Vraititi<P>PSG till I die -fluctuat nec mergitur.<P>

AS: Apologies for this rambling post, apol. as well for the French thrown in for good measure, but as it's my last posting ever I'm sure you'll forgive me. First things 1st, thanks to Tresco and Admin Maestro for kind PM's. James, to answer yr PM, won't be necessary mate, read on, you'll see why. I often compare in my head this LF forum to a cruise-liner trailblazing through the Web oceans, don't ask me why, I just do. Suppose it's more exciting than being on the Tube all of us together, standing cheek-by-armpits, going round on the Circular line all flipping day. Maybe also because I'd have loved to be a modern Captain Haddock, if only to swear at all hours in 5 languages at Tintin and his cretinous mutt. Bit of a Love boat then, with Isaac serving his cocktails de fillette on Top Deck, Captain James at the helm, the rest of us either unwinding in our posh cabins, poking our heads out in turns, milling around in the casino exchanging pleasantries or sunbathing topless on the many open-air decks. With only the occasional guest from time to time requesting urgent visits on Terra Firma (when the going gets tough that is, or to get a bit of space), life on board is indeed harmony incarnate, with an edge at times, but nobody minds. There's a Parisian bar as well, bit louche has to be said, 9th level below deck, between the engine-rooms and the giant boilers. Not a very cosy place to spend your time in. Cold place, welcoming but bleudy cold. Has no name, but nice landlady, a bit of a speakeasy in truth where the speaking is everything but easy for the noise. Rarely visited of course, cheap 'goutte' and only one cocktail: Pastis and Water. I like the music there, well, I've chosen it so I'd be a right cretin not to like it (still, that seems well w/i my possibilities), a bit of Renaud, always the same song though in a loop, 'Amoureux de Paname', a bit of Lavilliers, 'Promenade des Anglais', a bit of Thiéfaine, Léo Ferré, that sort of things. That's where I am to be found most of the time these days. It's become a bit of a depressing place. Entirely of my own making, I am the first one to joke about it with the lost souls who mistakingly venture down there. Trouble is, I'm now seriously 'gonfler la taulière' ('getting on the landlady's tits'), I can tell, and not just her. I prop up the zinc silently for hours or suddenly for no reasons will ramble and rabbit on and on and on and on w/o making much sense. I've managed to put the only 2 other regulars off and frankly, I'm starting to get on me own tits as well, grave. On a bad day, I've even been known to vomit directly into me own marine jumper sleeves, not a pretty sight. Am getting seriously seasick. I'm just not well enough mentally to resurface and socialise like everybody else, and I hate pretending. I need to get off the ship for good. C'est con la vie quand même, a 17 ans, tu fais la 'révolution', t'y crois dur comme fer puis rien, ou pas grand chose. Bercé d'illusions, tu t'es finalement fait berner par ces mêmes illusions. Les études finies, tu pars a l'aventure, fais le tour du monde, pensant que la vie commence vraiment, pis tu r'viens un peu décu. Tu penses: 'putain, y'a tellement de misère ds le monde ! Puis 2 ans + tard, tu repars parce que t'as toujours la bougeotte, mais bon pas loin cette fois, de l'autre coté de la Manche, mais c'est qd même l'aventure ds ta tete. Ça marche pas trop, un peu la galère mais bon tu t'accroches. Pis un jour, tu rencontres une belle p'tite dam'zelle, tout va bien ! Tu t' maries même, t'as un beau gamin, la belle vie quoi. Un jour, a 35 ans, tu rentres du boulot, coup de fil, on t'apprend que ta femme et ton gamin se sont fait éclater ds un accident de bagnole. Tu t'en remets jamais vraiment. T'essayes, tu t'accroches, tu r'fais surface, pis t'as 2 ou 3 'health scares' des familles. Là tu sais que t'auras plus jms de gamin. Tu ralentis, puis tu repars, doucement d'abord puis ensuite, tu sors, beaucoup, c'est reparti, comme en 40 ! Un jour tu rencontres une qqu'une sympa, un peu par hasard. Ça remarche ! Pis, un beau jour, t'apprends qu'elle te fais cocu avec ton meilleur pote. Et ouais, c'est con qd même, juste au moment ou tu pensais y etre arrivé ! Pis c'est le trou noir pendant X années. Que du classique quoi, mid-life crisis, depression, bref, c'est pas la joie ! Pis, par hasard, au gré des rencontres ('serendipity'), ça repart. Pis ça dérape. Encore une séparation à l'horizon. Le bon Sisyphe de base quoi. Un jour, y'a 8 jours en fait, tu reviens chez toi a Paris, pis tu t'apercois que ca a tellement changé, tes vieux potes de déroute calanchent les uns apres les autres, etc. c'est devenu tellement cher que tu t'rends compte que tu peux meme plus esperer revenir habiter la ou tu voulais. Et ouais, t'as trop fait le con mon vieux, fallait pas claquer ton oseille en frivolités, fallait économiser Ducon ! Et pis, par hasard, tu discutes avec un vieux pote qu'est moins con que toi: 'Well, Vraititi, can't afford Paris ? Well, not cut out for French provincial life ? Well, you can thank God for the 'new' EU countries mate, why don't you try that option out ?' he jokes. 'Actually Andy, you're right, why not give it a go ?'. Looks like I'll be handing in my notice soon (not on a permanent contract thankfully). Life goes on. It has to. PS: Please Captain James, find me a little creek to get off on. It's been great but too seasick to carry on I'm afraid, sorry and thanks again. P.P.S: And de-activate my Registration, de-register me, neuter my PM, send Vraititi into the ether. Please, no PM's, thanks. Happy cruising.

Thanks MissYesbut, truly flattered to be likened to Del Boy, I'm nowhere near as witty as the lovable rogue, and as for having his ressourcefulness, well, I wish ! Ah, the infamous tales of Parisian Titis engrossing innocent provincials willy-nilly just with their looks alone ! So many such tales were doing the rounds not so long ago, started circa 1880 with the Titis practically snatching the poor Poitevines and Bretonnes directly from Montpar, apocryphal tales of course; truth is of course that we never had to actually do the hard work, the rosy-cheeked provincial belles all naturally fell in our arms like ripe peaches, we just had to shake a little.

No, didn't know (putaing, t'en sais des choses toi !), saw her chez Fogiel recently - about a month ago was it ? (or was it a year ago ? -have totally lost track of time, come to think of it, could well have been about 10 yrs ago !), isn't it sad though that somebody like her has chosen to live as a recluse (somewhere on the Côte d'Azur I think) ? Such a Grande dame du cinéma francais, ça fout les jetons quand même, I mean, anyway. And if you think the 'modern' actors can claim her place 'pas de problème Harlem', think again, certainly not in the dignity stakes, that's for sure ! They've all  become  half-yobs half-egomonsters with age ! Read on.  Nothing to do with la Jeanne, but somewhere here you mentioned G Darmon, well, a word of warning fillette, never go near him ! In the mid 80's it was, a v. respectable female friend of mine (the only one admittedly in them days), in her 20's, was an extra in one of his films (partly shot in the Sologne -can't remember which film it was), one day, at the end of the day, he asked her for a lift to the nearest train station to Paris which was a good 30 minutes away, she duly obliged, and then in the car, totally out of the blue, he started pestering her like hell (on which lines I leave it to your imagination -something to do with stroking his little 'titi', as in 'gros minet' titi), and could/would she do this and that and the other (tedious stuff really), etc. this went on for a good 20 minits. With hindsight, she said to me afterwards that she'd made the mistake of refusing straight away with a blunt NO, like within 3 minits (instead of stringing him along before dumping him off like an anchor at the station), as a result, affronted by such a bolshie stance, the man started to become overtly nasty, and did not take blunt NO for an answer, etc. eventually, after insulting her profusely, he nearly slapped her ! yeah, that's G Darmon. I think I'd like his latest film 'Les parrains', if only because it would somehow remind me of les vieilles 'Grandes Gueulles' and other Monstres Sacrés (Gabin, Ventura and Co). Did you see also what happened to Lanvin in Bruxelles 3 days ago, ended up in a police cell for being abusive to the cops ! What with pathetic Depardieu thumping all and sundry and making a tit of himself just about everywhere on the planet and desperately after the smallest sniff of dosh (and with Villeret now dead of course) that does not leave a lot of respectable 'top' French actors around ! Slight exaggeration, maybe but what a bunch a prats so many are, except for a few, like, what's her name, J. Binoche, great girl, top actress, I was amazed to find out that she'd stayed for 2 weeks in a very modest house near a friend's place at BARNSLEY (of all places) when she went over there to see Joanne Harris (for 'Chocolat' I think it was), apparently she refused point-blank to stay in a top hotel (OK, not that easy to find I suppose), went out, got drunk, just like a local lass, well, Chapeau bas, I say. 

No, didn't know (putaing, t'en sais des choses toi !), saw her chez Fogiel recently - about a month ago was it ? (or was it a year ago ? -have totally lost track of time, come to think of it, could well have been about 10 yrs ago !), isn't it sad though that somebody like her has chosen to live as a recluse (somewhere on the Côte d'Azur I think) ? Such a Grande dame du cinéma francais, ça fout les jetons quand même, I mean, anyway. And if you think the 'modern' actors can claim her place 'pas de problème Harlem', think again, certainly not in the dignity stakes, that's for sure ! They've all  become  half-yobs half-egomonsters with age ! Read on.  Nothing to do with la Jeanne, but somewhere here you mentioned G Darmon, well, a word of warning fillette, never go near him ! In the mid 80's it was, a v. respectable female friend of mine (the only one admittedly in them days), in her 20's, was an extra in one of his films (partly shot in the Sologne -can't remember which film it was), one day, at the end of the day, he asked her for a lift to the nearest train station to Paris which was a good 30 minutes away, she duly obliged, and then in the car, totally out of the blue, he started pestering her like hell (on which lines I leave it to your imagination -something to do with stroking his little 'titi', as in 'gros minet' titi), and could/would she do this and that and the other (tedious stuff really), etc. this went on for a good 20 minits. With hindsight, she said to me afterwards that she'd made the mistake of refusing straight away with a blunt NO, like within 3 minits (instead of stringing him along before dumping him off like an anchor at the station), as a result, affronted by such a bolshie stance, the man started to become overtly nasty, and did not take blunt NO for an answer, etc. eventually, after insulting her profusely, he nearly slapped her ! yeah, that's G Darmon. I think I'd like his latest film 'Les parrains', if only because it would somehow remind me of les vieilles 'Grandes Gueulles' and other Monstres Sacrés (Gabin, Ventura and Co). Did you see also what happened to Lanvin in Bruxelles 3 days ago, ended up in a police cell for being abusive to the cops ! What with pathetic Depardieu thumping all and sundry and making a tit of himself just about everywhere on the planet and desperately after the smallest sniff of dosh (and with Villeret now dead of course) that does not leave a lot of respectable 'top' French actors around ! Slight exaggeration, maybe but what a bunch a prats so many are, except for a few, like, what's her name, J. Binoche, great girl, top actress, I was amazed to find out that she'd stayed for 2 weeks in a very modest house near a friend's place at BARNSLEY (of all places) when she went over there to see Joanne Harris (for 'Chocolat' I think it was), apparently she refused point-blank to stay in a top hotel (OK, not that easy to find I suppose), went out, got drunk, just like a local lass, well, Chapeau bas, I say. 

I do know that PSG stands for "Partir Sans Gagner".    And it was a Frenchman who told me that, so it must be true.  Can you confirm, Vraititi?  You cheeky thing, it's meant many different things over the yrs in our short but glorious history, but yeah I suppose of late (until this season I hasten to add) it's been dire. The worst really was when we had Laurent Perpère as Chairman (now LOOK AGAIN at the name) as few yrs ago, I remember Laurent Ruquier (host and famous 'humoriste') on France2 saying: 'No wonder PSG can't win any game with Laurent Perpère at the helm, they should have appointed Monsieur Gagnegagne' he's so witty this Ruquier ! This yr is more like 'Paris S'enflamme Grave', well until the next 'crisis', probably right on cue, January as usual !

I stand corrected, 'burnt-out mole' was comment for muggins of course, although 'neurotic overstressed marmot' would probably be more accurate to describe myself. I imagine you're probably more like an over-alert perpetually exalted meerkat TU.

This has always been of the more enduring stereotypes between France and England. Broadly speaking France is seen (maybe less so now) from the UK as 'individualistic' (whatever that really means), and the UK as more of a gregarious, let's-do-everything-together sort of society, etc. Well, there's obviously a bit of truth in that but when you start unpicking the whole tangle of reasons, realities, and so on, you soon find out that there are so many exceptions to that statement that by the end, you cannot help concluding, once more, that it is really but a lot of b*******.

Putaing, mille milliards de foies de morue pourris, I can't believe I've just said 'impersonificate' instead of 'impersonate' f'course, don't know what I was thinking about, can't possibly have been..., no surely not, anyway, my English's going to pots really these days on here, have just read my last post in Postbag, one or 2 shockers there as well, maybe too much of TalkRadio football these days, that must be what it is, they're all foreign on there, Marcotti and Co

Et ouais, bien sûr, jeanne Moreau, who else, j'ai l'air d'un vieux con quand j'dis ça, mais bon, you know I cringe when I see the likes of L. Gerra impersonificate her on telly, he is excellent par ailleurs, but don't know I recoil with embarrassment when he starts his paltry imitation of la Moreau, but having said that, who really knows her amongst the younger generations ? Example A: I asked one of them the other day (family), he says: 'oh yeah, great rider' I says: 'what do you mean, great rider ?' Turned out he'd confused her with Jeannie Longo ! Hadn't heard of J Moreau, et ouais, or else Example B: they know of her through L Gerra which is even worse than example A, eh ouais, starting to sound like an old grizzled con des familles, so I'll stop here.

Talking of MIL's + OH's and large sizes, why not kill two large birds with one stone and shop at TATI, they store large sizes all right, in fact they only seem to do the juggernaut ones, but, attention hein, not any TATI, for yr street cred, only the best of the bestest will do (not one of them pale provincial imitations, perish the thought), NO, only the original will do, the real Mc Coy, j'ai nommé the TATI on Bvd Barbès, I go there all the time for corky high heelers and 'p'tite' lingerie fine (yes my MIL only will not have them from anywhere else now), cabines d'essayage très chic évidemment, entre deux cartons, you can see instantly if it's occupied or not, no complaints either, all in all great afternoon of free fun for the family.

Thanks for the insults, I don't mind when they are witty, the wittier the better ! Just visited TF, they have 2 French bar/café ongoing threads, one in English, one in French, to which DOMY contributes superbly and yes, granted, not the whole forum users butt in, but there seems to be a hard core of maybe 10/15 people who regularly join in, and most importantly a few users regularly comment on how beneficial it is for them, etc. I know that if I were learning English I'd certainly appreciate. I was not aware that it had been attempted on here, even a few posts a day could prove useful, no ? I would think that with the new-ish arrivals and engine-rooms on here and DOMY here, MWJ, Tourangelle, Saligo, Christine (right up yr street that Christine, non ?) it could be worth another try, non ?Bon m'enfin, moi ce que j'en dis hein !  Anyway must really dash off now (bon, faut que je me sauve maintenant), got the dog to walk and the cooking to sort out (y'a le chien à promener et la popotte à préparer), if not my OH will make mincemeat of me ! (ou sinon ma bergère va m'astiquer les côtes, grave !) 

Gosh, if only there were more religious figureheads like himself to speak up, the Catholic church would not be in the mess they're in. Did you hear his interview yesterday (can't remember which radio) ? He is so spot-on though, he criticised the Rome apparatchiks so shrewdly and even went as far as declaring that there is nothing wrong with homosexual marriages and adoptions and tutti quanti, which for somebody so high up in the catholic church (at least in the French people's minds), surely that must be unprecedented ! He even suggested it was better to grow up in that same-sex family set-up rather than in an unwieldly family structure, or something to that effect. Shame he is only speaking out now ! Domy, nice to see you ici parmi nous, not sure there are many 'chauds lapins or lapines' amongst us, more like burnt-out moles ! ('des taupes flinguées/déglinguées')

Sorry Tresco, forgot to ask you, any short O'Brien book to recommend for pleasant reading ?

While I'm on here, before I toddle off to the woods with my dog and then prepare la popotte for tonight, I'd like to share with you the following: - Tomorrow Saturday, on FranceInter 17h00 (French time), programme on John Lennon (with Y. Ono), the host is American, her name escapes me but she is excellent, all her musical and non-musical programmes (often on American/UK topics) on FranceInter are well worth listening to. - Tomorrow as well on TF1 Reportages, 30 minutes on a very very strange Canadian custom which I remember reading about a while ago, called 'le grand chambranle' (French-Canadian for 'the great move' I presume -'branle' means 'on the move' in French but 'chambranle' only means 'the door frame') where 100's of 1000's of lodgers and tenants have to move out of their digs at the same time, very strange ! Often worth it to hear their charming accents... - The film 'Ascenseur pour l'échaffaud' on Arte next thursday with Jeanne Moreau, great film.

Thanks for your kind PM. I am sorry to hear about Alexis's current predicament, obviously it was not in my intention to bring her to the fore in such difficult circumstances. I, too, am going through difficult times at the minit, of which I sketchily outlined the nature of recently on here, anyway, one often sees one's own matters in a 'different' light as you put it, but I, for one, like the fact that, unlike other forums, this forum is a relative heaven of peace where people can debate, and passionately at times, without resorting to facile insults. As to the 'there were no complaints, so let's do nothing about it' bit, maybe so, but most probably because it is such a rarely visited and 'viewed' rubric, and that is a shame. Anyhow in the light of your information I will of course close the matter here (so NO to the question in yr PM), on va pas en faire un Munster, c'est pas mon genre.  As for the French café in other forums, thanks for the Info, I've never visited Total France, we have got plenty of SKAWU's (So Knowledgeable And Witty Users) and learners of French here, why don't we start one of our own, could benefit many many people and learners alike, beginners, Intermediates and Advanced ones as well. So, do I detect some reticence to allow one from Admin here, or would you be all for it Russethouse ?