Anyone else sick of rural France?

[LeBFG]

OK, need a moan.

Fell out with the mayor over sale of a public right of way - they want to sell it, we voted against the sale. Soooo, mayor gets all vitriolic and threatened to denounce us to the gendarmes (we built a very small lean-to for the cars and hadn't asked for planning - ok, silly but really not a big deal). He actually denounced another family for a barn they were building. This makes me feel sick to the stomach.

Then, just chatted with neighbour (who hates the mayor) about a new family. They work and claim RSA. Great, said I. But they don't work enough, says he, and has seen fit to 'fill the mayor in about it'.

Awfully Pagnol I know.

I'll never understand this. I'll never really integrate. Help!

Sounds just like where I live. Political influence is huge here, corruption is rife, it makes me feel sick too. I've been through harassment of a horrible sort, I now know someone else trying to fight the system here. There is no justice where I live, unless you are friends with the right Policer officer or right politician.

I discounted Italy because of all the corruption etc. And then I find it here . I just find it really surprising with all the egalite fraternite gumpf. I don't know if it's the same in the UK - I've never had personal experience of anything like it!

Hope the harassment sorts itself out for the best marchmad. That must be awful to live with.

WHat does it mean to be denounced?

Live in UK and ignorant of these french ways

"Denounced" & " don't work enough"
Its not pagnol, its vichy
Reeks

Sorry ggirl. Denouce is to inform the authorities over something. Sort of thing people were encouraged to do in Vichy France when families were secretly helping the Allied forces. Well, OK, a bit extreme...but I'm a pretty live-and-let-live sort of person and I dislike state intervention. As Master says, it reeks .

Sounds like where I live, in rural N. Italy.

Our mayor used underhand tactics to try and force back opposition to a pilgrim invasion connected to fake holy magic water and Madonna apperitions (seen by a mechanic who is a part time "sensitive" if wine is involved).

I nearly lost my mind trying to manage my cultural expectations during that summer long debarcle.

I suppose what annoys me too is the intolerance towards people not born in the village and what they might want to do. I put up with the hunt driving at breakneck speecs down our cul-de-sac, starving hunt dogs scavenging and our pigs being surrounded by their dogs, yet they won't tolerate someone from the village walking 200m down along one of their fields. Apparently 'we walkers can't be trusted'. 'There's no respect anymore' etc. I've had enough.

I've never thought of the Vichy connection before but it explains why some people don't give it a second thought about trampling over the lives of others.

In our case it was 2 individuals who used their standing and connections to denounce us for something we were innocent of, it pulled our lives apart, whilst at the same time "camoufler" what one of them was doing. Then along came another friend, then another friend and the latest is something you'd hardly believe could be treated in this way. All because we are foreigners.

If you go and live in a rural, traditional area in a foreign country, you need to tread very carefully and to foster your political connections. If you break the rules, you cannot legitimately moan if your participation in the local political and administrative process is ignored or by-passed.

Problem is Bonsoir the rules are opaque at best and run along the lines of 'if you're born here we might consider your opinion, if not shut up'. On top of that, I know some other 'outsiders' who feel the same as I do: a second generation Italian family (Grandmother arrived in the village when she was a baby) and a man actually born in the village who then left to pursue career/education and is now retired here.

Its the same everywhere though isn't it?
My (incidentally french) friends bought a bit of land in in rural part of Bali to build a guest house/yoga retreat. They have given jobs to so many people during the building phase, running of the house and have set up a homeschool for their little boy and village kids. They have learned the language and are extremely respectful of local traditions etc? but they still have endless nightmare scenarios dealing with the local elders and authorities.
I can give you endless such like stories in Cambodia, thailand, not to mention China.

rural places are all like this IMO, whatever country, since moving to (a rural location in the UK) I have never come across such pettiness and spite.

Where in the UK are you burberry? My ILs moved near to my natal territory in Devon and had an awful time. The nastiness went on for years until ending up with all their stuff being nicked one night, including family mementos etc all because they had a funny accent and a bit of money. Hard to believe in this day and age with people moving and mixing more than ever in the history of humans .

I've experienced this in rural areas in both France and the UK, which is why I'm now happy settled in the centre of a large city.

You couldn't pay me to live in a village again. Anywhere!

The rules in communities you have recently arrived in are always opaque, leBFG. That's why you have to be terribly careful!