We went to a Vide Grenier today, thought I had accidently travelled to a ‘Car Boot’ in the UK. Never heard so much English for donkeys years, sellers and buyers.
It was entertaining and we found some good stuff, reasonably priced.
It was at Josselin 56.
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Went on a Marche Gourmande last night, 840 walkers and we were the only English speakers.
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838 parlez-vous anglais questions to your hapless companions on an evening outing, Tim? I’m amazed you had any breath left for the gourmandising and/or marching, but I’ll take your word for it 
We went to our commune meal and we were the only english speakers.
We’ve done several this summer with another Anglais couple, the natives take it very seriously but are always pleased to see some foreigners.
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All the French English- speakers we’ve encountered in our Normandy town are (on my estimate) under 50, and in customer-facing enterprises. None of the staff in the Mairie seem to speak English - or, if they do, none of them have used it on me.
A handful of younger locals in the neighbourhood speak a little English, and we tend to code-switch in Franglais when exchanging small talk. A sizeable majority here are retired people, and there’s a sprinkling of non-French residents, where the same principle seems to apply, older English folk have little or no French beyond Bonjour and Merci beaucoup. For some reason, anglophones who speak fair French prefer to talk to compatriots in French, at least I do in public, and this seems to find favour with the locals, from what I’ve observed.
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I understand now, Tim. At first it seemed a bit improbable that you struck up conversation with so many…
We’re happy to talk to anyone as we fly past the old codgers with their walking poles on our way to be first at each eating station, I do wish they’d speak English though as their peasant accents are almost as thick as their wastelines and we have no idea what they’re saying most of the time. Have to commend the food and the organisation though, can’t be easy directing 000’s of yokels through woods and fields especially when most of them have to look at their hands to confirm which way is ‘left’ and which is ‘right’.
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Good to see you having a pop at the local yokels Tim.
Dear me, charming immigrants!
Simply unpleasant.
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Pretty safe bet, that you aren’t as free with your opinions when you’re actually in the company of the 000s you refer to Tim 
Tim is rarely free with his opinions online either. Being polite he likes to be the Devil’s Advocate, rarely giving his own feelings or beliefs. I won’t give the less polite definition.
My suspicion is that Timothy Cole was writing with his tongue firmly in his cheek. Calm down everyone, and especially please stop playing this linguistic one-upmanship game. It’s very tiring.
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I was just having a bit fun which is often in short supply on here.
PLEASE NOTE -
‘No old people of Charente Maritime ethnicity were harmed during the creation of this post’
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I found it very funny, Tim. 
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No accountin’ for taste Peter 
It takes a plouc to know a plouc, Bill. As one who associates with a goose you should know that … and perhaps there’s a hidden yokel in the make-up of many of us who have made our homes in the French countryside.
Age is catching up on me quickly here, and there’s a lot to laugh about, in a graveyard kind of way… I sometimes catch myself checking a chair for a damp patch when I get up from it… only joking!? 
Lokel yokels are omnipresent, are proud to be such, and have lots to be proud about, even those that can’t read well, use old-fashioned argot, and could break a man’s jaw with either fist without knowing whether they swung the right 
or left 
fist… 
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Can’t please everyone Bill. I’m just the same in real life as I am on here even with Frenchies, some do get my sense of humour, some don’t but it doesn’t bother me, I just carry on regardless.
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