We never had a revolution so have never got rid of the top layer of society that we all are beholding to

Well we did chop off a King’s head 140 years before the French did in a civil war mainly driven by the middle class against a soi-disant absolute monarch.

This is quite interesting as to why the French are so miserable despite all their advantages

This too

Well we did chop off a King’s head 140 years before the French did in a civil war mainly driven by the middle class against a soi-disant absolute monarch.

And then kicked out another one a few years later when he got a bit uppity.

Have they never heard of oral medicine!?!

Of course. But once you get your head round it, waiting the extra 15 minutes for your painkillers to start working just seems a bit slow.

also iirc france had an unusually low rate of intentional paracetemol overdose (ie for suicidal/parasuicidal purposes) because you either had to dissolve loads of sachets into litres and litres of water, or pop a dozen suppositories in. 😯

We had a lie in this morning, Madame doesn’t work on Friday and I don’t work. Offspring went off to an excellent state school. Glorious sunshine and 13°C so we cycled to the pool through relatively bike-tolerant traffic to a free swim session. When my coffee is finished I’ll wax some skis and we’ll catch the bus up to the resort, 1e for the 55km. Life is good down the drain.

There was a thread about an equally down-beat article on Britain being down the drain on STW yesterday, it seems most of you are doing very well in that drain too. I voted for Sarkozy but Hollande is being cornered into Schroeder-like centre-right policies that might just improve matters. He’s too busy shagging a bitchy journalist and mafia film star to do much harm anyhow.

France doesn’t have a lethal dose of paracetamol in one box either Julien – paracetamol

Offspring went off to an excellent state school.

My mum has spent time in a variety of French schools, and doesn’t rate the education system much!

Please note I’m not anti-France in any way, it’s a lovely place and I’d live and work there if my French was better.

Well we did chop off a King’s head 140 years before the French did in a civil war mainly driven by the middle class against a soi-disant absolute monarch.

its true but somehow we are all still driven by the victorian work ethic that frogs seem to have got rid of, there are no lords and masters. Its good I think. Why do you think the yanks hate them so much…

Edukator, yep life goes on despite politicians best efforts to mess it all up!!

Julian, an unpleasant idea (suicide) made even worse!!!! 😉

Funny that suicide should be raised

Despite their quality of life being so much better, the French suicide rate is about double that in the UK…

Edukator, is it still the case that you can’t buy paracetemol just anywhere nowadays? When I lived there, the only places you could get them (and indeed anything better than a cough sweet!) in our 3,500-populated 2-supermarketed mountain town were the 2 pharmacies.

also:

I voted for Sarkozy

I bet a few on here had you down as a proper bleeding heart lefty. 😆 (If I could be bothered to sort out a proxy/postal vote I would have gone for Hollande last time)

He’s too busy shagging a bitchy journalist and mafia film star to do much harm anyhow.

That’s fine, obviously, but what kind of world leader rides a scooter to see his mistress? France is doomed.

Perhaps paracetamol (and soap?*) are not chic enough?

The number of pharmacies, hairdressers, tabacs and (horse) butchers on most streets made me think that France was a nation of vain, chain-smoking hypochondriacs with odd eating habits!! 😉 Still they opened up my love of smelly cheeses.

* hide the wiff with lashings of roger et gallet!!

Despite their quality of life being so much better, the French suicide rate is about double that in the UK…

I am assuming rather than just looking in wikipedia, you have also factored in:
-proportion of rural/isolated communities.
-the scope and strength of both counties mental health legslation.
-understanding/education about mental heath issues ie likelhood to seek help.
-cultural values/norms which inform that sort of maladaptive behaviour. Ie do you drink yourself to death, become a hermit or get it over with quickly?
-the way in which inquests take place and deaths are recorded: ie how many go down as ‘misadventure’ or ‘open verdict’.

Scandinavian countries are also known for their high rates of suicide. I suppose that casts a shadow over their quality of life too?
Meanwhile if you had a more reliable/comparable way of recording deaths in the third/developing world you would still find their suicide rate to be markedly lower.

Funny that suicide should be raised

Funny?

Despite their quality of life being so much better, the French suicide rate is about double that in the UK…

Have a quick google (saves me the hassle posting images for you) – you’ll find this for quite a few countries with a better quality of life than in the UK. I dunno, maybe they use other factors as well as suicide rates when they measure stuff like this. Whaddya think?

thm, presence/visibility of lots of tabacs is partly cos they all seem to smoke (the percentage of smoking teenagers is way higher than over here, even before UK’s public places smoking ban raising the age to 18, and only beaten by the spanish iirc) but also cos you can’t just pop out and buy fags in the petrol station, corner shop or the supermarket. (although you can have a licence to be a ‘tabac’ and sell other things too). Again in my little town there were 7 bars (and 2 ski shops amongst other things) but only 2 places to buy fags.

edit:

roger er gallet

Don’t forget a lemon shirt with a salmon cravate inside the collar, papi. 😉

Julian, I almost substituted bars for tabac in my post!!

The joys of the local shops (even in the middle of Paris), not having lunch at my desk and my philosophical morning chats (with my weak French) with the paper seller every morning are what I miss most about France! Tescos or even Waitrose versus the patsisserie, boulangerie, fromagerie. It’s not a fair contest!!!

You can only get paracetamol from a pharmacien, the on-line sale of drugs law has also been blocked despite EU directives.

IME deaths recorded as suicide here aren’t really what I’d call suicide. One guy I knew killed himself in an advanced state of AIDS and another had cancer. Luis Ocaña was recorded as a suicide but only had days/weeks to live when he shot himself as he was suffering from terminal liver cancer related to the hepatitis C he picked up from a blood transfusion.

Joyful stuff this, it really is a splendid day outside.

The joys of the local shops (even in the middle of Paris)

London’s got plenty of local shops. One of the things I like about it 🙂

But I take your point. The fact that you need to buy fresh bread every day could be a blessing or curse I think.

I suppose that casts a shadow over their quality of life too?

So, quality of life isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things, great – glad we’re all agreed that its use as a determinator of how good somewhere is to live is limited

Which sort of weakens its previous use by commentators in this discussion as a justification of why France is a great place to live really, doesn’t it 😐

I haven’t been into my local bar tabac since they did away with the vignette.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpAJvQrA6qA[/video]

So, quality of life isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things, great

Yeah who cares about quality of life when you are high up in the global competitiveness index? 🙄

Perhaps it means that suicide rates aren’t actually all that important (or easy to quantify) in the grand scheme of things.

So, quality of life isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things

That’s not what he said. Have another read.

Then come back with another straw man.

As a French expat living in the UK, I find France very expensive when we go and visit family. 10 years ago it was the other way round.
But I do miss the way of life. Would go back tomorrow if I could.

Merde alors, tout comme nous amusions. suffisamment svp!! les poissons ne mordent pas aujourd’hui. aller troller ailleurs svp.

D’acc. à+

To echo some comments above France is a great place to live, work in a normal job or to be retired. It is not a good place to start or run a business or a place to earn a lot of money. As for the revolution stripping out the elite that’s quite incorrect, there is a huge and deeply established elite in France which is much worse than in the UK in my view. In France where you went to University still matters in your 50’s, in the UK opportunity is far more egalitarian.

@teamhurtmore we’ll have to compare notes before my next trip to Borgogne, 1er Cru Puligny Montrachet for €20 euro and “everyday” 1er Cru St Aubin / Mersault / St Roman for €10, normal wines for €6 – we’ve been making a decent dent in the stocks so need a refresh.

@chris – I’m surprised I still find it cheaper here (Paris) vs London even at 1.20 vs 1.45 of a few years ago. Clearly it’s not as cheap as it was in the 80’s mind but thats a distant memory and reflects the decline of the UK.

@Edukator – very jealous sounds perfect

@molgrips if you want to buy bread full of preservatives you can do so in the super/hypermarket. The French seem to have got the balance right between big and small shops. It still drives me nuts that the small shops are closed at lunchtime though, just when most customers are on the their “2 hour lunchbreak”

Does seem to me that for years, various countries have been criticised for not being succesful at chasing the capitalist dream… But now it turns out, we’re all in the same crap regardless of whether or not everyone works 60 hour weeks for 10p an hour, or spends every friday drinking champagne and having affairs. So more fool us. All talk about affordability right now ends up at the same conclusion, nobody can afford anything, and anything we can afford today, we can’t afford for our kids.

Maybe the best option is to just bimble along in the wake of others, doing pretty much what you want and not caring whether you’re a success by other people’s metrics… Then every 50 or 100 years something happens to upset the order anyway, war or revolution or industrialisation or financial armageddon, and the scoreboards get reset.

it’s full of hairy ladies and cheese eating surrender monkeys

Indeed

cchris2lou – how come you can’t go back? Did you desert from the Foreign Legion? 😀

Wife is english and doesnt want to move .

Between France and here, there’s no contest surely?

When we were kids my dad used to spend every other week working in Lille, as a French firm were subcontracting for a project he was managing. He always came back telling us how the French had their priorities absolutely sorted in all the ways we got them wrong. After many visits over there over the years, I’m absolutely and completely in agreement with him!

You should hear my dad speak fluent french in a ridiculously broad Lancashire accent too. Its priceless!! 😆

Quite. I once asked for an Argentinian Malbec like any self respecting gent would do to accompany his seared venison and blackberries but the best they could do was a Bordeaux.

Burgundy with venison.

It would help if she could speak the language. She can understand most of it but cannot speak.
I’ll go back one day.

It took only two days after the Hollande affair broke for a French car hire company to run an advert suggesting the president should hire one of their cars with tinted windows instead of embarrassing himself on the back of a scooter .

Trails over here not so dusty at the moment but hey it won’t be long!

@binners – has your dad seen Bienvenie chez les chi’tis ? Thoroughly recommended especially given his experience with a good does of North/South divide humour. Email if you care for version with English subtitles