Today’s market find: cantaloupe, yellow squash and zucchini, fresh garlic, eggplant, bell peppers, green beans, mild chili, tomatoes, and a cucumber. Happy birthday, France!
Ceci n’est pas le Tour de France
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Okay, so these certainly aren’t pros, but folks from the area recently celebrated the start of the Tour de France with a few speedy laps around the center of Vannes – fortunately, passing just in front of my house. Here … Continue reading
Found at the Market
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Summer Solstice 2010
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Monday was the longest day of the year – with 16 hours from sunrise to sunset in Vannes. France celebrates with a night of music going past midnight. Here are some pics of the most action we’ve seen in a … Continue reading
Retirement at 62
From a recent Economist article titled State of denial:
Under a plan unveiled by Eric Woerth, the labour minister, France intends to raise the legal retirement age progressively from 60 to 62 by 2018 … this alone will not meet the state pension-fund shortfall …
And this is what everyone is protesting about?!?
Retirement at 60 + Amazing Healthcare = Bankrupt State
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has recently stirred emotions by discussing delaying the minimum retirement age in France, and/or extending retirement contributions. Here’s a demand by one of France’s many workers unions:
La retraite à 60 ans et à taux plein, sans augmentation, ni allongement de la durée des cotisations.
Translation: Complete retirement at 60 years old, without raising contributions or extending the contribution period.
Seriously, people?
Let’s take the example of Japan, a country with one of the longest life expectancies on the planet, and a good social medicine program. You might think that these are good things, and indeed they are, but combined they produce disastrous results for Japan’s economy: with more and more people living longer lives in retirement, the state bears a bigger and bigger financial burden to care for them.
With French unions short-sightedly demanding a freeze on the retirement age, they are conscripting themselves to the same fate as Japan’s system – radical overhaul or complete bankruptcy. It would be much easier now to adopt sensible changes to France’s retirement system than wait for disaster.
Jazz À Vannes
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Bastille Day
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It’s Bastille Day (14 July) here in France, and the town is abuzz with national spirit.
This morning, I was awakened by the sound of a band playing La Marseillaise, the French national anthem. And yesterday, a parade went by on the street outside my window, featuring costumes traditional of French royalty and Breton customs; there was even a bagpipe band.