Cerise
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Posts posted by Cerise
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But somehow the UK manage to send European Health Cards to all those pensioners who are affiliated to the French Health Service with an S1. Why should it be different the other way round.
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I think you will find that idun is still a French tax payer despite living in UK.Anyone who finds French bureaucracy OK cannot surely have ever worked in France. Having spent 10 months trying to get the Caisse de Congés Payés to pay us OUR money I finally resorted to speaking to the Prudhommes who said 'Vous êtes très tenace Madame, le plupart des gens laissent tomber'! And we were talking about 2000€!The French medical system is a postcode lottery the same as the UK. I've sat for hours in a French A & E and I know those who have done the same in UK. However I broke my ankle in March here in UK and was seen, X-rayed, plastered and returned home with a specialists appointment for the follwing day, all within 2 hours and the care and the staff were all excellent. It really does depend where you land up.Most French officials I have dealt with have been perfectly pleasant and completely and utterly inefficient.
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Hey Betty - I could have said that, but maybe not quite so eloquently.
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Well Norman, that all sounds quite doable - errr perhaps not! I actually don't think it is beyond the realms of possibility that Marine Le Pen could do well. However objectionable her party may be there is no doubt that she is well spoken and convincing sounding. People who I think are otherwise OK seem to be persuaded that she is OK. Here in the SW there has always been a largish NF following but the endemic racism seems to be getting worse and worse. Yesterday in my stint at the library I sat through and anti-immigrant rant by several of the good ladies of our village and when I tried to protest was given to understand that it was the likes of me and my wishy washy anglo saxon ideas that was causing the country to fall apart. I was informed that the majority of immigrants were such that they could NEVER be assimilated. The violence and unpleasantness of it by a bunch of middle aged middle class elderly ladies really took me aback!
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Yes, that is a bit how I feel idun. 3 people have been killed, just down the road, and no one is making anything of it. How could you take such a crime anything but seriously?
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It's seriously unpleasant but what I find a little odd is that it seems fairly unremarked. Even though it is our Prefecture town it is not the talk of the village.
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That is fantastic - will you change yoru name to SkinnyBanana? Well done anyway!
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Frenchie - I didn't mean to be insulting, but I live in La France Profonde and sadly locally much of society DOES still condone domestic violence _ or at least not speak out against it. Of course it is a problemin the UK too and I don't think anyone would deny it but I do think we have a cultural difference now (it was different 40 or 50 years ago) which makes it easier for women to get out.One of the reasons cited for wanting to live in france is that it is like the Uk 50 years ago - well as member of local CCAS I can confirm that there some very dated attitudes to things like domestic problems, handicaps etc. I have a local friend who has a handicapped son and though she is lovely, intelligent person people still make stupid remarks about it must be something she 'did' to have this son. Of course, there are lots of nice, kind, enlightened people too. For the majority of foreigners the fact that the rural French don't easily discuss problems with anyone outside their own families means that much of this is hidden.
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I don't think that is what Pat is saying at all. In a society which still thinks it is Ok to beat your wife and ill-educated, unhappy person may do it - it doesn't excuse it, but may explain it.Same thing with drugs really. There is a huge and I mean huge problem of drug taking among French farmers who haven't got wives (possibly because younger women are bright enough to realise that a life of being a drudge and possibly beaten is not that attractive!). Now you could say no-one forced these lonely chaps to be farmers but the traditional inheritance thing makes it very difficult for them to do anything else or get out whil Maman et Papa are still alive. We come from a different culture. What Pat is saying is that while there is not an excuse they may see this as a reason.
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Sadly sweet17 this is an all too common part of rural life here. What upsets me almost as much, is the fact that the others, friends neighbours etc don't even seem to find it shocking. There is still the attitude 'She probably asked for it....'.
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All the shops in our village here in France were open on Christmas morning. So I guess the answer to your question is 'the French'
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All the rouelle I have ever seen has been pork but not gammon. Even trying to explain to the charcutier what gammon is has not yielded the correct thing. For all that you can buy jambon braisé in restaurants so such a thing must exist. The nearest I managed is porc saumuré _ anyone got better ideas?
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My thoughts exactly cooperlola[:)]
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Thank you velcorin. I too am ashamed of the people who talk about children like this. I'm on the CCAS in our village and god knows I see enough misery here but this, as the OP said, is really heart wrenching. Little boys of 10 and 12 should not be left under bridges like piles of rubbish whatever their nationality or origins. That the French authorities allow this sickens me.
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Absolutely Sue. The whole point is that these are not adult asylum seekers they are CHILDREN. Their own families may have abused them by trafficking them in this dreadful way - or may have been genuinely duped into thinking they were sending their children to some safer, better life. It seems wrong that the French authorities also ignore their plight Children do not choose this life - the rights and wrongs of the adults who exploit them are a bit irrelevant. We as adults of whatever nationality surely have a duty to protect ALL children.
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Suein56 - I agree with your post. That children live like this in the country I live in saddens me enormously (and before anyone starts it saddened me in UK too). I don't know what the rest of this lot are on, but there is no comparison between living in a slightly chilly house and wearing second hand clothes with being trafficked across the world and left to live in the streets of a foreign land. It does not matter where these children come from, ALL children should be protected and it is indeed a sad state of affairs that the authorities are aware of the situation and do little if nothing to help.
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Aged 14 (1968) my father put me on the boat train in London and I travelled alone to Newhaven, then on the ferry to Dieppe to meet my correspondante who I knew only from some schoolgirl letters and some poor black and white photos of her family. Her dad was boss of the local woodyard, her mum a housewife and they had 3 other children. There was no inside loo in their farmhouse and I had to share a bed with Martine and her sister Edith. The house, the room - and the bed - were enormous and really old and I was a bit horrified by the chamber pot. It was like going back to Victorian times but I LOVED it. No-one spoke a word of English and I had to speak French or not communicate. The only thing I hated was when her granny asked me to chose one of the exotic chickens in her grden - and when I did she killed it for our dinner! They ate all kinds of things I'd never seen, allowed us to drink wine with water and they all smoked like chimneys. I was a thoroughly modern miss with mini-skirts and Martine had to go to school wearing a brown overall and grey ankle socks.
When I went home I told my parents what a wonderful time I'd had. I edited out a few bits like there being no proper bathroom as I feared they might not let me go again. Martine and her friend Evelyn came to stay with my family and we exchanged several more times. We continued to correspond until well into our 30s when sadly we lost touch. My love of France was born there (my parents had never been abroad) and at 18 I was living in Paris as an au-pair for the family of a professor from the Sorbonne. I look back on that time as a marvellous adventure.
Perhaps today's children who go on exotic holidays practically from birth would simply not relish the sense of adventure and being grown up that that experience gave me. I'm glad I was able to do it.
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NormanH - I believe things can be sorted with 'les impots' by sending them a tray of chocolate eclairs every so often.
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No don't fry separately ... do add a drop of red wine.
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If you find the answer I'd like to know! We live in France but wish to fly to India from UK (it is MUCH cheaper) but no-one seems to know if we should get visas here or there. If necessary I'll go to get one from whereever as I don't want to be separated from my passport for any length of time, as I may need to go to UK urgently.
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Failed - 42%. Will have to sneak in the back door. What daft questions - most people would neither know nor care about such things..
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Round here shops are open all the time, except on the one day of the year when you make a special 90 km round trip to visit one. Then you will find that on that day, and that day only it is having a 'fermeture exceptionelle'!
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Love the ad, love the biscuits - so do most of my French pals who nick them whenever I get some. Think most people on seeing will simply say "Quoi???".
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I hope you find thecontentment you are looking for on your return. Cngratulations for having the courage to make your life happen in the direction you'd like it to go.
Le Grand Bonheur----'appeeeeness :)
in The Complete France Post Bag
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