Gardian Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Just for anybody travelling in the next couple of days - things are apparently quite difficult, with farming protesters blocking access. According to friends coming from the south, trying to get to their hotel in Calais this afternoon (prior to a Tunnel crossing tomorrow), it was a nightmare. Probably not many in any way interested, but you never know ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hectorsdad Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 We will not be affected but hope it settles down by April. I am grateful for your warning and think it is always better to publicise these conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Yes, Gardian, well noted; but with a place like Calais there are usually any number of road accesses, off motorway, so folks get the old maps out. By the way, what exactly are they demonstrating about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 Wooly ......... Well down here, it’s the price that they’re getting for their produce. Usual thing I suppose. Apparently Friday is going to be the ‘big day’, but they obviously kicked off early in the Pas de Calais. In many ways I don’t blame them, but we’re supposed to be in a ‘free market economy’ in the (so-called) West - that, I always understood to mean, that you need to be able to match competitive imports for price and / or quality. If you can’t, then .............. I fear that this is just the start of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Both Attal and Bardella have been out talking to the agriculteurs and answering questions. I didn't watch for too long, because I know very little about agriculture. In the UK too, there was a feature about farmers in the Lake District and some of them are said to earn no more than 12k a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 It is the quiet season for farmers and they are bored so they kick off. Guardian, the French have always paid lip service to the free market; if they are exporting into it then they will defend it aggressively and be the first to the European courts to defend their rights but if anyone should export to France particularly food then the moan goes up, ‘unfair competition’, ‘hidden subsidies’, ‘unfair regulation makes French products expensive’ blah, blah. There are too many small farms producing food no one wants at uncompetitive prices. Just look at Brittany pork. Round here it is sugar beet. And potatoes. Bobo knows what they do with the stuff. Somehow the French farmer has to understand that the State and EU do not owe them a living and that the sentimental, one family band of farming is long over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 10 hours ago, menthe said: Both Attal and Bardella have been out talking to the agriculteurs and answering questions. I didn't watch for too long, because I know very little about agriculture. In the UK too, there was a feature about farmers in the Lake District and some of them are said to earn no more than 12k a year. It must be difficult running a couple of Land Rovers on £12k a year. 😃 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Yes and that's BEFORE you take account of the insurance (IF you can get a company to insure you that is) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 17 hours ago, anotherbanana said: Yes, Gardian, well noted; but with a place like Calais there are usually any number of road accesses, off motorway, so folks get the old maps out. By the way, what exactly are they demonstrating about? https://www-publicsenat-fr.translate.goog/actualites/economie/colere-des-agriculteurs-ce-que-contient-la-liste-des-revendications-presentee-par-la-fnsea-au-gouvernement?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 And now the fishermen are trying their luck. What are they wingeing about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/eu-referendum/analysis-7-years-after-brexit-farmers-count-the-cost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le martin-pêcheur Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 The fishermen.............hard to be kept at the quayside for a month.........on the other hand, I see the point ref the dolphins. https://www.sudouest.fr/environnement/mer/protection-des-dauphins-pourquoi-500-navires-de-peche-sont-a-l-arret-ce-lundi-dans-le-golfe-de-gascogne-18167077.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 An excellent documentary on the History of "les Paysans" from around 1900 to the present day. Lots of astonishing film clips and many of the re-coloured https://www.france.tv/france-5/nous-paysans/2264015-nous-paysans.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Nice one, Norman. Thank Bobo those days are gone. If it is still around try to watch Le Champ Dolent which, though fiction covers the history of one family throughout this period. I showed it to some elderly French retired farmers in the Vendée who said that they recognised the lives and culture in it as theirs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harnser Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 On 25/01/2024 at 16:41, anotherbanana said: And now the fishermen are trying their luck. What are they wingeing about? Two recent events - the price of the diesel fuel they must use, the marginal profitabilty of their boats depends to a large extent on the price of the fuel, a few cents per litre increase means they are running at at a loss because of the amount they use. And Biscay fishermen are on a month's lay off to protect dolphins which get caught in the nets - breeding season etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 4 hours ago, anotherbanana said: Nice one, Norman. Thank Bobo those days are gone. If it is still around try to watch Le Champ Dolent which, though fiction covers the history of one family throughout this period. I showed it to some elderly French retired farmers in the Vendée who said that they recognised the lives and culture in it as theirs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKfF2pfFwxw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssomon Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 This is apparently based on a true story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 There is a better film version made in two parts by Pagnol himself. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manon_des_sources_(film,_1952) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 Just to return to the current disruption, you’d think from the BBC News that Paris was the only place affected. Now it may well be of course that most of the rest of France is currently unaffected. However, down here, we certainly are affected. Motorways and many roads unusable (the A9 between Orange & Montpellier has been closed since Thursday) and local towns of any size are inaccessible. Starting to see shortages in local shops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 I heard that the A75 was also blocked, but the situation keeps changing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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