The American elections are a very tense moment for David Bouklas, the manager of Bookie's Bookshop, rue Taillefer in Périgueux. The native New Yorker is always cautious when American customers come to his bookstore café. “I always have a moment where I try to see which American I have in front of me, are you blue or are you red?”, he confides. “IJust try to avoid as much conflict here as possible.”continues David, at his counter.
Come to Dordogne to avoid tensions
It is precisely because of the tensions which divide American society that David leaves the United States, with a bag on his back, for France. He was then 25 years old. “We have to live in the same country, but we no longer have anything to share”, he laments.
David will not vote in the elections this year. For him, neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris will be able to ease the tensions in the country. “It’s like if you were driving at 250 km/h and you came 100 meters from a wall. Will braking change anything? It’s too late, we’re there.*”
“The plague or cholera”
David even thinks that these elections will worsen the current situation: “In the United States, you can't walk around for 15 minutes without seeing people arguing or fighting. I think the elections are going to be the crack that will blow everything apart”, he says.
Robert, coffee in hand, approves. The man from Louisiana moved to Périgueux a year ago with his wife. Since then, he has come regularly to drink coffee and read the English books suggested by David. During this election period, the subject inevitably comes up in the discussions of the two Americans: “For me there will be no winners, it's like the plague or cholera”, analyse Robert.
Both men will still watch the results, even if, as David reminds us, “the elections are not an end in themselves, we mainly follow to know when things will blow up.”
France
