My family on my mothers’ side were fifth generation colonists in Algiers, and when the war broke out they were exiled back to France with nothing. Mum was always ashamed of being associated with colonialism, even though she was born there and had no say, and was just 10 years old when they escaped. She died two summers ago from breast cancer, and I just found out that my family in France (on her side) just came back from a quasi pilgrimage to Algeria, their first trip back in a half-century. The house my mum grew up in is now the house of the president, and their vacation house belongs to one of the ambassadors, which was pretty interesting to me. I’m secretly really upset that they didn’t tell me about their plans to go – It surprised me they didn’t tell any of her children. I guess I’ll have to go myself.