I will of course ignore the above which pokes fun at the nation that seem to have adopted me without too much trouble, however I do wonder if with the French presidential election due later this year would a British politician get re-elected if he was on his third marriage? He certainly wouldn't a few years ago, but maybe things have changed.
Yes but WW1 & WW2 they technically were on the winning side Ah but that's not entirely correct, in WW2 the North of France was with the Allies where as The South of France (Vichy France) sided with the Germans. That way they had a 50-50 chance of winning.
We love the French really - but you should really question Italian politics - could a person be elected if he was ONLY on his third marriage and did not have at least one mistress too
AK, thanks very much for the coffees (yesterday & today). Sorry I didn't thank you yesterday but I am in the middle of decorating the spare room - so I had to drink them half cold with a couple of stale blueberry muffins. Looks like I missed a very interesting couple of days (when should a thread be closed or not!). On the subject of France & French politicians, certainly De Gaulle took credit for 'liberating Paris' when he marched in at the head of the remnants of the Free French Army. Oldfrenchhorn, perhaps you could ask your (french) neighbours why there is a plethora of Avenue Roosevelt, Truman, De Gaulle, Eisenhower etc. etc. in many French towns - but very few indeed of Boulevard Churchill....... Did we not play some small part in the liberation of France in 1944?
Sounds as though the guy who plays Ken Barlow ("I slept with 1,000 women") could have given Mussolini a run for his money...
I think even the most hardline, nationalist Frenchmen can accept that the English did something that benefitted France. They would simply counter it with other examples of the French doing things that benefitted the English. That's all part and parcel of relatively good natured cross-channel banter. It's somewhat harder for them to come to terms with the fact that one of the longest periods of sustained peace in France's history came as a result of armies crossing the channel from England. (before someone starts, I know other parts of the UK played equally crucial parts in WW2, but the French dislike the English particularly)
We have no roads with names of Churchill either. Or any of the others either. Farm, school and other things like that are common. We have no Station Road either. Giving roads names of people or dates is not a northern idea the Latin people have that sort of idea. We do have a few roads with peoples names but they are old from when a road went to someones farm. The fuel prices went up is now ÃSK263,10 for dÃsel and ÃSK262.20 for 95okt. Diesel was raised 2 kronur and petrol 8 kronur. These prices are GBP1.314 and GBP1.318
I cannot tell you how many streets are named after Churchill in the whole of France, but it is a name that I see often. Just off the Champs Elysées is the Avenue Winston Churchill with a fine statue of him.
You can chose your friends but not your family. France and England are very close after Vilhjálmur bastarður cruised across Ermarsund (Channel) with his viking army to fight Haraldur Guðinason with his.
Not a lot of difference between Wales and England then. The last time I visited, I found that the ability to speak English fluently decreased the further south I went towards London. Once in London, I was totally bemused by the lack of spoken English - even ordering a Big Mac required a Polish dictionary.
Where would be without a bit of friendly banter with our neighbours - for me I actually love France and the French - but it does not stop me calling them "Cheese eating surrender monkeys" as a bit of fun.. Right the battle bus is here, we are off to The Vic for sponsors night - enjoy the banter everyone!
BB I have to disagree with that statement, I live in London and that's just not true. Maybe the Aussie view on 'foreigns' has rubbed off on you...
The phrase "cheese eating surrender monkeys" is just so good that it has to applied whether true or not
Lots of complaints about diesel prices here and each of the would be presidents are saying that they will do something about it. The price in town at the moment is €1.39 litre, which at the current exchange rate is about £1.16. However the country filling stations and autoroutes charge a great deal more. There was a report on the news today about one garage in Paris charging €2.00. It seems that they were not selling much.
I went to fill up the other day, petrol was £1.37, but if could have waited till saturday it would have been £1.30, what a difference 60 miles makes.
It's costing me a fortune - I am having to go to London each week and that is nearly 500 miles return and even getting 43 miles per gallon it adds up to a lot
Thanks Leo, my favourite saying from The Simpsons. I think it was Grounds Keeper Willie who said it. I laughed for ages
