On this grey, cold, wet and miserable day, allow me to offer you a place in the sun.
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Rainy Day Thoughts
@ 21.11.2008 – 14:52:49
Wet, grey, cold and, generally miserable. All very uninspiring. Weather to stay inside and do nothing but hibernate. Of course, I will have to emerge later on and collect the offspring from school. Even that is going to be a massive effort. I don’t even feel inclined to blog today.
There is plenty to blog about. Such as the French socialist party leadership election. Last night’s ballot put Segolene Royal in the lead with a 43% share of the vote, however, there will be a second round some time next week.
Actually, come to think of it, there isn’t much to write about.
I guess I could tell you about the heady events of Beaujolais night, when I hit the town with a couple of mates, to taste this year’s « cuvée ». It was the first time I had really gone out to a bar since the start of the smoking ban. It was reasonably pleasant sipping away in a smoke free environment, for the first five minutes at least, but there was a general lack of any atmosphere at all, unless of course you were out on the pavement with the smokers. Most bars were half empty. Mind you, this just wasn’t due to the smoking ban. The weaher was awful, and there is a recession. People are watching the pennies. 2.40€ for a glass of Beaujolas, that’s almost three loaves of bread or two litre of petrol. The Beaujolais, as usual was very acidic. You might just have been better running your car off it.
Of course, this time of year it is not just the Beaujolais that gets the « nouveau » treatment – a trip down the supermarket this morning revealed various other wines with their own « nouveau » versions – Côtes du Rhône and Gamay being the two principle ones. This year for the first time, the Beaujolais winegrowers have come up with a « Beaujolais Nouveau Rosé » - I don’t think I’ll be trying that one. I wasn’t actually aware that there was a Beaujolais Rosé anyway. Sounds like a con to me.
So, sitting at the bar, we got into conversation with the « Patron ».
« These are hard times » he confided philosophically, in us, with all the knowing wisdom for the bleedingly obvious, common to all bar and café owners.
« See here, » he said, with a sweeping hand gesture across the inside of his ersatz Irish cum Parisian café pub, « Last Friday at half nine this place was empty. »
We all made suitable noises to express our consternation
« It’s the recession and the smoking ban » he said nodding his head to confirm the bloody obvious once again. He then went on o tell us how his shares in the bank « Crédit Agricole » had plummetted in value from 35€ to 8€.
« You know, if you’ve got money, now’s the time to buy a house or a car or even shares »
Excellent economic analysis from the « patron ».
And after a miserable smokeless evening, we went our seperate ways.
Walking bback to the car, I passed a couple of bars that had put on live music. In one bar, a lively jazz quartet were doing a spot of «New Orleans ». the bar itself , save the musicians and waiters, was deserted.
It’s not the weather. I’ve been to Beaujolais nights where it has been pissing down outside, but there has been standing room only in the bar. Popping corks, wine flowing in rivers and loud raucous conversation. Even of the wine is crap, Beaujolais night is big business. I was once told by one café owner, that it was normallly his biggest night of the year. Three times the takings of a « good » Saturday night. It seems this year though that Beaujolais in Bourges was frankly a bit of a flop.With a bottle in the supermarket, the same price as a glass in a bar, it is no wonder that most people did their « beaujolais Nouveau » at home.
So, the hour to collect the offspring draws ever closer. This is the moment where the weekend stress begins. When I relive the offspring of her schoolbag, to dump it in the boot of my car and OH GAWWWD, the sight of the bloody thing. It’s full of homework. The heavier the bag and . . . you know that tthe weekend is going to be spent doing homework.
A few weeks back, I consultred the Education Ministry website, and there, in green and white on an orange background, it stated that homework was not given in primary schools. The definition of homework though, is of the sitting down and writing variety, there is nothing against the teacher giving hundreds of photocopied sheets to be learned by heart for a test the following week, and this is exactly what the teacher does. It’s not the teacher’s fault though. There is now so much to get through on the primary school curriculum, that the poor woman has no choice. There is no time to actually teach kids anything, they write down the lesson from the board, stick photocopied papers in their books, then come home and learn it. I actually have quite a bot of sympthy for the teacher. While we spend our weekends working for tests, she spends her weekends marking all the tests that she has given during the week. These are hard times for primary school teachers. They now complain that they spend as much time doing administration as they spend preparing lessons. Everything has to be justified, codified and reported. Even a simple school outing doesn’t just « happen », teachers have to put together a huge dossier, giving in-depth details of the educational and pedagogical objectives.
And so, I tell my students at university, now is not the time to become a teacher. There is a genuine malaise throughout the profession and besides, the government are all set to reduce teacher numbers. 13,500 posts are to be cut from September 2009. This is just the first in a series of cuts. This is why 70% of the nation’s primary school teachers heeded last Thursday’s strike call.
Okay, it’s time for that heavy bag moment.
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International Toilet Day
@ 20.11.2008 – 15:27:57
Here's one I forgot to do yesterday
There are one billion people in the world who have no access to proper toliets. To focus on their plight, yesterday was International Toilet Day.
In France and Britain, finding a decent loo can be a real problem. In London you have to text a toilet
In France we have bright, shiney super loos in most towns, though if you prefer the traditional model, there are still plenty around. Like this one at the market hall in Bourges.
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BOJOLAY NOOVOH DAY
@ 20.11.2008 – 08:47:27
Hooray, It's bojolay noovoh day.
The nation's supermarkets will be flooded with hundreds of thousands of bottles of acidic, raspberry-tasting wine.
Every year the beaujolais nouveau is the same - bloody awful. The morning after the" night before with beaujolias nouveau can be particularly unpleasant. Almost as unpleasant as the wine itself.
Nevertheless, millions of people (meself included) will be buying a bottle of the stuff to drink tonight or over the weekend.
More significant than the quality of what is in your glass, is the significance of the date. The beaujolais nouveau - always released on the third Thursday in November - marks the begining of the crawl towards Christmas. Today is the day that the Chritsmas lights are switched on in Paris. After the Beaujolais, the next big alcohoicl event will be the Christmas beer.
Also in the news this morning, the national teacher's strike. 70% of teachers are taking industrial action today. There wil be big demonstration's in all the nation's major cities. I daresay when they have finished protesting, the teachers will take time out for a glass of Beaujolais.
Finally, last major event of the day - the election for socialist party leader. Voting starts at 5pm this evening, results around 1am tomorrow morning. The two main candidates are: Segolene Royal and Martine Aubry. Ms Royal is the former unsuccessful Socialist Party presidential candidate - "she wot lost it to Sarko." Ms Royal is "centre left". Madame Aubry - her of the 35 hour week and current mayor of Lille, is on the far left of the party. She represents the last vestigesof the Mitterrand era.
The election is important because:
Whoever wins it is likely to be the next socialist presidential candidate who will run against Sarkozy in 2012
Whoever wins it will have to unite and reform the party and get it out the doldrums. Madame Aubry will veer the party more to the left and Ms Royal is ready to make electoral alliances with more liberal centrist parties. If the winning canditate takes no action to unite the party, it will probably implode in a few months. This is like labour back in the Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock days.
The election is to replace existing Socialist Party boss ( and Ms Royal's former partner) - François Hollande. A few of the nation's humourists refer to Mr Hollande as "piglet". Judge for yourself.
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Back to Kabul en Brenne - the shooting continues
@ 19.11.2008 – 12:05:28
A lot has happend to our friend’s the Taylors since they last featured on the blog. Amanda Taylor tells of their plight in her own words. Readers are invited to syndicate this post all over the blogosphere if they feel so uinclined. The Taylors need help.
First of all thank you so much for taking such an interest in our plight.
A particular thank you to the British Embassy who have now intervened, to the amazing American lady* who despite still living in America, has taken it upon herself to contact the "Canard Enchaine" on our behalf,( http://halfwaytofrance.blogspot.com/) to Nick Rowswell (www.fabfrog.com) and French news.... the people who "broke the story" ,(www.french-news.com) to ITV for coming to film their documentary, even whilst being shot at! To our French "comité de soutien (Support group), our neighbours (who have been unable to use their land for more than 10 years) and the local people who have set up the "association d'entraide" to demand that the shooting club takes responsibility for the danger that it is causing and cleans up the severe contamination of lead.
We are still waiting for the French local TV channel FR3 to take any action on the story or even the local paper to print some truth!
Unfortunately we are told that they are all "controlled" by the influential local political clique.... such as our Mayor!
We would love for them to prove that this is not the case.
Since 2004 we have reported 5 incidents of our family being hit with clay pigeons, lead shot and being deliberately shot at. Mrs Taylor has lost a baby whilst pregnant due to the stress and shock of being shot at in her own garden with her daughter. The effect on our children's health both physically and mentally is apparent, due to the stress of the situation of a family, in effect ,living in a war zone. We have been intimidated by the local gendarmerie, including having them block Mrs Taylor and her children from leaving their property, not being allowed to make a complaint about the incidences involving the armurerie and questioning Mr and Mrs Taylor like criminals for almost 6 hours without even a break for a drink of water.
This in itself is shocking but what makes the whole situation even more shocking and stressful for us is that despite lots of proof of the attacks on us, the French authorities, for example, the Procureur, Gendarmes and our Mayor have done nothing!
So people can delberately shoot at a mother and child in France and no action is taken!The only person that has made any intervention is Madame Dominique CHRISTIAN, the Sous-prefet of LE Blanc. This lady is part of the French Administration and as such can only intervene regarding the administrative process. Therefore the actual shooting incidents do not come under her radar.
As many of you are already aware on 11/07/08 Madame CHRISTIAN came to our property and organized live firing from the gun club. She saw for herself the lead shot raining down onto our land, our neighbours land and the river and as a result declared the gun club as illegal.
She then organized a meeting with the DDASS (The French government body for health and safety)At this meeting on 03/07/08 the DDASS promised that they would arrange for tests of our soil and the river for lead contamination.
5 months later, November 2008 these samples are finally taken but no we have still not received the results.
A certain Mr Souet of the DDASS claimed at this meeting that he was not aware of any problems regarding lead or clay pigeons from the gun club. He said that in this region there is lead shot anyway in the etangs (lakes) from duck shooting and so the situation is no different.
The previous owner of our property maintain that Mr SOUET was given a copy of their Hussier report in 2002 stating that they received lead on their land and into the river from the Armuerie and also clay pigeons onto their land. Strange that Mr SOUET conveniently chooses not to respond to this question!On 08/07/08 Mr Benoit MARX (of the Sous-prefets office) and Mr Giles SOUET came to our property and saw significant amounts of lead there but still no samples were organized.
21/08/08 British Embassy sends a letter to the Prefet of Indre demanding that action is taken to guarantee the safety of a British family with two young children, who have been repeatedly shot at and hit with lead and clay pigeons by the next door gun club.
24/09/08 "ONEMA" the French Water police drain down the river flowing behind the gun shooting club and take samples from the river bed to test for lead.
Samples are taken to a laboratory in Orleans for analysis.
Everyone present could see with the naked eye that there were large numbers of lead shot in these samples.
We were informed that the results would be verbally available within 1 week and a report produced within 3-4 weeks.
Apparently the results are still not available but should be available by the last week in November. An incredible 9 weeks later!6/10/08 A meeting with the sous-Prefet of Le Blanc, Madame Dominique Christian, together with my husband, our neighbours and a representative of the association that has been formed for the protection of the environment and pollution affected by the dangers created by the shooting site. This is to discuss taking samples from our land.
0/10/08 We have the DDASS and the DRASS (the local French health and safety office and the regional branch) to our property. Not to take any samples but to look at the lead again!
They find lead on the public footpath, all over our land, on our neighbours land and on the agricultural land on the other side of the gun club. Yes, where FOOD is being grown!
In other words they find LEAD ALL AROUND the gun club.
Then they find interiors of cartridges on the public ROAD!
The Doctor from the DRASS keeps on saying "incredible, incredible!"
No-one present can believe the lack of basic safety measures such as as no fence around 3 sides of the gun club so the public can just walk in thee and be shot at! (Mind you I suppose that that is fairly irrelevant as if you use the river, public footpath or walk in our garden you would be shot at anyway!)31/10/08 We receive a letter from the President of the "Syndicat Intercommunal pour l'assainissement et mise en valeur de la Brenne" telling us that on the 1st December 2008 the barrages on the river will be lowered for three months, so that the river sediment is moved. The president who has sent this letter, Mr Jean-Louis CAMUS, our Mayor!
Not for me to question why his association wants to wash all of the lead downstream before his friend can be prosecuted!
Unbelievable!This conveniently takes us back to our Mayor, (who, remember is responsible for the protection of the members of his constituency)
Has he replied to any of our 7 recorded delivery letters? er....... no
Will he have a meeting with us........... er....... too busy or he puts the phone down on me!
My last meeting with him was recorded with a dictaphone in my handbag! Even though I was resolutely polite to him and only asked for him to accept a copy of a Hussier report, (proving that we still got hit with lead on our land and that we still had clay pigeons and cartridge interiors falling on our land,) he became very... well lets kindly say "agitated," stating, "I will do nothing for your family and will not accept a copy of this report"
Thanks very much Mr Mayor.We are informed via the sous-prefets office that the soil samples will be taken between 27/10/08 and 02/11/08
Unfortunately these could not be done as a certain Mr SOUET sent an email to someone on holiday and the person was on holiday for 2 weeks. (He obviously did not bother to phone or send another email!) ......Incredible. Surely he cannot be trying to delay matters?!
13/11/08 We were finally expecting the DDASS, The DDRASS and ONEMA to arrive at our property at 14.00 to take soil samples. However the first person to arrive was the technician from the Syndicat Intercommunal pour l'assainissment et la mise en valeur de la Brenne. (Sent by our Mayor!)
He claimed that he had been invited by L'ONEMA and also told L'ONEMA and MRS Taylor that there was not a problem with the lowering of the barrages of water to flush the river with lead as there is lots of lead in the etangs of the Brenne due to hunting. He had a nice little message from the Mayor for me too. (But I wouldn't want you to print that!)Mr SOUET and PARKER of the DDASS arrived together with MR BLIZET of the departmental de Jeunesse de sports. Yes, the department for the young and sports. Clever that. The French government body who SUPPORT ...... gun clubs!
Are we concerned, about the "impartiality" of Mr SOUET and Mr BLIZET after we saw how "friendly" they were with Mr Guilebaud (the owner of the gunclub) at the meeting of 08/06/07 at the office of the Sous-prefet? Well what do you think?!
Both these men were involved in the case previously (at least since 2002) concluding that the armurerie was operating legally and that we could not receive any lead or clay pigeons from it.Which of course we have proved to be lies with numerous Hussier reports.
I'm sure that these men were just "doing their job" and were perfectly sure that the "English" were in no danger (despite 5 medical certificates and 3 Hussier reports to the contrary!)We asked for Mr SOUET not to come to our property on 20/10/08 but he still arrived and threatened Mrs Taylor that if she continued to state that he was involved in any way with Mr Guillebaud that he could take legal action against her.
So, even though we did not want him on our property or involved with the case, he still came, making comments such as "isn't it true that Mr Guillebauds wife is very ill? and Don't they hold the champion de France at the gun club?"
Does he know the owner, Mr Guillbaud, to be speaking in this way? Surely not! Perish the thought!Given that this whole situation is extremely dangerous stressful and upsetting for our family to live through, we would request that the minimum of politeness be given to us and that we are advised in writing/email, before any visits, of who will be present. Surely we have the right to allow or deny access to our home?
The team that came to our property on the 13/11/08 included everyone who since 2002 found that there was no "cause for concern" at the armuerie de la Brenne except for MR CAMUS (our Mayor) and Mr Guillebaud (the owner of the gun club) They had concluded, together that it was IMPOSSIBLE for any lead or clay pigeons to fall outside of the gun club.
Who think that they were lying?
Who thinks that they did their job properly?We certainly have to question their involvement when it has clearly been shown that all of their previous conclusions were incorrect..... and why, i have to ask, had nothing been done for 6 years given that they were fully aware of the same issue as now?
We note that the samples that were taken on the 13/11/08 were not sealed in any way. Was it Mr SOUET or Mr BLIZET who took them to the laboratory?
I am sure that no one would have thought to add / remove any soil samples en route!There is a lot at stake here for all parties, given that the clean up of the polluted land will run to MILLIONS OF EUROS. Questions have to be asked, such as, why the armuerie was given a license to operate in the first instance?
Why when the issues were highlighted was action not taken much sooner, for example in 2002?If something had been done then, we would not have lost our baby and our two little girls would not have lost two years of their childhood.
6 years of pollution in a "parc naturel" would have been stopped.
So enough of the details.......
What is the situation at the moment?
I went down to the river today when their was a lull in the shooting and saw new lead shot and bits of clay pigeon that have been shot onto our land. The lead continues to rain down onto our land and into the river on a daily basis.
Our two little girls still cannot play outside and our neighbours still unable to use their land.The local restaurants continue to sell the local speciality, carp, that could so easily be contaminated with lead. The public fishing area is still open with no signs or notices to warn people of the risk. Only last week I saw 3 children fishing there............... Lets just hope that they don't eat what they caught as is the norm here.
The fact that we have all been hit with lead shot whilst in our garden, the fact that our girls are "prisoners within their own home," cannot play outside and that we have to even shower off our shoes, to stop the lead shot getting "walked into" the kitchen, is a real physiological stress.
The emails that we receive from you and the support from the mothers at the school, who cannot believe that our Mayor has allowed the river that flows down to their village to become this contaminated with lead, help us to keep motivated.
We would love to hold the school fete in our garden next year as planned, without the risk of the children being shot at or poisoned!
If FR3 or the local paper here, "La nouvelle republique want a crack at the real story then please come down and see us.... its obviously newsworthy enough for ITV to fly a film crew over here for a documentary.....In meantime aurevior et merci.Amanda Taylor
We hear that Obama plans to pull American troops out of Iraq......... Here in France.............. the shooting continues............
* The Amereican lady in question has an excellent blog – Half way to France – read about the adventures of the highly « sympathique Framécaine » at
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Heating the street
@ 18.11.2008 – 18:24:58
Just when you thought that there was nothing left to ban, more do-gooders crawkl out the political woodwork with yet another idea to curb our simple pleasures.
Three « green » members of the French parliament have come up with a Private Member’s Bill designed to outlaw « parasols chauffants » or heated parasols
Just what are these strange devices ? They are oustide heaters used for taking the chill off a café terrace in the heart of winter, much to the joy and comfort of the nation’s smokers who have now been banned from inside bars, restaurants and cafés, and are obliged to smoke outside in the cold.
The green MPs argue that these outdoor heaters simply « heat the street ». True. This is what they are designed to do, however in doing so they use up one kilo of propane gas per hou rand give off three kilos of carbon dioxide. Not very healthy for our already ailing environment.
Makers of the « Parasols chaufants » or « Braseros » ,to give them their brand name, refute the claim of the ecologists. Christophe Leblanc, CEO of « Palmyra » – the nation’s only manufacturer of these outdoor heaters, says that there is nothing wrong with his « braseros ».
If the bill to ban the heaters becomes law, Monsieur Leblanc has a lot to lose. Since the smoking ban, his company has sold 3000 heaters to the nation’s bar and restaurant owners. « If they ban heaters, I’ll have to close down » he says.
The national smoking ban has been in effect for a year now. So far 610 of the nation’s watering holes have been forced to close due to the ban, with the rest announcing an average 8% drop in profits – not as bad as the 30% that most café and restaurant owners thought that they would lose.
The green MPs are at pains to point out that they are not trying to perscute smokers. They have suggested alternative means to keep the nation’s nicotene addicts warm as they puff away in the cold – provide them with blankets like they do in Russia.
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Olympic Fiasco - French Claim
@ 17.11.2008 – 17:47:55
And what pray tell is big bad Boris doing on the front page of last Friday's newspaper?
Well, the headline reads (rough translation)
"The English are fed up of the 2012 Olympic Games"
Could this possibly be true? Or, are the French still sore at losing the Olympic Bid?
Thank God we did lose it. We have been spared non-stop Olmypic preparation coverage. It's already bad enough having to watch the Games themselves, without spending four years prior to the event talking about it.Besides, as successful losers, we now have the right to gloat.
So, it would appear that the London Games are just getting a little too expensive, and that the recession ain't helping none, BUT, the London organisers didn't need a recession to screw everything up. Seen from either side of the Channel, it seems that the games are being prepared in the spirit of a or a kiddies Coronation street party - We've still got rationing so . . . "We'll make do" and when it's all over we'll sigh "OOOOOOH wasn't it luverly", when really it was total crap.
The games in China weren't bad, but that's probably because the Chinese actually spent some money on them, and would probably have shot any "citizen" who did not enjoy the games.
Had the Olympics come to France, Sarkozy would certainly have thrown huge bundles of public money at the event, but in England? So, we may have won the War, but we still act like we are living in it.
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Strike Days
@ 17.11.2008 – 17:33:40
Monday morning
Grey skies, light drizzle, outside temperature 7°c, rising to 11°c later in the day. Typical November weather – bloody miserable. Christmas is still a long way off and we’ve got no bank holidays until everyone breaks up on December 19th. A whole month with only the weekends to relax.
In Britain you might just feel tempted to « pull a sickie ». Phone into work and say you’re under the weather. This is France though. Even one day of absence has to be justified with a medical certificate. You don’t really want to go to the doctor, you just want to stay at home and lounge round in your pyjamas all day. Might as well just go to work and fall asleep in front of your computer. Thereagain, you could do what the French do regularly at this time of year, and go on strike.
We always have strikes in late November. This week there are no less then three different national strikes.
On Tuesday French rail workers will be taking industrial action. Their gripe ? The piecemeal privatisation of the nation’s railways. Passenger lines have not been opened up to private competition yet, but the freight service is being gradually privatised. Unions argue that this is the first tentative step to privatise the entire railway network on the lines of the British model. Railway workers take unkindly to the chill winds of privatisation, it means an end to those unique priviliges that you get in the state sector, such as total job security for life, and in the case of train drivers at least, retirement at 55.
On Thursday it will be the turn of the teachers to unfurl their banners and take to the streets.This strike is to protest against the government’s forthcoming education reforms. Sources on the inside of state education tell me the details of the refoms have not actually been published yet. When education minisiter Mr Darcos decides to do something official, every teacher in the land normally gets a copy of the White Paper in his or her pigeon hole or locker. Unpublished education reforms apart, teachers are also striking for better working conditions and better pay. That seems eminently more intelligent than striking on the basis of a vague rumour. Regular readers will know my views on teachers (and I am one), we are basically not a very intelligent lot. We go to school, go to university, then teacher training college and then back to school again. We spend our whole lives at school and every weekend working for school. That is pretty dumb. Anyone with any brains is at leats in a job where they get free weekends and don’t bring home mounds of correcting.
On Saturday, French postmen and postwomen will be on strike. I’m not sure about the reasons behind this one. Personally, if I were a postman, I’d go on strike for a better bicycle. Robust they may be, but they don’t have gears.
Already on strike are Air France pilots. They are protesting about the raising of their retirement age from 60 to 65. According to company bosses, it is a « volontary scheme ». Pilots will be allowed to stay on to 65 if they so desire. You know how this is going to work. At the job interview, new pilots are going to be asked if they want to work until they are 65. Those who say « No » quite simply won’t get the job. Mind you, a vast majority of French airline pilots are former air force pilots who have retired on full pension in their mid forties to early fifties. Most don’t need to work, they already get nearly 3000 Euros a month from their air force pension. As commercial pilots, they will be earning just as much. Besides, they only work 63 hours a month.
Air France pilots started their industrial action last Thursday. A spokesman for the SNPL (Syndicat National des Pilotes de Ligne) or National Airline Pilots Union said that his members « regretted » taking industrial action. The travelling public also « regretted » the action. News crews roamed Paris airports in search of angry air travellers with sweary soundbytes. They got more than enough to show on the evening news. So that their action would be « effective » most pilots did not inform their employers of the intention not to fly, until ten minutes before take off. 40% of Air France pilots heeded tthe strike call.
Last week also saw the nations farmers taking action. The usual gripe. Production costs have never been so high and the price paid by supermarkets for produce has never been so low. 10,000 of the nation’s breeders and growers down tools and udders to invade supermarkets and remove cheap imported produce from the shelves. Others staged a more « friendly » actions, by holding huge picnics and inviting members of the public to share their produce.
Apart from the Air France action, most of this month's strikes have been far less accrimonious than usual. Less violent in the case of the farmers, who normally pile dung in front of public buildings, empty foreign lorries of their produce before burning, then fight pitched battles with riot police – a fun day out for French farmers. It is also important to note that there have been far fewer strikes this month than in a normal November.
In the current recession, for those in the private sector at least, a strike is a luxury. The only corporations taking industrial action are those of the vast public sector, where , for the moment at least, there is still lifetime job security for all employees
The postmen, teachers and railway workers may argue that in the long term they are striking to save public services, in the short term though, they are not doing themselves much good. Workers in the private sector who fear for their jobs look disparigingly the actions of their public sector colleagues. At worst, a striking railwayman will only lose a day’s pay, he will always have a job to go back to, in the private sector, as things stand, any excuse is a good one to lay off workers.
In previous years, November has always been a huge strike month. This is the last chance to hav a decent gripe and a decent demo before Christmas. The strike season normally finishes in early December. Even those lobbies such as lorry drivers who blokade ports and food depots "to hold the nation to ransom", normally stop doing so in mid December. Even truck drivers have families who want to have a decent Christmas. The strike season starts agian around March, with its high point in May . Come mid June, we are all too concerned about breaking up for summer to have a strike.
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Time to clobber the poor cyclist.
@ 15.11.2008 – 17:55:30
Never have so many French drivers lost their licences. Of the nation’s 40 million licence holders, so far this year, 100,000 have lost the right to drive.
Meanwhile there are 1.7 million motorists who have lost points on their licence after traffic offences. As with other European models, there are twelve points on a French driving licence. Minor infractions such as failure to use an indicator or refusing a priority or not stopping at designated crossings to let pedestrians pass, are sanctioned by the loss of two or three points. If, over a period of three years, no furtjer offences are committed, drivers normally get their points back.
It is highly likely that more motorists thane ver will lose their licences next year. Firstly more speed cameras are set to be installed on the nation’s highways next year. There are currently 2,182 speed cameras in France – 1,383 stationary roadside models and 799 of the hand held variety used by police patrols. The former are of the « zero tolerance » variety. Even if you are just 1km/h above the speed limit you still get done. The hand held variety have a 10% margin of error. The plan is to increase the number of speed cameras to 5000 over the next five years.
Some of the new speed cameras are likely to be placed in town centres. A new government initiative has called for a maximum speed of 20km/h in the nation’s towns and cities. Does this mean that cyclists and rollerskaters are about to get clobbered too ?
Finally, on the motoring front, since October 1st, it has been obligatory for all motorists to carry a warning triangle and fluorescent jacket in their car – both must be accessible. Failure to have either is an offence which carriesa 130€ fine. There are reports of angry motorists who have fallen victim to over zealous traffic police. The latter have been fining drivers 130€ for the absence of each item, rather than the absence of the whole set, as stipulated by the new law. There have also been other very personnel interpretations of the law on the part of our Gendarmes. The legislation requires that the items be accessible. Motorists though, who do not have the flourescent jackets slung over the back of the driver and front passenger seat, have also been fined, because the jackets were not accessible enough. The fact that they were kept in the glove compartment or the storage space in the door, meanth that they were « not accessible enough » in the event of an accident.
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King Charles III ?
@ 15.11.2008 – 17:18:53
We’ve just had a royal visit.
On Monday, a royal visitor to Paris. President Sarkoy and Carla played host to Charlie and Camilla on the eve of the former’s sixtieth birthday. Paris Match were there to catch in for posterity, and Charles also gave a length interview to Paris Match magazine.
The man who might never be king sounded happy with his lot. At sixty, Prince Charles is a little young to retire from public life. Some might even say that he hasn’t actually started working yet, at least not in the job he is supposed to do i.e. King. There was speculation from French « Royal experts » as to whether Charles would ever accede to the throne. Not many reckon that we will ever gget a Charles III, due in part to the incredible « longevity » of the ladies in the Windsor (Saxcoburg Gotha) dynasty.
Mind you in the kingship stakes, the two previous bearers of the Charles name, didn’t have an easy time of it. Charles 1st was beheaded by Cromwell and his mates. Charles II eventually made it as king after hiding up an oak tree, but once in the job, he had to rely on the likes of Louis XIV of France for loans ; and during his reign we got the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. Perhaps Charles III is not a brilliant idea.
Of course, the French too beheaded one of their kings – Louis XVI. He was guillotined on January 21st 1793. Legend has it, that the King, a bit of an amamteur inventor, actually had a hand (or a head) in inventing the world’s best ever meat slicer. It was the French revolutionaries who dispensed with Louis and his family, and a lot of other aristocrats. The French did to Louis what the English did to Charles 1st, just under 150 years earlier. What some call the English Civil War, others call the English Revolution. Whatever. When the turmoil was over, the monarchies in both countries were restored. The Brits carried on with a Constitutional Monarchy as set out in the 1688 « Bill of Rights ». The French had three more kings : Louis XVIII – 1815 to 1824. Next up was Charles X – 1824 to 1830 – he was overthrown in a revolution*. Finally they had Louis Philippe 1st, who liked to be known as the « citizen king ». He was reputedly the first ever French monarch to wear a top hat and carry a rolled umbrella. The French got rid of their monachy once and for all in 1848, after yet another revolution. In 1848, the French got Napoleon III.
*The elder son and heir of Charles X, the Dauphin Louis-Antoine, is occasionally considered to have legally been the King of France as Louis XIX in the 20 minutes that passed between Charles X's formal signature of abdication and the Dauphin's own signature. Henri d'Artois, Charles X's grandson, was considered by monarchists to be the titular King of France, as Henry V from August 2, 1830 to August 9, 1830, but his reign remained largely fictional, as he acceeded in a revolutionary context and hence was never recognized by the French State. He is generally not accounted for in lists of official French monarchs.
About me
Early fortysomething journalist cum teacher cum musician trying to carve out an existence in deepest rural France - namely Bourges in the Cher.
