Wilfred De'ath
I was obliged to ‘double up’ at the Equinox Foyer in Saumur (it has changed its name from the Foyer des 4 Saisons, where I stayed many times) with an elderly gentleman from Sudan – name of Tariq. Islam being the official religion of Sudan, it being Ramadan and Tariq being a devout Muslim, he was not allowed to eat anything until after sunset.
So my attempts to sleep were disturbed by Tariq cooking, eating and snoring in our shared room. After a few nights of this, I was ready to kill him, whatever his religious principles and practices, but then a strange and rather wonderful thing happened. Noting that I was constantly sneaking a glance at his watch, which he kept on his bedside table, Tariq went out and bought me a brand-new watch!
This is the first watch I have possessed in many years. I gave away my old watch to a poor down-and-out at the foyer in Angers. So this was an example of the good that you do coming back to you in due course, albeit after many years. My new watch, although not expensive, keeps perfect time and I am very pleased with it. After this, needless to say, Tariq and I became firm friends. ‘I am king of the foyer,’ he told me. And he was.
From the dining room of the Equinox Foyer, there is a good view across to the local crematorium – so you can sit and watch your friends go up in smoke. The constituency of the foyer while I was there was 80 per cent black (immigrants to France) and 20 per cent white. The blacks were a good deal better behaved than the whites, who tended to become rumbustious, particularly at mealtimes.
I chummed up with Marlene, from British Guyana. (She spoke no French, only English.) For reasons I failed to understand, the authorities had taken her seven-year-old daughter away from her and Marlene spent her days trying to get her back. She asked for my help with this, but I could do nothing for her beyond advising her to get a good lawyer. I felt bad that I was totally unable to help her, but it has been good for me to live among immigrants in France and to appreciate the terrible problems they face. At least Marlene did not nurture the fantasy, as so many of them do, that life would be any easier or better for her in the UK.
On the whole, the experience has enabled me to modify my rather racist attitudes. Timbo, an elderly black man, was there when I last stayed in 2016 and I expect he will still be there three years from now. He is suffering from an unspecified disease (a nurse visits him every evening before dinner) and has become institutionalised. Everyone, including me, treats him with great respect. You have to hand it to the French. They know how to offer hospitality.
The Oldie