UK to France, France to UK

I'm a Brit, I'm not a lone here, there are like 4 British active users I can think of right now (if not a 5th who calls me American) I can think of, off the top of my head right now;

@alexa
@cerberus
@Liberty Monkey
@The Scotsman
4 who's usernames I can remember atm, and I've tried tagging in that 5th, but 'lildennis' or 'dennis' doesn't seem to be their username so after trying, I've also made that a list of fellow countrymen and women who's usernames I can actually remember at the moment too.. *Sorry user who thinks I'm American, nothing personal, but I tried tagging you and have forgotten your username, but, you know who you are (if you read this that is, didn't tag you, so, IDK, but I'd hate to feel like I'm talking about you 'behind your back' so I would have tagged you had I've remembered your username, but, that's not your fault, that's mine, sorry, but - if you read this oh 5th Brit who thinks I'm American... 'Hello'.

And... I know of 1 active French user here. Correct me if I'm wrong / I wish there were more, might be cool.

@VotreAltesse

And... I want this thread to be by no means official, I don't speak for London or England or the UK or anybody but me and MY OWN opinions, and this is a crux.
I want this thread to see how the people feel, the powerless people who, despite what we may want, the powers that be never seem to make this happen.
I also want, UK & France, to talk.

Let's forget about the EU, just for a thread, and, remember, The EU is not a country, but, we are (countries) .

I want to talk about the EU, of course, but I want to talk about the EU from a COUNTRY'S perspective, know what I'm saying?
I want us to remember (me personally I guess) all the great stuff we've done have going on for us.

Eurostar / Channel Tunnel
History of innovation through Concorde.
Paris, Londres / London, Paris - We also have world city capitals, like, IMO, Paris is up there with Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York City, London too.

 

You forgot Nonnie although I think he might be a Russian spy

 

@ 19m 37s (or there abouts).

The World/Forum (distressed)
@Nonnie was frozen to death today!

@The Rhetoric of Life (suprised he can tag himself).
No idea what you'r talking about.

 

Love R&M I don't watch mainstream movies or TV except for R&M and SP I do have a fetish for foreign films I find the subtitles scare our American friends which is hilarious in itself lol.

I've been slowly introducing Sally to SP whilst she wasn't a Cartman fan initially I think he's growing on her

 

I've gotten my brother into Fresh Off The Boat.

They've just had their 100th episode.

I also got him into Rick & Morty, I haven't gotten anyone into Bob's Burgers, yet - but that's okay, more for me.

 

OK I forgot Bob's Burgers and Archer of course I watch both of them

 

Yeah, there's a lot of great TV shows on both sides of the pond.
I wonder if Red Dwarf are going to make more episodes with Dave?

So, IDK, what do you think of France @Liberty Monkey?
Ever been?

I've been through it, stopped of at the UK border in France...
...
But I'd like to 'go to' France/see more of it.

If I said, French film, butter lube, fit black chick, would you know what I meant?
And, would I be allowed to still like that or, was that a depiction of rape?

 

I love the Frogs better than the Krauts

Been France many times and have friends that live there the countryside is lovely the cities are bleeding right now. France has crippling tax rates which has stopped it from booming like the UK and Germany has and now the population is paying that price. They are hurting far more than the UK ever is and we have the Brexit chaos going on.

 

hope not it started getting stupid after Series 5 anyway that isn't the point.....not sure what is anymore....
Like Paris although it has its crusty bits like most cities...
Have you been in Paris lately...was there at the weekend (gotta love Eurostar two and half hours from my front door to Gar[e] du Nord!....(which is a bit of a war zone)) and talking of war zones the Champs ellysee is an armoured car parking zone!! I mean they had tanks and water cannon and fellas with guns parked up and the Place de la concorde is shut off - there's burned out cash points all over the place....bit of a mess since these yellow fellas started getting a bit vocal.....anyway the south is Nice....d'ya get it...Nice....anyway Nice is nice as is the Dordogne (but my spell checker doesn't like it for some reason) been there a few times...shame my spell checker hasn't it might appreciate it better!

Krauts are better than the French any day of the week and twice on sunday....the frogs invented the gallic shrug....which according to someone I can't remember basically translates to "Oui Monsieur...you see life is just an immense bucket of shyte..but you see Monsieur it is your bucket of shyte and quite frankly.....I don't care!"

 

Last time I was in that country was 2016 two weeks before the referendum just passing through;

 

Last time I went was 2015 but been toying with buying a go pro and dragging my ass there in the next few weeks.

I'm not keen on "cold" but now the weather's warming up might be time to see it for myself.

 

there's a guy in our office that volunteers in the camps at weekends and holidays dishing out food and clothes to the squatters.....its a thing I guess....

 

France is a wonderful country.
I own a little house in central France which I inherited when Dad died ten years ago.
I just got back from a visit 3 weeks ago and am going back in a week or so.
I'd not been to the house for a while and the ivy and wysteria was out of control.


Most of my two weeks was taken up with hacking down and burning the ivy but I did take a day off to indulge in my favourite pass time of visiting medieval castles and historical sites.

France is great for castles. There is a little cluster of them about 70 miles from my house which is near Limoges.

A Cathar castle at Lastour



The castle Richard the Lionheart was besieging at Châlus-Chabrol when he was killed by a crossbow bolt.



Chateau Montbrun (mostly 15th and 16th century although the square tower is 12th century)



Chateau Brie (now a hotel)



I also visited Oradour sur Glane which is a small town preserved in time as a monument to the 642 French citizens massacred by the SS in June 1944. The Nazis set fire to the whole town before they left.








On the way back to England I had a look around William the Conqueror's castle in Normandy before a trip to Bayeau to check out his embroidery.

 

Calais is depressing. Looks like a prison camp with large razor wire topped fences everywhere.
I prefer to sail into Dieppe so I don't have to see it.
I'll be going back in a week or so and staying for 3 weeks. You are welcome to come and stay LM if you have the time to drive down (I'm about 400 miles from Calais.

What are you like at gardening?
Still got the back garden to clear.

 

This little pad is about 10 miles from my house



Elanor of Aquitaine's father's castle is about 5 miles away.

 

Once we leave the EU the French may decide to stop protecting our borders in France and the migrant camps will be in Kent instead.

 

Germany, with all its faults, is the only reason Europe hasn't completely descended into chaos and bankruptcy. The ruling cliques of France and Italy are as corrupt and venal as those in Mexico -- and that's really, really BAD....

Italy's only hope now is working with China, Russia, and Germany, becoming a full-on partner in "Belt and Road", and putting as much distance as it can between itself and Macron's France.

Britain? Who knows. The one (ONE) thing they did of lasting benefit was to insist on keeping their own money (pound sterling, GBP). The British would be smart to work much more closely with the Germans, who have an 'inside-track' with Russia and China, but they won't. Why not...?

>> Key point: Britain has NEVER tolerated the rise of any continental power to dominate Europe whether French, German, or otherwise! But, sadly, Britain shot itself in BOTH feet with the needless extravagance of World War II, and now one wonders if it will even be able to CRAWL in the future.

 

The E.U. can be considered a metaphorical STAGE......
Great Britain can be looked at as a Stage.......
France can be looked at as a Stage........
and the French vs English conflict here in Canada can be used as a launching pad to attempt to set in motion a shift in the world economy that could dramatically improve the situation even in the Middle East?!

I believe it is the Hopi Indians who have a prediction that the French are the greatest of all people...... On one level this may have to do with the tendency for French settlers to actually marry or at least stay with their First Nations wife or common law partners over these past four centuries.

If it were not for the Acadian French of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick my English ancestors might have pursued the same policy toward the First Nations tribes as they used in Newfoundland?!

England is all set up to become a driving force in the world economy.....

 

Thank you, comrade.

 

Personally, I would detonate TNT every 50 yards from the centre of the Euro tunnel back to our side and collapse it. It should have never been built. The French are asholes.

 

Well there's that, but Germany insist on hating us (UK) as a nation because we float. Germany would rather keep Europe warts and all than work close with Britain. That's why no London / Berlin deals atm. Britain doesn't like them or anyone controlling a continent because we're in that continent.
Just look at UK & Ireland opting out of Schengen. You come to the UK from a non Good Friday Agreement country, you better have a passport lol

In all honesty, UK and Ireland not being a part of the Schengen together means that they're both outside the Schengen Area so wouldn't need a passport, since they're both EU.

IDK

Still 2 different countries, but perhaps I should visit the border for myself and see if I can do that and how far in Ireland I could go if I left my passport in some hotel in Northern Ireland somewhere...
My passport would be in the UK, I'd be in Ireland.



Hmmm...


Does this mean in the Schengen, people don't even need a passport to travel but just an ID card (Which British people don't have but Irish people do).

I've seen ID cards from all over Europe and have marveled how I don't have to put up with that and that British people don't have those.

 

@The Rhetoric of Life

Europe Does Not Matter!
Europe hasn't mattered since Europe self destructed
circa 1939 - 1945.

Quaint history.
Not much else.
Concorde was a failure without the crash.

China use to, Not Matter. Lots of ancient history.
But, China has reinvented itself and matters very much today.
What can one hope for Europe or any of its' parts?


Moi

​

 

Crazy, with a hint of jealousy.

I mean, there are small poor backward countries now in the EU that give the illusion that the EU is big when really it's a bunch of small countries, but, IDK, London, that's not small potatoes.

 

I know a good deal more about what goes on in Germany than I do about Great Britain. That said, it is clear now that the EU and Britain are "joined-at-the-hip"... you'll NEVER get away now, which was the European Central Bank's idea in the first place.

What brought all this to a 'head' seems to be the EU telling all member countries what they MUST and MUST NOT do with regard to being swamped by 'migrants' from the Middle East and Africe. The EU (really meaning the European Central Bank and the IMF -- International Monetary Fund) wants to install many more 'migrants' in Europe for a variety of reasons, and thus make the indigenous population more 'pliable', controllable, and docile.

The one thing that remains unclear to me (and has been mysterious to me from the beginning) is the precise relationship between the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. We see odd developments, such as this one a month ago: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2019/html/ecb.pr190305~be78defb5c.en.htmld . It seems to have been put in place to asuage the effects of some coming economic disruption, ostensibly, "to provide additional flexibility in its provision of liquidity insurance" -- but, "in plain Texas talk", what the hell is it REALLY for...?

Your Winston Churchill famously described the Soviet Union as being "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma". Even more so is Great Britain's relationship to its own Bank of England, and, the European Central Bank....

Conclusion: The British situation regarding the EU is like that of a mythical visitor to the Eagles' "Hotel California" --

"You can check out any time you like,
BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE...."

. "Hiya, Winnie! How's that 'We won World War II" thing working out for ya...?!"

 

where is the "opinion poll"?