Russethouse Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 From the BBC:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7783979.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 If young teenagers can afford to binge drink, then their parents are giving them too much pocket money !It's all very well raising the legal drinking age - they could always raise the price of spirits. Ooops, I hear howls of rage from moderate drinkers. I know, why should the 'innocent' suffer for the' 'guilty'?Under age drinking has been a problem for a long time, both in the UK and in France. I thought the comment was interesting about young people drinking more spirits because they associated the drinking of wine with their parents' generation.I don't know what the answer is, or how to go about convincing young people that it isn't actually very cool to get raving drunk. I'm sure previous generations wondered about some of us when we were young !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Thursday night in Brest is the traditional binge drinking night for all the hundreds of students there, my own son amongst them and confessing very often he didn't get to bed until 6am on Friday morning. Plenty of evidence of youngsters drinking in our own little commune by the number of discarded bottles every weekend and by the old soaks who did it 24/7/365. You will never change it where there is alcohol to be bought or made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Val - I worked in Brest for their sailing festival during the summer and was surprised at the number of young people who said that there was not a lot to do in Brest. Apparently there isn't even a football club. Our accommodation was in the VAST lycee up the hill. I have no idea if this is true, and given the enormous number of students in Brest, I would be astonished if there were no facilities for them to get stuck into instead of binge drinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 [quote user="Val_2"]Thursday night in Brest is the traditional binge drinking night for all the hundreds of students there ... [/quote]Not only Brest but Rennes. My OH had the misfortune to be staying in a hotel in Rennes the last Thursday night of the term, close by a favoured area for hundreds of students to gather and drink all night. I could have coped with that - I was young and a student myself once - but it was the jungle drum beating on the dustbin lids with wooden clubs that I found too much. They finally stopped about 4h30.Learning point: do not go and stay overnight in the centre of a University town on a Thursday night. I wont repeat this mistake.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velcorin Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Nice to see the BBC catching up. It's been happening in France for years, it was mainly an urban issue, drugs are the rural problem, give me 15 minutes in the most profonde part of rural France, and you can buy anything. When I was a student (not that long ago!) I lived in Moss Side, Manchester, I thought I was pretty street smart, but the Paris banlieux REALLY scare me. They are police absolute no-go areas, maybe that will be the BBC's next story.My missus went to Uni in Brest to start with, she moaned there was nothing to do there, so moved to Rennes Uni., much better social. You will find Thursdays are always loud in French Uni towns as they all go home on Friday (to beg for more money from Mummy & Daddy!!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 I agree about the drugs in rural France. We had a teenager die of a heroin overdose in a barn in our village not that long ago. There are heroin / crack addicts in rural France Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 Plenty to see and do in Brest for all ages.Really good cinema complex, swimming pool, ice rink,theatres, plenty of groups and entertainers in the numerous bars BUT it all costs money and I think the students prefer to buy their bottle for the evening and thenjust "hang out" riding wheelie bins down the slope in Liberté. It is also a very dangerous place too at night, plenty of people always getting stabbed and robbed - my son and girlfriend attacked in Siam last month when the local police just stood and watched and the crowds milled by and suffering enough injuries to have the military hospital Urgences opened for them by the gendarmes. I am a very regular visitor as my son lives in the main shopping street and always take care with my bag etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5-element Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 There are heroin / crack addicts in rural France.Indeed there are, and plenty of them. Apparently, Languedoc-Roussillon is top of the pops as a location where to find heroin, and it is also the cheapest in France. This link is a 13 min. video featured recently in "Sept a Huit", a current events TV programme. The opening shots are quite extraordinary, as they show a vigneron in his vineyard in sunny Hérault, who talks about his long addiction to heroin. Not quite what you would expect when you see this picture of rural bliss, grapes and sunshine... http://videos.tf1.fr/video/emissions/septahuit/0,,4152231,00-le-bonheur-artificiel-est-dans-le-pre-.html Well yes, it is in French, but spoken reasonably clearly, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 We, that is us call our bit of this commune Cannabis corner.The local kids were growing it openly down in the fields behind a barn and a few years back my neighbour's fancy man had a whole row of the stuff growing through our fence panels.Everyone was in our garden trying to get a look at something none of us had ever seen in the flesh before and then it all disappeared and finally so did the fancy man and our neighbour moved. The local Lycée is not a place to go at lunchtime when all the inbibers are high across the road in the sports hall grounds and is rife with dealing the stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5-element Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 And this morning at LIDL there was a group of schoolboys (aged around 14-15) who were arguing their case (and arguing and arguing) about buying a fair quantity of beercans. The cashier called the manager, who was clearly a little nervous as he was well outnumbered, but he held his ground and made them give the beer back, having instructed the cashiers not to sell it to them. The place was packed, and it was quite entertaining. The manager made the case that he would get busted himself if they were found in a public place with alcohol. It was about 10am, and the boys clearly intended to get a little plastered. The LIDL manager won, though, and the boys left, disgruntled. It seemed clear that the line was being drawn a little harder this time, than previously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 With any luck the word will get round that LIDL is strict as regards the sale of alcohol. If only others would stand up to the little tykes like that manager did ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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