back to France

[rubato]

I have to say we loved the French. No meal can ever be bad in France! It is a rule.

The waiters waitresses are all professionals and mostly French (unlike London where all the good waiters were Italian ) the food was beyond compare and the culture was beautiful.

So we are going back. As soon as we can! Next year at the latest.

yrs,
rubato

[loCAtek]

[Sean]

So how is it that you get along so well with a nation of people who are famous for their haughtiness and arrogan...






Never mind.

[Econoline]

[dales]

I have to say we loved the French. No meal can ever be bad in France! It is a rule.

The waiters waitresses are all professionals and mostly French (unlike London where all the good waiters were Italian ) the food was beyond compare and the culture was beautiful.

So we are going back. As soon as we can! Next year at the latest.

yrs,
rubato

Been to France twice, that's quite enough.

[Guinevere]

Vive la France!

[rubato]

"One of the most powerful things in the world is the presumption of good will." Ken Kesey If you approach people with the expectation of a positive encounter they will most of the time respond in-kind.

Boorish people interpret their own rudeness as arrogance in others.

The French were warm and very friendly, a group of Parisians were picknicking near the Eiffel Tower and waved us over to join them for some "stinky cheese" (his term) and lovely wine. The French love their language and love to hear it spoken; they like to hear you try to speak it as well. We spoke bad French, they spoke bad English, everyone met in the middle and had a great time. He liked Monument Valley the best out of his US trips; I agreed that it is one of my all-time favorite places.



yrs,
rubato

[dales]

Vive la France!

Ever been there?

[Guinevere]

Vive la France!

Ever been there?

Half a dozen times

[dales]

Good on you.

[dales]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/busin ... .html?_r=1

Indigestion for ‘les Riches’ in a Plan for Higher Taxes


Thomas Humery for The International Herald Tribune

Vincent Grandil, a tax lawyer in Paris, said many of his wealthy clients were asking him if they should bother to remain in France.

By LIZ ALDERMAN

Published: August 7, 2012


President François Hollande is vowing to impose a 75 percent tax on the portion of anyone’s income above a million euros ($1.24 million) a year. “Should I be preparing to leave the country?” the executive asked Mr. Grandil.

The lawyer’s counsel: Wait and see. For now, at least.

“We’re getting a lot of calls from high earners who are asking whether they should get out of France,” said Mr. Grandil, a partner at Altexis, which specializes in tax matters for corporations and the wealthy. “Even young, dynamic people pulling in 200,000 euros are wondering whether to remain in a country where making money is not considered a good thing.”

A chill is wafting over France’s business class as Mr. Hollande, the country’s first Socialist president since François Mitterrand in the 1980s, presses a manifesto of patriotism to “pay extra tax to get the country back on its feet again.” The 75 percent tax proposal, which Parliament plans to take up in September, is ostensibly aimed at bolstering French finances as Europe’s long-running debt crisis intensifies.

But because there are relatively few people in France whose income would incur such a tax — an estimated 7,000 to 30,000 in a country of 65 million — the gains might contribute but a small fraction of the 33 billion euros in new revenue the government wants to raise next year to help balance the budget.

The French finance ministry did not respond to requests for an estimate of the revenue the tax might raise. Though the amount would be low, some analysts note that a tax hit on the rich would provide political cover for painful cuts Mr. Hollande may need to make next year in social and welfare programs that are likely to be far less popular with the rank and file.

In that regard, the tax could have enormous symbolic value as a blow for egalité, coming from a new president who has proclaimed, “I don’t like the rich.”

“French people have an uncomfortable relationship with money,” Mr. Grandil said. “Here, someone who is a self-made man, creating jobs and ending up as a millionaire, is viewed with suspicion. This is big cultural difference between France and the United States.”



<le snipper>

[rubato]

They are doing what we should do.

Raise taxes on people like myself.

yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

They are doing what we should do.

Raise taxes on people like myself. my wife.

Fixed.

[rubato]

Sorry the drug addict with the big tits didn't work out as a helpmeet financially for you. But, what were you thinking? Your Mother-In-Laws houses would make up for it? She would make it up with a real estate license? (the last refuge for stupid people with a GED?) Sorry asshole, but I like smart, educated, accomplished women and smart, educated, accomplished women apparently like me. What a failure! Eh?



yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

LMAO !!!

Looks like giving Bernice a reality check about who the real bread winner is for him and how little he actually contributes really struck home....

[Gob]

Bernice?

[Lord Jim]

Bernice?

Oh, I meant to mention this...

I've decide that since responding to rube's posts requires such extensive use of the terms "the idiot" and "the moron" that as a literary device to vary the text, I would try when possible to substitute an inoffensive female name instead of those terms. (Let me hasten to point out this is not meant to imply that I consider women to be morons or idiots...it's just something I thought I'd do to avoid having to use the same words over and over)

In a post yesterday I referred to him as "Brenda"... I'm hoping not to use the same name twice....(Of course in rube's case the number of occasions where the words "idiot" or "moron" scream out to be used may very well outstrip the number of names available for substitution, so some repetition may be unavoidable)

[rubato]

Smart educated and successful women don't like either of you? Too bad!

Well go ahead and whine then.



yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

Pitying and feeling obligated to someone who helped support them while they were in school is not exactly the same thing as being "liked" rube....

But then I'm sure you're well aware of that....

ETA:

If you don't like having this stuff pointed out rube, then I would suggest that you stop interjecting this Daddy Warbucks fantasy you have about yourself into thread after thread....going on and on about what a supposedly great income you have when everybody knows that the lion's share of it doesn't come from anything that you personally have done...

It would be gauche enough for you to do this if it reflected money that you had in fact earned, but since it doesn't it's doubly vulgar...

I don't know who you think you're fooling...It really is quite tedious....

[dales]

Smart educated and successful women don't like either of you? Too bad!

Well go ahead and whine then.



yrs,
rubato

I coudn't get laid in a New Orleans whorehouse with a hundred-dollar bill sticking out of my back pocket.

ive always liked that saying and wanted to post it here, so there!