Monsieur le Mayor!

The war memorial in Montaud outside the Mayor's office.

April 16^th, 2009

After waking on the 16^th Rob and I went off to the Brico Marche to get a few things we needed.  For example, we needed a snake for the plumbing as we had developed a stoppage and I couldn’t abide letting it go.   While we were there we picked up several other items, including a couple of young olive trees and two peach trees….I love peaches and the olive trees are everywhere in this area.

After returning we spent an hour or so clearing the blockage which proved to be very prophetic for our planned meeting with the Mayor of Montaud, Monsieur le Mairie Pierre Combet.

That meeting, scheduled for eleven, began right on time.  I met the Mayor and listened while Christian translated Monsieur le Mairie's southern French into Christian's broken English, although never rapidly enough to assuage my growing sense of dis-ease.  I gathered that they spoke of land uses and septic systems and permits and the like, and while that might be the dross of many an existence surely it was the lifeblood of the Mairie of a small commune in France. 

After explaining our business model, that Micro-Leaseholder clients were more like part owners than customers and assuring the mayor that indeed we wanted to abide by all requirements as necessary, did the conversation begin to flow more to my liking.  We were joined by the town's planner and by the brother of the Mayor, Joel Combet who, besides being a former director of the cooperative was also my closest neighbour in the Hameau de Montlaur.

At this point I became effusive and somehow found a well of French in me that I had not suspected.  In passionate fashion, I stood, arms waving and gesticulating at the large aerial photograph of the commune on the wall behind us which included the Chateau grounds and the farm as well as several of the vineyards.  I described a future where together we could create something new, unique and different that would serve the community, the family Montlaur, and my customers.  Something that would be a wellspring of education and a source of jobs and pride in the community, something that took the natural gifts of Montlaur and allowed them to work for us, for all of us.  With their piece of land that almost assuredly holds a stretch of Roman ruins and road and the medieval Chateau I sketched out a possible future including a regional park to aid in the interpretation of the history of the area.  There was a point at which my own enthusiasm became infectious.  I finally sensed that they had become just as excited as I.

Aerial View of the farm compound (lower right)

These are savvy people, country farmers they may be but they have seen a lot of fair and foul weather over the years and they know when the sun is shining just as surely as when it is not.  They made several good points.  Points about their role, and procedure and paths…most specifically that the project was best approached in a unified way along one path…and they were the ones to help make it happen.  I was very glad to hear the news.  We had gone from discussing the prerogatives of bureaucracy and how we might be made to serve it to defining a collective vision and how we might use bureaucracy to make it serve the community.  It was a beautiful thing to witness.  I’ll have to ask Christian what it is I really said during that meeting.

Regardless, one point was made and it was abundantly clear, they admire most those that both say a thing and then do a thing.  That’s our challenge then.

Having had that wonderful meeting we celebrated at the Café in St. Bauzille over lunch.  When we got home Christian and Rob burned some of the brush we had cleared and I installed the new toilet and shower in the new bathroom.  I even had enough time to christen the facility with a first flush and a first shower.  Bravo, everything works and we now have a thoroughly modern bathroom.

That night both Rob and I were still aglow from the great meeting and drank several toasts to the day over leftovers and a couple of fine local wines.  It might be good to be king sometimes but I am a builder and I can say that it's good to be that on some days too.