Haha, yes, thinking about it the list stops there, Vic, there is no etc. - I'd never faire la bise with my own brother, or my Dad (and don't with father-in-law either, doesn't quite fit with vouvoiement !)
There's nuttin' I hates more than kissing one of dem etcs. And then when dey dump ya, and give the reasons, it finishes with etc.
Ok Andrew. between brother-in-laws & good mates probably fair enough. It's the etc. which boggles my mind! That seems to open up a whole can of worms or predilections. Whatever: different strokes for different blokes & all that. I'm broad minded ;-)
bise...? as in faire la bise ;-)
eh! steady on there, Celeste, we faire la bise here (between brother-in-laws, good mates etc.) :-O
Spat? not me celeste. I think the wine had got to you & Peter but he seems OK now!! "Southern REAL men" bis anything? Remind them to "never kiss a gift horse in the mouth" (unless of course muffin the Mule is not illegal in the south) ;-)
tough job but I suppose someone has to do it !
I can recall many 'tense' situations with neighbours in France tho' most altercations have been resolved with the aid of a decent bottle or two of red wine. However, one problem requred legal assistance. Our neighbours who happened to be english discovered they had a right of way through our back garden and so each day they would pass directly behind the house and with our bedrooms & bathroom etc in easy view. This was annoying as the original track was still visible about 30 metres from the back of the property. I tried to persuade them that their new found track was not very conducive to our privacy, the man of the house announced he was a member of Lincolns Inn and he could do as he wished ! My dander was up so, without resorting to a slanging match I visited my then notaire who explained that, according to my deeds the neighbours had an old right of way across our land to access a plot next to us but which was sold by their previous proprietor years before. Technically and legally the right of way was thereby annulled because they couldn't have access to something which no longer belonged to them.
With the help of the notaire we contacted the present owner, an ageing widow who was quite happy to sell the plot of land to me, albiet as a building plot. We purchased the land without any word to the learned man of The Inns and announced the good news the day of thee signature of the Acte Authentique. He was devastated and consequently sold his property just after.
Moral of the story - know your rights and act within the law, don't lose your rag (easier said than done) and try to be polite and not allow yourself to be dragged down to their level.
Now, back to the lovely lady...
Good skills Peter! Glad to see there is still life in the old dog. Keep up the good work.Vive l'Entente cordiale. I hope you had a good evening (night)
yes, sorry Vic you are quite right - I had to abandon the computer when it became obvious that all attempts to multitask failed miserably at the heavy petting stage.........
Good man, but:- "perhaps I was being a little jumpy". Sure you're not kidding us about your foot? :-) Get well soon.
Painful, the cast is heavy and I'm not very mobile. I'll get used to it I suppose! If you're all having fun in here then I'll leave you to it, perhaps I was being a little jumpy/ratty/irritable etc :)
James
Now I really am getting weird. I meant Terry of course. I blame celeste;-) Can we stop this, my brain is hurting!!
Peter, if you are " enjoying a lovely evening with a beautiful french lady" wtf are you doing reading my" drivel" That is seriously weird! Don't let the side down, pay attention to her, not me :-)
nah mate, had a good day at work and i'm enjoying a lovely evening with a beautiful french lady...with my luck i'll probably win euromillions !
I paraphrased from your statement on wednesday namely " I forgot to say that the longer you live here the more you will realise that the French compared to us Brits are weird. They have a completely different mentality to us. Give up trying to understand them, go with the flow & unless you are seriously pissed off don't even bother trying to reason with them"
With respect what you have written is drivel, in my humble opinion of course. True the mentality is different to that of the british (There I go generalising now !) . Reasoning with the french is usually quite easy with a bit of flexibility and patience...
haven't lost my sense of humour either and sorry if I misread your 'tongue in cheek' comments
marriage...! ;-)
Second that on both counts Terry, plus my kids are French too and not wierd either ;-)
James,I think celeste was joking, at least I hope she was. I was under the impression that Tony & I were joshing. There is certainly no anger here. Peter seems to have angrily taken umbrage at my use of the word "weird" & has chosen to voice his opinion. Fair play to him as long I don't get tarred with the same brush. I was actually trying to help the OP if you read my posts.
How's yer foot :-)
Had a bad day Peter? It was meant to be a tongue in cheek statement qualified later post when I said" All my friends here are French & they think I'm really weird" Lost your sense of humour ffs? As a matter of interest what is the point of you saying "NOT all of 'US' are brits ffs". Exactly where did I say that?
"There is enough anger in this post without any more !!!LOL"
And I hadn't yet got around to suggesting a visit to said neighbour with a baseball bat to ask if he would play ball ;-)
Dunno about your neck of the woods celeste but up north us real men don't bis one another :-O
Thanks Celeste, well said.