Jump to content

What does France have but the UK does not ?


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 89
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

[quote user="Lehaut"]A different view on male sterilisation. Vasectomy being illegal in France until 1999 where it was considered mutilation and banned under the “Code Napoleon.” Even now, any man who wants to get a vasectomy has to wait 4 months after his initial counselling session before the doctor can perform the procedure. Seems like a long time? I think it might be the longest official wait time in the world.[/quote]Maybe to prevent premature emasculation [blink]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BiB.

 

You are bang on the money, TBF I think he does deep down realise that all his antics are a cry for help, he rarely denies any of the IMO truer accusations levelled at him and he has my respect for that.

 

Like me he lives in une cage d'orée, unlike me he does not hold the keys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just when we needed a psychotherapist Chancellor arrives.

You are right of course, I don't hold the keys. Without kids we would have FO years ago to the UK. Or moved to the Alpes.

But it is not the keys though, it's the kids and their education. And French family who are at death's doors.

We have to stay.

Edit: Brexit I think changed a lot. I think the UK is going to rock once it leaves the EU so it would be nice to be apart of that. France will just stagnate as usual.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"The green bits don't really count unfortunately."

The arrogance of that made me laugh.

If you eliminated the green bits, all the people that live in the cities, the ones you think matter, would starve. No green bits = no meat, no veg, no milk, no butter, no cheese... remember the panic a few months back when Paris ran short of butter?

Whereas if you got rid of the cities, the green bits would carry on much as they are.

You should take those blinkers off and look at the bigger picture, albf. You really do think France's green bits are all about retirees and holiday homes tourists, don't you, like the UK countryside where they've got rid of farming because it was noisy and smelly and the city dwellers didn't like being woken up by crowing cocks and catching a whiff of muck-spreading when they visited their homes in the country.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="EuroTrash"]"The green bits don't really count unfortunately."

The arrogance of that made me laugh.

If you eliminated the green bits, all the people that live in the cities, the ones you think matter, would starve. No green bits = no meat, no veg, no milk, no butter, no cheese... remember the panic a few months back when Paris ran short of butter?

Whereas if you got rid of the cities, the green bits would carry on much as they are.

You should take those blinkers off and look at the bigger picture, albf. You really do think France's green bits are all about retirees and holiday homes tourists, don't you, like the UK countryside where they've got rid of farming because it was noisy and smelly and the city dwellers didn't like being woken up by crowing cocks and catching a whiff of muck-spreading when they visited their homes in the country.[/quote]

Slow down tiger.

The whole 'rural France' thing is a big debate in France at the moment.

'Who is going to save rural France'.....was the title of L'expess a few months ago. Other magazines have had similar titles.

Watch the telly and there are endless programmes debates about the rural decline in France.

En Revanche, they can't build homes/apartments quick enough in cities across France.

That was my point. I'm not judging just observing.

Is the rural decline the same in the UK ? NO !!! it is not.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because that is what I believe the Élysée thinks. I'm not sure they care about rural France. You can walk around Paris or any other major city and you would think everything is fine in France. The sad truth is that it is not.

I was being.'...' can't think of the word....but I was being that in my statement.

Edit.....Chirac cared !!!!!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The whole problem with this debate is that we are talking about halting the decline of rural France which implies returning it to something like a glorious state that it’s never had. The aim must be to move it forward, towards something new, better than the draughty, poor retarded past. Sentimental middle class yearnings for a bucolic idyll are just that, sentimental twadddle.

Firstly, high class electronic and transport communications, then incentives to get entrepreneurs to start businesses in rural areas, decent schools/colleges etc.

When people see the advantages of cheaper housing, healthier environment plus the modern and forward looking, they will come there; Some have already.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"] You can walk around Paris or any other major city and you would think everything is fine in France. [/quote]

 

When I walk around Paris I truly believe that I have been transported to another country and not because of all the conversations carried out in English with many different accents in La Défense.

 

Even driving through or around its the same feeling especially after 19.00, between 12.00 and 14.00 or on a Sunday. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The people who work the green stuff around me seem keen to work hard to make a living and keep the community alive. Mind you they’re quite happy to accept huge stud fees from those rich city dwellers who want to buy into the good life. One racehorse put my area on the map.

Talking of horses, it’s a real shame that a one trick pony can act in the manner of Farrage and push his few skewed ideas in a way that, although he meets opposition, he is happy to charge on regardless. Poor man, stuck as the husband of of a successful Frenchwoman who is not only denied the chance to work he is trapped in a country he does not respect. Let’s hope he has a happier 2018, perhaps we could chip in to buy him a one way Ryanair ticket to allow him to get his life back on track in the rich pastures of that island nation he misses so much.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]Yes Lindal....but most of the French population live in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and other major cities.[/quote]

This is said from time to time on the forum, and it remains as much couillon as the last time I checked it, about six years ago.

I come from a very limited and provincial background and am very easily impressed, so let us say that a Major City begins at 20,000.

The population of France is some 66,900,000.

According to the latest available INSEE figures a mere 24,936,834 of those live in communes of 20,000 persons or more. 

That is to say, a mere 37% of the population of France live in those few communes (only 434 of them) which have a population larger than a mediocre 20,000.

The other 67%, some 41,000,000 and the vast majority live in ALL THE OTHER COMMUNES THAT ARE SMALLER THAN 20,000.

There are, as of 2015, some 36,681 communes.  If we subtract those few communes that have a population of more than 20,000, we are left with 36,247 that are ex hypothesi 'small'.

That is to say, 67% (41,000,000 people) live in the 36,247 communes which have a population of LESS than 20,000 people, and down to the arse-end-of-nowhere.

So, to recap :

37% (the minority) of the population live in those 434 communes that are the Great French Conurbations of more than 20,000 population.

63% (the vast majority) of the population live in the 36,247 that are smaller than 20,000, including those that are Very Small, Very Small Indeed, Tiny, and On-the-Point-of-Vanishing.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmmm....Tancrède I'm not so sure.

I think when one talks about the population of cities you have to include the commines within the banlieue of that city or maybe those within a 30 minute drive of the city. For example I live in a little commune with less than 20,000 but I am 200 metres from city limit. The population of all the little communes surrounding the city I live near far exceeds the population of the city itself.

The population of Paris is 2.2 Million. The population of île de France is 12 million. So that is roughly 17 % of the population living in 'region parisienne' alone. I have just moved back from a commune in 'region parisienne' which is the most densely populated municipalitie in Europe. But it is not in Paris. It is about 5 mins on the train.

If you think about Lyon, it has a population of 485,OOO. But once you add in Ecully, Bron, Vaulx en Velin, Villeurbanne etc etc the picture is quite different. Likewise with Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Grenoble, Lille, Montpellier, Aix, Strasbourg, Poitiers etc etc etc.

So it is not really the population of the city itself but rather the banlieue which encompasses many communes that have population above and below 20,000.

It is impossible to work out, but I would say that a greater percentage of the population in France lives in or within the radius of a city.

When you drive 20-30 km's from from a major city it is like entering a different country. You start seeing villages, small towns that are really suffering economically.

Not really sure it is the same in the UK. I have no idea.

Anyway, happy new year to you all.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Urbanisation in the UK is roughly 83% and 80% for France.

As for rural communities dying it's happening here far more than the UK. France has a massive housing stock lying empty which is concentrated in small towns and villages with no facilities or jobs. The UK on the other hand has a housing shortage so even in rural areas with no facilities properties are not empty but occupied by commuters or the ever growing retired population.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rural UK seems to be more affluent than cities in the UK.

Obviously quite the reverse in the France. Why is that ? Mindset ? Or do people in France just prefer to live in towns and cities ?

Brit in his first or second post complained about Parisiens in his little commune and jumps on the bandwagon like many French people do of criticising city dwellers.

What he has not released yet is that many were probably born and bred there and moved away for work. Unlike himself who is an immigrant with no connection to the village whatsoever. But that is OK ???? Kinda weird reverse logic going on there. Mindset !!!!

But it is the same in our family. Whenever they go back to their family home during the year they are met with hostility. Even though one of the villages is named after the family. ????

Rural france is its own worst enemy.

I read an article about Eymet where the local French don't want the British to leave after Brexit as they know it will decimate the local economy. Things are changing.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Rural UK seems to be more affluent than cities in the UK."

That was a point I was trying to make earlier.

The countryside in the UK no longer has anything to do with farmers eking a living from the soil. Small farmers in the UK gave up and went out of business a long time ago, except in the Dales and the north country where there are still some family farms.

In France, small farmers are still clinging on. Small farmers aren't affluent.

I suppose the bitterness is at because there are folk who believe that the country should be about farming and producing food, and they don't like seeing it full of people who never get their hands dirty.

Do you know Michel Delpech's song Dans le Loir et Cher? It's about a son who's moved to Paris and how he and his parents feel when he comes back to visit.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I said earlier ET that attitudes need to change in rural France if they want their communes to survive. They can't keep voting for MLP and hoping for some revolution.

The UK is an example of how rural communities can diversify and become more affluent. You drive through villages and towns in the Uk and you have all sorts of weird and wonderful businesses.

My lasting memory of living in rural France was the farmers taking delivery of brand spanking new tractors (all made in the UK) every year. I often asked myself what was wrong with the old one and how do they afford !!!! These tractors were state of the art and had all the mod cons. Do you need to replace a tractor every year ???

For you ET...(if you have not seen it) check out the videos.

http://www.lesfoliesfermieres.com/index.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"attitudes need to change in rural France if they want their communes to survive"

Either way "their" communes won't survive. It may evolve into something else but it won't be a farming community any more. I know you can't hold back change but you don't have to say you like it when you don't.

From years camping caring all over France on "France Passion" I got to know farming families all over France. Not many of them got a new tractor every year but obviously if there were grants being given out for a new tractor they would get one. I've kept in touch with these people because I like them, they're honest, hardworking folk who love the land and are committed to rearing animals in an ethical way and producing good quality food for the nation, even though they know they're a dying breed. We've had a lot of discussions over the years about the changes so I think I have some notion of how they see things. Values are a personal thing and personally I have a lot of sympathy with theirs. Put it this way, there aren't many city folk that I've met that I've kept in touch with and whose company I enjoy enough and find interesting enough to go back and visit them year after year. Draw your own conclusions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ALBF, villages being taken over by townies is a bit like your favourite topic of Dordogne being taken over by Brits. It's another forum of "them and us", one culture taking over from another. You're very against the Brits taking over Dordogne and yet you're in favour of townies taking over the villages. I find that a little odd.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share


×
×
  • Create New...