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chessfou2

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Everything posted by chessfou2

  1. I believe that there are only two French nationals who ever post on this site, but I am dumbfounded by the bellicosity of all the British expats who have decided to make their life here. Surely, if Johnson and the UK is so 'Great' wouldn't it be best to head back over there and thus eliminate your exchange-rate risk.
  2. There has been a huge amount of work done - not a 5-minute job to re-design a sub. Naval has had (I read) 500 people working on this (not necessarily all of them for 5 years). The figure I have seen for compensation of broken contract is a surprisingly small €100M.
  3. Barnier (yesterday, I think) said that if he’s elected, he will propose a referendum on a “constitutional shield” to disregard European law and rulings in order to regain “our freedom of maneuver and interpretation” — which he said was needed to control immigration. He was speaking at a Les Républicains event in Nîmes. A Républicains Twitter account then tweeted the quote, which Barnier himself subsequently retweeted. https://www.msn.com/fr-fr/actualite/monde/stup%C3%A9faction-%C3%A0-paris-et-bruxelles-apr%C3%A8s-les-critiques-de-barnier-contre-la-justice-europ%C3%A9enne/ar-AAOiCr0 Victor Meldrew must be spluttering in his grave.
  4. Something wrong with the link - it only goes to shorturl.at
  5. "Parking on and vehicular damage to grass verges is a persistent problem." (Leeds City Council).
  6. I liked, from the Midi Libre article, Ciotti's "un projet pour plus d’autorité, plus de liberté" - good luck on combining them! Also, Barnier seems to be taking a leaf out of the Brexiters' playbook (and maybe spiking the big guns of the extreme right) with his "limiter l’immigration et la maîtriser" ...
  7. Speaking of first fruits and new expressions, our local paper had an article about the search for ancient 'lost' cépages. New to me, and probably to the journalist, who used it four times in a short item, was "Une équipe d’ampélographes ".
  8. edf/engie would only be able to 'steal' our Zoé's electricity if (1) it was plugged in at the time, (2) we had a Linky (unfortunately, that may be coming). In any event, this is extremely unlikely since we charge her up during heures creuses ('off peak') when it is extremely unlikely that the grid will be overloaded. Also, bear in mind that here (1) nuclear provides 2/3 of electricity, (2) we are linked in to the European grid. It would be a riskier proposition in England (UK imports about 7% of electricity, even more in England, and no longer benefits from the EU grid). Anyway, this thread has completely lost the plot: Our Zoé's 'fuel' costs €2-3 per 100km. Our Focus diesel costs about €8 per 100km, near enough 4x.
  9. Here is the latest I just received this afternoon. 'support client' emailed me a 'notification de suspension' for my Netflix account. The phisher hopes that I will click on 'PROLONGER L'ABONNEMENT' (even though it is in CAPS). A closer inspection reveals that the email address from which this comes is: [email protected] Therefore I now hit the delete button.
  10. Scams are anything between irritating and scary. The first thing to do is to stay calm! Then look at the 'from' address of the email you have received. The most common scam is "your account has been locked". I got such a message a couple of days ago, but it came from " purporting to be from Amazon ([email protected]), but obviously not, so deleted and moved on. Always look beyond the scam "[email protected]" for the real address. The particular arnaque targeted at you has been noted, for example: https://www.signal-arnaques.com/scam/view/342945 You will probably find other examples by Googling "Catherine DE BOLLE commissaire générale police fédérale, directrice d'Europol " Brigade de protection des mineurs (BPM)."
  11. Charging bornes are irrelevant for us. We only charge in our garage (invariably heure creuses). If (if!) we were going to travel any distance (maybe Toulouse) we would use the Ford Focus (diesel), but within the département now, only the Zoe.
  12. Having recently sent an old Mondeo (essence) to scrap, leaving us with a Focus (diesel) and a new Zoe, I have been doing a 'back of fag packet' calculation of fuel cost. For 100km it seems that our costs are (approximately): Focus €8-9 Zoe €2 (heures creuses) €3 (heures pleines) - EDF Bleu. Anyone else been making calculations?
  13. Ye Gods!! No wonder society is falling apart and the Covid wars are descending into wars of religion. Let the heretics burn in hell, but first on a bûcher! PS. Don't let science interfere with 'the science' (i.e. dogma, or catechism, as approved either by appeal to 'authority' or to the 'will of the people').
  14. New web site: https://www.michel-barnier.fr/ Among the headline articles: L’état de notre pays exige une mobilisation de tous, Faire de la France la première puissance économique, agricole et écologique en Europe, and more...
  15. Yes and the utterly stupidest(!) thing is that, supposedly because of the Beta variant, the UK requires those coming from France (metropolitan) to isolate, but not those coming from La Réunion!! You really could not make it up - only the UK Gov has the ability to do that(!
  16. Bizarre - the Beta variant (a.k.a. South African) is almost non-existent in France except, unsurprisingly, in La Réunion. Echoes of the removal of the winter fuel grant. As for the Pro-Vax vs Anti-Vax wars of religion - no comment, except that science is desperately trying to hold onto reason between the two sides.
  17. I saw a very nice typo day before yesterday, relating to tonight's Concert de Paris. Linternaute.com (https://www.linternaute.com/sortir/guide-des-loisirs/1030307-14-juillet-2021-defile-magasins-ouverts-et-histoire-du-14-juillet/) announced that the mezzo would be Clémentine Margarine. I had not previously heard of Mme Margaine. I think she is rather well known, but very unlikely to change her name to include that 'r'.
  18. " it is impossible to say nowhere will not flood," Well, if it floods here, it will be the end of civilization! We are about 550m above sea level, on a ridge (about 50m below the top), with valleys on either side (200-300m down below). We aren't even thinking about building an ark (just laying in some provisions!). It is true that when it 'really' rains, we have quite a lot of water running down the street (and sometimes into our cave) but nothing really to worry about (other than the hygrométrie in the cave - not good for the wine)..
  19. Yes, indeed 'out of sight out of mind' may apply to Barnier, but I have seen a lot of him on TV this year. He has also been giving lots of interviews, e.g. Sunday's JDD, which led with the quote "Je sais pouvoir rassembler les talents de la droite et du centre". Could it be that being away from French politics for a long time might be an advantage? Why so few voters in the Regionales? LR were the big winners in those Regionales. His CV is remarkable: Deputy 1978-1993, four times Minister 1993-1995-1997 & 2004-2005 & 2007-2009 (Environment, European Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture under Mitterand, Chirac & Sarkozy), in between (1997-1999) a Senator, and (1999-2004) EU Commissioner for Regional Politics. Then 2014-2014 EU Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services & 2016-19 chief Brexit negotiator. Brexit has never been as big in the media here as in the UK, but I still saw his name (and his face on TV) fairly frequently during the negotiations, always 'gently' batting for France.
  20. There was a sondage in May (so well before the Régionales) which gave Marine 27%, Macron 25%, Bertrand 14%, Melenchon 12% et Barnier (not known at that point whether he would run or not) just 6%. My guess is that Barnier is coming up on the inside and that Bertrand is afraid of facing him in a primaire. I think it worth noting that Barnier is LR.
  21. Not sure if it helps, since it was not a matter of renewing a licence, but replacing my old paper licence that had fallen apart. In January this year, it took 9 days from making the request on the ANTs site to receipt of the card. I find it strange that you needed to renew your licence - the paper licence is generally valid forever and the new plastic one almost forever (mine expires in 15 years). I suppose your circumstances had somehow changed.
  22. My mother 'religiously' said 'white rabbits' on the 1st. The only blazing row I recall between my mother and father arose one 1st of the month when my father replied 'pink elephants'.
  23. "if they want to export to Europe" The battery plant will increase the UK component content (at least of EVs), replacing battery imports, so Nissan will be able to export tariff-free under the ROIs of the TCA. (Brexit related) Also, there should be a substantial increase in their sales of EVs in the UK, so it makes double sense. (not Brexit related)
  24. Yes, I have frequently experienced this here and in Spain. It is kind of a 'big' version of wine by the glass. It is most often seen in family-run restos. In Spain, it tends to be slightly different - bottle is opened and left on your table to drink what you want and they rarely charge more than half even if you drink somewhat more, unless of course if you finish the whole bottle!
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