France

[Kingsway]

Is it not an unarguable fact that nothing any good ever came out of France? And now they are going to send us thunderstorms!

[$~Jeep~$]

Please forgive any already mentioned:

Champagne
Beaune
B�arnaise sauce

Claude Monet
Guy de Maupassant
Claude Chabrol

Jeanne Morreau
Yves Montand
Simone Signoret (born Germany)
Stephane Audran
Catherine Deneuve
Jean Paul Belmondo

[Evorg Enaj]

Booze cruises.

[dot.hawkes]

Why has noone said Sasha Distel? He was gorgeous and we only just lost him this last winter!!!!!!
I shall find a pic

[$~Jeep~$]

Personally I did not like him, dot. Big-headed, and "stole" Raindrops keep falling on my head, from B J Thomas!

[jake-the-peg]

Which is very different from the Ghurkas!

[Drusilla1S]

You ever heard of Napoleon?

[jno]

Napoleon was only just French... his family was Italian, but Corsica had been transferred from Genoa to France just before he was born. Some people reckon Joan of Arc wasn't born French at all.

[mata hati]

Well Kingsway, I live in France, and love every minute! and I would send round to you The Pioneer Corps from the French Foriegn Legion - lets see you rubbish France in front of them then !!!!

[Drusilla1S]

And Wellington was born in Dublin, jno, but I've never heard him described as an Irish hero.

[jno]

true, Drusilla, and a tricky question: Wellington's family was English but long settled in Ireland; but he became best known for British military and political achievements. Does that make him Irish? Wikipedia calls him Anglo-Irish and maybe that's fair enough. Napoleon has to count as French, but only in the sense that the borders were moved -born a year earlier, he would just as certainly have been Italian and probably have ended up running a pasta shop. Complex business, nationality and nationalism.

[Drusilla1S]

I'm glad my last answers on AB have been shared with you, jno. You've always been helpful, kind and an amusing participant. I'll miss you. My daughters and I are moving back to France during the summer and I'm going to be too busy to participate on AB any more. Best wishes and bye!

[heathfield]

Kingsway - I presume you aren't counting the ferry for Dover?

[Evorg Enaj]

Pierre Curie
Frederic Joliot
Irene Joliot-Curie
Henri Becquerel
Napoleonic Code

[jno]

extremely sorry to see you go Drusilla, I've much enjoyed chat...er, discussing things with you. Enjoy yourself in France, all of you!

[noxlumos]

Oh no Drusilla, don't go! I too will be very sorry to see you leave, we've had some very good, and occasionally heated, debates and you're always forthright, reasonable and intelligent in your postings, which is getting rarer and rarer round here. Have a lovely time in France though with your girls and pop back when you can, if you can.Take care.

[Kingsway]

What a wonderful range of answers. Years ago the statement "Nothing any good ever came out of France" was quite ordinary - children were taught that France could be England's enemy but never a friend - they would always let you down. There was a popular seaside postcard showing two workmen walking down one side of a street and someone with a beret and onions round his neck slouching up the other side with the caption:
"Ee's a foriner aint he, Bill?"
"Yus"
"Well 'eave arf a brick at 'im".
And now Maurice Chevalier with "Thank heavens for little girls" would be locked up, vilified and on a register ! Are things better today? Thats another question !! God Bless.

[shaneystar2]

Sorry to hijack your thread Kingsway but
...Hi Drusilla....have just been browsing and came across this thread where you say you are moving to France ..Just want to wish you Bonne Chance and hope you will soon be back on AB.

As for the French ...I had neighbours in London for twenty years who were French ..lovely people ....we always had a great time in their back garden on Bastille Day .Plenty of vin and superb food and we still keep in touch.

[Kingsway]

Not at all, shaneystar. All of my family are fluent French speakers - I worked in France on and off and in Algerie for many years. But "nothing any good ever came out of France" was confirmed by their thunderstorms over here today - some noise but very little of the much more important rain !!!

[shaneystar2]

Very true Kingsway ..we have had faint rumblings here in Norfolk ..but as for a good steady downpour ...nothing . One or two showers which last about two minutes and that's it !
My lawn looks like the Gobi desert .!
Vive la france !

[ScreaminTree]

Alas, Kingsway, it is far from unarguable. I love rubbishing the Froggies outwardly - with my tongue firmly in my cheek I hasten to add - with the old "arrogant, cheese - eating surrender monkeys" schtick, but when you really think about it...: Serge, Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, Francois Truffaut, Audrey Tatou, Juliette Binoche, Jean Louis Trintignant, Moliere, Asterix the Gaul, the Resistance, Rousseau, Descartes etc. It's not a bad roll call is it?
If they didn't exist, they would have to be invented, but godammit, I may even like them.