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Today the rain arrived. Against the payment of €16 I drove my car across the beautiful bridge to the island of Ré. €16 is not exactly cheap for such a short ride, but whereas this used to be a toll fee, it is now an environmental tax imposed on motorised...
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Put the name of Rochefort into yout GPS, and you will be surprised to learn how many towns in France are called Rochefort..... There are the towns called simply Rochefort, and then there are all the towns combining Rochefort with a local place name. I...
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There is a myth in Danish history that Dalgas, an officer and engineer who lived from 1828 to 1894 and was one of the instigators of the cultivation of the Danish heath, once said that "What is lost externally, has to be regained internally" (my free...
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On the island of Oleron, the second largest island in the European part of France, the main activity seems to be the production of oysters. I crossed the modern bridge across the river Charente and thought I had arrived on Oleron, but was surprised to...
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A house exchange between friends has brought me to "La Rochelle, la rebelle" on the Atlantic coast north of Bordeaux. Even though it is only a 5 hour drive from Paris, I made a stop-over with friends in Tourraine for a little castle-viewing. I knew little...
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No, no, I am not referring to my moral virtues but to my French name day, which is celebrated on 17 July. Until the moment I arrived in France I did not even know that I had a name day. In Denmark we do not celebrate name days, presumably because they...
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I was a big fan in the 1980ies and then I forgot about comics...... Wolinski was one of my favourites. His drawings of men and women having sex (or not) and his drawings about the problems between generations; I just loved them! In 2011 Georges Wolinski...
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I understand that in all Western European countries employees pay income tax at the source, also called PAYE (pay-as-you-earn) or PAYG (pay-as-you-go). In the UK the system was tested in 1940-41 and introduced in 1944. In Denmark taxation at source, as...
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Dear Readers, A business meeting in Marseille on a Tuesday was a good opportunity to squeeze in a prolonged weekend in Marseille. It was thus with immense pleasure that I left Paris on Friday evening under heavy showers and arrived shortly before midnight...
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My contact to the official part of Denmark seems to have been reduced to a visit to the Danish Consulate in Paris every 10 years when my passport expires. My passport is the only document proving my nationality and my identity, so it actually feels like...
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