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The Rust Belt of France


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Sorry Norman, but I have to say I like Beziers. It is on our visitor taking trips and is always enjoyed by all. I especially like to visit the Écluses de Foncérannes and marvel at how some people think they in charge of the QE2, or whatever!

The article was not like the place I visit, the cathedral has always been open, and the bars on the Allee Paul Ricqet a delight.

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Well I usually know where the verger is at lunchtime (sometimes the same place as me)

and I have never known some places not to be open, though I would suggest the place de la Madeleine and the Restaurants near les Halles as  a  good value alternative to les Allées

I would agree that it is exaggerated, which is why I included the second link...

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I remember going to Sedan and leaving immediately. The most ugly horrible dire dire place I have ever seen in France is L'Albenc in the Isere. It is that awful in the rue centrale that it looks like a film set from the end of the world. Apparently it is 'nicer' behind the facade, but I wouldn't know about that. Moutiers and Ugine too, in the Savoie are pretty awful, in fact in the glorious Alpes, there are some really terrible places.

I have just remembered that someone we know is from Beziers. Very nice chap, and a wonderful accent.[:D]

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So true about the "glorious" Alps. I was flabbergasted the first time I went to Moutiers. I suppose all the money just goes straight up into the mountain resorts. Mind you Mayors can be a problem, I'm told that the Mayor of St Michel de Maurienne (the stopping off point for Valloire) was resisting touristification of his town..... it was an industrial town (big factory for Renault) and that is how it had to stay... or die. (In recent years they have spent a bit of money beautifying it - a friend who lives there thinks they need to take a big step forward and put in a big ski lift in to get people from the station / motorway to the snow as it would be a great day trip from Lyon - but......).
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and the commentaries are close to auto-flagellation (apart from the usual band who blame les étrangers)

There is a parallel with the idea that the English have driven up house prices.

In the case of a decrepit pauperised town centre it was the locals who abandoned it for the villages and the lotissments, in the same way as it was the local French sellers who pocketed the higher prices of the houses.

Afterwards the blame is put on to others...

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  • 3 weeks later...
It's a shame that the Rust Belt piece doesn't allow comments.

While Beziers is scruffy the comments about the decline of the Languedoc region are contradictory and inaccurate. The fact that the author specifically mentions bankrupt Detroit as a model to follow shows either a warped agenda or plain ignorance.

Who is France's 'neighbour to the west' by the way?

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Well, now, Norman, consider that a suitable rebuke!

Serves you right talking about Rust Belts and so on.  Why, here in God's own Dordogneshire, there ain't any rust belts in sight.

Here the sun shines gloriously, the church clock strikes the hour and I swear the people would dance the farandole if there were a bridge like the one in Avignon on which to dance.

From my house, practiquement situated between the church and the cemetery ([:P]), I see the French pass twice a day en route to the boulangerie one way and once a day in the cool of evening to the cemetery to carry out who knows what secretive rites the other way.

Meanwhile, the Brits are relaxing in front of their pools and the supply of gin-and-tonics seems neverending.

Worry about the Rust Belt?  Now why would I want to do that?[8-)]

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