A Rant From France
I received this comment last week and feel it should be posted.
Hello Anonymous,
I came across your blog whilst doing my daily research regarding wind farms.
I live in rural France and now have six x 140 metre high wind turbines…….one of which is under 600 metres from my home.
The value of my property has dropped by around 40%? Exactly how this percentage is arrived at I do not know. I can say the estate agent I asked to come and see my property was “shocked”! by the size of the turbines and the close proximity of them to my home.
He was also amazed that I was not getting any money for having them so close to my property.
He declared that I had a lovely home, beautiful garden and extremely attractive gite, he then said what a pity about the windfarm…….getting people to come to the house would be the biggest hurdle as the turbines loomed from every angle over my property,enough to put most people off before they even got here. He felt ( and I can only agree) that given a choice most people would not choose my property over a property without a wind farm so close. Now how bloody obvious is this!!!? For goodness sake…….so here I am with a blighted home, with a mortgage, with noise issues. I am just one of many in this situation.Our neighbours host the turbines on their land and receive around 25,000 Euros a year plus, the village 2.5 kilometres from where I live also receives around the same amount. I have received absolutely nothing apart from a complete change of circumstances as to how I now live my life. There are of course worse things in life then having a wind farm next door but it is the way “we” are simply overlooked and referred to as selfish! that I cannot understand.People need to “wise up” as to just how crushing it can be to have turbines so close to them.I am forever reading about people not understanding why turbines can be so unpopular……it is only the people who have to live next to them who really know why.Visiting a wind farm is not anything like living with one and yet again and again groups of people are taken on a visit for a couple of hours so they can make an “informed” decision about having a wind farm near them………please everybody wake up! bit of a rant I suppose.?
All I can do is sympathise!
My views on wind farms are detailed here.
Galettes With The Precision And Care Of A Surgeon
I haven’t had a crepe or galette in over fifteen years. But I bought one from this stall in Camden Market.
It was well-worth waiting for. I won’t wait as long next time.
As you can see the gluten-free galettes are made from buckwheat flour.
Why the surgical reference? Go and have your delicious pancake ask the guys; one French and one Spanish.
Guys like this really show up most chains of fast food, as what they are – purveyors of toilet fodder!
Boris Gives It Straight To The French
Boris Johnson in India has taken the French government to task over their statements on ArcelorMittal. It’s here on Reuters. This is an extract,
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson on Tuesday described France’s Socialist government as left-wing revolutionaries that were driving investors away in a dispute with steelmaker ArcelorMittal.
The Conservative mayor mocked the French government as ‘sans-culottes,’ a radical left-wing class during the French Revolution of 1789, while adding that British capital would welcome business fleeing from France.
The French are going to have to realise that the world has changed and the rest of the world doesn’t owe them a living. Especially, as their policies are driving the best and most creative brains out of France.
We Need A Radish
According to The Times today, this is the French way of saying they don’t have a bean.
It was shown as a placard on a French tractor as “On a un radis” and the paper translated.
France Looks To Cable Cars
This article from the Guardian tells how France and other places are looking for cable-car solutions to urban transport problems.
As with many things, the way to a better future is to innovate and use good design.
Hollande Shows He’s A True Champagne Socialist!
There seems to be a big row brewing in France, as President Hollande has upped the tax on beer by a whopping 160%. He left the tax on wine and spirits alone. Read all about it, here in the Belfast Telegraph. This is the first paragraph.
France is planning heavy tax increases on beer, upsetting brewers – even in other countries.
President Francois Hollande is pushing through legislation to increase taxes on beer by 160% to help fund struggling social security programmes as France tries to lower a budget deficit hit hard by the economic crisis. The tax would affect local brews and the 30% of imported beer the French drink.
I suppose though, I’m not bothered, as I’ve never heard of a gluten-free French beer. Although, there’s some passable Belgian and Spanish ones.
France Might Tax Energy Drinks
France seems to be planning to tax energy drinks according to reports like this, this morning.
I’ve never drunk one, but judging by the number of cans you see strewn all over place, many do.
Nelson’s Link To Hawke
Edward Hawke was an admiral in the Royal Navy and is best known for his defeating of the French at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, which probably ended any chance of a French invasion of Great Britain. Quiberon Bay was one of those naval battles like the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Trafalgar and Taranto, that have defined our history.
I had lunch with a friend yesterday and the subject of a artist called Edward Hawke Locker came up. He was called Edward Hawke, as his father, William Locker, was a protege of Admiral Hawke, who served with him in the Seven Years War. The Wikipedia entry for William says this.
Locker then moved to command the frigate HMS Thames, on the home station. He was her captain from 1770 until 1773. In 1777 he took command of HMS Lowestoffe, sailing her to the West Indies. During this period, one of his lieutenants was the newly promoted Horatio Nelson. Nelson, then barely nineteen, served with Locker for fifteen months. His experiences with Locker, and Locker’s teachings had a lasting effect on Nelson.
Twenty years later, on 9 February 1799, Nelson wrote to his old captain: “I have been your scholar; it is you who taught me to board a Frenchman by your conduct when in the Experiment; it is you who always told me ‘Lay a Frenchman close and you will beat him;’ and my only merit in my profession is being a good scholar. Our friendship will never end but with my life, but you have always been too partial to me.”
Note that Lowestoft is spelt how the locals tend to pronounce it. The article also goes on to elaborate on the connection between Locker and Nelson.
If there is a moral in this, it is that you should make sure you learn the lessons of history.
They’ve Got Blue Honey In France
This sounds a rather weird story and it’s all here on the BBC web site.
Perhaps the French bees have got the blues over Francois Hollande!
St. Pancras: Gem – Gare du Nord: Dump
The title is not my words, but those of the BBC’s respected correspondent, Hugh Schofield, in this piece, about the differences between Britain and France. This is a typical paragraph.
Now, I am not going to draw any too-facile comparison between France and Britain on the basis of a pair of 19th Century railway termini.
But I will say this – never in 16 years of living in France, and making pretty regular trips back and forth across the Channel, have I ever felt a greater disparity in national moods.
There’s a lot more in the same vein.
As ever with what Hugh Schofield writes, it is a good and thoughtful read.
The Anonymous Widower 