Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Very difficult to change anything in France at at all.....they are so entrenched in their ways.....their unions are stronger than ours....you have to have unions but theirs are just like nuts.....you just can't do a thing.....they just don't encourage business at all.....they say they do, but they don't...obstacle after obstacle....I know ; I've lived there....and now they are stuck in this euro debacle.....not their fault but along with the richer nations : they are subsidising the poorer ones....

You are lucky.

To live. (there)

Which part?

Not now Fred....went to school from the age of nine until the age of 24....but I know southern France pretty well...and still retain many contacts there....

I think it is a beautiful country and would liked to have lived there. Preferably, below Paris in the warmth.

Know the Dordogne area very well and a lot of the south, but too cold in the winter.

I am never sure if the French deserve their country!

8-)

perhaps you think the libyans, algerians, moroccans and similar should inherit the earth, or at least france

When you due to go abroad again?

Why not?

munich and budapest early/mid may

fred - why not? ask the locals around marseille .... they'ld probably even prefer to have you your your ilk

How about tomorrow -):

I always had a friendly reception in Marseilles when they saw my dragon!

Locals were very friendly.

That's not a very nice nickname for your wife Freddy Boyo, I would be happy to pay your fare on condition no internet connection where you settled in France.

would do but have already bought a fresh crab for dinner :-)

Just a little example of the difference between France and the UK.......when they had the Provence landings anniversary last year : the most important thing was the number of people that had dinner on their aircraft carrier !....800 people all sat down to a gourmet meal !.....that was the biggest thing !.....perhaps they are right.....what's the point of a war ?.....let's all tuck in.....

the french had a very ambivalent attitude towards "their own" vichy gov't .... whereas parts of southern france had strong maquis (resistance) sympathies, around marseille was not so inclined, and so too lyon

thus, if you walk around nice, there are commemorative plaques on almost every street corner
however, if you go to salon-de-provence (just outside marseille), these plaques are conspicuous by their absence - i haven't visited marseille proper ..... indeed, the memorial to one of the great resistance leaders (jean moulin) is tucked away along a country road which you'll probably only find by chance

a good indication, i feel, of where the local population's sympathies lay

It also depends on the maire.....a maire has big influence in France within their communities, much more so than in the UK......they are like "petits rois" (little kings) so decisions to commemorate can be more in some places than others....Marseille suffered in WWII with the streets being blown up by the Nazis because they feared it turning into a Warsaw ghetto with resistance fighters....

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/04/24/ranking-coalitions/

Majority Conservative government the ‘least bad option’ – voters

All possible governments have net negative ratings among voters – but a Conservative majority is considered the least bad possibility for the country

Just two weeks before the general election, the race is too close to call. A hung parliament is the most likely outcome, and as the parties have come round to the fact the campaign has become a discussion of which combinations of parties may be able to govern, and which arrangement may be best for the UK. The Conservatives have focused on a ‘chaotic’ Labour-SNP pact, the SNP have been promised to lock out the Tories with Labour, and the Lib Dems want to steer either main party towards the centre.

.

http://www.ukip.org/ukip_manifesto_summary