(iwmpop-mr le marquis) I'm asked occasionally whether France is still all about the things "traditionally French" - you know, Pastis, Vin, Fromage, Frogs legs, snails and so on..... Well - the area I live in - Deep South, is probably even more so, due to the climate (normally) - sunny, warm, hot, not a lot of rain, but when it does rain - it hurtles down, normally short but extreme. After the rain, comes the sun, and thousands of people out in the fields, because collecting snails is best done after rain! So - to that extent, France is still as it was. Just a few pictures of France and elsewhere! On the other hand, gone are the days when the French mechanic in the old, run down, cobwebby garage would take a hammer (of differing sizes - depending on the seriousness of the problem) and attack your car's motor - generally with success! Nowadays, like every where else, they wheel out a portable computer, plug it in and get the problem immediately! Even finding o...

(me!) I'm just getting all my old bits and pieces together, and I came across this, and a lot of others. I thought I'd publish it so you know what pleasures may await you - in a distant future....! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> As I recall, I was getting nowhere very fast with my story, so let’s go back to a district called “College” near Paisley in Scotland, around October 1946. This is Scotland in October, at the end of October indeed. There is no question of “planet warming” gases heating us up, too early – the industrials haven’t really got going, and so I decided to get myself born! Actually, I don’t recall exactly, but I think I didn’t have a great deal of choice in the matter, or I would without question have chosen a different place, a different family and a different moment to set head (it seems every baby puts ...

The "onion-man": The onion man fears none of these étapes! I've just been watching the French TV News, and to my astonishment, they had a report about FRENCH ONION MEN...French tradition in Britain! You know - those guys who turned up once a year in UK, mainly in Scotland, on their bicycles, dressed in berets, French flag neckerchiefs, and the handlebars of the bike covered with onions which they sold at horrendous prices! Sceptics said the onions came from the local farmer in Scotland, but us kids knew much better..... They were sort of "local heroes" at the time, we all firmly beleived they were tough, hardy French stock, after all - they had come all the way from France on their bikes...! I thought these guys must have died a death a long time ago, but no...they still love their job - and drinking tea with bored Scottish housewives - and who knows what else...! What a disappointment to see on this report that they actually arrived, bikes and onions, in big va...

Interesting - in my researches on Google, I fell on this link! Old stuff, but I don't think I ever published it on this site! Well - it's done now........ Centre Ville story by mr. le Marquis who lives in France">a Centre Ville story by mr. le Marquis who lives in France Adventures – not so long ago! I remember a time (like many of you, without doubt) not so long ago, when a voyage was an adventure. In the space of a couple of days, within Europe, we changed systems, languages, currency, standards of living, among many other things. I recall when even a trip to France was fraught with problems, difficulties, amusing situations, dangerous situations. Starting with the very vehicle we were using, which then were not really up to scratch for such voyages. Their reliability was limited, if you were coming from UK, the steering wheel was (and still is) on the wrong side of everything (roads, petrol pumps, motorway payment booths etc). Sometimes one wondere...

A slightly "down memory lane" article. This is Matt Busby, known later as "Sir" Matt Busby, and known eternally as the maker of "Busby Babes" the name given to the Football (Soccer) team he put together in the '50s. Made up of mainly young and relatively unexperienced players, whose transfer price and wages, annually, would not nowadays equal the price of the transfer fee demanded and paid for one player by many Clubs! Do you remember 50 years ago this week? What were YOU doing? It's similar to assassination of President Kennedy, everybody recalls, even if vaguely, where and how they received the news of the "Munich Disaster" in that dreary, rainy day in February 1958. The "babes" had been off to play in Europe, and on their return flight crashed at Munich. I recall that I had never heard of Munich at the time (something I made up for in later life), and I recall that We heard the news, partly, on one of those popular Radios of ...