NormanH

"Be careful using the French; faire piquer and se faire piquer as there is a significant difference" As with a word beginning  with 'n' which rhymes with 'piquer"[6]

It goes alongside the replacement of other auxiliary verbs by the ubiquitous "GET"  get a jab = be vaccinatedget a coffee/shower = have a coffee/shower

There are several different sorts of EU "rules" https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/types-eu-law_en To show just two of them:  Regulations Regulations are legal acts that apply automatically and uniformly to all EU countries as soon as they enter into force, without needing to be transposed into national law. They are binding in their entirety on all EU countries. Directives Directives require EU countries to achieve a certain result, but leave them free to choose how to do so. EU countries must adopt measures to incorporate them into national law (transpose) in order to achieve the objectives set by the directive. National authorities must communicate these measures to the European Commission. Transposition into national law must take place by the deadline set when the directive is adopted (generally within 2 years). When a country does not transpose a directive, the Commission may initiate infringement proceedings. That can explain why it seems that different countries are applying the rules differently and it also shows that each country  has quite a bit of freedom... Of course Boris Johnson when he was working in Brussels was responsible for inventing untrue but 'amusing' anti EU stories "His articles, like those in several other Eurosceptic newspapers, contained many of the claims widely described as “Euromyths”, including plans to introduce same-size “eurocoffins”, establish a “banana police force” to regulate the shape of the curved yellow fruit, and ban prawn cocktail crisps. When questioned about them in parliament, he denied suggestions they were a figment of his imagination." "Johnson did not invent Euroscepticism but he took it to new levels. A brilliant caricaturist, he made his name by mocking, lampooning and ridiculing the EU. He wrote stories headlined “Brussels recruits sniffers to ensure that Euro-manure smells the same”, “Threat to British pink sausages” and “Snails are fish, says EU”. He wrote about plans to standardise condom sizes and ban prawn cocktail flavour crisps. He set up Jacques Delors, who was then the European Commission president, as a bogeyman and claimed credit for persuading Denmark to reject the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 with a Sunday Telegraph splash – “Delors plan to rule Europe” – that was seized on by the Nej campaign. To Johnson, it was all a bit of a jape. “[I] was sort of chucking these rocks over the garden wall and I listened to this amazing crash from the greenhouse next door over in England as everything I wrote from Brussels was having this amazing, explosive ­effect on the Tory party – and it really gave me this, I suppose, rather weird sense of power,” he told the BBC years later. That many of Johnson’s stories bore scant relation to the truth did not matter. They were colourful and fun. The Telegraph and right-wing Tories loved them. So did other Fleet Street editors, who found the standard Brussels fare tedious and began to press their own correspondents to follow suit. I know this because I became the Brussels correspondent of the Times in 1999 and suffered the consequences. Soon, a Europe of scheming bureaucrats plotting to rob Britain of its ancient liberties, or British prime ministers fighting gallant rearguard actions against an increasingly powerful superstate, or absurd directives on banana shapes, became the only narratives that many papers were interested in. They were narratives that exploited our innate nationalism, distrust of foreigners and sense of superiority. They were narratives so strong that our political leaders mostly chose to play along with them. The EU is arrogant, bureaucratic, wasteful and meddlesome. It desperately needs reforming. But post-Boris, its great achievements – cementing peace, uniting the continent, creating the world’s largest single market, enabling its citizens to travel and live anywhere they choose, busting mono­polies, improving the environment – have gone largely unreported. Similarly ignored is that Britain has many natural allies in Europe and has enjoyed some significant successes: competition policy, free trade, eastward enlargement. The French now regard the EU as a plot to impose Anglo-Saxon economics on the continent. True, we lost the argument on the euro and the Schengen Agreement, but we won opt-outs." That is the equivalent of the car salesman charming you into buying a fake..."misleading" you

"NH, I wish you had not said that about people being misled about their vote. It would be like saying that in 'general' that if people do not vote as we agree with, that someone or other has led them down the garden path." I am not criticising the voters, and not even suggesting that they should have voted in the way that I think (although I would have liked it if they did) By the word 'mislead' I was thinking of many of the claims of the leave campaign: a few links: https://www.shoutoutuk.org/2019/11/01/top-8-brexit-lies-debunked/ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2018/mar/28/11-brexit-promises-leavers-quietly-dropped If you bought a car on the basis of false information I wouldn't say that you were a fool to buy it just because I hadn't done the same thing. I would say that the people who sold it to you had 'mislead' you...

I would have asked 'what is a teaspoon'?

I don't 'rubbish'  the voters, I condemn those whom I believe mislead them.

And a French pension, so I pay taxes here too.AND because I have a French pension France is my competent state for health cover (I get my CEAM card ... EHIC for Brits..from Ameli) I also have  to pay the various social charges. I can't opt out as those with an SI can.[:(] On Brexit I was very much against; but now I would almost like to  see a no-deal so that Johnson and co. have to accept the consequences, although he will pretend that much of the economic damage is a result of Covid.

As a British person still paying taxes  there neither did I.

I certainly saw plenty of single young men, who are probably their main (unexpressed) target.Strange that! They don't  seem to target ME[6]

Gendarmes are for the country. We rarely see them here, as we have Le Police Municipale, and they have  been busy: https://actu.fr/occitanie/beziers_34032/covid-19-beziers-en-tete-des-records-d-amendes-depuis-le-reconfinement_37671088.html?fbclid=IwAR245deWepO_bqk2fbwDJtnXSgsdM5TsOuqTo0s2o-8hkEgZ0UWcb0KwjTk

Thanks for that . I had missed it...

Really pleased to see you again...just keep posting ..it seems as if you were here yestedday[:D]

Except that part of the importance of a vaccine is that a large proportion of the population is  vaccinated to stop the spread of the disease...

That article is any case out of date. It refers to "Ces déplacements pour « prendre l'air », pour promener son animal de compagnie ou faire du sport par exemple, seront possibles dans un rayon d'un kilomètre de chez soi et dans la limite d'une heure par jour" That was replaced on the 28th November by Déplacements en plein air ou vers un lieu de plein air, sans changement du lieu derésidence, dans la limite de trois heures quotidiennes et dans un rayon maximal de vingtkilomètres autour du domicile, liés soit à l’activité physique ou aux loisirs individuels, àl’exclusion de toute pratique sportive collective et de toute proximité avec d’autres personnes,soit à la promenade avec les seules personnes regroupées dans un même domicile, soit auxbesoins des animaux de compagnie https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere/Attestations-de-deplacement

"I live in the south of Occitanie, and have only seen limitations based on distance, not on travel between regions, and don't know how I missed this. The only reference I can see in the two current links to official information, below, is that travel between regions will be allowed after Dec 15th., nothing saying the contrary. Service-Public gouvernment.fr Could you please provide a link saying inter regional travel is currently forbidden?" I think  that this is one of those  rumours that spread among a certain 'expat' population who don't read the French regulations but do read anglophone mis-information. It is not for nothing that there is a paper called "the Correction"[6]

Why not?

I had a letter but I hadn't noticed it was from the Embassy.It seems to confirm much of what I have been saying for a few years..

But what on earth was she doing  there in 'le confinement'? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/29/uk-woman-esther-dingley-who-has-travelled-europe-for-six-years-goes-missing-pyrenees

For those of us who use the TousAntiCovid app it was automatically updated today. I find the advantage of using that is that all your details are saved and all you need to put in each time is the reason for that particular trip.It then gives you an automatically date/timestamped  QR code  to show if you are checked. It seems normal to me that the details change and are updated as the regulations change. I don't see why that  is a 'joke' although there may be grounds for grumbling about some of the fine detail of each new stage

If you buy from  many of them you can just take the item into the local branch to return it.I buy most of my clothes from Armand Thierry I go into the shop because of the excellent personal service, but could order online and return to the shop if needed. Similarly for more basic items at Decathlon or Kiabi...But for shoes I prefer a proper fitting in the shop, and for electrical items I go to the local chap who will come round and install them, and later repair if necessary.He is a little more expensive on the initial purchase, but the service provided outweighs the cost

No singing in this one. Just consummate playing of Bach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjDRZPBehTQ

Tu chantais, tu chantais et ta lyre Formait de si beaux sons, Que le Dieu séducteur, qui prit soin de t'instruire Cherche à les imiter dans ses tendres chansons !

Simpy ravishing beauty all round https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZKJhe8N3Lo

No doubt sdme one will be along soon to say that they don't fit in a wallet and have no use...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRQExPeeuvI&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2ctM9LNZG_9cdCx-77pBmQtBQ_DPrYW6Wjsx-mKLTQaYyqXLRDltY54vM