villages of France

K. T.   Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:51 am GMT
"France is full of plane and rocket factories, I visited all the most famous nuclear plants, etc"

Said Homer, the spy.
nico   Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:04 am GMT
i am french originally from Lyon but not i am working in Paris since 15 years. What can i tell you about France, except Marseille, Lyon and Paris the rest of the country is mot of the time boring because the towns are dead and there is nothing to do between 12.00 to 15.00. 85% of the country has a weather which is like shit. the image of a sunny France is only the Provence (small area). The food is liel evrywhere else with pesticides, OMG... Most of the french eats pizzas and other shit like that. The wine is good if you pay the price, the the other wines are full of pesticides like everywhere else. We also have a government which is stupid. the french are like everyother people : they buy cars, they eat crap, their public services starts to be rubbish.
Our economy is a disaster, our salaries are crap (like in SPain).
and many french people do not like the parisians, they do not realize that most of the parisians are in Paris because of work but most of them come from different areas.


There is nothing typical in France because for 2 reasons : we have a lot of neighboors : germans, spanish, belgians, italians, Andorra, Monance, Swiss, Luxembourg...

And we are from different origins ; auvergnat, provençaux, bretons, normands, vendéens, savoyards, basques, catalans, bourguignons, corses, picards, flammands, alsaciens, lorrains, gascons.

Que puis je vous dire d'autre?

I am fed up with this country where most of the people think it is the best one wher ein fact it is a mess
guest guest   Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:22 am GMT
Nico I think you are basically right, but exagerate a little bit (the complaining attitude tipical of french people ;) )


' What can i tell you about France, except Marseille, Lyon and Paris the rest of the country is mot of the time boring because the towns are dead and there is nothing to do between 12.00 to 15.00.'

well, if you are a urban person that's true. however many people likes more the quietness of rural areas (which constiture most of the country). But it is true that comparing with Germany, Benelux or England France appears to be a much more rural country, the cities over the million people usually separated by hundreds of kilometers. In the previous countries you can find cities over a million people every 50 kilometers... or less (Brussels, Antwerpen, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Essen, kohln, dortmund, etc.)
But inversely in France, in many rural areas the villages are often more picturesque, and it is a good point for tourism industry, even if I agree with you that when you are a urban person it is very boring (Myself I would have difficulties to live outside of big cities)


" 85% of the country has a weather which is like shit."

You exagerate, it is true that Provence weather is much better than the rest of the country, but it is because Provence has one of the better enlightning levels of Euope, like Spain or southern Italy. Outside of it is is not a carastrophic as you say: the enlightning in France is in a good average for a European country, not so different from Italy's. The areas north of Seine have about enligtning levels of benelux or germany, but outside it is not that bad, especially on the Atlantic coasts.
http://olharfeliz.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/02/ensoleillement_europe_magreb.jpg



" the image of a sunny France is only the Provence (small area)."

I don't think most people have a sunny image of France. I tend to think it is the inverse; I noticed most foreigners tend to associate all of France with the cloudy weather of Paris or Normandy.
I think it is a good thing to have for all tastes: a lot of people can't stand the southern climate and prefer the cool wet ans windy air of britanny with its "crachin" than the dryness of Provence.


" The food is liel evrywhere else with pesticides, OMG..."

Well, OGM are theorically forbidden in French fields, which is not the case in most other European countries. But I'm not sure that using pesticides is necessarally better.



" Most of the french eats pizzas and other shit like that."

"malbouffe" (junkfood) exists, and it spread, mainly among young people and low class populations. But you also find a lot of people (and it is growing in urban areas) that are very attentive to the quality of food they eat.


" The wine is good if you pay the price, the the other wines are full of pesticides like everywhere else."

Of course there are good and less good wines. nodoby said the cheap wines were excellent... but admit that the choices are very wide, and that France is, with Italy the biggest wine-producing country.


" Our economy is a disaster"

There is an globalish economic crisis! every country is touched. To your opinion , what country has not a "disaster economy"?
Saying that our economy is a disaster is not very objective. There are of course lots of problems (especially now), but let's see how is the economy of the rest of the world... French people still have the chance to be born in a country and continent where the level of life is high (whatever you might think; saying to latin-Americans, Africans, middle easterners, eastern European countries, etc. that French economy is a disaster can be seen as the provocation of rich sad person)


" our salaries are crap (like in SPain). "

Spain is not a poor country. Just have to see how many people have came from Latin America, Romania or Morrocco to Spain in the last years. Of course we can always have more... more money, more cars, bigger houses, but.. what for? I'm sorry, but if you compare with other countries, in that way I am quite happy to live in France and not in England: I am now unemployed, I'm happy that I can continue to almost earn my former salary for a few months and continue to have the same life than before the crisis. I don't see in what country it could have been the case.
It is not perfect, and the system has big problems, but it still is a good one.




" and many french people do not like the parisians, they do not realize that most of the parisians are in Paris because of work but most of them come from different areas. "

I deeply agree. I'm always angry when I hear people living in province saying "parisians this.. or Parisians that.." that do not realize that "Parisians" ARE themselves for most of them coming from province


" And we are from different origins ; auvergnat, provençaux, bretons, normands, vendéens, savoyards, basques, catalans, bourguignons, corses, picards, flammands, alsaciens, lorrains, gascons. "

Yes, but we could had: Guadeloupéens, Martiniquais, Réunionais...
and of course also Italians, Spanish, Polish, Portugueses, Algerians, Tunisians, Senegalese, Gabonese, Vietnamese, etc.




" I am fed up with this country where most of the people think it is the best one wher ein fact it is a mess "

We could had that we can be fed up of this country where people have a lot of things but always complain and think they live in the worst place on earth.
cnablis   Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:28 am GMT
<< the towns are dead and there is nothing to do between 12.00 to 15.00.>>

Shouldn't most folks be working during this time, at least on weekdays?
garth pepacton   Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:47 am GMT
<<I am now unemployed, I'm happy that I can continue to almost earn my former salary for a few months and continue to have the same life than before the crisis. I don't see in what country it could have been the case.>>

How are the unemployment benefits in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, etc? Is France the most generous of all?
guest   Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:08 am GMT
" Shouldn't most folks be working during this time, at least on weekdays? "


No, they are not working, it is lunchtime! at least between 12.00 and 14.00. Between 14.00 and 15.00 it is sieste time. working times are between 9.00 and 12.00, and then between 15.00 and 18.00
nico   Wed Jun 24, 2009 12:36 pm GMT
guest guest,

As you said i am not completely wrong, and what you wrote is honnest. But i have to say that i am fed up with these french people who elected a president who is a real stupid man. If you compare with some other countries with south america, or Africa, the situation is of course different but it does not work. If you look of France today, our so called social security, public schools and some public services are giving up. But the people is still happy. I never said Spain was a poor country, i said the salaries are bad, like in Greece, Italy and France we are some of the worst. I do not have any car, i don't pay anything on TV to have some additoinal chanels. So as you can notice i am not a heavy consumer but i think everything is becoming very very expensive in this country. there is a world crisis since a long time, before our politicians discovered it.
In France it always remains the same, we have some politicians who have the good life and the more thant 50% of them vote for them.

Yes i am a urban man, but i have always been surprised to notice that in the countryyards it can be so borring. No offense.
Guest   Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:11 pm GMT
Spain and France have bad salaries because they are socialist countries and the Government has big influence on economic activity.
nico   Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:03 pm GMT
Dear Guest,

"Spain and France have bad salaries because they are socialist countries and the Government has big influence on economic activity. "


Your comment shows your lack of knowledge and it is much better to shut up if you do not know what you are talking about. The french president Sarkozy is a right politic close to Bush, Spain has a left leader but had Franco for many decades and JM Aznar as a right leader for a long time. Spain has a left leader since a few years.
nico   Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:05 pm GMT
dear guest, I have to say that salaries are also bad in Italy (as everybody knows Berlusconi is on the right), the same to Greece (right government).

why don't you play with kids of your age?
Guest   Wed Jun 24, 2009 5:35 pm GMT
Sarkozy is socialist too. He believes in Statism.
Guest   Wed Jun 24, 2009 5:56 pm GMT
All the European Governments are socialist . That's the reason why Europe is lagging behind USA in all fields. USA will overcome the financial crisis much sooner than Europe when the crypto-socalist Obama is ceased.
Guest 2   Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:56 pm GMT
«All the European Governments are socialist . That's the reason why Europe is lagging behind USA in all fields. USA will overcome the financial crisis much sooner than Europe when the crypto-socalist Obama is ceased.»

Open up your eyes. If USA is now trailing far behind it's because of Bush and his extrem capitalism policies. Obama has a lot to do to catch up all what Bush did or didn't do in eight long years, he made bad decisions during that time, starting with the war in Iraq.
Guest   Wed Jun 24, 2009 7:11 pm GMT
The fiancial crisis is caused by the sub-prime credits that the Democrats support because they gave opportunities to the poors. What are you talking about? War of Irak? LOL. USA is always involved in wars.
Guest   Wed Jun 24, 2009 7:26 pm GMT
GDP per capita (nominal) 2008

Capitalist countries:

USA 46800 $

Socialist countries:

Spain 35 000 $
France 39000 $