6^th 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