Archive for May, 2006

A brand new magazine has been launched for the English speakers in lower Normandy. The editor is former MI5 officer, Miranda Ingram, who is also a reporter for The Telegraph. She is famed for the quote 'It's not that chocolates are a substitute for love. Love is a substitute for chocolate. Chocolate is, let's face it, far more reliable than a man'. Miranda's husband, Alexander Anichkin, is the magazine's production manager. The magazine is free and is available at various depots. There are more details on their website: www.the rendezvous.info

We wish them well in their endeavors.

I spotted this article on a news feed site yesterday and thought that it was quite interesting and relevant, especially as summer is upon us with the inevitable water shortages (in spite of all the rain we have here) and many are thinking of heading to the local beaches.

Greenpeace have presented an alarming report to the French Senate on the condition of the groundwater around some of the nuclear plants across France.

Nuclear waste is reported to be seeping from the reactors into the surrounding groundwater. Highlighted was this area, Manche, were samples were taken and found to contain radioactivity levels 170 times higher than European legislation allows.

The French Senate is to debate a bill this week that is calling for storing the country's most dangerous nuclear waste deep underground in sealed containers.  The government has alos claimed that radiation levels around the nuclear sites are not exceeding norms.

It is also interesting that at the moment  85 percent of France's 1.3 billion cubic yards of radioactive waste is stored in the Manche and Aube storage sites. The remaining 15 percent - which includes the most highly radioactive materials - is in temporary facilities around the country. France is the most nuclear energy-dependent country in the world and has 59 reactors churning out around 80 percent of its electricity. It has nuclear weapons and imported waste from nuclear warheads and reactors in the United States and other countries for reprocessing.
If you want to read more check out thenewstribune.com

As a footnote I remember reading in the local paper last summer that a company along the coast were exporting large amounts of Oysters grown here, to the Middle East where they were very popular.


Oyster beds in the bay of Le Mont St. Michel.