Paging the layabouts

What complete and utter bollocks. It's about what you like - not what
you think you should be seen to be eating and drinking.

 

You won't find any decent Calva in rural café here (Castillon la
Bataille, near Saint-Emilion), so it is better to try local fine products.

However someone whom will be fine with industrial-strenght donkey pee
would be sorted all the same everywhere, and probably won't GAF about how
he looks anyway.

 

Right. We used to buy it in France, too. Coffee's still remarkably
cheap in France (real, not that instant muck). Not much else. As I
said, it's more for buying stuff you can't easily get in the UK. Plus,
as Catman says, it's fun.

I was on a press junket in Barcelona the other week, and all the
Europeans were saying how amazingly cheap London is for them now. "A
pint of beer for just three euros!"

In the old days, when a quid was worth a euro and a half (or before
that, when it was worth 10 francs), some things were still worth the
Continentals buying over here. Children's clothes, for one (no VAT).
And, oddly, books or indeed, anything printed/written. No VAT either,
because it's considered a tax on free speech. It always amuses me when
the Frogs trumpet their presumed freedom of expression, because the
stock answer is: "Well, at least we don't tax ours."

I'd imagine that things like this, which had a duty advantage to begin
with, have now become even better value.

 

For the Dutch, it's books, as they still have the Net Book Price
agreement. Of course, it only works if they want books in languages
other than Dutch, as it's pretty hard to find those elsewhere.

 

ITYF it's more to do with being unlikely to find a *decent* Calvados on
the outskirts of Armagnac / Congac.


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Available for £6.50 in the pub down the road, however. Makes justifying
the trip that much harder.

 

I do miss the coffee. Used to by kilos and kilos of it.

<Lady Nina>

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Yeah, he's right. We used to go with a couple of friends and the
distaff side always had to have several FOAD packs of washing gear
(powder or liquid, Idon'tR) whereas the rest of us were laden with beer,
wine, cheeses and caramelised peanuts - oh, and cashews which cost the
same per kilo as the tiny packs in pubs over here.

As long as we sat her fat arse on the same side as the Artiel, the car
sat level on the way home. Level side-to-side, not front-to-rear,
obviously. Should we ever have been stopped, I'd have levered her out
of the car, pointed and told plod she was the cause of the suspension
sitting on the bumpstops. Speedbumps in the port were always a bit
scrape and go.

 

Heh.
Tha's me.

 

Meh. I obviously never did any washing

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You're totally missing the point.

Granted you have some excellent local produce, but people do not have
to drink it if they don't want to - it's all down to personal taste.
It's quite possible they prefer donkey pee and don't want some
sanctimonious personage telling them what they can or cannot have with
what.

 

Thankfully, the whole issue is moot, IME, as the French really don't
give a shit what you drink, where, with what, at what time of day. You
want it, you can have it, end of.

Although I must admit to sharing the waiter's perturbed look one time
when an American colleague ordered coffee as an apertif...

 

Oh indeed.
You're going to get a better choice of the local firewater though.
Personally I try to keep local if I can. Apart from anything, why drink
something I can drink anywhere [1]

Heh.

[1] Unless it's something I *really* like, that is.
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Mug of tea, milk and sugar. aperitif
Another mug of tea, milk and sugar, with the main course.
Finally a mug of tea, milk and *2* sugars, as a cheeky digestif.

 

An american I was once married to used to drink café au lait as an
aperitif, or at any rate before meals. It was a bigger test of my cultural
tolerance than not kissing friends in Iran.

 

You're right, in the last year, NI is full of blind, lost paddies
driving like twats.

I'm praying for a surge on sterling, but I may be disappointed ...

Paul.

 

The only thing I found 'appreciably cheaper' apart from beer and wine
was Motor oil. Used to come back with 20 or so litres of the stuff.
Always branded stuff (ELF, etc) but that's changed now. This year I
had to settle for some Carrefour own brand semi synth. The rest was
silly money.

Paul.

 

Bizarre, isn't it.

Male friends? <shudder>

I have enough problems working out who to kiss, and how many times[1],
when just dealing with females. The whole 'men kissing hello' thing
turns my stomach.

[1] Normally three in Switzerland, two in France, but if you're in
Switzerland greeting a French women, or vice versa, which rule
applies? And female British friends tend more towards a single kiss
and hug, but what if they've also lived over here for years? It's a
minefield, I tell you.

 

You get used to it in Italy. Big hugs and big kisses. None for me
though, only between fellow Italian blokes.

heh. They tend to be air <mwah's> though.

Paul.

 

Kissing males intra-family is common. Close male friends is also
common. Close work colleagues sometimes too.

I got quite used to it in some Arabic countries.

I don't see why you see it as a problem though. It's not as if they're
going to shag you afterwards [1]. The only thing that puts me off
sometimes if bad breath (IME women very rarely have bad breath).

Depends where in France. In Paris, it's supposed to be 4, some other
areas three and even two. I always do 4 as I like to take advantage

Even with English (or other foreign) female friends, I still do 4 and
just explain that it's because I'm living in Paris. 'tis a minefield
though.

[1] Well, in Saudi they might.