Next Spring the postponed (due to Presidential election) voting for all the Mayors in France will take place.

The French maire plays a much more important role than his English counterpart. Even the smallest village elects its own mayor who enjoys considerable power. Apart from his obvious role in marrying people (a civil ceremony is compulsory, followed by optional church service) he and his council make decisions regarding planning permission, law and order and how to spend the income of the community.

Now that's where our present Maire has become unpopular. There are major roadworks at the entrance to the village which were supposed to be finished by Christmas but look like going on for several more months. It was rumoured that they were going to put in a roundabout - a sensible option - but now we can see that they are, in fact,  narrowing  the road  and increasing the pavement area so the new road system with its inevitable 'priorité a droite' will be no safer than the original layout.

Add to this the complete replacement of the pavement the whole length of the main road,with parking bays alternating with flowerbeds, which resulted in several houses having their gas or water pipes broken and you can understand why lots of local inhabitants are pretty pissed off. To add insult to injury, those who complained to the mayor were not well received.

Of course, the local tax bill (taxe d'habitation) has risen considerably for the coming year so everyone feels they are paying for the mayor's folly.

He has also installed a ridiculous set of traffic lights outside the village hall which are always at red until a car approaches. I've already seen several drivers go through without waiting for them to turn green. An accident waiting to happen?

According to the local paper he is planning to stand again next year and isn't aware of any opposition, but I've heard that someone else is prepared to enter the arena against him. We know this potential candidate quite well and, now that he has retired, he should have plenty of time and energy to devote to the village. However, the present Maire has always been very pleasant to us and we like him too.

It's going to be a difficult decision when the time comes to vote.