NewsletterDecember 2011

Seasons Greetings/Joyeuse Fêtes from Americans in France!

Silent Again

This is rue de Silence after its facelift. As I reported in my July newsletter rue de Silence along with the square in front of the local church – Place St. Jean received a facelift earlier this year. Rue de Silence was made into a pedestrian walkway and the square in front of the church was made semi-pedestrian. That is parking was removed and the street was repaved.
This is part of an urban planning project to make the center of my town – La Roche sur Foron a ‘zone de rencontre’ (meeting point) where pedestrians are favored over cars. But cars still have their place just not in the center, as there are now 1,900 free parking spaces in town. Most just a few minutes walk from ‘downtown’.
One meeting point that didn’t need much work is La Grenette (grain market). Its uses are many from concerts to markets. Case in point during the next 5 weeks it will house an ice skating rink sponsored by local business and tourist office.

La Roche II

Last month I visited my town's greenhouse. Well here are some photos of the flowers in action, including some on the Mairie (Townhall) and Monument aux Morts (War Memorial). I also took some photos of the leaves in the fall.

Euro Solutions

A lot has been made over the last year about what’s now called the ‘euro crisis.’ I won’t go into details, but I think the crisis does illustrate a major difference between France and America when it comes to taxes. Earlier last month France came out with an austerity budget to try and make up a shortfall of about 18 billion euros over the next two years. What’s different here is that unlike in the US most of the shortfall will be made up with tax increases, including a special tax on those making more than €500,000 a year and a hike in the VAT (value added tax) from 5.5% to 19.6% on some products. This action came from a right wing government. This really shows how different the political centers are in each country. In the US the right won’t even think about rising taxes even on the most wealthy.
But both countries do have one thing in common, lots of tax breaks. France for example has a tax break - Loi Girardin that allows taxpayers to get a tax deduction by investing in overseas departments and territories. There are also tax breaks for those who invest in low income housing in France. So far none of these taxes breaks are under threat to be removed.

Learning French

Here are some videos to help you learn French. Videos are courtesy of David at LearnFrenchVideo.com. These videos cover some of the basics, including how to say thank you.
More advanced learners can check out these educational tools from fluentfrench.com. These are sample interviews with full translation: Wine grower near Paris talks about her association, a former teacher tells how she won the "Battle of the Washing Machine!" and a visit to Cezanne's studio in Aix en Provence.
There’s also French Today that has lots of tools to help you including audiobooks and verb drills.

From my Mail Box

Discover Paris: With a real Parisian that is.
Travel and get fit: Trips and holidays using walking in South West France as a vehicle for improving health and fitness
American Photographer: In the village of Meursault near Beaune.

Follow @jeffsteiner