Anyone else a gilet jaune?

I think most of here care very much about what happens in France John but maybe because us Brits are a bit reserved it’s not in our nature to join the GJ’s protests. With regard to ‘integration’, everyone has their own idea of what that means.

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Most integrated seems to be the ‘people who have taken up residence in a foreign land,’ version of who has got the biggest willie

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What’s happening in France at this moment is very special and tres beau, as I have said since day 1 I have been on the picket lines and marches.Everybody is angry, but the strong majority are against the violence.Both sides have done wrong, but the flashballs remind me of NI in the 70 s & the plastic bullets, the french police should not have them. If they want to learn how to control a crowd, then ask a Britsh Bobby. People here have lost faith in the system and want a change and that’s why they are asking for the RIC. Don’t pass out at what is happening around you, go to the meeting as a bystander and see for yourselves its history in the making .The gilet jaunes wont give in because they know they will win.

integration is not about time, but how you adapt to their customs and way of life and try to fit in somewhere for me that is

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Nearly PMSL, Jane! Natch, you need to be of a certain age to get benefit from conversations like this, but what the heck! :rofl:

What often catches me out often is a sudden drop in temperature, as when leaving Lidl for the carpark with a trolley-load, opening the boot and ding-dong, nature’s call is sudden and imperative.

Fortunately there is a little corner out of sight to parkers (nosey or otherwise), and if there’s CCTV I’ve yet to have a tap on the shoulder. Maybe I’m on youTube! :grinning:

Good to know of such a service, Graham, thanks for the info in case of future need. :+1:

I have a friend (that’s you Conor) who some years ago, not having a Jilly Jones in his car and having run out of fuel on a motorway, set off down the hard shoulder with a yellow duster in his breast pocket as a token of his desire to conform with the legislation. He was quickly spotted and rounded up by surprisingly tolerant gendarmes. In the UK he might have featured on some ghastly reality TV show.

Unlike the House of Commons (and especially the Tory party) :joy:

Now this is trying to get into your car Croydon style… https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-47054348

Apologies Simon, you’re obviously far more sensitive than your online personal would suggest

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No problem and you’re right. I get the feeling John started this discussion to deliberately poke the bear. If I’m wrong then I’m really sorry. However… I don’t appreciate being told how I should behave for the sake of integration. I’m hardly likely to support or…

with anything that causes me distress. Call me sensitive if you like - that’s fine with me! :wink:

Late to the thread as usual but I’m lauging by now.

I better go tell our mayor he’s not integrated because he doesn’t support the GJs. He says their grievances are genuine, they were right to make their point and they did it well, but the movement has lost its way and carrying on the protests now is no longer justified, neither is the violence.

Which in fact is pretty much how I feel about it. I think that for a movement that set out to improve quality of life for everyone, it’s now inconveniencing a lot of people and racking up huge debts to be paid off by everybody to make good the damage, just because a minority have found they enjoy meeting up at roundabouts and having a jolly of a Saturday. It’s nice that some lonely souls have found

but it’s a shame they can’t find it other places too.

Just for the record, no our mayor is not a fat cat nor a Macronite, he’s a farmer’s son and he runs a small agricultural machinery shop.

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@anon43931645, try being a ‘bystander’ in the centre of Bordeaux on a Saturday afternoon. You’ll have to walk everywhere because the trams and buses shut at midday, wear a gas mask and take a spare set of clothes in case things turn ugly and of course wear your GJ to prevent personal abuse or attack, but hey it’s ‘tres beau’ as you’ve pointed out.

Of course things have to change here but ffs this isn’t the 18th century, wanton violence is not the answer.

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That’s sexist.

When you get hauled in by the gendarmes and get a criminal record you will be really integrated.

The idea that a British bobby would be able to control a rioting mob any better than a French officer is a little disingenuous although the British crowd control measures seem more effective

Well, we will have only been here ten years in August, but we have already been told that we have been adopted by our commune.

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If you don’t mind me saying, what a load of bilge!
I well remember Orgreave and the British Bobbies beating their riot shields with their truncheons…

…and likely deported for disrespecting French law.

Damn, that’s some serious knife… GJ weren’t like that, thankfully. If one would try to get in my car like that I’d probably run him over and call it self defence.