French farmer fined for illegally parking tractor - an ocean away from home

Anyone familiar with France will know that it's a large country - a very large country.

First up of course there's the mainland that most (well there are exceptions) people will be able to point to on a map of Europe.

(from Wikipedia)

You know; capital - Paris, borders with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain and a stretch of water separating it from its oldest friendly enemy, the United Kingdom.

But there's more to it. Much more.

And it comes in the shape of its overseas départements, collectivities and territories.

They all have representatives elected to both the National Assembly and Senate and while the collectivities and territories are autonomous, the five départements are to all intents and purposes part of France.

In other words France isn't just the hexagon-shaped metropolitan area in Europe.

It's also the Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mayotte, Guyane française (French Guiana) in South America and the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.

And that's worth bearing in mind, because it might go some way to explaining how bureaucratic mistakes can happen, such as the one Didier Labouygues is currently experiencing.

He's a part-time farmer in the village of Gagnac-sur-Cère in southwestern France, hiring himself and his tractor out when there's work to be done.

Last November he received a fine for having parked his tractor illegally and, as the regional daily La Dépêche du Midi reports, at first sight, all seemed to be in order.

But Labouygues read the letter a little more carefully and discovered that the "apparent offence" had taken place in Fort de France - the capital of Martinique, an ocean and several thousand kilometres away!

"I couldn't believe it," he told the newspaper.

"I took the letter along to the police station and was told that it must be some sort of clerical error (note from France Today - No kidding) and I wrote to Le Centre Automatisé de Constatation des Infractions (CACIR) in Rennes. I'm still waiting for a reply."

Of course Labouygues' case is not an isolated one - far from it.

CACIR has proven itself to be well capable in administrative cock-ups - on a frequent basis.

Just ask Patrick Pilak, a farmer in the village of Gouzougnat in the département of Creuse. From December 2010 until August 2011, he received three separate fines for illegally parking his tractor in Paris...admittedly only 400 kilometres away from where he lived and worked.

Another farmer in the département of l'Oise, just north of Paris, received a similar fine in October for apparently having overrun the meter - close to the château de Versailles. Another improbable location for a tractor.

And then there was the case of Gilles Rocher, also in October 2011, a motorist from Capbreton in southwestern France, fined 143 times for the same offence - each letter being delivered separately.

Back to the latest case though, and the last word perhaps should belong to the mayor of Gagnac-sur-Cère, mayor of the village, Danièle Vallin.

She told La Dépêche du Midi that, "CACIR should do its work properly and check on the credibility of a fine before sending out a letter.

And somehow, you can't help thinking that she might have a valid point.

The postcard "lost" for 41 years, vanishes again

Perhaps you're an optimist and believe that nothing ever gets "lost in the post" and instead mail failing to arrive at its destination on time has simply "gone missing"...for a while.

It's there, somewhere in the system. But nobody really has a clue where.

(from Wikipedia)

Well a cynic might say that's what the postal service would want us to believe.

Except occasionally there really is evidence that our sometimes tried and tested patience is not misplaced.

Such is the case of a postcard, according to the regional daily La Dépêche du Midi, sent by a certain Monsieur Le Petit in July.

He was holidaying in the southwestern village of Praz-sur-Arly and wanted to say a simple "hello" to his friends, Madame et Monsieur Bigot, who were renting a gite just over 630 kilometres away in the southwestern village of Saint-Martin-de-Vers.

"The area is very beautiful," wrote M Le Petit.

"See you soon. Enjoy your holiday and have a good rest."

The card plopped through the letter box of Charles Dardenne, the farmer who owns the gite, at the end of August.

But the Bigots weren't there.

And with good cause.

Because the card was postmarked July, 1970.

Yes it had taken a mere 41 years to reach its destination.

Dardenne, when interviewed by the paper for Thursday's edition said he was thinking about tracking down the Bigot family and M Le Petit to find out what had happened to them.

Clearly though, the postcard had other thoughts, because a day later, when contacted by Agence France Presse, the farmer said it had gone missing - again.

"It's a mystery, but I cannot find it," he said.

"Perhaps it'll make a reappearance in another 41 year, but I won't be around to see it," he added.

Aliens?

Jeannie Longo - a 58th national title for the 52-year-old

What is there left to say about French cyclist Jeannie Longo?

Sporting legend is such an overused expression, but if anyone deserves to be described as such, it's her.

Jeannie Longo (screenshot from BFM TV report)

On Thursday the 52-year-old (let's put that in capitals for those of you who might not have been paying attention; FIFTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD) once again beat women more than half her age to win the French national time trial at Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France.

And as the regional daily La Dépêche du Midi says we're all running out of superlatives to describe her remarkable career.

Thursday's win - her fourth consecutive time trial title - brought her total tally of national road and track crowns to a mind-boggling 58.

Indeed the stats for her career at national, world and Olympic level are staggering.

Alongside those 58 national titles she has also 13 world championships victories to her name and four Olympic medals including one Gold in the 1996 Road Race at the Atlanta Games.

Speaking after Thursday's race Longo told reporters that she hadn't been that confident about being able to hold on to her title.

"It went well, but I wasn’t entirely confident today. I didn’t feel great," the women French journalists affectionately refer to as "Super Jeannie" or, with a degree of reverence in alluding to her age "Super Grannie", told reporters.

"This 58th title gives me immense pleasure and I'll admit to feeling a little nostalgic on the podium because (19)58 was also the year I was born."

So with title number 58 under her belt the question on many people's lips is whether she'll have another bash at the Olympics in London next year.

In Beijing in 2008 she narrowly missed out on a medal after she finished fourth in the Road Time Trial.

And although she's not yet mentioning the word retirement, Longo is hesitant to make any promises about next year.

"I'm not really sure I want the stress of international competition," she told reporters.

"If I were to train for the Olympics it would mean another year of stress...and I have a house to finish building," she continued.

"At this rate, I'll be living in a trailer for goodness know how long."

While the Olympics might remain a question mark in her diary, one more title beckons.

Longo is due to ride in the French national road race on Saturday.

She certainly puts the rest of us to shame.

Jackpot win for a 50-centimes bet should bring a smile to the face - shouldn't it?

It's the kind of story you read from time to time in the press, see on the telly or hear on the radio: a dead cert to make you feel good and perhaps start wondering what you would do if you won a pile of money.

Image from Wikipedia - author: Jeff Kubina from the milky way galaxy

"A woman places 50 centimes and wins €238,830 at a casino in Toulouse," runs the headline on the site of the regional French daily La Dépêche du Midi.

Surely the stuff that dreams are made of.

But take a scroll down the page and you'll see that not everybody is of the same opinion.

Because among the "congratulations" are some comments that are - to put it politely - simply mean-spirited.

There are those that accuse the paper of "running an infomercial-type story" or others expressing disgust at the amount of money the casino must have "raked in" before someone hit the jackpot.

Wouldn't you expect readers to be happy for the Maryse, the fiftysomething named in the piece who's also seen smiling in an accompanying photo receiving a "symbolic cheque" for the amount?

After all, as the hospital worker tells the paper, she only plays the slot machines once a month and never risks a great deal of money as proven by her having only bought €10-worth of 50-centimes tokens.

And her win should bring an even bigger smile to the face of those reading as she was obviously more than overjoyed when she thought she had won the smaller amount of €25,000.

That was the figure the machine had registered when Maryse hit the jackpot.

"I was already happy but when the director of the slot machines told me exactly how much I had won, I cried like a child," she told the paper.

"I thought such large sums of money were only reserved for 'serious' players."

But no, some of La Dépêche readers aren't at all happy for her, the paper or the casino it seems.

This is the age of the Net of course, in which the habit of making perhaps snide and resentful comments has become easy and almost commonplace - especially when they can be left anonymously.

Maybe they have a point when they write that the casino is getting some free publicity in a story that tells us, "The win is the biggest since it opened its doors four years ago."

And maybe they're right that by publishing the first name, a photo and giving the job of the winner, the paper has, "Provided enough information to allow other 'less fortunate souls' to come begging at her door or begin bombarding her with telephone calls."

But heck. Where does all this cynicism and apparent churlishness come from? And why do they feel the need to express their thoughts?

Why can't they just be happy for her?

Oh well you can't win them all.

But at least Maryse did.