Noisette

Well for a start, you'd deduct the capital from the previous house sale. Mrs ALBF is in banking, isn't she? I'm sure she'll be able to house ALBF in the manner to which he's become accustomed 😁

Damn! If I'd known that they were going to blockade the Antilles I'd have been off like a shot on the microtractor 🤣

Yes, Norman, when you look at the météos for these holiday destinations, they're not all they're cracked up to be. La Réunion is the same, if not worse. Cyclones, hurricanes, wet seasons etc etc. None of them can hold a candle to Goa or Kerala in January. I hope your restaurateurs manage a better holiday next year! Funds permitting, I'm off back to Goa. Apparently it's been rather overrun by young Russians and Israelis, which won't have done much for the ambiance, but at least the good weather's 99% guaranteed 🙂 It's a shame it's anglophone but nowhere's perfect...

It's not that special, TBH. It rained for 11 days out of 14 (just warm showers, mind) and the western coast of Basse Terre is very windy. Fine if you like being sandblasted 😆. The food is.... erm..... repetitive. Parking is horrendous and there's only one main road to get around the island. The plusses are that it's Francophone, everything is very French (obviously), beautiful scenery and vegetation, cheap rum and lovely people. Oh and going on a plane again after too many years without being airborne 🤩

Quite agree, Menthe. We're living on one UK State pension and even when three of us were living on 2 pensions, I never felt 'flush' enough to spend €25 on an apple tart from a patisserie that I could produce myself for €5. In fact, I'm not a very good française at all, as the aim when moving here was to be as self-sufficient as possible. Not from meanness but just the pleasure of having land and being able to produce our own food. The raising, conserving, growing etc. goes down much better with 'my' French farming family than it appears to do with the townie and Parisien friends but then they can't even begin to imagine living on what we do 😁

I was pleasantly surprised by how many do support the farmers! There are the inevitable selfish whingers, of course, but on the whole the Brit community are much better informed and positive than I would have expected. Perhaps we're all agreed that it's time to call halt on the greed of the big supermarkets?

Noisette is from Lot et Garonne. It's not the same as the Lot 😛 I know Voiron! We stopped off there many years ago on our way down to the south coast. Lovely little town..... In fact, we always planned to live somewhere over to the east, anywhere between Dijon and Gap, but hey ho...best laid plans and all that 😁 As for not getting around France much, I've just got back from Guadeloupe so nana na na na heehee ETA: The glacier is still there in Chamonix, but it's shrinking fast.

With regards to desirable properties, certainly just over the border in Périgord pourpre, there seems to be a healthy market for châteaux amongst Brit buyers. Something to do with UK TV, perhaps 😁 Another factor in buying big, old properties is the never-ending idea that you can earn a living (or at least supplement your income) by running gîtes. Hasn't ALBF gone quiet? 🤣

I don't doubt for a minute that you're content (I'm glad you are)....the incoming Brit figures speak for themselves. I don't ramble but I do drive a lot, anything up to 200kms a day in all directions, on minor roads, to visit friends. Apart from the vineyards, my overall impression remains that there are vast areas of untamed forest and friche in Dordogne. But that's most likely because Lot et Garonne is tiny in comparison and most of it is cultivated, whether arable, sylviculture, orchards or vines 🙂 Do you happen to know anything about the veracity or otherwise of the stories concerning the role played by the Dordogne Resistance (or maybe the opposite, and it's collaborative activities) and it's subsequent impact on the département in post-war years? We were told that the Dordogne was a severely impoverished département as a result of being 'punished' for those activities, and that it's only relatively recently that it's managed to shake off that legacy. I've no idea how true that is.....Ashamed to say that I won't be digging into archives to find out, either. I prefer to leave the past behind. But I do wonder if that might be a reason for a difference in property prices. Of course, it could just be something simple like slight differences in climate. Hence the steeper prices the further south you go. The Gers might be considered 'rude' but it's certainly not cheap 😂 Whatever the reasons, France is so beautiful and diverse that there's something for everyone, even ALBF 😉

I’ll try to be tactful....just a few differences that have struck me since living in neighbouring Lot et Garonne. Firstly, the roads. It’s so noticeable that the roads are maintained to a higher standard in surrounding départements. Probably something to do with Dordogne being a huge dept? Then general scenery. Most of it is quite a ’natural/sauvage’ landscape compared to the neat cultivation of vines or arable crops elsewhere. Lots of wild forest. That’s not a criticism...each to their own 🙂 Maybe the fact that the tourist season is short, so many attractions and activities are crammed into two months in summer? Not a problem if you live in a big, culturally active place like Perigueux or even Bergerac.

Spot on about the pretentiousness, ALBF. Living where I do, there’s no escaping exposure to Brits and their current preoccupations. Soooo judgemental and so much more prone than the French to insisting that everyone should conform to their views (voir fads) on diet, ecology, allergies, you name it 😁 Even that is to a certain extent subject to a town/countryside divide. Given that there’s not a huge amount of countryside left in England ( note England, not UK) perhaps that explains it? Things are following the same course here, though, gradually. The littering, the media dependency, the crazy municipal/political decisions....all the joys of 21st century civilisation, quoi? 😉

I’ve seen 3 rebouteurs over the course of the last 16 years. The first was the most spectacular success. He sorted, in the space of 5 minutes, a very nasty twisted thigh muscle problem for which the MT had only offered prescriptions for painkillers and which was getting worse by the week. A genuine healer, ’thanks’ were entirely voluntary and discretionary. The experience certainly converted me. Equally, friends and OH have seen more ’structured’ i.e. moneymaking versions without noticeable success. The only way to find a genuine one is by word of mouth and the art seems to be on the decline which is a dreadful shame.

We toured France quite a few times in the early 80s and were bowled over by the sheer number and quality of restos just about anywhere in France. Back then, they opened in the evening and at the same price! Then, when we moved here, I was ’adopted’ by a French family (agriculteurs) and got to experience everyday country cooking and conserving. Georgette taught me a lot. Much home-produced pork and fowl, veggies either in the form of the ubiquitous soup or sterilised, bottled and re-hashed but rarely fresh and lightly cooked 🙂 The family didn’ t eat out much because by then, restos were too often expensive with far less tasty, well-cooked food than they got at home. We found some excellent restos here back in 2007 but they’ve since closed or been replaced by over-priced, pretentious tourist traps looking for a Michelin star. Thing is, young working French are pretty much like young, working Brits....not many are interested in spending hours in the kitchen producing traditional meals. So if the demand is there for ready meals and fast food, the supply will be forthcoming, and how! Pizza is my bête noire. Not even French and every time one of the few little, genuine, remaining restos folds, it reopens as a Pizza joint a few weeks later 😞 Best not to get into the discussion of French beef again lol.

Bonne année et bonne santé à tous et toutes 🍾🥂🎇

Happy Birthday, old bean 😘 Have a lovely day and a wonderful year!

Our local Intermarché introduced a 'maturation cabinet' for côtes de boeuf, some time ago. 20, 30 or 40 days au choix. I didn't even look at the price, just asked for a modest 2-rib piece. Got to the tills and it came in at €85, which at the time was only slightly less than our meat budget for the month 🤣 It was very good but why should the French have to pay such an exorbitant price for something that's been available in the UK since forever? Sadly, the answer is that the country 'with the finest food in the world' isn't. It's all down to profit, protectionism and self-publicity.

Hein? If the beef here was properly matured and edible when cooked, we'd probably eat less duck, but it isn't so we do. Have you ever visited a proper, small, French elevage, ALBF? The birds are not abused. Chickens are more cute and much more fun than ducks, though.

That is a truly perspicacious and accurate post 😁 Well done! Perhaps we're both in mourning for France as we knew it. You can't stop 'progress', though. I used to buy whole ducks from the farm and do confit, dry magrets, make terrine de foie gras, rillettes etc. This will be the first year that we'll be doing without foie gras for the fêtes. €96 / kg???? They're out of their minds! Which is a shame, 'cos I've got about 40 jars of home-made confit d'oignon and confit de figue stashed away 🤣 Bon dimanche x

No I'm not! I'm basically and very diplomatically saying that I prefer English humour and English and American (oh the shame..) music 😁 Although, since I've been listening to a Russian radio station I have discovered some very good German and Swiss groups. Listen to yourself making these sweeping generalisations! 😁 Some Brits do genuinely like chanson française. Good for them! I think Dave Lister has hit the nail on the head.....I'm completely out-of-date with current stuff of any nationality. That's what comes of not reproducing 😉

Reminds me of the CD of 'typical French music' that our dearest friends in Paris made for me some years ago.... Johnny (of course), Isabelle Boulay, Manu Chao, Cali, Piaf (mmmm limite).....I believe that Florent Pagny is French, though 🤣

I did a good job of faking enthousiasm for Jacques Brel 😂

Now you come to mention it, I remember a programme from many years ago with Antoine...Eurotrash, was it? Slightly more sophisticated than Benny Hill and Mr Bean 😁 The other one, does he do anything other than films?

Well what a coincidence! I was only pondering this question yesterday 😁 Apart from the obvious appalling customer service, which doesn't seem to have changed much over the years, I can't and never will appreciate French humour (tel quel) or music. There are a few exceptions, but on the whole, French comedians and writers can't hold a candle to the humour that I grew up with. I've been asking various French friends and acquaintances since 2002 for recommendations but they all go very quiet after suggesting Coluche, Desproges or Raymond Devos 😐 It's not so much disliking as just not appreciating, and thanking Heaven that there's some saving grace to having been born English.

I was thinking more of someone a bit more 'elevated' 😉👑

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