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I wonder if the French railways, SNCF, are not entering the silly season.

I wonder if the French railways, SNCF, are not entering  the silly season.

I was at the booking office to get some tickets to go to Paris to collect my grandson for the weekend.

The clerk there suggested I go to Paris First class as the ticket was cheaper than the Second class. A little odd that. Then I asked for a return to Paris from Orléans Sunday morning. Sorry she said no trains Saturday or Sunday morning; first train 4.30 Sunday evening. OK I said I’ll take 2 reservations on that. “Sorry that train is full, so are all the others after it”. I had to get to Paris Sunday (grandson has school Monday morning) and I had to get back to Orléans Sunday evening.

So I had to buy 2 tickets to Paris with the prospect of standing in the corridor all the way.  There’s a heat wave on, I’m 78 and grandson 7.

I also have to be in Paris on 4^th June for a meeting. The clerk, “Sorry no trains that weekend either. Services are down for maintenance. I’ve been travelling this line for 40 years now. Once upon a time things were simple. Now booking is becoming a headache. If there are problems it’s because non prestigious lines have been neglected for the TGV, high speed trains on major lines which of course are more prestigious for the government.

I imagine I’ll be reduced to trying  BlaBlaCar with some unknown driver. That is if I succeed in using my Smartphone  app and there is in fact a driver going in my direction at the right time. I no longer drive, in fact I loathe being driven by anyone else as well.

So much for the Macron Presidency!  It’s already broken down in my opinion.

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Perhaps Macron, the Pure (and Innocent?) is waking up to the world of Realpolitik.

France has fought 3 wars against the Germans and yet his first foreign visit is to Merkel; following in the footsteps of Holland and Sarkozy. Why not wait a decent interval, or let her come and do the courting, after all he is not averse to older women?

So the business with Bayrou is nothing but a storm in a teacup, played up by journalists on the watch for any story of doom.

As the United Kingdom is indeed heading to its own destiny, probably at the bottom of the ocean blue, having chosen the lesser of two evils, being caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

So also France is heading into the Great Unknown, led by an untested youth, (at least in the eyes of someone born before the war (2^nd World War) and was stationed in Berlin before the wall was put up let alone before it was torn down.

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Chivalry no longer exists in young boys in France.

The  other day I was walking through a small deserted park with my 7 year old grandson when we heard some child calling out for help.

We looked around but couldn’t see any toddler in difficulty but finally noticed a young girl of about 11 or 12 up in one of those wooden contraptions they build for kids nowadays. Rope type ladders to climb up and then poles to slide down with a wooden house type thing at the top.

This girl was in a state and steadily getting worse. She was stuck out holding onto a pole but was afraid to swing onto it and couldn’t get back on to the platform. Panic had taken hold of her.

I asked her what the trouble was and she wanted her mother who wasn’t around; in fact nobody was around.

I asked my grandson what we should do. A shrug of the shoulders and a remark to the effect of leaving her stuck up there and that we should continue on our way. I don’t think he is particularly callous, probably just not interested in the fate of strange girls. After all a boy would never get himself in such an embarrassing situation.

So I had to climb up the rope lattice work, age limit 8, hoping it would not break my age being 78, and help the girl down.

Obviously in this age of equality chivalry is doubtless considered a macho characteristic and is not taught in school. 

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The two aspects of France somehow living side by side.

I went to see my cardiologist this morning for my annual check up. I had made my appointment a year ago at the end of my last check up. Short of collapsing in the street with a heart attack one is advised to fix the date a year in advance.

A very pleasant woman, she asked if I minded an intern being present. A young girl who didn’t look much out of her teens.

I forgot about the hour and a half in the waiting room. Whilst I was there I noticed the other five people present; two other men and three women. I also noted that all of the men were wearing highly polished proper shoes. The women were also wearing good quality shoes. I’m so used to seeing people wearing “des baskets” on their feet it was a pleasant surprise. I've even seen people wearing "des baskets' to funerals. I think they used to be called ‘plimsols’ when I was at school. I doubt that anyone born after the war knows what that means. We wore them for gymnastics. I imagine there is quite a decent class of people at my cardiologists, albeit of a certain age.

In the mean time the world goes on in France. For French politics I think we may now apply an American word. MAD. Mad as in a “Mad Hatter” but also in the American sense of Mutually Assured Destruction. That's where all the parties are headed. Well perhaps one will survive and that will really mean the destruction of the 5th Republic if nothing else.

A case of police brutality at a politically sensitive time leading to the usual riots in the down and out suburban immigrant estates.

An explosion at a nuclear plant this morning, which even if not nuclear will open a whole knew kettle of fish. I woder what the English living near Hinkley Point will think about it. One shouldn't have to worry about such things in rural Somerset.

No wonder it takes so long to get an appointment with a heart specialist.

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EUROPEAN NATIONALITY? Now what might that be?

EUROPEAN NATIONALITY

I heard something strange on TV some years ago. It was about a legal process concerning Disney land Paris. They had been taken to court by an organization called SOS Racism which promotes equal rights.

Evidently Disneyland had put out an ad a few years ago looking for new employees. In the ad they required the candidates to be of European Nationality.

Allowing for misunderstandings in translation I hope that meant of a European nationality and not European nationality. Apart from the fact I’ve never heard of such a nationality I would not accept its existence. It would mean a European State.

Now it is quite normal that they would require candidates to be European. One would hope they do not seek to employ non Europeans inside Europe. Illegal immigrants perhaps?

Now why would that be racist? What has race got to do with nationality? I am British (Nationality). I live in France where the citizens have French nationality.

Now if the ad had stated “of a European race”, once one had been able to decipher what that was it might have showed discrimination against other races. I mean one could say Caucasian. Of course the Caucasus is not in Europe and therefore Caucasians are not of European nationality although they might be of the same race as many Europeans.

I am English, or Irish or Scots or whatever. Not Welsh though. Now are those races or nationalities. British is a nationality. It is the only word that binds all the peoples of the British Isles together. That is when they’re not fighting each other or playing rugby.

Is there a French race or is the word Gallic? I always call them a Gallic people living in France, although most seem to come from Africa these days. Maybe I’m not allowed to say that.

In any case I am not at all racist. I am sometimes nationalistic, particularly when watching rugby. I do think though it would be illegal for Disneyland to employ anyone not of a European nationality so I think SOS Racism is barking up the wrong tree. But maybe I’m not allowed to say that either. That might cast some doubt on the species of its members which might or not be considered as racism.