An Overcrowded Island? - The Great Myth of Urban Britain

[MrGongGong]

I spent a wonderful week at La Tremblade
Eclat de Moules ?
and the surf is good .........

IT WAS A JOKE

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What is disturbing is that many who campaign about "overcrowding" (like "migration watch") are a whisker away from some very nasty beliefs indeed.......

This is of course true, for people will never accept responsibility themselves, preferring to blame others. But that does not diminish the very real problems we leave to out children and grandchildren.

[teamsaint]

Did anyone ever fid out who funds Migration Watch?

Good stuff again MrGG

Bill Oddie. perhaps?
no, maybe not, on second thoughts.

[ahinton]

I spent a wonderful week at La Tremblade
Eclat de Moules ?
and the surf is good .........

IT WAS A JOKE

Ah, bon - mais it has been said more times than I can remember (or even forget) that Dordogne and Dorset ae somehow interchangeable (absurd though such a notion is - I mean, for starters, they speak English in parts of the Dordogne...)

[MrGongGong]

oops it should be (as i'm sure many will know)

Eclade de moules

[amateur51]

oops it should be (as i'm sure many will know)

Eclade de moules

Wow! Pass the pichet de Picpoul, Jean-Efflam

[ahinton]

Now where did I put that ferry timetable?...

And how wonderful just to be free of the risk of overhearing that tous-les-jours histoire de paysans that isn't - and, as to its ghastly siggy tune, Arthur Wood but I wouldn't!...

Pass the extra vieux Pineau des Charentes, anyone!...

[MrGongGong]

Indeed
but given the French penchant for "le pop de fromage"
I think you might be about to hear plenty of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z5seJuQfDM

[ahinton]

Indeed
but given the French penchant for "le pop de fromage"
I think you might be about to hear plenty of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z5seJuQfDM

Some might; I'd really rather avoid both the original and any reworking thereof, frankly, cleverly imaginative though some of the latter might be!

You don't hear BBC Brummerset accents in the sud-Charente either, which is nice...

[MrGongGong]

Some might; I'd really rather avoid both the original and any reworking thereof, frankly, cleverly imaginative though some of the latter might be!

You don't hear BBC Brummerset accents in the sud-Charente either, which is nice...

Indeed

But you do hear too many "Rupertshire" accents in (PARTS of ) the Dordogne
Marennes though is blessedly free of them (and cracking Fin de Claire oysters ....................)

[MrGongGong]

Did anyone ever find out who funds Migration Watch?

It's a coalition of UKIP, BNP, ILLUMINATI and Farmer Palmer (of Viz fame........)

[ahinton]

Indeed

But you do hear too many "Rupertshire" accents in (PARTS of ) the Dordogne

Maybe, but it's the Charente where I hope to end up, not the Dordogne, as I said (specifically north-east of Chalais - look it up!) - and you don't hear anything like so many of them there! The odd thing there is that there are not only very few foreigners in that area compared to almost anywhere in UK but also the range of foreigners is so much less than in UK. I've heard few voices there of people from most of France's other near neighbours - Belgians, Swiss, Italians, Spanish - and there are almost no Germans (I'm not, of course, suggesting that this is a good or welcome thing - just that it's unusual and quite a culture shock). Most of the small proportion of foreigners there are Brits, followed by Dutch, Irish and a handful of others; I've encountered almost no Asians or people from South and Central America and there is also a remarkable paucity even of people from west Africa. And, of course, none of the locals speak a word of English (or so they'd like you to think!)...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Indeed

But you do hear too many "Rupertshire" accents in (PARTS of ) the Dordogne
Marennes though is blessedly free of them (and cracking Fin de Claire oysters ....................)

MrGongGong, I believe you are a secret Rupert fanatic, and that you visit the Rupert Bear museum regularly, and that you hoard his many annuals, and have accumulated as many as Paul McCartney. In spite of your claimed musical leanings, your favourite piece is The Frog Song.

[MrGongGong]

MrGongGong, I believe you are a secret Rupert fanatic, and that you visit the Rupert Bear museum regularly, and that you hoard his many annuals, and have accumulated as many as Paul McCartney. In spite of your claimed musical leanings, your favourite piece is The Frog Song.

No I've been outed

(I'm also a lifelong member of the Elgar society !)

[ahinton]

I'm also a lifelong member of the Elgar society!

You mean that you were actually born with membership thereof as well as a silver spoon in your mouth? Mon Dieu! I'm not sure whether such membership would be permitted to those living in the Charente.

Incidentally, my only problems with the prospect of living en france are that it's illegal (a) not to eat goat's cheese, (b) to eschew (or, for that matter, to chew!) oysters and (c) to fail to keep a dog and, as I simply cannot abide chèvre ou huîtres and have not the remotest desire to keep un chien, it is something of a worry but, since intolerance on the part of the locals is not something I've ever encountered there, all will doubtless be well as long as I keep my breaches of the law to myself as far as possible.

Anyway, I guess that we'd all better get back to the myth of urban Britain...