In Brussels, I am a white-collar criminal

To those of you who have been following my blog, it won’t come as a surprise that I am quite ecology-minded. I spend a lot of time in Brittany where environmental issues are big and I chose my camp a long time ago.

We moved to Brussels almost fifteen years ago from the western suburbs of Paris... the “affluent” part of the Paris suburbs where town councils were adamant to improve cleanliness in the streets.

Those were times when they were handing out plastic garbage containers to every house and building. By the time we left, we also were given different type of plastic trash cans to sort out our wastes.

In Brittany, they had been in the vanguard of the selective sorting of household waste by opening huge waste collection sites. People loved using them. We did all the time. They also posted big plastic garbage containers all along the roads. This was a big step towards protecting the beaches and the countryside. (Even though we are still having huge environmental issues there.)

It gave us quite a nasty shock to see garbage and household refuse strewn on pavements in Brussels in bags very often torn open because they’d be lying there for days at a time.

We had been expecting a state of cleanliness equal to the one in the Netherlands which for us was perfection. Why? Because Belgium was a Northern country, sort of. Because it was very close to Holland. Because Brussels was the capital of Europe.

But you see, Brussels was quite filthy. Dogs fouling the pavements. People throwing their garbage bags all over the place to get rid of their waste instead of keeping them in their apartments until waste was collected. Lack of room, they used to say.

Some places in Belgium were quite clean, I have to admit. Mostly places in Flanders. But Brussels was the filthiest city ever... from its suburbs, wealthy or not down to its historical center.

It still is. Well, it did improve though. A lot. Dogs still foul the pavements. But their owners tend to be more public-spirited. And it is forbidden to leave trash on the sidewalks all week long since now they have finally organized precise times for waste collection, twice a week most of the time. Those times being more or less kept though.

Still no plastic garbage cans. Still garbage bags around. 


Then five years ago, I think, we were told that from now on, we were not to use the usual (brand) black plastic bags that were sold in stores. From then on we were supposed to buy opaque white plastic bags with the “Bruxelles Propreté/Net Brussel” (Cleanliness in Brussels) stamp instead.

Those bags were expensive and yet very flimsy and very bad quality. But we had to use them and we did use them. New times were set to collect the waste which was very nice and people were told they’d be fined if bags were dumped on the sidewalks any other time the way it used to be.

We felt very good about the new rules...

Then they decided to take one step forward... We were asked to start sorting our garbage, using see-through plastic bags - blue for plastic and yellow for paper. Recycling became a slogan in Brussels.

We started to sort our garbage. Even though the blue and yellow bags were just as flimsy as the white ones.

Until a nosey journalist followed a few garbage trucks and discovered that all garbage went to the same refuse incinerators. There was no sorting at all at the other end.

People were very upset in Brussels but they kept sorting their garbage out, even if a little bit dispiritedly.

Which is what we did all through the years we have been spending in Brussels.

One week ago, while I was in Brittany and Popeye in Brussels, he called me to let me know that I had received a certified letter which he could not get since he didn’t have power of attorney... (This was my first certified letter ever in Belgium!)

As soon as I got back to Brussels, I went to the post office, well not exactly the post office but the tobacconist’s where our mailman had left my letter... Yes, this is the way it goes in Brussels.

The letter was from “Bruxelles Propreté” and was five pages long.

I definitely was a white-collar criminal.

Funny? Not funny!

During the Easter week-end, we had guests and I imagine that somehow someone got careless and threw away a couple of cans of Coca-Cola in the opaque white bag plus some tea cardboard packaging. And a very small peanuts can...

How did they find out I was the culprit? Because I had willfully thrown away two envelopes with my name and address on them. Willfully and purposefully too since our yellow paper bags are always rummaged through by an old man who lives in the area and who loves the car and boating magazines Popeye reads from time to time plus the occasional French newspapers he gets on the train. (I am a tablet reader... Long live trees!)

I have caught him on the act several times and told him I would save them for him. He’d only have to ring the bell. But I guess it’s more fun to go through the bags except that everything else ends up on the sidewalk and on the street.

I hated seeing envelopes flying around with our name on them so I decided a long time ago to throw them into the white bag.

How did they find all this stuff?

Those of you who are no longer very young will remember Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant”.



Well, they ripped my garbage bag open, my dear friends, right in front of my house.

How do I know? It’s written in black and white in the minutes that are attached to my fine... (Yes, I have to pay a 75€ fine plus likely legal proceedings.)

But they do not tell that they did tear my garbage bag and threw its contents all over the place while trying to find a proof I am an environmental criminal.

I remember finding the gored bag and its contents in the street gutter a few minutes after I had dumped it on the sidewalk like I was supposed to. I remember getting gloves and pouring everything back into a new bag without noticing my envelopes were missing... I am not this paranoid. Actually I was very mad and wondering who had done this...


Now I know! It was “Bruxelles Propreté/Net Brussels”! (Cleanliness in Brussels)

Saturday night was waste collecting night! I walked around the area... This is what I found a mere 50 meters away from our home... 

But this time, there was no “Bruxelles Propreté” inspector around... Just too bad!

There I am, talking about garbage in Brussels when my son’s Turkish friends are fighting for freedom of thought and expression everywhere in Turkey for the past week.

This will be my next post.

Because...

and...

 

*Good Luck, and Good Night*

Have a smoke!

In July 2011, non-smokers were expected to rejoice in Belgium when smoking was definitely banned from public places. Yes, that is right. July 2011. Probably beating the Western world record of disrespect for public health.

To be fair, smoking quit being allowed in schools in September 2008.

If you have been reading my blog long enough, you probably think I am quite biased against Belgium. This is totally untrue. It is not really a matter of sectarianism. I simply do not understand Belgium even though I have been living there for the past fourteen years.

As far as smoking is concerned, France reacted much earlier. Later than the US probably but as early as 1976 and 1991. The real ban came only in 2006 though.

Tobacco is heavily taxed in France. Last year, the government ‘earned’ 18 billion dollars from tobacco taxes, most of this money being pumped back into our ailing Social Security. The easy way to take care of people who get very sick because of tobacco.

Smoking is a very expensive pastime. A pack of cigarettes now costs  more or less 8 dollars and its price should go up pretty soon.

It sounds good for non-smokers, doesn’t it?

Well, let me tell you. I love to live in Brittany because people on the beach do not smoke... Or if they do, there is a lot of room to avoid them. But people usually don’t smoke while they are taking walks on the beach.

But try to take a long walk in Paris and I am sure that by the end of the day, your eyes will be watering and your throat will feel scratchy. Why? The ambient pollution? Yes but only partly.

People no longer smoke inside their office. It is totally forbidden.

Therefore, they break off every now and then and they go outside to smoke.

They usually stand on sidewalks when the weather is fine. When it’s raining, they still go outside to light their cigarette. Is there any other choice? 

They huddle in the entrance of their building. And then you do wonder what’s so enjoyable about smoking that people are ready to stand outside in the rain and in the cold while they are slowly inhaling poison. (Poisoning you too with the cloud of smoke they produce.)
 
Take a walk on the sidewalk and you become an innocent passive smoker because people smoke while they are walking by or because you walk by chain smokers. Your choice? Not really.

I used to love to sit at the terrace of cafés. It was so romantic in Paris. And it was fun in Brussels. Watching people walk by. Enjoying a sunny spot. Lazying around.

Nowadays, terraces are besieged by smokers who do smoke. Period. 

You look at the smokers and you feel like life is really unfair. They are enjoying the sidewalk and the sights and the passers-by and you can’t. Not anymore.

It is even worse when you get close to a school entrance hall. Then you do end up walking through a thick cloud of smoke. And you get lucky if you don’t get a cigarette burn on your way. (Kids under 16 are forbidden to buy cigarettes. What's going on there?)

And then the smokers will drop their butt without even putting it out. In Paris or Brussels, the butt goes out on its own but imagine what may happen along a country road when it ends up in a dry ditch.

The car drivers are even worse because they flick theirs through their slightly opened window. From time to time, the stub ends up dangerously close to you or in a baby carriage. (No kidding.)

I know I probably sound intolerant but if I feel like smoking, I want to do it on my own after weighing up the pros and cons and not because someone forces it upon me at every bend of my path.

I am pretty sure I won’t find many pros by the way. Who can in this day and age? Who can ignore the fact that “Smoking can seriously damage your health?” In France, they even took one step forward: “Smoking will kill you.”  Oh really?

What about us, harmless passers-by?

A while ago, I discovered this neon sign. The name of the café is “The Smoking Dog”... "Au chien qui fume"...

I had to stifle a nervous laughter though. In Paris, the dogs are pipe-smokers. In Brussels, smokers put their cigarette out in dog poop.




*Good Luck, and Good Night*

Green Algae in Brittany. Again and Again. Again and Again.

Beautiful, isn’t it? Who can believe that this is the place where 36 wild boars¹, sows and piglets alike, were found dead in July?

While I was writing a few posts about pollution problems in Brittany, a French region I love very much, our «home» ever since 1987, I never thought we’d live through such a shocking experience.

When people started finding dead wild boars, sows and piglets², (up to 36) on a beach close to our home, there were headlines all over French (and foreign) newspapers. «Green algae in Brittany. They killed again.»

I decided to be patient and careful for once.

Boars were found dead every day. They were collected and sent to a veterinary lab. Autopsies were carried on.

In Brittany, people were arguing to the point that it was hard to even utter the word «sanglier» (wild boar) whether you were talking to a farmer, a hunter or an ecologist.

The farmer would get really angry because green algae have been known to be the product of intensive farming.

The hunter would get mad because wild boar hunting is highly restricted. 
He’d tell you that boars wouldn’t be dying on the beach if they had been hunted. It made sense of course even though a little bit drastic but it did not do much good in finding the cause of their death anyway.

The ecologist was very upset but torn apart by two theories.

One was that boars died from asphyxia due to the H₂S (hydrogen sulfide) from the rotting of the green algae.

The second theory which could make sense was a poisoning from the nearby small river filled with very toxic microscopic algae (cyanobacteria/blue-green algae).

I almost forgot another theory. Deliberate poisoning of the boars by farmers or villagers who could have gotten tired of the damages in fields and gardens.

So I waited very patiently. I was quite sure that inhaling the fumes from rotting green algae had killed the boars because I had been there... so many times while working hard on a photographic project.

The stench from the rotting algae is unbearable. Imagine a gigantic pan filled with rotten eggs and you’ll get the idea.

I remember feeling nauseated. I remember getting headaches. I remember throwing up. How lucky I have been never to faint in the muck. And how stupid I have been to stay there for such a long time while taking pictures...

After all, the algae has killed at least four times within the past two years: one man, two dogs and one horse. Official deaths at least.

I waited for the results. They came up a few days ago.

And the newspapers were all screaming: «Green algae found guilty of the death of the wild boars.»

Our world is going upside down.

In the Middle Ages, whenever something bad happened, we burnt black cats.

In August 2011, green algae are held responsible for the death of 36 wild boars and one coypu³ (two days ago... and no doubt about it). At least this is the way our French newspapers published the news... Responsible...

Guilty.

Should we burn green algae... as a punishment for their mischief?

Or should we try to find out who really is guilty of their proliferation? (Shouldn't we try to eradicate the problem even if it takes years to do so and before too many animals and/or humans die on a beach?)

Who should be held responsible for the increasing invasion of Brittany (and elsewhere) by green algae?

Farmers and intensive farming? Our consumerist attitude? The fact that Northern Brittany gets more and more tourists every year? Too many people meaning increased pollution.

The problem first appeared in the 1970s but it is getting worse ever since.

Of course, intensive farming plays an important part in polluting the water (ground water and rivers) and then the sea.

Farmers are caught in a devilish drive to be ultraproductive. They want to survive. The ground is getting poorer hence a growth in the use of fertilizers and pesticides.

Nobody came up with realistic ideas or solutions to help them through the various crises they have been going through.

And nobody ever came up with money to help them get rid of the polluting side effects of intensive farming. A few things have been tried out but nothing really satisfying though.

In Brittany, we are now facing a major crisis because no one ever wanted to face the truth and talk about it openly and with composure.

The official results of the autopsies were published a few days ago. The boars did die because they inhaled H2S from rotting green algae.

The green algae problem does not affect Brittany in its entirety. But since it has been hushed up, now that it comes violently to light, people are afraid.

Northern Brittany is one of the main agricultural regions in France. 40% of its population are farmers.

But we must not forget that Northern Brittany also survives because of tourism⁴.

The weather has not been very clement lately. With the «green algae» crisis, many people have decided to avoid Northern Brittany and are cancelling their reservations.

So Northern Brittany is bound to live through dire times once again.

In September, pig manure spreading will start again, hereby causing water pollution. More green algae next year...

This year, green algae are hard to get rid of. Too many of them and not enough storage left.

Only one solution left since the cleaning up is now impossible - Access to the polluted beaches will be restricted.

A week ago, 350 farmers or so had a big football game on the very spot the boars were found dead, thereby defying the State authority... Nobody died and nobody felt sick either (or nobody ever complained)... for one good reason probably - the green algae had been disposed of and anyway, the football game was scheduled away from the very place that is known to be still highly contaminated with H₂S. (The sands are checked every week.)

Pitiful. Who can believe that one football game will prove the disappearance of such a terrible danger?

By the way, the government has kept very quiet concerning the farmers’ act of defiance.

But beaches are being closed every day now, the way the St Maurice beach is closed ever since July.

Good news though. Summer holidays are almost over. The tourists are leaving. It is getting colder. Green algae are disappearing... All is well, all is well in Brittany.

Let’s forget about pollution... until next spring, of course...



¹ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
² http://www.ouest-france.fr
³ http://coastalcare.org
⁴ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/


*Good Luck, and Good Night*

"Green Algae" and Pollution in Brittany

Today, I heard on the radio that there is a huge conference in Chicago about cancer. They mentionned that one child out of three born this year will develop cancer in his/her life, sooner or later.

Four main causes. The first one is environmental. The second one is linked to tobacco. The third one, to alcohol. The fourth one, to prolonged exposure to the sun.

The first cause and the fourth one are obviously linked. It seems quite easy to fight the second and third causes.

I have already written a few pages about pollution in Brittany and the heavy toll it takes on people’s lives.

Cancer and Alzheimer are considered to be epidemics here. To be specific, most of the cases there are known to be linked to environmental problems.

Agriculture is not really regulated. Since it is very intensive, farming requires a lot of fertilizers, weed-killers, fungicides, insecticides, growth substances and pesticides.

Impossible to leave out the intensive farming of pigs and poultry.

All this pollutes ground water in a rather frightening way.

During the past thirty years, a very visible type of pollution has appeared. We call it «marée verte» since it is caused by the «algues vertes». (green waters as opposed to oil slick - «marée noire» in French)

The «algues vertes» known as «Ulva» do not pollute unless their growth is altered by the nitrates discharged into the sea by the rivers heavily polluted because of the very intensive farming.

This has been getting worse during the past ten years.

I take most of my pictures outside, in the wild. And I have worked a lot on the foreshore and around mussel beds. It is a long story I’ll tell you one of these days.

There is a place I love not too far away from our home. It looks like a huge beach at low tide except that people farm mussels there. So it ends up looking like a crazy forest, filled with stakes where mussels grow.

My first encounter with «green algae» there was very surprising.

I usually work barefoot whenever it is warm outside. It’s easier for me to walk along the foreshore and inside the mussel beds.

Boots (which I do wear when it gets cold) tend to overload me. And since I’m already carrying a very heavy equipment...

So I go barefoot.

My first green algae were beautiful. The sea was slowly ebbing away. Fresh algae up to my ankles. Green over the golden sands. Pure magic.

I had no idea what I was getting into. By the time I was through taking pictures, the sun was much warmer. It was hot, very hot. A very strong smell was coming from the algae, no longer green but turning into a sickening brown mush while they were drying under the sun.

I started feeling really sick and nauseated and so sorry I was not wearing boots.

My beautiful magic green carpet had turned into a sickeningly slippery and stinking quagmire.

Visible pollution in action. Quite impressive.

Those green seaweeds are growing on inorganic nutrients (nitrates in Brittany mainly from pig farms). As soon as they start to decay, they produce sulfuretted hydrogen, all this within a couple of hours at low tide.

Since my first encounter, I have a very strong relationship with those «algues vertes». A love and hate relationship.

I love them because they can be beautiful. They sure add a new dimension to the landscape. They float ashore leisurely and come to rest on the sand. Their green color is amazing. And they are almost ethereal and translucent.

Then I hate them. They are a sure sign of nutrient pollution. They rot away very quickly. Then they turn very ugly. They are terribly dangerous.

This pollution kills. Not insidiously. Instantly. It can be a matter of minutes for some dogs or even a horse once down into the trap like last summer.

Two years ago, a worker died after spending a few days gathering them and taking them away to be buried in a field. Too much sulfuretted hydrogen in his lungs... and a bad heart.

The «algues vertes» invade our beaches (not all of them, though) as soon as the water gets warmer. They tend to disappear when fall arrives. But they come back, again and again.

They have been present in Brittany for the past thirty years now. And nobody knows how to fight this pollution.

So nowadays, as early as May, you’ll see tractors on some beaches and people gathering weeds, green weeds twice a day, day after day until the summer is over.

People in Brittany are not growing some kind of lettuce on the beach. They are trying to keep up with pollution our consumer society is breeding, we are breeding, you and me.

I’d like to end this story with a very positive touch but I’m pretty sure that our «green algae» in Brittany are only the tip of the iceberg.





*Good Night, and Good Luck*

One bitter 'victory' - A story about pollution (Part 2)

Yesterday night, we had crêpes with B. and Y. at the Bellevue, a friendly crêperie.

B. is Bernard, our farmer friend I talked about in my previous blog.

There were a lot of customers and so we had plenty of time to talk. And talk we did.

We talked about our children. They have two sons and one daughter. They also have 7 grandchildren ranging from 3 to 13 years old. Of course, since we’ve be around for quite a long time now, we know every one of them quite well.

One of their grandchildren is an amazing classical piano player. He’s a wonderful boy, so filled with a deep inner happiness one seldom sees in a child his age.

So we talked about our children and politics of course. A true french meal can’t avoid small talk about our politicians. France is going through weird times. Since we agree about almost every issue, it was a relaxing time.

Bernard was the one to open the ‘debate’ about pollution. It took a long time. But he did start the discussion about the liquid sludge waste issue.

He asked me whether or not I had an inkling where the spreading would be done. I answered that I imagined they had rescinded their contract with the city hall.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

He said that all the waste that was to be spread in our fields would end up in theirs, including the large one behind their beautiful home, very close to their well.

He sounded almost relieved to have made this decision. But we were not happy with it.

It would still be polluting, wouldn’t it?

‘Well’, he said ‘they have to get rid of the waste so someone has to do it. Why not farmers? It pays well after all.’

It always amazes me when someone who is supposed to be very close to nature can’t see the harm done to the very world he’s getting his living from.

His world before being mine.

The farmer is the closest person to the land, the soil, whatever name we want to give it. And yet he does not understand the dangers (which I don’t believe is true because Bernard is very bright).

He doesn’t want to see the dangers because he needs to make a living. Even if to make a living, he’s destroying the potential future of the earth and his own world, this world that already belongs to his grandchildren.

Of course he’s not completely guilty. There are home and world market pressures. We are greedy consumers. But the producer (the farmer) does not get as much as he should from his hard work, at least not in France. So to make ends meet, it’s obvious that an offer as juicy as the one from the city hall is to be accepted.

I’m very stubborn. I was quite relieved that the fields close to the sea wouldn’t get polluted but I had to make another point.

The government has recently conducted a study about farmers’ health, especially in Brittany (where pollution is really high both from manure and waste spreading). They have noticed that cancer rate is getting much higher in Brittany, especially among countryfolk. Life expectancy is also much lower in rural areas than in the rest of France.

They also found out that several cancers are widespread in those areas (prostate, lungs, breast and colon), all of this probably due to heavy and unchecked pollution (fertilizers and pesticides) for years and years.

Another terrible illness is also unusually common to those areas: Alzheimer’s disease.

You see, Bernard’s wife, a very wonderful and sweet woman, is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The onset was very brutal. (She wasn’t even 60.)

This was four years ago. I’m very close to her even though nowadays, from time to time, I’m not even sure she really knows who I am. At least she’s still very sweet to me which I’m really grateful for. Because she’s no longer very kind to most people.

Her health and mind are deteriorating quite fast. This is really heartbreaking.

So last night, I took my courage in both hands and I said: ‘Bernard, what about cancer and...’

He looked at me, very pained: ‘It hasn’t been proved yet.’

What can you answer to this?

End of discussion. We turned to other subjects, safer issues which did not obliterate the pollution problem.

Maybe next year, he’ll find reasons to refuse the city hall offer. But if he does say no to them, they will find other farmers to do the dirty job. We’ll never see the end of this.

Unless our town council becomes more efficient in its waste control.

After all, we have one of the most beautiful golf courses in France and maybe Europe. Now we have a brand new thalassotherapy complete with first class hotel rooms... but it was not allowed to open its treatment space since the sea water they were pumping out is too polluted.

This could be a funny story but it is not. This is truly symbolic of Northern Brittany.

Natural beauty so marred by (almost) imperceptible and creeping pollution.




*Good Luck, and Good Night*

I'm really, really, really going mad... A story about pollution

The sea, a legacy in jeopardy

This summer will remain in memories as being the worst ever, considering that summer is supposed to be sunny, warm, well summery... at our latitude, that is.

I’m not suffering from a tourist’s ‘wasted-holiday-syndrome’. I only needed a few more rays of sun, less wind and since the sky is always cloudy, a little bit of rain to take walks on the beach, ‘just singin’ in the rain’.

The skies are overcast, the sea is rough, the wind is cold... And that’s it! No sun. No rain.

To top it all, we’re going through one of the worst period of drought ever.

In fact, I’m in a mean mood. The least little thing drives me crazy...

So when our friend Bernard who farms our fields came to Les Tertres to tell us that he has made a deal with the city hall and that he will spread liquid sludge from the city sewage system on our fields (which are very close to our home and to the sea), I went bersek! Really bersek!

I even broke two Périer water bottles while pulling out my raincoat!!! Quite a mess... Glass shards scattered everywhere!

Ever since we’ve been living in Brittany, we have been very environmental minded. Choosing and using products that would be safer for the environment than others, etc.

Since we were not linked to the village sewage system, our waste water went through pipes and ended up somewhere (obviously in the ground, 100 meters away from the house but more likely right into the sea after a while or a rainy day).
We also had a septic tank which we took great care of!
But we felt guilty anyway because we were somehow polluting Nature.

All this belongs to the past ever since two years ago, we got a letter from the city hall telling us to get our own ‘sewage plant’!!! Which we did, of course. Guilt over.

It’s quite big for two people (over 1.500 gallons) but we decided that we had to think big just in case... for the generations to come. It’s underground and will be covered with grass anyway.
Actually we never had any other choice than to accept the city hall ultimatum plus the experts’ decisions and the contractors they chose for us more or less.

So our waste is now taken care of as well as it can be done nowadays. We feel much better, no kidding.

Our beautiful garden has always been 100% organic. No pesticides, no fertilizers. No watering (which is the hardest thing to accept for my better half) . And it grows just fine anyway. We had a lot of fruits this year by the way.

Back to Bernard and his liquid sludge from the aging municipal treatment plant. The plant is actually overflowing. They desperately need to get rid of the liquid sludge. How do you think they will get rid of it? There are a few solutions. Some clean, some dirty. Of course they chose the dirtiest one. Which they call ‘sustainable development’? This is a joke, isn’t it? A nightmare? Please, I want to wake up!

European environmental laws are tough... but obviously unheard of in Brittany. The fields are there... We used to have liquid manure spread in a lot of fields. Now we’ll have liquid manure and liquid sludge...


So if I made myself clear, we spent a lot of money, time and energy to be in line with the city hall environmental policy (and our beliefs)... quite simply to get our precious fields polluted by farmers with the help of the same city hall which seems to be so deeply environmentally involved!

I went bersek because black is black and white is white. I hate shady greys especially when applied to the environment.

The city hall gives money to the farmers to get rid of the sludge. It pays a handsome fee for the transportation and the spreading of the sludge plus the plowing of the fields.

Of course, we said ‘NO’ and offered Bernard to pay him for compensation (compensation for not polluting our environment. Let’s have a good laugh!). Up until now, we never checked his use of our fields and never asked for rent either. Our fields were mainly used to grow alfafa for his flock of Suffolks. Or they would lie fallow from time to time... which was quite allright.

But what about the city hall? Our tap water is toxic but we pay high rates for the water we use at home. We have to buy our drinking mineral water. We have to set up very costly miniature private sewage plants... And yet the city ends up being the first and foremost polluter.

We still don’t know whether or not Bernard has accepted our ‘NO’. We are long time friends but the pressure from the city hall may be too strong.

We’ll see. The first spreading should start on August 24... on the fields that are very close to the top of the cliff and to the sea...

Should we get ready to immolate ourselves in front of the citry hall to protest against a truly wicked measure? I guess we won’t go this far.

Write to newspapers? Use my Facebook network? Ah, ah, ah!

Actually, we are lost and feeling defeated, which is one thing I do hate in life, especially when I believe the issue is worth fighting for!



I’m really, really, really  going MAD!

If you want to know more about Brittany, please read I love Brittany.

*Good Night, and Good Luck* (to you because we haven't been sleeping well at all lately)