Bastille Day

Belle et Bonne and Simone de Beauvoir are cycling behind the peloton on the road from Chambery to Gap. The previous night was hot and they are feeling quite fatigued.

Simone de Beauvoir: Oh, I am feeling quite fatigued!

Belle et Bonne: Me too. Let's slow down. It's not as if we are competing.

Simone de Beauvoir: I hope that one of the French riders wins today. It's Bastille Day, you know.

Belle et Bonne: As if I could forget. Papa and Uncle David were going on about it all through breakfast. They insisted on having croissants even though croissants are a most unsuitable breakfast for a race day.

Simone de Beauvoir: Ahh. They are great champions of freedom, your papa and your uncle.

Belle et Bonne: He's not my uncle.

Simone de Beavoir: I keep forgetting. What do they think of France's decision to ban the burqa?

Belle et Bonne: They think it is hilarious. Papa says why go to the trouble of banning something hardly anybody wears. And Uncle David says he hopes more ladies start to wear them so that it will have been worthwhile bringing in the law.

Simone de Beauvoir: It is all very well for men to make a joke of it. But it is a serious question when different freedoms are pitted against one another. I wonder what Diderot would have said on the matter.

Belle et Bonne: Diderot?

Simone de Beauvoir: Yes, I'm reading his very curious book, The Nun, at the moment. It is about a beautiful young woman who is forced into a convent by her family. She suffers all manner of indignities there.

Belle et Bonne: Ooh! What kind of indignities?

Simone de Beauvoir: Jealousy, sadistic cruelty, lesbian advances.....in fact I'm not sure whether it's meant to be more titillating than instructive.

Belle et Bonne: I should like to read it after you. Diderot, you say? I'm sure papa knows him.

Simone de Beauvoir: He certainly does. Your papa contributed many articles to his famous Encyclopedie!