An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

This is one of the biggest culture clashes that I come across regularly, the French are pure and simply the biggest hypochondriacs in the world!

We have tummy bugs, sniffles and colds the French have gastroenteritis, the flu & the gastro flu!

Recently my daughter and I had a cough. Out came the cough medicine and Vicks and wrapping up as to sweat the virus out. My partner, as soon as the first cough came out of our mouths ordered us to go to the doctors. It does my head in! There's no need to go to the doctors for a cough! Obviously if it persists and starts to go into the chest I might start thinking about ringing for an appointment. I avoid taking paracetomal or giving it to my daughter unless absolutely necessary. A fever is the body's temperature rising because it's producing white blood cells to fight the disease, and especially a child needs to build up their own immunity. 

Now here's why the French run to the doctors ... In the uk you can get all different types of medicines over the counter in chemists, on the shelves in supermarkets or your corner shop and all very cheaply. In France medicines are sold only in chemists and can be quite pricey, and let's face it with the French health care system why bother paying for them when your doctor will prescribe an A4 page of sirops, vitamin C powders, paracetomal, nasal pumps and you take your little green health card "Carte Vitale" (literally the Vital Card!) to the chemist and it's all free! Whether you are unemployed, a skint student or the CEO of Fauchon! 

And of course let's not forget the arret maladie! The French sick note.

Even for the common cold the doctor will put you on the sick for a week, and 4 of those 7 days are fully paid. And you can do this as often as you like! It's very rare for the health service to ask any questions. I know people who at least once a month put themselves on a nice little arret maladie! Add that to the national 5 weeks holiday a year and you're laughing!

Vivre la France and their formidable socialism!

French African Vs African American

Worth a watch. Host Ryan Hall questions people on the streets of Paris about what it's like to be black in France compared to America. The honesty of the white people towards the end is refreshing.

Sarkozy's Back

Sarkozy officially announced his political return this week. In my opinion this is not good. And I will predict the future for France now. Holland's party are making a huge mess of things, the French National Front are gaining popularity, even winning the recent European elections. In the 2016 elections the socialist party won't get through because of the mess Holland's lot have made, so there will be a head to head between the National Front and Sarkozy and the French will panic at the last minute not wanting to completely commit to an extreme right wing president and Sarkozy will be president again.

Maybe it's time to start packing and getting the hell out of here before the poop hits the fan!

Can I just add, we don't seem to learn anything by hsitory's mistakes especially when it comes to electing little men that have huge penis complexes and turn into psychopathic meglomaniacs! Don't believe me, here's my proof .....

Bad Guys

Mussolini, 5 ft 6

Hitler, 5 ft 8 

Napoleon, 5 ft 6

Kim Yong III, 5 ft 2

Vladmir Putin, 5 ft 7

Josef Stalin, 5 ft 7

General Franco, 5 ft 3

Good Guys

Charles de Gaulle, 6 ft 5

Barack Obama, 6 ft 1

JFK, 6 ft

Abraham Lincoln, 6 ft 2

Stephen Harper, 6 ft 2

So next election please don't vote for the little guy, odds are he's a complete nutter!

Why Wealth Disgusts Me

When I look at the world today I can see the progress we've made, but what stands out the most is how little we've changed socially. The rich are still too rich and the poor still too poor.

We all take for granted this fantastic household item

If you've ever had your water cut off, even just for a couple of hours, you quickly realise how much we use water. You need it for drinking, cooking, your washing, to wash yourself, brush your teeth, the toilet, cleaning ... the list is endless.

Not following me, here's my point...

In Niger alone 11,000 wells are needed for the entire population to have access to clean water. The average cost of these wells ranges from $500 for a simple well able to provide 250 people with clean water to $125.000 for 6000 people.

The financial status of Niger means that the government can only fund 10% of these wells, meaning only 1100 wells can be installed.

Women and girls walk between 4-6 miles a day in search of water, and when they find it, it is more often than not contaminated. The task is so labourous that most girls don't go to school in order to help their mothers fetch the water, leaving millions of women and girls illiterate and left in the vicious cycle of extreme poverty.

When wells are installed, girls go to school ensuring that the next generation has a chance to get out of extreme poverty. Child mortality drops by 65%. Water borne diseases are eliminated by 99.9%.

Now let's look at Kim Kardashian's engagement ring

This baby was bought for a whopping $5 million.

With that $5 million plus the cost of her wedding ring and the wedding itself, Kim Kardashian could have solved Niger's water problem. Changing millions of peoples lives. Her family's wealth combined could solve most of Africa's water problem. Now imagine if every millionaire in the world stopped buying those diamond necklaces & stocking half a million $ cars in their garages to never be driven. Holding galas that cost thousands not including the expense put into the dresses, jewelery and accesories that the Ladies Who Lunch put into their outfits for these events that in the end only raise a few hundred thousand dollars. Imagine within a day how much money could be raised and how quickly world poverty could be irradicated.

It saddens me that in 2014 that this still exists

When we have people who can live like this

Beverly Hills Mansion

It's Wine Picking Season!

It's that time of year when the France's enormous wine industry turns to the public to come and help with the Vendanges. Traditionally this is in exchange for bed & board but some wine yards offer a small salary based on how many kilos of grapes you pick. Evey year I say I'll do it, and every year life gets in the way! But I do my bit by buying the wine!

One of the many reasons I don't fancy moving back to the UK is the price of wine! One of my favourite wines in France is Champlure Rosé and Lichette White. 

Averaging at between 1.40€ - 2€ depending on the supermarket. To my surprise I stumbled across this lovely no nonesense wine in Tesco on my last visit home for the whopping price of £6.99 a bottle! What is that about??

There are hundreds of "Vin de Tables" (Table Wines) for under 3€ in France, the only wine you find for that sort of price in the UK is Lambrusco! 

The French of course can be very snobby about their wine, and even though these table wines are perfectly lovely they are not what one would bring to a party! The unwritten etiquette is from 4€ upwards or at least at decent Cotes de Provence Rosé at around 2.90€ will be acceptable.

Why aren't the French always mortal at these prices I hear you cry? Well, they also have a drinking etiquette. Drunkeness is acceptable at very special occasions but otherwise it is very much looked down upon to be anything other than nicely "pompette" (tipsy). Also there are no small, medium or large glass options, wine is served in 15cl glasses, known as "ballon" (balloon of wine) compared to the buckets that you can find in most British pubs and bars!

French Wine Size

British Wine Size

Much like their eating etiquette, everything in moderation! 

70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Soissons

The weekend of the 30th August was the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Soissons from the Germans in the Second World War. The town was transported back in time for the occasion. The park in the town centre made way for an exposition of tanks, trucks, arms complete with a dinner & dancing tent.

On the Sunday morning there was a parade all through the town. The French are very good at this sort of thing. It was all so authentic and as hundreds of people were dressed in 1940s clothing, the wine was flowing and Edith Piaf was booming on the loud speakers, you could almost feel the same euphoria they must have felt in 1944.

An example of the attention to detail that I thought was excellent was the people prentending to be the Americans were throwing chewing gum, sweets and candy cigarettes from the trucks, just as they did way back when.

The weather was glorious so after the parade we decided to have a pcinic in the park, in the middle of all the tanks and soldiers.

Tiana thought it was all marvelous and even Bad decided to get up and have a go!

La Rentrée!

This is a part of French culture I think is absolutely briliant. In the UK we have Back to School, but that's all it is, the kids going back to school. We buy new uniforms and shoes and school bags but the French equivalent is a national news worthy event. It's back to reality for everyone. We all know France comes to a complete halt during August. A lot of businesses still close for the whole month. Boulangeries, Tabacs, boutiques all close for at least two weeks, they don't get someone in to run the place whilst they're on holiday, no they shut and bugger anyone who fancies a baguette. In fact this got to be such a problem that in 2012 a "rappel à l'ordre" (call to order) was issued by the governement reminding the boulangers that the law states that at least one boulangerie remain open at a time during July & August within a 8km radius! Meaning that in Paris alone 600 boulangeries were forced to stay open! And can you believe this law was issued for the first time in 1790! The French pack up their cars, sit for hours on gridlocked autoroutes and head off to one of the 11000 camp sites in France!

And these camp sites are amazing. In fact I'm thinking of putting a deposit down on this little baby in Brittany for next summer

La Grande Métairie

Anyway, the French come back and it's back to work, back to school, back to reality!

Also in France, the schools don't provide even the minimum of school supplies such as exercise books nor paper! The school issues a list during the summer holidays and so the "fournitures scolaires" fill up all the big supermarkets and the battle of the cheapest starts. Adverts every two minutes, catalogues in the letter box, billboards everywhere!

This is obviously a very costly time, but being the ever socialist country, the benefits agency issues an average of 395€ to most families for each child to cover the costs. Phew!

This year was my daughter's first rentrée. Yes Tiana is at school! She absolutely loves it. For the moment she's an only child so obviously being with 24 other kids all day is much more fun than being at home with Mum! She's up every morning at 7am demanding to go and see Madame! Try explaining to a 3 year old that the school doesn't open until 8.20am is my hardest task at the moment.

Her first day, we didn't even get a chance to take a decent photo. She walked in the classroom like she owned the place and said to us "ok you go now!" I much prefer that than the other kids who were screaming and clinging onto their parents legs! Tiana is also the last out when I pick her up, on most days her teacher has to call her at least three times before she'll agree to leave! Do I feel unloved? Hell no! Freedom! She's happy and I get to make the most of her when she's here, instead of dealing with boredom and the attention span of a knat! In fact she's settled in so well that as from next month she'll be staying at school for her lunch and going to after school club til 5pm!

This year is also mine and my partner's first back to school for me in 10 years and him in 20! My degree starts on the 4th of October and his Electrician Apprenticeship started today. It also means that he'll be away from Monday to Friday every week for a year, but that means that weekends will now be meaningful family time, rather than all of us growling at each other because we see each other all day every day!! Exciting times and a very Bonne Rentrée à Tout le Monde!