas de deux" with Bayrou was her ultimate "faux pas" . Up to now, she has stumbled over several "faux pas" but like Johnnie Walker, she is still going strong (and smiling accordingly!)

PS : your dog is really "croquignolet"

[peterd]

"Dog is my co-pilot"
Woof!

[rocket]

That dog is too cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ros]

Your dog is really lovely - a Westie maybe? Difficult to see as once the photo( plane on grass) is enlarged half of him is cut off !

[Dominique]

Charles,

How do you fly to Britain with your dog? I thought there was a quarantaine for the albion?

[Adrian]

Nice aeroplane, nice dog, and a nice tight circuit at St Valéry! I shall have to re-evaluate my 1963 aeroplane if you think that yours is "elderly"!

Ségolène, or one of her advisors, gave a fairly enlightened set of answers to questions about aviation in "Aviation et Pilote" recently. It would be nice if France could re-invigorate its flying clubs and small airfields. The country is an aviation paradise, but "la crise" seems to be affecting its aviators at the moment.

[Ros]

It wasn't Britain but Normandy - Saint Valery en Caux is one of the rare small towns in that area which still has a railway station - very useful for the weekend parisians wanting to avoid a traffic jam. Anyhow, dogs are now allowed in the uk if they have a microchip under their skin (done by a vet), safe I think but who knows?

[A Gilbert]

First sight of Etretat photo completely opened the day for me. What an uplifting view.
If you offered your dog lunch, fruits de mer, then take it from all other canines both sides of the Channel..........hooray for the day and the lunch!!!!!!!!!!

[Ros]

What a happy day you gave us! I don't think I'll want to be looking at tomorrow's Sarkozy posts.

[Marguerite]

Elles font rever vos photos de "la France vue de haut". Vous avez de la chance de pouvoir echapper a la ville et aux elections et, d'un petit coup d'aile, de vous retrouver en train de manger des bulots au bord de la mer. J'aimerais bien etre votre chien !
Comme je n'ai pas pu survoler les falaises ,j'ai plonge , ce w.e, dans les carrieres politiques de Segolene et Sarkozy en allant voir le film de Karl Zero :" Sego et Sarko sont dans
un bateau ", au cineme du Pantheon rue Victor Cousin. Avec un humour decapant, Carl Zero nous montre et nous commente les images-cles de la vie politique et personnelle des deux protagonistes pendant ces 20 dernieres annees.Il demonte avec ferocite et drolerie leur irresistible appetit de pouvoir. On n'arrete pas de rire et ,en sortant, on n'a envie de voter ni pour l'un ni pour l'autre ,dimanche prochain.

[Maggie]

Had your doggies twin here this very morn Charles , a delightful bitch called Delilah, 3 years old & looking for Samson , any offers ?
She came across the Channel with her feeders, for a fare of £10 each way on the ferry, yes & of course she has all the paperwork / micro chip.

[A Gilbert]

Having papers in order, has she crossed the Channel to vote?
Or perhaps to nip at Sarko's trouser cuffs.Grrrrr.
Westies unite, keep France for Royal, followed by honorary lifetime diners at L'Elysee.

[Dominique]

No link with today's subject, but just for a lively debate :

Ouuuuuh! naughty naughty naughty perfide albion !!

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3242,36-903686@51-903793,0.html

[Ros]

I thought the article was boring but the "réactions" rather fierce! Here's one for those who didn't look, written by someone called "Nos "amis" anglais" ---
"Toute compétition avec des anglo-saxons se caractérise par: 1. une exigence pointilleuse de fair-play de la part de leurs adversaires qu'ils ne se considèrent nullement obligés de respecter eux-mêmes. 2. un cynisme flamboyant les incitant à révéler dès que possible les turpitudes leur ayant permis d'empocher la victoire pour indisposer davantage leurs rivaux malheureux. 3. une innocence outragée si on leur rappelle leurs agissements antérieurs. Circulez il n'y a rien à voir..." Well, well -
This obviously has nothing to do with the London correspondent, Marc Roche whom we often see on bbc world "dateline london", he is very very french, very pro-european but a real anglophile who is probably as happy to live in London as Mr Bremner in Paris!