Even at this distance, the 2016 US election has been hard to watch. But it has been a stunner for the Europeans. However much they sometimes like to resent "the leader of the free world", they also depend on the stability and the dependability of the U.S. And the awful truth is that we look like lunatics from over here. At a time when their democracies are being challenged by far right (and even some openly neo-Nazi) political parties, they are appalled by the extent to which our democratic institutions are being undermined -- whether it is Russian hacking or claims that US elections are "rigged" or threats to lock up a political opponent without due process or refusals to consider Supreme Court nominees of a democratically elected President of the other party. If our democracy is in this much trouble, one can almost hear them wonder, what hope have any of them?
Nevertheless, election night is a good excuse for a party. There will be a giant bash at Radio France, running from 6 pm on the 8th to 6 am on the 9th, called "La Nuit Américaine" (the American all-nighter). Since Meg Ludlum and I foolishly scheduled a day-trip to Reims on the 9th, I paid a visit this afternoon with a party from the American Women's Group to Harry's Bar where I cast my straw vote. The tally posted outside the bar (there were some early voters) stood at 404 for Clinton to 150 for Trump. 
I plan to go to bed early and set the alarm for 4 am, which is 10 pm EST. By then the results should have started to come in. I'll get back in time to catch the post-mortem Wednesday evening my time.
Lest you think that I am living in a fog of election mania, I enclose this picture of a lovely Sunday afternoon spent with Margaret Stanley in the Luxembourg Gardens on October 30. We had a lovely visit! Notice how the weather has changed in the last week. It is now winter in Paris.More to come...
Bisous à tous
