TGV 6564 to Paris Gare de Lyon

Just north of Bourg-en-Bresse the whole of France seems to be a high-speed blur limited to twenty yards either side of the TGV. Beyond that the mist clinging to the flat landscape is obscuring everything.

My taxi ride to Thonon les Bains Gare SNCF was conversationally interesting: I originally emailed Momo Cheraiet for our journey to Morzine, but he has retired. I hope he’s passed his Indiana Jones hat on to another Morzine taxi driver! He put me in touch with Jo Citadelle and this morning his wife came to pick me up and take me to Thonon.

Perhaps I’m becoming political in my old age: most of the chat during the drive to the station was about French socialism. While I agree that some of the socialist policies in France have held the country back (such as the imposition of a 35 hour week which didn’t create jobs, stifled productivity, and likely stagnated France’s GDP for many years), I was interested to hear that though many believe his abolition of the 35 hour week hard limit — which garnered a black market in untaxed, paid-in-cash workers — there are concerns about Sarkozy’s more right-wing leanings. I wasn’t surprised to hear several people during my time in Morzine speak out against his other policies and raise some alarm at the friends/company he keeps in the halls of government. It makes me sad that the edvige programme is likely to emulate in France the national identity card plans in the UK: the phrase, “anything you can do we can do better,” comes to mind.

While some of the socialist movement in France feels quite dated at times (though I am quite the outsider on this subject), and while France’s implementation of socialism does have its own problems, I think that Britain could learn and lot from the way public services can be run especially given the public bail-out of the financial sector both at home and in the United States. France doesn’t have the capitalistic drive of the UK and America. The French don’t buy everything on credit cards. On the whole they seem to spend money they actually have rather than stretching beyond themselves with loans. Consumerism isn’t rife like it is back in the UK. The town closes for two or three hours around lunch-time, but I can see how important it is that friends and family get the opportunity to spend time together, talk and eat, rather than hurriedly scoffing an uninspiring egg and cress sandwich while sat at your desk. The most memorable image was painted with these words:

On Sundays French families have lunch together.

On Sundays English families go shopping together.