The Riff-Raff Element

[quote user="Logan"].... that's why countries need leaders who are brave enough to force through change in the teeth of opposition. It's called leadership.[:)] [/quote] Forcing things through against the majority wishes of those who elected you? I thought that was called dictatorship...[:)]

Well, there's some pretty sensible comments here. For this site. [:)] Leaving the goat to one side (and don't forget to tether it with a stout chain - never be tempted to use a rope because the little blighter will eat it), the major advantage I could see with rebuilding on an existing footprint - be this a renovation or a complete knock down and reconstruation - is that you will probably get a lot more space on an established plot. Now that building land is more highly valued, and planning permissions a little more rigorous than they were, plots tend to be smaller. Generous perhaps by UK standards, but not huge. If space is not a factor you are concerned about then I would concur that a "new" plot and a modern build (you would be able to much of the internal work yourself, by the sounds of it) may well be the better option in cost terms. If you were prepared to buy in hay for the goat then I reckon you could keep it (and a suitable goaty friend) on two paddocks of about 500m2 each, rotating to avoid over grazing the pasture. That could be next door, of course. Not part of the building plot. EDIT: A friend who is better informed than I (this is not difficult) tells me that my €25,000 for 700m2 is on the high side and that €25 per square meter is more realistic.

[quote user="Ian"] But it is alot for a "shed" and a goat.  Even a very good Vendee goat. [/quote] One should never knock a Vendéen goat. Good sturdy things. Very short-tempered though. €30,000 does sound cheap though. Building plots around here (just outside Fontenay) are going for €25000 for around 700m2 hors services such as power, water, drains, etc. If it were me I'd at least look at the details and then talk around the neighbours to see if you can find the fatal flaw - planned chemical weapons dump next door, site of a new artillary range, that sort of thing.

[quote user="sweet 17"]I have seen fresh and cooked meats being sold side by side in shops and market stalls.  Worried as I am about this, I have avoided buying cooked meats displayed in this way. Is there any real need to worry?  If there is, then why is this "allowed" and why aren't droves of French people writhing about in agony after ingesting such meat products? [/quote] When norovirus took hold in France at the end of Novemeber last year a certain section of the British press gloatingly reported that this was due to poor hygiene in French food shops.  Now that around 3 million UK residents have had the D&Vs they've quietened down (difficult to talk and puke at the same time you see). Personally, I wouldn't worry about it too much. French friends and neighbours tell me that shopkeepers who fail to take good care quickly cease having any business to care about... Most food poisoning is passed through the oral-faecal route. That is, poor handwashing is to blame. Raw meat if properly handled is not intrinsically a source of infection - witness the many people who eat raw beef in one guise or another (sometimes mixed with a raw egg), underdone lamb or barely warmed duck and completely fail to die. Where proper precautions are observed, there is no reason not to sell the raw and the cooked together.

[quote user="Russethouse"]I'm in Berkshire, within a spit of the Oxfordshire border (in fact it used to go through this house). Isn't the story the same in France though - your experience depends very much on where you live. [/quote] Did they split the rates out of curiosity?

[quote user="Tresco"][quote user="SaligoBay"]  But have you seen them? Such quality!!!! ;-)[/quote] Yeah. I love anything with black and yellow stripes. Reminds me of my Haçienda days.[:D] [/quote] I think that the ones up near Chinon are nicer than the Gironde ones - far too moderne for my taste. The Loire collection have a far more Olde Worlde feel about them. And a certain amount of cracked concrete, which may or may not be important. Having given the matter an appropriate amount of thought I think that the single most significant improvement in my QOL is that I don't have to get up at 5.45am in the middle of winter to go to work. I can if I want to, but I don't have to, and sometimes I do just to remind myself of how little I like doing it.Summer is fine, but winter, no. But I am very, very shallow. Deeply shallow, in fact.

[quote user="raindog"][quote user="The Riff-Raff Element"] Certainly none of my friends and neighbours are complaining about having too much filthy lucre. [/quote] Too much? Just wondering if they could slip a bit my way....[:D] [/quote] If they ever get any I'll let you know. One thing that did interest me, talking to one of my friends who farms, is that for the first time in living memory (I exagerate perhaps) the farming sector is feeling optimistic. He had been drinking at the time, hence the unguarded comment. The combination of high grain prices, the abolition of set-aside for this coming season and continuing increases in demand from China appearantly mean that the French farming sector could have a real bumper year (spare me the comments about subsidies please) and could pay down quite a lot of debt that has been dogging the indusrty for years. Some farmers are even agitating for an end to the CAP...

A friend of ours had something very similar broken up and carted away to make space for a swimming pool. The contractor was SARL E.M.B.I. based in Fontenay, tel. 02 51 50 25 08. The propriator is Mr Martineau.

[quote user="LanguedocGal"][quote user="The Riff-Raff Element"] I kept asking him why if the French economy was such a basket case her GDP was one of the world's largest. This he was unable to answer. I've asked the same question to quite a lot of people and no-one has ever been able to explain this paradox to me. I would genuinely like to know. The money must be coming from somewhere. [/quote] Surprised a merchant banker didn't offer any theories. A few I've heard bandied about include the economy being propped up for a while now by a number of very well performing private multinationals (some heavily state aided) and Public Companies allowed to compete internationally with non state aided foreign companies, as well as much Disneyland  Public Accounts (That made me laugh[:D]). With what I've learnt since my return, the perceived state of being 'better off' that many state on this forum, is a huge mystery to me too, as far as the average French population is concerned. That's not to compare it to any other country, as that doesn't really make any difference to the plight of people here. I don't doubt for one minute that the expats have a fabulous time if they don't have to worry about the little things like paying rent (assuming you can get someone to rent to you), paying mortgages, finding a job even if you are highly qualified, getting small luxuries on credit and so forth. [/quote] Oh he offered theories, but they were pretty flimsy and none really amounted to an explanation. Not one that bore cursory scrutiny, anyway. I don't know what your experience is like of merchant bankers but they quite often appear disturbingly ignorant. Disturbing in that they have control of my much of my pension pot and they have a habit of getting involved in things that they seemingly don't understand - derivative intsruments based on ropey debt, weather futures (big with Enron those were) and that sort of thing. I"m sure the average French person on an average income probably dosen't feel particularly well off, no more than an average Brit (not since getting credit for those "small luxuries" became a bit more tricky), American, German, Spaniard or Italian would. Certainly none of my friends and neighbours are complaining about having too much filthy lucre.

Sort of related - I had a drink with an acquaintance before Christmas who has for some years worked at one of the larger merchant banks. You know - those people whose expert judgement and stewardship of the sub-prime debt market has been so beneficial to the wider economy over the last few months and are always telling governement that they need less regulation to allow them to continue their good works. Anyway, he spent at least an hour lecturing me about how the French economy is a dog's breakfast and the only way forward is to privatise EDF, SNCF, etc, etc. What he actually meant was that banks like his had had to reduce their bonus pool this year and they could really do with some extra easy money - either from fees for their sage advice in carrying out the privatisation or from being able to buy French state assets nice and cheap for a quick resale profit. I kept asking him why if the French economy was such a basket case her GDP was one of the world's largest. This he was unable to answer. I've asked the same question to quite a lot of people and no-one has ever been able to explain this paradox to me. I would genuinely like to know. The money must be coming from somewhere.

Perhaps they could be compelled to present the all inclusive price up front with a set of tick boxes for those who didn't require certain services (cabin air supply, lavatory access, etc) to delete them. That way the airlines should have a defendable position, muppets like me who actually want to know the all-in price straight away wouldn't be confused and those with a brain cell could take standing room and a plastic bag or something. I like the train so much more.

Personally I think he's a very clever, ruthless and effective politician. At the moment most of the media are excessively diverted by his relationship with that rather funny looking creature. So diverted, in fact, that they are paying virtually no attention to what else he is up to. This should allow him to quietly get all kinds of things done while everyone is looking the other way. In fact, I think it entirely possible that the Carla B circus might be allowed to run for a month or so then - oh la la - they go their separate ways. She gets a great career boost, he gets lots of arkward stuff done on the QT. Nobody hurt; everybody happy. It would be a mistake to write off someone that cunning too quickly. I did like his bit about eliminating adverts on France 2 and other state channels. The shares of TF1 and M6 took a real hike when it appeared that they might be the only game in town in a few months time. Did I dream it, or is the boss at TF1 his best mate?

[quote user="Charlotte3"]"No one should expect to go to a new country and  to have it changed  to fit in with them , they should learn to fit in with the country they have moved to.  NO? I have no problems with any one living where they want as long as they dosnt affect the natives in a negative way."   Exactly what happenned with the teddy bear.....silly woman!  She was very lucky. Aly [/quote] Well, that's a very fair point. It wouldn't have taken her a great deal of research to discover that this was a grave taboo. A bit like deficating in the streets might be in London, but in Khartoum I can atest that happens a great deal. Would that be worth 15 days in jug in the UK? I think it might. Does English law accept ignorance as a defence? No. Khartoum I recall (the tourist office was closed so I couldn't get any brochures you understand) has a population of over 8 million. A few thousand out of 8 million? A bit like the aftermarth of a Millwall home game in the 70s then.

If the gite is on another site and is not attached to your home then normally taxe professionale would replace taxe d'habitation on the gite. If on the other hand you are paying both taxe prof and taxe hab on the gite then something has probably gone awry. That's how it works here, anyway.

[quote user="Sprogster"]I believe the OECD survey relates to primary and secondary education up to the age of eighteen. In this area the Americans know their public school system is pants and therefore if you have money in America you send your kids to private school. Where the USA comes into its own is the quality of its college/university educational system after the age of eighteen. [/quote] Pretty much a mirror image of what happens in the UK and, to a lesser extent, France, then. Except that in Europe the public school system still manages to deliver reasonable quality output, if this survey is any guide at all, that is. I can't help feeling that ignoring a public school system and depending on an educated elite for the future prosperity of an economy might be...shortsighted? Fact or myth: is the French system better? I'd say that it is pointless to compare at primary and secondary level, myself, as the cultural differences - particularly language - make finding a consistent basis for evaluation nigh on impossible. And if the approach is flawed, we can't have a lot of faith in the output. A better guide might be adult literacy and numeracy, I suppose. Perhaps someone measures these?

Hang on - where is the USA in all of this? The US is the most technologically and economically advanced nation on Earth and yet it canot make the top 25 in any of these measures? That is staggering. Hard to believe in fact. Either this OECD ranking is a pile of pants or the Western World - France included - is making a serious error in trying to be more like the US of A. Mind you, after the OECD report showing Britain to be the worst place on Earth in which to bring up children, lagging significantly the Central African Republic, Burma and North Korea (as I recall - I may be hazy on the details here) I find it difficult to endow much of what they say with credence.

[quote user="Frederick"]......   lets face it  if you were fed on moules and frites or steak burger and frites  followed by a choice of chocolate whip ....apple tart. or creme caramel . and given a baguette and jam for breakfast every day  for a year or two  and  three or four channels of French TV to watch in the cell .......who would want to commit a crime ever again ? .......... [/quote] Well the food might be quite an incentive to knock off a post office or two just to get back inside, but French TV should act as a pretty stiff deterrent. Have you seen the pile of poo on Star Ac this year? Even my children, who will normally watch anything that they are allowed, wearing expressions that suggest their brains are leaking out of their ears on occasion, have declined this season's offering. Mind you, if the French health service can now make money by encouraging people to come over here and use the spare hospital beds then prison cells look like a logical next step. How in keeping with the new entrepreneurial spirit that would be...

[quote user="Val_2"]Everyone seems to have forgotten that opening 7/24 or near enough would result in horrendous huge social charges for the shop owners and is just not viable,hence what has happened with the 35hour week whereby so many more jobs were supposed to have been created but were not because the social charges already cripple the bosses so there is no extra left to take on more staff.  I personally hope that France never opens on a Sunday or late night,it would ruin what is left of quality family time and we have seen the consequences of that in the UK.[/quote] Well, that is rather the key isn't it? France is hardly flush with people frustrated at being unable to spend more of their money and unable to do so because the shops don't open long enough. The UK experience, which I know the French have examined as part of the process of liberalising their own regimes, suggests that longer opening hours mostly have the effects of shutting down town centre shops, putting ever more trade into the hands of a few large retailers and increasing traffic (and pollution) as people drive to the edge of towns and cities to do their shopping rather then nipping round the corner for a pint of milk. Worse for the consummer is that once the big boys and their deep pockets have beaten every one else out of the marketplace - because they are the only ones who can carry the increased labour costs without the increased revenue to cover them - they jack up prices to recover their outlays. Food price inflation is around, what, 12% or so in the UK and the supers are reporting ever better profits. Then they cut employment because their shear size allows them tremendous efficiency. Of course, once the genie is out of the bottle it is a real b****r trying to get it back in. The govt in the UK make occasional bleating noises about competition in the retail sector but can't really do much about the situation - they are comprehensively snookered. Which is why the French (the Europeans in general, in fact) are so happy to let other nations try things first, see what happens, and follow it it looks sensible. I have a feeling that a French economist recently published a tome about the great benefits of being second. I don't think we can really expect the retail sector to be the solution to France's employment woes somehow.

[quote user="raindog"][quote user="TreizeVents"]   I just can't figure out why you don't all know this is happening, or have never seen a burnt out car.  I really did think this was common knowledge. [/quote] So did I........ good googling TreizeVents [/quote] It may be common knowledge, but I still can't answer my own my own question: is it a comparitively "big" problem or a "small" one? Is 40,000 burned out cars a lot in a modern, forward looking European state, or not? I've googled (and even yahooed, which just cannot be a proper word) every set of key words I can think off, but have as yet been able to find a comparable figure for the UK or Germany or Italy, for example. Where I lived in London (which I like to think was quite a "nice" area) we got about two burned out wrecks a month, which seemed about normal to me on my strolls around. Extrapolating this to the whole of London in an extremely ropey fashion based on estimating the size of the area I knew intimately to cover the whole of the Capital suggests about 25000 cars torched per year for London. But I have no real idea. Someone must record this sort of stuff.

[quote user="Bones"] This is why I'm all for unbridled immigration. Here we have a group of kids whose parents are pushing them to learn, whilst so many of our kids take education for granted and prefer happy slapping their way through adolescence. [/quote] Now that is a good point! During the mid to late 1980's when I was just but a scruffy little urchin, one of the mottos that used to appear with high frequency on the banners of assorted student demos was "Education is a Right Not a Privilege." Actually some of them spelt it “privilage”, but that’s by-the-by. I used to go along to meet new people as most of the most passionate brandishers of said banners were unfamiliar faces not generally seen in the dull environs of a lecture theatre, and it did rather occur to me that the motto was complete rot. Even if it is offered free, offered by right and offered to all, an education is still a privilege

[quote user="raindog"][quote user="Sprogster"]This statistic is not anti French propaganda as it was given by by the French National Chief of Police! [/quote] Absolutely right. The guy who gave the figures on tv last night was connected with the police. If you read the odd newspaper, listen to the news and keep your ears open the information is there for everyone. If you prefer to live in a snuggly cocoon that's your choice. Jesus, I only posted yesterday to recommend a really interesting French tv programme - sorry to burst everyone's cosy bubble. "To me, this smacks of the typical "Slag off France" sensationalistic journalism one has come to expect by Left Wing organisations like the BBC et al." [8-)] the bbc? This was on French tv last night, or do French police officials rely on the bbc for information? [/quote] Personally I'm not questioning the figures. I just want to know if 9000 or 36000 or 40000 or how ever many have been set fire to is a lot in context or not very many at all. Thanks for the document link gluestick...it was...complicated. I wonder what their Chritsmas party is like.

[quote user="Bugbear"] What on earth does an average of 100 cars a day mean and what is it based on. [/quote] And if it is 36-40000 cars per year, is this a lot? Numbers like this are meaningless when presented in the absence of contextual information. France may be top of the European car-torching league, she may be middling or she could be languishing at the bottom of the table just below Plucky Little Belgium. We cannot tell. Does anyone else even keep a tally?

This is just an observation you understand, but has anyone else noticed that it always seems to be in the Northern quarter of France that these things happen? Whenever someone is arrested for dismembering three of their neighbours and burying them under the patio it all to often seems to be in the Pays de Calais, Somme, Oise, Meuse, Moselle or, as this time, somewhere in the Alsace. Is it something to do with the diet? Perhaps some kind of phycosis brought on by eating fermented cabbage? Someone should look into it.

[quote user="Frenchie"][quote user="Alan Zoff"]L'herbe est plus verte toujours[/quote] Oui, l'herbe est toujours plus verte de l autre coté de la barrière............. [;-)] [/quote] But usually because it rains more over there...

[quote user="Georgina"]...for their annual croissant orders for the school.... [/quote] Don't you find that the croissants go a bit stale after a couple of months? [8-)]