Senior at 50

or the fact that as parents you're still financially responsable for your kids once they're majeur and they can force you to pay for their studies, no matter how long they last :-O

No, Richard, they live in another world, completely detached from we mere mortals!

Oh dear, another disfunctional level of 'the administration'? But at least they seem to have recognised a problem exists...

France: Parents also protected by law
It’s difficult to imagine such an Elderly Rights Law being a legislative priority in many Western cultures. France did, however, pass a similar decree in 2004 (Article 207 of the Civil Code) requiring its citizens to keep in touch with their geriatric parents. It was only enacted following two disturbing events, though: One was the publication of statistics revealing France had the highest rate of pensioner suicides in Europe, and the other was the aftermath of a heat wave that killed 15,000 people — most of them elderly, and many of whom had been dead for weeks before they were found.

could well be the case. OH (French) and I (I've lost touch a bit!) were amazed at the average age of check-out staff in the UK last summer when we visited (our visits are rare!) Here remark was "shouldn't they all have retired ages ago...?!

Our senators are far too busy stuffing their faces at the senate buffet (the best place to eat in France, I've been told), to pay any attention to what their peers are up to!

This apparent 'age-ism' seems really bizarre to me. I'd have imagined that given that over 75% of our senators are over 60 we'd have had more support from 'up-top'?

"with the UK where you're middle aged, here you're a senior and unemployable" seem to me a bit like a 'self-fulfilling prophecy'!

Just another of those 'cultural differences' which I suspect will unfortunatly take our beloved France further into the European 'north/south divide' :-(

No you heard right and yes you're a senior (in the work place) at 50. I've taken on two poeple in their 50s and I the state helps me pay them because there's such a problem getting work once you're over 50. Another big difference with the UK where you're middle aged, here you're a senior and unemployable, those who are employed are all looking for early retirement too! :-O

Twice spliced as a senior too... Young senior at 38! Adding the years on that makes me an upper middle senior now, quite soon to be old.

OMG so far I have been newly married twice after that age. Recently 70. What a load of rubbish. Callow youth seems to be more engaged in their "devices" than real life.

A friend who works for Pôle Emploi tells me that unofficially job seekers are "young seniors" at 38, so, yes, being a senior at 50 figures….