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.?

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?

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.

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?

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?

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.