Photo, above, of Hiersac mayor David Chagneaud: Majid Bouzzit/CL
France has long been a top-down kind of country.
Under the Fifth Republic (established by Charles de Gaulle in 1958) one has the impression that, having initially got rid of its monarchy in the late 18th century (though it made some unwelcome returns) France has ended up swapping an unelected king for an elected monarch – in the form of the president.
And despite attempts at decentralisation in France in recent decades, one still feels that Paris decides and the rest of the country follows.
That might, just, be about to change though.
Today in Hiersac in the Charente local residents will vote in a local referendum on what to do with the local post office branch.
Of course it's not an earth-shattering issue in itself (unless you happen to post a lot of letters in Hiersac) - the choice is only whether to have a post office that is run by the commune itself or becomes part of a shop.
The important thing is that it's taking place at all.
The local poll in Hiersac is the first such referendum in the Charente since 2006 and is one of a growing number of signs that local democracy might be able to take fragile root in France.
During the recent debate about the shape of the new regions local MPs and councillors in the Charente said they would use local referenda as part of their campaign to stop the Poitou-Charentes joining the Centre or the Pays-de-Loire.
(Thankfully these mad plans were stopped before the referenda were needed.)
MPs in other parts of the country have made similar noises over the regional changes.
And after the tragic death of a protester over the Sivens dam project in the Tarn in south-west France in October, the president himself, François Hollande, suggested that the row over the dam could be solved by holding a local referendum.
There are some who say that these local polls are more about local (or national) politicians being unwilling to make the hard decisions they were elected to make, and who pass the buck back to the electors, than they are about local democracy.
I'm sure there is some truth in that.
But there are politicians from all camps who see the polls as a genuine advance in political accountability and a way to reduce the yawning credibility gap that has developed between electors and politicians (and not just in France).
For example, Dominique Bussereau, transport minister under President Sarkozy and the head of the Charente-Maritime council, is backing a referendum over whether the Île d'Oléron should restore the toll on the only bridge onto the island.
His view of such polls is a deeply pragmatic one.
'A referendum's useful because it stops elected representatives from doing silly things,' he says.
On the left socialist MP Pouria Amirshahi, the former head of the Charente branch of the Socialist Party, has a slightly loftier view of such votes.
'You have to have confidence in the collective intelligence of the citizens...an abundance of democracy doesn't do any harm,' he says.
It would be a (massive) exaggeration to say that the eyes of France are on Hiersac this Sunday.
But this small Charente commune has today become part of a growing movement to give French citizens back the power that for so long has been kept under lock and key at the Elysée Palace in Paris.
