a place in the sun, home or away

[stevewool]

well they are repeats but i do enjoy watching them, to me france still looks a fantastic place to live, if only i had the money

[Terpe]

I lived in France for quite some time.
In a very beautiful part of Alsace not too far from Strasbourg and just an hour drive from Basle airport.

I agree with you Steve, there's something about life in France and the potential for peace of mind.

I'm not sure how life is in these days, but I was always sorry to leave.

[gWaPito]

I was based in St Loubes Dept 33 My best working years were spent down there..life is still the same pace but much more expensive.

[grahamw48]

Big brother was in charge of the Embassy in Paris. He's bi-lingual French/English, but I've only actually set foot in the airport that Air France operates out of (on my way to Hong Kong or Manila)...can't even remember which one that was now. :Erm:

Too many blinkin foreigners in Europe.:NoNo:

[gWaPito]

In my day it was just French...the irony was, like the foreign truck drivers here, us few British drivers were getting similar treatment back then. .you see, the French drivers were only legally allowed to work a 45h week as apposed to us Brits we could legally work a maximum 85 hour week so you could understand them getting the hump. This is how the French company I worked for got around the problem. Set up hubs in UK them farm out it's British drivers to it's French depots. I ended up working out of Arras which I wasn't fond of. .it meant servicing what is now Eastern Europe. ..kack countries we equally bad weather.

[grahamw48]

I always fancied doing the European routes...even took and passed my HGV1 (as was), way back in the 70s, but chose a different path.

Not sure how much fun the coach tour drivers have.

Must be a lot easier now, with satnavs.

[gWaPito]

We used to meet up with coach drivers while being week ended ...the stories they told us. .definitely a single man's job. .the downside with the coaches the money was pretty useless so relied heavily on tips. It wasn't just money on offer either. ...trouble was, it didn't pay the bills back home. ..at least I was on good pay which compensated from (I thought) being away from home. That's another story :smile:

[grahamw48]

Yeah, I think that's why I was never attracted to the coaches...the money side of it. :smile:

I sometimes regret not joining the adventure my two mates invited me on back in the 70s.

They bought an Austin Champ and drove it (apart from Gibraltar/Morocco) all the way from Yorkshire down to South Africa....where they then found work. :smile:

[gWaPito]

You definitely more than made up for that one missed adventure in the 70s! :icon_lol:

[Arthur Little]

Too many blinkin foreigners in Europe. :NoNo:

:iagree: ... and all those different languages!!! That's why I say :Britain: has more in common with the Yanks than with any Europeans. But my son-in-law [a teacher] disagrees. :doh

[Arthur Little]

But my son-in-law [a teacher] disagrees. :doh

Mind you, his subject's Physics :icon_rolleyes: ... which, to ME, is akin to "Double Dutch"!! :biggrin:

[fred]

I lived in France for quite some time.
In a very beautiful part of Alsace not too far from Strasbourg and just an hour drive from Basle airport.

I agree with you Steve, there's something about life in France and the potential for peace of mind.

I'm not sure how life is in these days, but I was always sorry to leave.

We have friends in a village called kinzheim in Alsace..Do you know it? Its nr to Colmar.
They have a huge wine cellar but being French they only really drink wine at meal times..
That is until we visit!! He is a tourist guide in Haut Koenigsbourg chateau and he was often late for work due to my visits and our "wine tasting".. Fantastic wine IMO.
The village looked a bit German to me although he didn't seem to appreciate me mentioning it for some reason!!:icon_lol:

http://theworldinlight.com/images/Kientzheim/kientzheim-6100-large.jpg

[Terpe]

We have friends in a village called kinzheim in Alsace..Do you know it? Its nr to Colmar.


Sometimes it's a very small world.

Can't say I recall Kinzheim. But there are so many beautiful little villages/towns etc in the area.

I do know Colmar very very well! I would drive there almost every day :smile:

I lived in Turckheim which is just a very short drive from Colmar.
The whole area has fabulous foods, wines and amenities.
Great skiing too.

[grahamw48]

I have been invited on a 'petrolheads' road trip to the Nurburgring/Nordschleife, coming September. Some of my friends participate every year.

Also it has always been a dream of mine to go to the Spa race track in Belgium, but sadly, other demands on my money mean that neither is likely to happen. :cwm3:

[gWaPito]

I have been invited on a 'petrolheads' road trip to the Nurburgring/Nordschleife, coming September. Some of my friends participate every year.

Also it has always been a dream of mine to go to the Spa race track in Belgium, but sadly, other demands on my money mean that neither is likely to happen. :cwm3:
I must of woke up in a good mood. .that made me laugh :icon_lol:....you and me both Graham :icon_lol:....reminds me of that song 'always look on the bright side of life':icon_lol:
:xxgrinning--00xx3:

[grahamw48]

Yeah, I still have my pushbike. :icon_lol:

[grahamw48]

Perhaps I need to go back to my mundane life in Angeles. :cwm25:

I'm actually in this video. (no nakedness...sorry :biggrin:)

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6svvxHjTUM

[fred]

Perhaps I need to go back to my mundane life in Angeles. :cwm25:

I'm actually in this video. (no nakedness...sorry :biggrin:)

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6svvxHjTUM

:yikes:
:NoNo:

[grahamw48]

Oh, purely a public information film by the way...to alert board members to the dangers of straying into some of the less salubrious areas of the Philippines. :biggrin:

Also, be sure to check what that sweet girl on the dating site REALLY does for a living. :wink:

[fred]

Oh, purely a public information film by the way...to alert board members to the dangers of straying into some of the less salubrious areas of the Philippines. :biggrin:

Also, be sure to check what that sweet girl on the dating site REALLY does for a living. :wink:

:xxgrinning--00xx3:
Whew!!! You had me worried for a minute!!:icon_lol:

[RickyR]

France is an amazing country, although the taxes at the moment are horrific. I've spent a lot of time in the Cote d'azur and Provence area through work, where as soon as you get away from the tourist areas it's beautiful.
When I was on cargo ships we used to regularly load in a place called 'Honfleur' in Normandy, and is somewhere I'd really like to return to at some point.

[Michael Parnham]

Never been to Europe, in fact I never went abroad until I was 47, my vey first flight was to Hong Kong to meet my ex. I flew with Cathay Pacific.:wink:

[Pete/London]

My Dad had friends with a villa in a little South of France town called St Raphael with its own rocky beach, and we used to drive there in the late 50s/early 60s.
The most beautiful place in the world, the scents and smells of the trees and plants, lovely food from small cafe`s with music from live musicians, wonderful weather. Open air concerts at a Roman amphitheatre in Frejus nearby.
It used to take us 2 days to drive there on the national roads, mainly the N7 but sometimes we would go through the Alps on the Route Napoleon, a really beautiful part of the world. I would live their tomorrow if I could afford it, although change a bit now with loads of tourists and pestered by hawkers.

[grahamw48]

That does sound wonderful...the trip down there in those days too. :smile:

[grahamw48]

That does sound wonderful...the trip down there in those days too. :smile:

You didn't come across a load of youngsters on a London bus did you ? :biggrin:

[Pete/London]

No, only Cliff Richards :wink:
If you saw other British drivers you would wave or sometimes even stop to exchange road info.
You could go to the AA in Leicester square and they would provide you with these brilliant itinary pad books that were very detailed, with a map,all free for members.

[grahamw48]

Happy days, when motoring was an adventure. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

[Iani]

Hrmph something I never got about these tv programmes.......

There's another one called "Place in the Sun Down Under". Easy to guess what the aim of the show is - families thinking of emigrating to Australia are followed on a trial holiday, where they get to meet potential employers, are shown around houses they could buy and are introduced to people already living there.

Well, if you've seen this show (Some on here must have done), you'll know something they do at points throughout the show, is give the families little card flags - Aussie flag on one side, UK flag on the other - and they each hold up which side they prefer. So after seeing the houses say, they hold up their flags and say where they preferred to buy a property. After meeting employers they held up which employment prospects they preferred. Easy so far.....

Well the bit I just didn't get, is that on this show, family after family after family would decide they didn't like the locals, didn't like the houses, realised they wouldn't be getting paid too much.........but still at the end, they all gleefully shouted they chose Australia.

Riiiiight :icon_lol:

You have to have seen the show maybe to get where I'm coming from here, and the fact you just knew that even the ones who the trial holiday made realise life in Australia wasn't for them - they still insisted on going.

Maybe some people just need to get something out of their system - be it emigrating or whatever.

Maybe it's like the time years ago someone got my phone number after I part exchanged a car, and phoned me to ask what the car had been like as they were thinking of buying it.
Well even though I told them it had been costing me average £250 a month in repair bills for the last 6 months or more, they still said "so it's a good car then, we'll buy it". Some people just need saving from themselves

[grahamw48]

I know what you mean....seen the programme many times. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

As far as the cars go, well I positively rely on such people when selling my cars. :icon_lol:

[gWaPito]

My youngest sister left for Perth 7 years and still there. Had they not put all there eggs in one basket, they would thrown the towel in and come back. .so no choice, they've had to make it work. If they had there time again they would of gone in there twenties not forties.

Good post Ian. .Some people, me included :icon_lol: do need saving from themselves. .we go through life learning how to cope what life throws at us and just when we've thought 'I've cracked it' we're too bloody old to anything about it :doh.

[grahamw48]

Hmm...that sounds familiar. :Erm:

[gWaPito]

Hmm...that sounds familiar. :Erm:

:icon_lol: All we can do is laugh. Talk about youth being wasted on the young :icon_lol:
Btw. .For making me laugh I've sent you a rep.

[grahamw48]

hahaha...and thanks. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

Mate, my triumphs in life have only been exceeded by my disasters. Can't go back to the drawing board...there never was one. :icon_lol: