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Patmobile

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    All those locked posts

    in The Complete France Post Bag

    Posted

    [quote user="Quillan"]

    [quote user="Patmobile"]I'm surprised this post hasn't been locked!

    Patrick

    [/quote]

    I am sorry I don't understand, could you expand your comment a bit please.

    [/quote]

    I was just joking.  Sorry if I hit a nerve.

    Actually I was really interested in the topic of  the Capital Gains Tax

    loophole, since I live in France, earn my living here, pay tax here,

    and I'm about to sell a property in UK.  I'll look forward to this

    topic being re-opened in due course, either the original post, or a new

    one.

    Patrick

    Cheese etiquette

    in The Complete France Post Bag

    Posted

    [quote user="Opas"]So which shape of cheese am I `allowed` to grate?[8-)][/quote]

    Not sure!  But there is a round cheese called Tete de Moine (monks head) from which you are supposed to take circular shavings from the top.  There is usually a special tool provided for the task

    Patrick

    Linguists have different brains?!

    in The Complete France Post Bag

    Posted

    [quote user="Bassman"] 

    Hmmmmmmm    OK I play Guitar, bass and sing in bands and have done for ... ooooh too many years [;-)] While my French is rubbish  it would seem my accent is OK cos' the few things I can say are usually understood ...and here's the rub ....they then assume I can speak French well and continue in rapid fire French that just goes straight over my head [:-))]  a bit slower and I might understand it[:D] so I have come to the conclusion that a good accent can be a hinderance if your vocabulary is limited [:D]

    Our neighbour rattles away to me in French(or is it Breton[:-))]) and I'm totally lost but when she's speaking to MOH (whose French is waay better than mine) I can understand quite a bit of it [:)] I'm improving but it seems when I learn something new it pushes something old out [8-)]

    [/quote]

    I've studied your case, Mr. Bassman, and have come to the conclusion that your problem is twofold:

    1)  Your head is full of little round yellow faces

    2)  With your rock & roll lifestyle, you may have unwittingly been subjected to "passive smoking" of some dodgy substances.

    There is little we brain surgeons can do about either of these ailments, but I suggest you play your guitar only outdoors in future, and take an Alka-Seltzer or 2 if the little men don't go away.

    Patrick

    Germans

    in B&B/Chambres d'Hôtes Owners

    Posted

    No Germans around here, even though we do some gite advertising in German, and give German as one of our spoken languages.

    We see loads of Belgians and Dutch, though, even though the latter seem to prefer camping and caravanning to staying in luxurious rented cottages.

    Perhaps they are just counting the Germans who pass through France (many in coaches) on their way to Spain, or is there a secret invasion going on?

    Patrick

     

    What is great about France?

    in The Complete France Post Bag

    Posted

    I just watched BBC news on TV and saw that Tom Jones got a knighthood.  That's one of the best things about France - no titles for anybody, and certainly none for nobodies.

    It's always been a mystery to me how the talentless gargoyle ever got a record made, let alone managed to sell any.

    You don't think he paid Blair a few hundred thousand, do you?

    Patrick

    Picardy

    in North East (Champagne-Ardennes, Lorraine, Alsace)

    Posted

    Picardie covers an enormous area, but if you've got the choice of where to go, why not have a look at Chantilly?

    It's a nice town in a pleasant area not too far from Paris and close to airports, railway links, etc.  The inhabitants seem pretty well off and there are loads of recreational facilities.  It has a spectacular chateau, parks and open spaces, golf courses, a race course and good shops and restaurants.

    Alternatively, what about Compiegne, for pretty much the same reasons?

    It might be a bit expensive to live in either of these places, though.

    Patrick

    Time Zones

    in The Complete France Post Bag

    Posted

    What's even more confusing is that in my house in 62 the bathwater (well, shower-water, actually) runs down the drain clockwise, whereas in the house in 80 in seems to prefer anti-clockwise.  Years ago I was taught about something called the Coriolis Effect which is caused by the Earth's rotation, and which, among other things, makes water run out clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise south of the equator.

    This means that the Bay of the Somme is now in the southern hemisphere and that the equator runs through Le Touquet.

    The earth has obviously tilted on its axis and, as a result, you may not now be South of where you thought you were, but actually East of it.

    Patrick

    Au Restaurant

    in French Language

    Posted

    [quote user="Clair"]OK let's clear this up before there is even more confusion.

    In a restaurant context:

    "ça a été?" = "was it OK?"

    "ça y est" or "ça y était" = "    have you finished" but this would be very familiar, something you would say to a child who's keeping you waiting, not something I'd like to hear as a client in a restaurant.

    [/quote]

    Clair, thanks for the explanation

    Obviously all the waiters around here speak much worse French than you.  Where are their manners?

    Patrick

    Au Restaurant

    in French Language

    Posted

    Am I the only one who thinks Rough Guide got it right?  (and you're all wrong!)

    While you are eating the waiter might ask "Ça y

    est?" meaning roughly "Is it OK?"

    After you have finished he might ask "Ça y était?"

    or "Was it OK?"

    It's just the same thing in the past tense.

    Patrick

    Lourdes Miracle Problems

    in The Complete France Post Bag

    Posted

    It seems that sometimes, possibly, sick people get better after visiting Lourdes.  This is put down, by Catholic christians, anyway, as the intervention of God.  But since God was specifically invented by humans to explain the inexplicable, it can be no surprise that when something apparently "miraculous" happens, he is held by the church to have been responsible.

    Why do people of no particular religious faith, as well as people who have never been to Lourdes, also recover from illnesses against all medical expectations?  Can't we stop looking for answers in ancient mythology and get on with searching for the truth about creation, and the creator if any, by studying the universe using the best tool we have for the purpose - the human brain?  We may never know even a tiny fraction of the truth, but at least we'll have made an honest effort to find out, instead of accepting blindly the least likely story, even if it may have some superficially attractive elements.

    It would probably be a good thing for humanity, although only a small step forward for mankind, if Lourdes were to be finally, completely and irrefutably debunked as a site of "miracles".  If the Catholic church really cared about the truth, they would denounce the place themselves.

    Patrick      

    What's the point of living north of the Loire?

    in The Complete France Post Bag

    Posted

    I like it here in the North - but I realise I might feel an irresistible urge to move further south when I become very old - a common symptom of oncoming senile dementia , I'm told .

    Anyway, I can keep my holiday gites full from 25 to 30+ weeks a year.  I don't see the point of having assets that only work for 10 - 15 weeks out of 52, but I gather that that's what happens down there in those parts of the country where it's frozen solid in winter and baked to a crisp in the summer.  I understand they get a few weeks of bearable weather down there during March and October.

    Also the food is better up north, the golf courses are better, the beaches aren't polluted and, of course, the people we meet still have all their marbles and can get around without zimmer frames.

    Patrick

    Idiots on AI

    in The Complete France Post Bag

    Posted

    [quote user="Will the Conqueror"]

    I have to say that I didn't particularly like Nick's use of the word 'idiots' in the original posting,.....

    [/quote]

    It was certainly provocative - and we should remember that idiots are everywhere, not just on the aforementioned  forum (allegedly).

    I have never bothered buying a copy of France magazine, because they  sent me a complimentary copy a couple of years ago and the first thing I read was an article about the Pas-de-Calais by some idiot who obviously hadn't actually bothered to go there and look around before writing it.

    Patrick

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