2008-5-27 7:23pm
For a country that is King of demonstrating against injustices inflicted on its people, I honestly don’t know why no one has done anything about the unreasonably high food prices, and now, gas prices. The fleecing of France by merchants charging exorbitant food costs began 6 years ago with the introduction of the euro. This is when we moved to France from the U.S. It has just gotten worse since 2002 and now we pay insane prices for food and well, pretty much everything. Food prices have increased by 45% in some cases. I recently saw peaches selling for 8 euros/ kilo (about $12 for 2 pounds of peaches). I like peaches, but not THAT much. (and those weren’t even organic.)
I’ve noticed in many cases, organic food is less expensive than the industrial food in large supermarket chains. When we’d shop in our organic store just a couple of years ago, there’d be few others shopping. Now so many more people (who have realized that organic is cheaper or the same price as industrial AND tastes better) shop in this organic market. Anyway.
So today in London, an awesome thing is happening: truck drivers are blocking the highway demonstrating their unhappiness about the increasing fuel prices. This makes it hard to move goods in and out of the city. When will this happen in France?
People in France are talking about how others should be demonstrating (like the truck drivers!), but thus far, no one has moved an inch except the fishermen but no one cares about them too much. However, there is something almost tangible is in the air and there’s a definite restlessness in the hexagon. Many people we know in France have begun to stockpile groceries in the event that truck drivers will paralyze the roads in France, and markets will not receive their regular deliveries. We stocked up on some extra things, too - just in case. Everyone is hoping, in fact, that this massive strike will take place despite an enormous inconvenience. Us, too because something needs to happen. The system absolutely HAS to change.
If not, we at least have extra provisions to last a while, which will save us unnecessary fuel used for trips to the market.
By the way, in France we pay about $8 a gallon for gasoline, so consider yourself lucky if you have to pay ONLY $4!
