30th August 2008

In our mailbox this morning was the September edition of the English-language newspaper The Connexion. We particularly like it because it reports on French news, but in English. The French themselves aren't great newspaper readers, and only one household in four actually buys a newspaper. The two best-known are Le Monde and Le Figaro, the so-called tabloid press being virtually non-existent in France. Of course, we can read UK newspapers via the internet, but these are naturally UK-biased and we need to keep in touch with what's going on near to where we now live. Although my spoken and written French has improved markedly in the 3 years we have lived here, it still helps a lot to read The Connexion because it focuses on the issues affecting English people living in France and the many problems that involves! In this month's edition I read that President Sarkozy has made sure that all workers in France, including part-timers, will not earn less whilst employed than they would if receiving unemployment benefits: something that Gordon Brown would do well to take on board. Mind you, as him indoors often used to say when asked how many people work at his establishment: 'Oh, about half of 'em.'
P.S. Don't miss part 3 of Sex a la francaise - appearing exclusively tomorrow on this site.