I also HAVE to add, just in case there are any readers connected to the French public health system, that I have had a phenomenal treatment from the French health system. They have looked after me in a fantastic and laudable manner, and whilst any large organisation has its’ issues, I have nothing but praise and the deepest thanks for them, as they not only quite literally saved my life, but looked after me afterwards (they still are).
… just in case you thought I was simply anti-French…
Jim, I think the answer lies in your own replies.
Like many on here you have been a wanderer, and like many others of us it sounds as if the time of wandering has at least slowed down, if not stopped. It happened to me fifteen years ago when I was still a mere stripling of 65.
It was a hard thing to accept that i had ‘done my dash’ in terms of employment, but I wasn’t ready to just sit back in the old rocking chair and simply fade away.
Where I was physically became less of a problem than where I was mentally. What could I do with almost 50 years with now largely redundant international experience . Analogue man in a digital world? Well, this worked for me, and I turned to self-publishing (having previously 'business- publlshed through large sponsors.)
You don’t mention what your business was, but if it carried you around the world almost certainly it would be of interest to others? Under a lot of pushing I did produce my ‘memoirs’ which seemed a bit conceited, and I won’t suggest ithey were raging best-sellers (not enough ‘sex’ as one critic suggested - unlike the fanciful Mad-Men series).
An Australian Publishing house picked up on an older text, and during discussions my passion for old posters came into the discussion and a series of books appeared BUT for reasons of cost never appeared beyond two fully bound sets and one huge book on Old Automobiles Posters and Graphics. The latter was successful in a limited way- nominated by Jay Leno as his ‘2010 Motoring Book of the Year’ certainly helped, but it was expensive to produce, and weighing in at 3kgs even more expensive to post! Ultimately the project folded, but it did give me an idea of reducing large books to smaller ones, which I have pursued ever since (many can be seen on amazon.com)
So looking at a life from a different angle changed my mindset, which I am suggesting you might find advantageous. Note I am not suggesting financially advantageous as publishing is rarely a way to riches! It seems to me from limited information, that you might have things to impart in a like manner. "Virgin in Beijing’ or ‘Beating your way through Brazil’ spring to mind - and I don’t know the context of your life.
Above all, look to change your focus and see if the past could be part of your future?
So the fun hasn’t started yet 
Not as far as I am aware, You may recall I recently couldn’t access SF and you kindly sorted it out, but no as far as am aware that is the only account I have.
@Norman_Clark the second of these photos is not you then?
if it is i’ll merge them, if not then you have a doppelgänger 
Sorry Eddie, we got off on the wrong foot. I’m well stressed moving into our new home and you clearly have your own stresses. I’m sorry if I offended you. It wasn’t my intention to offend anyone. Please forgive me xx
Look-alikes? Not on your Nelly. Upper Case Norman and lower case norm. Take a butchers at their fizzogs! Norman has a look of patriarchal aloofness, norm don’t give a flying fuck about anything. (in a manner of speaking, no offence intended to either) 
Wow, a lot of info there!
Well you’ve certainly picked a beautiful area of France to be stuck in. You could have been stuck here in 57 and then you would really have something to moan about 
Like others have said earlier, you’re probably getting grumpier with age and you’ve probably got a bad case of cabin fever as well due to the current situation. Hopefully, once your business picks up again you’ll see things in a different light.
The French are really not that bad, certainly no worse than the Brits, but I sense that you are feeling a certain frustration that you can’t bring your kids up in a more international environment.Unfortunately, I can’t see how you can change that for the moment.
I think the Chunnel terminuses have different layouts because Sangatte is so close to built-up and congested Calais and traffic off the train has to adjust from UK motorway conditions to French peri-urban conditions.
Thus, and wisely, the tributary roads from the French debouchement are engineered for their traffic calming effects, as well as to divert drivers to the delights of the vast Cité d’Europe complex which is a major reason that many English visitors use the Channel Tunnel in the first place.
The traffic calming distraction also helps drivers from UK to adjust to continental driving conditions in relative safety ie how to read signage, manage rond-points safely, and steer on the right.
Clever French safety-conscious forward thinking IMO.
Termini.
To think I’ve joined a forum with such ignorami.
Yep, the 57 , 55 and 54 are not brilliant. I quite like Metz though but only to visit.
Nope that isn’t me.
One of the penalties of a common name I’m afraid. Even my ‘author’s page’ on Amazon is shared with several others.
I have known of several Norman Clarks, but a bit surprisingly even more Norman Ernest Clark’s. I even knew of a Clark Norman at one point.
Note I haven’t even included the ‘Clarke’s’ with an ‘e’!
Thanks for letting me know
James; The young chap in the picture is at least 50 years younger than me, and probably 40kgs lighter. He also has a beard. Not quite a Doppelganger except for name?
I would be totally happy to be renamed ‘Norm Clark the Elder’ if it would help Account Identification - but wouldn’t have a clue how to make that happen;
I have heard that the French have more roundabouts than in any other country? Certainly they seem to put them with abandon all over the place, with what seems the sole intention of slowing down the traffic. I can’t really complain about that in the countryside - the cities seem to have got that particular problem ‘sorted’!
We have one amusing exmple near us where a roundabout was built only to find that one exit point led to a dead end of shrubs with nothing on the other side - all of 10 METRES from the roundabout itself? That ten metres had even been tarmaced and kerbed before anyone woke up to the fact it was extraneous and useless.
The solution was to dump a heap of gravel in the way to stop people even attempting to use it. It has remained like that for some five years now.
Mmmm - I’m not so sure.
If any of you would care to go back to norm1’s posts he sounds remarkably like said Norman Clark who is posting now. He even talks to Peter Goble in a very similar way. May I just draw your attention to this comment …
"Peter, took my aged body out on my also aged cycle steed out yesterday for the first ride in months. walked up to the viewpoint and took this photo of my house (with the pale green shutters) looking down from the Church - which celebrates it’s 1000th year this year.
Makes my own approaching 80th seem very insignificant."
Norman, if this is NOT you then he really is your doppelganger
If he is 50 years younger,then he must have had a tough paper round
Amazingly he also has spent time in Australia,and lives now in the Correze. That is really spooky
