Just to let you know that I really appreciate the thoughtful and considered views of the UK from our expats. Frenchie & cologne. Since owning a place in La Belle France I have come to understand the French attitude to most things, and it improves my understanding of the UK - sadly, as it isn't very positive. I might be wrong, but as I perceive it, the French attitude to most of authority is that it is perfectly acceptable to ignore the rules etc, but don't expect any sympathy if you fall down as a result. Fair enough, and no reason to criticise them. Whatever, France is a brilliant place to live (once you have come to accept their obsession with pieces of paper for absolutely everything. and their habit of finishing a conversation with someone else however long it takes, before you are acknowledged - especially when it involves 2 men in tractors on opposite sides of a country road.) What nobody who has mostly lived in the Uk will ever understand is the impact of being occupied. The enormous tragedy of people fleeing in heir own homeland is overwhelming. It's profound, complex and difficult -especially where we live, which is exactly on the Ligne de Demarcation. The effects of that - even though it was only 18 months are deep. Whatever, the French desire to protect and preserve their way of life is entirely laudable. I manage to resist , mostly, the nonsense spouted by our resident muppet. His absence would certainly improve my experience. I wish I had the magnanimity to accept the saying " I profoundly disagree with your views, but I will defend absolutely your right to espouse them". Sadly, I don't.
I don't know why the Torygraph wants to mention that Jacinda Ardern was once involved with the International Union of Socialist Youth, when the person that Johnson has just appointed to lead his latest commission is Munira Mirza, was once a supporter of the Revolutionary Communist party.
Agreed, the French have very little regard for the rule of law. I imagine it was very difficult for many French to forgive their fellow compatriots who were complicit with the Germans governed by Petain in the Vichy French region. Unfortunately very few of the Vichy officials were actually tried for war crimes against humanity.
There is some opposition to this in Germany Frenchie. This type of app may work well in Asian countries like South Korea but is problematic in most European ones, particularly Germany. I say this because Asia is much further in this type of technology and nearly all of them have smart phones - that is not the case in Germany. This excludes many older people, or the very poor, who do not have such things. I am neither very old or very poor but my cell phone is a museum piece of the type made around 15 years ago - but then I only use it for telephoning and nothing else, and I intend to keep it that way. Internet is only something I have access to over my PC. The uptake on smart phones or other similar gadgetry has been less all embracing in Germany than in some other countries - my guess is that up to 40% of the population here could be excluded from this, and they may well be the ones most at risk.
I tend to agree about the French - I mean would their revolution have been possible in Germany or England ! Unfortunately the English, when faced by bad times, either grumble or get drunk, or worse still beat the wife. As for the Germans - well they wait at traffic lights to cross the road even when there is no traffic at all until the walking man tells them they can cross - enough said !
My French neighbours say to me when we are discussing the world at the bread van the trouble with you British is that when the EU make a law you follow it straight away... we wait till the last possible moment.....Such 'wisdom'!
This is a problem everywhere, although I don't see as many phones in use quite as old as mine. I can access the internet from it, but don't bother. Still according to Hancock, your app doesn't work anymore than the world beating one that the UK was having.
I am sorry if it upsets SH, but once again a top government minister has been caught out lying. Hancock stated that the world beating app had always been tested alongside the Google/Apple version. Yet a journalist from the Mirror had this to say. Matt Hancock: "We backed both horses" - and worked on two apps at once. Department of Health told me in an on-record statement on May 18: "There is no alternative app." "All it needs is for Apple to change their entire operating system." Bit like asking the EU to change their entire operating system to accommodate the UK.
I must remember the phrase, "rewriting history" as I rather like it, and it will be quite useful when the UK government is concerned. It is not quite as harsh as straightforward lying.
There is certainly a different attitude to life here, and as you say the reasons are very complex. My village was ransacked by the Nazis as they moved north. They stole what food they could find, murdered young men from the marquis de resistance, and took away others who were never seen again. There is a great museum in Limoges by the Cathedral that is well worth a visit as it shows just what did happen in this part of the country. The neighbours who are old enough to remember such times are very reluctant to talk about it, my friend Bernard didn't see his father until he was ten years old. One of my barns was filled with very dry hay that had been their for 55 years and was the communal feed store for the rabbits that were the staple supply of meat. From what I have been told it was very much a case of everyone looking out for and helping each other. Maybe this feeling of togetherness does go back to the Revolution when the poor had had enough, and banded together to improve their lot. Maybe the motto liberté, égalité, fraternité sums up how many still feel. Freedom to live as you wish, all people are equal, not measured by wealth, but the final one is about brotherhood, which really means being prepared to help all that may cross your path. This is actually written into law, so you must stop and help anyone that appears to be in trouble. This is so different to the Thatcher saying that there is no thing such as society. Yes this lifestyle is worth preserving, and politicians that argue against it do not get elected.
People are so very helpful in my commune.. in fact every where in this rural area .... I speak French and am accepted... and i can joke with them.... and the french have a different humour so it feels good to stand around the bread van and chat about the day. Our good friend has just passed away and she was in Limoges and heard the massacre at Oradour during the war, and her brother in the law ,also in the village and also passed away was in the resitance and fought the SS in the woods all around. he actually acquired a US jeep at the end of the war and it is still around the village. Local people helped us so many times and continue to do so... mind you they all know your business too. A way of life lost in much of the modern day Urban lifestyles in the UK....
There was an estimated 10,000 French collaborators murdered at the end of the war. When I lived in the Tarn the film Charlotte Gray was filmed in a local town. It apparently stirred up suppressed long held local hatred against so called collaborator families in the area.
Certainly more complex than the juvenile soundbites we have to read from the less well-informed. They have certainly resisted the mad Reaganomics that has done so much to destroy our fabric. They do have a self-contained attitude though. There are virtually no charities. All support is from either the family, the state, from which they expect, pay and get a lot or the community - (which seems to depend on the mayor.) I don't know much about the cities I must admit. I do know their heath system is vastly superior to ours in effectiveness. Interestingly, one less well received consequence is the education system which is I believe, stiflingly rigid, which might account for the resistance to change. The other major issue is the insistence that anyone identifying as a French citizen has to integrate completely. That has created serious ghettoes amongst African (mostly)and Asian (less so ) enclaves. As you know OFH, there is very little genuine enthusiasm for Sunday trading . The law dates from 1906 apparently, although it is tweaked quite a lot now.. The boulangeries open of course (fresh bread being sacrosanct) ,and some other shops a bit grudgingly. Our local Carrefour opens from 1000 to 1300, and then is only frequented by the UK expats. Curiously, the DIY shops open because they only came about with the English invasion into rebuilds and only UK expats ever seem to visit them - certainly on Sundays. I'm sure you know all this, but it might be of interest to others who are ignorant (blissfully so probably on some cases) I assume you are aware of Oradour sur glane. We have families where we are that were divided by the Ligne de Demarcation, and have still not fully reconciled. TThe EU, held together by France & Germany is an astonishing achievement of grown up humanity considering what had come before. It only makes our decision in 2016 look ever more childish and small-minded. Our French neighbours were mystified, then bemused, and finally sad at the staggering fall from the pedestal in which we were genuinely held. The reckoning is yet to come, but come it will. PS (as it isn't really relevant, but funny all the same) I was amused to read the other day that the only war that the UK has EVER entered into on its own was the American War of Independence - and we lost that one.
France is actually one of the most eurosceptic countries in the EU. The present battle going on between EU members regarding future funding, especially the pandemic recovery, is not going well. The UK will be the first of several countries to leave this sinking restrictive trading club. Brexit will allow the UK to trade with the world on better terms, it cannot come soon enough. The French have been dominated by the Germans for so long they feel institutionalised and cannot imagine being a free nation again, no wonder they are mystified.
Interesting that you should mention Oradour sur Glane today, as it was de Gaulle who decreed that the town should be left untouched as a memorial to those murdered on that dreadful day. We have been there with friends from England and they have come away with a very different view of what the war was like for the locals. It creates a powerful image as you see a sewing machine still stood in what remains of some ones living room. Our largest hypermarket opens on a Sunday morning from 8.30 to 12.00, but the surrounding shops in the mall are not open. Non of the DIY places open here. I go past the hypermarket when I go to my monthly dinner, and the car park is nearly empty. I am not sure that it can be their worthwhile to open. I have been into the back streets of Marseille where there is a huge immigrant population. This has come about because the French didn't try to integrate the people into local populations, but house them together where they thought they would feel part of their own community. It hasn't worked, and a similar problem exists to the north east of Paris. We have had a similar reaction regarding the EU. My next door neighbour is very well educated, has worked and travelled around the world, and is totally mystified by it. The UK has been responsible for so much that is good for the EU while it has been governed by responsible people, but where did you get this lot from is his question.
I can echo all that has been said.... Totally accurate representation of life in France.. And i have double checked with my French friends that I all the local towns the only thing you will see open on s Sunday in the supermarket in the morning... No DIY etc.. French people see Sunday as a day to rest.
