Alex in Les Sables d'Olonne
Darren Starr, call me!
Class 9 of my Foreign Influence Operations course is up. This class looks at (some) of Russia’s operations against the United States.
Curious, but worried you’ve missed the first classes? Don’t fret! These are designed to do on your own, when you want. Sign up anytime! In fact right now would be a great time!
Additionally, I’m looking at doing our next VESPERS on Wednesday, June 7, noon Eastern Time. Mark it down! And sign up! Because Vespers is for paid subscribers only. Don’t miss out!
ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT
Bonjour! I am going to look at a very different type of foreign influence this week.
I am currently in the small seaport village of Les Sables d’Olonne on the Atlantic coast of France. Yep, I’ve traded my Spanish Rioja for French Bordeaux and am focusing a lot of energy on cheese, as is required by French law.
I am also doing my part to eat butter, which is considered a national service in France. I don’t want to let Emmanuel Macron down. I mean, look at this! You can just order enormous wedges of butter. This is foreign influence I can get behind!
What am I doing here in the first place? I ask myself this daily, no matter where in the world I am. But for Les Sables d’Olonne, I have a really good reason. As many of you know, my husband is preparing to sail around the world in the Ocean Globe Race, so we are here for a few weeks as he helps prepare the boat and trains with his crew (if you’re interested, you can follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @stephogr2023; he posts some really fun updates, including one where he looks like an orange Gumby).
My main activity each day is figuring out when things are open, usually through trial and error—mostly error, which is how we ended up ordering in a few nights ago after I failed to make it to the butcher on time.
Here is what I currently understand to be the butcher’s hours: He is open Tuesday to Sunday, and is closed on Monday. Except this coming Monday he will be open but closed on Tuesday. And Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday he is only open until 1pm. I assume that means this coming Monday, when he will be open instead of closed, he will only be open until 1pm. He does a great roasted chicken, but only on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Other stores in town close either at 12:30pm or 1pm or maybe 2pm and reopen at 2pm or 2:30pm or not at all.
I get it. This is actually a very humane approach to work, especially for small businesses. It allows small shops to close for an hour so the owner can, you know, eat lunch. But there’s one thing I have never understood (and I have lived in Europe several years at this point): when do those people run errands, if all the shops are closed at the same time?
I may sound like I am complaining. And I am. But that’s ok, because French people love to complain, so this actually demonstrates my cultural fluency. To demonstrate it further, I am going to end this here, as I’ve already worked more than 35 hours this week and there’s a bottle of Bordeaux and some cheese with my name on it.
Vive la France! And for my American friends: Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of stories you should be reading
RUSSIA
CHINA
Wall Street Banks Rethink China: Goldman, Morgan Stanley Ambitions in Doubt (Bloomberg)
G7 leaders agree to new initiative to right economic coercion (Reuters)
UNITED STATES
Prosecutors Sought Records on Trump’s Foreign Business Deals Since 2017 (NY Times)
Trump CEO over Voice of America repeatedly abused power, investigation finds (NPR)
YOUR FEEL-GOOD STORY OF THE WEEK
‘Mini kangaroos’ hop back in South Australia (Yahoo! News)
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
