Bonjour Tout le Monde! Big welcome to any new subscribers and a great big welcome back to everyone else from all of us at The Good Life France – the best free on line magazine about France.
News roundup
Dominating the newspapers this week:
French fed up with their own rudeness!
Much gleefulness in the foreign press that the French are fed up with their own bad manners following a poll of transport users in Paris. I kind of think if you took a poll from people on public transport in London or New York or almost any major city in the world would the result be any different? Apparently people in Paris are fed up with those who talk loudly into their mobiles, put their feet up on the seats, jump the turnstiles, push in the queues, board the train before everyone has finished leaving it – same as everywhere methinks. An overwhelming majority of those polled said they wanted to have a more polite society – so watch this space!
Olympic round up
As you’d expect Olympic fever everywhere! Despite the French disappointment at losing out to London the French love sport and competition and President Hollande has been strongly hinting at a French bid for the 2024 games. The French seem to have taken Wiggo to heart and when the lovely Bradley Wiggins won a gold in the cycling for Britain the French seemed almost as pleased as if they’d won it themselves.
At the Good Life France we’ve been busy as usual and out and about. The St Omer (Nord Pas-de-Calais) nautical boat procession was pretty good fun; I’ve helped neighbour Monsieur J, 73, to get his love life back on track (!), wrote about my discovery of a great French icon – the Renault Estafette and started to plan my Paris trip.
If you’re thinking of a quick get away from the UK, a day trip, weekend or nice relaxing week – there’s plenty to do in France that’s real close and we discovered Hardelot – a fabulous little seaside resort just 30 minutes from Calais. The Tata family, Mercier family and Louis Blériot all had homes here and its easy to see why – its gorgeous.
