Temperatures have been soaring, so many forests are brittle dry. The fire over the past few days on over 500 hectares of forest just outside Bordeaux has been substantial by any standards, while at the beginning of this week, near Frejus in Provence, when 30 hectares caught fire, 10, 000 holidaymakers on nearby camping sites had to be evacuated.
Huge electrical storms have been raging in Corsica and last weekend, when a family was walking on a trail between Ajaccio and Bastia, they were caught up in a fierce storm, with the man of the family killed by lightning. The town of Tende in Provence, right on the Italian border, has just been given the status of a natural disaster zone, which means that home and business owners can now claim for all the damage caused during three days of violent storms last November. But under the new declaration, they have a mere 10 days in which to lodge a claim with their insurance companies. At least, at the moment, the Train des Merveilles is busy on its one round trip a day between Nice and Tende, a real delight for tourists.
As if all that wasn’t enough, off the coast of Saint-Nazaire in the north- west of France, a 3.9 magnitude earthquake has shaken the area. But that’s nothing compared to what might happen in the San Francisco Bay area. It’s 147 years since the last major earthquake on the Hayward fault. Since it usually produces a huge earthquake every 140 years, the next big one is well overdue and the experts say it’ s going to be a ginormous one.
The Swiss Air Force has got itself into a ridiculous scrape while trying to help some dehydrated cows the other day. It took water from Lac Rousses in the Jura, which turned out to belong to France. The Swiss asked permission from the French Air Force, when they should have asked local authorities before helping themselves and the cows, so now a ridiculous storm has broken out over Switzerland ‘stealing’ water from France!
Talking of water, another kind of revolt has broken out, this time in Paris, where the so- called ‘dames pipi’, or ladies in search of a loo have been protesting at the severe lack of public conveniences for women in the French capital.
Mind you, many parts of France itself could do with some more water. Over 50 departments now have water rationing in place. Yet despite all these water shortages, this summer has seen a spate of drownings, one of the most recent being of a 12 year old English school girl on a school trip to the Massif Central. She and friends were standing on a lakeside pontoon when it collapsed. A major catastrophe was remembered the other day, the 15th anniversary of the Concorde crash at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, which spelt the end of supersonic travel, at least for the immediate future.
The summer being summer, France also has its big traffic jams. Last Saturday was the first big chassécroisé, when traffic coming back from holidays meets traffic going in the other direction. The end result was 510 km of tailbacks. There was also a bad coach crash in the Nord- Pas-de-Calais region, when a Spanish bus taking young people from Bilbao to Amsterdam ploughed into the entrance of a tunnel that was too low for it, shaving off the roof and causing many serious injuries. All the farmers’ roadblocks around the country have made matters worse, now added to with roadblocks on the frontiers with Germany and Spain to prevent food imports. Last week, the government came up with a €600 million aid package for farmers, but it seems to have merely heightened the farmers’ discontent.
Tobacconists, too, have been joining in the fray, protesting against the plans for plain cigarette packaging. The red symbol seen outside tobacconist’s shop resembles a carrot, so what did the tobacconists do except dump four tonnes of carrots outside Socialist Party headquarters. And just to add another looming protest; the 30, 000 police in Paris are angry because their free travel, for both officers on the beat and back room workers, is being taken away.
There were more protests, too, in Provence, about the Saudi royal family getting the public beach sealed off, for their use, at Vallauris-Golfe Juan. No matter that the Saudi entourage arrived in such numbers it meant a lot of extra business for the local tourism business. Then the Saudis caused further outrage because they said they wouldn’t accept any female police officers in the security cordon on the beach for their stay. Brigitte Bardot has been causing a lot of fuss, too; the St Tropez based former film star, now big into animal rights, has been making much adverse comment about Australia’ s plans to cull two million feral cats. French opposition member of the national assembly, mostly from Sarkozy’ s Republican party, have also created a storm, by going to Russian- occupied Crimea on a supposedly fact finding mission.
With all these ongoing protests, the news about the economy isn’t so good. St Tropez should be booming at this time of year, but instead, it’ s got lots of empty shops and restaurants. High rents and other adverse factors have meant that places that have closed down haven’t been taken up for the busy summer season.
High temperatures have brought other hazards, too, like mosquitoes, which are now prevalent in 20 departments in the south, bringing the risk of dengue fever and a viral disease called Chikungunya, which has a mortality rate of just under one in 1,000. No vaccine has been developed against it. And the other night, a father of one, Stéphane Bredin, went out into his garden in the Jura to clear a wasps’ nest. Despite wearing protective clothing, he was so badly stung that he collapsed and died on the spot.
One perennial complaint in France is about poor quality service in shops, where it’ s often said that the people behind the counter care far too little about the people in front of the counter, their customers. An investigation by the data protection watchdog, the CNIL, has proved the point. It found that the electrical goods retailing chain, Boulanger, had been falling down on the job by allowing staff to key in insults about their customers on the company database. Over 5, 000 insults were found, exhausting the French vocabulary on the subject. Customers were called everything from connasse ( bitch) to casse couille (ball breaker) . The company has been given three months to clean up its data base, otherwise, it faces legal action.
A popular feature on French television, the Guignols d’ info show on Canal+, uses puppets to take the piss out of politicians. It’ s been very popular for years, but now, many people are relieved that the recent threat to close down the show has turned out to have been an empty threat.
Despite everything, innovation is still to the fore. Last Sunday, a world record for the number of hot air balloons in line was set at Meurthe- et- Moselle in eastern France, when 433 hot air balloons took to the skies. They came from over 40 countries; some of the French ones were very clever. One balloon was shaped like a French chateau, another like a bottle of Champagne and yet another like Obelix, the cartoon character.
Further innovation will happen at the start of next year, when France will be transformed into 13 super regions, a 50 per cent cut in the present number. But when I saw a map in a publication here in Ireland of the existing regions in France, I burst out laughing. What should have been Midi- Pyrénées came out as Midday Pyrenees, certainly a literal translation, but not what it should have been!
Another piece of innovation concerns the nuclear industry. At present, 75 per cent of the electricity generated in France is produced in nuclear power stations. Within the next 10 years, that percentage is set to fall to 50 per cent, offset by a big rise in renewable energy. That should create 100, 000 new jobs over the next three years, besides setting the right tone for the huge climate change conference due to be held in Paris at the end of this year.
But one of France’s top retail brands in under threat, Cartes Noires coffee. Italy’ s top coffee maker has offered to buy out the French firm.
France also continues to lose out in one of its main sporting attractions, the Tour de France. It’ s years since a French rider won the race, so it was rather humiliating that Chris Froome became the first Briton to win the race twice when he ascended the winner’ s podium in Paris on Sunday. He’s a great cyclist, full of stamina and determination, even if he’ s short in the charisma department. And he had to face a lot of hostility along the route of the race this year.
In European terms, 2015 and 2106 are shaping up for a repeat of 1968, and all the widespread political unrest that year, not just in Greece, but other countries, too, like Italy, Spain and Portugal, while the vote in less than a year’s time on whether or not the UK should stay in the EU, is compounding the sense of unrest and unease. In Ireland, where a general election has to be held before next April, the independents are way ahead of the big traditional parties.
Something else that’s on in Ireland at the moment is Galway race week. It’s a huge week long race meeting, always held at the end of July. It attracts huge crowds, but what no- one mentions in polite company is that it’ s also equivalent to the whores’ annual convention, so many pour into Galway city for the races, to do barnstorming business. They should have invited Lord Sewel, the disgraced former UK peer, with his apparent prediliction for snorting cocaine off the bare breasts of prostitutes. The whole episode has been hilarious, especially all the uptight reactions. If this had happened in France, everyone would have shrugged their shoulders, c’est la vie, and moved promptly onto the next scandal.
But at least Lord Sewel was dead right in his comments about David Cameron, the most superficial prime minister for many years, and Boris Johnson, whom he described as an upper class twit.
Here in Ireland, one comedian has been doing aparody of the government line that Ireland is the best small country in the world to do business. He says that it’s the best little country in the world for funny business, and take that as you want!
The Waterford Whispers website is parody taken to brilliant levels, so good that very often media outlets outside Ireland take it for gospel and run its satirical stories as straight news, especially in Germany! Very often, its satires seem more real than real life itself. One of its current pieces is about the launch of a two tier justice system in Ireland, one for the rich, the other for the poor. Many a true word spoken in jest! But the truth is that the top 10 per cent of earners in Ireland are accounting for a third of all earnings, leaving the remaining two thirds to squabble over what remains. Hardly a recipe for social equality!
Someone else who is really on the ball is 20 year SNP MP at Westminster, Mairi Black. I watched her maiden speech on You Tube and it was highly impressive; she spoke as if she’ s had years of political experience rather than just a few months. One her barbs was about Prime Minister’s Questions, when she said that the Tory members of parliament sounded like a drunken mob!
Someone else I was very impressed with was Melanie Reid, interviewed on Radio 4 the other day. In 2010, she broke her spine and neck in a riding accident. For nearly five years now, she has been writing a weekly column in The Times Saturday edition and it’s compulsive reading. She is a most impressive person in the way with which she has coped with her disability, and turned it into unforgettable prose along the way.
Meanwhile, whispers in the political air that Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, may not be long for the political world. Some political sources in Germany says that she is going to retire from her job running Germany and Europe some time next year. They’re already planning the parties in Athens to celebrate!
And if anyone isn’t so keen on Germany, just try the Netherlands. I’ve just been reading the results of a Dutch online survey which shows that the country is one of the worst in the world to be an ex- pat. People there are often said to be extremely unhelpful and unwelcoming for anyone new coming in to live in the country, while people often engage in vicious backstabbing behind the backs of newcomers. It all sounds thoroughly offputting for anyone thinking of moving there.
Perhaps they should all follow the example of the small village in Spain, population 300, which has just made headlines by giving dogs and cats the same rights as humans. Trigueros del Valle has certainly set an excellent example!