No News is Good News

  

Every 2 weeks I write an update of the local news stories, translated from french media, and it is published in a newsletter/facebook page/forum for the english-speaking community.  I do it a) Out of the goodness of my heart, b) It is good for my language skills and c) Because the Editor adds a link to my website at the bottom.  OK, mainly c), but I also enjoy doing it!

The problem is that I am starting to get complaints that there is too much bad news!  We even had to change the title from ‘A Light Look at the  Latest Local News’ to ‘A Quick look’ because someone wrote to the Editor complaining that reporting on crime and violence was hardly ‘light’ (this from a gentleman who lives in inner-city London…).  It also back-fired on me when a client who contacted me to ask for help looking for a property here mentioned he had read the News Reports on the local forum and it seemed to be a dangerous area to live in!

So, are we all in danger of being murdered in our beds? No.  This is usually a peaceful laid-back sort of region where the biggest excitement is the fact that Ikea ‘might’ be opening here (they aren’t) or that somebody ‘might’ have seen a dolphin off the coast (very possible).  Unfortunately, due to ‘circumstances beyond our control’ there is slightly more happening than usual and not much of it is good - there is Covid-19 for a start, it is the peak 
of the Tourist Season so there are more people getting into difficulty in the sea (ok - drownings), and it is very hot so there are more drink/drive car accidents and domestic violence incidents.  Also this Department borders Spain so there will always be stories about drug/tobacco smuggling - even though there were slightly less during lock-down when the border was closed!  

But generally so little happens here that I have had to change from writing once a week to once a fortnight - and even then I am often scratching about trying to find something more interesting to write about than the forthcoming Snail Festival or whether this year’s Cherry production was good or bad. So I can hand on heart assure anybody who is thinking of coming to the area that there is no need to panic, there are not gangs of gun-wielding criminals around every corner, and the only danger is that you will fall in love with the place and not want to leave….