6th Sept 1997. Paris France
Twenty years ago exactly and yes - a day that I remember well;
In those days we spent most of the summer months in
the Languedoc area of Southern France at our lovely village house in Salleles
d’Aude. It was an idyllic kind of place mainly consisting of old traditional
houses and located in a beautiful unspoiled location where the Canal du Midi
meets the mighty river Aude just before the canal system joins the
Mediterranean sea.
There were five bakers in this tiny village of only
about 800 inhabitants including the outlying areas – not unusual in this part
of France- and every morning at about 6
o clock I would walk out to collect a freshly baked baguette and a couple of
croissants.
As I got to the entrance gate of her house I saw my
neighbour Anna Claire , a lovely housewife with two beautiful young children
coming toward me from our local shops. As she got a bit closer I saw that she was
crying , the tears running down her pretty face. What on earth is the matter , I asked her as
still crying she fell into my arms.
“ We have killed your Princess” she sobbed, ”Lady Diana is dead”. Although
her English was quite good I didn’t
really quite understand what she was talking about until she had repeated it
several times. It was hard to believe
that what she was saying was true and as soon as I got home I tuned into an
English radio station. It was indeed
the truth – or what passed as the truth at the time - and for me has over the
years turned into the worst imaginable condemnation of the British
Establishment whenever danger of the status quo threatens . No different of
course today than it has been over hundreds of years.
Whatever happened in that tunnel – I know it well and have
travelled through it many times during my visits to Paris - it was never a
simple road accident and anyone that believes the garbled and distorted account
of events must be simple minded. The real truth will not come out in my
lifetime and may never come out at all.
M.M. 06/09/2017
