Richardcyoung.com

The Online Home of Author and Investor, Dick Young

  • Home
  • How We Are Different
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • Your Survival Guy
  • The Great Reset
  • COVID-19
  • My Rifles
  • Concentrate on Dividend Record and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • The Swiss Way
  • Dick Young
  • Debbie Young
  • Key West
  • Paris
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Freedom Force
  • Dick Young’s Safe America
  • Bank for International Settlements

Terrorists/Unions Killing French Tourism

May 27, 2016 By Debbie Young

Dick and I are back in Paris after several days in Beaune, France, the heart of Burgundy and its wine. Once again we stayed at our favored L’Hote de Beaune, first introduced to us by a Butterfield & Robinson bike tour we took about five years ago. Biking through Burgundy on the mythical Route des Grands Crus is how we became interested in the complex subject of Burgundy wines, as we visited the revered wine villages of Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, Aloxe-Corton, and Puligny-Montrachet.

The Butterfield tours at the L’Hotel de Beaune are off about two-thirds, we were told. According to a manager, Americans are concerned about terrorism and are opting instead to stay and travel in the U.S.A.

We had lunch yesterday in Paris at the Patricia Wells-recommended Cafe Varenne on the corner of Rue de Bac in the 6th arrondissement. Same friendly service and delicious food as earlier in May, but this time, policier sporting serious looking Uzi-like weapons outside the restaurant. Not sure what it was about, and we were not concerned (since no one else seemed to be), but it was interesting after talking with so many French about their concern over weakening tourism.

Our Burgundy friend David (Bourgogne Avec Chauffeur) has taken us on tours of the vineyards and transported us to and from Paris-Beaune several times. As he explained, another incident (terrorist) is going to make an already teetering industry come to an abrupt halt.

Strikes by unions are also not helping. Unions protesting France’s labor laws have closed six of France’s eight refineries (right before the soccer games). Many petro stations have run dry, stranding motorists, according to the Independent:

A third of petrol stations were dry or dangerously low on fuel after days of blockades at refineries by union activists.

British motorists traveling to France in the next few days would be well advised to arrive with full tanks. Some of the worse stricken areas are around the Channel tunnel and ferry ports in northern.

The French government already faces a nerve-racking time during the month-long soccer competition. More than 500,000 fans from the UK alone are expected to cross the Channel – half of them without tickets. France is still on high security alert following the November jihadist attacks, in Paris.

On our drive back to Pairs from Burgundy, David stopped to fill up on the highway because some stations in Burgundy are already running low on petrol. Wish I had taken pictures of the long lines.

On purely anecdotal evidence, Dick and I would say most cafes and bistros are only half full. Walking past Café Flore, it was hard not to notice how disturbingly empty it was. We had no trouble getting a table at our favorite Basque restaurant off Rue St. Dominique in the 7th. Pottoka is usually reservations only, even at lunch.

The manager of one of the lovely Palace hotels in the 8th arrondissement was boasting that his hotel’s occupancy rate was 80% in May, the only one in Paris, he said. A high-end shopping guide has lived in Paris for years. Her business is off 80% from same time last year. She counts on May and June to carry her through the less-touristy summer months and now is unsure her days as a tour guide continue to be viable.

And finally, Dick just received an email from a friend of ours who is a wine rep in Rhode Island. The strike is killing his business, he reported.

C’est la vive from Paris.

Related Posts

  • With my French Teacher In Paris
  • French Unions Fostering Cultural Suicide?
  • VIDEO: Unions explained
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Debbie Young
Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving her Porsche Boxter S through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga.
Latest posts by Debbie Young (see all)
  • The Political Downside of Stoking Fear - February 26, 2021
  • Gov. Newsom Discovering the Power of the Pen - February 25, 2021
  • Don’t Let Its Name Fool You - February 24, 2021

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Democracy: The Most Dangerous and Insidious Effect of Majority Rule.
  • Your Life on Main Street will Never be the Same
  • “I’ve Got Guys Buying Guns/Ammo for Me All Through the Night.”
  • Robo-Advisors: When You Have a Lot More to Lose than Money
  • “Some Sixty Million People Died in World War II”
  • Biden Wants to Gut the Tax Benefit of 401K Plans
  • Hungarian Hardliner Viktor Orban Shows European Globalists the Way
  • Victor Davis Hanson: How to Bust DC’s Stronghold
  • Ron Paul: “Freedom and Central Banking Are Not Compatible”
  • Could this Be the Vanguard GNMA Winning Edge?

Disclosure

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Welcome to the Interest Rate Prediction Business, JACK!
  • Democrats Have a Plan: Don’t Get Too Attached to Your Capital Gains
  • Petrified Snow/Ice Fishing? How about a Boat? and More
  • Bubble in Tech Stocks Will Cause “Clean Out” in Markets
  • COVID Chaos: New York and California vs. Florida and South Dakota
  • Time for the Fed To Stop Babying the Bond Market
  • Richard Young Reports: 50+ Years with Fidelity and Wellington
  • Deep Survival, Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
  • Herd Immunity by April?
  • Corporate Bond Yields: What You Can Earn Today

Neither Cancel Culture nor COVID Can Shut Down CPAC

The Political Downside of Stoking Fear

Welcome to the Interest Rate Prediction Business, JACK!

Has Bill Gates Been Injected Yet?

Fauci Doesn’t Own Your Face

Gov. Newsom Discovering the Power of the Pen

Copyright © 2021 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives