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Le Grand Bonheur----'appeeeeness :)


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Well, I am'appy when my knees work in the mornings, hence my morning hstate of 'appynees.

As an aside, Mr Bolus, what a truly oddbal you are. Perhaps you should have stayed in Hemel Bumstead as you seem to be a freak in France. And anyone who has a go at my mate Norman deserves a good spanking as he knows more about France than any of us, in depth, rather than such stupidities as grape grape harvests. So, RH, please get outthe cravache and administer your usual 100!
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[quote user="Ron Bolus"]I may pop back a few times a year to this site if I have nothing better to do. [/quote]

Have you truly no idea how ludicrously pompous that comment is?

Ron, we're all bright enough to deduce from your postings that your purpose in joining this forum was to feed your ego by posting about your life, your vines, your language skills, your whatevers. You arrived here looking for admiration and respect... but even on a forum that has to be earned and, frankly... you haven't...

By all means announce and flounce... but I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I have absolutely no interest in whether you pop back a few times a year to this site if you have nothing better to do.

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I think you can't really quantify specific happiness in relation to others, something that makes one person happy may be unhappy to another, bullfighting for example upsets me yet for others it makes them, for some unknow reason, happy.

Wandering the countryside with my dogs makes me happy although I gave up taking a shotgun with me by my mid 20's, you grow out of these things. I love sailing and sail as much as time permits. What about France and these things, well walking is a much better experience for me in France what with there being more opportunity to 'roam'. Sailing makes me happy in France because it is much cheaper to keep my boat here but more importantly it is much nicer to sail around the crystal clear warm waters of the Med and do a bit of snorkeling than the murky waters round the UK. There is also a much 'brighter' population of fish to see. Now like I see wandering the countryside with a shotgun rather sad I am sure some think sailing round the Med equally as boring and unexciting. Is not there an old saying about one mans love being another mans poison? Will I stay in France for the rest of life being happy, who knows, I don't know what tomorrow will bring so I have no long term plans for the future. One day at a time as they say and make everyday count. I do however like to get at least one smile out of somebody every day just as I like to help somebody every day. It makes me feel that I am not just taking things out of society but putting something back as well however small and naturally I don't expect any reward for either although it would be nice if those I 'touch' could do the same. It might go towards making a better world.

As to Normans comment, well he can be a bit abrupt sometimes but then I do understand where he is coming from to a degree. I have learnt not to see France through rose coloured specs. I read at least one French and one UK newspaper per day and often see great similarities between the two, people moaning about the same sort of things. In fact you could say the same about any country, they all have their good and bad points.

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[quote user="woolybanana"]Perhaps we should have treated him as a troll from the start. If you have the time to check the definition of a bolus, you might get the idea[/quote]

I am was thinging he might even be a past member but thats just me thinking out loud and I could of course be totally wrong.

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I did not find RB's original post offensive, but I seem to be in the minority......lengthy perhaps, but not offensive.

On the face of it, it's not an unreasonable question:  might one be happier living in France than in whatever country one is or was living (not everyone comes from UK).  I live in the south of England with awful traffic congestion and crowds of people at every turn.  I like the idea of space, which France has in abundance.  Having visited France on both business and pleasure since the 1970s I like it a lot.  But I do not (yet) live in France and there's the rub: I know how frustrating daily life can be compared to UK but I suspect a significant number will find it preferable to England for one reason or another.

I believe it's mostly dependant on personal attitude:  positive people will integrate to some greater or lesser extent and be compatible with local life; others will remain on the fringes and will probably give up and return to UK sooner or later.  Each to his own........

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[quote user="tonyinfrance"]

I did not find RB's original post offensive, but I seem to be in the minority......lengthy perhaps, but not offensive.

On the face of it, it's not an unreasonable question:  might one be happier living in France than in whatever country one is or was living (not everyone comes from UK).  I live in the south of England with awful traffic congestion and crowds of people at every turn.  I like the idea of space, which France has in abundance.  Having visited France on both business and pleasure since the 1970s I like it a lot.  But I do not (yet) live in France and there's the rub: I know how frustrating daily life can be compared to UK but I suspect a significant number will find it preferable to England for one reason or another.

I believe it's mostly dependant on personal attitude:  positive people will integrate to some greater or lesser extent and be compatible with local life; others will remain on the fringes and will probably give up and return to UK sooner or later.  Each to his own........

[/quote]

Come to think of it I find driving more of a pleasure than the UK but then I lived in London and in other places in the UK it might be better. Shopping in France has been a problem, still have to plan my visits to Brico Depot so as to miss the closing at lunch time. In fact there are more than few shops that close for lunch the type of which in the UK you would find open.

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Hello Quillan - my pal in Carpentras has renovated his large house single-handed (a remarkable achievement).

However, the number of times he has had to go to three different stores to get technical bits and pieces which would have all been in one place in UK drove him bonkers.  An especial joy was to pitch up at 11:45am knowing the store closed at 12:00 only to find the shutters half way down already.  His other bete noir is the post office which is frequently subject to a fermeture exceptionelle:  no big problem if you're on hols but he runs a business in nearby Sarrians and he doesn't have the time to spare....

In passing, the restrictions on Sunday shopping would horrify the average Brit but I like the idea that Sundays are for families...........

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So...........I've had the special honour of being singled out by having posted 10 thousand times [:-))]

Hey, who's counting?[:D]

I posted very frequently because I had lots and lots of questions to ask about living in France.  Through this Forum and questions I have asked, I registered my car, changed my doctor when I didn't care for the previous one, found our other car recommended by a Forum member, met some lovely people (in real life as well as in virtual life), have been given lots of lovely-jubbly recipes, found out what to do when OH broke his knee-cap, had a lovely toilleteuse recommended for my dog and oh, a hundred and one things I could name.

True, I could have found out how to do things by googling and asking the neighbours.  But, where I lived previously, I only had one French neighbour and poor madame wasn't the sort of women who knew the sorts of things immigrants like us needed to know.

Then, I posted to say "thank you" whenever I have received advice and suggestions; I posted to give feedback when someone has said or recommended something that has helped me; I posted to joke and chat with others, I posted sometimes just to share my thoughts and to see what others think!

And, no, I am not disabled.  In fact, I have just returned from a 10-kilometre walk with 123 other people and shared an apero and interesting conversations.

Also, believe it or not, I have visited and walked in many parts of France.  I know large parts of Brittany and Normandy quite well; I have visited the Vendée, Deux Sèvres, Limousin and had friend that I regularly stayed with in Charente.  As you can see from my avatar, I lived in and still has a house in the Charente Maritime.  On our way to walk the Compostelle, Gemonimo and I went to St Jean Pied de Port twice, once for a recce and the second time for the "real" walk. In my youth, I visited the Pyrenées Orientales several times.  I have skiied and walked extensively in the pays de Mont Blanc.  I have also visited a few large towns, wouldn't you know (Nancy, Avignon, Tours, le Mans) and have even been to Paris![:P]

So there you see, I am not as housebound and as provincial as you have assumed. 

I have declined to say whether being in France has added to my happiness.  How can I possibly gauge that?  Both OH and I were working when we were in the UK and this is our retirement.....and you should know that you can't compare apples and pears.

In the meantime, I shall continue to post (as many times as I wish) as I don't believe that there is any sort of rule against frequent posting?[8-)]

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Of course there's no such rule, Sweet; you're one of LF's life-enhancers, so keep at it!

I haven't posted for a few weeks - so busy back in UK

for the summer and catching up with everyone and everything. But I have popped in here

from time to time for just a few minutes, and found all the posts from the new garrulous member

fascinating. 

I was very interested to read at length of his

excellent

standard of French and how it was achieved; I'd love to hear him

chatting to

locals in our market, which can't be too far away as it's also in the

Gard.

Funnily enough, I know several French people who can't understand locals

very

well at all, including one very nice friend who moved south from Paris

who was astounded that he couldn't understand somebody in a local shop

when he

phoned with a query! 

Apparently the rules of this thread forbid me from

giving my

thoughts on the subject of happiness, as I'm a mongrel - I spend half

the year in France

and half in England; but I'm not famous for sitting back and being

quiet. I'm very content with my

life in England,

and I'm also very content with my life in France.

I have lots of friends in both countries - mostly English in England

and the majority are French in France.I love spending time in local

villages and in the countryside around us in France, enjoy similar

things where we live in England and have just come back from a few days

in Yorkshire, where I enjoyed visiting several lovely villages and the

scenery was splendid too. There are things I dislike in both countries

(such as the heat we left behind in the Gard for one thing - but found

the same temperatures when we arrived in England, and the thousands of

weeds that have shot up in my veggie patch while we were away in

Yorkshire!) but I find it difficult to understand people who complain

wholesale about the country they have left behind.

Quillan's mention of thinking of a past poster made me think too - was he a Ron too by any chance, I wonder?
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Yes please s17 post as much as you jolly well like. If people don't post then a board dies and as I have said, I like new people posting, the more the merrier. But I have to say that I found RB eccentric, even by my standards, as I do tend to have many odd and strange people in my entourage.

There are many things in life that I don't understand and I shall never understand why anyone would retire to anywhere remote with lots of land, and in a foreign country. It isn't as if I don't understand that older people cannot be fit, but let's face it, old age is the point in life when things start to go, medically speaking  bit by bit  and sadly sometimes rather quickly. And I have seen it first hand, the actual bragging about having say 5000m² of land and no neighbours and if anyone thinks they are impressing me or I am envious, they really would be well off the mark. I realised that doing such a thing would be a folly, when we were getting our house built in France when I was very young. Even though we still ended up living nulle part,  it was a village AND a third of an acre was more than enough land........ and I know why they call them acre's now.

So I actually do not understand the mentality of many people, and I suppose I never will.

s17, interesting comments about getting info from the board. You would have got it all, all on your own you know, in fact everybody can, and it has never been easier, I cannot emphasise that enough.

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Hi there, GG, how nice to hear you!  And is Mr G quite well?

Well, Id, I know I could have got all sorts of info by googling and so on but, you know me, I like recommendations from people who've been there and done it and I also like to feel that someone is taking an interest![:D]

Not only that, my French was limited to about 10 well-rehearsed sentences and I wouldn't have understood anything on a French website.

In fact, I have found it very easy settling down and getting stuff done and the Forum was invaluable in the early days and continues to be so for me.

Hey, where else could I have learned how to make mascarpone pastry, I ask you?

It's also been fab having Norman to talk to about, amongst other things, music!

There was Clair and 5-e and, in those days, Frenchie (and Odile) to help me with my French and lots of jokes and late night chats with Wooly and  so many others from the Forum.

Of course, if RB HAD been around, he would've realised that the Forum was full of life and activity in those days and Coops was always good for a laugh and now it's different and we have all grown older and wiser.

Unlike RB, I didn't get "fluent" in 6 months and I still attend a weekly class.  Some French neighbours have just dropped by and I was able to tell them all about the weekly summer walks that I have been involved with and they told me that they would be off to Gers (to Condom) for a wedding.  So, you see, I am quite well able to hold my own now but that has definitely NOT been the case.

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Sweets,

You are sweetness and cheerfulness, and give the forum a much needed lightness of spirit.

Unlike you I post irregularly and infrequently, but I found the forum a mine of useful advice and help - and laughter - before and after I arrived, and it's still useful even now on occasions, though the longer you live in France, the more you can contribute in your turn.  And yes, that help was invaluable, even though it was my professional business to find things out.  It was just so much better explained here.

As for happiness, if you cannot make your own happiness wherever you are, you are in a very sad state.  Like others, I came to France on retirement, from working and living in the centre of London, to live in a smallish village ... so comparison of life now to that before is quite nonsensical.

Right, I'll go back to sleep until the next time I feel I can contribute something to a post ....

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Let's be clear.

'Rumble-us' was always either a troll, a former mischievous member, or purely and simply a pain in the ass. Probably a combination of all three.

All that rubbish about 'the best way to get from East Anglia to Avignon' + the "I'm a vigneron who's off to Geneva" says it all.

He's been having a laugh (he thinks) and needs to be ignored if he ever posts again. Not zapped or banned, just ignored.

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I don't think I'll ever get the hang of this forum, too naive.

I just thought he was a bit bumptious and self satisfied, and aaaargh! I can be that.

I do enjoy reading this forum not only for information, (first place I go to for info about things French), but for the discussions on a variety of subjects, and for the amusement of seeing where some of the discussions go. Off topic is often great fun.

You regular contributors do a good job of keeping the forum alive, so unlike RB, I will continue to read, enjoy and write (sometimes) while pondering your characters.

PS  While I never feel I am able to provide info myself, my OH both asks and answers questions on this forum.  

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I'm sad to see that Mr Bolus has missed a trick, or maybe he's saving it for later. Usually, by now, the protagonist is back to reveal that they have been inundated with pm's of support from unknown members who themselves are "too afraid" to post because the forum is populated by bully types who have formed a "clique" and are so unwelcoming and curmudgeonly that many regular visitors are simply too scared to do other than lurk.

The pattern seldom changes.

Although he may be saving that bit for the next time he has nothing better to do than drop some more pearls before the assembled swine.

I, for one, can hardly wait. My shallow, uninteresting life will stretch before me like a barren desert till that moment, as, I am sure, will the lives of many other regular posters.
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[:-))]SENTENCES!!!! sweet17 you had sentences.......10 of them[6]......... I had five words of french when I arrived in France, and I wasn't sure what some of them meant.

As I had no internet, I couldn't have looked anything up anyway. [Www]

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Re RB, a troll or former member...... I hadn't thought that. Some people are just very 'different' and I just thought that he and his wife were. Not my cuppa tea, there again, I'm not lots of peoples cuppa tea either.[:D]

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