Living in Brittany

Someone in the bar told me there were only 11 working days in May as they have 3 or 4 bank holidays and if they fall on the middle of the week they call it "Le Pont" (bridge ) and have a long weekend so tomorrow is another long weekend as 8th May ( end of war , and my wedding anniversary ) is a "jour ferrie " so by next Tuesday the 13th the French workers will have done 3 official workdays in May so far.Nice work if you can get it.
We had a bit "barney " at Geant the other day ,we needed to buy a fridge and as we buy all our white goods there assumed we were considered good clients. Wrong thinking first we arrived during the period between 1200 and 2 pm you almost feel you should apologise for being there and the service was so bad I lost my cool and had to walk out. I think part of the problem is with the French labour laws making it differcult to sack any body so their customer respect has declined I find it a complete contrast to the Uk where I almost feel every one has been on a customer relation course.
I have at last managed to sideline my problem with "Echo " by playing the alto sax and my mate Rodger has to go back to playing the tenor and sitting next to him. Serves him right for not attending practises regularly and it gives me a chance to be more objective about his dismal playing. Tomorrow there is another run out by the remains of the Plestin Fanfare , we march up and down the hill , ( a bit like the Grand Old Duke of York ) play the " Marseillaise " a couple times and then go into the Marie to drink a few toasts.

We set off for England last Thursday with great trepidation for Louise's wedding at the weekend we had all been kitted out with suits except me as I had to hire a suit with tails so I would resemble a penguin and having to give Louise at the church also had to give a speech later. We stayed with our good friends Jonnie and Francis near Amersham which was a half hour from the venue Taplow near Marlow and the reception was to be held at Stoke Park a superb country house where parts of the JamesBond film Goldfinger was shot.
Friday passed in a blur with a bit of shopping ( buying sad things such as baked beans and cheddar + books ) then being measured for my penguin suit and a rehearsal at the church afterwards we dashed back to Aylesbury for a meal at a noodle bar where they messed up our reservation to such a degree we got the meal for half price + free drinks to the point of embarrassment that we chucked in another £20 (it was for 11 people)
The big day arrived quickly first I dropped Paulien off to be beautified at Louise lodgings Red Roofs another very beautiful location later on I left with Louise in an 80year old Rolls Royce for the church at Taplow. The most differcult thing about escorting a bride down the isle is trying to avoid walking on their dress and ripping it. The service passed quickly although Louise had to give me a nudge to remember to lift her hand and place it in the vicar's to join the grooms. Afterwards they departed in the " Roller" for Stoke Park to be followed by the rest of us .
The reception was magnificent a quartet in the background playing classical music perfect weather for photo shoots good food and service and a sympathetic reception for my mumbling speech ( I spoke first and apparently pinched Adam's ( groom ) best lines ) The evening continued with fireworks then more music (rock ) and dancing we eventually got to bed in the early hours . It was a great time meeting up with friends and family ,Paulien's sister ( she is married to my brother ) and a really interesting experience ( although expensive , I seem to recall we got married for £25 but then I'm probably a tight "git " ) and then we wearily returned to France on the Sunday very tired

The dreaded return of Jeano has happened, He spends the winter months in Paris ( I think he must play with a punk band which would account for his total lack of tonality, timing and loud volume ) and the summer in Plestin. Unfortunately for me and the other members of the Harmonie band in Lannion he thicks he can play the saxophone and even worse sits next to me as as the other sax player ( Sophie ) refuses to sit next to him. I think I'm going to have a musical nervous breakdown and can see myself picking up a music stand and attacking him ( they are quite heavy ) and trashing his saxophone and the bizarre thing is nobody other than Antony complains about him as if any idiot can turn up with an instrument and trash all our practise and concerts. I know we are short of players but at least we should have some standards.
The wedding is approaching and I guess I've got to sort out a speech so I have done what most students do now a days and trawled the internet for examples and jokes which aren't too offensive, apparently I have to hire tails which will be quite a shock as I usually hang out in jeans and some old trainers. Nobody will recognise me. The downside is I'll miss both semi finals for the HC but I suppose its a sacrifice worth making giving Louise away at least I don't have to give a dowry when I married Paulien I received 2 cows.

Easter was very wet cold and windy this year and far too early for tourist only a couple of houses rented. One was to a bunch of French who had a drama workshop in Plestin. Sunday is our most social day as we see lots of French to chat to in or outside the bar and the ex-pats a lot them are ex clients who have bought houses here which is a worrying trend temporarily halted by the decling pound. We saw our ex vet from Plestin who moved in the opposite direction , they are living in Truro,Cornwall where he used to work in an abattoir, signing death certificates ( Oliver's joke ) but is now in Brussels their daughter is at Oxford uni. In the afternoon we visited some friends at Locquemeau they said just call in very unusual for French as they like to formally invite people and are a bit put out by cold calls. He had made a pizza oven which I wanted to look at , they live on a newish estate ( 12 houses ) and as we were leaving I saw Phillippe ( kinio and drummer of rock band ) arrive so we had a look at the house his wife has been building for the last 3-4 years. Its made from straw bales and then rendered with a lime mix, lots of alternative materials have been used ,sheep's wool to insulate the roof , compressed straw panels for internal walls and a earth/lime render is smeared on them. The roof is red cedar shingles not a really good idea in a humid climate next to the sea. It has a fantastic view of the coastline of Locquirec and Treberdan and the price he paid for the building plot was 25€ a metre square and he has 1000ms so 25€k a useful investment.
The wedding is getting nearer so am getting into speech mode wondering if there are any sites I can rip off a speech..................

The local election turned out to be a rout with the Mayor's party winning all the seats. The last result had been 12 for the socialists and 10 for the right but this time he has all 23 seats with a majority vote so there is no second round of voting.I think in a small town like Plestin with a population of 3500 the use of political parties is pointless even I knew who two thirds of the candidates so I voted for a mix of the 2 lists but it seems most people just vote either left or right. At least my mate Rodger got elected he was 18 on the list for the SP but what really bugged me was a neighbour who has had the complete bimbo package including brain removal has been elected, quite shocking. The other thing that disturbs me is with total party domination the mayor can push through dodgy development deals as there is less opposition. A couple years ago a developer wanted to but a couple "bunker" 20 retirement apartments on the seafront at St Efflam it was backed by Plestin but the environment party took them to court and the plans were shelved.
Its been really rough weatherwise a friend at St Efflam had a wave cross the road and fill her parking space ,the first time she had ever seen that. It could be a good time to move house. Xav is on crutches he seems to have a problem with his Achilles he has just had a growing spurt and it appears to be a common occurrence.

It seems I got the week wrong for the local election the first round is on next Sunday and voting tends to be a popularity contest the first week with a more discerning vote the following week.At least I can wind up my Irish mate in town although he is marries to a French woman he hasn't been registered as she didn't think he was eligible so I can tell him,criminals ,the insane and Irish don't vote.
Have been doing the most boring job of the year getting the accounts in some sort of order before depositing them at the accountant. I always find it a depressing job seeing how quickly money flows out we have to get 4k before we can eat of that 2 and a half thousand are taxes,social security and pensions all obligatory so its no wonder the French economy is such a mess as independent enterprises are positively discouraged. Now i know how the system works ( or doesn't ) I should really close the business then start again and be registered as retired and keep the business in the micro regime which would exempt me from half the taxation.
Max has yet another interview at the prefecture St Brieuc for his naturalisation I think he has to recite the words to the Marseilles and swear allegiance to the republic.
I have been practising playing with a rock band its quite fun reminds me of the stuff I did about 30yrs ago but we have to organise our own festival to get a gig

We are allowed to vote in local and European elections very kind of them as we are also allowed to pay taxes here. However local elections are very interesting spread over 2 weekends the first vote is a popularity vote so you vote for your mates and the second vote is more pragmatic at present we have a socialist bunch running Plestin they taxes us more every year employ more people who work less hard ( around 30 hours a week ) so probably the first round will vote for the opposition + my mate Rodger who plays sax in a couple of the bands I play in. Paulien was getting some bread in the boulangerie this morning so I thought I would ask him what their policies were as he is No 1 on the list for the right and off he rattlied ,improve the roads,heating for the church so I asked him why don't you reduce the Marie borrowing ( it has a loan of 5-6 million €s ) by selling the sailing school and the camp site should raise a couple million and be more dynamic ( the sailing school is actually shut on Saturday in high season ) It didn't go down too well he was a bit shocked by the radicalism.
We had a friend call in the other day he has a few houses and always comes at lunch time and as the boys were home and cooking not liking competition in the eating stakes they ground up 4 laxative pills and put it in his soup. I couldn't understand why he was moaning about the soup as I wasn't in on the joke.Hope he didn't have too bad an evening
The renovations on the gite Etables are nearly finished I changed the roof of the veranda with the aid of the boys this week they have a master's degree in destruction as it only took them a few hours to remove the old conservatory and replace it with the new panels so now the gite can be sealed and dried out and Paulien can do her subtle finishing touches covering my mistakes , as if I would make any .

Its seems I got too excited by the possibilities of the air car as it isn't going to be manufactured in France for the moment but is for sure in Australia this year I found a blog in french it explains how the environmental friendly company's such as Total and probably Renault and Peugeot persuaded the government its not a good idea for their profitability to allow the production of a zero polluting auto on the roads. So it looks as if the only possibility of getting one will be to import it assuming it meets the European norms (another word for protectionism ). Tata from India are going ahead to produce them probably for a lower price than the Australians which will be 5400€ according to the blog. I made a few errors on the last blog MDI website is www.wdi.lu they are based in Luxembourg although research is done at Nice also the pressure in the tanks will be 300 bar not 150 as I wrote last time.
Mean while the weather is ridiculously warm for February the birds are singing so will be mating far too early and when they hatch their young the weather will be foul and food supplies short but who cares the price of oil is 100$ a barrel petrol companies are making a fortune and governments are raking fuel taxes and the ice caps are melting.

I am seriously thinking of buying a new car , generally I think they are a totally waste of money ,polluting and a reflection of egos, but the car I'm interested in is a compressed air car which costs less then 2€ per 100km and is totally eco friendly. You could say they will have to build a couple more nuclear power stations but you could have your own windmill and there is a solar panel version which would operate the compressor to refill the tank.,recharging the tank overnight takes about 4 hours and the tank is filled to 150 bars + of air. In reality its an electric car without batteries and just uses compressed air as the energy source. Its designed by a French ex F1 engineer and is based outside Nice. His website is www.MDI.com also there is a good short film on youtube at
The company have signed a deal with Tata the Indian car company and production has started with the car due on the market at the end of the year with prices starting from 3000€. The interesting aspect is there are going to be major losers ,big car manufactures, spare industries, petrol manufactures and governments which would lose lots of tax revenue they get from petrol/diesel.
The concept is fantastic most households would save between 50-100€ a week ,instant reduction in global warming and cheap transport for the masses. If you go to the website you can make a non binding commitment to buy one

Some mysterious white lines appeared in Plestin on Monday morning someone has painted white stop lines on half a dozen junctions. Traffic circulation in all villages is a total mess as technically once you enter a village you have to give way to the right regardless if your road is a the principal one. I think its a hangover from ox and cart days so some enterprising person has put stop lines on most of the minor junctions, unfortunately it looks to be interior paint so will not last more than a couple of weeks.
Max's interview was a snip it was held at the police station in St Brieuc he said if it was up to him he would have handed a French passport on the spot as he ticked all the boxes. There is a slight racial bias in the system so when they get a " white" " Christian" clean living adult studying law and claiming he wants to join the police as a career move they snap them up. There was a story in the press last week of a Senegalese woman who had received French citizenship a few months ago but as she was 3 months pregnant at the time the child will not be French and her partner was being deported for working with false identity papers. Not sure whether they deported him because he was working ( unfrench activity ) or he had false papers.
There will be a few broken hearts this summer as Bas has got a regular girlfriend ,long telephone calls ,taxi service to Lannion and Trebuerden still her parents have a very smart house with good sea views.