my French bro at a concert with his wife

Dom et Véro at a concert in La Rochelle

I went to La Rochelle with Dominique's family in 2018. Nice city. I'd like to go back and stroll someday. There's a lot to see and do and eat.

Dom sent the above photo as part of a brief email exchange we just had. I started off by wishing him a Happy Bastille Day and followed up with an apparently-too-oblique "the world has changed" comment. Dom asked for clarification, and I asked him if he hadn't heard about the assassination attempt on Trump. He said, "Oh, that... but he lived, so not much has changed," so I said I'd just drop the matter since, for us Americans, a lot has obviously changed. I also slipped in that, had a similar attempt been made against Macron, I'd have been profoundly shocked. I'm glad, though, that there are people in the world who feel themselves to be at a remove from big events. It's a good ego check: I don't want to go around shaking my friends and forcing them to think of America as somehow the center of the world. And I certainly don't want them feeling as if life ought to orbit around one plump billionaire. Trump gets my sympathy for the moment, but I still don't like him as a person. So maybe Dom is right: not much has changed. But in terms of US politics, a lot has changed.