Parisians ready for the Olympics!

[anotherbanana]

This article seems about right. ALBF, what does your extended tribe say about the Games?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/18/you-think-parisians-grumble-a-lot-dont-get-them-started-on-the-olympic-games

[Lori]

Yes, our daughter, who lives in Paris, will be arriving chez nous on 25 july.  She will work from our home (employer agreed).  She'll be here for 10 days.  Sounds an absolute nightmare to me.  I wouldn't want to be in Paris during this time.

 

[alittlebitfrench]

18 minutes ago, anotherbanana said:

This article seems about right. ALBF, what does your extended tribe say about the Games?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/18/you-think-parisians-grumble-a-lot-dont-get-them-started-on-the-olympic-games

Well…as you know…we have lived in Paris 3 times over the last twenty five years.

Everytime was fantastic. 1990’s Montpansse was one of the best places I have lived in my life. It was magical.

That said…I would not waste my time visiting…dare the thought living in Paris again.

Paris has become a shìt hole. It really is truly awful place.

The olympics…well….we shall see. It could be a blood bath or France might get away with it.

I personally would stay well clear of that place during that period.

French police are very stretched at the moment.

I dunno how it will play out. 
 

 

 

[Loiseau]

For the London Olympics in 2012 I heard many people saying they wouldn't dream of staying in London and were making a point of being away from town for the whole period.

In fact, it was the most wonderful place to be throughout the event. Everybody seemed to be cheerful; people talked to each other on public transport; there was very little traffic anywhere - in west London, at least. I felt sorry for those who had missed it all.

[betise]

But in Paris, they are hiking up the public transport prices, strikes are threatened, student accommodation is being emptied, even the SDFs are being shipped out to the provinces... no way I'd be in Paris this summer.

[alittlebitfrench]

18 hours ago, Loiseau said:

For the London Olympics in 2012 I heard many people saying they wouldn't dream of staying in London and were making a point of being away from town for the whole period.

In fact, it was the most wonderful place to be throughout the event. Everybody seemed to be cheerful; people talked to each other on public transport; there was very little traffic anywhere - in west London, at least. I felt sorry for those who had missed it all.

When we go to London we often stay in Stratford which I think was redeveloped during and after the olympics. It is cool place to visit and stay and you are only 10 mins into central London. Big fantastic shopping centre and a very cheap and vey big cinema. You also have Abba world…..which OH and daughter loved. Recommend !

Very safe area by my standards.

Who the hell in their right mind would go anywhere neat St Saint Denis before or after the Olympics ?

From what I understand they have redeveloped the area and built new flats but they can’t sell them.

Remember that Liverpool match a year back at the Stade de France ! Where local youths gate çrashed the event, robbed people, sexually assaulted women, clashed with the police…..and everything was blamed on Liverpool supporters. Stade de France is in Saint Denis.

Yeah…give the French olympics a miss if you have any sense.

France has become a very violent country. It is is terrible to see.

 

 

Edited May 20 by alittlebitfrench

[Harnser]

"When we go to London we often stay in Stratford ........ Recommend !.....

........Very safe area by my standards"

You might want to reconsider your "very safe area" opinion. Stratford is in the London Borough of Newham.

Firearm offences 24 - higher incidence along with Tower Hamlets 25 Brent 26 Lambeth 30  Southwark 31

Knife crime offences

London Borough	Number of offences	Crime rate per 1,000 people
Barking and Dagenham	69	0.32
Barnet	51	0.13
Bexley	48	0.19
Brent	120	0.36
Bromley	70	0.21
Camden	67	0.2652
City of London	0*	0*
Croydon	152	0.39
Ealing	92	0.26
Enfield	85	0.25
Greenwich	100	0.35
Hackney	129	0.46
Hammersmith and Fulham	52	0.28
Haringey	75	0.26
Harrow	51	0.20
Havering	44	0.17
Hillingdon	86	0.27
Hounslow	58	0.21
Islington	83	0.35
Kensington and Chelsea	51	0.32
Kingston upon Thames	34	0.19
Lambeth	177	0.53
Lewisham	121	0.39
Merton	36	0.17
Newham	147	0.42
Redbridge	62	0.2
Richmond upon Thames	25	0.12
Southwark	152	0.47
Sutton	43	0.21
Tower Hamlets	95	0.30
Waltham Forest	73	0.26
Wandsworth	53	0.16
Westminster	130	0.52

https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/london-knife-crime-map-shows-20598724

[alittlebitfrench]

5 hours ago, Harnser said:

"When we go to London we often stay in Stratford ........ Recommend !.....

........Very safe area by my standards"

You might want to reconsider your "very safe area" opinion. Stratford is in the London Borough of Newham.

Firearm offences 24 - higher incidence along with Tower Hamlets 25 Brent 26 Lambeth 30  Southwark 31

Knife crime offences

London Borough	Number of offences	Crime rate per 1,000 people
Barking and Dagenham	69	0.32
Barnet	51	0.13
Bexley	48	0.19
Brent	120	0.36
Bromley	70	0.21
Camden	67	0.2652
City of London	0*	0*
Croydon	152	0.39
Ealing	92	0.26
Enfield	85	0.25
Greenwich	100	0.35
Hackney	129	0.46
Hammersmith and Fulham	52	0.28
Haringey	75	0.26
Harrow	51	0.20
Havering	44	0.17
Hillingdon	86	0.27
Hounslow	58	0.21
Islington	83	0.35
Kensington and Chelsea	51	0.32
Kingston upon Thames	34	0.19
Lambeth	177	0.53
Lewisham	121	0.39
Merton	36	0.17
Newham	147	0.42
Redbridge	62	0.2
Richmond upon Thames	25	0.12
Southwark	152	0.47
Sutton	43	0.21
Tower Hamlets	95	0.30
Waltham Forest	73	0.26
Wandsworth	53	0.16
Westminster	130	0.52

https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/london-knife-crime-map-shows-20598724

Statistiques…drug crime kids killing drug crime kids.

The most dangerous places in Europe are not in the Uk.

Marseille is most far more dangerous place than London….with a far less population.

I would not let my teenage kids go out in France at night.  I would not let them travel to Paris for example. London…no problem.

Tours at night…..not in a million years. Like most parents here.

And Tours is considered a safe area.

 

Edited May 20 by alittlebitfrench

[Harnser]

Statistiques…drug crime kids killing drug crime kids.

Or is it drug addicts stabbing people when robbing them to pay for their drugs?

You choose!

[alittlebitfrench]

13 minutes ago, Harnser said:

Statistiques…drug crime kids killing drug crime kids.

Or is it drug addicts stabbing people when robbing them to pay for their drugs?

You choose!

I am no expert of drug addiction…but I rekon it is the middle and upper classes that make up the majority of drug demand in France, the Uk or whatever 

Kids fighting, stabbing, shooting each other to fuel that demand and just pawns. 
 

legalise drugs is the only way forward.

Edited May 20 by alittlebitfrench

[Harnser]

23 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:

I am no expert of drug addiction…but I rekon it is the middle and upper classes that make up the majority of drug demand in France, the Uk or whatever 

Kids fighting, stabbing, shooting each other to fuel that demand and just pawns. 

For the year ending June 2022, the proportion of adults reporting any drug use in the last year was highest among those aged 20 to 24 years (23.3%). ( UK result)

Despite these decreases, the proportion of older age groups using illicit drugs remained considerably lower than younger age groups (Figure 4).

file:///C:/Users/barns/Downloads/Drug%20misuse%20in%20England%20and%20Wales%20year%20ending%20June%202022.pdf

 

[Lehaut]

Widening the thread, would be interested in ALBF"s take on 

We drove down last week to tour the area on our bikes.  The picture shows the historical bit, but were are outside the walls in the main town Quite an eyeopener!

 

Last year we stayed in London for a week and rented a flat from AirBnB in Battersea, two minutes walk from the park, then the Thames.  We loved it.

[alittlebitfrench]

1 hour ago, Lehaut said:

Widening the thread, would be interested in ALBF"s take on 

We drove down last week to tour the area on our bikes.  The picture shows the historical bit, but were are outside the walls in the main town Quite an eyeopener!

 

Last year we stayed in London for a week and rented a flat from AirBnB in Battersea, two minutes walk from the park, then the Thames.  We loved it.

Never been to Avignon…drven passed it. Has a sweet name that makes you just want to visit.

Guessing outside the walls…it aint very pretty or safe. So might give it a miss.

Like most places in France.

Its funny you spoke about London. You don’t realise how such a fantastic a place London is until you live in France.

We were in South Kensington late last year, and everyone was speaking French. Lol…not everyone but you kinda felt like you were in France. Maybe South Kensington is the real Avignon.

Yeah…London is coool. It shows the world how intigration can work. It is not perfect…but not far off.

That really pisses off French politicians….although they probably all own a pad in London.

Who are the biggest investors of property in the UK…well apparently it is the French.

Go figure.

 

Edited May 21 by alittlebitfrench

[Lori]

3 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:

Guessing outside the walls…it aint very pretty or safe. So might give it a miss.

It sure as heck isn't what it used to be.  While we were living in Ste Cécile (Vaucluse) from 2021 to end of 2022, we were frequently in Avignon (doctors, etc.).  I could hardly recognize it from when we lived in Bédoin for so many years and did the majority of our shopping, doctor visits,  restaurants, etc. in Avignon. 

It is now very run down looking, dirty, trash all over the place, SDF's all around and massive traffic problems.  We vowed we would never buy a property there and avoided visiting when at all possible.  Sad really, very sad.

Funny thing though, real estate prices are still through the roof in and around Avignon.  And, for homes that, in most cases, need serious renovations and are surrounded by what some might say looks like slums.

 

[alittlebitfrench]

2 hours ago, Lori said:

It sure as heck isn't what it used to be.  While we were living in Ste Cécile (Vaucluse) from 2021 to end of 2022, we were frequently in Avignon (doctors, etc.).  I could hardly recognize it from when we lived in Bédoin for so many years and did the majority of our shopping, doctor visits,  restaurants, etc. in Avignon. 

It is now very run down looking, dirty, trash all over the place, SDF's all around and massive traffic problems.  We vowed we would never buy a property there and avoided visiting when at all possible.  Sad really, very sad.

Funny thing though, real estate prices are still through the roof in and around Avignon.  And, for homes that, in most cases, need serious renovations and are surrounded by what some might say looks like slums.

 

I have lived where I live now for 12 years…and the area is totally unrecognizable from when we moved here.

6 years of that is Macronism. Bless him.

It is interesting to watch from a sociological point of view mind you. 

Terrible to have kids in France. I don’t see any future for them here.
 

Thankfully they have duel nationality. 

 

 

Edited May 21 by alittlebitfrench

[Lehaut]

21 hours ago, Lori said:

It is now very run down looking, dirty, trash all over the place, SDF's all around and massive traffic problems

That.s been our impression during the days we have been here so far.  Just wanted to make sure we were not the only ones.

[Lehaut]

21 hours ago, alittlebitfrench said:

We were in South Kensington late last year, and everyone was speaking French. Lol…

Our eldest did his UK MSc at ICL, South Ken.  He taught maths (or rather tried as the kids were not too keen on the subject) to French families in the "French Quarter".  His French education came in handy for that.

 

[Lehaut]

Just come back from a 12 day cycling trip down to Avignon, Provence and Bordeaux area to find the Olympic Flame is going to run through our commune of Saint Sébastien sur Loire on 5 June. In fact we should be able to see it from our flat as it passes along the Loire.

I have never seen the flame before, the excitement is building!

[Loiseau]

Due to my long former association with the Vendée, I was reading a Ouest-France report on the places in the département that the Olympic flame is passing, and then idly wondered how much a département had to pay to be included on the route. It seems it's 180,000 euros; more if you want to have a ville-étape.

Many départements - including Loire-Atlantique - have apparently decided against shelling out, though some of its towns (La Baule is one) decided to pay up for their moment of glory. So I hope you get to see it tomorrow, Lehaut!

I also read that for logistical reasons there are actually TWO flames, carried in separate vehicles between venues in a kind of Davy lamp; but only one Olympic torch would ever be alight at any time!

[Gardian]

It’s all a load of rowlocks, is it not ?

I mean that the actual sport is great, but all this lark with ‘the flame’ is more than a bit overdone?

 

[anotherbanana]

Money, my dear Gardian, money; in the Vendée to attract tourists, for the IOC to pay salaries, expenses of the administrators and their wives, families, grrandfathers, aunties, uncles…. ad nauseam. Oh and there are those pesky athletes, just a few peanuts!

[Lehaut]

11 hours ago, Loiseau said:

So I hope you get to see it tomorrow, Lehaut!

Costing the run through our just our commune €30,000 (not counting the security input by the police who are blocking the road with their boats as I type).  Very overcast, but we will be walking along the route to see it.  

[Lehaut]

Well we saw it, in the drizzle.  Had not expected the attached caravan of sponsors, outriders, protection detail etc.  The bus with the Davy Lamp was clearly visible (did not know about that till Lori mentioned it).  The separate security detail (visible in the photo) following was quite a surprise.  They got in the act by riding with their side doors open waving to the crowds.