In looking forward to the end of the French holidays?

I have to speak up on behalf of the Caravan/ Motohome fraternity. You can pay at least £30 a night to put your Caravan/Motohome on a site. In some of them they will add about £2.50 per person on top.
To add insult to injury some sites are so crowded you can shake hands ( without stepping outside) with the people next door. And if you want electricity, that's on top of price.

I love it when the students return. The average age of the population halves and the place hums. Even tesco cheers up. They tend to be a bit okay yahish at first but then calm down.

We have the opposite 'problem' as the population of our town seems to double during the university terms. Lots of people moan about having a town full of lively young people and disregard the benefits that they bring. I love having lots of lively people about.

My BiL has recently married a lovely French lady and they live in Paris. Throughout August they have travelled extensively to get away from the holiday makers. Thinking about it perhaps we could borrow their apartment next year; I don't mind being a 'Grockle'

I am on yet another holiday this week, staying with a good friend in the Charente, which is the next department to the Dordogne. Most of the summer visitors had left my village last weekend, and I did feel a trifle sad to see the empty bar/restaurant - it was full of people talking and laughing the week before. Still, they will be back in December for the skiing.
After I leave here tomorrow, I am going to visit another friend near Tulle before map-reading my way back to the Alps. It has been very, very hot all week - I had to close the car windows yesterday because the 'breeze' coming in was so hot!

I just wish the Belgians were still on holiday, it was great here for 2 months, the Turkish and Morrocan residents were all away and the Belgians were all in France, Spain or Portugal (I lived there before here). lots of parking and if you avoided the city centre it was very quiet and peaceful, you can have them back anytime x oh and I like the Belgians but it is nice to almost get the place to yourself during July/August.

Tourists are very important, I agree. I am already learning to adapt, and not try to go to the supermarket at the weekend. Or to the beach until the evening. Not a problem - I now have all this all they year round!

Tourists are a lifeline to many beauty spots , GRanny

In my part of the world many good things would not be viable without the input of visitors. Highland Games, Galas, festivals, castles, gardens, cafes, restaurants, cinemas and theatres rely on tourists to swell the numbers and therefore the takings, which ensures that we can enjoy them too.

I love the word 'gumption', laidback. It was used a lot by my Salfordian dad! I enjoyed my road trip to Doubtful Sound on my last visit to NZ. In December, I am taking a week to tour North Island before I join my family on South Island. Much of it is more remote than the Alps - no roads and tiny scattered hamlets. I am looking forward to visiting Cambodia, China and Japan once I am a permanent resident. My other daughter lived in Malaysia for three years and I visited her several times. I know I can find good coral around the islands, such as Redang and Tioman.
I know that many people don't enjoy travel but I would like another whole lifetime to visit all the countries on my 'must see' list. I have done quite well in the last couple of years - England, Scotland, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Egypt.

I admire your gumption and determination greatnan. Seems you have always set your own path from what I have read. I believe NZ might just be vast enough to keep you busy when you eventually move! My next big project is to convince the SO that moving out of London will be life enhancing, we're too young to retire but I would'nt mind less money and more life.

I got chatting to a very pleasant French couple on my walk this morning - it helps to improve my French. We walked up a steep , rocky path for about an hour, then they decided they couldn't go any further - they live in the Loire valley so they were not used to the mountains. There were a few other parties of families and couples, but after another few miles they all dropped back and once again I was left in splendid isolation. I continued for another couple of hours without seeing a soul. The weather has been perfect now for several weeks, but it is a tad too hot for walking in the afternoon, so I try to get out early.

When - my daughter in NZ is the same as yours - she gets things done and all six of her children are hard workers - they know they can't expect their parents to provide everything for them.

Very interesting, Greatnan. You are a stoic Salford lass through and through! One of my daughters has your qualities - she's a really hard worker who has a knack of turning obstacles into opportunties. If someone says it can't be done, she gets that glint in her eye She can find an electrician or plumber who will turn up within the hour, a builder who will do a conversion next week, and she got a bank to expedite her remortgage so that her two-storey extension was started within a month of her having confirmation that she was having twins. She's like a whirlwind when an idea sparks!

That was really interesting Greatnan,and I admire your positive attitude to life.

I don't think you are being at all unreasonable in looking forward to the end of the French holidays. But that is because we think that all the French come to the Algarve for their holidays.
Because of lack of employment there has been mass emigration in the past, much of it to France. Because of the Napoleonic heredity laws many of these emigres have a claim on the family home and in August they return along with their bigger, newer cars, their smarter more fashionable clothes, their large families and their little yappy dogs!
Supermarket leaflets are full of ads for inflatable and folding beds, cheap pillows and camping gear. Then the French and their extended families take over the beaches and bars. You can almost hear the sigh of relief on the last Thursday in August when the long drive home starts.

And of course I'm being tongue in cheek too.

Laidback, I had worked for several years in Monaco and a year in Brussels, and had visited and holidayed in many areas of France. When I retired at 59 I knew I wanted to live in France, preferably in mountains. I had spent a wonderful walking holiday in the Pyrenees, near Lourdes, so I flew to Toulouse, having given myself two weeks to find a property. I took a wrong turn out of the airport and found myself heading West instead of East. I had lunch in the pretty town of Mirepoix and booked into a hotel there. I spent the next few days visiting estate agents and looking at small houses and exploring the area. One day, I parked in the little town of Quillan, about 50 kms from Perpignan, and there was an estate agent facing the car park. I went in and the Scottish lady who worked there offered to show me some properties in more remote places. It was a cold, rainy November day and she drove me up...and up...and up through ravines and gorges, beside a tumbling river, until we emerged in a large, sunlit valley. The little chalet was in a terrible state, with fungus growing in the shower, but it had a nice garden and was on a marked walking route into the mountains. I fell in love at first sight. I put in an offer, had it accepted, then asked at the local hotel in Axat if they could recommend a workman to renovate it. They gave me the number of the electrician who had rewired the hotel, and he agreed to meet me at the house and bring his friend the plumber. We decided what needed to be done and he let me have estimates within two days. I visited the local bank and was granted a mortgage for the renovations.

I then had six days before my flight home, which I spent driving from the Mediterranean coast across the Spanish Pyrenees, crossing back into France near Pau, at 9 pm, in a blizzard! It was a Saturday night and the town was full, but I found a tiny room in the Hotel Bristol. I was too tired to go out to eat, but the receptionist brought me a huge ham baguette and a jug of hot chocolate - it was one of the best meals I have ever had.

Once the buying process was completed, which took about four months, I went back to Quillan and rented a studio for a month, so I could nag Roger and Francois every day until the work was done. They were very good workmen, but rather too fond of the red wine which meant they were not up to working some days! My daughter and her family came to visit in August and Roger was just painting the last bit of the pine cladding the day before they arrived.

I lived there very happily for three years and my large family came out (in batches) several times. Then my daughter was disabled by an incompetent surgeon, lost her business and was about to lose her home, so I had to sell the house and lend her all the proceeds. I am a great believer in finding something positive in anything that life throws at me, so I decided to use the opportunity to rent in several different regions of France, until her medical negligence case was settled (it took seven years). I lived near Limoges in the Dordogne, near Cahors in Lot, in St. Cyprien Plage, near Perpignan, and in Haute Garonne near Toulouse. I used my rented properites as bases to explore the areas for about 200 kms around.

Once she was able to repay me, I decided to look at the Alps but by then, 2010, I was able to do my research on the internet. The Pyrenees are equally beautiful but I wanted to be more central to explore the rest of Europe. I set up appointments to view lots of flats before I flew to Geneva. I no longer wanted a garden or pool, because they need maintaining and the family that would have visited me had emigrated to New Zealand. Once again, I knew as soon as I saw this flat that it was the one for me. It is on the second floor of a chalet-style four-storey block, with a south facing balcony. The altitude is about that of Snowdon and the scenery around is stunning. I visit NZ for about seven weeks each year, in the depths of the Alpine winter, and I can just turn off the electricity and water, close the shutters and lock the door.

I had no intention of ever leaving here, but my daughter wants me to emigrate so she can 'keep an eye on me'. I have about three years to visit as much of Europe as I can!

Greatnan how did you find your little piece of paradise, were you on holiday?

The Dutch are resented here because they bring everything they need in their camper vans - the only thing they buy is petrol.

I may mutter about the tourists when they leave their litter and I can't drive anywhere but without them this area would have very little employment. Do like Winter though when I can drive down the prom. [Smile]

I love weaving my way around tourists in London - they bring lots of money. I grew up in a 'seaside town' the holidaymakers who clogged everything up were actually loved, they were the life blood of the town. When the go away, that's the time to worry.

When we lived in Cornwall there would always be one day in August when Truro was in total gridlock. Never did find out what made one day worse than another.

On the plus side we could go down to the beach in the evening and all the holidaymakers would have gone off for supper. We did find that many of the people who came in caravans and camper vans brought all their supplies with them and contributed very little to the local economy.

May I point out that I did not use any derogatory terms about our visitors - they are mainly very pleasant French families. I am an 'oik' myself, and I rather resent the term being used in this discussion, as it implies that I think of them in that light. I am not responsible for the way people in English beauty spots view their visitors. I don't grudge anybody their holidays but I will just be glad when peace returns.

I live by the back lane that leads into the park and woods, and people park on my tiny road rather than drive round to the car park, as they can walk through lovely surroundings into the park. It happens every time the sun shines. It's nice to know that visitors enjoy where you live, as long as they don't leave a mess that they wouldn't want by their house.

Well, following the debacle about my thread on the Stupid Footballer, I should have learnt my lesson about trying to post anything light-hearted!
I will stick to politics - it seems to create less angst!
I am, of course, unfailingly polite and helpful to visitors, apart from the dog owners who don't clean up - I have been known to glare and mutter.

There are some beautiful villages outside the town where I live and the residents whinge like mad about us oiks going there on Sundays - meanwhile, they come into MY town to shop, go to hospital, hairdressers, school, dine.....

Oh GN - yes I saw it was tongue in cheek which is why I used the term meanies- but as with most threads it then changed tone and I do get fed up with people who live in nice areas who do moan and mean it about the tourists - I have friends in the Lakes and Pembs and I am bored with their moaning! They both made choices to live in beautiful places and what do they expect? That barriers should be erected to keep the rest of us out?