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Mods hat on. Seriously guys I fail to see the point of this thread which is now just going round in circles. This is a Forum on France. There are plenty of other places on the internet where these sorts of 'discussions' can take place. We need to remember who is providing this service for us and show them a little respect. Personal agendas can be taken elsewhere. This thread is now locked.

A chap walking down the road in the UK sees a sign in a pet shop window "Talking Centipede for sale £100". Greatly take by the idea he pops in and buys it, happily walking out with the purchase in a shoe box. Getting home he puts the box on the table and thinks how he can show off his new purchase. After a few moments, he asks "would you like to go to the pub for a drink" Silence More silence Thinking now that he has been scammed, he demands once more in a stern tone "do you want to go to the pub or what" "Keep your hair on" comes the reply from the box "I heard you the first time, I am just putting my shoes on"

The definition of 'normal' that I use is 'that which occurs naturally'. There are vast numbers of physical and neuro divergences all of which are products of nature. I myself, for example, am left handed. When it comes to free speech ( or should I say free opinions ) I feel we have the internet to blame. Decades ago people would stand on their soap box and be heard by a couple of dozen people. Now, with retweets, their reach is global and their capability to trigger thousands is out of all proportion to their relevance. It gives all the wrong people the equivalence of a sugar rush.

Macron has taken a very difficult decision and is being pilloried for it; whichever, someone had to do it, the Socialists are too lily livered and Le Pen wouldn't dare. Time the far left unions grew up. Oh and perhaps their links to Moscow might be investigated?

New Year’s resolution; BE NICE folks, please. No bitchin or personal cracks as it spoils the flow of intelligent😅discussion and really is not necessary.

One of the results of selling the MGB is that I've assumed the title chief chef and have become a dab hand with the air fryer. I haven't poisoned anyone yet! I've lately been making pork pies and scotch eggs.

You'll have to forgive the understandable scepticism Wally. You asked an incredibly open question then came back within three hours to complain that no one had replied. Like you most people have other things to do and don't spend all their time on here waiting to answer questions from new members. When you later received some considered responses you didn't come back so it was natural to assume you were a troll. FWIW I would advise you decide what area of France you want to live in and rent for a while. It will give you an idea of what life is like outside of the 'holiday bubble'.

Our new owners, France Media Group have now managed to get the licence for the Forum from Archant, the previous owners. They can now move forward with sorting out the posting problems we have been having so, folks, cross your fingers, the wait may soon be over. Inshallah.

No particular order… Biden, Macron, Trump, Keith Starmer.

I think it is down to the consumer. I happy to pay more for milk, potatoes, tomatoes (for example) as long as the money goes to the producer and not some suit in Paris.

This has got to be the best word salad I've seen from a bot yet. I'm tempted to leave it up just for the comedic value.

Oh well I tried. Perhaps Henry, next time you go into that workshop of yours you can fashion something out of the large chip you seem to have on your shoulder. I really can't understand why you seem determined to pick fights. Life is too short.

Yes, Loiseau, I know what blindé means. When I first heard it on the news a few years ago, I decided to test it on French friends to see if they'd understand me. So during a walk following day, and we passed a deeply ploughed field full of deep ruts, I offhandedly remarked, this looks as though a blindé has passed here. You should have heard the oohs and aahs....nobody thought I'd know the word. I smirked and looked insufferably knowing....😏

Menthe, I think I can say without fear of contradiction that Kens 'impressions' are completely his own.

That, I'm afraid, is beyond our ken.

Might I suggest introducing the procedure that a lot of private forums have, new forum members are on probation for six posts to prove that they can post relevant, sensible posts until they are accepted as full members? And no forum names accepted consisting of incomprehensible alpha numeric strings would be accepted?

I think there’s only one now sadly,but he is doing a good job

You could not pay me enough to buy a chateaux in France. Especially that one. One way ticket to bankruptcy. Back to the photo, I’m guessing it is 100 % in a place that you really really don’t want to live in. I like the three guys looking at it in the first photo. Lol. ´Who the **** could we sell that to’ ? ‘ I know, what about some Brits’. ’They could have their own Tv show’

Cats might well be easier to teach than some kids I have seen!

Note to self - DNFTT

Bought a bag of individually wrapped chocolates but no visits this year. Mind you, it was raining heavily and the wind blowing lustily. Fortunately, I had the foresight to buy chocolates that I liked eating. So now have a nice big bag of TREATS to look forward to after a nice big mug of tea after lunch each day for the forseeable future!😄

I totally agree. To continue the shout-outs, I'd like to give a holler for Prince George and Princess Charlotte. I am not a fan of kids attending formal events. However, these two young people impeccably attired and exemplary behaved, during the whole procedure, which must have seemed like half a lifetime to two so young. All praise must be levelled with their parents in bringing up two children who are a credit to both of them, the royal family and the people of GB given the global interest in this funeral

Lori, as a poor sighted creature, I would suggest you get your eyes checked. Progressives in France, varifocals elsewere, do need to be corretly fitted and whilst optometrists can now test, it is still very useful to get your eyes checked up by a opthalmologist. The puffs etc are nasty, but that is checking for glaucoma and such, and quite honetly, the older we get, it probably best done in spite of your disllike. The drops a necessary evil to look at the back of the eye .. to see the health of your eye.. They check for disease also. Since I've worn glasses since I was 3 years old, I got very used to having my eyes poked at etc .. better safe than sorry. If you were any where near to me, I would recommend my opthalmologist ... a caring person, he did both my cataracts, and understood my fear during the ops .. all happily perfectly done. The minimal you can do is to go to an optemistrict, or optician, and see if they will make a new pair to your old prescription, but he might recommend you get a test, and quite honestly, it's not the route I would chose to go with a prescription so old. Frankly, your sight is precious, it's not worth messing around with.

Not only the attitude, but the continual returning variants oh the same old France/Europe/Macron bashing theme. This is supposed to be a Forum for FrancoPHILES, where we can share information gleaned from experience of our lives here, to help others.

Did I really just reset my password specifically so I could agree with ALBF? Apparently I did. What is the world coming to? But yes I agree it is tosh, very blinkered tosh. The UK has problems, France has problems, the EU has problems, every country has problems. It is stupid (IMHO) to move to another country thinking you will avoid problems because a problem-free country does not exist. Some of the problems will be different and some will be the same, they may be more or less acutely problematic at this moment in time but this will fluctuate as solutions are thought up and tried out and situations evolve. Five years down the line it could be a very different picture and what will that person do then, move back to where they came from? try a different country? There is an infinite number of valid (IMHO) reasons for choosing to live in a particular country, but shaking the dust of a different country off your boots,as you put it, is the very worst reason of all. There are bad things about the UK but there are also good things, ditto France, ditto every other country. For me it's about personal preferences and priorities - what is most important to me and what are my "red lines", where can I find the things that I'm looking for without crossing any red lines. Important things aren't the stuff that flips and flops as governments and policies change, it's things that don't change quickly like the culture, the mindset, the way society is built, the language, the countryside. Priorities and red lines will be different from one person to the next. For some it's France, for some it's the UK, for some it's Spain, and so on. France isn't necessarily the right choice for everybody. And if it's the right choice for a person, it's because France's priorities match their priorities; it has nothing to do with how well or how badly things happen to going in a different country right now. If France doesn't suit a person, they won't be happy there however much the UK implodes. If France does happen suit them, they'll be happy there even if the UK becomes the promised land of milk and honey and worldbeating in every respect. Also to pick up on a detail, you say that if you move to France you have 'the right to boot your maire out if he is useless' - well as a Brit immigrant, no you don't because unless you've taken French nationality or hold another EU citizenship, you don't have the right to vote.

I think that I was (around about) a 2005 joiner, having moved to France in late 2004. Over the years I have gained countless amounts of advice & information. On the odd occasion, I may have been able to reciprocate. I hear some concern over the level of contribution these days. Frankly, I don’t share that concern. Those of us who go back that far can remember some of the acerbic attacks and pointless bickering that went on, almost always from the same culprits. It wasn’t very nice, to say the least. Nowadays, people can (hopefully) ask a question and get some informed and unbiased advice. Even daft boogers like ALBF lighten proceedings .......... and he never seems to take offence ! In summary - quality & civility are better than vitriol, IMO

With regards to desirable properties, certainly just over the border in Périgord pourpre, there seems to be a healthy market for châteaux amongst Brit buyers. Something to do with UK TV, perhaps 😁 Another factor in buying big, old properties is the never-ending idea that you can earn a living (or at least supplement your income) by running gîtes. Hasn't ALBF gone quiet? 🤣

wally, your friend has misled you; by and large the French are friendly and helpful though of course there are those who are not as you would expect in any country. If you make the effort to speak French and try to get involved in the local community then you will find a great welcome. But standoffish Brits will get short shrift!

One of the funniest things I've ever read on here.😀

I have a feeling you know the perfect destination. 😉

This thread is positively uplifting and I am enjoying it; the mixing of breadmakers and health problems is unique and absorbing. Such a change from the moaning and personal digs we get too often. Keep it up folks. Just to add my euro cents worth, my elderly dog has heart valve problems and despite the pills spends quite a lot of time coughing and spluttering loudly. But then he is about 115 and is entitled. But the noise of his throat clearing means that he has been gently banished from the bedroom to the sofa as he wakes us up. He usually puts himself to bed on the bedroom carpet long before we retire so I have to gently pick him up and move him. As he is no slouch around his gamelle this does not do any good to my back, but we manage.

Thanks, everybody.

I love you

Thank goodness for that DL, and I think I can say that you have hit the nail exactly on the head

I DIDN'T say I minded being unable to walk the unforgetable day when the rain was horizontal and we could see nothing for the mist. We were a group of a dozen friends and we had a guide with us. We took our picnics back to the gîte and invited the guide to share our meal. He disappeared into his own house for a while and then came to our gîte to join us for lunch. He brought with him some special pâté that he'd made himself. During the afternoon he spent with us, we learnt a lot from him about walking in the mountains and it was an afternoon that all of us present still now and again remember and talk about with enjoyment. Even "tourists" don't want to be doing touristy things ALL the time. We shall certainly be going to the resto in Banca on our first night there and re-engaging the singers we know to come and sing us Basque songs and no doubt they will be wearing their black berets and red neckerchieves to regale us with their songs and provide the music for dancing. Other thing is, it doesn't do to be too snooty about the tourists; you might not work in the tourism industry but I know that many of the locals in the Pays Basque would find earning a livelihood considerably more challenging without the much needed income that tourists bring.

Oh no, not the nature nurture debate.....we'll be here FOREVER!

I've no proof but I don't believe that Ken really exists. I think he's an algorithm designed to attach itself to various words and phrases and then aggressively post something inflammatory . Some of the sentence structures are a little off. Also there are the times he contradicts himself between threads. Then there's 'shadow Ken'. I've stopped engaging directly. You can't argue with an algorithm.

On a different note, congratulations Dave (or not)! I see you have sold your soul to the woolly bee 😄

Rather than talk about the absurdity of ‘the real Ken’ or ‘the fake Ken’ (both fill me with horror), I though that it might be better to return to the original point of the thread. A very high percentage of French citizens when asked if they’re in favour of the pension reforms being forced through by Macron say ......... “No”. Not terribly surprising. If I was asked the same question and I was (for example) a 50yo, I’d say the same thing. Then ask ........ “Do you perhaps accept that the current circumstances are unaffordable on an ongoing basis?” I just think that you’d get a different answer from the majority of people ............ if they replied honestly to the question. I can only speak for what I hear and witness around here in (very) rural France. Many, if not most, feel that the State will provide from taxes gained from ‘the rich’. They don’t feel that it’s for them to contribute in any way, mostly to the point of evading taxation. Deluded, frankly. Don’t get me wrong - lived here for nearly 20 yrs and wouldn’t move back to the UK unless we absolutely had to. But the French are really quite blinkered.

Unfortunately, Mihai, there are posters here who tend towards disruptive, self-opinionated and belligerent retorts towards other posters content when it fails to chime with their own. This is likely to be a factor, along with the unsolicited advertising and second rate software, contributing to the overall demise of this 20+ year forum. Anyway, good luck in your endeavour to track down and uncover the location and owner of the property.

Goodness me ALBF. What has Gary Linekar ever done to you? Did you once nearly choke on a Walkers crisp or something.

The UK government spends £7 million a day keeping asylum seekers in hotels etc because the asylum processing system is an absolute mess with over 150K waiting for their cases to be dealt with, do you think that's a good use of taxpayers money? Lineker made a comment about the language used by the government over the 'small boats' issue and likened that to what was being said in Germany in the 1930's, he is spot on and millions agree with him in the UK.

It is impossible to have a reasoned debate with anyone when their views are so entrenched and overly negative.

I've had a really nice and fruitful day today. For I start the weather was lovely and sunny; even more important than that was the fact that I got lots of things done AND everybody was so very nice for a change! I started by collecting my new reading glasses. There is the new system here by which the lenses are free, and then you can either choose a small range of free frames, or choose something else to your own taste. In addition the opticians offer a second pair just for Reading, but made to your prescription, for an extra euro, so I got my main pair of bifocals (for the computer screen and the keyboard) PLUS a second pair to carry about with me for when I go and read a newspaper in a cafe for example. As I had chosen my own frames rather than the free ones I had to pay a bit, but for the two glasses it only came to €56. The optician was very helpful, and spent time getting them to fit properly etc. I even had a coffee thrown in ! I came out feeling I had a very nice experience and a good deal. Then I went to buy some new laces for my old pair of boots. There is a good shoe maker near my house, and he went to the bother of finding the best laces, but in addition he took the boots off; thredded them, put them back on me, and tied them in exactly the right place. Again excellent personal service for 5€ I have asked him to re-heel them, and do a small repair, and they will be ready by Saturday. Then to the pharmacy for the top up covid vaccinations (my fifth) where as usual nothing was too much trouble. We what all wearing masks of course, and I commented that is was we couldn't see each other smile, but one of the other customers, a large African lady, said that you can read people smiles in Their Eyes, and we all looked at each other and agreed. I had achieved everything I wanted to do do by 11 o’clock, and I came away feeling really happy with the world.

A French cheese factory has exploded: All that is left is De Brie

I'd be the first to admit that Truss is something of an unknown quantity to me. But to say that all she has done other than make a speech about cheese suggests that you haven't perhaps been paying attention. At the lunchtime of the day the Queen died she announced more useful policies in an hour than we've heard in the last 18 months, a British "tarif bouclier" and the re-starting of fracking being just two. As to her comments about Macron, many of us would entirely agree with her measured remark about the jury being out. In my lifetime I have never known anyone - claiming to be a friend - attempt to do so much damage to Britain, and I for one will never forgive him. Rubbishing the vaccine (and still refusing to admit he told lies about it), threatening to cut off electricity to the Channel Islands, supporting the invoking of the suspension of the NI protocol over vaccines, using Beaune as a constant attack dog against us whenever he couldn't be bothered to do the job himself, playing the constant bad cop against us in the Brexit process, need I go on... Macron has undone Anglo-French relations to such an extent that I doubt they will recover in my lifetime. Even I - a lifelong lover of France *and* its people - no longer rush to their aid when someone cracks a joke about them, and I no longer buy French products. I will review my stance when Macron goes, but in the meantime I would urge any British politician not to trust France or its president until 2027. I know, an extreme position, and I never EVER thought I would come to feel anything like this level of animosity. It grieves me, but Macron is the culprit, the only culprit. The only thing I would say about his utterances on the Queen is at least he recognises quality, and perhaps is dimly aware now after his election humiliations and his current political weakness that he will never EVER be fit even to wipe Her Shoes.

That might be your interpretation of the phrase 'being frank' but my definition is that it is a precursor to an honest opinion as opposed to a comment meant to inflame or initiate a response. Everyone on this forum has the right to agree or disagree. I was responding to ALBF's somewhat threatening comment "Choose wisely my friend" which implied there may be consequences if I decided to visit another forum. I repeat, we are talking message boards here not picking sides for WW3 ( although it sometimes feels like it ).

Well I just have no interest in discussing the state of the nation on forum. Just because there is a lot of sh1te out there, doesn't mean you have to wallow in it all the time. Like I said, I go on forums mostly to chill out and unwind and have a bit of fun discussing random topics with posters that give out friendly vibes, that you can have a laugh with. So right now, on the forum you don't visit any more we're having a grand chinwag about pizza toppings in France and whether it's OK to put potatoes on them. And there's a thread that I started weeks back about paper tax returns that is still chugging along - I started it for a bit of advice, which I got, then it rambled on for a bit, and just recently I've been able to give another poster a good tip that hopefully will help them. On a different forum we're debating the pros and cons of using static cling window tint in motorhomes, and the pros and cons ofvarious cooking appliances such as slow cookers, steamers, induction hobs etc. That's the kind of discussion I like, everyday stuff that is mildly interesting to a wide cross section of posters. Nothing aggressive, nobody winding each other up or standing on their soapboxes or getting huffy or rubbishing other people's posts, and certainly not going round and round and round the same old depressing issues to do with French/English/EU politics. The best discussion I saw on here recently, which I couldn't join in because I had nothing to contribute but I did follow it for a bit, was about Ken's driveway!

Short of the first sentence, I found this to be incredibly rude.

All our children either have dual nationality or have applied for it for the simple reason that it makes working here easier and gives them 'freedom of movement' which they lost after Brexit, there are 0000's of Brits here that have done the same thing for the same reasons, what is the problem with that?