Sun on the stones

Yesterday it was night all day, the sky so overcast that it seemed to be dusk all day long. I went to the Soupe Populaire to serve lunch, then home, to read, then out again around 6, to run errands and meet a friend, up from the Loire, where he teaches, for a drink at the Cafe de la Mairie. And so home, and so to bed.

This morning the sun is up casting angular shadows on the side of the church. The gypsies or Roms are back camping with their dogs and their colourful covers and foam mattresses and suitcases in the side doorway to the church. They were expulsed a few weeks ago, their cached belongings thrown away. But now they--the same group of two men and two women, I think--are back. They arrive late afternoon with all their belongings--they definitely don't travel light-- wait for the church to close, set up camp. Perhaps there is another camp somewhere outside the city--municipalities are obliged, I believe, to set aside some camping space for the communities, but for now these, at least, like to sleep at the foot of the rock face of the church.