Uncle Spielberg's France V England Observations

[Lyndhurst 14]

If anyone seriously thinks the UK is the 'best country' to live in the world, then they are either blind, or just stupid.

Totally agree mate. I shipped out to New York 6 months ago and have no intention of returning in the near future. I miss friends, family and the footie - but that's it, least of all that truely depressing 7.11 from Hove to Victoria- all those happy smiling faces ! Don't mind going back to the UK now as I know it's only for a few weeks. American women love the British accent and Baskin Robbins has 51 flavours (or is it flavors?) - no contest.

 

[Icy Gull]

Glorious Goodwood, nuff said!

Nowhere near as glorious as Chantilly though

 

[Icy Gull]

... and they don't believe that "stuff" must carry a heavily advertised brand name, or that shops, coffee bars and eating houses should be branches of multinational chains to be any good. Exactly the opposite, in fact.

Good point but that probably is due to the fact that all town centres have not been knocked down/refurbished and cloned. Most of the big stores and designer stuff is located in the rather tacky outskirts with the centres maintaining their old charm.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Wednesday

Yup, Sussex Stakes Day

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

My observations on 3 famous places on my visit

1. Le Mont St Michel - A stunning monastery on an island, one of the most impressive pieces of architecture I have ever seen, a mini world on the island with lots of streets and shops and restaurants until you climb up to the religious part, stunning 9.3

2. Euro Disney - Paris - this visit was for the partner and teenagers, forgetting the nightmare car drive to and back it was a great day out, it costs £ 50 for the day so it bloody well should be but it was hugely impressive, slick, professional and Disney has class seeping out of every pore, everything was done A1 standard, it is a vast complex with everything you could possibly want there, Small World was superb and the Stunt Show was a priviledge as the guy's doing it were hollywood stunt pro's , absolutely superb, Euro Disney is excellent if you like that sort of thing, I would not choose to go again particularly but could understand why people would 9.1

3. Omaha Beach / American Cemetary - I thought I would balanced the frivolity above by taking the teenagers to these sites as they have very patchy knowledge of this part of history, Omaha Beach was were the Americans landed in 1944 to help liberate Europe and was the setting for the beach landings in Saving Private Ryan ( althought it was actually filmed in Ireland ), a huge statue and tribute on the beach and a van playing 40's American Music played on the beach, the cemetary had 10000 gravestines lined up meticulously line after line as far as the eye could see, nothing needed to be said, I hope they got an insight into what happened now

 

[Wozza]

My parents are in Normandy, now, looking for a property. They sold one that they loved in the Centre region as it was too far from any airport and 6 hours drive from Dieppe. With Dad coming on 80 they want to be more accessible to the family but would only consider buying over there at the moment as it is such a fantastic place to live. Even going shopping one day last year and getting stuck when 30cm of snow fell in a few hours (they had to be put back on the road twice!) didn't put them off. My cousin has lived in the same region for around 12 years now and will not be coming back in the goeseeable future.

I have visited on many ocassion and lived the local way of life rather than the toursist way. The locals don't give a damn about earning less money and seem to get by very nicely thank you. Their fruit trees are superb, home grown and shop bought vegetables, excellent and cheese manifique! The boulangeries are to die for with bread you can only buy in France but. on the bad side, their bacon is crap! They cut it far too thinly.

Sadly I will never live there as the other half is not keen on being unable to speak the lingo and not enthusiastic to learn it or to live there. Having lived in the same village all of her life doesn't give her the same desire to travel although even she says she could take or leave living in the village now and I wouldn't have believed that as little as 2 years ago.

Go to France, try it out for a few weeks and then see what you think.

Oh for those 2 hour lunch breaks!!

Not sure why that was in reply to my post, but thanks for the life story.

 

[Trufflehound]

You can always spot Frenchmen on holiday because they're the ones wearing socks with their sandals.





Sophistication? A certain 'je ne sais quoi'?



Hmmm...

There sure know how to live down there.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Englishmen have hankieson their heads to cover the red balding pate and a beer gut hanging over their shorts and deathly white legs and torso.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

At least thats what I looked like on the beach.

 

[The Large One]

And just how French is EuroDisney?

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

I did not say it was French I said 3 Famous places Alan , now PIPE DOWN.

 

[Dandyman]

I will offer just a two-word rebuttal to your critique of the French way of life, and being a film buff I think you'll know where I'm coming from..........



............"La Haine"
Haine, La (1995)

Great film but as it was not made by an American, Gareth won't have heard of it.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Great film but as it was not made by an American, Gareth won't have heard of it.

Poor 1.2

 

[Dandyman]

Poor 1.2

I'd love to have your review of "The Sorrow and the Pity".

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

That looks a good film, will have to check it out.

 

[User removed 4]

sorry to throw a spanner in the works, but what the f*** has the Euro got to do with any of that? its the French livestlye thats different and responsible for most points you raise.

except, if you went through Kent, Sussex, West country, Cotswold (or anywhere really) villages you would probably say the same, picture post card greens with a few people sipping cider and taking in the sunset. Paris and the mjor cities have just as many slums and problem areas as we do. Its just in the counrty they are more spread out then us, have more space and dont feel the need to make every provincial town into a miniture city. as for house prices, as i understand it they dont have the culture of home ownership, they would rather rent than buy so the prices stay low. If everything is so great how come they just voted leader who wants to make them more like us (economically at least).

now the behaviour here is generally far worse than anywhere on the continent, and thats somthing we certainly do can learn from the continentals. but we first need to indentify and address the causes, which has nothing to do with the currency in use.

good post!

 

[drew]

Don't quite understand this. You sing the praises of French way of life and of the three places of interest you pick out, two are only there because of USA. EuroDisney - Class. Not sure I would hear those two words in the same sentence. Disney is a global organisation that is geared up to extract as much money from you pocket as they can. They are not nice and polite because that comes naturally to them, they do it because you are more likely to part with your money.

Another poster commented about the fact in rural France they don't worry about how much they earn. Surely, that's your hang up then. If you want to be like them then stop worrying about how much you earn relative to others. Stop keeping up with the Jones'.

I know of people that have moved to rural France and enjoy it and equally know of people that have moved to rural parts of England and love it, eg the West Country, the Dales etc.

 

[Amsterdam Albion]

I moved to Amsterdam 10 years ago best thing I ever did. I know Amsterdam isn't in France, just a comment on how I have found my quality of life better than in England. Plus there is more to Amsterdam than red light and coffee shops - not that the hordes of stag parties know or care.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Have none of you realised that you're praising france and the FRENCH?! What's going on?! SHAME on you!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I moved to Amsterdam 10 years ago best thing I ever did. I know Amsterdam isn't in France, just a comment on how I have found my quality of life better than in England. Plus there is more to Amsterdam than red light and coffee shops - not that the hordes of stag parties know or care.

The Jordan district is well nice.