Let us hope that the protests over extending retirement age by 2 years do not pale into insignificance when it comes time to focus on jobs disappearing
We were in Cluny yesterday and I was in the opticians when a march of strikers and protesters went past, banging pots and shouting.
Whilst they were not out of hand, I felt that I was better for me to say in the shop than return to my car. I really
didn’t expect this in Cluny, Macon yes as my hospital appointments are on a Thursday.
Thank goodness Macron can stand firm as he will not be able to stand again.
Why French people, who have a lower retirement age than the rest of Europe anyway, should think that they should be exempt from world demographics is totally beyond me.
That’s possibly also because Charles III is visiting next week I think, and lots of people think he’s irrelevant and should stay at home. Pity, I like the building.
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Macron should have taken a leaf from François Mitterrand’s book he lowered the retirement age to 60 for men and 55 for women in 1981. France should be leading the way setting an example not keeping up with their neighbours on bad social reform. If it’s keeping up with the Jones’s we may end up like America.
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I see they set fire to Bordeaux city hall
Luckily it looks like the damage was confined to the front doors.
I wonder if there will be disruption to travel in the coming week? Ports usually get involved in some extent.
It’s the portico, the actual Hotel de Ville is set back and has a bit of garden. That area in front of the portico on place Pey-Berland is a traditional demonstrating place.
Why should you think that making a political decision that puts France in line with the rest of Europe would lead to an American style economy?
It is an unfortunate fact that our young people are having a harder time economically than their parents with the ability to buy a house and become independent out of sight until their thirties.
Equally their are fewer younger people to pay for the pensions and health care of their older citizens.
Ignoring the obvious is ostrich like behaviour and gets you nowhere.
The amount of violence taking place in France shows that many of these demonstrators are extremists and out of touch with reality.
We have seen this with Brexit in UK with the Tory party and Brexiteers who put their ideology before reality and just look at what that has come to.
Ignoring reality is not a sane course of action.
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It seems a near standard mortgage term in the UK is 35 years, with that and a state retirement age of 68 coming soon who would want to be young these days!
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The voice of a retired baby boomer who had everything for nothing?
If you are sending or expecting stuff via la poste, be warned they are on strike and items are taking a lot longer. Just asked to send a letter prioritaire and the postlady said it no longer exists and if it did, it wouldn’t make any difference currently anyway with the backlog.
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So how would you fund pensions in the future?
People are living longer and the birth rate is starting to fall so unless drastic action is taken now the country will face a huge pension pot deficit.
Aiyee Ahh! My passport is somewhere postal. I only hope angry strikers don’t burn it 
I wonder how long I should wait before asking France for asylum?
As a baby boomer I can tell you that we worked very hard for what we have now.
No inheritances and I was never well enough to have a career.
We didn’t expect to have everything handed on a plate to us and if we needed something we saved for it.
No fancy holidays or cars, in fact we have never had a brand new car.
You couldn’t be further from the truth and making generalisations does your personal standing no good at all.
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Charlie’s visit has now been cancelled, embarrassing for Macron and the country.
I think in the current climate it was going to be anyway.
Well said Jane. 
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Try thinking about it a little. Here’s the benefice my employers made last year as you know there are many other big companies making huge profits now if 0.001 % or even much less was taken through taxation, we could fund a lot of things without having to work longer, have better health and social care.
Le spécialiste du BTP affiche plus de 4 milliards d’euros de profits et des revenus en hausse de 25%.
Le géant français du BTP Vinci a engrangé en 2022 un bénéfice net en hausse de 64%, porté aussi bien par ses concessions d’infrastructures comme les autoroutes, la construction ou les énergies.
Le groupe réalise 4,26 milliards d’euros de bénéfice net, pour un chiffre d’affaires de 61,675 milliards, en hausse de 25%.
Plus de la moitié des profits vient des autoroutes, soit 2,2 milliards d’euros (+15%). Le bénéfice net des concessions en général, qui inclut aussi les aéroports gérés par Vinci, a quasiment doublé à 2,7 milliards d’euros (soit +96,3%, par rapport à une année 2021 négative pour Vinci
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