Nickers!

The theme from the last blog continues, simply because the subject keeps cropping up in conversations with friends, relatives and in the media.  This has now brought into sharp focus for me one of the hitherto vague reasons people like us uproot ourselves and emigrate to another country and another culture.  People here are much less likely to nick things, ergo French society has retained more of its respect for other peoples' property.  I'm not talking so much about the habitual criminal fraternities but rather the mentality of people who will 'lift' a portable object and walk off with it simply because it is momentarily unattended.

Since the last blog the self-employed antenna and satellite-dish-installer son-in-law of a friend working in the UK told us how first, his ladders were taken from the top of his van, then valuable tools stolen from inside.  As an aside we learned that the insurance wouldn't pay up because the van was deemed a 'workplace'.  He's an honest man but is sure he'll lie next time and say that the stuff was stolen from home so his household insurance should cover it.  Otherwise, another hit like that and he'd be out of business.

Yesterday my former professional colleague, still working as a Land Surveyor, had his work umbrella (a special piece of kit, used to protect the survey equipment) stolen when it was left unattended for a minute or two, 50 metres from where he was standing.  Our friends with whom we were dining when we heard the ladder story, told us how their English village church roof had its lead taken - an everyday occurrence now.  It will cost £140,000 to replace which had to be raised by voluntary funding, not to mention the extra £40,000 for the security arrangements, insisted upon by the insurance company, to guard the scaffolding as obviously, that too would offer an irresistible prize to the 'nickers'.

The final straw, prompting this outburst was to hear on the TV yesterday of an English doctor, whose car was stolen after stopping to attend a pensioner badly injured after being hit by a bus in Salford.  Read it here.

Apparently, sat-nav units in ambulances are now the latest craze - ripped out by opportunist thieves while the crew attends an accident victim.  Nice one.

Am I being smug?  After all, we live in a rural corner of France, 45km form the nearest city Brive-la-Gaillarde, population 49,000.  Rural France is 85% of her territory but only 27% of the population live there.  Are the French that bad in their cities?  It doesn't seem so from here.

Be that as it may, my 'quality of life' is enhanced by being able to leave my car unlocked in my garden, my fishing gear hanging outside in the porch, ever ready to use as soon as the fish start to rise, my bicycle outside, potted plants around the house, safe from marauding 

opportunist ne'er-do-wells.  Great Britain is, I believe, the third most densely populated island in the world behind Java and Japan.  Is that a reason?

Mapmaker

Bless 'em All

The long and the short and the tall.  They're still here, especially the tall, in other words, the Dutch.  One more week and the visitors will suddenly leave; the campsites will lose most of their clientèle and our town will start to look normal again.

At present however, the supermarkets are still thronged with our summer visitors, the Dutch, perambulating through them like brightly-coloured fishing floats, bobbing around, well proud of the swirling  surface created by the rest of us.

Why is it that the Dutch are so tall?  Our Dutch settler friends say they are largely from the north of Holland, but that doesn't explain why so many choose here for their holidays.  They also seem to make up the majority of those who have chosen the émigré life here in Xaintrie.  There must be a historical context there somewhere.

Speaking of supermarkets - I'm always amazed at how trusting they are here.  The two photographs were taken this morning.  Literally loads of stuff on display outside the main entrance; finely-tuned products for the summer visitors such as, tents, camping chairs, lilos, camp cooking equipment and lots, lots more.  All highly portable and totally un-monitored.  Not a single member of staff, let alone the beady-eye of the dreaded cctv camera.  People are left to choose what they want, then take it inside to purchase it.  Those who subsequently walk off with their choice without paying (and there must be some) are not contemplated by the management.  People are trusted to do the right thing.

Unlike the UK.  The surveillance society there doesn't want to take their monocular off the naughty public for one second.  And for good reason, they say.  Britain is now a nation of nickers.  People will nick anything.  A few weeks ago, listening to the BBC Today program we heard of the latest UK klepto craze due to the world shortage of metals.  Never mind your church roof with its covering of grey-gold (lead) - thieves are now carrying off whole bus-stop shelters.  Lots of good stuff there for the scrap merchant.

I wonder if it has occurred to the spying authorities in Britain that people might behave better if they were trusted to do so.

It seems to work here.

Mapmaker.