43: Back to School...in France?

After a month off from regular podcast recording, we've wrangled Richard N and Callum into giving us the lowdown on what they did over the summer holidays. Callum has been to France in search of fine food, family friendly lakes and adventures with his son. Meanwhile Richard has been learning more about the wider nature writing audience through his book tour.

CountrySlide is a podcast that looks at farming, conservation and life in the British countryside.

Send us photos of your interesting trinkets that your other half wants to burn or bin as submissions to the calendar or for fun at: [e-mail] 

Links

- Richard P's wild camping article on Scribehound
- Hedgerow fest
- Subscribe on Patreon for extra content (you can cancel at any time)
- If you enjoy what we do, consider a one-off tip on Ko-fi
- CountrySlide website
- Negus' book tour dates can be found here

The Hosts

Richard Negus website
Callum McInerney-Riley website
Richard Prideaux website


Edited and Produced by Amy Green for Rural and Outdoor.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Monsieur you see coiling.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yes, I'm back from a very long three week stint
of conquering France, and please to say I did the job,
conquered it completely that year A drunk of wine. Hate
the cross huts.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
So come on then that I think that this is
important because you know, I think if you know, we
have had criticism on the podcast for not having sufficient
diversity on and.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, the the urban quota of the country country slide.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
And so therefore I believe that we can right that
wrong today tonight recording this as we speak in that
if you've been in the country for three weeks, that
basically makes you French. Now, so tell me I.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Am actually French. It started to is covered in butter
and is slightly flaky. I have become a pano potato ticks.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Do you smell of Gulwis cigarettes? It's always one of
the things I remember when I was a kid, we
had the twin town that was came to see us.
I think was ruin what cigarette Guloi is there? They
had two French brand of cigarettes because they toast the
tobacco and so a French cigarette has got a much

(01:29):
more pungent flavor. And very strong, and they smell and
they toast the tobacco, and they had gulwa and Jita
and Gita they sort of looked their filters looked like
you'd rolled up a piece of toilet roll, which I
think probably that's how they used to do it, and
the stubby little things and gulwa and I affected smoking

(01:50):
gulwais and pretending that I liked them when I think
I was about.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
The part to get attention from girls.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
See, there was a period.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
In that you do for attention for girls, Yeah, because.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
You know, try and be sort of slightly creative and artistic.
And when I was at school, there was a sort
of thing is that you you pretended to sort of
read Proust, and you pretended to go and you listened
to Lloyd Cole and the Smiths, and Morrissey was always
sort of quirting things, wasn't it, saying how thoroughly depressed

(02:24):
it was and how everything was rubbish. And if you
smoked gulwar, that was even a step up from camel
Or Marlborough to show that you were actually quite artistic
and creative. So for a while I started smoking Galway cigarettes.
But I do remember it was one of the smells
that I associate with France's the smell of gulwar, the

(02:44):
smell of coffee, and the smell of biscuit crumbs.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
You kind of describing a care home a little bit
of wee.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, well, you know, and.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Maybe onion gravy. Why does a care home always smell
o onion gravy? Not sure?

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, they like strong flavors when you get older, because
it's like me. That's why I have to pour my
gin stronger than I used to when I was younger,
otherwise I can't taste it. That's my excuse, your honor,
and I'm sticking to it. So anyway, look to the point,
I think what we're going to be talking about today,
callum because it is just you and I, because I
ought to perhaps explain to the loyal listeners that Richard

(03:21):
Prideau is absent, not because he's been arrested or is
stuck up a mountain or something doing daring deeds. It's
just that he claimed that everyone was fed up with
his voice. Yeah, I think he's probably fed up with us,
to be honest. But you know, so what are we
actually going to be talking about today, Callum? Because we
did do a pre show chat.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
I want to delve into what you've been up to
because I've listened to a variety of podcasts. They kept
me company on my incredibly long journey from north to
south in France, so I listened to all of them,
although there was the one I think I probably I'm

(04:02):
going to like a lot is the one with Megan
GWCT one which the kids spent a lot of the
time screaming through. I probably will go back and listen
to that one again where they're not screaming.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, yeah, that is which would be well, that one
is worth listening to. An actual fact, I was on
the phone today to Roger Dracer, my pal, head of
research for the GWCT. I han't spoken to him since
we recorded that one, and he said of just how
proud he was of Meghan and Lizzie for doing that,

(04:38):
because he said, you know, just how they came across.
It summed up everything that the GWCT stands for, and
it was so refreshing to hear all that honesty. And
I think positiveness is that word positivity coming from them,
because you know, a lot of the time all we
hear is a load of doom and gloomer. Everything's dead,

(05:00):
everything's about to die, everything's going to fry, everything's full
of carbon, and it almost makes you lose the will
to live. And they're highlighting that if you you know
you can. You're starting from a place that's not very good.
But if you add the right the right ingredients together
and you get the right people pulling in the same direction,

(05:22):
then you know, you get positive results for wildlife, which
is is great and I thought that came across really
well in that episode.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, it's a very interesting dynamic that they take and
you you sort of discuss the same sort of thing
of how you can work that with Nick van wester
Hulks us a great great episode as well. To hear
what he has to say.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
He's a breath of fresh air as well. I mean,
you know, if you think about it, the I think
we've probably all got a bit bored of all the
the tribalism, and you know that there is there is
just clearly, unless you're an idiot, we've all got to
start pulling in in the same direction if we're going

(06:07):
to get this place and saying yaboo sucks, I hate
farmers or yaboo sucks. I hate gamekeepers or insert whoever
it is your hate figure is here. Is all a
bit boring, and I just get that strong feeling that
Nick is going to be one of them people who
actually has got a broad enough smile and shoulders to
actually to be able to go and say, come on, look,

(06:27):
we're supposed to be making a difference here, not just
making underlining that you're a very important person. Yes, you're
the chief executive of that organization. I'm sure you want
your column inches shut up, Let's just go and get
the job done. I think he's the man. I think
he is the boy.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, certainly it seems to be not
phased by a lot of stuff and quite happy to
have open dialogue with people. So it should be a
it should be a good a good few years for
the GWC two for sure.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well obviously, unless we have completely ruined it by by
being on the Country Slide podcast. You know, when the
when when when all all the the the things come
out about us all and what you did in France
the Jackal.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
I've completely lost what I was going to say. There,
you you.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
That you're the Jackal? Have I outed you that you've
actually been in France for three weeks under the guise
of being harassed father, and you actually have committed an assassination.
We haven't seen President Macron in public since you left.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Full transparency. I we're recording this second day of the season,
which means I've been wild fowling both dawn and dusk
and had three hours sleep and then a tiny little
nap in the day. So I'm kind of running on
fumes because I've been shooting lots of wild fowling, and

(07:54):
I'm back out tomorrow morning as well, which is going
to be going to be fun for a six.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
McNab ssex mcnabs pair of whites. The letto's a swan, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
And then I can't say the third one, okay.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Oh I see fornication, Yeah, fornication the whole occasion. Anyway, listen,
let's get back onto France.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
I discovered things in France. I discovered that I don't
want to spend seven grand on an all inclusive holiday
in Turkey, so the option of spending significantly less than
doing like three weeks away even though we so I
was going to say roughing it in a tent, but

(08:43):
it's not really roughing it. You get a blow up bed.
You know, it's not cold. Sure there's a few insects,
but it's kind of part of the fun. Part of
the fun of it is is traveling around and and
doing all that. That's what we've done. We went from
north to south, staying at different campsites, and the French

(09:09):
are so unbelievably set up for camping. It's I mean,
you get a few camp sites in the UK. There's
some really good ones I did. I did a job
for one up in Norfolk that's really really nice near
was it was it Wells next to see that one't
that way, and one near Chroma as well. So yeah,

(09:34):
you do get some of those, but they're not quite
on the level of French camping. And if anyone's got
a young family, it is a great little adventure. If
you're a tent box, tent box kind of person, or
you just got a tent. I can see Amy sniggering
at tent box people in the in the corner. It's

(09:55):
great to have her on to get the reactions off
of the it's he's got a tent box and a dry.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
And yet and YETI everything. You know, they've got yetti
cool box, yes, Amy for the for the listeners at home,
Amy has just raised her yetti at us flask I'm
talking about so the my gin went down the I'm

(10:22):
not dying live on air. It's not Tommy Cooper. Tommy Cooper.
Do you know when Tommy Cooper did die, people just
laughed through his death because they thought when he fell
over he had a heart attack and aneurism. Actually and
he just killed over and people were laughing for a
solid three minute before Actually someone came on and saying, no,
that's not part of the act, and they discovered that

(10:42):
he died on stage. Interesting other fact about Tommy Cooper.
He was in the Household Cavalry. There you go. He
was in the Raw Horse Guard. Yes, he did his
National service in the So he was Trooper Cooper, which.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Is he's got his love of hand.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Probably he passed off our pickle help and he put
a fez on so they would go. But anyway, back
to France, which one is the silliest? Oh well, Blues
and Royals helmet is utterly ridiculous. Obviously, a Lifeguards one
is perfectly normal. The white plume it looks cuts off
well with the with the polished brass and chrome, whereas

(11:23):
that red plume just looks a bit gaudy, bit French
to me any road. Listen back to France. So you
traveled halfway across it and you camped. Now I take
your point that the French probably have better camp sites
than us, because, let's be perfectly honest, they complain better
than we do, so therefore everybody does. Yeah, they might

(11:46):
they lifestyle. So if that's the thing, so they're wanting
to be more outdoorsy. Does that reflect also the fact
that the food that you came across, because it's one
of the annoyances I've got life, you know, I've got
the Duke of Wellington's opinion of the French largely, and
however I admire their strong adherance still so the provenance

(12:13):
of their food, and we didn't even have a word
for provenance, we have to use a French one. They
understand seasonality, locality, the quality of the ingredients which they
put in. Did you actually experience that firsthand when you
were traveling across and was there a particular culinary part
of your north to south ramble across France you went,

(12:36):
that's the place if you're a bit of a mont Vivert, so.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
I didn't go with a plan. I knew like a
rough place I needed to go. So we were turning
up without anything booked. Without we're kind of just intentionally
getting lost and hoping that there'd be availability at campsites,
which is a huge risk, but I've done it before.

(13:01):
It's really hard to book a campsite in France. So
you'll it'll say nothing's available, but you'll turn up on
the day and they'll say, oh yeah, pitch number one
hundred and seventies free. You can stay there for one
night and if you want to do a second night,
you have the movie ten and to a different one
because someone's got it for tomorrow. You're like, yeah, okay, cool,

(13:21):
no worries, or you have to book you have to
book in for three nights or something. But you can
all nearly always get a campsite on a whim and
just go in and say yeah, I'll have this, or
you'll just you turn up to a lake and you
just drive round the lake until you find that they'll
be like thirty campsites around a lake. There's no shortage

(13:44):
of them. You can't go more than like three hundred
yards for a different campsite, and it's mostly Dutch and Germans.
They're the ones that are traveling in France. They love it.
They buy a motor home, they retire, they take the kids,
young families. They just think it's it's great to just
go somewhere slightly warmer and be in the.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Alps or and and remind them where their grandfathers were
from nineteen thirty nine to nineteen forty four. You know,
it's nice to go and catch up on old times
about where they were stationed.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
So this the I'm just trying to work out.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
I don't need to know about the food and the booze.
I'm not interesting.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Twenty three thousand hectars and they use it as which
is interesting. On the water point that's been going on
about recently is they use this lake to take floodwater
from the same and control the flood water. So they've
got this whole lake that they fill up. There's absolutely enormous.

(14:49):
It's like an inland sea. What looks like the other
side of the lake is only like a quarter of it.
It's only like one little bit of it, and they've
turned the whole thing into beaches, there's all beaches around it,
so you can go swimming in it. There's absolutely tons
of wildlife around there. So I took my son out
and we were catching different crayfish and doing all that.

(15:11):
And yeah, that's that's a mega place because it's man made.
It's an attraction for people. People come there to swim
in the water. Don't really get it's not like a
foodie place. You are in the Champagne region, so you
get there, you get the the leftovers of Champagne and
the food. The French. You know, French bistro is always

(15:34):
going to be pretty good. They'll pick because it's a
forest area, they'll pick wild mushrooms and things like that.
But generally around that that place was mostly pizza and
odd things like that. But then when you so we
went from there into Anisey. So Anisey is the Alps

(16:00):
French outs, but very close to Switzerland. And then they've
got rolling heels and they've got lots of cows, Swiss cheese,
and then the food culture of local food just shines through.
It's everywhere. Menus are all fond and they do a

(16:23):
thing I don't know how to pronounce it, Tarta fleat
which is a kind of classic French staple, creamy potato
gratan sort of thing with lots of local cheeses and
cream and bacon. And I have one with Morel's and

(16:44):
it was unreal so good. But everything everything they cook
and eat there is all local. You go into a
supermarket and you will find you will find so even
like Lidtles, Littles has like fifteen a small Littles has

(17:05):
fifteen hundred regional products in a small Littles. And then
I mean, god knows what we.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Have got in the center aisle? Though, are they going
to think good in the center isle? I mean, are
you able to buy.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
I did get a bed sheet which was quite good.
Actually I did love a middle liddle. You can't. You
can't beat it nowhere else. You can buy yourself a
chain saw exactly and a little multi attachment drill spait.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
For peaches and you come out with a sailing dinghy.
It's brilliant. I mean, you know it's I do like
that idea. But the one thing you highlight there is
that even in a chain, a German supermarket chain, is
that they have got Because I think no, I can
probably be countered by people who have got a greater
knowledge of the French law than I have. But I

(17:53):
think one of the things that de gaul brought in
was there not only did you have to speak French first.
That was his mantra was French first. So on the radio,
for example, you must have every other song must be
sung in French. You're not allowed to go and have
So you might have the top twenty might all be

(18:15):
US or English acts, but the radio stations that are
not allowed to play non stop British or American acts,
they've got to have every other one's got to be
French films. We've got to be dubbed into French. So therefore,
if you go into a French cinema, you will not
have subtitles, so they have to dub it on. So
you know, you do get I did actually watch, I

(18:37):
think in Marion the ridiculous scene of what it was,
one of them when Timothy Dalton was bond of watching
Timothy Dalton dubbed into French. So therefore you go it
just doesn't work, you know, you can't have a proper
spy being French. Certainly not James Bond.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
I took there was there's Campsire Entertainment, and one of
them was an outdoor cinema. So I took Zay over
to the outdoor cinema and a lengthy intro for Lelo
and Stitch come on, and I think it takes about
two minutes to warm up, and I think the first

(19:21):
word is fish. So two minutes you're he's sort of
getting excited that his whole face is being illuminated by
this giant screen. All these kids are like running around
and eating popcorn and stuff, and then it opens their
mouth and it's like song and he's like, Daddy, is

(19:45):
this all in French? I'm like, yeah, so mate, I
want to go to bed there.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, he's it's a properssic that's spaking in foreign. I
hate it here. Yeah, don't speak cross speak cross on, Okay.
So then you went to the the bit where the
where our brave boys used to cross over the Alps,
because that is one of the routes that when our
airmen used to land crash land and they were after

(20:14):
nobly bombing the hun they would crash in France when
they were shot down, and they would either go through
that route that you're talking about, otherwise they'd do the
southern route, which was to go through the Basque country
and into Spain to escape. But if they go over
that way, it was a safer route in many ways,
but you had to be a pretty hardy mountaineer, so

(20:37):
you were following in the footsteps of people who escaped.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
I took the family up a very hard home. I've
done it before. I took my boy up there two
or three years ago, and it was great, great view.
So you climb up the mound, it gets there's a

(21:02):
little point where it's got like some warning signs. The
path's like, I don't know, four five feet wide, with
a sheer drop down the side, and then it starts
getting and then from there it gets quite rocky and
there's like steps jutting out and then they've put like
a railing up the rest of the way and it's

(21:27):
basically a path carved out of the mountain and you
go up and then there's a great big waterfall that
comes down the middle, and you can like abseil down
the waterfall, but it takes it's about it's a very
high climb. It takes about forty five minutes to get
up there. So I convinced I didn't want to leave

(21:50):
everyone at camp, so I was like, come on, come along,
it would be great fun. So there I am carrying
a teen month old baby up a very steep thing,
and my fitness level is not what it used to be.
So I'm huffing and blowing, sweating like you've never seen before.

(22:12):
And the missus is she hated it. She hated every
second of it. And it got about half way. We
need he there. Yeah, I'm like, I'm sure in a
minute you'll see the top. And I said that for
about forty minutes and then yeah, and then her legs
went like jelly. She got a little bit scared, and

(22:34):
she didn't do the last sort of it's kind of
a climb to the top bit not really a walk,
it's more of a climb. There's actual metal bits jutting
out of the rock. So so me and Zay did
it and got to the top, and did.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
You put a union jack on the top? Did you
go and claim it that you're.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Lamp?

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (23:00):
They hold up.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
Okay, So then so you went to this lack de laurient,
you went up into the mountains, and then where do
you go after that?

Speaker 2 (23:09):
And he's got an old town as well, and it
is they call it Little Venice, and it's one hundred
percent worth a visit, even if you go for like
so you can fly into Switzerland and then you can
just get across. It's about an hour from probably like
an hour and a half from Geneva or something, so
you can. You can, and the drive's pretty cool. Well,

(23:32):
you're going through tunnels, through mountains and stuff, so you're
never gonna you're never going to experience quite such breathtaking driving.
It's a little bit and it's not scary, it's not
too bad. The French driving is menuel. Absolutely the speed
limit significantly faster, so you're doing you to go one

(23:54):
hundred and thirty kilimeters an hour, so you're doing eighty
on the motorway like standard. So if you and people
are like, that's not fast, because people are doing one
hundred all the way along, like you're doing eighty miles
an hour on a on a two lane road and

(24:15):
they want to go one hundred and they're not going
to let four cars and a blind bend get in
the way of them doing that. They will find a
hump and overtake four cars in a row that they
can't see around the corner doing one hundred miles an hour.
How how more people in France don't have accident? I

(24:36):
do not know. It is insane to see it. The
amount of times I just have my hands, my head
in my hands, going, oh my god, oh my god,
what is he doing?

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Is Perhaps if you're French, you fully comprehend how other
French people drive. So you drive with this idea that
there is probably going to be on this hairpin bend
with solid white lines along the middle, that there will
be another Frenchman coming the other way who will probably
also be on the wrong side of They all just
want to exactly, so they just drive where they want

(25:09):
and then they sort of muddle along. I quite like
that sort of that lasse fair. There you go, see
another word that we don't really have. See we don't
have a word for provenance, and we don't have a
word for lasse fair. So these two things is just
local No, I think, No, it's it's a combination of words.
It's a combination of words because provenance and teh are

(25:32):
you take the p out of me? Because I use
the word tear a lot. Tear has got a meaning
that it's more than just where you live. It's the
taint of a place, right. Lasse fair means it's basically
it's the word for the shrug I don't care, Yes,
stupid english Men, that is basically a lass a fair

(25:54):
is I don't care. And provenance means the fact that
it's it's guaranteed to be right because it's from around
here and I can tell you where it comes from,
so it's something. These are three things that.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
Mass the supermarket.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yeah, go supermarkets French ones.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Tons and tons. So you go into a supermarket, they'll
have like we have tomatoes, you want tom in packets
or like plum tomatoes, that's about it. Packets or tins?
Which ones you want? You go into a small supermarket
there and they'll have like fifteen different types of tomatoes.

(26:34):
You've got the big like heritage sort of tomatoes. You've
got everything. They they care so much more about the
product than we do. And it's always local stuff. And
even even in liddles they have a like at the

(26:56):
you know, like end of the isle bargains, Well, the
end of the isle bargains come up and before you
get to the product, it says the country and it
says the place that's what's in bold. That's the biggest,
most prominent thing there product to France and also massive
on organic. Everything seems to be by out. Everything seems

(27:18):
to be organic. And wine everything seems to be organic.
But yeah, it's always products of France. And that's that's
number one. That's not like if you go into Tesco's,
you look, you'll pick you'll pick something up and you'll
notice that suddenly you know, it'll be oh, these carrots
are grown in Egypt, this country, or like you'll pick

(27:40):
up yeah, you'll pick up three or four and there's
just a tiny little thing.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Well, if it's Tescos, what they'll go and have is
they'll have Union Jack stamped all over it. And then
you actually read the product of Mozambique. Okay, right, so
it's yes, there's that. Did you find what's the cost
of these things? So you're eating organic, you're eating local
provenance food. What was it comparatively?

Speaker 2 (28:06):
You know what? I don't know if inflation just hasn't
happened in Florence or what. But I mean if you
were to buy a pan of chokolar that was made
by a local baker here, if I go to the bakery.
I need to take a mortgage out here. Like the

(28:28):
boy will want a cookie, the cookie that it's like
some mass produced crap cookie and it's like three quid.
You get a slice of Kishe and that's like four pound.
It's it's insanely expensive. Yet I can. I ordered five
pan of chokolas pretty much every day, and if I
was feeling bougie, I'd get a package of Nautella donuts

(28:49):
or a baguette or whatever, and it would cost me
about ten, ten or twelve euros, so like at worst
two euros a pastry.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
So therefore, which is therefore what we have discovered is
that basically as much as you know, you must hate
him like you hate a frenchman. As as Nelson said
that good old Norfolk boy or Wellington. We know what
he said about the French not suitable for this program.
They have got it right in that they still give

(29:22):
the monkeys about where the food comes from, about the
price of it, the quality of it. So what the
liming flip is going wrong in this country? Terrible?

Speaker 2 (29:33):
And the I mean, you do have all this heavy
cream and cheese and that, but nobody's if you went
to a seaside in the UK.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
What would you see land whales.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
You would see you would see wolf fleeces, mobility, scooters,
land whales and the food. Here's a good one. I
went to Niglo Land, which is a theme. It is
a Nigo Land ni g l O l A n
D and I would highly recommend it. No cues for rides,

(30:15):
really good and in the last bit as well, they've
got a bed with Mickey Mouse stuck in a in
a rat trap under the bed, which was quite a nice,
nice touch.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Obviously taking kids will that they built.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
They built it in the mid eighties and they just
kept adding onto it and they've got great roller coasters.
The rides are fantastic. It wasn't that expensive, but the
food there so you could go and get you could
get an ice cream. It was three euros for an
ice cream. And if you go to Disneyland, he's absolutely insane.

(30:53):
I paid twelve euros for two packets of Dorito's last
time I was at Disneyland and I was yeah, I
still haven't got over it. And the queues were huge,
so I kept asking the missus if this was the
Disney Magic. Every time I had to wait one hour
to get on a dumb bo ride. So yeah, that was.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
So.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
The food there wasn't wasn't all carbs. If you go
to any kind of theme park or anything like that,
it's just chips, donuts, things that are made out of potato,
things that are made out of flour and and lots
of sugar. They hadda had salads that were charcouterie and cheese,

(31:41):
Like you could get a little kid's meal which was
charcouterie cheese, and you know, a drink. Yeah, and all
of this stuff. The key thing is maybe I saw
a subset of people that were outdoorsy because I was
at places where you could go paddle boarding and kayaking

(32:05):
and all this sort of stuff. But generally most people
are slim, they are fit, they're not you know. And
even smoking, I feel like is a lot less. There's
lots of people vaping and smoking. It's surprising me smoke, like,
far less people smoking this time than I did previously.

(32:28):
There used to be I don't know what's gone on,
but there used to be. I mean last time I went,
I remember watching a it was like one of these
bad adverts. I remember watching your pregnant woman smoking fags
and drinking, drinking a little red and I was like, wow,
here's the continent.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
This is the funny thing is that you're quite right,
is that they are slimmer. And you know, I went
to the holiday de Greece this year and most of
the people who were actually were we were on this
on the island we stayed on were from the Balkans
and they were on the whole sort of they were stocky,

(33:10):
but they are very few fat people with sort of
this great big belly.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
If you think that's genetics of the biz.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
They have to climb up mountains, big heads and big
thighs because they have to go and climb up mountains
all the time. But it is true. I was down
the other day in Great Yarmouth going to play a
cricket match and I came back via the Golden Mile
and like I say, it was just nothing but the
smell of chip fat and people here go, you're not well,

(33:43):
you should not be that size. That is not good
for you. So okay, so we have done enough assassination
of Britain comparing it with France, because I know I
feel thoroughly depressed. Have you got anything else on France?

Speaker 2 (33:55):
You want to say farmers' market. Oh my god, I
went to. So I was at Vernant Gorge, which another
place absolutely beautiful. For you get a chance to go
kind of full of full of people in Pedlos, and
I was one of them, and I'm quite happy to

(34:17):
have been that guy, because it was great. You go
down the gorge. It's an alpine lake, so the water
is the bluest.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Water looking at the photographs now is beautiful.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
And then you get to go down through the gorge
and it's just a beautiful, beautiful place. So we went there,
and then we went into a little town that we
stayed on. So it's a lake called Saint Croix and
it's it's a gorgeous place, and it's Verdon is quite
far south, not like you know, you're not you can't

(34:50):
spit into the sea, but you're you're quite south.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
You're not that far from.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
No, not really there. So they grow olive there. So
you go to a farmer's market and I bought some
olive oil. And I mean, I don't speak great French.
Well I can speak some French, but when you start
in French, you usually have to finish in French, which

(35:16):
is something that I can't do. So I'm better to
start in English and then they talk to me in French,
and then I understand what they're saying, and then I
can usually get to the end that point. But if
I start in French, they think, ah, he's fluent, and
then and then I and then I just look confused.

(35:37):
Yes we let in Brasil, England. If you say yes
we let in Brasil, that that often diffuses a lot
of tension and they'll usually start talking to you in
English quite quickly or attempt Yeah. I think I'm not
from around these parts.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Sweet Essex. I think you ort to just say that.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
These farmers' markets, right, the last farmer's market you went to,
I think the only I was you probably went for
the best farmer's market in the country. Wickan is a
good example of a farmer's market. That's one of the
few of them that have done it right. But this
was this was a farmer's market and everything was local.

(36:26):
You had cheese from Marjorie, you got plenty of those.
I bought some olive oil and it was it wasn't
so they grow olives there because it's that far south.
That's the climate's pretty good for olives eighteen euros a bottle.
I bought one the guy. I didn't ask. I just

(36:47):
knew that it looked good. And he had had all
the preserves you could ever imagine. He had all these
different pies that he'd made from fruit from so Verdon
does has lavender and lots of fruit. And also it
is the place where they grow all the herbs, so

(37:08):
herb the Provence will be largely grown around that area.
So he had all the stuff that they grow. He
turned them into nice things and even done a bit
of woodwork, so it was like on a lathe turning
pots and odd bits like that. So I bought this,
and then he told me that him and his kids

(37:30):
make that olive oil less than three kilometers away from
where I bought it. So as far as local things go,
you can't really get any more local than that. All
the fruit is all that they don't have. You don't
go there and buy avocados. You'll buy apricots that are

(37:51):
from down the road. They will only have that stuff.
People aren't really interested in making odd Mexican feasts. They
want to eat the stuff they always eat. And the
cheese is all all local cheeses and then you've got
the meats. They just turn all their meats into into salami,

(38:12):
and everybody eats a variety of different salamis. Some of them,
I will say, I can eat most things. Some of
them do look a bit gnarg They do look like
something off off, like CSI, or like some kind of
snuff film, like like a kind of amputated something orthur
that's been left in.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
A holy holy relic. Yes, this is Jesus's before skin
or is it a French sausage?

Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah, you've got it. I mean, it's hard to paint
that visual picture in audio format, but I think.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
I've just achieved. Well, so therefore I think we have
I think we have drawn a conclusion here is that France,
for all its faults, for all its faults, can lead
us to a path of redemption. And yes, so there
we go. Well, do you want to know what I've

(39:07):
been up to. I haven't been anywhere near France. I did, however,
go to a particularly swanky food hall, in fact, probably
one of the swankiest food halls. Because I was doing
an interview the other day for a satellite television station.
There's this thing called Britain's Thoughts leaders, and obviously they'd

(39:29):
run out of ideas of people to interview, and so
I was apparently one of Britain's thought leaders now, so
I went to interview for that and their studios are
within the shadow of the Palace of Westminster and this
was recorded in the morning, so that Claire and Charlie
and I went up on the train and we said,

(39:49):
where would you like to go Charlie after we've done this?
So he wanted to go to Chinatown to go and
so we went to China Soun to eat nice and
so I took him as well around Soho because I
wanted to show him the flesh pots that I used
to hang out in when I lived in London in
the eighties and I was in the army, so he saw,
he saw a lot of everything.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
You are aware that Chinatown is a lottery Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah, Well I did the classic is this it's
the same thing.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
I peered through every window and rather than whilst Charlie
and Claire were looking at the menus, I was looking
to three if the Chinese people were actually eating in there.
I was going to say, don't, don't, yes, I did.
So I actually looked at the wind Right the whole place.
We were the only Caucasians in this restaurant. Everyone else's Chinese,

(40:43):
and it was fascinating. I'd tell you what the Chinese
if you want to see joy of food them eating,
because they all eating the family together and it's so
raucous in there. It's absolutely hilarious. And they're ordering dish
after dish after dish, and we, being slightly boring and British,
we went and ordered a sort of a setment you
type of thing, which when I then saw the wonders
that they were eating, I thought, what are the menu?

(41:04):
Were they ordering off? We've obviously picked up the wrong
ordered the wrong stuff because we just got it was
all right. I'm not saying wow, it was beautiful, it
was just okay, well it was yeah, basically all the
stuff anglified Chinese food rather than the stuff which is genuine.
But anyway, we then then said to Charlie, said where
would you like to go now? And so he said

(41:24):
he wanted to go to Harold's. We'll go there. So
we wandered across from Chinatown through Green Park and then
through into Knight's Bridge and there and we went into
the Harold's Food Hall.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Harold's is still grown and the food is fantastic, Jenny
place you can buy squabs and.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
Absolutely and and it is it is. What it backs up.
I think we've said it on the show before, is
that one of the few places where you could actually
buy a lot of game, a lot of food and
provenance and food that is that you can say, yeah,
that's categorically going to be good. Stuff isn't in the

(42:06):
countryside where it's grown. It's in bloom in London, and
there is Okay, so you're paying nine pounds for a
peach that looks like it's been run over, which apparently
is very special. But and Charlie bought a bottle of
water which apparently was sort of glassier drip or something,
which cost him three pounds fifty for a bottle of water,

(42:28):
which I thought was quite ridiculous. And but anyway, so
that was that was interesting. So we went into into
the only one of the few places you can buy
lots of authentic food if you don't want to go
is to go is to go to a Katari owned
corner shop in Knightsbridge, which is.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
So epin is quite upmarket, and they had a greengrocer's
and it lasted about six months before it comes and
that was and we had one in where we live
and that lasted about a year and it had all

(43:09):
local produce and it just ended up closing. Well, it
wasn't financially viable. But so I don't think it's I
don't It's not the businesses. No, it's not that it's
us as a as a culture. As a species, we'd
rather get fat on donuts by the sea than we

(43:31):
would go and spend all our money and go. And
also just the convenience of a supermarket. As a culture,
we just put convenience far over produce. Yes, because we're
all busy and we're all trying to do.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
You know, we have been treated on scribe Hound to
some rather fantastic articles. One I'd like to draw your
attention to is mister Pridho's who came out today the
Rise and Fall of Quite Quiet Wild Camping superb. He's
written that really well. But anyway, more to the point
what we're talking about. It's very good. He's actoually nailed

(44:08):
it and he draws out. But anyway, but what we're
talking about, I suppose actually we're camping and what you
were saying about campsites there, that's very applesite. But Sam
Carlisle wrote one the other day where he explains as
to where probably we've gone wrong is that the supermarket
dominance in this country is. It's not just that, you know,

(44:32):
he highlights how basically the supermarkets have made farming a
zero some game, but he also has managed to the
supermarket has managed to worm its way into the British
public consciousness that you're far too busy to have time
to shop in markets or to go to where the

(44:54):
farmers' market is, and we have undercut this food so
there is no way that any of our farmers markets
can be can match them for price. And you've persuaded
everyone that they're so busy that you don't have time
to buy the fund one of the fundamentals like which
is your food from the quality? Uh producers and retailers

(45:17):
that you have to go to this supermarket to buy
all the shit and they stack it up, sell it,
sell it cheap and everyone gets fat. And there's a
line which he says in there about UH. And you
know he he is his mother's son, because she's such
a brilliant writer kla and he says it here something

(45:41):
around here is that about how the the food has
made us, the supermarket has made us fat and foolish.
And I think that's absolutely right. And it isn't it
terrible that it's not the BRIT's fault. It's we're being
sold a lie by these supermarkets that we don't have time.
You've got to buy all this shit, and you know

(46:03):
you have this demand for this right for cheap food.
Actually you've got a right to go increase the shareholders
dividends for Tesco.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
But I think the like I can, I can sit
on my soapbox and say, if we compare ourselves to
the French. You know, the French take a little nap
in the in the afternoon, they close their supermarkets, They
close them at like two o'clock for an hour and
just go home and make a nice lunch and do
whatever they want to do. That the pace is completely different.

(46:32):
It's slower. But you know, I spoke on this podcast
last time about how I had to walk the dog
sort of and eat and eat my dinner while I
was walking the dog because I didn't have time. We're economically,
maybe culturally, we're just so busy all the bloody time

(46:58):
that that's not how we operate are there? But how
do we slow down? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
Well, I think it's because we're just persuaded with Someone
once said that we have taken all the worst bits
out of American culture, all the worst bits out of
Japanese culture, and we have left behind all of the Ah.
The best things about us stopping for tea, you know,

(47:29):
is that is we don't do it anymore, although Gouldy
and I do you know, we drink tea because we're
self employed. That's because so many people in France are
actually self employed. We us here we sort of have
this thing that you have to go and sit at
your desk and stare at a computer in that if
you haven't put in a twelve hour day, you're considered
to be slacking somehow. I don't know. I don't know

(47:49):
what the problem is. There's probably a decent book in
that somewhere is actually comparing where did we go wrong?
And why have the French beaten us? For once? In
they're miserable French lives, they've actually beaten us. Dammit.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
I listened to a lot of stuff about parenting as
a generally and in the modern day, men are spending
so much more time with their kids than ever before,
like a huge amount of time. Yet if you look
at like the satisfaction of how men think they're measuring

(48:26):
up as present fathers, it is really quite low. Whereas
so just in every aspect, for this is not just
a man thing. In every aspect, we're encouraged as a
society to always do better and to be you know this,

(48:46):
We've been persuaded to be the best we can be.
And it's there is a there's a philosophy thing I
was listening to the other day where positive positive coersion.
So rather than years ago, you used to be like coercive,
like if you don't do this, if you don't do this,

(49:08):
you know there will be consequences. This is what you
should be doing. And that was like a dictatorship of this.
Or now you get the coersion of a culture, which is,
you know, you really should be spending four hours a
day with your children and doing this, and you really
should be working ten hours, and you should reply to

(49:28):
emails at eleven o'clock at night, and you should always
have your phone on and be on slack and do
the shopping and cook healthy meals and never eat anything
from this and don't put plastic in here. And there's
all these demands that just don't stop. So the coersion

(49:49):
goes from being told if you don't do this, this
will happen to you really should do this, and we
encourage you to do this, because the result is still
the same. You're still under this immense pressure.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
There's just lots of people who are making money out
of making you feel bad because they're telling you should
do this, and then buy this book and you can
go and read this self help book and this will
make you feel even worse.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Yea and am. Anxiety is on an epidemic rise too.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
So yes, I don't have any anxiety whatsoever. I don't
have any of that shit. I hear of these people saying,
you know, and I just think, shut up. I can't
be bothered with that.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
You know, it has to be it has to be
anxiety has to be from the anxiety region of France, exactly.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
The French don't have a word for anxiety. They just
probably put ak in front of it. Anyway, So listen.
So I see I went to Harold's and what else
did I do? I tell you what another thing to
listen to if you want a little bit of what
is great about written is Prido and I went to

(50:57):
the Folk East thing and.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
I really want to do it as a I'd like
to just take a flash and a camera and just
get some mad portraits of some people next year, because
I tell you the thing is is that actually what
I've been.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
So you've been on a journey around France, I've been
on a journey around myself. Because I'll be honest. You
know this book tour that I'm still on, I go
to Ireland next weekend. This weekend coming for two days,
I'm headliningest Yes Headfest in County offer which is going

(51:35):
to be an absolute hoot. You know. I'm doing this
with people who are brilliant hedge layers, a fantastic poet,
rapper and beat boxer. I mean he is absolutely brilliant,
this dude. There's all these sort of things which are
only in Ireland. You do it because you know, they
get loads of funding for the arts. So this Mount
Brisco Farming County Offery has basically got everyone from orchestras

(51:58):
to it's to rappers, beat boxes, hedge layers, people have
written books about hedges, you name it, they've got that,
and the Hedgero Fest is going to absolute hoot. But anyway,
I've been on a journey around myself because you see,
probably before I started doing this book tour, this idea
of being invited to go and star around with stand
around in some fields looking at hedges with people are

(52:20):
ostensibly to me slightly arty, farty weirdos, would have been
my preconception. Ah, I now have discovered that actually I
have been wholly wrong. And one thing that mister Prido
and I discovered in our jaunt off to Folk East
is that we were slightly sniggering up our sleeves because
of a people sort of dressed as Gandalf and just

(52:44):
generally not quite our tribe. But when you actually go
and talk with and to these people, and I've done
that a lot, in a lot of bookshops and various
other places, I've talked to people who are slightly more
if you might be perceived as perhaps they might have
an RSPB sticker in the window of their car rather

(53:05):
than a GWCT one. But I discovered actually that if
you talk to them and you tell them about this
is our lived reality. They're not going, well, that's wrong,
they go well, I never you know. I got messages
from people, emails and people saying, do you know I
never knew that about shooting as the how important it
actually was to conservation. I always thought it was like this,

(53:27):
But your book's opened my eyes that you talked about this.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
And you're focused, you're focusing. I pretty much knew everything
you said about the sort of you know, the hedge
laying and how it works for conservation, but just having
that refresher as well, and just it's good to have
that groundwork stuff that you can see how it all

(53:54):
ties in. It's like having a fifty foot view of
of the countryside. And I think, like you say, these
people they may have a different lived experience, but when
your your goals are pretty much the same. You want
wildlife to benefit and to flash.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
Yes, I don't think you would have got a lot
of differences of opinion with a huge number of the
people that you would have seen going to the Game
Fair for all the right reasons, and the people who
were going to FOCU East or any of these various
book events that I've got I've been to. I think

(54:39):
you would have found their similarities were far more.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
They just come at it from differ come in from
different angles, but they come to the same.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
Correct, correct, correct, And there may be some there may
be some differences, but I think possibly the difference is
maybe some of the things that we you know, in
the shooting practical conservation world, certainly in the shooting world,
perhaps we need to address some of our excesses. And
we also need to understand that actually doing gigs like

(55:13):
going and talking at Folk East is hugely important, because
what's the point.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
In just talking to the talking to ye and then you?

Speaker 1 (55:23):
And it's so what You've been on a tour around
France that discover why the hell is Britain lost its
connection with food and place. I've been on a tour
around Britain and discovered that actually we're not, or I'm
not in this little enclave of trying to battle away
against the forces of darkness. Actually most people are on

(55:48):
pretty much the same page as I am. And the
people who are making sway with the supposed differences are
actually only doing so because it's a hell of a
good grift. It's a bloody clever way of flogging a
book or flogging at all, And that applies just as

(56:09):
much for the shooting community. You want to I don't
understand our country ways as does it the likes of
a shrub soul, mombio or their ilk. Is that they're
just making shock jock statements because it keeps them relevant.
And I think it is a much more interesting thing
to do what I've done going around with this book,

(56:32):
and I've had a refreshing change, and it stopped me
being actually, to be perfectly frank, quite as much of
a bigot as I used to be. So there you go.
That's the secret is write a book that people seem
to like, and go and try and flog it to
it to everyone. Yeah, I'll literally flog it to Satan
if he's got sixteen pounds ninety nine. Go on, have

(56:54):
that belzibub you know who want to know about Bill Hooks. Yes,
there we go. So look, you know, one of the
things I think we ought to do is remember in
he Man. At the end of He Man, after you'd
seen sort of all that homo erotic cartoon stuff go on,
he Man always used to look at the at the

(57:14):
camera and he would talk to kids to give him
a valuable sort of lesson today kids, we've learned about
oh yeah, and then it'd run off. That's right, So
what is going to be your he man conclusion to
this week's main part of the show, What have we
learned today?

Speaker 2 (57:33):
Callum? I wish I could give you a little piffy
little statement, but I'm sitting here contemplating that our culture
is just really stressed out and not that good at
the moment, and I don't actually know what's going to

(57:53):
have change in any way, shape or form. Maybe what
can I say? Instead of instead of buying, instead of
buying stuff from the supermarket, go to a farmer's market.
What so you can buy rizzler? No? What you're going
to do at a farmer's market, you know? Instead of
once you go go down the seafront and buy local produce.
What donuts? No slushies that are multiple multiple colors that

(58:18):
cost you ten pounds and they come in a pine
a long pineapple piece of plastic for your children. No,
there's we've we've we've kind of fucked it is actually
what I want to say. How do we course correct?
I don't know? Okay, So look that will eat some fruit,

(58:38):
touch some grass, go for a walk, get some exercise.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
There you go, that's the he Man bit, So we
can get all the negativity, amy can edit all the
negativity bit, just those bits there, because yeah, I mean,
it's not quite like what he Man used to say
with fuck tic kits, but I do share your thing.
So any way, do you know, I think at this

(59:01):
point we ought to go and put the what's your
he Man thing? By my book speaks to the great wash.
It's not the great wash, it's discovering they're not actually
the great unwashed? Is that that repellent thing that the
Ramblers Association is is that a stranger is just someone
you haven't met yet. Bollocks, that's nonsense. I've never heard such.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
From the same stranger.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
Basically, yes, But support I would say, is.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
Because go and talk to strangers.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
Just because someone's dressed as Gandalf. Just because someone's dressed
as Gandalf doesn't necessarily mean they're weird. Yeah, that's what
I've learned.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
Can I put a slightly more positive spinoff, because whilst
you were moaning about green grocers, I was thinking, hang on,
we've got a place down the road. In fact, we've
got both directions because we're like in between two big towns,
and I know that there is a green grocer each
of those towns, and they've been running, yeah, and they've
been running for you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Yeah, we've got one actually and eye and we've got
and we got them in disc I think what Calum.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
He was going to say, I don't actually go to one,
but I'll get I sure, but way do you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Know what I think? Actually, what Calum's discovered is that
he lives in a larger conurbation than we do. And
I think the problem is is that people who live
a slightly more in an urban setting, probably the ground
rents and all that sort of stuff's difficult. But I
have a strong suspicion that is almost been made harder

(01:00:36):
for people who live in urban places to get that
connection with food. Whereas in France because and I guess
it's because they've still got quite a rural culture, you know,
because they basically there's there's Paris, and it's suburbs which
is vast, and the rest of it is all fairly rural.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
So even if you live a and Avignon is quite
and it was it was interesting, but even there, you
go to a little they've got regional products in little
it's absolutely and it's because they're supermarkets. Push for it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:12):
Mm hmm. That's really good. That's that's something that like
you say, we should have that over here. That would
be fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Should we should?

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
It's not as bad as you think.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Now here's a live suggestion. We've got the half to.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Show your positivity tea enough. So it's not that bad
as you think. Possibly maybe probably.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
No, no, no, I think I think what you're saying
is generally where the majority of the populace live. I
think there is a problem, and it's not necessarily even
in London, because in London you'll see you go past
you go into London and you'll go past the parade
of shops and you probably will see a green grow
so and you probably will see this, you know that

(01:01:53):
the village within the within the town, within the city.
Yeah type of think. I think where the problem comes
is that it's the market towns no longer have a market.
The non great metropolisies have been left behind by so
many ways, you know, and where the affordable housing is

(01:02:14):
is people that are very poorly served. So I think
not saying that, you know, Harlowe's a great example but
it's probably a good example of a place that has
been left behind. It was a place that was built
with all the best of intentions and a new you know,
a garden village wherever it's called right, and it's just

(01:02:36):
been left behind and it's been forgotten about by society,
by government and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
If you're enjoying this, you can sign up to Patreon
where you get a little bit of after Shay, and
you can do that at ww dot countryslide dot com
slash support UK go so close. I'm so rusty.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
He's been away in rusty as they call it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
And now, you know, I thought we were international. That's
why I thought we were dot com because now I'm
actually the international correspondent now, so I thought that that
was it. So yeah, you could support us by going
into countryslide dot co do UK slash support and for
just three pounds a month you get the extra extra
show and you also get access to our WhatsApp community group,

(01:03:27):
which is nice Twitter and it is absolutely popping off
in the last few months.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
It is vital, brilliant. I mean I have to say
I almost lose track of who's saying in what because
because Richard that's probably it. Richard Amy have actually separated
out into different groups. So you know, you've got people
who are interested in shooting and fishing, You've got people
who are interested in food and drink, you've got just

(01:03:54):
the general stuff. You've got the forestry and land workers
type bit, and you've got really good stuff. Like you say,
it's like Twitter used to be. Anyway, have we finished
talking about France and how brilliant that is and how
crap Brittan is. Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
The only one thing I did forget was they've got
a scoring system on food which is ab CD or
E E red bad and the children grasp its so
bloody quick should I eat this, daddy? It's a C.
It's like the traffic light, but the traffic light system

(01:04:35):
that we have is absolutely terrible, and it's not on
hardly any products. Almost everything in France has an ABCD
or E on it. And if it's an apple, it's
an A. It's like knock yourself out. If it's some
kind of cured meat that's ninety percent fat, it's probably
a D. If it's something deep fried, it's an E
and the kids five years old picking it up. This

(01:04:58):
isn't healthy he's never said that ever to me. They
grasped it within like twenty four hours. Why we don't
have that system. How somebody has just worked that out
in a much better way than us, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
Well, there is a French stereotype and they are absolute
paranoid about their health. If you go into the smallest village,
you'll go in there and you come there and you think, well,
what's here. There's not even a bar, there's nothing, but
there's one thing you will see, that glowing green cross.

(01:05:37):
Because in every single village there is always a pharmacy.
And that's because the French are so obsessed that they've
got a malady, that there's something wrong with them, so
therefore about their health. And then you go into these
pharmacies and they will go and they're much more like
doctors and what's like their GPS. And you go and say, yes, hello,

(01:05:58):
I seem to have got a slight pain in my
eye right, And they'll go and they talked to you
about the you know, well, we're listen to them, and
you go and talk about it and they go ah,
and they give you this massive tablet and you go,
what am I supposed to do? With that, you go