Anyone alive out there ?

[alittlebitfrench]

This forum is starting to push up daisies.

[woolybanana]

You bored? As our resident pessimist, give us something to bite you on!

Moved to Normandy yet?

[alittlebitfrench]

No...not moving now.

Apparently, half of Normandy is built on chalk caves.

Hundreds of thousands of caves where they used to excavate chalk for fertilising fields.

People have since built houses on these caves and then they collapse.

There was a thread on this on FE some years back when someones house had collapsed. The owner thought it was a coal mine.

No it was chalk.

Really not the place to move to. Tours is not so bad.

In fact it is the best place to live in France.

[woolybanana]

Yes, but I detected that Normandy was a way for you to get closer to England as you have an urge to spend more time there or even return!

[EuroTr@sh]

LOL.

Yes the Pays de Caux is built on chalk (the clue is in the name) but that's only one specific region of Normandy. And even there, houses don't collapse very often, ou pour ainsi dire jamais.

I once went on a guided tour a mushroom farm in caves near Orbec. It was absolutely fascinating, both the mushroom growing itself and the history of the caves. During the war people were evacuated into the caves and they lived down there, like a subterranean city..

Google it:

La champignonnière d'Orbec

LA VESPIERE-FRIARDEL

Paris is also built on a maze of underground tunnels. Norra lorra people know that. I read a novel about a villain who was on the run from the police and he had a hideout underground, and I checked it out to see if it was true about how he could get around Paris underground and pop up through manhole covers wherever he liked, and apparently it more or less is true.

[woolybanana]

Kids hold illegal house parties under Paris when they have found a hidden entrance to the caves. The gendarmes chase after them

When building Paris, the caves were and are a huge problem; the solution has been to pump loads of concrete underground to stabilise the foundations. Seems risky somehow.

[alittlebitfrench]

@ Wooly.....I can do Tours airport in 7 mins by car or taxi.

There is a flight to London that takes 1Hr-30mins.

Methinks that is a 'tad' closer to the UK than Normandy. LOL.

Moving to the UK ?

I dunno.

France is going to the dogs.

You know that, I know that...the French know that....the place in the suns have no idea. I would not move to France today.

Did you know that the biggest investors in property in London are the French ?

[woolybanana]

Yes, I know about the property buyers. It has been going on for a long time. I had kids in the London lycée so met the folks investing.

[EuroTr@sh]

alittlebitfrench wrote the following post at 16/11/2020 14:28:

Moving to the UK ?

I dunno.

France is going to the dogs.

You know that, I know that...the French know that....the place in the suns have no idea. I would not move to France today.

ALBF, in another time and place when I was thinking of going back to the UK, you said Don't do it, you will regret it.

I thought you were probably right but I did it anyway.

Where I'm at now, I don't regret it and I don't not regret it. In the UK I bury myself in the Welsh countryside and look on in despair at what's happening in the UK and in France. In France I bury myself in small town Normandy and look on in despair at what's happening in France and in the UK. That's what life has boiled down to, for me.

But with a young family you can't do that.

I certainly wouldn't encourage you to move to the UK right now. Anything could happen for the next year or so. UK container ports are starting to get blocked already, ships are being told they have to wait several weeks to dock, and that's before anything has changed. Give it time for the dust to settle and see how the UK looks then.

[alittlebitfrench]

The world is turning very fast at the moment ET.

I don't see France today as being a very safe place to be.

The UK vs France....same shît different coloured flag.

[EuroTr@sh]

Yes but the UK ... out of the EU ... under this government.

Seriously, it could go rogue.

[BritinBretagne]

Reims is also built on caves made when the stone was removed for building. They suit their current use perfectly.

[chessfou2]

'UK ... could go rogue'

Already gone: happy breaking international law (Chagos, IMB & more), No.10 breaking UK law as well (failing to publish contracts in due time and I don't know what else). Cronying on with PPE contracts (& others) to husbands, wives, cousins, etc. of Cabinet/MP.s It goes on and on.

France is much better, although I suppose that having gained French nationality (my third) last week, I will have to start complaining!

[alittlebitfrench]

Chessfou2 says 'France is much better'.

Fair point, but what makes it better ?

Honest question.

Please don't say politics otherwise I will have to take your French nationality away from you. LOL.

[EuroTr@sh]

I think there is a better dialogue in France. The average Frenchie has a better understanding of what makes France tick (or thinks they do), and they feel they have a voice so they use it. And the media and those in charge talk to them like grown ups.

I know you hate the French education system but, kids do seem to come out with a better grasp of how society works and the ability to think for themselves.

So you get more protests, gilet jaunes etc, and there are plenty of mindless troublemakes to jump on the bandwagon but there is at least a dialogue. In the UK people whinge and carp and criticise but they don't engage.

According to the latest poll 58% are opposed to a no deal Brexit, why isn't anyone out on the streets? The government rides roughshod over them and they let it.

[alittlebitfrench]

Everyone has given up ET.

British, French, Spanish, American.....you name it...everyone has given up.

We are all just going through the motions.

[nomoss]

"“It

comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."

"You

mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No,"

said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and

coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee

forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so

straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The

leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the

lizards rule the people."

"Odd,"

said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

"I

did," said Ford. "It is."

"So,"

said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse,

"why don't people get rid of the lizards?"

"It

honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got

the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government

they've voted in more or less approximates to the government

they want."

"You

mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

"Oh

yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."

"But,"

said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"

"Because

if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong

lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

― Douglas

Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[mint]

Yes, nomoss, hasn't it be said that people get the government they deserve?

[nomoss]

[quote user="mint"]Yes, nomoss, hasn't it be said that people get the government they deserve?

[/quote]

I've heard that many times, but I think that whatever they do they get lizards.

[mint]

Nomoss, I thought that Boris only compared himself to a butcher's dog?  Now don't you think a lizard is a bit of a comedown from a dog?[8-)]

[woolybanana]

Be nice, of my best friends are lizards.

[nomoss]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Be nice, of my best friends are lizards.[/quote]

But there are lizards, and lizards.

[mint]

Yes, there are green ones and geckos and house ones and lounge ones.  Wooly's got some creepy friends?