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Are you British or French on Brittany Ferries


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I’ve been doing the BF route quite a few times recently due to my mum being quite ill.

Anyway, I people watch on the boat for the six god forsaken hours you have to be on it. Nothing else to do.

It amazes me how many British on the boat pretend they are actually French.  Sometimes quite embarrassingly.
 

So are you British or French on BF ?

 

 

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51 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:

I’ve been doing the BF route quite a few times recently due to my mum being quite ill.

Anyway, I people watch on the boat for the six god forsaken hours you have to be on it. Nothing else to do.

It amazes me how many British on the boat pretend they are actually French.  Sometimes quite embarrassingly.
 

So are you British or French on BF ?

 

 

Hi, Usually British as I've found it's beneficial to pay on board in sterling!

UaG

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We did just the once when English football hooligans were getting a bad press in France....pretended to be Scottish 😄  Despite being 'French' now, we don't/can't talk to each other or other Brits in French...it just seems sooo pretentious.

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7 hours ago, Noisette said:

We did just the once when English football hooligans were getting a bad press in France....pretended to be Scottish 😄  Despite being 'French' now, we don't/can't talk to each other or other Brits in French...it just seems sooo pretentious.

I have only met maybe five British folk in France in 25 years. And they weren’t proper British. So I am still the only gay in village.

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9 hours ago, DraytonBoy said:

Why would you pretend to be another nationality? 

I have no idea.

An example, I got on the 08:00 boat in Portsmouth and rushed to get a coffee. The bloke being served at the front of the queue was trying to order a hot chocolate in French. The French woman serving had no idea what he was saying with his accent. But that did not stop him giving it a few goes. It went on for a while and the queue was building up. I felt like translating his French into English so the poor French woman could understand his French. Lol.

I reckon it was Chancer 😅

 

So yes, there are loads of British folk on these boats who pretend to be French……in Portsmouth. It is very strange. 

Edited by alittlebitfrench
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12 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:

I have only met maybe five British folk in France in 25 years. And they weren’t proper British. So I am still the only gay in village.

So 'you are the only 'gay' in the village! Not all Brits are 'gay' are they?

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14 minutes ago, Ken said:

So 'you are the only 'gay' in the village! Not all Brits are 'gay' are they?

Its a reference to the TV comedy ‘Little Britain’.

There is a sketch in the show where an openly gay bloke thinks he is the only ‘gay’ in the Welsh village where he lives. Then he finds out that half the village are gay too. But they are no proper gays as he says.

The sketch often reminds me of Eymet or other such villages in the Dordogne.

Im the only ‘totally immersed’ British person living in the village. Then they find out that half the people living in French village are British too.
 

Yes but no but…….they are not as ‘immersed’ as me. They have not registered their UK car and don’t have a CSJ.
 

 

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12 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:

Its a reference to the TV comedy ‘Little Britain’.

There is a sketch in the show where an openly gay bloke thinks he is the only ‘gay’ in the Welsh village where he lives. Then he finds out that half the village are gay too. But they are no proper gays as he says.

The sketch often reminds me of Eymet or other such villages in the Dordogne.

Im the only ‘totally immersed’ British person living in the village. Then they find out that half the people living in French village are British too.
 

Yes but no but…….they are not as ‘immersed’ as me. They have not registered their UK car and don’t have a CSJ.
 

 

I believe you!!!!

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With DaveLister on this one.  We do the same. 

Best experience was on the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn on a motor bike trip a few years ago.  Finnish, Dutch, Estonian  and us.  We all spoke (excellent) English together, humbling experience as we could not put a sentence together in any of their languages. 

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43 minutes ago, DaveLister said:

I tend to take my lead from whoever I'm talking to. If they speak French to me I will reply in French. If they speak to me in English I will reply in English. It doesn't bother me either way. I know I'll never be French so why pretend.

I get your point.

But, I took my daughter to Camden Town last summer and there was a proper French Boulangerie. I told my daughter to go and order something but she had to order in French. Otherwise she pays. You know proper French that only French people speak…..not Chancer French. French !

I wanted to see what would happen. It was a social experiment.

They were obviously French born.

 

Do you know what, they were quite miffed to be spoken to in the UK in French by a French person. It was like, you are in the UK….try and speak some English. I can speak English can you uhhh.

I stepped in and spoke in English and then they got what was happening. 
 

I should grow up.

Their croissants almande were better than those you can get in France. They were huge and very tasty.

 

Edited by alittlebitfrench
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18 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:

I get your point.

But, I took my daughter to Camden Town last summer and there was a proper French Boulangerie. I told my daughter to go and order something but she had to order in French. Otherwise she pays. You know proper French that only French people speak…..not Chancer French. French !

I wanted to see what would happen. It was a social experiment.

They were obviously French born.

 

Do you know what, they were quite miffed to be spoken to in the UK in French by a French person. It was like, you are in the UK….try and speak some English. I can speak English can you uhhh.

I stepped in and spoke in English and then they got what was happening. 
 

I should grow up.

Their croissants almande were better than those you can get in France. They were huge and very tasty.

 

A proper French boulangerie in Camden Town!!!! Jesus Christ what has happened to my home Town!!!!

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We have travelled regularly on BF, P and O, LD and DFDS ferries from Portsmouth over the last 23 years and have never observed any one pretending to be French. Many, like me, try hard to use French when ordering food, in the shop and generally communicating with staff, frequently following up with the English version to make sure all is understood. Most of the BF staff speak good English and see the funny side of some of my attempts at French. 
   I admire the excellent French spoken by quite a few English speaking travellers. It all adds to the entertainment of the trip.

ALBF, sorry to hear about your mum’s ill health and I am sure she appreciates your visits and hope she improves.

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2 hours ago, Hectorsdad said:

We have travelled regularly on BF, P and O, LD and DFDS ferries from Portsmouth over the last 23 years and have never observed any one pretending to be French. Many, like me, try hard to use French when ordering food, in the shop and generally communicating with staff, frequently following up with the English version to make sure all is understood. Most of the BF staff speak good English and see the funny side of some of my attempts at French. 
   I admire the excellent French spoken by quite a few English speaking travellers. It all adds to the entertainment of the trip.

ALBF, sorry to hear about your mum’s ill health and I am sure she appreciates your visits and hope she improves.

Thanks Hectorsdad for your very kind words about my mum.

Regarding your first points, I think you are right about it adds to the entertainment of the trip. I do very much like BF and I think the staff that work on board are excellent. I used work closely with truckline (BF freight division) and the staff their were great to work with too. Overall it is a superb company.
 

Anyway, maybe it is a new phenomena that I am spotting (being French) is due to Brexit 🤐

I have not been on ferries so much since the 90’s.

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I traveled on Eurostar last month. I was siting at a table for two and the man facing me was French. As the steward passed through the carriage he would speak to people alternatively in French and English. I was spoken to in French whilst my traveling companion got the English. We exchanged wry smiles throughout the trip.

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We treat the continual travel as great fun and chat to many people who usually respond favourably. I recall a lift ride up the Eiffel Tour with a huge Texan wearing a ten gallon hat and I asked him gentle questions about his travels. His first response was to say in a predictable Texan drawl “You are the first person in our tour of UK and Europe who has spoken to me. What a relief, we have been pretty lonely.” We had a long, rewarding conversation with him and his wife. Both were lovely and no, he was not pretending to be French.

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1 hour ago, DraytonBoy said:

One thing that does bug me is Brits saying 'I'm French now' just because they've recently got French nationality. Having a national identity is not just about a bit of paper.

I quite agree. Perhaps they half heartedly mean they now have 'French Nationality' rather than being French! I would have thought than anyone with half a brain cell would understand they can never be anything other than the nationality they were born too! A piece of paper changes nothing other than the legality of nationality. I wonder if the same people would say the same thing had they changed their 'nationality' to that of, say, Rwanda or the Congo!!!!

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1 hour ago, DraytonBoy said:

One thing that does bug me is Brits saying 'I'm French now' just because they've recently got French nationality. Having a national identity is not just about a bit of paper.

I do agree.

There is a case for those of us married to a French person and have kids to get French nationalty. I mean to protect the kids in any unforeseen events. But I personally would not do it. I like being British in France and the French like me being British in France. The kids love me being British. French nationality won’t change who I am or bring anything to the table. 

Retired British peeps in the Dordogne or wherever don’t need French nationality and they are stupid to think they do. They really tend to know nothing about France or had to go through the daily grind of French life. So how can they suddenly become French by knowing when Napoleon was born ? Sell a house in the UK, buy a nice stoney house with a pool and a big garden and paint their shutters Provence blue and then get French nationality. Then spend all day patronising peeps on Brit forums telling everyone how crāp the UK is.
 

Oh yes, that is really typical French behaviour. 

I bet most will return to the UK so they don’t have to end up in a French ehpad anyway.

BTW, most French love the UK, so why slag it off all the time just because you have French nationality ? More French live in the UK than Brits do in France. They are also the biggest investors in property in the UK.

Also, do these self serving muppets realize they are clogging the French administration system up for others. There are thousands of people in France in desperate need of French nationalit to live and work. The British don’t need it. It is not life threatening. It will have no bearing on your life. For others in desperate need in France, it does.

So yeah, I can’t stand these peeps.
 

Anyway, that is my rant over.

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So I guess you can't stand me ALBF. I'm one of those 'self serving muppets' in that I am in the process of applying for French Nationality. Two reasons really. The first is that I want the right to vote. I feel I should have a say in who gets to spend my taxes. Secondly I can very well imagine myself ending up in an EPAD. I've no family and, as for moving to the UK, I spent ten years there once & didn't like it. My right to live in France currently requires me to apply for a residency card every ten years. What if I became too infirm to go through the formalities? I read recently about a woman with dementia in Sweden who is being deported back to the UK because she was unable to complete her residency application despite being in a care home for the past seven years.

You are right, not having French Nationality doesn't have that much of a bearing on my life currently but who knows what might happen to any of us in the future. As I intend to die here, I'd rather apply now instead of waiting until it does become life threatening.

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29 minutes ago, DaveLister said:

So I guess you can't stand me ALBF. I'm one of those 'self serving muppets' in that I am in the process of applying for French Nationality. Two reasons really. The first is that I want the right to vote. I feel I should have a say in who gets to spend my taxes. Secondly I can very well imagine myself ending up in an EPAD. I've no family and, as for moving to the UK, I spent ten years there once & didn't like it. My right to live in France currently requires me to apply for a residency card every ten years. What if I became too infirm to go through the formalities? I read recently about a woman with dementia in Sweden who is being deported back to the UK because she was unable to complete her residency application despite being in a care home for the past seven years.

You are right, not having French Nationality doesn't have that much of a bearing on my life currently but who knows what might happen to any of us in the future. As I intend to die here, I'd rather apply now instead of waiting until it does become life threatening.

You want the right to vote ? Who you going to vote for ?

People in France only vote to stop the FN from getting into power. Other than that, nobody really gives a shît IMHO.

Politics in France has not changed since I moved here in 1998 and I guess from the day my wife was born. That was 50 years ago tomorrow. Happy birthday ALBF wife.

Are you going to for vote for yourself or French children ? 


Should a British type in there lasting years have a vote for the future of French kids ? Bit like the Brexit vote. no ?

Schooling/education is the biggest problem in France, do you have the knowledge to make the right voting decision ?

In terms of ephad. It costs a lot of money. 4k a month for the basics. We are going through this with an elderly French relative that is not long from needing care and protection.


I get your point regarding the woman living in Sweeden. 
 

I reached 50 a month back and I am already thinking about the future. I wonder how many people think about these issues when moving to France. I am not ending up in an ephad dancing to Johney Halliday songs. 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, DaveLister said:

So by your logic, anyone who doesn't have children should be excluded from voting. I'm assuming you would extend that to French Nationals as well.

We all have our vested interests, that's what makes universal suffrage so important.

Your last point brings us back to the Brexit vote. I think when you reach a certain age (myself included) you let the younger generation decide. 

I still think that the majority of those Brits of a certain age seeking French nationality should be excluded because it is not relevant to their lives and it clogs the system. And they dont seem to have the expérience of France to make any informed decision.

So should these types have the vote ? Should they have a say on my kids or my other halves future ? Have they grown up in France an understand the main issues. Well no.

A former member of this forum still spills his shît in other places telling us us all to break the law and not pay this that and the other. Giving unworthy advice to those seeking advice. No kids, not married knows nothing apart from the shell he lives in.

Given his own self admiration of his French skills, and if someone told him the birthdate of Nepolean could potentially get French nationality.

Being a fighter for France, pay all my taxes, make people smile and laugh when out and about, have a crit air sticker on all my cars and van, cross my t’s and play by the rules…I…..find that quite unsettling.

 

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