samedi 12 mai 2007

Life's surprises

Update
Maybe I was too pessimistic about the cynics. My son is now back before I take him to the train in a few minutes. He is absolutely exhausted because the little nippers went to bed at 3am and were up at 6 am. The camp was a major camp for all the scouts of our small town. There were 150 people in all. Up from a previous record of 110. So maybe scoutism is being revived. People are seeing that capitalism isn't everything.



The interesting thing about one’s children is how they turn out really different from what you were at their age. Now I have never been a great supporter of scouting. The Baden Powell thing really stuck in my throat as a quintessential English activity. Imagine my dismay when my elder son, who is 25, expressed a strong desire to become a scout 15 years ago.

Er well yes, good ideals, healthy activity, why not. I always wanted my sons to discover their own way in life, hoping that by being a model (impure admittedly) of honesty, decency, discipline and fairness, the path that they would choose would be different from mine but one of which I could be proud.

So if the lad wants to be a scout, a scout he will be. Anyway it is a passing phase and he will go on to other things. So every couple of weeks he would be off to the scouts hall, playing games and preparing camps. Every two months it was off to a camp somewhere or another and I would drive him and his friends to their camping location, the car piled high with tents sleeping bags, cooking equipment.

The years passed by, a cub , then a scout, then a pioneer. There were trips as far as Morocco where he helped to clean irrigation channels, a month in Burgundy rebuilding a monastery, a summer camp in the grounds of Giscard’s chateau where VGE came and had a chat.

For three years they competed in the regional scouts motocross competition. My garden became their testing ground and pits, to the restrained annoyance of our neighbours. The first time they came last by a mile and won the future promise award. On the third occasion they won with so much ease it was embarrassing.

Time marches on and my son is a young adult. His friends are ending their scouting careers one after the other as education and girl friends impinge on week end activities. My son rushes home Friday evening, I collect him from the train station, only to disappear Saturday morning for his beloved scouting. Lo and behold leadership weekends are beckoning. Three full weekends in Normandy, Picardy, and the Paris region. Leadership qualities are learnt. Legislation, safety, communication, ideals. A much valued extra badge on that bright yellow shirt. My son can now lead his own little platoon of louveteaux.

After several weekends of fervid preparation, this weekend his platoon is holding their spring camp. I drove him to the meeting point where all the louvetaux congregated for the bus to transport them some twenty kilometres to the grounds of a large house where they are camping this night. I saw all the young parents with their beloved child smartly turned out in their scout kit. I discreetly watched from the sidelines as my son welcomed all his acolytes and chatted with the parents.

So yes I have changed my opinion on scouting. It has been an enriching experience for my son who has found enormous pleasure over the years. He is now voluntarily giving back to the next generation all the benefits he has received and gaining still more satisfaction as he is doing it. Am I so old fashioned to think that it is a real shame that in today’s world this type of activity is totally scorned upon? Roundly decried by all those who can only see it as an activity for sexual perverts.

No I have not changed my mind about all things English. French scouting is far superior to English.

jeudi 10 mai 2007

Our partner

Just a few headlines about what the Anglo Saxons are bringing to the world :

Algarve 'haven' for paedophiles
its relaxed policing has made it a magnet for sun-seeking paedophiles from Britain


Two teenage girls strangled their 15-year-old best friend with electrical wire after a Saturday night sleepover.
Their victim, Eliza Davis, was reading in the next room when the girls woke up and began discussing what it would be like to kill someone. They agreed that they would feel no remorse in murder and to prove their point they crept next door and set upon Eliza.


For me, Blair’s worst sin has been to make the entire political class seem deceitful, and so to erode people’s trust in the political process.

Cancer survival rates worst in western Europe

About 200 lawyers at City legal practices will this year earn more than £1 million, reflecting the dramatic increase in mergers and acquisition work.

Is this the sort of partner we want in Europe????

lundi 7 mai 2007

Mashed potatoe

Well of course you read the results of the French election first on Sologne and I do not apologise for my canny knack of anticipating events. It is pathetic to see old stooges like Antibes and Slocomb trying to catch onto my train, which left a long time ago. See their articles on the pitiful state of democracy and freedom in the UK.

So France has a new head of state. Of course other countries get new heads of state as well. Quite recently the UK got their latest version, in 1952 or was it 1953 before the young lady finally completed her hols and took up her life’s work. I don’t remember much about 1952 and the death of her daddy because he smoked too many cigarettes. But I do remember 1953.

There were not too many tellies back in those days. The local aristocrat generously set up her 13 inch black and white in her garage and we all trouped in. Dad was ‘too busy’ to go, I was young enough to believe him. Anyway it was endlessly dull and boring.

Soon after, the coronation games took place on the local green. I was entered into the egg and spoon race. Those were the days before the Brits came up with salmonella eggs by feeding the chickens their own shit. So eggs were still valued, and we got potatoes instead. I got a nasty looking example. It was misshapen with a large overhang which made it inevitably unstable on my wooden spoon. Further there were not too many competitors for the races so we were divided into little and big. I was the littlest of the little. But I was already smart. I scooted off with my ‘egg’ and but for a misfortune in the last meters I would have won. Finally some big slob got over the line while I was putting the handicapped spud back on the spoon and came second. First prize were specially minted crowns, second was a lousy half crown.

But I was not downhearted. I had done well in the circumstances and I felt sure that the next time I would win. I checked with my Mum, a young and beautiful woman, when the next coronation games were scheduled. I was of an age when I had never imagined that those two pillars in my life, Mum and Dad, would, one day, no longer be around. Imagine my consternation when my mother announced that there would be no more coronation games in her lifetime because Liz 2 was her junior.

Imagine the sense of injustice that welled up in that small frame.I would never get a fair break in life; I would never have a round spud on my spoon.

samedi 5 mai 2007

Now for the Elections

The election is over and Sarko has won. Yes the people do still have to vote but with the accurate opinion polls that we have in France there is no longer any doubt. No there will not be a ballot paper which says that you have two votes which you can cast for either candidate providing that you use only one of the two and only vote for one candidate. Unless you vote for neither in which case you can use both votes. So at 8 o’clock tomorrow evening you will be able to tune in to the tele and get the result. One wonders if the Brits will have finished counting the votes for their Thursday election by that time.

But that won’t be the end of elections. No we will immediately move on to the June legislative election. In the good old days we had Mitterrand saying, before election, that he wouldn’t dissolve Parliament if elected, only to do so once he gained power. Since the President now has a five year term the Presidential elections coincide with those of the legislature (though constitutionally they don’t have to) so we have to vote for new representatives anyway.

Once Sarko has been elected he will appoint a Prime Minister. Currently reckoned to be François Fillon, (Welsh wife to boot, so expect that we will go for Welsh independence once we have secured Scotland) who has been active in Sarko’s election from the earliest of times. (He was fired from the government by de Villepin because he couldn’t fire Sarko, such is politics) Fillon and his government will have only one objective, win the legislative elections for UMP. There will be political interest in seeing which measures he will push through before the election. A few of the popular ones no doubt, but don’t expect pension reform nor a reduction in bureaucrats.

For UMP the election should be pretty straight forward and the population generally gives a majority to the elected President. Though I suspect that it won’t be a landslide. A lot of people are nervous about Sarko and won’t want to give him carte blanche. The only issue for UMP will be how many seats to give UDF.

Bayrou will go ahead and set up his new party and rapidly disappear from serious politics, like every other person who has set up his own party. Chévénement, De Villiers, Mégret. In fact the only person who has succeeded is Le Pen. But then he had the good fortune to have an issue, massive immigration, which made his life reasonably simple. Not everybody wants to live next to a Brit family with the fish and chip fryer on 24 hours a day.

My eyes will be on the Socialists. What’s going to happen? There will be a few elephants with extremely long and sharp daggers out for Ségo. (Fabius, Emmanueli, Lang?, Strauss Kahn?) On the other hand the party has a large influx of new members who adhere to Ségo’s ideas. So I think it will be a fascinating session of good old fisticuffs. Of course the person who should lead the election campaign of the socialists is none other than Ségo’s common law husband, Hollande. Will he go with the pacte presidential, will he rubbish it? Anyway it is difficult to imagine there will be a united party behind a coherent programme. The most telling point for the future will be whether the new Ségo line is retained or whether we will return to crypto communism. I personally believe that the Socialists are finally going through their social democrat transition but will need a few more years in the wilderness before being electable.

It would be nice to see Ségo at least as Prime minister in a few years time. Who knows, if Sarko tips everybody into the street, he will have to dissolve parliament, the Socialists win the elections, and Sarko and Ségo finish up cohabiting. That would beat reality TV.

lundi 30 avril 2007

Service with a smile

Of course on the Anglo Saxon blogs and journos we get the continuous criticism of the French public services. Bureaucratic, unionised and what have you.

Well last Friday I put out our wheely bin for the biweekly rubbish collection Saturday morning. Mid morning Saturday I see our bin has lost a wheel and have difficulty in bringing it back in. In the wheely bin was a polite notice apologising for having eaten the bin and advising me if I call a certain number I’ll get a new bin. I dump the notice on my wife’s desk and get on with a man’s business. My wife after a weekend in Paris reappears on Monday morning and calls the number. Because the bin is only slightly broken the rubbish service come out Monday afternoon and hey presto I now have a repaired bin ready to be wheeled out Tuesday evening all for free.

And is it only rubbish? NO it isn’t. I put a letter in the local letterbox with a quotation for a customer. I quickly realized I had made a big error. What to do? Inform the customer that I had made a big mistake before it was put into the decision process? Maybe, but it wasn’t going to cover me with glory when I was fighting for the contract, especially since I had miscalculated the postage and the customer would have to pay a fee to receive my mail. No much better to put a post it on the post box, Cher Facteur and ask that he return it to my letter box. Having held off on informing my customer I was relieved to find the returned letter in my letter box that evening. Yes I do give a tip to my facteur, this year it will be a bit bigger. I got that contract.

dimanche 29 avril 2007

Claptrap and hogwash

Actually I am getting rather confused over this rubbish issue. I seem to have difficulty in following the tripe printed by the English gutter press. If I understand rightly Gordon Brown, a Scot, seeking to leave Europe, is convinced that Scotland, who don’t belong to Europe but want to join Europe, will have their application vetoed by England who belong to Europe but want to leave and other such balderdash. Any way he has decided having spent a fortune on public health, wrecked the country’s finances and made a wasteland of people’s pensions, to now overload the hospitals with people sick from maggots, vermin and rodents running in the street after paying a call to the London sewers or other such dire drivel.

Although it may be that he is trying to create a divertissement for the junk projections that were given to the Olympic committee, garbage in, trash out. Anyway he seems to have got himself into a bottomless cess pit of crappy numbers which should, run and run, as with diarrhoea.

The up tick is that the army, which has got itself into a shithole in Iraq following Blair’s bunkum and eyewash, has a problem of soldiers mixed body parts. They are concerned that Gordon’s maggots will get into the rotting coffins of the young soldiers before they have time to sort out the DNA. The matter is creating a foul stench since it will later be necessary to get the right worm into the right coffin. And that before the royal dreg comes along to the cemetery.

Meanwhile Bliar in an attempt to create international sympathy and to pinch development funds from deserving countries has declared Kent a trashed county as a result of an earthquake of .001 on the Richter scale. Tragically, litter baskets have been wrecked, but no support is forthcoming. Hard crap living in a detested tip of a country.

As they say, where does the rubbish begin and the trash end*. Meanwhile over here we are splitting our sides laughing as the rosbifs are sinking in their own detritus.

(*Official answer John O’Groats and Lands End or vice versa)

samedi 28 avril 2007




We liked Porto very much. Above is a photo taken from the opposite bank of the Douro looking towards Porto. The river bank on which I am standing while taking this photo, is the bank where all the famous Port cellars are located, Sandeman etc. I enjoyed a 30 year old porto at a small bar. On the Porto side of the river is the old town. It is an area with a lot of pleasant restaurants. We enjoyed a delightful Dorade later that evening accompanied by a vino verde.

Porto is obviously a city that has seen better times. Indeed I suspect it was once a rich town. This steel girder bridge was erected at the beginning of the twentieth century. An ambitious and expensive project at that time. Today there are quite a lot of buildings which could do with a substantial renovation.




What I suspect has happened is that the town did extremely well out of it’s port at one time, but the fashion of fortified wines has passed and the town has not developed new sources of wealth.

Of course port was very much an English drink. Many of the famous brands bear English names. The drink was really boosted through the slave trade. The British ships coming back from America would drop off, in Liverpool, the raw materials produced by the American slave plantations. A few drunken nights in Liverpool and the ship headed off to Porto to pick up the necessary alcohol. The crews on the slave ships were not a happy lot. Inevitably the nature of the trade led to many psychological disorders in the crew members. It was well known in the trade that the crew on the English ships would get drunk on lashings of port before gang raping the slaves, both sexes. The inconvenience was that they passed on their venereal diseases, syphilis mainly. The market became very depressed for English slaves. Obviously the American plantation owners didn’t want to catch English crabs from their slaves. So the City of London seeing that profits were declining decided to pull out and came up with the Wilberforce line of spin.

This unfortunate connection with the English seems to have rendered the inhabitants of Porto rather lazy. They seem to think that they can just get away with marketing spin, cost control and delocalisation. They really have the English disease of never making the effort to improve the product. The time of fortified wines has passed. In the days of long unhealthy sea voyages and drunken crew it was a good solution. But today we prefer natural wine, lighter and more energising to the taste buds. Come on Porto, get rid of those dishonouring English names, build on the brilliant natural wines of the Douro valley. Cast off your infamous brush with the Anglo Saxons, Europe welcomes you.

dimanche 22 avril 2007

Did I get a glimpse of heaven?




So I return rather reluctantly from a magical week savouring the delights of Portugal. Until my visit there were only two countries in which I would live, France and Italy. Now there are three. Portugal has all the delights of a Latin country, the style of living the joie de vivre. The beautiful fish, fruit, salads. Lot’s of gorgeous wine. The people always helpful and friendly.

We started in Lisbon, went to Sintra, which was the only negative point, lot’s of Anglo Saxons. Then gradually up to Porto. An amazingly attractive lively town. A trip across the Doura valley which is scintillatingly beautiful. Back down to Coimbra the university town and finally to Lisbon for the last two days.

mercredi 11 avril 2007

Heaven in the here and now

Tomorrow I’m off to Portugal and the Porto. I have strict instructions from my French and Portugese friends to avoid the Algarve. Nothing but English and fish and chips.

My job takes me to all parts of the Orléans area. Today I was in a back street near the theatre. I spied a seedy brasserie and couldn’t resist a bit of local colour. The lunch took me way way back to my student days and lunch on 5 francs. Everything was right, the Gaulloise smoking Frenchmen at the bar,the paper table cloth which is soaked with red wine, the pernod carafe of water. The unidentified bottle of rouge from which you help yourself. Excellent taste once the sandpaper effect wears off. The meal was a fixed price 10 euro deal, nothing written down. Starter, oeuf dur mayonnaise. I just love them, I smother them with pepper and dip the baguette in the mayonnaise. On to an excellent omelette au jambon. Then, two whole camemberts dumped on the table, help yourself. Absolutely perfect, two large lumps were readily consumed. Yes, yes wait for it. Dessert was…. Crème caramel in those little offwhite dishes. The crème a dirty cream and the gorgeous bitter caramel at the bottom.

Heaven, heaven, heaven. Anyone for Macdo?

dimanche 8 avril 2007

Life is good


So it’s Easter Sunday and I had the obvious task of doing the shopping. Because 1) there are a lot of people doing their shopping at the same time, see photo above 2) we eat lots of super goodies, a gigot and big tarts, with a commensurate bill.

Anyway it’s all very nice. The kids are here, with attachments. The weather is lovely. The Easter bunny hid chocolate eggs in the garden. The garden looks beautiful with the cherry blossom. The company made a good profit in Q1. I have new customers. The new employee is working out well. I am off to Portugal for a week’s holiday on Friday. And I am going to open a bottle of burgundy from my cellar. Jesus isn’t life good. My wife went to church to pray that it continues, a bit anyway.
Happy Easter.

mercredi 4 avril 2007

Masters of Disinformation

If you send a message to the Telegraph, this is what they say.


"Thank you for your comment

Your comment has been submitted for moderation so may not appear for a few minutes."


Which in my humble opinion is not a very honest statement. So, after a whole sequence of harmless posts being axed, I sent a post in quoting this message and saying that the British are the masters of disinformation. My message didn't get posted, but the next one did!!!! Guilty conscience?

mardi 3 avril 2007

Sponge cake

The Brits seem to be jabbering on a lot about their pensions these days. Why should I care, I don’t have one cent of pension money coming from anyone in England; thank goodness.

In fact it is rather agreeable to sit back and see them squeezed. After all we have received endless abuse about how antiquated the French system is and how much better is the privatised UK system. Well if you really want your pension money used to finance a private equity buy out with leverage at 1 zillion to one and bankers, accountants, lawyers fees at 10 zillion euro then by all means the City is the place for your pension.

But should I be so smug? Are the English the sort of people to take their medicine? Or are they more likely to look at ways, fair but mainly foul, to pass on their suffering to people who have strictly nothing to do with the blundering of the British economy?

England is creating a lot of strays and waifs. Poorly pensioned boomers, late career journalists with low pension prospects, divorcees in need of child assistance, mangy horses. You guessed it, they are all turning up in France to sponge off our ‘antiquated system’. What do our pathetic politicians do? Do they put cameras under the trucks coming from England to detect these fugitives? Are they using converted old ships as holding lodging pending their return home? Do they plan charters from Paris to London to repatriate these sorry masses? Hell no, they just share all our goodies with these spongers, encouraging Brown to plan further cleansing of the economically invalid. Is Le Pen the only answer?

jeudi 29 mars 2007

Bliss all Day

Of course some people are grumpy and others are not. I think much of it has to do with upbringing. If, for example you were born in a smoke filled pub, reeking of unemptied ash trays and stale beer then obviously your outlook on life is going to be pretty jaded. Especially if you still smell like a stubbed out fag end.

I on the other hand feel on the top of the world. I had a really good day. Colinb whingeing about my kindnesses and saying that I had destroyed his perspectives for being a Telegraph guest blogger. I am truly, wholeheartedly, sincerely and honestly (or at least to the extent that those adjectives can apply to a Brit) sorry Colin. See where being kind can get you. Anyway it was an enjoyable read over the muesli.

On to visit a new customer. He is a police inspector. Offered me an aperitif at 11 am. A bit early, but it was in the line of duty. So we had a good chat about the difficulties of policing in today’s world. He said how difficult it is to be a patron (good man, will go far) Of course the Gare du nord incident came up. His wife is Malgache, so I then had a good reminisce about my time working in Antananarivo. Sitting by the pool eating gorgeous salads, the wonderful steaks, the visits to Nossé Baie and the scuba diving in the coral reefs. The journeys into the bush. Lovely people, lovely country.

Then to cap a nice day there is the news from Iran. Doesn’t Faye Turney look nice in her headscarf. Great improvement on the previous photos of her toting a machine gun. Apparently the British soldiers are refusing to go back to their barracks; they say the food is so much better in Iran as well as the medical treatment. Blair is of course furious. Looks like his term in government will finish up much like that of Carter. I smell humiliation on the horizon and it is most enjoyable. Hope the Iranians play their hand well, so far so good. You’ve been bad boys so Faye doesn’t get her freedom, beautiful.

mardi 27 mars 2007

GUESS WHERE THIS RESTAURANT IS



29/3/2007 The Colin of Antibes has now commented on his blog 'that he is livid' at being proposed as a guest blogger on the Telegraph. Strange people these Brit's, I don't think we are going to manage any meeting of minds. Anyway with all his different colours, pictures and styles his blog looks like a kids bazaar.Or should that be a Neopolitan ice cream. No taste, no elegance.



28/3/2007 The incorrigible Colinb sent this post to the Telegraph:


"I see the incorrigible Richard of Orléans is still trying to use other people's blogs, in this case Shane Richmond's, as his kangaroo court.


Comment
: I supported his attempt to become a guest blogger. I'm not sure I'll do that again


It's the same old story: trumped up charges, and 'R of O' acting as prosecution, judge and jury, all conveniently rolled into one.



Comment: This he pinched directly from one of my posts


It's easy to do that, Richard, when you hide behind a pseudonym, but unfair and irresponsible when your target blogs under his real name.


Comment:same old blah, blah blah. Nothing stops him calling himself Colin Of Antibes


Sorry, Richard, but I don't wish to participate in your warped little game. Kindly give it a rest, and do please stop misrepresenting the facts. For the record (sigh) I rarely comment on world politics, but can assure folk that I do not fit Richard's stereotype. I am broadly pro-EU, but anti-federalist and against Britain joining the single currency. I strongly opposed the Iraq war, believing that Saddam had no WMD to hide - that he was just playing cat-and-mouse with the inspectors, to wind up GWB/TB, and that bilateral US/UK action was premature and probably illegal.


Comment What I said was that his blogging would appeal to supporters of the Iraq war, I never said he supported it. So who is misrepresenting? It is Colinb straight up. I make the argument that he would appeal to the core beliefs of a significant segment of the Telegraph readership. Afterall a sound argument to support his cause. He turns it into a personal attack. Unbelievable narcissism.


Thank you Louise for correcting Richard on that absurd claim about no longer accepting comments. That is yet another instance of Richard misrepresenting the facts, just so he could work in his little joke about Stalin.

Comment:He has disabled the 'comment' facilty so in blogger jargon he does not accept 'comments' E-mails oblige the poster to disclose their address so it's clearly a different animal and hinders free speech.

I think this is the point to stop, but if anyone wants clarification on any of the matters raised here, by BT, 'R of O' or Louise then I shall be only too happy to oblige. (BTW, Louise, thank you for the clarification re emails)"


Comment having made a number of fallacious statements Mr Berry as usual, wants to stop.So anyway no more support from me for his guest blogger ambitions




Yes in order to win a big, big prize all you have to do is guess in which well known town or city you can find this restaurant.
In case of a tie, the tie breaker will be guessing what I consumed today in this restaurant. How long it took, how much I paid and what the lady behind the bar said to me.

Here's a clue.


lundi 26 mars 2007

The Canal Builders




In the days before railways, shipping wine from Bordeaux to Paris took a while. It would be loaded on a ship in Bordeaux and brought up to Nantes. There it would be transferred onto a special flat bottomed river boat to ascend the Loire. The Loire was always a nightmare for boats because it is shallow and extremely variable, now a raging torrent difficult to navigate, then a trickle of water barely enough to wet the boat.

On reaching Orléans not a few barrels were no longer drinkable. These were converted into vinegar, a traditional industry of Orléans. The last manufacturer of vinegar finally disappeared only in the 1970’s.

But the wine was still 150 km from Paris. The rich bourgeois was impatient awaiting his fine wine. The last stage was the canal, the Orléans canal, which after a roundabout route connects with the Seine and hence to gay Paris.

The railways destroyed canals probably faster than the internet is killing papers. Before the railways, passengers would travel from Paris to Orléans in a stage coach then take the boat down to Nantes, a journey of a few days. Overnight it was Paris Nantes within the day. The trains travelled at the stupendous speed of 30 km per hour. Our local newspaper recently reprinted its aticle describing the inaugaral journey Paris Orléans.The same thing happened to the wine from Bordeaux to Paris. So it was bye bye river boats and bye bye canals.

The Orléans canal is still there, to the east of Orléans, though not navigable at the present time. If you look at the picture above you can see the Orléans canal to the left of the Loire. This picture is taken about a kilometre from the starting point of the canal in downtown Orléans. In the early 1950’s that last kilometre was filled with soil and rubble and the space used for parking and the vegetable market.

The picture above is taken from a bridge looking east. What if I look west?




Yes it’s a massive building site. That first kilometre of the canal is being rebuilt. The parking spaces have been suppressed and the market moved. In Orléans we are building: fast trains, autoroutes, internet superhighways and……….canals.

Please somebody stand up to the Thugs

Updated 27/3/07

So far the Iranians are doing well, they are holding on to the English spies and resisting all pressure. I have nothing against the individuals involved but it is important that the Iranians show the British to be powerless and to put them in their place. The decison of the Brits to put out some fake GPS coordinates to 'prove' they did not encroach on Iranian territory is pathetic and laughable.Do they really think people still fall for these old tricks.



This week end we celebrated 50 years of the European Union. Those 50 years have brought peace and wealth to our continent. Is it not worth asking why Britain has been opposed to this project throughout?

Let us look to the Middle East to see why. It’s obvious; the Anglo Saxons are war mongering nations that don’t find their economic return from peaceful coexistence.

So now we start the Iran war. Isn’t the run up similar to the Iraq war. We had the over flights and bombing in Iraq, now we have the spying and violations of sovereignty with Iran. Exaggerations on WMD with Iraq, same again with Iran.

I don’t blame the Anglo Saxons; we know who they are and what they want. We are well aware that they won’t change. I do blame the European Union, Canada, Mexico, China, India, Brazil, and the UN for not standing up to these thugs once and for all.

jeudi 22 mars 2007

The Simple Life


When I was a young man and wanted to visit London I would drive up to Hyde Park and find a convenient parking spot not far from the Serpentine where I could leave the car all day for nothing, not far from a tube station.

No, you can’t do that any more. But what you can do is drive up to the Bois de Boulogne and park near Le Pavillon Dauphin (photo above) close to the métro station Place Dauphine. It’s not as good as my wife’s maternal grandfather who told us about parking for free in the rue de Rivoli but it’s not bad and perfectly free. So that’s what I did on Tuesday. Actually rather than take the métro I walked up avenue Bugeaud to Place Victor Hugo,where I had my first meeting.

Later I went over to rue de la Boetie where someone kindly invited me to lunch, and was generous enough to let me choose the wine, Savennières 2003. It was gorgeous, lovely yellow colour, dry and mature. That and the delightful meal convinced me that I should enjoy life to the full. I walked up the Champs Elysées and back down Avenue Foch (below) Ah the simple pleasures in life is what I like.

mardi 20 mars 2007

Back to cabbage leaves

I see there is some discussion on the blogs of environmental issues. As a lover of nature I am always interested in preserving the health and beauties of our planet. The problem is that there is often as much subjectivity as objectivity in our discussions. Man after all is part of nature; we are none other than one of the numerous species living on earth. Is an elephant knocking down a tree OK and a man cutting it down not OK?

Look again at your favourite landscape, are there not a few old stone cottages carefully nestled somewhere in the scene? But surely not a copper mine nor a gravel pit. Somehow we have decided certain human activities are OK and others not OK. But surely, unsightly as they may be, a pit or a mine do little real damage to our planet. The grand canyon is considerably bigger than most mines. Should we fill in the Grand Canyon?

On my journeys to Paris I cross the Beauce. It is the largest cereal growing area in Europe. Huge flat, treeless, hedgeless fields growing wheat, barley, sugar beet, maize. Each time I travel there are a few more eoliens powerfully turning their mighty blades. With about 30 so far, from a distance, they look majestic. I wouldn’t like to live next to one though. Just as the farmers are finally getting taken to task and required to reduce the nitrate pollution so that the villagers can again drink the water from their taps, so they wake up in the morning with these enormous noisy behemoths on their doorsteps. So is this the way to keep the Maldives above water? One country’s saving grace is another man’s polluted doorstep.

Well no it’s not actually. The thing about the environment is that we do what we want, not what we need to do. Sarah is courageously seeking to recycle her vegetable waste. To what gain? Filling a landfill with carrots and turnips is no big deal. The vegetable matter quickly decomposes and mixes with the soil. Yes there is the transportation to the tip but there is also the plastic bin to be manufactured and transported. Wouldn’t it be better for Sarah to cut out her frequent trips back to the UK? There we really do have CO2 and noise pollution with some NOX and SO2(3) as well. The massive cement runways at the airport with the inevitably polluted water runoff.

When I came to France in 1973 almost all journeys by plane arrived at Orly Sud, and you went to Orly West for onward travel. In 1974 the Camembert, Roissy 1 was opened and Orly Sud largely closed. Since then we have had Roissy 2 A,B,C,D,E,F,G. Many regional airports take international flights and are growing rapidly. And if you return to Orly Sud, what do you find? It’s chock a block with flights and being expanded.

Oh yes I know we all deserve a holiday. But when I raised recently on Shane Richmond’s blog the issue of the wasteful and abusive use of airplanes I received a solid round of insults with nobody supporting my opinion. Suddenly the consensus opinion that we should do something about the environment had disappeared. Is it really more important to recycle a few cabbage leaves than fight the ridiculous culture of excessive air travel?

For I know something about the ridiculous excesses to which air travel has gone. Having for two years arrived at Roissy airport at 6 am each Monday morning to start my weekly visit of an average of three countries. I was not alone in my exhausting Odysseys; at 6 am there is no problem of traffic on the péripherique, but there is a massive jam at Roissy as all the international managers take their early morning flights. Yes, with globalisation there has developed a business model of heavy centralisation which requires endless travel. An international group is run as if it is just one firm. But instead of simply walking down to the sales department you now take a flight to wherever.

Hand in hand with the evolution of this business model of centralisation has arrived the mainly English phenomenon of second homes in the sun with the frequent Ryanair flights to do the weeding and pick up some wine.

So if we are really serious about the environment shouldn’t we do something about this air travel? Hiking the cost of car travel is going to cause many problems for poor people but eliminating a lot of air travel is just going to slow down equity buyouts and restructuring as well as reducing the number of English in France. Not many downsides? Not for me, but for the readership of the Telegraph we would be attacking their very way of life. Back to recycling cabbage leaves.

dimanche 18 mars 2007

Free lunch man

As usual I spent nearly all week end working on my little company. Actually it’s now a little group with the welcome of a new Eurl. Yes that’s Entreprise unipersonelle de résponsabilité limitée. In this highly bureaucratic country you can set up a new company with 1 Euro capital, 1 shareholder, i.e. yourself, in half an hour. (well that’s a slight exaggeration let’s say a couple of days). Everybody is helpful and cooperative. The Chambre de Commerce explains exactly what you have to do and keeps all the different departments informed (greffe de commerce, fisc, and social security). I made a couple of mistakes, but of course they helped me to correct both of them with no trouble. The one thing that was a bit difficult was HSBC, that well known British bank, who acquired a marvellous French bank called CCF, changed the name, fired the employees and sent the service in a heavy southerly direction. So the only thing I don’t have is my cheque book. I ‘ve already partly left HSBC, I may well go further in the coming months.

It was a good weekend in many ways. First off, the company got a new customer. A French telecom manager who spends all his time working next to Paddington station!!! Goes to London for the week and comes back to Orléans weekends. He didn’t volunteer to speak English, enough is enough. The local vet did though, fed up with talking to horses.

Between making drawings, preparing quotes, making invoices, calculating a P&L I have been checking on the news. Of course a better weekend for rugby with France winning the 6 nations for the 4th time in six years. Maybe time for France to join up with the southern hemisphere, I fear we are not being sufficiently tested up north. Though I’m not too much in favour of excessive travel and the concomitant pollution. An alternative would be to convince the Germans to play the sport and fold the Brits into one team, rather than all these teeny peeny teams they come up with. The Italians are improving, so with the Germans, French and Italians we could look forward to some competition. The Brits could hold our track suits.

There were just three opinion polls on the Presidential election. Overall they showed Bayrou stalling just short of Ségo and Sarko gaining a slightly larger overall lead. We are now into the heavy slugging part of the election, with each team going for the others’ jugular. It’s nice watching.

Bayrou, like all our politicians has been around a long time without ever setting any houses alight. In fact his greatest achievement was writing a good book on Henry IV. (He was an important figure in our history since he closed out the wars of religion. It was bit like modern day Iraq before he came along.) Bayrou was education minister back in 93, 94 and didn’t do too well with reform. He got everybody into the street because he wanted local authorities to be free to put money into private schools as well as public schools. Bit like Windsor council pouring the rates into Eton (slight exaggeration there). Didn’t go down well and was withdrawn.

The line of attack against Bayrou, from left and right are ‘no programme’ and ‘will create a constitutional crisis”. The latter comment harks back to the fourth republique (1945 to 1958)in which the president had little power and the unstable governments were being continually made and broken. Not a very pleasing period in French history. I think the electorate is attracted to Bayrou simply because he is not one of the previous two governing parties. Both UMP and the Socialists are in fact talking in reasonably responsible tones and not promising too many handouts. So everybody hopes it will be UDF’s turn to come up with a free lunch.

mercredi 14 mars 2007

We all hate a frog

So the Anglo Saxons have had a field day attacking Chirac as he signalled his intention to stand aside in the forth coming presidential election. Of course the French have criticised him a lot too. But their criticism is from a position of respect, not dislike. Both de Gaulle and Mitterrand were highly unpopular at the end of their stints, but that does make them unappreciated politicians today.

The crux of the Anglo Saxon criticism seems to be that he did nothing or alternatively showed no leadership. The only area he gets any credit is in foreign policy and his better reading of the Iraq situation.

I find it strange to say ‘he did little’. We have switched our currency to the Euro. When did the Brits and the Americans last enter into an internationally pooled currency? The presidential term was reduced to 5 years from 7. There was considerable privatisation. When he was prime minister he abolished exchange controls and freed prices. There was significant decentralisation. Inflation is currently running at 1%. Women have gained greater representation. There has been massif immigration. Our big companies have become truly international through aggressive growth strategies. The Airbus 380 has flown, Ariane 5 has become the heavyweight satellite launcher. The viaduct of Millau is built, TGV est is running, autoroutes have been extended. Throughout, our companies and administrations have been in an endless process of restructuring. Life expectancy has increased, cancer has become less deadly as well as our roads. Cigarettes have been loaded with punitive levels of taxation. The PAC has been reformed. The list is endless

He said himself he would have liked to have done more but this is a democracy and people get consulted on the speed they wish to move forward. In fact the truly great achievement of Jacques Chirac has been to keep the show on the road. Through all this change the country has continued to grow, democracy has been strengthened; there are no significant independence movements and we are at peace with the rest of the world. He managed to keep those wanting to go faster working as a team with those who wanted to go slower. No mean achievement.

The criticism that he gave no leadership is even wider of the mark. The French are not about to be lead in the condescending manner of Blair and Bush. No, to lead the French you do not go around telling them what to do all day. It is the surest way to achieve the opposite of your intentions. Chirac gave leadership the way the French expect to be lead, as mature adults who are free and live in a democracy. They need to be encouraged, loved, sometimes aided but it is they who will find the way forward with their infinite skills and ability. It is why France is such an efficient country, because the people truly do feel responsible for what goes on.

The strange thing about all the different articles I read in the US/UK press was that nobody took the time to explain why they actually hate the guy. Does it all come down to Iraq? Or is there something I’m missing?

jeudi 8 mars 2007

This week's treat


This week's treat from the Jardins des plantes in Orléans. With the mild weather the Magnolia soulangiana have just come into flower and this is a rather fine specimen.

Mild weather but also a lot of rain. The Loire has risen a bit more but still has a long way to go. It usually covers the island at least once a year.



This is the path from which I took the duck photo. They are now swimming along it!

Today's strange event. I saw a muslim lady with the full veil kit (niqba?). Not that frequent in Orléans, just the slit for the eyes. I was quite close to her when she approached a car driven by a young lady, in western atire, with a young family. Just in front of me, so I had a full frontal, the muslim lady whipped off her veil and gave bissous to the kids. Are we managing to introduce French reasonableness by subterfuge?

mercredi 7 mars 2007

A close run thing

As I already said I don’t much like films. Nor do I like theatre, music, opera or ballet. I used to think I liked art but then I went to the Tate Modern and realised it wasn’t my thing anymore.

When I was a young man I read a lot of novels, but I can’t stand them anymore. I spend my whole time thinking how the characterisation has been made so artificial in order to please some fashionable critic or another.

I used to like non fiction, I read a lot of history and biographies but at some point it becomes repetitive, there were only so many Henry VIII’s or Charlemagne’s. I liked economics for a long time but once you’ve been through 2 or 3 ‘ new economies’ you start to get a good feeling for where things are going. Philosophy is good, but quite honestly it requires a lot of time and concentration, and I’m getting lazy.

Well I hadn’t done that analysis, consciously, before 10 days ago and I got quite a shock. It suddenly transpired to me why I was struggling with conversation in pseud’s corner.

With one weeks vacation I was determined to do something about it and read a book.

This had to be a low investment project, so I rummaged furiously through my father in law’s book shelves of mainly rather old books and came up with: La Grande Guerre by Pierre Miquel. Published in 1983 all 650 pages of it.

And I loved it; I was completely entranced by what must be the greatest epic of human endeavour in the history of mankind. Yes I knew the result and this was probably my fourth book on WWI. But it was fabulous. Those plucky little Belgians being overrun by the unprincpled Germans. The incredible discipline, organisation, innovation and single purpose of the Germans. Their stupendous belief in their ability to deliver the results, taking on first France and then Russia.

Oh yes I was on the road with the straggly French troops steadily retreating towards Paris as they lost one fight after another. How could it be possible to turn around such a forlorn situation? The Germans were unbeatable, this time the Marne would not be held, it was impossible. And boy was it close I was sweating all the way through, but they did it the miracle happened and against all predictions the Germans were pushed back.

Trench time was upon us. My feet were cold and wet as I sat in that house even though there was comfort and central heating.

My stomach churned, my heart sank. The young kids sat through their school exams, were called up for the summer battles and were buried 4 weeks later. It was mathematical, a good push took 250, 000 lives, 10 000 a day mowed down by the machine guns. If you were lucky you won a couple acres of land. As the resources dried up the Germans stripped the dead before they were cold and recycled them on to the next future dead body. Yep mankind can be creative.

And Verdun, unbelievable, the total experience, the outer outer edge of being alive, for those few who came through. Heroics, tenacity, single mindedness. A moonscape, nothing recognisable as being planet earth. No animal no bird, no tree no plant. Just man slaughters man in the midst of the churned mud and booming cacophony of the sound of death. Would the Saviem trucks deliver the goods and save the day? I was far from certain, but they made it God bless them.

Yes I will return to see those acres and acres of smooth lawns covered with impecable white crosses; everyone bears the name of a young man.

The UBoats, the sinking of the allied merchant ships. Germany starving, spreading illness. Give up? No way. We have a plan and we will win.

They almost did. It was close, close, so close. No film, would dare that level of suspense. Nearer and nearer to Paris. The German artillery reaching into the metropolis. The Marne crossed. The French and English running out of troops. The key rail lines lost, the horses out of food and dying. The tanks broken down and inefficient. The Americans not yet ready to pick up the baton. The plans in place to retreat to, yes, Orléans. It was hopeless, just hopeless the teutons had done it, history was wrong.

The miracle happened, the allies out resisted the irresistible. Suddenly it was all over, there was nothing left, the Germans had given their all and much more besides.

What a story, what a week. I’m giving up books while I’m ahead.

dimanche 4 mars 2007

Usual routine





Benodet opposite. That tree in the middle is under serious threat for it's life. The one on the left is a graceful knarled Cupressus macrocarpa.

The little boat (click on the photo to see) is one of the smallest fishing boats. We keep an eye on when they return to port so that we can watch them unload their catch. Amazing how a big boat will only have a reasonably modest catch. No wonder fish is expensive.



Looking towards the peninsular of Isle Tudy. I believe Saint Tudy was a Brit, he was thrown out of England, couldn't get on with the Anglo Saxons.



A pleasant week away from the antics of the British blogs. Hidden away in my hole in Brittany. Crêpes in Pont l’Abbée and Audierne. Sauntering through the old streets of Quimper and having dinner in a fish restaurant. Aperitif in Lesconil on the port. Langoustines stacked high, bought at the local port and cooked by yours truly. Bottles of Kerné cider brut. Walks along the coastal GR. Admiration of Atlantic wall.

Stop overs in Baugé and Vannes.

All the usual stuff. Oh yes and admiring the view from the bottom of my garden. See photos above.

jeudi 22 février 2007

Dusk over the Loire




Yes this is dusk in Orléans. Sometimes after a full days work I give myself a little reward and wander off to my beloved downtown Orléans. I could of course drive into the centre and park in an underground car park. I could drive to my local park and ride and take the tram. But me being me I do neither of that. I park 2 kilometres from the centre of Orléans, next to the jardin des plantes. I admire the plantes in flower. On this trip it was a delightful white lonicera which, in the gathering darkness, emitted a most delightfully strong perfume. Past the boule pitch, on to number one reward, a walk across the Loire, which as you can see is in the fullness of early spring.

From there, on this occassion I went to the centre to meet a drinking partner for a beer in a central brasserie. My drinking partner is an Orléanais, but who has lived and worked in Belgium and Holland as well as France. He worked for top international companies in some of the most demanding businesses around. He is fully bilingual English/French. He is healthy and has more energy than 99% of the population. He has one strange characteristic. Not being satisfied with his frequent ocean sailing around the coasts of Europe, he has this strange odd desire to work. Not for money of course, he would no doubt have to take a cut in income were he to work. No he has just one overiding desire to return to the action.

Of course he never will, too old. I wonder why the dusk of life is not as pleasing as dusk over the Loire.?

dimanche 18 février 2007

Elles avancent

Of course the Brits. accuse the French of many things. Lazy, xenophobic, bad cooks, anti Semitic, antifeminists, what have you. Most of it is utter rubbish. But one thing that has always perturbed me is the use of the third person plural pronouns. ‘ Ils’, ‘Elles’, the equivalent of ‘they’ but with the grammatical gender. The rule is that you use the feminine ‘elles’ only if all the subjects are feminine. So if you have a bunch of tables (la table) and chairs (la chaise) you say ‘elles’ when talking of them all. Elles sont nombreuses. But if there was just one broom in there (le balai), then it all becomes masculine and Ils sont nombreux.

Talking of inanimate things it’s not too important. But what about a WI meeting. There we have all these female pillars of society, 5000 of them, discussing all manner of important subjects Elles discutent intelligement n’est ce pas?. Hey presto a male vicar joins them and helps them with the discussion and it all becomes 5001, ils discutent intelligement n’est ce pas? Of course the purists of the language say it is just grammatical rules and it is not sexist at all. But nevertheless in this day and age it really doesn’t seem acceptable.

So you’ll be glad to hear that since 2006 l’acadamie francaise has changed the rule and it is the majority which defines the third person pronoun. Now that’s better isn’t it ladies?

vendredi 16 février 2007

Britain worst part 2

From the Telegraph:

Cameron: fathers to blame for 'broken' society

By George Jones, Political Editor
Last Updated: 3:38pm GMT 16/02/2007

‘’’Your view: Would forcing fathers to look after their children fix Britain?
• Our country needs re-civilising'
• Comment: Show children what is right
• Analysis: Guns, drugs and violence
Fathers should be compelled to look after their children in an effort to tackle the breakdown of family life and discipline in society David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said today.
He said the shooting of three teenage boys in south London in the last fortnight had shown that British society was “badly broken”.


“That’s what our society’s now come to - teenagers shooting other teenagers in their homes at point blank range. It is deeply depressing,” he told GMTV


What is nice about observing English society is how they all turn on each other. Note Cameron doesn’t say ‘us fathers’ no way the problem is ‘you plebeian lot’.

I really feel privileged that I could bring up my children in France. I have always loved the high priority given to families here. The real feeling of togetherness and shared responsibility. You don’t have to spend your whole life keeping up with Mrs Jones. Partying and bonking are not considered the be all and end all of life.

Of course all these failed selfish fathers want to ship up in France and exploit are united society. Keep em out, they should fix their own problems, not run away.

mercredi 14 février 2007

Official, Britain Worst

Well it’s official. Britain is the worst place to be a child. The USA is second last. This is a UN study, (UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre) on 21 industrialised countries. Of course I have been accused of being rude, outrageous, disloyal to my country etc. etc. for pointing out a self evident verity. I’m not one of those who hide my candle under a bushel, I was right all along and I told you so.

What concerns me more is that France is not so good, it comes sixth last. I have previously spoken of our geographical handicap of being close to a sub rate country. Our residents are going to the UK, finding it a disaster and being too self satisfied. What are the weak points in France? Well let’s examine the three worst rated dimensions: Educational well being 18 th, subjective well being 18th, Behaviours and risk 14th.(each out of 21 countries)

Educational wellbeing. Within this dimension there are three measurements, the overall result being the average of the three: 1) educational achievement in maths, science, reading. France is average. 2) beyond basic skills. The theory is that basic skills at 15 are now insufficient for our complex world. Under this measurement, the study determines the % of 15 to 19 year olds still in full time education. France does very well it is fifth. 3) Transition to employment. Obviously the end result has to be a paid job. Here France is almost last. We have the highest percentage of young people who are neither in education/training nor in a job. We are also worst in terms of the expectations of the children achieving a skilled job. But are we really measuring educational well being, or rather the fact that there are no jobs because everybody is priced out of the labour market due to our absurdly high taxes?

Subjective well being. This is a measure of how kids feel about themselves, their health, and their school life. Of course as we know the French always claim to be as miserable as sin while steadily increasing consumption and having the highest birth rate in Europe. Their kids have learnt to complain a lot. No surprises there.

Behaviour and risk. This covers healthy eating (France is slightly below average!!!), physical activity (bad), overweight (good), smoking (average), drunkenness (France is the best ie little drunkenness, and the Brits? Yes rock, rock bottom), cannabis (bad), sex at fifteen (considered to be bad for you) France bonks less than average, the Brits do nothing else.

So for God’s sake let’s get back to paying people to do their job and not depriving them of the fruit of their labour. Simple ain’t it?

mardi 13 février 2007

The lady's not for turning, the corner

In a previous post I did say that Ségo was turning the corner after a number of gaffes. Well as it turned out that was a bit premature. Sarko definitely launched his campaign with panache. He has had the enormous advantage that all opposition within his party, the UMP, has fallen away. Sarko is benefiting from his get tough position on policing. His Karcher comments are probably doing him more good than harm. Chirac and Madame Chirac have indicated that there is life after politics and that they will miss the Elysée. Of course Chirac quickly responded that he was theorising about the future, whenever that would be, but everybody has now understood that Jaques is off for a well earned retirement in May and will not be putting too many banana skins in Sarko’s way in the meantime. He has not yet designated Sarko as his chosen successor, but that no longer seems far away. Finally Sarko looks presidential, if a bit Napoleonic in size.

Ségo just hasn’t really looked the part so far. Her blunder on the nuclear submarines, she thought there was only one and then believed there were seven (there are four) really gave the appearance of a silly woman minister only worried about feminine issues. She has made a few hints that she could be a more modern socialist. Teachers should spend more hours in school, delinquents should go to boot camp, taxes can’t rise any further, and the 35 hour working week needs to be reviewed. But she has never followed through and has, in fact, backed off each time. Hence my slight personal disillusionment. Gradually her position has deteorated in the opinion polls, now 46% in the second round to 54% for Sarko.

I believe her position reflects the conflicts within French society. It is gradually and finally dawning on people that the soak the rich traditional socialist line is not going to solve anything. From there to arriving at a set of propositions that will unite the electorate, there is still a big step to take. For thirty years we have had demagogic left governments which have been thrown out of power when they have had the temerity to explain that there was a limit to what they could give away. Only for the right to arrive in power to discover that the programme on which they were elected is supported by a small proportion of the population and not implementable. Consequence, the right ends up implementing the demagogic measures pronounced by their predecessors. If Sarko could karcherise the suburbs, and then some, I bet he can't karcherise SNCF and the profs. Hence the need for a reformed left, from which we seem almost as far away as ever.

Ségo realising time was slipping away decided to hold a big meeting this Sunday in the Parisian suburbs and finally came up with some proposals. It has been widely called her last chance in the French press. She called them her 100 proposals for a presidential pact. Indicating, that she indeed is not entirely old left she set out her stall by highlighting the economic concerns as point one. Investment in research, creation of companies, increase initiative, restructure the state. But as you can imagine most of the rest are either give aways, increase the minimum salary, or wishful thinking, decrease unemployment.

Initial reaction is favourable, but not overwhelming. At the moment Sarko looks a bit of a shoe in, will it last?

dimanche 11 février 2007

Blog bis





Hi This is my new blog. I got locked out of my old one. The idea is to have a pure, smell free zone. So please use the facilities provided.
No 'smell' is not the alias for somebody.

samedi 10 février 2007