Mandy Woods
  • Home
  • Gigs/Reviews
  • House Concerts
  • Albums
  • Wags Lyrical
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Photos

Of gilet jaunes and a brand-new home...

10/12/2018

0 Comments

 
PictureA new view to bark at...
As we drove down through France over the weekend from Calais to our new temporary home just north of Cannes on the French Riviera, we were greeted by bands of protesting ‘gilet jaunes’ at varying points – usually roundabouts – along the way. As their initial grievance had apparently been about the increased tax on diesel fuel and we were in a diesel-powered Toyota campervan, I was happy to raise my fist in a solidarity kind of way when we first encountered them, to be greeted by smiles and regal bows, and despite the additional sarcastic shouts from some of them of ‘Vive Brexit!’ we felt at one with these people we would now be living among. However, from about midway down, our feelings of unity were somewhat tempered by the long queues we began to find at the gilet-jaune-controlled roundabouts, and soon we were cursing the very sight of them as they told us we couldn’t take the turn-off we wanted to, or drunkenly accosted us, telling us to wind down the window and then leering into the van at the sight of two females in a campervan. As a result, from 70km north of Lyon, we decided to switch from the much cheaper roundabout-strewn rural roads to the much more expensive, but roundabout-free and much quicker, toll roads for the remainder of our journey south. What a great decision that turned out to be, and how the gilet jaunes went up once more in our esteem when we came to the pay booth after the most expensive leg, from Lyon to Aix-en-Provence, to find it (in an initially heart-sinking moment) swarming with gilet jaunes, and consequently… FREE!!! Vive les gilet jaunes! Except, of course, when they’re drunk, leering and anything but politically motivated…

We are now just about settled into our lovely new abode, and from here on I plan to be writing about my attempts to discover whether there is any sort of live music scene I can break into here on the French Riviera. I’m confident there will be. Time will tell. Or, as the French might say (but I’m sure don’t, in the same way that they don’t say ‘la nuit est jeune’), le temps dira…

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    Author

    Mandy Woods

    Archives

    November 2023
    August 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2021
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    July 2017
    May 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    Angello Sound Studio
    Arran
    Bayonne
    Bazaar Cafe
    Bluebird
    Bluebird Cafe
    Brook Guitars
    Butterfly
    Butterfly Spirit
    C2C
    Calamity Jane
    California
    Cam
    Campervan Adventures
    Camping
    Cannes
    Carol Mac Photography
    Catweazle
    Cayman Islands
    Charity Shop
    Coda Music
    Copy-editing
    Corona Virus
    Country Music
    Covid-19
    Cowboy Hats
    Cowgirls
    Craft Fairs
    Dachshund
    David Naylor
    Deadwood
    Distinctly Blue
    DIY Campervan Conversion
    Dolly Parton
    Doyle & Debbie
    Eastbourne
    Felix Macintosh
    Fisherman's Wharf
    France
    Freelance Work
    French Riviera
    Fringed Jacket
    Germany
    Gigs
    Gilet Jaunes
    Gilly Spencer
    Glastonbury
    Guitars
    Haight-Ashbury
    Handmade Guitars
    Hollister
    Holy Isle
    Homelessness
    Keith Urban
    Kibosh
    Kitten Kaboodle
    Las Vegas
    Le Mans
    Le Pilier Rouge
    Lesvos
    Lfest
    Little Silver Guitar
    Live Music In Norway
    Log Cabin
    Log Cabin Living
    Mandy Woods
    Memory Stick
    Mouans-Sartoux
    Musée Matisse
    Musee Mecanical
    Nashville
    Needle Felting
    New Life Abroad
    Nice
    Nissan NV200
    O2 Concert Venue
    Oslo Open Mic
    Pandemic
    Peacock Butterfly
    Penny Arcade Museum
    Petula Clark
    Phantom Power Supply
    Pick-ups
    Proofreading
    Randy Moods
    Renegade Of The Road
    Rhinestones
    Roulette
    San Francisco
    Sausage Dog
    Scène Ouverte
    Scully
    Scully Jackets
    Seacliff State Beach
    Self-employment
    Self-reliance
    Social Distancing
    Social Separation
    Song Critique
    Songwriting
    Soquel
    SoulHuntress
    Southwest France
    Station Inn
    St Tropez
    Teaching Guitar
    The Chase
    Tigersonic
    Too Bad To Be True?
    Toyota Campervan
    Trail Of Goodbyes
    Under Ground Theatre
    Usa
    Virtual Open Mics
    Wags Lyrical
    Women's Centre
    Youtube
    Zoom Music Events

    RSS Feed

Mandy Woods