Chancer Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 These are things that are so commonplace in the UK that I no longer notice them but I have yet to see here even after 2 years.Are they perhaps interdit? Is there a cultural reason?Editted, is it a regional thing?Feel free to add your own, but for starters..... People hand washing cars at their homes.Bonfires, be they garden refuse or general building waste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassis Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 If you would like to pop around here I can show you our neighbours doing both of those things. [:)]Especially autumn bonfires after the annual tidy-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Our neighbours use his Karcher (or similar) to wash theirs cars almost every weekend.The farmer regularly burns his agricultural plastic on the edge of the path, although he has avoided doing that on windy days since I pointed out the foul smell and smoke were coming right at my house... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassis Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Sports bars. Not really an activity, I suppose.Dog walking - most are never walked, though there are plenty stuck in people's gardens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fulcrum Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 There is actually a law that prohibits water from car washing being allowed to flow onto neighbours property. So maybe this has something to do with the first of your items.With regard to bonfires. I don't know of any laws but I'm sure there are some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Bonfires are certainly not allowed in the summer months. Around May to October, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 [quote user="Cassis"]Dog walking - most are never walked, though there are plenty stuck in people's gardens.[/quote]Here they get out and about, usually in other peoples gardens ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 [quote user="cooperlola"]Bonfires are certainly not allowed in the summer months. Around May to October, I think.[/quote]It depends on the arrêtés municipaux and préfectoraux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassis Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Things that I do see that I didn't see before :Neighbour's chickens in our garden - get back, you blighters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 [quote user="Clair"][quote user="cooperlola"]Bonfires are certainly not allowed in the summer months. Around May to October, I think.[/quote]It depends on the arrêtés municipaux and préfectoraux.[/quote]True. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissie Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 I see bonfires and dog-walking all the time, but - - - - -Something I rarely see in France is someone scooping their dog's poop - I have several times been felicitated by French people who have seen me do it! ([:'(]Please don't hijack this thread by going on about dog-poo though!)Something I often see in France and rarely saw in England is someone at the checkout counter saying "Is that all you have Madame? - Please go ahead of me."Referring to another thread we had last week - I never seem to have men coming up and propositioning me in supermarkets, no matter which country I am in. Perhaps the "clean but threadbare" approach isn't working.........especially combined with those navvies' hands............[I]...Now who would like to award me a free week in a health and beauty clinic?[;-)]Chrissie (81) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassis Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 [quote user="Chrissie"]Something I often see in France and rarely saw in England is someone at the checkout counter saying "Is that all you have Madame? - Please go ahead of me."[/quote]Nope, never seen that here, though we did see it in Bromley, UK. At our usual French supermarket there are 10 items or less tills, so maybe that's why. I don't think the French are more polite or considerate in general, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 I do it all the time and make a big and loud show of thanks when it's offered to me [:D].It makes them feel generous and they're more likely to do it again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blanche Neige Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 I was told that someone in our village had a bonfire that produced so much smoke that the A10 motorway had to be closed for a while! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Request for a fee.Needed a copy of OH's birth certificate 'certified' by a proper person (notaire, bank bod, doc, etc).Didn't know either of the first 2, but sent a letter to our GP requesting same, with an SAE + 'if there's a fee, just say' note.Phone call back to check the wording of her certification: no question of a fee. Nice feeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tresco Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Absent; large numbers of plastic carrier bags - and other plastic litter - in hedges next to dual carriageways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted March 9, 2007 Author Share Posted March 9, 2007 Polite, well adjusted unsullen teenagers.Oh sorry wrong country! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 [quote user="J.R."]Polite, well adjusted unsullen teenagers.Oh sorry wrong country![/quote] Does this animal exist? Think it is more like wrong planet than wrong country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tresco Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 [quote user="Teamedup"]Does this animal exist? [/quote] Hard to get close enough to one, let alone assess its level of sulleness. ChrisPP might know.[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted March 10, 2007 Author Share Posted March 10, 2007 [quote user="Teamedup"][quote user="J.R."] Polite, well adjusted unsullen teenagers.Oh sorry wrong country![/quote] Does this animal exist? Think it is more like wrong planet than wrong country.[/quote]Around here yes, and they are without exception a pleasure to meet, even a group of hoodies blocking the footpath in a world of their own will make a passage when they see you and apologise.I was keeping a keen eye on a group of local "rebel kids" gathering in a dark corner behind my house smoking, larking about etc, the play fighting etc started escalating until finally one picked up a sack of rubbish to, as I thought, bash his mate with. But no he opened it, put in his cigarrette packet and resealed it!Perhaps it is a regional and/or economic thing, it is a very poor area here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verviale Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 I have never seen a milkman in France, not that you see so many in England these days.I also wonder if they will follow suit and bring traffic congestion charges in Paris, I rekon there would be an uproar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalpa Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 [quote user="Chrissie"]Something I often see in France and rarely saw in England is someone at the checkout counter saying "Is that all you have Madame? - Please go ahead of me."[/quote]In Lidl, where there are no 10 items or less checkouts (ROTFLMAO) I frequently "let in" someone with a couple of items. On one occasion, I was given a beaming smile and asked (in French) if I was English. Oui? I said, thinking I really must stop wearing a velvet hairband with a string of pearls and find myself a polyester tabard instead... She then said that she guessed I must be English because only the English let people go ahead of them in the queue. Obviously, in spite of the fact we don't speak French, steal their houses and work on the black, some French people have noticed we have a few redeeming features. [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalpa Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 [quote user="J.R."][quote user="Teamedup"][quote user="J.R."] Polite, well adjusted unsullen teenagers.Oh sorry wrong country![/quote]Does this animal exist? Think it is more like wrong planet than wrong country.[/quote]Around here yes, and they are without exception a pleasure to meet, even a group of hoodies blocking the footpath in a world of their own will make a passage when they see you and apologise.[/quote]Lots of nice, unsullen yoofs around here. Also one little group that hang around a block of garages in one of our local towns. Smoking, revving of bike engines, loud voices abusing each other and people who walk past... delightful little gang. And they're all English.[Www] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoverfrog Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 the only thing I miss is (apart from my friends) the English country pub!The one where it was OK to go into alone, as a female, because it was the village local and everyone knew everyone else!Might be different if we had a bar in the village but it shut (they retired) and the Routiers is for sale (allegedly) and not that popular with the lcoals...Marmite is now available on every supermarket shelf - in fact there isn't anything I can think of that we can't buy here that we could before, it's just the pricing that's at fault :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 [quote user="Teamedup"][quote user="J.R."] Polite, well adjusted unsullen teenagers.Oh sorry wrong country![/quote] Does this animal exist? Think it is more like wrong planet than wrong country.[/quote]Can I add a small note in defence of some teenagers. I know exactly what you mean about some teenagers who seem to delight on causing trouble and mindless damage with violence thrown in for good measure (was it ever the case?) but my two teenage lumps and their circle of friends are a real pleasure to be with, mature, well adjusted and unsullen. It doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. Just felt I had to redress the balance a bit on their behalf.BTW - Car washing - In Germany, washing your car in the street is verboten and doing it anywhere on a Sunday is double verboten!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now