NormanH Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 I often read 'rosy' and unrealistic views of France written by people who either can't or won't read the French media.To be clear: I have a happy and settled life in France and appreciate its many qualities, but at the same time I believe it is important to keep your eyes open and notice what is going on in the adopted country.One feature is the rise of violence in villages.THIS ARTICLE covers a silent march of 2000 people protesting against the death of a young man stabbed to death at a village 'fête'It can be read with Google or with the qtl addon if you use Firefox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 The summer fetes and occasionaly other events round her are pretty well known for the violence afterwards. A large crowd of teenage and early twenties guys from small farming communities decend on the fete and have a skinfull of pastis and inevitably old scores end up being settled afterwards. Its normally "just" drunken fisticuffs, but every now and then someone will be bottled or receive a proper kicking from a group of others. What doesnt help matters either is that round here the whole protestant/catholic divide is still pretty strong - Binge drinking and sectarian violence....that tends not to be mentioned in the tourist guides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 You should check out Bottle Kicking in Hallaton in the UK.The police are not allowed to intervene - no rules - scores get settled and the pubs open at 7am!A great day out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 That sounds just like the Shrovetide Football Game at Ashbourne. Perhaps our forefathers knew a thing or two.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buelligan Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 A friend of mine, who is a builder, recently found a lady "left over from the 1940's" under the floor of a house he was working on in the village. Someone else found bits of a chap who probably last drew breath in the Bronze Age up on a nearby hill. Violence has always been with us I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 All the more reason to be aware of its existence today in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 Why Normie, why?We are all aware of rural and urban violence in Europe, US and just about everywhere else in the world, but why do we have to be reminded of it? Why should someone who spends, say, a month a year in a French idyll have to be conscious of the fact that a certain segment of rural folk choose to behave like their sub-urban counterparts and get drunk, stab/ beat up/ kick the crap out of each other at weekends? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 Because it is there.I doubt your assertion that "We are all aware of rural and urban violence in Europe, US and just about everywhere else in the world", especially as regards France, given the generally low level of knowledge about, and interest in, current events and things being discussed in the news.I admit that my post is more intended for those who live here than for holiday home owners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 [quote user="NormanH"]Because it is there.I admit that my post is more intended for those who live here than for holiday home owners.[/quote]You mean we're all thickos and know nothing of what goes on outside our own little world? Grow up Norman. This goes on everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 [quote user="Hoddy"]That sounds just like the Shrovetide Football Game at Ashbourne. Perhaps our forefathers knew a thing or two.Hoddy[/quote]Now, now - there are some rules Hoddy. Murder / manslaughter is not allowed and you have to hit the ball three times on the goal to 'score' (but that has to be by the 'nominated' scorer). Oh and you can't win the leg before 6.00pm!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKDjFEtLV88Scooby - who loves a good home derby.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 Not everybody...but there are some examples[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 [quote user="NormanH"]Because it is there.I doubt your assertion that "We are all aware of rural and urban violence in Europe, US and just about everywhere else in the world", especially as regards France, given the generally low level of knowledge about, and interest in, current events and things being discussed in the news.I admit that my post is more intended for those who live here than for holiday home owners.[/quote]Thats a bit condescending. Whilst one person killed is wrong perhaps some of us are willing to put up with that as opposed to where we come from in the UK. I lived in London, according to the Met Police, (and these figures are constantly being challenged as being too low) there is one knife crime every 57 minutes, and thats just knife crime without going in to all the other types of crime committed. Just because people don't talk about rural violence in France it does not automatically mean they don't know it exists. Likewise many people are fully aware of violent crime in the UK yet we don't see that debated in this forum very often.I visit Perpignan, Carcassonne, Toulouse and Narbonne all of which have crime problems and there are certain areas of each of these cities that I would not venture out in at night in just the same way that I wouldn't venture out in certain UK cities and towns. Just because we don't mention it does not mean we deny its existence or are not aware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 [quote user="Scooby"][quote user="Hoddy"]That sounds just like the Shrovetide Football Game at Ashbourne. Perhaps our forefathers knew a thing or two. Hoddy[/quote]Now, now - there are some rules Hoddy. Murder / manslaughter is not allowed and you have to hit the ball three times on the goal to 'score' (but that has to be by the 'nominated' scorer). Oh and you can't win the leg before 6.00pm!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKDjFEtLV88Scooby - who loves a good home derby....[/quote] Sounds like Ashbournes Shrove Tuesday Bash is for wimps. Hallaton v Medbourne Bottle Kicking is very violent and pretty darn dangerous. 'Scrums' result in piles of people 7 or 8 deep and the ones at the bottom are pressed into the earth and when the heap of people finally moves those at the bottom are rather the worse for wear and some not breathing. One year my brother who is a doctor came and got fed up resucitating people - one young man 3 times.Barbed wire fences and thick tall hawthorn hedges are crashed through in rolling mauls and it's not a good idea to be in the way if the bottle comes your way. It's just what a medieval battle must have been like minus steel. Broken limbs are quite common. It's all a bit confusing as anyone can join in and there is no strip so players often do not know if they are on the same side. Some of the women that take part are extremely violent scratching and pulling hair out in clumps.To score at the Hallaton end the bottle must be put down across a stream which has banks up to 20+ feet and the players go off the edge like lemmings into the water, again people get trampled under water. A few years ago when I was there a well dressed middle aged man in a suit was watching by the stream and was taking the micky out of some of the players in the water - they ran after him grabbed him and chucked him down a steep embankment into the stream. then jumped on him.Just to confuse things the bottle is actually a small wooden barrel.People use the event to settle scores and I have seen some very nasty bloody fists fights.Whilst waiting for the start a few years ago enebriated male and female teenagers stripped naked and body surfed through puddles in the grass - meanwhile another group made off with their clothes.It is an event not to be missed film crews from all over the world visit and when it's all over there is a sea of bottles, cans and plastic cups over the scene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 At our local rugby match this afternoon I mentioned this subject and rural crime in general to one of the people in our group who happens to be a middle ranked local gendarme. He told me that there has been a 'memo' circulated to all gendarmeries in France about the increasing number of Ivor Williams trailers and horse box trailers being stolen all over France from rural locations. Apparently these thefts take place usually within a 25km corridor of auto-routes. Makes you think about who would know about this particular make of trailer, their value and where you could sell them without raising any eyebrows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrCanary Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 Yes, as has been said, violence/disagreements/fighting have always been with us and undoubtedly always will be. They often come about because of class/social/religious differences of opinion and can be triggered off by people who set themselves aside from others - especially if they imply they are better or special...You know, a bit like when permanent ex-pat residents of a country refer to some of their former fellow countrymen as as mere holiday home owners.Nowt as queer as folk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 One of our neighbours - english - has got a name for himself around here for punching people he doesn't like on the nose. He's proud of it too. And you can't get much more rural than here.Gives the rest of us a bad name.[:(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buelligan Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 I live here "all the time", apart from the two DB's I referred to in my earlier post, I have seen one person glassed (a fracas in Carcassonne between two inebriates) and I have heard that our Mayor once punched the chap that runs the cave Co-op on the nose. That's it. People in my village tend to find far more long-winded and devious ways of making their ill-will felt (if that is what they want) than outright assault. IM(ns)HO, concentrating too much on what is wrong with the world tends to give one a rather negatively skewed view of things. If I'm going to adopt a distorted view of life, I'd rather it was through rose-tinted specs any day![:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plod Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 Aggravated burglary seems to be becoming quite popular in the south-west. I assume it's the rather grander dwellings that get hit - not much point coming here, I've got about 8 euros in my wallet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buelligan Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 ...I haven't even got a wallet.....where exactly are you in the South-West plod...?[:D][;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 [quote user="buelligan"]...I haven't even got a wallet.....where exactly are you in the South-West plod...?[:D][;-)][/quote]Absolutely, I wouldn't shout about having 8 Euros if I were you, there's those with more and there's those with a lot less. If you get mugged by a couple of English pensioners living in France don't come crying to us. [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerdesal Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 [quote user="Mel"] permanent ex-pat residents [/quote] permanent ex-pat resident ?????........That will be an 'immigrant' then [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 19, 2009 Author Share Posted October 19, 2009 [quote user="powerdesal"][quote user="Mel"] permanent ex-pat residents [/quote] permanent ex-pat resident ?????........That will be an 'immigrant' then [:P][/quote]Exactly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 19, 2009 Author Share Posted October 19, 2009 Mel "You know, a bit like when permanent ex-pat residents of a country referto some of their former fellow countrymen as as mere holiday homeowners."Nobody did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 [quote user="NormanH"][quote user="powerdesal"][quote user="Mel"] permanent ex-pat residents [/quote] permanent ex-pat resident ?????........That will be an 'immigrant' then [:P][/quote]Exactly.[/quote]And also they are the ones you can often hear in bars telling people (in English) how the UK is full of immigrants and when you queue up in Sainsbury's all you can hear is foreign languages being spoken which is why they have left the UK to live in France. [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrCanary Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 That is exactly right Quillan, but I guess that is how the world has evolved. And I have to admit I am keen to help the flow of humanity by eventually becoming an immigrant in France. Or will i just be a semi-permanent ex-pat resident of France by retaining a home in the UK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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