burglaries

[Val_2]

Quillan - that is very common now in the UK to have your home robbed whilst you are at a funeral. It happened to the home of my friend's brother whilst they were burying him and to the home of the family of a lad killed in an accident near to my parents. We all agreed that when the time comes for my parents,no funeral notices will be put in the local papers, its an open invitation. Here they put every detail in the local press, I certainly wouldn't these days as any moron can work out where the property is.

[Quillan]

[;-)][quote user="LEO"][quote user="Quillan"][quote user="idun"]

[/quote]

I think things are getting worse. Last year three or four houses were robbed whilst the owners were at a local funeral. Seems the thieves read about the funeral in the local paper then cruised around to see who leaves their houses to attend said funeral. This year we had a teenage stabbing in a local bar, not fatal fortunately. An owner of a motor home was stabbed last month several times but has survived, again fortunately. Over the last couple of months there have been four or five burglaries including our one and only auberge. Prior to that nothing much has happened round here, the odd bit of graffiti and a dustbin thrown in the river during the Tour de France one year. Over the last six or more months I have taken to locking my front door at night and closing the shutters, something I have never felt the need to do in the previous ten odd years we have been here.

[/quote]

Nice part of France!
[/quote]

Well if I told the truth I would say I came here, like many others who are perhaps too proud or shy to also admit, with somewhat rose coloured glass's. Having given up some years back with much of the UK press I took to reading the French papers, admittedly online, and in particular local papers. They are not much different from those 'free' ones you used to get through your door every week in the UK where it becomes almost an obsession to try and find something good that has happened. They are mostly full of  'doom and gloom' interspersed with local events etc. A good example would probably be the seven 'Basques' who were arrested last year when a bomb factory was found in Carcassonne, many Brits in the area seem to be in some form of denial about this even when you wave it in front of them. The the news about the area close to 'La Cite' of Carcassonne which is a 'no go area' for the Gendarmes (they will only enter in groups of four and in a car, never on foot) and that all social services offices have closed in that area and post is no longer delivered.

Then there is Toulouse with it's areas you wouldn't walk through in broad daylight, not too different to some areas in the UK. Thankfully we have had very little problems where I live in comparison but we do have some and I would suggest it also happens in some parts of France except that some English, typically, have their heads so far up their own *rse that they don't have a clue of whats going on around them and still think its an idyllic country of milk and honey and that nothing ever happens here. [:(]

[NormanH]

I live in the middle of one of those areas, which is just behind a big church which is a tourist destination. The area changes in about 50 metres, to a 'quartier populaire' (Read immigrant [6])  Thete is only one nurse who will call, and the Post just bring the yellow slips asking you to pick up the parcel. I have never known the post person to have it in the bag....

It is hilarious to see  looks on the faces  of visitors who take a wrong turning and find themselves in another dimension.

Of course it doesn't help when I do my Quasimodo impression...

.or Kubla Khan

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!	50
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise." and if they happen to be French they find it quite incomprehensible that this weirdo is giving perfectly good directions in a Midi town in an English accent ... in other words along side the Basque terrorism arms caches,  the drug trafficking , the converts to Fundamentalist Islam ( a local Frenchman who now calls himself Abdul and has been to Pakistan for training) ,  and the shoot outs with the Police (One of which involved a deputy Maire being killed while he was filling up his car, and the culprit calling out the CRS to a showdown at the Parc D'Expositions with his bazooka ) and the Senegalese prostitutes we  are ordinary people just getting on with our sad lives...

[Frecossais]

Quillan, I think I had a certain naivety about life in rural France for a long time, but what really opened my eyes to reality was the number of suicides here. I knew some of the people who killed themselves, but nothing of their inner lives.

[idun]

Quillan, if I think back, I never posted such gory details about real french life, in spite of my knowledge.  Believe me when I say I tried, and I really tried, to skirt around all this sort of stuff, but say enough for people to understand that France had problems and that is was just a country with good and bad.

Now if I had posted that post 8-10 years ago, I think I may have caused a riot. I could have been burned at the stake for heresy. I was already considered a very very negative person by many, including the ace pillock who posted my name address and telephone number, and if they are looking in well tant pis.  Their argument was that I was a troll and didn't know France, only then they posted my  name and french address and french phone number, so at least showing that I lived in France. Apparently France was the new Eden or Shangrila and I was to be stomped upon pronto for blasphemy.

So yes, things have changed. Such honesty hopefully will give people thinking of moving now a better indication of many things french. As in the UK, there are places that are 'relatively' crime free, in those petit patelins perdus. Not everyone moves to places that are so 'calm' and even  if they do, then they should be sensible anyway, and realise that nowhere is perfect or completely safe and probably never really was.

[EuroTrash]

What puzzles me is WHY people in Britain expect France to be crime-free, cheap to live in, etc, etc. And then come down on it like a ton of bricks when it isn't. As far as I'm aware there aren't the same pie in the sky expectations of Germany, Spain, Italy etc so why France? Especially since last time I spoke to someone who was preparing for A-level French they were preparing to discuss a text about homelessness, immigration and other social problems in France, so it's not as if they're taught in school that France is the land of the unicorn.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Frecossais"]Quillan, I think I had a certain naivety about life in rural France for a long time, but what really opened my eyes to reality was the number of suicides here. I knew some of the people who killed themselves, but nothing of their inner lives.
[/quote]

I didn't mention suicides because it not a crime but yes we get then to. Seems round here the best way is to 'swallow' your shotgun, early in the morning, in the garden after consuming a bottle of pastis.

Norman, we often get the whiff of 'wacky backy' walking around Quillan when we go in to town and there have been one or two drug raids although it seems most get their stuff from Perpignan. Down near the rugby stades seems to be a popular area although I am not 100% sure not being a 'user'.

In many ways France and the UK are the same it's just here they speak a different language, it's sunnier, has milder winters and the health care, my primary reason for coming, is far superior to anything I encountered in the UK. Public transport sh*t mind but then they empty the bins twice a week. Food prices are considerably more but then the Brits always say its the quality that counts in which case actually it's better in Tesco's than it is in our local Carrefour.

[Val_2]

Our nearest large town of Morlaix has the reputation of being the drug capital of France, just walking along one of the rivers that empty into the port,you can see all the syringes dumped in there. Its a no-go place at night too with many SDF. As for the wakky backy, the big Lycée is full of lunchtime partakers, you can fall over them sprawled about behind the football stadium. France is no different for crime,drugs, prostitution which is rife too,murders, incest and rape to any other developed country and I am amazed when reading on the AI forum how quiet it is here with no crime - where do these idiots come from?

[NickP]

[quote user="Val_2"] France is no different for crime,drugs, prostitution which is rife too,murders, incest and rape to any other developed country and I am amazed when reading on the AI forum how quiet it is here with no crime - where do these idiots come from?[/quote]

I think you are being a little harsh, not all choose to live in "inner cities" or built up areas. A large proportion of people from the UK who buy properties in France are buying a holiday or retirement homes in the quieter countryside, therefor their perception of crime etc. will be different, that does not make them idiots. By the way Morlaix; sounds according to your description a "nice place" I must remember to cross it off my list of places to visit, thanks for the heads up.

[Quillan]

I would hardly call where I live nor our local town an inner city. Just like the UK these things are now moving out in to rural areas of France. OK it started to happen about 20 years previously in the UK but it's now in France. Most of the people doing these crimes etc come from inner cities and use the excellent autoroute system to get out and about. Recent thieves in our area, the ones that did the burglaries during the funeral, actually came from Montpelier. Living in a rural situation does not exempt you unfortunately and for burglaries makes you a better target.

[idun]

NickP I have been to Morlaix, it is OK, not the nicest place in Bretagne but perfectly OK. You'll find these problems everywhere, it is good to discuss them. And there are severe drug problems with not necessarily 'young' junkies even in very rural France.

Unless someone told me they were smoking it, then I 'm not sure if I would know what wacky baccy smells like. How I've got to my age and can say this, I do not know.

So my always saying France is just a country with good and bad is absolutely OK now, it's just different and the french go about some things in a very different way. If I had been desparately unhappy I would have left many many years ago, in stead of the planned move we had.

[NormanH]

Just don't leave your BMW in the street overnight:

http://www.midilibre.fr/2011/08/30/dma-a-12-ans-il-tente-de-voler-une-bmw,379381.php

[idun]

And on that link of NormanH's furth down the page a little column  Ça peut vous plaire... ou pas

What an assortment of little articles on french life.

[NormanH]

And even in the Aveyron[blink]

http://www.midilibre.fr/2011/08/31/les-cambriolages-se-multiplient-les-bijoux-disparaissent,379746.php

[NickP]

[quote user="idun"]

NickP I have been to Morlaix, it is OK, not the nicest place in Bretagne but perfectly OK.[/quote]

Val describes it as having the reputation of being the drug capital of France ! I have never been there; so I couldn't comment. Also as I said after Val's comment, I'm unlikely to visit Morlaix

[idun]

We have been to and through Morlaix a lot as we love northern Brittany. Would you not visit say Amsterdam or even Barcelona because you have heard of drug taking there, or even Zurich.

I reckon that there are drugs everywhere and if that worried me too much then I wouldn't cross my door step.

 

I'd legalise drugs and bordellos and get the taxes in.

[Val_2]

Nick P obviously does not live in France day to day so does not see what goes on or read the tribunals or how much drugs are seized on a weekly basis. Everyday in the local paper there is a heading of how many kilos seized locally and being a port town with close proximity to the sea and Roscoff port, a lot of drug smuggling goes on via the smaller boats. Its not a huge town on the scale of things compare to UK towns but in the past 21 years since we bought here, it has changed and you just do not venture there at night, nor leave a decent car just parked, even in the side streets where they are often stolen and then set alight. Two in one night the other week from a residential street and it wasn't even a jour ferriée! My former neighbour was growing cannabis along our fence and everyone was coming to take a look apart from the law and there is also quite a gang culture too,its just not reported in the same style as the UK reports.

[Val_2]

[quote user="idun"]

We have been to and through Morlaix a lot as we love northern Brittany. Would you not visit say Amsterdam or even Barcelona because you have heard of drug taking there, or even Zurich.

I reckon that there are drugs everywhere and if that worried me too much then I wouldn't cross my door step.

 

I'd legalise drugs and bordellos and get the taxes in.

[/quote]

My nephew regularly visits Amsterdam to partake - he loves it there

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="NickP"]

Val describes it as having the reputation of being the drug capital of France ! I have never been there; so I couldn't comment. Also as I said after Val's comment, I'm unlikely to visit Morlaix

[/quote]

We're not exactly talking Toxteth, Harlesden or Moss Side here. It's quite pretty in parts. Half timbered buildings and so on. According to the EMCDDA 2011 bulletin, French cannabis use is about the same as that in the UK, but the use of cocaine, LSD, speed and ecstasy is much, much lower in France. The UK has about the highest consumption of those drugs in Europe, I believe. I blame the weather. I would blame the state of English cricket, but I hear that has improved.

[breizh]

As a former Moss side resident, when at Uni, I never ever saw any criminality whatsoever. Read loads about in the papers though!

After cannabis the drug of choice in France is heroin. Just check out your local salon de shoot, paid for by the Prefecture. I know where mine is, I know where it is Guingamp, one in Rennes, and Brest. There will always be clean needles, and a dealer on site! Check the local Gare, music bars, and by the tabac by the Lycee!

Personally I have a phobia about needles. So, not for me!

[5-element]

Heroin! I was quite astonished when I saw someone shooting up in my local launderette whilst I was living in Montpellier. Hardly hiding, but perhaps he was past caring.

The little town where I live was called a "plaque tournante de la drogue" recently, in a TV programme. And "la drogue" here is not cannabis, but harder stuff. Apparently, this whole area is (sounds a bit like Morlaix)  - because we are on the way from Spain to some of the rest of Europe.

As for burglaries, it seems that cars disappear regularly - get driven to Marseille, and then on a boat to North Africa. Lots of petty thieving, and people do seem a little paranoid about security here, I don't know how frequently real burglaries occur. My next door neighbour seems to think that he is well equipped to deal with any burglars, as he has a gun ready. Maybe it's just a shotgun, I don't know.

[NickP]

[quote user="Val_2"]Nick P obviously does not live in France day to day so does not see what goes on or read the tribunals or how much drugs are seized on a weekly basis. Everyday in the local paper there is a heading of how many kilos seized locally and being a port town with close proximity to the sea and Roscoff port, a lot of drug smuggling goes on via the smaller boats. Its not a huge town on the scale of things compare to UK towns but in the past 21 years since we bought here, it has changed and you just do not venture there at night, nor leave a decent car just parked, even in the side streets where they are often stolen and then set alight. Two in one night the other week from a residential street and it wasn't even a jour ferriée! My former neighbour was growing cannabis along our fence and everyone was coming to take a look apart from the law and there is also quite a gang culture too,its just not reported in the same style as the UK reports.[/quote]

Here we go again I'm more integrated than you, are you sure that you are not related to come lately? Well Val you chose to live there so enjoy your location and your neighbourhood drug producers. You are the one who knocked your local town not me, I just took on board what you said. [:P]

[idun]

Actually, I think that the point is that this is actually everywhere. There are concentrations sometimes, but it is everywhere in France and the UK. So you can feel as safe and isolated as you want, but in reality you are but a 'stone's throw' from all these things, be it a little village or town or city.

I don't think that Val2 lives in Morlaix, but in the general region. 

Maybe you don't really know what is going on where you live. It doesn't really matter, it will be.