Since moving back at Christmas, the following are the quirky things I took for granted in over 30 years of living in England prior to moving to France, simple list I know, if you can think of any others, leave ‘em as a comment:-

1. Ice Cream Vans: “Popeye The Sailor Man” ringing out all over the place
2. Gardens: Everyone spends all their time making them look great
3. Washing cars:  There is a guy down our road that washes his 3 times a week
4. Rag ‘n’ Bone Man: The clanging of a handbell (normally a 13yr old leaning out the passenger window) to alert houses that a van willing to pick up your scrapmetal is coming
5. Flipflops and Shorts in 10c: As soon as the sky is sunny, out they come
6. Ice creams: With a flake
7. Pubs: Nowhere else does it better
8. No Dog poo: None, all in the bag
9. Smiling faces from old people: Again, see no 7
10. Smiling faces in the street: See no 9
11. Fish and Chips: Always miss them right up to the moment you eat them, feel bloated and sick after
12. Teachers that Smile: See no 10
13. Supermarket workers that help: Unlike any other country
14. No dress code outside work: No-one cares
15. Cold evenings: No matter how hot it is during the day, you can’t sit out at night without freezing, yet everyone does
16. Bitter: Pint of
17. Large Glass of Wine: Half a Bottle
18. Eat as much as you can for £10: You just have to
19. Newspapers delivered at 7am: By car these days
20. Neighbours: Everyone needs a good one, and they all talk to you
21. Window cleaner: Ladder on the back of a ford capri
22. Milkman: In the Tesla of the 70’s
23. Postman: In shorts all year round, see No5
24. Tea: By the gallon
25. Pork Pies and Sausage Rolls: See No 11

Any others you can think of?

Those people that moved to France and commute are just about to hear a bombshell, our friends Ryanair who have been serving our local airports for years and years have just pulled out. Bang. No emails to those already booked, nothing, just pulled the plug. Ryanair stopped flying to La Rochelle, Nantes and Angouleme outside summer season.

So my parents who have booked in November and December, will “get a refund”, yet have not, at the time of writing even had en email confirming the route closure. Nor does it mention this anywhere on any other site as far as I can see.

I have confirmed with la Rochelle airport that Ryanair are no longer flying there between November and April nor are they flying to Nantes or Angouleme. The only airport they are going to fly to is Poitiers “out of season”. So those packed flights I have travelled on from La Rochelle to Stansted all year have clearly not been making any money. Yes, packed flights.

I have looked into it and I can get a train to Poitiers or even drive which is two hours each way or jump the train to Bordeaux..how about the rest of the regular commuters, what do you intend doing? What about the thousands of gites and small businesses in the region that rely on the English tourism?

I am shocked and wonder if this route cancellation will mean we will have to move back to Blighty or to the USA..

UPDATE: I have since found out that Ryanair are letting 850 people go from their operations and a travel insider has emailed me to tell me that Ryanair are in so much financial trouble they could be going bust. This is an unconfirmed rumour but would make a little sense as to why they are scrapping very busy flights.