What do you miss most?
Apr 3rd 2009, 8:14 pm
#20
Senior member
Joined: Sep 2002
Location: Paris
Posts: 835
Re: What do you miss most?
Country pubs are probably the only thing we miss. Used to love a winter walk in the Cotswolds, then lunch and a real beer in a nice old country pub with the fire roaring. Apart from that, which is hardly serious, not much. We've lived in a lot of places though and are able to make anywhere home, always look forwards, never back, that's our motto!
Apr 4th 2009, 1:40 pm
#21
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Dec 2005
Location: Paris
Posts: 1,549
Re: What do you miss most?
Country pubs are probably the only thing we miss. Used to love a winter walk in the Cotswolds, then lunch and a real beer in a nice old country pub with the fire roaring. Apart from that, which is hardly serious, not much. We've lived in a lot of places though and are able to make anywhere home, always look forwards, never back, that's our motto!
I like the bite of cold a winter's day, and then a roaring fire in a country pub.
Apr 4th 2009, 8:40 pm
#22
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 182
Re: What do you miss most?
I'm thinking of moving to France in the fairly near future and I just wondered what single thing people miss the most.
Is it the weather, the sense that the politicos are just in it for themselves (I bet that's universal), or something tangible, something you just have to have as soon as you return to Blighty?
Marmite, proper beer, proper tea? I know these are things I miss when I'm away for more than a couple of weeks. What about you?
Is it the weather, the sense that the politicos are just in it for themselves (I bet that's universal), or something tangible, something you just have to have as soon as you return to Blighty?
Marmite, proper beer, proper tea? I know these are things I miss when I'm away for more than a couple of weeks. What about you?
its odd but,
24 hour shopping?Asda at 3.00am
Health and safety in britain and its over the top forthrightousness
breakfast tv
curry
£1 Pound coins the weighty golden nugget
british humour (drier the better)!!!they just do'nt get it here!!
eating food and drink in the cinema
my dad
british people not being nosey and just getting on with there lives
pubs on sunday lunchtime
people just getting on with things, the french can be a bit OTT somtimes
Apr 5th 2009, 11:56 pm
#23
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2008
Location: Palaja, near Carcassonne, Department of Aude, France
Posts: 518
Re: What do you miss most?
Miss nothing - I live in France! Left the UK (Torquay) in 1970. Worked 24 years in Switzerland (Zürich). Worked 9 years in France (Sophia Antipolis near Antibes/Nice) Retired to near Perpignan in 2003, then moved here to near Carcassonne in Dec 2007. Trilingual English, German (+ Swiss German dialect), French with some Italian, a bit of Spanish and a small smattering of a few exotic languages - love it!!
Married twice - 1964-1981 to a Swiss-Italian (two daughters 44 and coming up to 43 in May living in Switzerland with dual nationality) and since 1981 to a bretonne, daughter 18 speaks French with her mum and English with me (at her insistance to keep her bilingual). Watch only French TV. Read French papers - can't remember when I last read a UK paper. Listen only to local radio. Talk only French outside, shopping, chatting with neighbours, etc. Appreciate and understand most French humour except people like Raymond Devos (lots of French have a problem with him too!), but then, I don't understand Geordie either, so what?
Oh yes, and both my wife and I happen to like Sarko and what he's trying to do (finally move France out of the Napoleonic era!!). In France, rules are made to be broken (even more than in the UK), but procedures are to be adhered to minutely, regarded by most people, especially the administration, as 10 times more important than the 10 commandments!
One of those things one lives with and accepts - but it will change!!
Oh yes - I do skim through the BBC (international) website every day to "keep in touch" more with the world than with the UK - mostly the science & environment and the technology sections.
Married twice - 1964-1981 to a Swiss-Italian (two daughters 44 and coming up to 43 in May living in Switzerland with dual nationality) and since 1981 to a bretonne, daughter 18 speaks French with her mum and English with me (at her insistance to keep her bilingual). Watch only French TV. Read French papers - can't remember when I last read a UK paper. Listen only to local radio. Talk only French outside, shopping, chatting with neighbours, etc. Appreciate and understand most French humour except people like Raymond Devos (lots of French have a problem with him too!), but then, I don't understand Geordie either, so what?
Oh yes, and both my wife and I happen to like Sarko and what he's trying to do (finally move France out of the Napoleonic era!!). In France, rules are made to be broken (even more than in the UK), but procedures are to be adhered to minutely, regarded by most people, especially the administration, as 10 times more important than the 10 commandments!
One of those things one lives with and accepts - but it will change!!
Oh yes - I do skim through the BBC (international) website every day to "keep in touch" more with the world than with the UK - mostly the science & environment and the technology sections.
Apr 6th 2009, 10:41 am
#24
Grey Bombshell
Joined: Feb 2008
Location: La Feuillee, Brittany
Posts: 1,441
Re: What do you miss most?
When we lived in France before I didn't miss anything vital, just a few niggly things that you take for granted in England, but the advantages of France far outweighed any of em.
Dream topping (but that can be posted), clear bra straps (but made my own out of clingfilm), muted colour material (the French don't do "subtle"), but can't honestly think of anything else.
The reverse happened though - when I had to go back to England even for only a week I was horrendously homesick. England drove me nuts and still does, and I can't wait to get back over to Brittany and it would take a Revolution of mega proportions to get me out again.
Roger, does your wife speak Bretonne by any chance? If so, does she know what an approximate Bretonne translation of "First Light" or "New Dawn" could be? We want to name our new house in La Feuillee and want a Bretonne name for it! Been searching but can't find a translation for it.
Oh wait a minute, yes, I know, I missed charity shops!!!!!!!!
Dream topping (but that can be posted), clear bra straps (but made my own out of clingfilm), muted colour material (the French don't do "subtle"), but can't honestly think of anything else.
The reverse happened though - when I had to go back to England even for only a week I was horrendously homesick. England drove me nuts and still does, and I can't wait to get back over to Brittany and it would take a Revolution of mega proportions to get me out again.
Roger, does your wife speak Bretonne by any chance? If so, does she know what an approximate Bretonne translation of "First Light" or "New Dawn" could be? We want to name our new house in La Feuillee and want a Bretonne name for it! Been searching but can't find a translation for it.
Oh wait a minute, yes, I know, I missed charity shops!!!!!!!!
Apr 6th 2009, 11:22 am
#25
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Joined: Sep 2008
Location: Palaja, near Carcassonne, Department of Aude, France
Posts: 518
Re: What do you miss most?
Roger, does your wife speak Bretonne by any chance? If so, does she know what an approximate Bretonne translation of "First Light" or "New Dawn" could be? We want to name our new house in La Feuillee and want a Bretonne name for it! Been searching but can't find a translation for it.
where you may find what you're looking for - but be careful as with all dictionaries, the context must be right!! The other day I saw in a restaurant the "English" translated menu showing Moules Marinières as "Moulds Sailor Style" which looked tremendously appetising.. er..
You don't want to end up with what you think is a great name but causes pitying smiles every time a real Breton passes your door!!
What I would do in your case is to check the dictionaries (there are others on Google, of course) then ask an acquaintance to pass them by a real Breton (I mean an old fisherman or Bigoudenne or someone like that) who probably would be happy (and proud?) that someone is taking real interest in their language - e.g. I would do the same thing with the locals to name a house in Ireland or Wales, etc.
May take a little research but you'll end up with something genuine!!
Hope this helps a little,
Best of luck,
Roger
PS if you really get stuck, I can try via my brother in law, André in Concarneau, who doesn't speak fluent Breton but knows plenty of people who might.
PPS - If you're a real Devon girl, you'll see we have a lot in common with the Bretons!!
http://users.senet.com.au/~dewnans/f...raditions.html
I like this bit best from that site:
Devonians have a reputation for being a congenial, friendly people, who work to live rather than live to work. Whilst many Devonians are initially reserved with strangers ('furreners'), once the ice has been broken you may find it difficult to shut them up.
Last edited by Roger O; Apr 6th 2009 at 11:31 am.
Apr 6th 2009, 3:54 pm
#26
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 182
Re: What do you miss most?
Miss nothing - I live in France! Left the UK (Torquay) in 1970. Worked 24 years in Switzerland (Zürich). Worked 9 years in France (Sophia Antipolis near Antibes/Nice) Retired to near Perpignan in 2003, then moved here to near Carcassonne in Dec 2007. Trilingual English, German (+ Swiss German dialect), French with some Italian, a bit of Spanish and a small smattering of a few exotic languages - love it!!
Married twice - 1964-1981 to a Swiss-Italian (two daughters 44 and coming up to 43 in May living in Switzerland with dual nationality) and since 1981 to a bretonne, daughter 18 speaks French with her mum and English with me (at her insistance to keep her bilingual). Watch only French TV. Read French papers - can't remember when I last read a UK paper. Listen only to local radio. Talk only French outside, shopping, chatting with neighbours, etc. Appreciate and understand most French humour except people like Raymond Devos (lots of French have a problem with him too!), but then, I don't understand Geordie either, so what?
Oh yes, and both my wife and I happen to like Sarko and what he's trying to do (finally move France out of the Napoleonic era!!). In France, rules are made to be broken (even more than in the UK), but procedures are to be adhered to minutely, regarded by most people, especially the administration, as 10 times more important than the 10 commandments!
One of those things one lives with and accepts - but it will change!!
Oh yes - I do skim through the BBC (international) website every day to "keep in touch" more with the world than with the UK - mostly the science & environment and the technology sections.
Married twice - 1964-1981 to a Swiss-Italian (two daughters 44 and coming up to 43 in May living in Switzerland with dual nationality) and since 1981 to a bretonne, daughter 18 speaks French with her mum and English with me (at her insistance to keep her bilingual). Watch only French TV. Read French papers - can't remember when I last read a UK paper. Listen only to local radio. Talk only French outside, shopping, chatting with neighbours, etc. Appreciate and understand most French humour except people like Raymond Devos (lots of French have a problem with him too!), but then, I don't understand Geordie either, so what?
Oh yes, and both my wife and I happen to like Sarko and what he's trying to do (finally move France out of the Napoleonic era!!). In France, rules are made to be broken (even more than in the UK), but procedures are to be adhered to minutely, regarded by most people, especially the administration, as 10 times more important than the 10 commandments!
One of those things one lives with and accepts - but it will change!!
Oh yes - I do skim through the BBC (international) website every day to "keep in touch" more with the world than with the UK - mostly the science & environment and the technology sections.
Remind me never to mess with you then!!
Apr 6th 2009, 5:25 pm
#27
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2008
Location: Palaja, near Carcassonne, Department of Aude, France
Posts: 518
Re: What do you miss most?
Why that? I'm harmless - unless someone harms one of mine!
Believe it or not, Torquay was a tough training ground. We had our local Setters Gang (Setters was the guy who was famous for bodily throwing 3 cops through a shop plate glass window in Paignton High Street!) and the Plymouth lads (known as "The Chain Gang") to keep us on our toes - and when they got bored there were always a few matelots around off the ships - or, in the summer, some likely tourist lads from "up north" who were fancying to to "have a go" - and some nice Swedish girls to chase!! Used to get quite lively of a Saturday night outside the Devon Arms, the Hole in the Wall, the 400 "Ballroom" - but the best was the 24/7 20 lane bowling alley up top of union Street, with the "Hot Spot" disco downstairs and my friends "Edgar" (big Iranian muscle bundle) and "Tony" (a, Ethiopian "student" about 30!) who were the chuckers out.
(One didn't mess with "Edgar" - he was even bigger than Setters - and "Tony" was handy with some weird street fighting tricks which earned him " big respect" on the block. I never knew their real names!)
The other one was Denis - a guy from Corsica who worked at the Imperial. The rumour was he was on the run for some nasty business concerning Parisian tourists in Bastia - I do know that he hated the head waiter in the hotel and threated to "put a plastique under his chair" if he didn't stop his harassment!!
Never a dull moment - even in Winter - when some of the big hotel owners - like the Belgrave - went off to Bermuda and left their kids who were studying at the Technical College the run of the hotels. Wild!!
Sigh... brought back memories, all that did.. but I was early 20s then and don't think that life would suit me at 70!!! (Well, not too much, anyway!)
Believe it or not, Torquay was a tough training ground. We had our local Setters Gang (Setters was the guy who was famous for bodily throwing 3 cops through a shop plate glass window in Paignton High Street!) and the Plymouth lads (known as "The Chain Gang") to keep us on our toes - and when they got bored there were always a few matelots around off the ships - or, in the summer, some likely tourist lads from "up north" who were fancying to to "have a go" - and some nice Swedish girls to chase!! Used to get quite lively of a Saturday night outside the Devon Arms, the Hole in the Wall, the 400 "Ballroom" - but the best was the 24/7 20 lane bowling alley up top of union Street, with the "Hot Spot" disco downstairs and my friends "Edgar" (big Iranian muscle bundle) and "Tony" (a, Ethiopian "student" about 30!) who were the chuckers out.
(One didn't mess with "Edgar" - he was even bigger than Setters - and "Tony" was handy with some weird street fighting tricks which earned him " big respect" on the block. I never knew their real names!)
The other one was Denis - a guy from Corsica who worked at the Imperial. The rumour was he was on the run for some nasty business concerning Parisian tourists in Bastia - I do know that he hated the head waiter in the hotel and threated to "put a plastique under his chair" if he didn't stop his harassment!!
Never a dull moment - even in Winter - when some of the big hotel owners - like the Belgrave - went off to Bermuda and left their kids who were studying at the Technical College the run of the hotels. Wild!!
Sigh... brought back memories, all that did.. but I was early 20s then and don't think that life would suit me at 70!!! (Well, not too much, anyway!)
Apr 6th 2009, 6:22 pm
#28
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 24,043
Re: What do you miss most?
Totally off topic (I'm known for it 
)
You really remind me of someone!!!!
)You really remind me of someone!!!!
Apr 6th 2009, 6:40 pm
#29
Grey Bombshell
Joined: Feb 2008
Location: La Feuillee, Brittany
Posts: 1,441
Re: What do you miss most?
Thanks Roger - will definitely be buying a Bretonne dictionary at some point, and we are hoping to make some local friends in La Feuillee so we will be able to run our possible names by them before we make a potential major gaff!!
I laffed at your exploits in Torquay and Plymouth - I had a boyfriend who refused to even enter "the zone" ie Marsh Mills Roundabout onwards, without his trusty baseball bat in the boot ............
I laffed at your exploits in Torquay and Plymouth - I had a boyfriend who refused to even enter "the zone" ie Marsh Mills Roundabout onwards, without his trusty baseball bat in the boot ............
Apr 6th 2009, 7:15 pm
#30
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 182
Re: What do you miss most?
Why that? I'm harmless - unless someone harms one of mine!
Believe it or not, Torquay was a tough training ground. We had our local Setters Gang (Setters was the guy who was famous for bodily throwing 3 cops through a shop plate glass window in Paignton High Street!) and the Plymouth lads (known as "The Chain Gang") to keep us on our toes - and when they got bored there were always a few matelots around off the ships - or, in the summer, some likely tourist lads from "up north" who were fancying to to "have a go" - and some nice Swedish girls to chase!! Used to get quite lively of a Saturday night outside the Devon Arms, the Hole in the Wall, the 400 "Ballroom" - but the best was the 24/7 20 lane bowling alley up top of union Street, with the "Hot Spot" disco downstairs and my friends "Edgar" (big Iranian muscle bundle) and "Tony" (a, Ethiopian "student" about 30!) who were the chuckers out.
(One didn't mess with "Edgar" - he was even bigger than Setters - and "Tony" was handy with some weird street fighting tricks which earned him " big respect" on the block. I never knew their real names!)
The other one was Denis - a guy from Corsica who worked at the Imperial. The rumour was he was on the run for some nasty business concerning Parisian tourists in Bastia - I do know that he hated the head waiter in the hotel and threated to "put a plastique under his chair" if he didn't stop his harassment!!
Never a dull moment - even in Winter - when some of the big hotel owners - like the Belgrave - went off to Bermuda and left their kids who were studying at the Technical College the run of the hotels. Wild!!
Sigh... brought back memories, all that did.. but I was early 20s then and don't think that life would suit me at 70!!! (Well, not too much, anyway!)
Believe it or not, Torquay was a tough training ground. We had our local Setters Gang (Setters was the guy who was famous for bodily throwing 3 cops through a shop plate glass window in Paignton High Street!) and the Plymouth lads (known as "The Chain Gang") to keep us on our toes - and when they got bored there were always a few matelots around off the ships - or, in the summer, some likely tourist lads from "up north" who were fancying to to "have a go" - and some nice Swedish girls to chase!! Used to get quite lively of a Saturday night outside the Devon Arms, the Hole in the Wall, the 400 "Ballroom" - but the best was the 24/7 20 lane bowling alley up top of union Street, with the "Hot Spot" disco downstairs and my friends "Edgar" (big Iranian muscle bundle) and "Tony" (a, Ethiopian "student" about 30!) who were the chuckers out.
(One didn't mess with "Edgar" - he was even bigger than Setters - and "Tony" was handy with some weird street fighting tricks which earned him " big respect" on the block. I never knew their real names!)
The other one was Denis - a guy from Corsica who worked at the Imperial. The rumour was he was on the run for some nasty business concerning Parisian tourists in Bastia - I do know that he hated the head waiter in the hotel and threated to "put a plastique under his chair" if he didn't stop his harassment!!
Never a dull moment - even in Winter - when some of the big hotel owners - like the Belgrave - went off to Bermuda and left their kids who were studying at the Technical College the run of the hotels. Wild!!
Sigh... brought back memories, all that did.. but I was early 20s then and don't think that life would suit me at 70!!! (Well, not too much, anyway!)
no harm intended you just seem a good allrounder.
p.s live here too and got a job.