bay of biscay:the facts

[perlonious]

the bay was created by the french when the british taste buds finally developed away from warm ale to wine.....

you will find all the better wines and mature cheeses south of the bay.....

in recent years a consession has been won and hyper markets have been set up on the shortest passages for us to taste. this is where they get rid of their wine lakes and cheese mountains. when they are running out of this stuff then they blockade the ports untill more supplies arrive.......

as the uk sailor got more adventurous and made it south of the bay the french and the uk gov. got together to try and solve the problem......

the problem the uk gov was left with.....
wine and food cheaper...50%
cost of boat cheaper.....35%
cost of marina cheaper.....60%
35 hour working week.....!!!!!!
summer lasting for more than 2 weeks (just before wimbeldon)....

solution....the weather....

just this side of the azores is a massive tide making machine with a half mile wide fan on top.....this is rectracted during the summer and is only brought to the surface about mid oct....
occasionally they will test it during the summer months just to make sure it still works.....

the french are happy.....uk marinas breath a sigh of relief as they put up the charges even more....wine shops are happy as you buy here for xmas rather than making the run.....

one day ill make the run too...........when i have done enough wave bashing in the solent......






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[circumnavigation]

Excellent overview! Any ideas for the North Sea? What with the Germans, Dutch and the Scandinavians.

Martin

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[charles_reed]

Seriously and to add balance

My experience is that French cost-of-living is about 85-90% of the UK. It also has the best NHS in the world and, for public employees, an outstandingly good pension scheme.

The truth of the matter is that the French state and taxpayer cannot afford, any further, to fund either of the two above.
Raffarin has grasped the nettle of state employees' pension advantage and, after about 2 months, of greves du secteur publique last summer pushed through the increase in retirement age. This has only tickled the problem.

The various port and autoroute blockades are in the admirable French tradition of direct political action (Sorbonne 1964 may be before your time, but flinging pavé at les flics was great fun), perhaps a few British politicians suspended from lamposts might cause far greater attentiveness to public opinion at times not directly leading up to elections.

The greatest variety and arguably the best French cheeses come from Normandie, tho' Roquefort is from Cevennes - both of which are definitely not S of Biscay.
Our supermarchés provide us with a far superior wine selection than those in France, albeit at a much inflated price (not the UK supermarkets' fault, blame successive British chancellors). Certainly both cheeses, fruit and veg are far superior to UK, but then far less is imported or factory farmed and flavour not appearance the main criteria.

So taking your points

<<the problem the uk gov was left with.....>>, yes it is a problem for all governments, taxes as well as prices have become transparent - see the queues of French Roussillonais in their cars every Saturday on their way to Spanish Catalunya for cheaper household goods, fuel, wine etc.

<<wine and food cheaper...50%>> vin ordinaire certainly cheaper, but, comparable fine wines more expensive (a French friend of mine reckons it's cheaper and choice is better in a decent UK merchant than in France). Supermarchés aren't that (for wine) much cheaper, the real savings are in buying direct from vigneron and laying down your own cellar. Food - the real benefit is in locally produced fruit & veg and there are still some real butchers around who will sell you decent meat instead of adding insult to injury and charging a premium for those soddin' Charollais. You'd be hard pressed to show more than a 20% saving on food prices (I spend about 3 months/year in France.

<<cost of boat cheaper.....35%>> possibly quoted prices on 2nd hand boats, but surely that's more down to UK owners' irrational belief in the unique value of their pride and joy. I'd suggest more like 15% on new boats tho' haggling probably produces better savings. Much of the saving has to do with distribution costs - the Channel may provide protection against pernicious continental practices, but it sure is NM for NM probably the most expensive pieces of water in the world.

<<cost of marina cheaper.....60%>> I'm paying €160/month for the same boat I was paying £250/month in Aberystwyth (10m) in 2000. Allowing for 8% per annum cumulative that is 34% of the UK price or (being naughty and twisting statistics) 196% more in UK than France. Both boat & marina prices may result from the fact that France has a far larger marine market-place than the UK.

<<35 hour working week.....!!!!!!>> well there's something they can't afford and are busy eroding (with official sanction and backing). In the private sector productivity has been forced up tho' the public sector has yet to be tackled (handbag-wielding Raffarin to the fore)

<<summer lasting for more than 2 weeks (just before wimbeldon)....>> well there was a major domestic row about the rise in death rate last summer due to the aged dying of heat-exhaustion. Certainly 42C in a marina in Ajaccio was not to my taste, even if it was only for 1 night to recharge the power-drill and electric-shaver batteries and the charge was UK S coast comparable £26 for 10m!!!
Certainly continental european coasts are overcrowded, overheated and overpriced as far as I'm concerned in July & August, so I come home to the UK and look affectionately at Welsh rain running uphill.

If you really want to see a major living cost change, with warmer rain and relatively unspoilt cruising areas really cross Biscay (OK the prevailing winds mean you're on a beat) and visit N Spain, especially the Rias Biaxas of Galicia.

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