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George East - author

(2010)

"Good Morning, Thought you might like to know that George East's new book about Brittany - 'French Impressions: Brittany' will be published next week on 1st June 2010. A wonderful, humorous and entertaining travel book which is available at  www.George-East-France.com  where you can learn more about the author and his time spent in Brittany. The first in a series of French regions. Please find attached some details which you may like for your site. Many thanks in anticipation." Yours Francesca Brooks
 

Review

 La Puce Publications

Marketing & Sales Manager – contact/enquiries Francesca on  [email protected]

or telephone 02392 468181 for answerphone enquiries

Editor/ Reviewer Information Sheet

Title:     French Impressions – Brittany

Author: George East

The author:  

If anyone should know his onions about France and the French, it is or should be George East. His  books  and   newspaper  and magazine articles and TV and radio programmes on our nearest continental neighbours and their  intriguing country have been enjoyed by millions.

Now George has created a new type of travel book.

George East was born in Hayling Island and ran away to sea at an early age. He got as far as the Isle of Wight before jumping ship and  completing his education at Portsmouth Technical High School and  Big Charlie’s Snooker and Poker Academy. After completing one term of his degree course in English at Portsmouth Polytechnic (he was thrown out when it was discovered he had forged his ‘O’ and ‘A’ level certification), George tried his hand at a  number of occupations. Amongst others, his professions included private detective, brewer’s drayman, night  club  manager, disc-jockey and bouncer (often all at the same time),  snooker club  proprietor, hotel manager, male model for outsize womens’ clothing (for a certain shop catering for  men with a liking for  female attire), seamstress (for the  drag shop), pickled onion manufacturer,  radio  and television producer and presenter, publican and PR consultant.

The last of these activities came about when George was appointed as the  world’s  first professional bed tester. The recognition came  after a leg of the East’s ancient bed pierced the ceiling of the lounge bar of their pub and  became a significant tourist attraction. After being signed up by American giant  bed maker Sealy Inc, George appeared  in the world’s  press and on hundreds of  British and  American radio and television stations.

Realising from this experience  how easy it was to make up stories and gain publicity for their sponsor, George went into PR and marketing, and ended his proper working days with a number of national and international clients. When  an unexpected windfall came their way  as the result of a slightly dodgy deal, the Easts had the choice of paying off some of  their mortgage or buying a new second-hand car.  After hiring a car ferry and taking a thousand publicans and their spouses on a memorable day trip to Cherbourg, George and his wife looked into an estate agency window and  decided to keep their mortgage and old car and  use the windfall to buy a tiny cottage in the Normandy countryside.   Having made every cock-up  in the book that had not yet been written about the perils of buying a foreign property, George decided to write it. Home & Dry in France became a classic of its genre, and seven more  books about trying to make a living out of living in France followed.  After mistakenly buying a manor house next door to a thriving dog kennels, the Easts  gave up trying to be sensible and decided to spend the  autumn of their lives on the road  and moving around their second favourite country.

The book:  

French Impressions-Brittany is the first in a series of books about  the  22 very different regions of France. It is also  a truly innovative travel book.  It is a deliberate hybrid of information about Brittany, melded with anecdotes about the  often eccentric  expatriates and  Bretons  George encountered on his  travels.  Taking the advice of travel writing  legend  Louis Theroux and rather than racing around the region in a camper, George decided to take his time and  live where he was writing about. So  the Easts  spent a year in a tiny hamlet half  way up what counts as a mountain in Brittany, in the wild and often desolate  reaches of the Finistere department.  While attempting to fit in with the Breton-speaking community and their sometimes funny little ways, George toured the region in search of unusual places and people….and to discover how and why Brittany is so different from the rest of France. The result is totally unlike any other sort of travel book you will have read, and   French Impressions:  Brittany has already been described as a blend of Billy Bryson, Eric (Short Walk in the Hindu Kush) Newby - and  the ravings of an ill-educated lunatic. Whether  either of those is a fair description is for you and the  reading public to decide.

 The facts:  

·        A new sort of travel book  about the most popular destination in France for Britons

·        Author with proven appeal, unique style and often quirky ‘take’ on people, places and Life

·        More than a hundred towns and tourist attractions reviewed

·        The history and culture of Brittany explored

·        Dozens of  traditional  Breton food and drink recipes

·        Information on holidaying, visiting or moving to live in Brittany

Summary:  

Millions of Britons visit Brittany every year. Many dream of moving to and starting a new life and  perhaps business in this fascinating region. French Impressions – Brittany not only explores the region, but its history, culture and appeal. It is the first in a series about different areas of France, and the first of its type. Whatever you want from it and whichever way you look at it, this is Brittany in a book…

Title: French Impressions-Brittany by George East

Publisher: La Puce (The Flea) Publications

Type of book: Paperback, 296 pages

ISBN: 978-09523635-9-0                                                        

Main Distributor: Gardners Books

Official Launch: June 1^st 2010 

Price: £9.99                                

More information from:  [email protected]  or visit www.george-east-france.com

Extracts

La Puce Publications

Marketing & Sales Manager – contact/enquiries Francesca on  [email protected]

or telephone 02392 468181 for answerphone enquiries

A Taste of French Impressions: Brittany

On the locals:

Turning into the square I have to swerve to avoid running into Eddie Izzard. He has just emerged from the pork butcher’s shop and favours me with a nihilistic stare before flouncing off in the direction of the post office. It is of course not Eddie Izzard, but a local lady doing an unintentional but impressive impression of the comic and enthusiastic wearer of women’s clothing.

Brittany certainly seems to be the European capital of lookalikes, and Huelgoat its headquarters. As well as the Clint Eastwood and Rasputin dopplegangers, the owner of the creperie down the road is a spitting image of Robbie Williams. There is also a woman who could be a clone of Margaret Thatcher - had she become a bag lady instead of one of our greatest Prime Ministers. In one of the bars, there is even a  pug dog which has a sneer exactly like the late great Elvis Presley. Such is the prevalence of  lookalikes here, there is a regular contest to see which townsperson looks most like a famous personality. Last month there was a special event to find who looked most like the mayor of Huelgoat. The contest was won, unsurprisingly, by the mayor.

On the expats:

Yesterday I met a Scotsman who believes he is a reincarnation of an ancient Breton king with magical powers;  to me he looks more like a reincarnation of Rab C Nesbit on a  bad hair and teeth day. Riothamus (or Dougal to his former friends in East Kilbride) lives in an impressively distressed caravan, carefully hidden from official view alongside an as-yet restored stretch of canal. We met when I was passing his hideaway and he accosted me to say he recognised me from a past life. Steeling myself for a probable touch, I accepted his invitation to take a cup of dandelion tea and was fascinated to learn that apart from his other talents, he is a skilled wind-maker. With the right incantation and frame of mind, he says he can raise anything from a zephyr to a full-blown hurricane.  Unfortunately, when I asked for a demonstration he said it did not work when there were other humans around to interfere with the temporal forces. Riothamus says that the canal was deliberately built along a really strong leyline and always attracted unusual people, and I believe him. After I slipped him a few euros to keep him going until he secures his next windmaking commission, we parted and promised to look each other up in another thousand years.

On sightseeing:

We cannot get closer to the castle at Vitré than the car park, which is anyway being dug up and taken away to foil would-be visitors.   Across the morass, a cherrypicker is holding two men up against one vast wall. I see that they are re-pointing it, filling the gaps between huge slabs with mortar.  As they are using trowels not much bigger than soup spoons, it is clear they have a job for life.

On the way back to the car we marvel at the range and condition of buildings, and note probably the only restaurant in France calling itself  The Cabbage Soup.

Spotting a sign bearing the silhouette of a teapot, I go in to the café  to be confronted by  the glinting glasses  of a short, fat woman who seems to be chewing a wasp. She denies all knowledge of tea and how to serve it, and when I point my umbrella at a plate of fancy cakes and ask what they are, she completely loses it, grabs my brolly and orders me from the premises. After a spirited tug-of-war, I retreat from the shop and we find somewhere more welcoming.

*

Beneath the waves  in the bay of Douarnenez is said to lay  a place with a history of nearly as much drama, sex and misery as a TV soap in desperate search of ratings. 

The  island  city of Ys  has several  great stories associated with  it, the most common and popular claiming it was  built   for  the princess Dahut by her father  Gralon, the king of  the Cornouaille region.

            As well as suffering from a shortage of vowels, the island was below sea level and  protected by a gated  dyke for which the king held the only key. Ys was to become the most impressive and beautiful city in the world, but was also a byword for sin and corruption. Dahut  was a bit of a ladette, and  had a penchant  for organizing orgies then killing her lovers when day broke. One fateful evening, a knight in red arrived and was invited to join in the fun. During the night, he suggested that Dahut steal the key from her sleeping father. She did, and the Devil (for it was of course he) threw open  the gates and allowed the sea to swallow Ys.  Enraged, the king threw Dahut into the oncoming torrent, where she became a mermaid, doomed to swim the lonely seas for eternity. As with all drowned cities, it is said that on stormy nights you can hear the bells of the church at Ys ring dolefully out, and sometimes  even the mournful cries of the lonely mermaid.

Title: French Impressions-Brittany by George East

Publisher: La Puce (The Flea) Publications

                                                         Type of book: Paperback, 296 pages  ISBN: 978-09523635-9-0                                                        

Main Distributor: Gardners Books

Official Launch: June 1^st 2010 

                       Price: £9.99                                 

More information from:  [email protected] or visit www.george-east-france.com

LAshop – newsletter March 2010

In March we move to LAshop and café in our own ferme Les Arrondières, also at Gipcy. Les Arrondières is situated very close to our former store. It is the last ferme (“the one with the blue shutters”) of the bourg of Gipcy, on the D11 in the direction of Souvigny.

As always LAshop and café is the address for:

As usual we have a small stock of many products so at times certain products may be sold out. Larger quantities or other products may be ordered. The price of ordered products is 10% less than the price of the same products on the shelf. Check the details on www.lashop.eu. We are always looking for new local products and services which might interest our clients. We will try to sell them and/or mention them on the links-page of our site. Suggestions? Please contact us via phone (see above) or e-mail ([email protected])

Nanneke en Pieter

Commerce Bourbonnais LAshop, Gipcy

The Forthcoming Regional Elections

On 14 and 21 March 2010 there will be the elections of the 26 Regional Councils (Conseils Régionaux) of France. The Conseil Régional of Limousin which meets in Limoges, covers three Départements; Haute Vienne, Corrèze, and Creuse,

The regional level is the first subdivision of authority in France below Parliament and the Senate, sitting above the Départements, which are above the Communes. However there are also other groupings of communes such as Cantons and Communautés de Communes which are grouped for practical purposes rather than the distribution of political power. *

The Conseil Régional of Limousin sits in Limoges, the regional capital, and comprises 43 Members. They are distributed between the Départements, with 21 seats in Haute Vienne (371,000, 50%), 14 seats in Corrèze (242,000, 33%) and 8 seats in Creuse (124,000, 17%). In brackets are their respective populations. It should be noted that only French citizens are allowed to vote in these elections, with foreigners being restricted to the local council, and European parliamentary, elections. Independently in each Département there is a separate Conseil Général with its own elected members.

For the regional elections, in each Département, the various political parties create lists of candidates and votes are cast for these party lists. The party which has the greatest vote when added up across the whole region is given one quarter (¼) of seats of each Département. If one party has gained more than 50% in the poll the remaining seats gained by each party will be the total number of seats remaining in the Département, multiplied by the fraction of the poll received by that party. If not, there is a second run-off vote, with only the two leading parties in competition. The candidates filling the seats will be the topmost candidates of the list of that party.

Thus in Corrèze, if the Socialists (PS) receive the largest vote in the whole region then ¼ of the 14 seats go immediately to them, ie 4 seats. Assuming that no party obtains more than 50% in the first ballot then the smaller parties, ie the Verts, Communists, National Front are eliminated and it is likely that the run-off will be between the Socialists and the UMP., The remaining 10 seats will then be allocated on a proportional basis, and if the PS and UMP are neck and neck then they will get 5 seats each.

If one believes that there should be a reasonable representation of the all the citizens in the Conseil Régional, then this system has its flaws, as the lists which are prepared by political parties may well bear no relationship to the distribution of the population across the department. It is possible for all the candidates to come from one area leaving the rest without any contact with a regional councillor. In the last election (2004) some 25% of Corrèze had no such contact.

Discussions are now taking place in Parliament in Paris to reform the current situation. The proposal is to create a new post, conseiller térritorial who will replace, in 2014, both the conseiller régional and the conseiller général. The intent is that the conseiller térritorial will be elected from a constituency comprising several adjoining cantons. Typically a canton comprises 10-15 communes. Beyssenac is a part of the canton of Lubersac. In this way there will be representation form all parts of the Territory ( Region) in the political organs.

From 2014 therefore it is proposed that the Conseil Régional filled with Conseillers Territoriaux will sit in Limoges at the existing Conseil Régional, and the Corrèze group also in Tulle at the Conseil Général, and that for Corrèze the 14 Conseillers Régionaux and the 37 Conseillers Généraux will be replaced by only 25 Conseillers Territoriaux.

At present all Conseillers are elected for terms of 6 years but to enforce the change the Conseillers Régionaux elected in 2010 will serve only for 4 years and Conseillers Généraux to be elected in 2011, for three years, until the new arrangement commences in 2014.

In Beyssenac we have a particular interest in 2010 as our Mayor, Francis Comby, is the lead candidate of the UMP list for Corrèze. The UMP party is that of the current French President, M Nicolas Sarkozy, and it is likely that the vote in Corrèze will be fairly evenly shared between the UMP and the Socialists. Thus M Comby will almost certainly become a Conseiller Régional for Corrèze. Overall, however, the Conseil Régional is likely to be returned with its Socialist majority.

It is generally felt that in the future the Conseil Régional will get increasing powers to the detriment of the Département. Obviously their main focus is on grand projects that span the Départements, and in particular in Limousin there are;

• The provision of ADSL services across the region

• The new Airport near Brive due to open this summer

• The transport system including the introduction of a TGV link to Limoges.

Neil Spoonley

Beyssenac

January 2010

([email protected]) 

This article has been greatly aided by the advice and help of Francis Comby, Mayor of Beyssenac.

*For general description of the current French political structure send an e-mail to me asking for a copy of my article on French Politics

© Copyright Neil Spoonley 2010

Pont Lasveyras Memorial Ceremony 2010

Tuesday 16th February 2010 at 3.00 pm

We were astonished in 2007, that on a cold Friday afternoon in February that nearly 500 people would assemble in a remote part of Beyssenac to remember the occasion in 1944

of the massacre by the Germans of over forty young men from the communes of Lanouaille, Beyssenac, Payzac etc

In 2008, the 16^th February being a Saturday, some 800 people attended with 50-60 banners of the resistance being paraded, and most mayors of the surrounding communes were present.

The same happened in 2009 when the ceremony took place on Sunday 15^th. This year, 2010, it reverts to the traditional date of the 16^th, being a Tuesday.

This occasion is an important symbol of the wish of local communities to never see or hear of such an atrocity again.

Those of us who have now made our homes here can stand alongside those whose families were touched by the massacre, offering our support for the same ends.

The mill has now been acquired by the local communes, turning it into a museum of the Resistance, with the avenue along the river between the Pont and the Mill becoming a memorial walk

with educational panels concerning the resistance activities.

The principal ceremony will take place at the impressive Memorial by the Mill starting at 15:00 hrs.  There is a turning on the right hand side of the road from Pompadour to Payzac,

just after Pissac, which leads to the Pont. Many will park at the Pont Lasveyras where fields have been made available and walk to the Memorial, about 600m.

If you wish to attend do remember to wrap up warm and have good shoes in case it is wet and cold. It is best to arrive at about 14.30 hrs to make sure that you can park

and also walk to the Memorial area.

In the morning there will be other wreath laying ceremonies at St Yrieix (10:30, Monument), Payzac (11:00, Cemetery) and Savignac-Ledrier (11:30, Mairie)

Please pass this around to others that you know, and of course everyone is welcome to attend if they wish.

Neil & Sue Spoonley   ([email protected])

For details of the actual event in 1944, please e-mail to us for a copy of an article.

Dorothy Race Author

(2010)

EcoPower Article - Payback

Just over 10 years ago I bought some new shoes – they cost me £99 in the sales.

About 2 months ago I bought some shoes for €19 and got one pair free.

The 10 year old shoes are still just about as good as new – the new ones, well, one pair is ruined already.

THE most frequently asked question about eco systems is payback – or to put it another way “How long will it take to recoup my investment?”

This is one of those “How long is a piece of string “questions - there are so many variables - but that’s not a satisfactory answer so let’s consider one specific product and the one considered to be the best investment, a Solar Hot Water System.

So “What is the pay back?” Well, first and foremost it does have a payback. If you buy Oil, Gas or Electricity there is no pay back at all - ever. No matter how much gas, oil or electricity you buy and no matter how long you buy it for, you never get your money back. You will also have to service, maintain and ultimately renew your boiler or whatever at some time.

Payback is usually calculated as the equipments capital cost divided by the annual fuel bill savings - unfortunately this is simply inaccurate, misleading and wrong.

You need to take a wider view and factor in future energy increases, inflation, the savings in boiler or equipment servicing and the lifetime of such equipment.

There are also other factors that will affect this calculation – factors completely beyond our control such as the newly introduced French Carbon Tax for Oil and Gas – who knows what other taxes or environmental penalties will be introduced in the future? In fact Solar used to compliment central heating systems are likely to become much more popular purely because of this new Carbon Tax.

If all of the variables are taken into account it is generally accepted that a good Solar Thermal System offers a pay back of between 5 to 10 years. Remember too there are French Government incentives for Eco systems such as Tax Credits and reduced TVA rates that can reduce these payback times still further if you qualify.

“Up front” financials aside, it is also good for the environment, will increase the value of your home, and makes us less susceptible to the ever increasing costs of energy. 

Whatever form of eco system you might consider it is absolutely vital you choose a system that will perform efficiently for a very long time with a “rock solid” guarantee. A payback period of 10 years isn’t much use if your system only lasts 10 years (or less) and I have seen some systems (and shoes) that have neither performed nor lasted as long as they should have.

It is quite possible to obtain efficiency figures for solar systems – they are recorded by the test laboratories that evaluate systems for product approvals such as the main one for Solar which is the Solar Keymark.

One of the key tests for solar systems is Optical Efficiency which measures how much light is captured and converted into useful energy. To give you one specific example here are the key figures from two mainstream suppliers of solar systems in France (names withheld of course): The Optical Efficiency of system A is 0.37 / The Optical Efficiency of system B is 0.85. You don’t have to be a genius to know which one is better by more than twice as much so choose wisely.

The up front costs are a “one off” – the operating costs are for life.

You ALWAYS get what you pay for so maybe the £99 shoes were the better buy after all.

Marc Asker – EcoPower 

www.ecopower.eu.com