The route I take to Lidl from home goes through a 30kph section with raised humps and a chicane so you can’t go fast anyway without ending up in someone’s garden. However there is a passage pieton halfway along and a very tall rounded conifer at the beginning of the crossing onthe right hand side which I found to my horror obscures any pedestrian waiting to cross from a car coming along that side, luckily I have good brakes and was adhering to the speed limit or else I would have run down an old man and his dog that suddenly emerged from behind the tree without even looking to see if they could cross.A lot of the time it is also the fault of the pedestrian who seems to think he can just step out without even looking and yes, Iknow they have the right to cross but not without caution first and many drivers still don’t know or care either.
might be an idea to mention this to the local Mairie… possibly you are not alone in finding it a hazard, but no-one has bothered to “report on it”… perhaps best to do so before an accident happens I reckon…
Yes I have considered doing that but don’t want to appear as if I am a trouble maker having only arrived in this commune six months ago but I have got to know the technical services lady so might call in there when I go for a walk past the mairie next time.
far from “troublemaker”… you’ve a good reason to gently explain… road safety is so important.
Don’t know if anyone is aware of the answer to part of the OP of this thread, or if it has been given already, but, I have just answered someone on another forum whose signature line reads
who cleans up after a guide dog?
The answer I gave was this:
The answer is that it is the blind owner who does, but sometimes indirectly. The dogs are trained not to go except at specific times and in specific places but as with all of us, they can get caught short sometimes. The dogs are trained to give an indication through the harness which the owner, also trained, can detect. Then the dog does not move after doing his business and the owner, with a suitable bag which we all (should) carry in public, knows exactly where to recover the offending objects.
But there is even more backup than that. If all else fails the dogs are trained to go to the nearest drain to do it, this they can easily find because a major part of their training is kerb to kerb. To all guide dogs kerbs are their main reference points. This mainly applies to dogs who are destined to live in cities, but all of them have the basics.
No credit due to me, I don’t train guide dogs, but have just finished a great book called Kika And Me by Amit Patel.
Pretty good eh? If only all dog owners could do that. 
Harrumph ! How can I live with myself now Vero ? Deeply hurt, despite the apologies. I’m coming out now… I’ve driven one Audi or another for over 30 years (obv not the same one, but they do last forever, great cars, even the one we scrapped was susequently saved. I would never buy anything else, despite the uncalled for criticism here, just jealousy!) My Audis have always stopped successfully at zebra crossings and the indicators even work well at traffic islands.
Btw, I reckon it’s a very old Golf, or one of these, as David astutely suggests…
I suspect it will be a Passat. Practical, solid and long-lived.
Hahaha you are clearly the nontwat driver exception who proves the rule 
your Audi (unlike most others) has indicator lights, it isn’t you in your baseball cap revving your engine next to me at the lights, you aren’t the Audi driver who speeds and/drives glued to my back bumper* on my way to/from work, and overtakes on a blind bend**…
I’d love an Ape or a Trabant but have a Mercedes which lets me go ludicrously fast in comfort but only on German motorways where it is allowed. It is the dirtiest car in France, probably.
- I am only just not speeding.
**Oh goodness on my way back from work, late, last week there was a car upside down in the ditch on that blind bend and it was… an Audi.
[quote=“vero, post:90, topic:34504”]
revving your engine next to me at the lights
Haha!!
Like this…?
I started this chat and I thought it had died, good to see it has come back to life. Nothing has changed, I still see dog poo and have to wait for cars to pass before I use the zebra crossing. Now I just live with it.
I still love Tarbes and looking forward to the petit as that starts on the 23rd of January. It’s a free tennis tournament where Nadal, Murray etc have played in their youth - WINNERS RECORD - Les Petits As
Apologies that I go off piste, but wanted to share that with you all.
well, it is Christmas and if you can’t go off piste then what can you do?
What gets me is when dog owners let their dogs sit on benches, or even, as I recently saw in IKEA, in an armchair. I am aware that owners like to treat their dogs just like a human being, but what would they think if a human being sat naked in an armchair after having been to the toilet and not wiped their a***?
I didn’t know that French cars had indicators🤣
Most dogs aren’t naked, they just don’t take their coats off, that’s all. Though I have to admit that one of mine leaves bits of his all round the house.
Also they don’t need their arses wiping because, unlike humans, the tube that it all comes out of unfolds out then back in again. What is left on the outside is perfectly clean.
Humans might have the ascendancy, but whoever made us all certainly gave the dogs some real advantages. 
I do agree though that they shouldn’t sit on other peoples’ chairs uninvited. 
I was in Nice 15 years ago and was dressed as I thought respectable but was refused entry to a restaurant on the front because I was wearing shorts, I accepted this but as I turned to leave I noticed a lady dining and feeding her dog that was sat at the table with her, the dog had a napkin tucked in its collar which made it even more amusing. I turned back to the waiter who was acting like it was natural.
Plus ça change …,.
One is not, but one generally keep ones views to oneself.
(Pictures of the Queen)
She does cover the bench and it’s her own couch, so no problem.
How about the other outlet? Does that fold back in again?