A friend of mine went on holiday to Corsica and literally got shot and had to be helicoptered off to treatment in Marseilles. He lost partial use of his arm. Seems he was a twitcher (that was his excuse anyway) and objected to some locals shooting some local birds (single breasted) of the protected variety. Honest- I am not making this up! I don't have any such histoires on the subject of Luton but I did go there once.
Can he read?
Similar but I did have an enjoyable week in the Rhyl area despite not understanding the local lingos (taffy & scouse !)
Never been there mate. I'd say, a bit like Llandudno :)
Blimey, I wouldn't get that far into the summer mood :) Still rounding up leaf fall though.
A mild week ahead apparently Vic so no white xmas for us methinks, not even a hint of frost ! My mate in Bergerac cut his lawn on wednesday !
Oh, definitely, Shirley. Bad press, as they say. Mind you, we went to Corsica once on holiday, and while it was absolutely beautiful, the locals are horrendously unwelcoming and impolite.
*makes rude face at monitor*
BTW Ian Duncan-Smith is monitoring this website so please stop boasting about how warm it is!
Saw a camelia out today near Huelgoat 29; oooo ahh the sap is rising......
Nearly the shortest day & here at Earths End the bushes have started to bud again. 15 deg. & raining pretty much constantly for a week now. BZH. Today's the 1'st time for almost a week I've been able to walk Mme Mutt without getting soaked. We're all doomed I tell you ! Still; saves on the old heating bills until we are :-) Wind's just gone 'round to the north so your neighbours could be right Pete.
Oh yes there's plenty of "payer plus tard" round here too :) Still, whenever someone makes a prédiction, the local reply is "ô ils sont pas tous des druides, hein" which is a good one :)
All our hedge and fruit bushes are budding and the blooming safran is starting to flower !
Weird weather this year. I still have daisies growing and the Camelia in in bloom !
The climate is ridiculous and te neighbours are giving it the old "on va payer plus tard..." etc !
Oh yeah I know about the mega-busy bit, but it wouldn't actually be in the built-up area, there are some good areas back in the hills, a lot warmer than here (maybe too warm in the summer).
Not a drop of the white stuff mate : a few of the bigger resorts are at 50 or 60% open (with artificial stuff), above about 2300m, with free navettes to take people down to where the hotels etc are ; a lot of them are having to drag out the mountain bikes etc because there are all these people turning up today and tomorrow! However the Christmas week is more about having a family reunion and eating and drinking away than about dawn till dusk skiing, so they might get away with it. New Year week will be deadly though if there's no snow by then....
I went to Marseilles a few years back for an Expo and found the whole area mega busy. The volume of traffic was incredible and that ws in november ! Give me the good old 'sleepy' Limousin any day.
Any snow your way yet Ian ?
Well, Shirley, as far Marseille is concerned, I lived there a year and go there regularly (was there for a long weekend in October), and I can honestly say that it's a really vibrant place - of course there are areas you'd need to keep out of, just like anywhere in Europe really ; but both myself and my missus (who is French, from Lyon) adore Marseille and when we get too old to put up with the winters here in the Alps we'd like to move somewhere around there....
I'm intrigued on your reasons for returning to France, as it seems some of the articles I read lately on immigration state that UK is 'awash' with french nationals, particularly in the financial sector in London, and that the french government are becoming alarmed at a potential brain-drain losing their most promising young permanantly...perhaps what is intended by the majority of the french in UK is to retire to france eventually? They make up such a large proportion of working immigrants, and yet other working nationalities seem to be used for discussion far more. At the same time much is used of the statistics of us mainly retirees here in France, and Spain,that tend to spend all their pension into their community and not be a drain either, but in the tone of envy, heating allowance (not benefit) drain, and rats/sinking ship mentality, etc.
I love Morocco but Tunisia would be a bit TOO adventurous at the moment, for residing, for me! I was just wondering if older folks returning "home" were skewing the figures somewhat. Last time I took the ferry to Tanger (Jan 2013) there were markedly fewer French camping cars than usual --- if that is any indication.
I believe there is even a french 'Deputé' (MP) looking after the french emigrés to the uk ?
Maybe Westminster could provide an MP for the Brits living & working in France ?