Our return from France
I was looking through blogs I wrote on my old website and came across the following written in May 2013:
“Having just returned from New York I realise just how amazing our country is! We all moan and complain about it sometimes, but when I see how most New Yorkers live, I realise just how lucky we are. True, there was not so much scaffolding on the streets as in previous years, but the pavements were still dirty and littered with rubbish and the potholes in the roads in and around the city were a joke. The subway system was filthy and archaic and makes our underground system look like the state of the art. As for the cinemas and Broadway theatres, it seems to me they haven’t been updated or painted since the fifties. We think many in this country are poor but the poverty in which vast numbers of New York citizens live makes me realise how fortunate even the poorest in our society are to live in the UK. We complain about our National Health but in the States if you are in an accident or seriously ill, you will be asked for your health insurance details and if you have none, your life expectancy is very much at risk!”
Well last Friday we returned from France after spending the summer months at our old farmhouse deep in the countryside. My feelings from France are very similar to those I had in 2013 on return from New York. Here in the UK, we have no comprehension of the poor living conditions in remote villages in France. I think the public over here would be up in arms if large swathes of our citizens lived the same way. As for the health service, it is just as difficult, if not more so, to get medical help in France. Often you must wait in a queue for an hour at a hospital just to obtain a ticket to start queuing in the hospital waiting room! My husband cut through his forearm by accident with a chainsaw on the farm and we waited for 6 hours on an uncomfortable sloping metal bench until the early hours before he got any medical attention. Once it was decided he needed an urgent operation, the first thing the staff did was to ask for his credit card. Maybe we should ask for payment upfront in the NHS system. French citizens will be re-imbursed but foreigners such as us will not.
If you are ill over a bank holiday or Saints Day, the best of luck. All the doctors, nurses and ambulances in the vicinity will be on holiday!
As for public toilets, they are best avoided especially if you are a woman and must walk past the occupied urinals before you can reach the loo.
So instead of moaning about how hard life is in our own country, maybe find out how much harder life is for many people in other nearby countries.
