There was a short discussion here a few weeks ago about the fate of Le
Chameau boots. I happened to pass their factory, now closed down, last
week and took these photos which I thought would be of interest.

You can see the evident anger from the locals at this closure.

In the second photo (sorry, not quite in focus) the banner reads:

No to the closure!
Let us save the "Made in France"!

and on the blackboard with the photos of the management:

Wanted: these people who have destroyed fifty-five jobs!

In the third photo, you can see fifty-five crosses, each representing an
employee made redundant. The factory buildings are in the background.

http://www.rance.me/chameau/Chameau_1.jpg

http://www.rance.me/chameau/Chameau_2.jpg

http://www.rance.me/chameau/Chameau_3.jpg

It's such a shame that the Le Chameau marque is now attached to cheap
oriental imports.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 15:36:38 +0000, David Rance wrote:

There was a short discussion here a few weeks ago about the fate of Le
Chameau boots. I happened to pass their factory, now closed down, last
week and took these photos which I thought would be of interest.



Thanks very much David, indeed of interest to us anyway. Very sad.

Those who know French labour politics a little will know that it isn't
just down to a deadbeat director, though no doubt that has played a huge
role here too. The Socialist government is currently trying to pass a
modest revision of labour laws that will (among a few other things) cap
employee indemnities to known values. This is a big issue for employers,
who can easily be ruined in court even for a sacking that has a very
valid reason, and prevents hiring, making many jobs "for life" and
favouring temporary contracts. Needless to say there are big protests,
the high school students are out in force even though the new law would
somewhat ease their ability to get permanent jobs in a climate where the
under 25s are facing 24% unemployment.

-E




--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 18:20:57 Emery Davis wrote:

On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 15:36:38 +0000, David Rance wrote:

There was a short discussion here a few weeks ago about the fate of Le
Chameau boots. I happened to pass their factory, now closed down, last
week and took these photos which I thought would be of interest.



Thanks very much David, indeed of interest to us anyway. Very sad.

Those who know French labour politics a little will know that it isn't
just down to a deadbeat director, though no doubt that has played a huge
role here too. The Socialist government is currently trying to pass a
modest revision of labour laws that will (among a few other things) cap
employee indemnities to known values. This is a big issue for employers,
who can easily be ruined in court even for a sacking that has a very
valid reason, and prevents hiring, making many jobs "for life" and
favouring temporary contracts. Needless to say there are big protests,
the high school students are out in force even though the new law would
somewhat ease their ability to get permanent jobs in a climate where the
under 25s are facing 24% unemployment.

Thanks for that, Emery. I wasn't aware of the politicking going on.

Something else I've only just become aware of (I'm off-topic now) and
that is that, on the 5th April, I shall lose the use of my digiboxes
(satellite *and* terrestrial) which I bought just three or four years
ago. Why? Because the French are going over completely to HD broadcasts
and stopping the SD ones. Bah! I only became aware of it yesterday when
a notice appeared on my screen to this effect but without giving a date.
So I looked in Que Choisir (the French equivalent of Which?) to find
that this month's issue tells me all about it! A bit late! If I'd known
last week I could have gone and bought some new boxes!

Haven't the French public made a fuss about this? One couldn't get away
with that in the UK (mainly because the government would be afraid of
losing votes!).

Sorry! Rant over!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

Martin wrote:
On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 11:02:50 +0000, David Rance
wrote:

On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 18:20:57 Emery Davis wrote:

On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 15:36:38 +0000, David Rance wrote:

There was a short discussion here a few weeks ago about the fate of Le
Chameau boots. I happened to pass their factory, now closed down, last
week and took these photos which I thought would be of interest.



Thanks very much David, indeed of interest to us anyway. Very sad.

Those who know French labour politics a little will know that it isn't
just down to a deadbeat director, though no doubt that has played a huge
role here too. The Socialist government is currently trying to pass a
modest revision of labour laws that will (among a few other things) cap
employee indemnities to known values. This is a big issue for employers,
who can easily be ruined in court even for a sacking that has a very
valid reason, and prevents hiring, making many jobs "for life" and
favouring temporary contracts. Needless to say there are big protests,
the high school students are out in force even though the new law would
somewhat ease their ability to get permanent jobs in a climate where the
under 25s are facing 24% unemployment.

Thanks for that, Emery. I wasn't aware of the politicking going on.

Something else I've only just become aware of (I'm off-topic now) and
that is that, on the 5th April, I shall lose the use of my digiboxes
(satellite *and* terrestrial) which I bought just three or four years
ago. Why? Because the French are going over completely to HD broadcasts
and stopping the SD ones. Bah! I only became aware of it yesterday when
a notice appeared on my screen to this effect but without giving a date.
So I looked in Que Choisir (the French equivalent of Which?) to find
that this month's issue tells me all about it! A bit late! If I'd known
last week I could have gone and bought some new boxes!

Haven't the French public made a fuss about this? One couldn't get away
with that in the UK (mainly because the government would be afraid of
losing votes!).

The BBC don't mind messing around with iPlayer Radio. They made existing
Internet radios obsolete with only 3 or 4 months notice.

How do purpose-built Internet radios work? I have a Raspberry Pi with
software that I can use to stream from just about any Internet radio
broadcast in the world. Do actual Internet radios have preset stations,
or something?

Can you receive Freesat?

Martin wrote:
On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 13:08:32 +0000, "Dan S. MacAbre" wrote:

Martin wrote:
On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 11:02:50 +0000, David Rance
wrote:

On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 18:20:57 Emery Davis wrote:

On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 15:36:38 +0000, David Rance wrote:

There was a short discussion here a few weeks ago about the fate of Le
Chameau boots. I happened to pass their factory, now closed down, last
week and took these photos which I thought would be of interest.



Thanks very much David, indeed of interest to us anyway. Very sad.

Those who know French labour politics a little will know that it isn't
just down to a deadbeat director, though no doubt that has played a huge
role here too. The Socialist government is currently trying to pass a
modest revision of labour laws that will (among a few other things) cap
employee indemnities to known values. This is a big issue for employers,
who can easily be ruined in court even for a sacking that has a very
valid reason, and prevents hiring, making many jobs "for life" and
favouring temporary contracts. Needless to say there are big protests,
the high school students are out in force even though the new law would
somewhat ease their ability to get permanent jobs in a climate where the
under 25s are facing 24% unemployment.

Thanks for that, Emery. I wasn't aware of the politicking going on.

Something else I've only just become aware of (I'm off-topic now) and
that is that, on the 5th April, I shall lose the use of my digiboxes
(satellite *and* terrestrial) which I bought just three or four years
ago. Why? Because the French are going over completely to HD broadcasts
and stopping the SD ones. Bah! I only became aware of it yesterday when
a notice appeared on my screen to this effect but without giving a date.
So I looked in Que Choisir (the French equivalent of Which?) to find
that this month's issue tells me all about it! A bit late! If I'd known
last week I could have gone and bought some new boxes!

Haven't the French public made a fuss about this? One couldn't get away
with that in the UK (mainly because the government would be afraid of
losing votes!).

The BBC don't mind messing around with iPlayer Radio. They made existing
Internet radios obsolete with only 3 or 4 months notice.

How do purpose-built Internet radios work? I have a Raspberry Pi with
software that I can use to stream from just about any Internet radio
broadcast in the world. Do actual Internet radios have preset stations,
or something?

Roberts Radios that can input Internet use software that Roberts had to modify.
They are constrained by the hardware in their radios. Their radios were made to
use WMA, which the BBC no longer supports.
This article and the comments explain the problem
http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...n-bbc-stations

Interesting, thanks.


Can you receive Freesat?

"Martin" wrote

David Rance wrote:

Emery Davis wrote:

David Rance wrote:

There was a short discussion here a few weeks ago about the fate of Le
Chameau boots. I happened to pass their factory, now closed down, last
week and took these photos which I thought would be of interest.



Thanks very much David, indeed of interest to us anyway. Very sad.

Those who know French labour politics a little will know that it isn't
just down to a deadbeat director, though no doubt that has played a huge
role here too. The Socialist government is currently trying to pass a
modest revision of labour laws that will (among a few other things) cap
employee indemnities to known values. This is a big issue for employers,
who can easily be ruined in court even for a sacking that has a very
valid reason, and prevents hiring, making many jobs "for life" and
favouring temporary contracts. Needless to say there are big protests,
the high school students are out in force even though the new law would
somewhat ease their ability to get permanent jobs in a climate where the
under 25s are facing 24% unemployment.

Thanks for that, Emery. I wasn't aware of the politicking going on.

Something else I've only just become aware of (I'm off-topic now) and
that is that, on the 5th April, I shall lose the use of my digiboxes
(satellite *and* terrestrial) which I bought just three or four years
ago. Why? Because the French are going over completely to HD broadcasts
and stopping the SD ones. Bah! I only became aware of it yesterday when
a notice appeared on my screen to this effect but without giving a date.
So I looked in Que Choisir (the French equivalent of Which?) to find
that this month's issue tells me all about it! A bit late! If I'd known
last week I could have gone and bought some new boxes!

Haven't the French public made a fuss about this? One couldn't get away
with that in the UK (mainly because the government would be afraid of
losing votes!).

The BBC don't mind messing around with iPlayer Radio. They made existing
Internet radios obsolete with only 3 or 4 months notice.

Can you receive Freesat?

Typical BBC, I like to read and watch the news on the PC but whilst all the
other news carriers use HTML5 the BBC use Flash Player for video and as Win
10 will not allow Apps to use it's Flash Player I and everyone with Win 10
(millions!) can't see any BBC videos.
Does anyone at the BBC think about customers? I suppose the problem is they
don't have to.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 11:02:50 +0000, David Rance

wrote:

[]
Something else I've only just become aware of (I'm off-topic now) and
that is that, on the 5th April, I shall lose the use of my digiboxes
(satellite *and* terrestrial) which I bought just three or four years
ago. Why? Because the French are going over completely to HD broadcasts
and stopping the SD ones. Bah! I only became aware of it yesterday when
a notice appeared on my screen to this effect but without giving a date.
So I looked in Que Choisir (the French equivalent of Which?) to find
that this month's issue tells me all about it! A bit late! If I'd known
last week I could have gone and bought some new boxes!

Haven't the French public made a fuss about this? One couldn't get away
with that in the UK (mainly because the government would be afraid of
losing votes!).


Well I'd certainly find fault with the fellow that sold you the SD
boxes! This has been programmed for quite a long time. It happened to
correspond with the death of my Philips box, so I replaced it with a Humax
box that allows recording (external HD) and changed the dish pointing at
the same time.

I haven't heard a peep of a complaint, although we pay the tax here as
well.

On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 13:00:48 +0100, Martin wrote:

Can you receive Freesat?

Freesat works great, and when looking at the box accounts for probably
99% of what we watch. But when there's stuff going on you do need at the
least the French news.

We got the Humax TNT box because we had been very satisfied with the
Humax Freesat box. Only to find out, they use the same remote codes! So
when you turn one on (with a remote) the other comes on as well,
simultaneous channel switching, unwanted recordings etc. A very annoying
"feature"...

-E

--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

My problem is that Al Jazeera has gone to HD only :-(


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 13:00:48 Martin wrote:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 11:02:50 +0000, David Rance
wrote:

Something else I've only just become aware of (I'm off-topic now) and
that is that, on the 5th April, I shall lose the use of my digiboxes
(satellite *and* terrestrial) which I bought just three or four years
ago. Why? Because the French are going over completely to HD broadcasts
and stopping the SD ones. Bah! I only became aware of it yesterday when
a notice appeared on my screen to this effect but without giving a date.
So I looked in Que Choisir (the French equivalent of Which?) to find
that this month's issue tells me all about it! A bit late! If I'd known
last week I could have gone and bought some new boxes!

Haven't the French public made a fuss about this? One couldn't get away
with that in the UK (mainly because the government would be afraid of
losing votes!).

The BBC don't mind messing around with iPlayer Radio. They made existing
Internet radios obsolete with only 3 or 4 months notice.

Can you receive Freesat?

French domestic programmes aren't on Freesat. They're on Fransat (which
is also free).

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 16:51:43 Emery Davis wrote:


On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 11:02:50 +0000, David Rance

wrote:

[]
Something else I've only just become aware of (I'm off-topic now) and
that is that, on the 5th April, I shall lose the use of my digiboxes
(satellite *and* terrestrial) which I bought just three or four years
ago. Why? Because the French are going over completely to HD broadcasts
and stopping the SD ones. Bah! I only became aware of it yesterday when
a notice appeared on my screen to this effect but without giving a date.
So I looked in Que Choisir (the French equivalent of Which?) to find
that this month's issue tells me all about it! A bit late! If I'd known
last week I could have gone and bought some new boxes!

Haven't the French public made a fuss about this? One couldn't get away
with that in the UK (mainly because the government would be afraid of
losing votes!).


Well I'd certainly find fault with the fellow that sold you the SD
boxes! This has been programmed for quite a long time.

It was about four or five years ago, I think, when I had to replace the
sat digibox. I don't remember there being HD boxes on sale then. Maybe
there were, but, *if* there were, I thought it wasn't worth while
getting one because I didn't have an HD television. Since then my TV had
to be replaced and now I *do* have an HD set!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 15:36:38 +0000,
David Rance wrote:
It's such a shame that the Le Chameau marque is now attached to cheap
oriental imports.

True. But the quality of these boots has already been (artificially)
reduced in the past years. With the experience shared by my neighbours
and the information that I could gather myself, I had to declare myself
unable to choose a brand for my next boots.

I just went to our local shoemaker (hammer, nails and yarn. Not just
glue.) and asked him, what he would like to see come in for repairs. The
content of his response was: « In the past, I would have said Le
Chameau, but nowadays I cannot recommend them any more. Take L'Aigle,
it has become the better brand, although all have diminished in quality.
»

Michael

--
Location: Lower Normandy (Orne), France
GnuPG brainpoolP512r1/5C2A258D 2015-10-02 [expires: 2017-10-01]
sub brainpoolP512r1/53461AFA 2015-10-02 [expires: 2017-10-01]

On Sat, 12 Mar 2016 11:42:02 Michael Uplawski wrote:

On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 15:36:38 +0000,
David Rance wrote:
It's such a shame that the Le Chameau marque is now attached to cheap
oriental imports.

True. But the quality of these boots has already been (artificially)
reduced in the past years.

It looks as though Le Chameau couldn't charge the price they needed to
in order to make a profit and still make it attractive to buyers, hence
they reduced their costs by reducing quality. And even that doesn't seem
to have solved the problem. Are we, the customers, to blame?

I just went to our local shoemaker (hammer, nails and yarn. Not just
glue.) and asked him, what he would like to see come in for repairs. The
content of his response was: 0 Chameau, but nowadays I cannot recommend them any more. Take L'Aigle,
it has become the better brand, although all have diminished in quality.
0
My Le Chameau boots are in France. But here in England I was given a
pair of L'Aigle boots some years ago as a birthday present, and
excellent quality they are, too.

Michael or Emery, you live in Orne. Can you tell me if the L'Aigle
factory is in L'Aigle? :-)

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

On Sat, 12 Mar 2016 09:59:15 +0100, Martin wrote:

You can programme the controllers/Humax boxes to only recognise one
controller/box. We had the same problem.We have a Humax for Freesat and
a Humax for Dutch cable. Since we have had Freesat we very rarely watch
Dutch cable. My wife watchers tennis on the Dutch cable, otherwise we
would consider terminating our subscription.

Substitute Humax for YouView.

https://support.youview.com/articles...-do-I-stop-my-
other-Humax-devices-responding-to-my-YouView-remote-control-1370864294232


Wow, thank you very much Martin. This is great.

-E



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

"Nick Maclaren" wrote

My problem is that Al Jazeera has gone to HD only :-(



Can still get it live on the PC via the ToView app which I find very useful
(need good broadband). Or you can use their own App to see it live on the PC
and various articles too.

Alternatively, if you want it on your TV then get a Humax set top box for
either Freesat or Freeview HD.
As well as new they do factory refurbished models
http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/refurbished.html
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

In article ,
Bob Hobden wrote:

My problem is that Al Jazeera has gone to HD only :-(

Can still get it live on the PC via the ToView app which I find very useful
(need good broadband). Or you can use their own App to see it live on the PC
and various articles too.

Thanks, but ....


App? What's that? :-) If I am using a computer, I will use a proper
one and look at the Web page (I do) - the point is that essentially
all I can hear on the television is the news and, with the BBC being
increasingly a government mouthpiece, there really isn't a lot to
counter the bias. Russia Today is just plain ghastly, though their
Web site is better.

Alternatively, if you want it on your TV then get a Humax set top box for
either Freesat or Freeview HD.
As well as new they do factory refurbished models
http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/refurbished.html

Set top? No space. Yes, I could mount an extra shelf on the wall,
and an adapter for the electricity, but it's not worth it. A new
television isn't all that much, and we don't watch it much.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.