Living in Brittany

Its amazing as soon as the high season finishes the weather suddenly improves , the meteo has continuous sun blobs for the next 5 days with not a lot of tourists around. I guess in general numbers are down 20% for Plestin and Brittany as a whole mostly the French who are staying at home. For the Brits its 20% more expensive due to decline of the pound but the Irish on the other hand find it much cheaper than at home.
I see in the papers Bernard Tapie has been awarded 300€+ million by the courts when the banks took over his affairs and sold his various businesses off which included Adias at the time. I thought he was just an incompetent businessman verging on being a crook which explains his inforced holiday in prison but it seems he has been creeping around Sarko and they put pressure on the courts for the settlement so the tax payers have to pay him 20€ each.
Paulien had a odd experience last week she had been collecting old clothes from the boys and took them to the centre in Plestin. There is already a "resto de coeur" which hands out free food to the "poor" and it also gives them clothes ( so they can spend their money important things such as drinks,the loto,tv dvd players and other necessities as they can get housing benefits )Any way after they took the 4 bin liners of clothes one of the woman came out and shouted at Paulien she hadn't washed them ( not true ) and ironed the clothes and they were only fit for the dump as they were used to receiving new clothes. So next time we do a clear out I think the clothes will go direct to the dump rather than take unnecessary abuse. It a bit of a socialist paradise,France a very high percentage of the population is on minimum wages but get lots of benefits ,once you are pass the threshold you lose the benefits and are worse off which takes away a lot of incentives to improve your life.

The last couple of weeks have been a bit dull I slipped a disc so wasn't able to walk properly for a week or so without a stick. Its interesting in France when you have a bad back you go to the doctor and get the usual medications but he also gives a prescription for 10 sessions with a kiniotherapist which is then subsidised by the health insurance. I go to the local in Plestin he doesn't do much but his treatment doesn't hurt and its quick ( although I think I'm a much better therapist I can't treat myself )
Max has been working for the Marie in August in their gardening gang which included weeding ,strimming and watering flowers. The Marie is the biggest employer in Plestin ( population under 4000 ) about 70 people on their books not surprising as its a cushy number on Friday they have their first aperitif at midday and then more later in the afternoon so I guess they don't get much done at the end of the week.For the month he received around 1000€ which was OK at least he found it much more interesting than working in Super U . His uni starts again 10th September which could be his last year which would be a Bac+3 or stay another 2 years and leave with a Bac+5 he is undecided at the moment.
The other 2 boys are back at college and lycée we stoped Xav's private lesson and told him he has to pull his finger out and start concentrating in class, so far he seems to be working but then its only the first week another 35 to go!
The season is winding down we have some kiwis staying who are semi retired but house keep in stately homes very interesting he used to do a lot of refereeing rugby matches which is more interesting