Strange Lot, The French!
Do you like local newspapers? They give some insight into local ways:
8 Chinese masseuses have been arrested for working the beaches in St Tropez and their boss, who fled,was jailed in her absence for sticking posters, advertising the service, in public places. Prostitutes? No, genuine masseuses . The complaint came from licensed masseuses, and was that the women were trading illegally and avoiding tax.
A man posing as a policeman, and equipped with a police-type radio and fake i.d, hammered on the door of two escort girls, yelling ''Police". Admitted, he threatened the girls with arrest unless they gave him free sex, which they did. Later, suspicious, they established that no man of his description or given name worked locally in the police.When he returned a week later, he was arrested. He explained that his wife was away and he couldn't afford the 250 euros each girl would have likely charged for the service.
Under new government edict, all French schoolchildren are to spend no more that four and a half days in school, none are to have more than five and a half hours per day of formal academic instruction and all are to have at least one and a half hours for their lunch break. Parents and teachers are upset. Teachers say that this will need far more staff (?), and parents say it's inconvenient and any extra hours, for non-academic work (games, art) will have to be paid for by them. Being France, this edict has been ignored by nearly all mayors (who rule locally on such matters), they saying that they'll follow it next year (but of course !)
Deaths recorded in the Antibes area:12. Of these 2 were men in their fifties and one in his eighties. Of the others, 1 man and 7 women were all over 90, the oldest being 98. That's the Mediterranean diet and climate for you.
Display small ads: 3 offering best prices for fur coats, any condition. One, best prices for old sewing machines and old watches (and only those). Not clear what that says about the locals
[source: Nice Matin, Antibes edition]