Rain

[Ken]

3 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:

I have lived all over France. Have you ?

Peeps are the same wherever you go. The Pays Basque is no exception.

Nope, just been here for 24 years! travelled extensively though and the only time I would ever have come across the cesspits you describe would have been by mistake. You should get out more. You should try some nice places as you seem to be living in a not too pleasant place!!

[Ken]

3 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:

Funny, I had the image of them all being green, 10 ft tall with webbed feet.

But I smoke to much.

What do you smoke Ken ?

 

3 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:

Funny, I had the image of them all being green, 10 ft tall with webbed feet.

But I smoke to much.

What do you smoke Ken ?

I think you should leave the 'funny stuff' alone!!! It has warped your view of life.

[alittlebitfrench]

3 minutes ago, Ken said:

Nope, just been here for 24 years! travelled extensively though and the only time I would ever have come across the cesspits you describe would have been by mistake. You should get out more. You should try some nice places as you seem to be living in a not too pleasant place!!

Oh Ken you are such a card…..have a read and weep….if you can read French.

 

https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2021/06/30/pres-d-un-francais-sur-deux-en-surpoids-l-obesite-en-progression_6086350_3244.html

Have you noticed all the adverts on French TV selling weight losing food delivered to your door. 

[DraytonBoy]

1 hour ago, Ken said:

Pot bellied and drunk are all too common a factor with Brits abroad.

If they're on holiday maybe but that doesn't describe the majority of Brits living in rural France. 

[betise]

59 minutes ago, Ken said:

 

I think you should leave the 'funny stuff' alone!!! It has warped your view of life.

What's your excuse then?

[alittlebitfrench]

16 minutes ago, DraytonBoy said:

If they're on holiday maybe but that doesn't describe the majority of Brits living in rural France. 

Maybe Ken should tune into ‘100 days with the Gendarmes’´…..´insert place in France of your choice’ ..TV show that is on every weekend. C17 I think ? I love this programme.

We have had Beziers, Nimes, St Tropez, Normandy…Brittany…and others. Gendarmes doing their stuff.

It is mostly filled with fat French folk picking fights with each other on holiday. Or nicking stuff…having road accidents…and all the rest. Most if not all off their heads with either alcohol or drugs.

I think Ken needs to take off his glasses.

Who would be a cop in France. Not me.

 

Edited June 19, 2023 by alittlebitfrench

[menthe]

11 hours ago, Ken said:

I'm a numpty! 'Not many Brits about here' Meaning 'there aren't many Brits about here'!! What's wrong with that? Incidentally, here in the pays Basque we (being one of the not many Brits) have had nearly 80I  mm of rain this month. Reading the other posts, why on earth live in those places if you don't like it? 

I love the Pays Basque and have had umpteen wonderful walking holidays there over many years.  The rain, however, does tend to be rather fierce.  So it's not so good when it rains so much you can't see where you are walking and could be in danger of walking clean off the hillside, that is, if you can keep upright in the wind!

BTW, I hope you are not referring to me with your remark about people living in places they don't like?  Wooly made a throwaway remark and I made a throwaway answer.  Where I live in the Dordogne, it is a walker's paradise and I have lovely companions to walk with.  Strange thing is, in all 16 years or so of my walking with my present nordic walking club and the one other club before that, I have never met a British person who have joined and stayed joined!  That is to say, they might walk for a couple of weeks and are then never to be seen again.

That's rather puzzling because I walk just about exclusively with French people (in a département that is supposed to be teeming with Brits) and there are even a few who are even older than me.

 

[Ken]

15 hours ago, DraytonBoy said:

If they're on holiday maybe but that doesn't describe the majority of Brits living in rural France. 

You know the majority then?

[Ken]

15 hours ago, alittlebitfrench said:

Oh Ken you are such a card…..have a read and weep….if you can read French.

 

https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2021/06/30/pres-d-un-francais-sur-deux-en-surpoids-l-obesite-en-progression_6086350_3244.html

Have you noticed all the adverts on French TV selling weight losing food delivered to your door. 

As I said, try living somewhere nice! And do stop 'smoking' It shows!!!

[Ken]

14 hours ago, alittlebitfrench said:

Maybe Ken should tune into ‘100 days with the Gendarmes’´…..´insert place in France of your choice’ ..TV show that is on every weekend. C17 I think ? I love this programme.

We have had Beziers, Nimes, St Tropez, Normandy…Brittany…and others. Gendarmes doing their stuff.

It is mostly filled with fat French folk picking fights with each other on holiday. Or nicking stuff…having road accidents…and all the rest. Most if not all off their heads with either alcohol or drugs.

I think Ken needs to take off his glasses.

Who would be a cop in France. Not me.

 

Try getting out of the cess pits. There really is a nice world out there.

[DraytonBoy]

3 minutes ago, Ken said:

You know the majority then?

I've lived here long enough to know that the type of Brit you describe doesn't choose rural France as his/her home.

[Ken]

13 hours ago, menthe said:

I love the Pays Basque and have had umpteen wonderful walking holidays there over many years.  The rain, however, does tend to be rather fierce.  So it's not so good when it rains so much you can't see where you are walking and could be in danger of walking clean off the hillside, that is, if you can keep upright in the wind!

BTW, I hope you are not referring to me with your remark about people living in places they don't like?  Wooly made a throwaway remark and I made a throwaway answer.  Where I live in the Dordogne, it is a walker's paradise and I have lovely companions to walk with.  Strange thing is, in all 16 years or so of my walking with my present nordic walking club and the one other club before that, I have never met a British person who have joined and stayed joined!  That is to say, they might walk for a couple of weeks and are then never to be seen again.

That's rather puzzling because I walk just about exclusively with French people (in a département that is supposed to be teeming with Brits) and there are even a few who are even older than me.

 

When I walk I tend to pick days that show the weather forecast as being suitable. It would be irresponsible to walk in bad weather, particularly if it is bad enough to "walk off the hillside"!! Then again, as I live here and can pick my days you, being a tourist have to put up with it!!

 

 

[Ken]

5 minutes ago, DraytonBoy said:

I've lived here long enough to know that the type of Brit you describe doesn't choose rural France as his/her home.

Really! Where do they live?

[Ken]

15 hours ago, betise said:

What's your excuse then?

You think my view of 'pot bellied' is 'warped'? It is usually the 'pot bellied' ones who react!! 

[DaveLister]

26 minutes ago, Ken said:

32 minutes ago, DraytonBoy said:

I've lived here long enough to know that the type of Brit you describe doesn't choose rural France as his/her home.

Really! Where do they live?

Don't tell him Pike !!!!!!!!

[betise]

2 hours ago, Ken said:

You think my view of 'pot bellied' is 'warped'? It is usually the 'pot bellied' ones who react!! 

Am I speaking to Ken, or Ken mark 2, or an algorithm?  I really don't think you can be an algorithm though Ken, as they necessitate being based on logic.

But even a broken clock is right twice a day, so better luck next time.

Tick tock ...

[Ken]

15 minutes ago, betise said:

Am I speaking to Ken, or Ken mark 2, or an algorithm?  I really don't think you can be an algorithm though Ken, as they necessitate being based on logic.

But even a broken clock is right twice a day, so better luck next time.

Tick tock ...

So vociferous! I presume the 'pot belly' jibe struck home!!

[DraytonBoy]

I just don't get the 'bile' coming from certain people, we're all entitled to our opinions but can they not be expressed politely?

[betise]

7 minutes ago, Ken said:

So vociferous! I presume the 'pot belly' jibe struck home!!

So sorry, I thought I had expressed myself quite clearly, you are wrong.

Now, I really must toddle off and do something useful.

[Ken]

37 minutes ago, betise said:

So sorry, I thought I had expressed myself quite clearly, you are wrong.

Now, I really must toddle off and do something useful.

I guess it did then!!

[anotherbanana]

BE NICE PEOPLE, svp!😡

[menthe]

6 hours ago, Ken said:

When I walk I tend to pick days that show the weather forecast as being suitable. It would be irresponsible to walk in bad weather, particularly if it is bad enough to "walk off the hillside"!! Then again, as I live here and can pick my days you, being a tourist have to put up with it!!

 

 

I DIDN'T say I minded being unable to walk the unforgetable day when the rain was horizontal and we could see nothing for the mist.

We were a group of a dozen friends and we had a guide with us.  We took our picnics back to the gîte and invited the guide to share our meal.  He disappeared into his own house for a while and then came to our gîte to join us for lunch.  He brought with him some special pâté that he'd made himself.

During the afternoon he spent with us, we learnt a lot from him about walking in the mountains and it was an afternoon that all of us present still now and again remember and talk about with enjoyment.

Even "tourists" don't want to be doing touristy things ALL the time. 

We shall certainly be going to the resto in Banca on our first night there and re-engaging the singers we know to come and sing us Basque songs and no doubt they will be wearing their black berets and red neckerchieves to regale us with their songs and provide the music for dancing.

Other thing is, it doesn't do to be too snooty about the tourists; you might not work in the tourism industry but I know that many of the locals in the Pays Basque would find earning a livelihood considerably more challenging without the much needed income that tourists bring.

 

[Ken]

1 hour ago, menthe said:

I DIDN'T say I minded being unable to walk the unforgetable day when the rain was horizontal and we could see nothing for the mist.

We were a group of a dozen friends and we had a guide with us.  We took our picnics back to the gîte and invited the guide to share our meal.  He disappeared into his own house for a while and then came to our gîte to join us for lunch.  He brought with him some special pâté that he'd made himself.

During the afternoon he spent with us, we learnt a lot from him about walking in the mountains and it was an afternoon that all of us present still now and again remember and talk about with enjoyment.

Even "tourists" don't want to be doing touristy things ALL the time. 

We shall certainly be going to the resto in Banca on our first night there and re-engaging the singers we know to come and sing us Basque songs and no doubt they will be wearing their black berets and red neckerchieves to regale us with their songs and provide the music for dancing.

Other thing is, it doesn't do to be too snooty about the tourists; you might not work in the tourism industry but I know that many of the locals in the Pays Basque would find earning a livelihood considerably more challenging without the much needed income that tourists bring.

 

And I thought you were a real walker!!! Picnic, a guide, pâté, restaurant at the Banca!! Sounds more like a stroll around Hyde Park!!! Now if you would like to hear about some very serious walking I  could regale you with real walking stories, then again you probably wouldn't believe me.

Incidentally I don't mind tourists, I don't recall saying I did! It makes a nice change when they start arriving and of course it's even better when the season ends!!!! I know the locals welcome the tourist season, at least the money!!! I know though that they are not particularly keen on the tourists themselves.

Keep up the walking and don't eat too much of that pâté! remember the 'Pot Belly' syndrome!!!.

[Judith]

Ken,

I do believe that Menthe knows more than enough about walking (lost track of how long she's been doing it, including Santiago), and IMHO, given the conditions she described, it would have been irresponsible as well as foolish to set of in such conditioins.  I've done my fair share of walking in wet weather over the years, Lake District inlcuded when rain can be dangerous as well) and experience counts for more than supposed courage, which in some cases would be labelled stupidity. 

Not I am not accusing anyone  of stupidity on here, but we had friends in the Yorkshire Dales Fell and Cave Rescue teams and some of their stories of stupid walkers were hair raising.

Poor scorn on inexperienced walkers (even when they might be your despised tourists who pay the wages of many in our southern areas), but not on experienced walkers like Menthe who took a sensible decision to forego their walk.

 

[menthe]

Thank you, Judith, for your kind post.  Indeed, I have had walking holidays since I went on my first one at 19 years old.

Never did like lying on the beach but enjoy sightseeing in cities and all other holidays are walking ones.

Of course, walk with my friends and neighbours at least twice weekly and walk on my own as well, especially in the cooler weather.

Don't worry, the post belly remark does not apply to me😝 In fact, I now weigh less than 46 kilos.....since I have started doing some special exercises to lower my blood pressure. Lost over just over 10 kilos since the end of chemo and take a French size 36 to 38 tops in clothes.