Ken

Oh! the embarrassment!! I shall hang my head in shame, just as in hanging it pendant style!

I think it should be you and me, sorry about being a pendant!!

It's because owners will go to the trouble of training cats. Many parents simply don't bother to teach their children even basic manners.

Apparently a problem has already surfaced! People are pinching them!!! I agree about the plastic, scratches etc but it wouldn't put me off. Like you I can't remember the last time I was in a place like that but a hamburger is certainly nice! Perhaps the answer is china containers for the chips etc, even more 'nickable' though!!

Should you really get all bitter and twisted over the apparent fact, according to you, that most expats, don't live in areas you suggest is the 'real France'? Shot, stabbed, apparently murdered!! That is normal France? Should you really resent that because most of us live in an area where we don't have to wear stab vests and our local Policeman doesn't even carry a gun, let alone get 'apparently murdered', whatever that means! Perhaps it is you that needs to live in the 'real France' and get out of the 'cess pit', figuratively speaking, you say you live in? Living amongst the dross seems to have affected your perspective!

Was that really necessary? Gratuitously insulting someone in that manner probably suggests more about you than him.

This is much more like it, rich verses poor, bitter ex pat, people starving in France now if we can introduce a bit more social divergence, or perhaps race then it will be truly entertaining. This site was incredibly boring. Much better now. Can we have more of the difference between rich and poor please?

Don't tell Dave Lister! He thinks it needs talent to not require a paper receipt!!

Easily impressed I see! Yes it takes real talent to know how much you are spending! The only thing I have to remember regarding how much I spend is, have I brought my calculator with me? Yes it takes real talent to do that!! The responsibility is yours, if you can't be bothered to keep a check on how much you are spending, well, need I say more? As for single items well I guess I have the talent for that also and can actually remember how much I have spent!

It's about time waste, such as ticket receipts ,packaging and many other things were stopped. The mind boggles at such waste. With regard receipts, if people can't be bothered to work out how much they should be paying at the till , before they get there, then they almost deserve to be fiddled! Yes it takes a little bit of time to do it before hand but most stores have a 'price' machine', several in fact spaced around the store. people are just to idle to use them.

I wonder if the relaxed Chinese travel restrictions will end up with us being , once again, restricted? It seems incredible to me that China, in the grip of this pandemic with horrendous reported deaths and spread of the disease, has lifted travel restrictions. It seems even more incredible that the West is going to allow China to once again export Covid! Several countries have reportedly said they will test Chinese travellers when they arrive and Macron has asked the French government to look at ways to protect the population. The only way, I believe, is to forbid travellers from China entering the country in the first place. It is inevitable that Covid will, once again, pose a serious problem. China has really been quite 'cute'. It will be sending its sick and diseased people on holiday and relieving itself of the caring of them whilst once again damaging western economies! I suppose money is at the bottom of it all. The West wants Chinese tourists but our politicians are not bright enough to know that having the spread of Covid amongst us is counter productive! I think it is three years now since Covid caused a huge problem here in the West. I think we are about to get another 'dose' !!!

You did refer me to your 'point' so may I also respond? I'm a Londoner and I moved first to Kent, before coming to France, didn't spoil a thing. Just what sort of 'Londoners' are you referring to and what did they do to spoil your idyll? As for living in apartments, I would agree that most do but you are trying to give the impression, in fact you said, most don't have a choice. That may be accurate, then again it may not be! At the poorer end of society it may be the case that many don't have a choice but you can't even offer anecdotal evidence that that is an accurate statement. There are many social issues that you simply ignore by your sweeping statements. You also say the majority of the French can't afford a rural life completely ignoring the possibility that the majority probably don't want a rural life! In this part of France, as in other parts, 'peeps' come down for their holidays every year, from their apartments!! Not everyone wants to wake up to the sound of a '****-a-doodle-do!! You have some hang up about Brits who come here who can afford a 'rural' life. There are also people, on this site, who live in an apartment, are they also 'poor'?

No, is the answer to your question. A cliché perhaps, but life is what you make it. You make choices and have to live with them. You live in 'real' France. That's your choice. Excuses will bubble to the surface about school accessibility or medical care, whatever, but people live where they live because that's what they choose. Bitching about things or blaming just about everything is really the only 'real' thing that seems to exist in this modern world. Anyway, I will continue viewing my 'faux' France you can continue in your 'real' France!!

Like Henry 100. Except I have mountains and great scenic views. Only four cats though!! So glad I don't live in the 'real France!!!!

Slightly related, Green, eco and all that. There was an interesting article this morning on how long it will take, on average, to get your money back on turning your home 'green'! Never mind turning a profit! Put it this way, you had better live for at least another 14 years!! As for EVs well, like the green zealots everywhere, it simply doesn't matter what is said. I suppose that as these people have gone down that 'road' that can't backtrack can they? No one likes to admit they have got it wrong!! Pollution wise or financially.

A literal translation I doubt exists. You are aware, I presume of how 'j’en chie des solutions' translates? Anyway for me I would simply say "I bit off more than I can chew and can't find a solution"

You have got hold of the 'wrong end of the stick' entirely. There is nothing 'holier than though" about me at all. You accept what I have said and even that you agree with me but then rather insultingly accuse me of something I'm not! I have made it perfectly clear that some don't have a choice, but that others do. You agree but strangely, you prefer to insult me.

Anyone who has been 'flooded' will have suffered privations and chaos most people can't conceive of. Each year I see in the media the results of nature taking its revenge and I truly feel for those that suffer. I have spent many a shift sweeping , mopping and helping the victims of a flooding. Those people who live on a flood plain through no fault of their own have little or no choice but to simply hope that nature isn't going to hurt them but those who choose to live or move onto a flood plain must accept that what they are doing is a risk and should they be flooded , well they risked it and have to suffer the consequences. It is avoidable in many cases. When we moved to this region we did our research, as most do, part of that was being advised that whilst it is a beautiful area, there is a possibility of the river flooding the valley, and so it came to pass about 15 years ago. The whole Vally was under water, helicopters lifting people off roofs, the whole town of St Pée badly flooded, dead sheep floating around the roads, it was horrendous. We viewed this from our home on the side of a hill some 150m up! I'm sorry but people who choose to take a risk, be it for financial or aesthetic reasons shouldn't complain if it goes wrong.

I have , in another life, helped many people who have been 'flooded' out. The mess is indescribable and an absolute disaster for those involved. Those that have no choice but to live in 'flood prone' areas I have every sympathy for; Inheritance, family or what ever. Those that choose to live in such areas because it's 'nice' or more likely cheap, I think are stupid! Harsh perhaps but there is a reason properties are cheaper in such localities!.

Weather patterns are interesting. I keep a daily weather record and have done so for years. The one thing that is certain is that every year the weather pattern is different. Some dryer, wetter and more or less snow though perhaps surprisingly the average is, well about average!! It is the interpretation of these changes that alarms people into believing all sorts of theories. My own belief is that weather patterns started changing the second day the earth was formed and has continued to do so since with or without interference from mankind. The ski stations will be pleased anyway!!

When you are a team of 2 persons working on a project, you work in "binôme". Binôme means "à deux"

Perhaps my dentist was apprenticed to your dentist!!!!

Well I like to do my bit to help. Forewarned is forearmed, hope you haven't a toothache!!!!

Well, as we are talking. dentistry! Monday I had a real fun time at the dentist. I had had a toothache for a couple of weeks and after various attempts at finding the cause, and failing, the tooth had to come out, a molar. Several anaesthetic injections later and still the agony of her cutting into the tooth was severe. She said she had to cut it (using a sort of angle grinder in miniature!!) so that it could be loosened and then removed! After I had climbed down off the ceiling she continued with a sort of spike tool to lever out the split pieces, meanwhile the assistant was mopping the blood off my face and trying to keep me in the chair! Eventually the vet, sorry the dentist' said she would have to refer me to hospital as she was causing me too much agony! The thought of further delay filled me with horror and I told her to have one last go and I would try not to scream too loudly! In she went again, spikey tool, pliers, drills; the lot. I was in all honesty, ready to faint with the pain until after what seemed a lifetime she said she had got it out!! She showed it to me, a root had become infected and that was the 'root' of the problem!! Believe it or not she is a very good dentist, she explained that molar roots extend, more or less, into the bone of the jaw and this makes them particularly difficult to get out! My mouth and particularly the gum is still trying to come to terms with being abused so drastically! So, something to look forward to if you find you have a molar that is starting to ache!!!!!!!

Like everyone here, I'm not affected so not a problem. The hypocrisy is mind blowing!!