On the 4th June (premier tour) and the 18th June (deuxième tour), French voters in the Brighton area will converge on the Mercure Hotel to vote, not for their president, but for their M.P. (député).
In France, a constituency (circonscription) is formed of an area with about 125,000 registered electors. French nationals who live overseas, do not have quite such a fair crack of the whip … but at least, since 2012, they can now vote for an M.P. of their own. Continue reading
(c) Suzanne Hinton
It is well known that all that glisters is not gold. In Brighton, it is also common knowledge that all that is seems to be French is not French. Here’s a case in point.
From 1926 until about 1956, 26 Western Road in Hove was ‘Maison Francis’. Francis was Thomas Francis, hairdresser and ‘cosmetologist’ (according to Kelly’s Directory in 1931). By 1956, perhaps things French had become less fashionable and ‘Maison Francis” was replaced by hairdresser “Lawrence of Mayfair. Fortunately, the beautiful threshold mosaic still survives in 2017.
Consul François Jean (left) and John Loveridge.
(c) Cercle Français de Brighton et Hove
Sunday 23 April 2017 will be an important days for French nationals in Brighton. Under the aegis of the French Honorary Consul, Captain François Jean, they will be going to vote in the first round (premier tour) of the French presidential elections. Their ballot boxes (urnes) will be at the Mercure Hotel in Brighton. Continue reading
Source The British Newspaper Archive
Morning Chronicle 29 October 1817 (and widely syndicated in other newspapers).
Prince Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord stayed at 9 Old Stein in 1831. True. But for how long? Was this information any more than a piece of nineteenth century PR by a lodging-house keeper? Continue reading
A wonderful pun for a wonderful small shop, alas now no longer in existence. Ray Ager, co-owner, recounts the genesis of the shop Continue reading
Thomas Traverse wrote about Brighton to his brother Charles – in verse.
Would you dare rhyme ‘silly’ with Chantilly?
It is not only today’s enthusiasts for animal welfare who are against French ‘foie gras’ and the inhumane way of producing it. Even in 1822, geese were seen as suffering as they were force fed and hot-housed to produce the meaty delicacy. But perhaps they were not suffering as much as George IV’s horses cooped up in the stables, now known as The Dome.
Reproduced from pamphlet by Rev. H. Migot 1928
1860. The Prince Consort was alive and well. Crinolines were all the fashion. Brighton was attracting many continental visitors. Not only the rich. Governesses, hotel staff and servants helped fill the pews in Brighton churches. And frivolity was not all the rage in mid-Victorian Brighton. Continue reading
French Brighton 