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Chapter Two in Brussels. Views on life in general by a grumpy old(ish) woman and edited by her dog, Angus.
After two and a half years high up in the Swiss Alps, January 2008 has seen me move to Brussels - perhaps I am allergic to mountains after all! A new life for me and my wee, four-legged Scottish gentleman who is busy digging huge holes in the lawn!
2009 update
LINKS TO MY BLOG FRIENDS
- angela in south of France
- anno in cumbria
- bill's photos
- buddha
- colin in Antibes
- colin randall
- colin randall's new salut! blog
- damn cool pics
- earthwatch
- expat info
- gigi
- grumpy old bookman
- Hope near Paris
- hugs
- kate's cooking
- loretta in l.a.
- matt's illustrations
- mouse in brittany
- my.telegraph
- publish your book
- radio 4
- richard in orleans
- richard's new site
- rick's gardens
- roadsofstone
- samuel pepys
- sarah in Montpellier
- sarah's work
- telly blogs
- verbier
10 comments:
The seaside ?
Speaking purely for myself, I do like to be beside the seaside. I do like to be beside the sea.
Da... da.... dadadadada, da da dadadadada ....
Beside the seaside, beside the sea.
gissa clue... like which country?
Looks like the kind of country where Monsieur Hulot took his famous holiday, needing the occasional exploding fireworks store-shed to keep folk awake.
In other words, soporific Brittany. Or maybe Ile de Ré.
Benjy is warm but wants to go north...
North of Britanny ? That doesn't sound like France then. That would make sense. There's just one tiny person visible, second boat from right, and he does not appear to be dressed in regulation uniform for Britanny (beret, striped T shirt, string of onions). But while I'm no geologist, the rocks seem to be more granitic than chalk. So that would suggest either one of the Channel Islands, maybe Guernsey (I know Jersey and don't recognise it as such) or maybe Cornwall. South coast Cornwall (where the sea's not as rough as the north ?
Well done, Benjy - it's Jersey! But where in 1ersey?
Dunno. One bay looks much the same as another, unless there's a waterfront bar or something to identify it. It's presumably one of your special places. Like to tell us why ?
It is St Brelade's Bay in fact - and the beach by the Fisherman's Chapel. No, no particular memories - it was just a day out and I took photos! I have a whole load of those kind of photos, taken in the middle of July - St. Helier, which must be the pits, was probably heaving - the beaches were empty!
St.Helier is a remarkably good shopping centre, something we Brits do well, provided you don't mind a cloned High St. Personally, I don't. It's comforting to know there's a WH Smiths or Boots not far away, wherever you happen to be.
But Jersey as a whole is now an overcrowded frenetic kind of place, as is the case for much of the UK. Without the French street names it would seem hardly different now from Poole or Weymouth.
There is another Jersey but it is dying out - as is the language. Unfortunately the Island got a fish 'n chips and cheap booze reputation after the last war (the furthest south one could go on a BR ticket) which it cashed in on, before realising that suddenly everyone was going to Mallorca or the Costa del Sol where the sun was guaranteed and you could still get fish 'n chips and cheap booze.
The tourist trade is dying - no low-cost to Jersey - the farmers have ruined their Jersey Royal potatoes with fertilisers and plastic, the Jersey cow is dying out as land is sold for building yet more flats and it's a great shame.
And it's a great shame. But if you avoid St. Helier and love beaches and are willing to take a risk on the weather, the place is empty in the height of the summer!
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