Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
May 10, 2009
Because it could save someone’s life – maybe yours! With reference to Jill Penton-Browne’s article in your June/July Issue 127, I totally agree with her comments and would like to draw your readers’ attention to the far more serious implications of not speaking French.
Many of us move here during our middle to later years, more or less at the same
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
May 08, 2009
Coincidences can be strange. As I mull over my French income tax declaration I coincidentally have Larry King on the CNN satellite channel in the background. And what was his guest, the buffoon Michael Moore - I'm not his greatest fan - going on about? Comparing French taxes to American ones. According to Moore, Americans pay more tax than the
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
May 06, 2009
When you buy something for €7 and hand over a €20 note you expect €13 change. Not, however, in Cannes during MIPTV. One brasserie-tabac this morning calculated my change as €3. Thankfully I only gave them a €20 and not a €100 note.
The lesson, I suppose, is to go to the till with the money and ask for a bill, hand it over while looking into the
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
May 06, 2009
Having read your 'Travellers Tips' article in issue no 131 I feel I must respond to the article regarding Emirates.
We regularly use Emirates on our frequent trips to Australia and have nothing but praise for the company. A couple of years ago we were 'marooned' in Dubai airport as an accident caused the airport to be closed for 36 hrs. On our
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
May 06, 2009
The Riviera Reporter has been critical of the Nice carnival in the past.
The first time I saw the Nice carnival seven years ago with some guests, we had great expectations based on Nice's reputation and that of the Côte d'Azur. Well, it was quite ordinary, even dowdy, and a let down for us all. I quite understand why you offered a similar opinion
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
May 04, 2009
Your interview with Christian Estrosi and the taxis in Nice was interesting reading and prompted me to the keyboard.
I live in Nice but work now and then in Stockholm so I often go by taxi between the airport and my home in Cimiez. Daytime, with an honest driver, the fare should be 18 – 20 euros. But if I am not watchful, the meter most of the
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
Jan 29, 2009
President Sarkozy is cutting back on the public sector and in the light of the recent financial crisis, Gordon Brown is too. This similar attitude in France and in Britain ignores some elementary worries.
Firstly, unless there is room for them in the private sector, cutting back on civil servants isn’t going to save anyone money. As we’re not going
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
Jan 28, 2009
It is a pity that the only topics you suggest for Anglo-German discussion relate either directly or indirectly to the Nazi past and thus help to perpetuate atavistic stereotypes.
Whilst the Nazi era cannot be forgotten or glossed over (statements, such as that attributed to the rightist politician Franz Josef Strauss, to the effect that an
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
Jan 27, 2009
Privacy seems to be a two-edged sword in France.
If a photograph is taken and published anywhere in the media without your permission, you have the right to sue for invasion of privacy.
If you buy a portable telephone you expect that to be privy to you and those persons to whom you give the number - yes? But NO!
It seems that the service-provider,
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
Jan 27, 2009
A couple of years ago you ran a story about a con man cadging money at the airport. I think it was a well-presented guy who asked for a couple of hundred euros for a taxi. Last week I was caught at the airport by a character who sold me some story about not having euros for changing his ticket because he had missed his plane to Newcastle the
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
Jan 26, 2009
If Mayor Christian Estrosi has “a deep concern for the city’s present and future” (issue 129, pg 6), can he do something about the loud prostitutes and transvestites who gather near Lenval Hospital on weekend nights around 3 a.m.? I don’t care what they do but I don’t want to hear them fighting and screaming at each other, keeping whole buildings
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
Jan 25, 2009
I have shared the same experience as Julie Davies and Martin Granger when trying to renew my passport from abroad and I totally endorse their comments in your October/November issue. My telephone call to Abtran cost me even more, namely €12.80 – the man I spoke to didn’t seem to be in a hurry to give me the information required (no wonder, I was
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
Jan 25, 2009
As at the 24th. of July 2009, I will have been working and paying french taxes for 10 years, I am 67 years old and I would very much like to retire but I am finding it extremely difficult to find out exactly what my pension and other benefits would be. I am not in the best of health and enjoy 100% on my my "Carte Vitale". I also receive my English
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
Jan 25, 2009
There’s been too much rapid reaction among expats to the fall in sterling and the over pessimistic predictions of the doom and gloomers. British expats in Euroland shouldn’t panic about their sterling income which has obviously overshot on the down side. It’s rising again already and the Euro will soon be taking a hit which will bring the exchange
Posted by: Letters to Editor in Uncategorised on
Jan 25, 2009
It's not clear whether Dirk Bogarde or Patrick Middleton referred to A Bridge Too Far as a "rather lowbrow film" (issue 130, pg 28). No matter. The film, directed by Lord Richard Attenborough was released in 1977, the year that George Lucas unleashed the Star Wars franchise, thus virtually obliterating any epic movie in its vicinity, even one
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