Être ailleurs : l'année québécoise de M. Juppé

Summer 2005. A Frenchman, not just any Frenchman, arrives in Quebec with his wife and children. Alain Juppé, former Prime Minister of France, has just been found guilty of heading a party which misappropriated public funds for partisan purposes. He dreamt of being President of his country, instead he is now a political refugee in Quebec.  A year of purgatory is about to begin. A year of family meals, bike rides, walks in the snow and debriefings by the fire. A Quebecker’s year. His Quebecker friends will be with him : Claude Fournier, Jean-Paul L’Allier, Robert Charlebois, Jean Charest... but wait, there’s more : his wife Isabelle, his two daughters, and everyday life.  In the blink of an eye, what was going to be a year of excitement and danger has turned into one of possibilities: the rediscovering of a civil and family life, the joys of teaching, and the joys of finding lost time. This new life will tempt him to stay, at least while wrestling his own demons. Even today, as   Alain and Isabelle Juppé reflect on their year in Quebec, they think of happy, restful, and simple times…..a normal life.