Clarkkent

I have had both tarot and belotte explained to me. Tarot is whist with a few extra cards. Belotte is totally impenetrable, is played in bars and involves shouting and banging the table.   As far as bridge is concerned, I have made grown men cry with both my bidding and card play. I ceased to to take it seriously after seeing a feature film based on "The likely Lads".  

A thought, Agenais, (possibly heretical): do you think your perceptions would be similar had you moved from a French inner city environment to, say, Herefordshire? The English part of my life is spent in an attractive village with a strong sense of community in middle England where I have generous and friendly neighbours. It is a good place to be. Almost half the houses in my little French village are second homes - with British and French owners. My neighbours are friendly and kind. It, too, is a good place to be. Many of the postings about life in France try to compare UK urban with French rural conditions. I wonder whether such comparisons are valid. ... isnt bridge a major cause of domestic violence?  

I would say that there are many qualities of rural French life that are similar to those of bygone UK days, (which were not always the good old times).  That's only our experience.  Having moved from a large inner city area in the UK where I was not happy to walk around in the day, let alone at night.  I feel safer here, wether I actually am or not, I can't answer that.  Any one of us, in any town village or rural retreat, throughout the world, could be a victim of violence or crime at any given time.    The Agenais is a wonderful, peaceful country where people get on with their lives and live in harmony with nature and the seasons ... ... it is also an area where in the last 20 years two young girls have disappeared. Magali's body was discovered eventually, but Marion has never been found. SB's observations about communication are very true. I have come across several people who believe that rural France is a "safe" place for children - based on little more than the inability to obtain reliable information due to their linguistic incompetence.  

The following is taken from the Home Office website and so can be assumed to authoritative. It seems pretty clear to me     http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind/en/home/applying/british_nationality/advice_about_nationality/bn1_-_british_citizenship.html?    People who are closely connected with the United Kingdom (including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) and, in most cases, the British overseas territories ... are British citizens. British citizens have the right to live here permanently and are free to leave and re-enter the United Kingdom at any time.      

As the owner of a second home in France may I say that I would not expect ANY special treatment simply because I do not use my house all the year round. I bought my house knowing what were the responsibilities of ownership and accept that it is my choice that I do not live in it full-time. I am therefore totally prepared to pay the full amount of local taxes. There are so many posts on this site from people whining that they have to pay for a tv licence when they don't watch French tv - this thread is a variation on the same theme. If you want a house in France then you must pay the appropriate cost.  

Bottled water is a marketer’s dream and one of the great paradoxes of our age: why would anyone willingly pay a surcharge of up to 5,000% merely because the product is obtained from a supermarket shelf? Why reject mains water which is subject to statutory control in favour of water which may be subject to none?   Some bottled water is sourced from mains supplies. Remember the stuff which Coca Cola were trying to sell a couple of years ago?   Over the years, various analyses show that mains water in western countries is generally consistent in quality whereas bottled water may vary from acceptable (equivalent to mains water) to dangerous. Some samples of bottled water have shown high levels of uranium and many show much higher levels of bacteria than tap water (you makes your choice – faint chorine taste and virtually no bacteria, or no chlorine and lots of bacteria.)   I remember seeing a tv programme in which an analyst opined that any baby fed with formula made up with bottled water should be placed on the at risk register. A little extreme? Remember: “Evian” spelt backwards is “naïve.”

[quote]Hello I don't think women should work. Their place is in the home looking after their families. If more women took the responsibility of looking after their children then there may be a drop in crime...[/quote] ... and I suppose modern chimney design prevents children from being usefully employed ...

I had a vasectomy about 20 years ago - in England. I went along to see my GP and he gave me a list of phone numbers of clinics (Marie Stopes etc) and suggested I enquire about the "snip of the week". In the end I had it done by another GP. It took half an hour, was painless under local anaesthesia, and I went back to work afterwards. I suffered little discomfort (although for a few days the left side of my scrotum would have won prizes in the aubergine section of the local produce show.) Female sterilisation is invasive and relatively difficult. Male sterilisation in relatively simple. I suspect that many French people imagine it involves the use of bricks.

One small point, jimlaw. On retirement at 60 the DHSS (or whatever it is now) will credit you with NI contributions until you receive your state pension at 65 ... ... if you remain resident in the United Kingdom. If you move to France your state pension will not be maximised.

I have taken the following from a website found in Google by searching on "Spanish surname"   Traditionally, if John Smith and Nancy Jones, who live in an English-speaking country, get married and have a child, he or she would end up with a name such as Chris Smith. But it's not the same in most areas where Spanish is spoken as the native language. If Juan López Marcos marries María Covas Callas, their child would end up with a name such as Mario López Covas. The matter of Spanish surnames might seem confusing at first, but that's mostly because it's different. Although there are numerous variations of how names are handled, just as there can be in English, the basic rule of Spanish names is fairly simple: In general, a person born into a Spanish-speaking family is given a first name followed by two surnames, the first being the father's family name (or, more precisely, the surname he gained from his father) followed by the mother's family name (or, again more precisely, the surname she gained from her father). Take as an example the name of Teresa García Ramírez. Teresa is the name given at birth, García is the family name from her father, and Ramírez is the family name from her mother. If Teresa García Ramírez marries Elí Arroyo López, she doesn't change her name. But it would be extremely common for her to add "de Arroyo" (literally, "of Arroyo"), making her name Teresa García Ramírez de Arroyo. Sometimes, the two surnames can be separated by y (meaning "and"), although this is less common than it used to be: Elí Arroyo y López.   Spain is another country. They do things differently there!

It's not "brit bashing" - it's cheaper to just bar risky people now rather than deal with possibly infected blood in your banks. It depends how you define "cheaper" and "risky". Since the first identified death from vCJD in 1995 there have been 156 deaths in the UK and 12 in France. According to a study reported in New Scientist there may be no more than 40 deaths still to come. Figures such as these do not fill me with the fear that Britons are walking time bombs ready to inflict dreadful death on anyone receiving products made from their blood. My judgement would be that the benefits obtained from blood available from British donors would be considerable.

There probably is an element of Brit bashing in the French government's approach to this, but there is real caution to prevent a repeat of the catastrophe of the HIV-infected blood banks of about 15 years ago. The incidence of vCJD appears to be declining in the UK - possibly to levels existing in France.   A farmer, Mark Purdey, believes that BSE (and hence vCJD) is due to supersonic aircraft and a visit to his website ( www.markpurdey.com  ) will entertain (?) you with charts showing the correlation between Concorde flight paths and BSE outbreaks in France and Britain.  

... off on a tangent ... The Road Fund was abolished by the Finance Act of 1936. Since then tax payable on the ownership of motor vehicles has not been hypothecated and goes into Treasury funds and is formally Vehicle Excise Duty. I suspect that most users of this forum were born well after 1936 but continue to use the term "Road Fund Licence". Is there any other piece of redundant motoring lore which has lasted so long?  

So the fault lay with the airport, and not the airline.  I'm not knocking Ryanair, you get what you pay for 99% of the time.  It's just when you happen to be in that other 1%.....   But isn't this the problem? You ARE getting what you pay for  ...  one of the reasons Ryanair is low cost is that they are using cheap airports - ie airports which are not equipped to high specifications - and which probably have short runways which mean that they cannot be used in marginal weather conditions. Ryanair - rightly - are playing safe and don't land .... The inadequacies of the airport have always been there for all to see. Ryanair chose to use it.

 ... a 15 foot Kryptonite cable ... I don't like this. It's getting personal.

Hello Harley. Thank you for your reply - I confess that I did misunderstand the opening of your posting: I suspect I was concentrating on the words rather than looking for a context. My limited observations of the French in these respects suggest that intolerance and prejudice of race may be just below the surface. I think that the public face of Britain is trying hard to integrate minorities/ethnic groups into everyday life. I'm not sure this happening in France - when I'm in France I watch French tv, I'm not at all sure I am aware of many black or brown faces (there is the chap that does the meteo on TF1). I recall that after a French football team won the World Cup there was bemusement (for want of a better word) at the proportion of ethnic north Africans in the team. Over the years I have sometimes been surprised at the hostility  shown to non-Caucasians in conversation with French people (but then, you get this with British people, too.) I hope that you can receive some authentic French responses. As an afterthought - my perception of towns like Leicester and Bradford, and places like Wembley and Hounslow, is that a sizeable proportion of the immigrant population has "broken through" into the "middle classes". Does anyone know anywhere in France that is similar?    

How many riots will there be in the UK do you think, about cancelling town Christmas lights and Carol services because it might offend someone of a different religion?  I hate racism and don't condone it in any way but is it the man in the street who causes it, or is the short sighted behaviour of our politicians.  Perhaps the French are only looking to the UK to see the result of letting your Politicians go too far with "political correctness".  I have come to live in France and in doing so will endeavour to respect their laws, their people and the fact that they are a predominantly Catholic country.  I will not try to impose my beliefs and religion on them.  Are French people worried that if you give an inch, a mile will be taken?  When there are still people living in property with dirt floors, it's no wonder they want what little there is, to be spent on there own people first, is it?  Have we had a French point of view yet? I'm sorry, Harley, this is not a French point of view.  I don't understand what you are trying to say. Could you possibly tell me which towns are cancelling Christmas lights and carol services? And what information do you have about anticipated riots because of this? I wish I knew what people really mean when they mention "political correctness". The term certainly seems to have come a long way since it was invented on American university campuses in the 1970s. Is it politically correct, for instance, that UK television has black and Asian presenters and newsreaders (some even women) who appear to be as competent as their white counterparts? Is it politically correct that black and Asian doctors are becoming consultants?(After all, Britain's best known - knighted - cardio-thoracic surgeon was born in Egypt.) I know that Britain still has a long way to go in order to ensure that membership of an ethnic minority should be invisible in everyday life, but I also believe that there are a significant number of influential people around who are trying to ensure that Britain is a fair society. Despite your disavowal, I think that the sentiments expressed in your two penultimate sentences are potentially racist.  

So Sarko has threatened to expel all "estranges" involved in the disturbances, even those with French residency permits. He said that Some of those held were non French nationals but he didn't appear to know how many. Le Pen must be rubbing his hands together in glee (as will some of the far right on this forum I expect!). Or perhaps Le Pen may be furious that someone from main stream politics is marginalising him. Can he do this? So if it's a minor, does the whole family get expelled? Wouldn't it contravene EU laws? And, if it happened, wouldn't it exacabate the situation? Citizenship and residence is entirely within the gift of the French government and remains so after being granted. Don't forget that a permit is only that - permission at the government's pleasure - and can be withdrawn. Citizenship is a privilege not a right. States reserve to themselves the absolute right to say who can and who cannot live within their borders. Citizenship which has been acquired by naturalisation can be revoked - and those whose citizenship is consequent upon acquisition by someone else can also have their's revoked.  The EU is only concerned with the free movement of labour. The European Convention on Human Rights might be appropriate.  

There is a large fabric shop with a huge range of materials in Agen on the Avenue du Docteur Jean Bru. This is the dual carriageway between the N113 (coming from Toulouse, Valence d' Agen etc) and the road to the autoroute and the shop is almost opposite the rugby stadium. There are a Halle de Vetements and a Halle de Chaussures on the same site. Access to these shops is only possible from the southbound carriageway.  

I'm sure it's really swings and roundabouts and good reasearch. I have just bought a camera from ebuyer - the same model from play.com is shown as £70 more than I paid.

Not so sure about degrees from the UK being valued in France. My wife (who's french) has a 2:1 in English and Business Studies from an British University but was told that this was not even the equivalent of a licence and that she would have to complete several modules in order to bring it up to this level!!  This sounds to me like unfounded French arrogance. There is supposed to be parity of standards between countries at graduate level. Moreover, this does not explain the increasing numbers of French and German students in British universities. One reason for the younger graduation age in British universities is the level of learning support students receive from their institutions as demonstrated by class sizes, tutor approachability, learning resources. The great majority of students complete their courses in the minimum time feasible. When I taught in a UK university business school it was axiomatic that we - staff and students - were all members of a single academic community and lecturers were there to help students learn. Even when efficiency-driven policies drove up student staff ratios no student seeking individual help was ever turned away. My understanding of French universities is that they are rather soulless places where students are anonymous. They are also of lower status than grandes ecoles.

Well, Rob S, you come from Birmingham and that qualifies you as arbiter of all things Brummie? If you look at what I originally wrote you will see that nowhere did I use the word "riot". The observation about drug dealers came from a BBC report. Your comment about The Sun and The Daily Mail is snide. For the record, my original contribution was (intended to be) a lament about the way in which perceived injustices which are racial in origin seem to result in rapid descents into mob violence. This happened in Birmingham and it happened in Paris.

There are apparent parallels with the disturbances in Birmingham last week. In both cases, it seems, the behaviour was the consequence of perceived "injustices" against one or other ethnic faction. In the case of Birmingham a report of a supposed rape on a pirate radio station. The result? Action based on racial solidarity rather than reason. Ironically, in Birmingham peaceable behaviour was restored at the behest of drug dealers - who find a high level of police presence bad for trade. The race relations model of disadvantaged Los Angeles is being adopted world wide. (Did anyone hear the interview of Trevor Phillips by John Humphrys on Radio 4 this morning?)

If you live and work in England - borrow the money in England. If you live and work in France - borrow in France. Always borrow where your income is - you will be protected against currency value changes while you are repaying the mortgage/loan. In addition, if you use UK income to service a French loan then you will have the constant ongoing cost of currency transfer to deal with. If you borrow in England - with a loan agreement written in English - it is also probable that that you will fully understand the conditions under which you are borrowing. In the early/mid 1990s a large number of British people had to offload their French properties when, because of large fluctuations in the value of the pound against the franc, they found they could not afford to service their seemingly cheap French loans.    

Normally it takes 4-5 days for me. It IS a terribly long way across the channel, you know! I even get stuff from the Colorado in about a week. Sigh! But do you know whether they are coming from England? A few months ago I ordered a couple of books from Amazon.uk., in English, published by a UK publisher. Close scrutiny of the packaging showed that they had been sent from Germany!