rather absurd claims by President Hollande in the course of his July 14th
address to the nation that the country is actually on the path to economic
recovery.
Graphic accounts of the slide in business at the Marché aux Puces, the great antiques venue in Paris, where photographs show near deserted alleyways at a time of year when the place should be packed with
buyers. The sellers complain that consumer spending has fallen off the
proverbial cliff this year; people just don’t have the money to spend on fripperies like antiques and other knick-knacks. Just in time for Bastille Day, Fitch, one of the big international ratings agencies, decided that France should lose its triple A rating. Hardly any wonder that this year, Paris got a
cut price Bastille Day parade, although the Patrouille de France, with its red, white and blue jet trails, did make its customary mark on the sunny skies above Paris.
Quite apart from France, other troubles pile up in the EU. Luxembourg has just lost its long serving prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, in an unlikely spy scandal in this tiny country that’s little more than an adjunct to Belgium and the Netherlands. Until his resignation, he had been the longest serving pm in the EU. In Spain, prime minister Mariano Rajoy is fighting off serious corruption charges, as the recession in Spain continues unabated.
Troubles continue unabated in France. On Wednesday of last week, one of the grand mansions on the Ile St Louis in central Paris caught fire during building work-funny isn’t it just how many fires break out in the middle of reconstruction or refurbishment work? The Hotel Lambert on the Ile St Louis is one of the great houses on the small island in the middle of the River Seine, close to Notre Dame cathedral. The house had been bought five years ago by the Emir of Qatar - Middle Eastern money is as evident these days in Paris as it is in London-and a multi-million restoration project was under way at this national monument when a fire started underneath the roof.
Then came the train crash last Friday at Brétigny-sur-Orge, just south of Paris, when a Corail Intercity express from the Gare d’Austerlitz to Limoges came off the track as it was going through the station. It all seems to have been due to an entirely preventable accident and even President Hollande commented that SNCF, the State-owned railway company, should put more money into the maintenance and upkeep of non-TGV services. The TGV lines have attracted plenty of investment money over the years, which is only right and proper, but not correct if it has been at the expense of other railway operations. France still has a massive railway network and there are few parts of the country that one can’t reach by train. Train crashes in France are fortunately very much a rarity and
in the 32 years that the TGV has been operating, no passengers have been killed or even seriously injured. It’s an impressive record. Yet I have scary memories of the time we were travelling from the south of France to Paris on a TGV. Just hours before we had caught the train, several bombs had exploded at the main railway station in Marseilles and there was always the possibility that more
could have gone off on the train, but thank heavens, they didn’t and we arrived safely at the Gare de Lyon, only to be met by a typical French experience. Theres weren’t enough taxis at the station and we had to wait for an hour in the taxi queue.
The disaster on the Paris to Limoges express was horrendous - I’ve been in a train crash, so I know exactly what it’s like, a shock to the system that one can never forget. Yet such is the nature of modern media that for a couple of days after the crash last Friday, the story was all over the media, both in France and internationally, then disappeared totally off the radar. Not a word about the octogenarian couple from the town where the accident happened; they had the misfortune to be on the platform when the train derailed and were both killed. Not a word more about their fate - just one more example of how utterly useless the mainstream media is at reporting what’s going on. So many newspapers these days, both in their printed and online versions, are so utterly irrelevant, reporting on stories that are of little use to their readers and completely omitting to report stories and trends that would be relevant. I often say that having a gossipy conversation with a neighbour about what’s going on in the district is often far more revealing and relevant than anything one reads in a newspaper.
One should always read behind the headlines - what’s the real story. Much public relations noise in France at the moment about the tourist figures for last year. It turns out that in 2012, 83 million tourists visited France from all over the world, making it yet again, the world’s most popular tourist country. The figures were even up on 2011, when 81.4 million tourists visited. It means a great deal to the French economy, about €35 billion annually, but as one cynic (realist?) pointed out, it’s hard to understand just why so many people come to holiday in France. The country is grossly over-priced
(other countries like Spain offer much better value for money) and the whole idea of customer service is a nasty American invention that can never be allowed to sully the French way of life. I remember once going to the SNCF desk at Roissy airport, only to find that the workers were on a go-slow, and even though they didn’t have any customers to deal with, it took the best part of an hour before they deigned to answer some fairly straightforward queries. Stories of similar poor customer service still abound across France, so I always find it amazing that so many tourists continual to travel there
regardless.
But at least I found one piece of good news this week. As readers of this blog know, I have a particular soft spot for the artistic seaside town of Collioure in south-west France, close to the frontier with Spain, Barcelona next stop. Having been to practically every seaside resort on the coast of mainland France, Collioure remains my number one choice. When we were there, we stayed at the Hotel Mediterranée, on the road that leads to the station. At the time, it was a fairly basic structure, like walls in the bedrooms made from undecorated breeze blocks, yet even in its basic state, it was
perfectly adequate and very reasonably priced. Now I see that the hotel has just done a big makeover on itself and the transformation is astonishing, with all the rooms now looking very chic and comfortable, with all mod cons. Yet the prices are still very reasonable, with a room for two people starting at €100 a night and breakfast at €10 a person.
In recent years, Collioure has started to make its mark winewise, with some excellent vintages from the vineyards on the hillsides around the town. Marks & Spencer is just one of the wine retailers that’s now selling Collioure wines. Talking about wines, the results of a recent blind tasting of blush wines in London made for interesting reading. It was found that lighter rosée wines from outside Provence, from wine regions like Bordeaux and Sancerre, more than held their own against darker rosé wines from Provence. The latter region is the traditional home of rosé wine making in France and while to be fair some of its offerings just can’t be bettered, it’s good to know that other regions can do as well, if not better.
And on another agricultural subject, this time rather more down to earth, natural fertiliser. Britanny in north-west France is renowned for its seaweed, which often creates a nauseous smell for holidaymakers in the region. Brittany produces about 80 per cent of the seaweed harvested in France
and half of the production in Brittany is in north Finistere. A new factory has opened in this part of Brittany and it claims to have made huge reductions in the smell factor. The seaweed it processes is used by local farmers. In several parts of Brittany, what were once small villages for seaweed gatherers have now been converted for tourist use. In one such village, Le Meneham, what were once
sturdy houses built for customs officers in the early 19th century, complete with slated or thatched roofs, are now used for tourist accommodation. They feature the traditional Breton box beds, the lits clos. Nearby, the village inn features a harvest of the sea menu. Brittany is one of the best places in
France to get close to and explore the heritage of the sea.
Talking of heritage reminds of the one left by a French banker, Albert Kahn, who made untold millions for himself, as bankers tend to do, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Yet unusually, he was also a philanthropist and internationalist. He spent vast sums
of money financing photographic expeditions around the world. Teams of photographers went to more than 50 countries around the world, often photographing places that were on the cusp of great change, from predominantly rural communities to 20th century mechanised societies. The photographers ventured as far as Mongolia and Brazil, and brought back an amazing collection of
images, 72,000 in all. Nearer home, in places like France, England and Ireland, the images from just over a century ago, are equally fascinating to look at. What made the project even more interesting is that this was the wide scale use of colour photography. The images from the First World War are made even more realistic and gruesome through the use of colour.
His mansion at Boulogne-Billancourt on the outskirts of Paris now houses the museum that
preserves the photographic work he financed. Kahn himself was only photographed formally on one occasion; the image shows him outside his office on the rue de Richlieu in Paris in 1914. By 1929, Kahn was still one of the richest men in Europe, but the Wall Street crash that year wiped out his fortune and put an end to all the photographic expeditions he had been financing. Kahn died in
1940, just as the Second World War was set to engulf France itself. At the museum, you can also explore the eight hectares of gardens, which show what gardening techniques and designs were like in the early 20th century. The museum is easy to reach by public transport, Métro, bus and tram. It’s at the end of the Number 10 line on the Métro, at Pont St-Cloud and the entrance fee to the museum
is astonishingly easy on the cash, a mere €4 for the full entry fee.
All this treasures are just one reason among countless thousands as to why so many people still come to and enjoy France. The Albert Kahn museum itself is an unforgettable experience.
And I can’t miss the opportunity to end on a slightly cynical note, as is my wont! During the
conclusion of a trial in Scotland, this week, a woman who ran a multi-million pound vice empire based in Edinburgh was convicted and sent to prison for five years. Her manager suffered a similar fate and it turned out that he had plenty
of financial expertise-he was a former bank manager!