A FRENCH friend of ours went down to the local tip, straight from the garden. He did not have his wallet on him, so if he had been stopped by the police he would have been in trouble. You are supposed to have your driving license with you at all times.

The tip is less than a mile from my house, and I invariably forget to carry my license, when I go there.

Not only did Jean-Marie not have his wallet on him, he did not have any money but, then again, you do not have to pay to use the council dump.

He was coming back to his car when he saw a man merge from his vehicle with a modern-looking sewing machine. “Is it broken?” he asked.

“No,” the man replied, “it is Ok but my wife wants one that does more things, so we have bought a modern version.”

“I’ll take that off your hands,” said Jean.

“Give me 10 euros and you can have it,” said the man.

Surprised, Jean felt his pockets: no wallet, no money.

“But you are going to throw it away,” said Jean.

“Still am,” said the man, and hurled it into the far corner of the metal container, breaking the plastic in the process..

My English friend, John, looked at me after hearing the anecdote and tended to cite this as an example of the difference between the two nations. Neither of us is in a position to judge because we have been in France for eight years and do not know the current culture at council tips in the UK. Maybe it would happen in England, I suggested, pointing out that Jean had related this incident in French as he speaks only “a leetle”English, and he was shocked. Perhaps it is not the norm in France either.

There are different attitudes to many things in France and even in Spain. Fewer and fewer holiday-makers head for the little resort village of Tamariu, where we have gone for many, many years. It is very noticeable now, and doubtless when we arrive there in early July, after a three-hour drive, we will notice the resort is relatively quiet.

We will not be complaining and neither will our friends from Sarratt, who will meet up with us after they had dropped in at out hosue on the way down.

But the question is: how much will we have to pay for our exclusivity?

The Spanish are used to a certain turn-over and to maintain that, in addition to covering for inflation, they charge even more. Fewer people - put the prices up. That is their way of thinking. They do not think in terms of reducing the prices and rendering the place more attractive.

As a result, we think before we spend. Taking inflation into account, the Spanish receive the same amount of money from us as they have in previous years. One only has so many drinking and eating vouchers in the pocket, in the shape of euro notes.

Another manifestation is at the end of a season, supermarkets such as Leclerc do not hold an end of the season sale, clear their shelves etc. Instead they pack up all their swimming pool gear; their swimming costumes, warehouse them and bring them out next summer.

It is not unusual to buy something in a box, take it home and find that some woodlice have been hibernating in it for winter.

An English friend who does good quality building work, charges a day-rate for the job and anything he buys at discount, he charges you exactly the same price. He is also an acquirer of many useful tools. He loves having them, but now has seen the light. He bought them in the first place but then realised after two or three hires, he had paid enough to buy the tool.

A French builder commented to him that the people who make the money are those without tools.

French builders will price for a job and, when you accept, they will give you a start date, commence the job and then you might not see them for a week or more. They will be working on another site, and they continue in this fashion, ensuring that when they finish a job, they have at least two others started.

Yet with some of them, they will approach the owner of the house they are working on and say something along the lines about you needing an angle-grinder in order for the job to be done and a Kango drill. You give the go-ahead, they head off for the hire-shop, return with the tools and also you paying for the time they have taken, as they charge day-rate.

Dean explained: “I have decided to add a surcharge if I use my power tools. Why should I wear out my tools? The French don’t and the surcharge will be far less than two men going off to the hire shop for half a morning.”