Noisette

Noisette is from Lot et Garonne. It's not the same as the Lot 😛 I know Voiron! We stopped off there many years ago on our way down to the south coast. Lovely little town..... In fact, we always planned to live somewhere over to the east, anywhere between Dijon and Gap, but hey ho...best laid plans and all that 😁 As for not getting around France much, I've just got back from Guadeloupe so nana na na na heehee ETA: The glacier is still there in Chamonix, but it's shrinking fast.

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? 🤣

I don't doubt for a minute that you're content (I'm glad you are)....the incoming Brit figures speak for themselves. I don't ramble but I do drive a lot, anything up to 200kms a day in all directions, on minor roads, to visit friends. Apart from the vineyards, my overall impression remains that there are vast areas of untamed forest and friche in Dordogne. But that's most likely because Lot et Garonne is tiny in comparison and most of it is cultivated, whether arable, sylviculture, orchards or vines 🙂 Do you happen to know anything about the veracity or otherwise of the stories concerning the role played by the Dordogne Resistance (or maybe the opposite, and it's collaborative activities) and it's subsequent impact on the département in post-war years? We were told that the Dordogne was a severely impoverished département as a result of being 'punished' for those activities, and that it's only relatively recently that it's managed to shake off that legacy. I've no idea how true that is.....Ashamed to say that I won't be digging into archives to find out, either. I prefer to leave the past behind. But I do wonder if that might be a reason for a difference in property prices. Of course, it could just be something simple like slight differences in climate. Hence the steeper prices the further south you go. The Gers might be considered 'rude' but it's certainly not cheap 😂 Whatever the reasons, France is so beautiful and diverse that there's something for everyone, even ALBF 😉

I’ll try to be tactful....just a few differences that have struck me since living in neighbouring Lot et Garonne. Firstly, the roads. It’s so noticeable that the roads are maintained to a higher standard in surrounding départements. Probably something to do with Dordogne being a huge dept? Then general scenery. Most of it is quite a ’natural/sauvage’ landscape compared to the neat cultivation of vines or arable crops elsewhere. Lots of wild forest. That’s not a criticism...each to their own 🙂 Maybe the fact that the tourist season is short, so many attractions and activities are crammed into two months in summer? Not a problem if you live in a big, culturally active place like Perigueux or even Bergerac.

Spot on about the pretentiousness, ALBF. Living where I do, there’s no escaping exposure to Brits and their current preoccupations. Soooo judgemental and so much more prone than the French to insisting that everyone should conform to their views (voir fads) on diet, ecology, allergies, you name it 😁 Even that is to a certain extent subject to a town/countryside divide. Given that there’s not a huge amount of countryside left in England ( note England, not UK) perhaps that explains it? Things are following the same course here, though, gradually. The littering, the media dependency, the crazy municipal/political decisions....all the joys of 21st century civilisation, quoi? 😉

I’ve seen 3 rebouteurs over the course of the last 16 years. The first was the most spectacular success. He sorted, in the space of 5 minutes, a very nasty twisted thigh muscle problem for which the MT had only offered prescriptions for painkillers and which was getting worse by the week. A genuine healer, ’thanks’ were entirely voluntary and discretionary. The experience certainly converted me. Equally, friends and OH have seen more ’structured’ i.e. moneymaking versions without noticeable success. The only way to find a genuine one is by word of mouth and the art seems to be on the decline which is a dreadful shame.

We toured France quite a few times in the early 80s and were bowled over by the sheer number and quality of restos just about anywhere in France. Back then, they opened in the evening and at the same price! Then, when we moved here, I was ’adopted’ by a French family (agriculteurs) and got to experience everyday country cooking and conserving. Georgette taught me a lot. Much home-produced pork and fowl, veggies either in the form of the ubiquitous soup or sterilised, bottled and re-hashed but rarely fresh and lightly cooked 🙂 The family didn’ t eat out much because by then, restos were too often expensive with far less tasty, well-cooked food than they got at home. We found some excellent restos here back in 2007 but they’ve since closed or been replaced by over-priced, pretentious tourist traps looking for a Michelin star. Thing is, young working French are pretty much like young, working Brits....not many are interested in spending hours in the kitchen producing traditional meals. So if the demand is there for ready meals and fast food, the supply will be forthcoming, and how! Pizza is my bête noire. Not even French and every time one of the few little, genuine, remaining restos folds, it reopens as a Pizza joint a few weeks later 😞 Best not to get into the discussion of French beef again lol.

Bonne année et bonne santé à tous et toutes 🍾🥂🎇

Happy Birthday, old bean 😘 Have a lovely day and a wonderful year!

Our local Intermarché introduced a 'maturation cabinet' for côtes de boeuf, some time ago. 20, 30 or 40 days au choix. I didn't even look at the price, just asked for a modest 2-rib piece. Got to the tills and it came in at €85, which at the time was only slightly less than our meat budget for the month 🤣 It was very good but why should the French have to pay such an exorbitant price for something that's been available in the UK since forever? Sadly, the answer is that the country 'with the finest food in the world' isn't. It's all down to profit, protectionism and self-publicity.

Hein? If the beef here was properly matured and edible when cooked, we'd probably eat less duck, but it isn't so we do. Have you ever visited a proper, small, French elevage, ALBF? The birds are not abused. Chickens are more cute and much more fun than ducks, though.

That is a truly perspicacious and accurate post 😁 Well done! Perhaps we're both in mourning for France as we knew it. You can't stop 'progress', though. I used to buy whole ducks from the farm and do confit, dry magrets, make terrine de foie gras, rillettes etc. This will be the first year that we'll be doing without foie gras for the fêtes. €96 / kg???? They're out of their minds! Which is a shame, 'cos I've got about 40 jars of home-made confit d'oignon and confit de figue stashed away 🤣 Bon dimanche x

No I'm not! I'm basically and very diplomatically saying that I prefer English humour and English and American (oh the shame..) music 😁 Although, since I've been listening to a Russian radio station I have discovered some very good German and Swiss groups. Listen to yourself making these sweeping generalisations! 😁 Some Brits do genuinely like chanson française. Good for them! I think Dave Lister has hit the nail on the head.....I'm completely out-of-date with current stuff of any nationality. That's what comes of not reproducing 😉

Reminds me of the CD of 'typical French music' that our dearest friends in Paris made for me some years ago.... Johnny (of course), Isabelle Boulay, Manu Chao, Cali, Piaf (mmmm limite).....I believe that Florent Pagny is French, though 🤣

I did a good job of faking enthousiasm for Jacques Brel 😂

Now you come to mention it, I remember a programme from many years ago with Antoine...Eurotrash, was it? Slightly more sophisticated than Benny Hill and Mr Bean 😁 The other one, does he do anything other than films?

Well what a coincidence! I was only pondering this question yesterday 😁 Apart from the obvious appalling customer service, which doesn't seem to have changed much over the years, I can't and never will appreciate French humour (tel quel) or music. There are a few exceptions, but on the whole, French comedians and writers can't hold a candle to the humour that I grew up with. I've been asking various French friends and acquaintances since 2002 for recommendations but they all go very quiet after suggesting Coluche, Desproges or Raymond Devos 😐 It's not so much disliking as just not appreciating, and thanking Heaven that there's some saving grace to having been born English.

I was thinking more of someone a bit more 'elevated' 😉👑

🤣🤣🤣

I see Macron as more of a Gloucestershire, huntin'shootin'fishin' type 😂

I'm glad you excluded me from the whingers 😉. Um, isn't it obvious why, if you've taken the plunge and left UK, then unless you're hijacked by the pull of family or the need for comfort-zone health care in old age, you wouldn't want to go back? This is just my personal opinion, obviously, but it's a complete ****hole with an even bigger bunch of crooks running it than France has. Life here, again in my opinion (which can never be the same as yours because our situations are so different), is better than it would be there. I feel at home here. Sorry, but that can happen. As for forums, the best laugh I've had today is reading someone's claim that France is a Socialist country . She lives here..........Still chuckling over that one......

Pffff...depending on the natural ability to esquive of the politician responding, is it worth the question? Subtract the hecklers who are there just to hear the sound of their own voices and I can't see it contributing much to the democratic process 😉

Utterly sensible replies from Lori and Gardian......Make your wishes known while you can (insofar as you know what they are at any given time). Then forget about the unpleasant implications of the future and live for the present. I do have a few regrets now, but I'm pretty certain that that is a result of France changing quite drastically compared to the country we came to 16 years ago. Trying to keep a balanced view, some aspects have improved, but not nearly as many as cause minor irritation every day. Then again, familiarity breeds not contempt, but complacency. A few days back in the UK would soon put things back in perspective 😁 I'm in the 'can't imagine living anywhere else' camp. Speak the language, have nationality, struck lucky with the area etc etc. I certainly can't imagine going through all the upheaval of getting established in a different country and above all not in UK.

Well the first vote was inconclusive. 15 'fors' were required out of the 27 for approval to be granted. France abstained, as did Belgium and Holland. Austria, Germany and Luxembourg voted against. The next vote will take place in November. If no accord is reached, approval expires on 15/12/23. https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2023/10/13/glyphosate-dans-l-ue-pas-d-accord-sur-la-reconduction-pour-dix-ans-de-l-autorisation-nouveau-vote-en-novembre_6194119_3245.html

Well well...who would have thought that the EU would approve glyphosate's continued use now that Bayer have the patent? 😋 Of course it doesn't follow that France will do a u-turn on their blanket ban from December.