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Showing content with the highest reputation since 19/02/24 in all areas

  1. No particular order… Biden, Macron, Trump, Keith Starmer.
    4 points
  2. 2 points
  3. Papillons d'amour - pubic lice.
    2 points
  4. This is one for gym bunnies but others are welcome to join in the laughter. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/picture/2024/mar/02/perils-of-sports-bras-edith-pritchett-cartoon
    2 points
  5. You'd better move fast to snap up a copy of this: It only comes out every leap year, so you'll need a retentive memory to follow the serial they apparently publish!
    2 points
  6. I lived and worked in Vienna for 3 months back in the 70’s. Wonderful place and I can add little to what has been said already. The only was that I was never keen on the ‘knodel’, which comes in all sorts of variety and disguises. A more recent experience though. When returning to France from our younger son’s home in southern Czech, we were looking for a lunchtime motorway stop. We pulled off at a place about 20kms before Salzburg - no expectation of anything special, just a typical motorway service station we thought. Wrong - but in the best possible way ! Most have probably heard about the much-lauded Service Station in the UK at Tebay. Well this place is loads better ! A superb retail area, with lots of things that you’d want to buy, and plenty that you didn’t need to buy, but did. Even better though was the cafe / restaurant, which had seating on a balcony overlooking the nearby lakes. The food was delicious, beautifully presented, but also expensive. Worth it though. In summary, Austria doesn’t do scruffy - it just isn’t ‘them’.
    2 points
  7. Dear Mr. Banana thank you for your post which brought back some very happy memories. In the mid eighties we camped in the Vienna woods not far from the terminus of a railway line into the city . We couldn’t afford tickets for the Opera but went on a backstage tour and we managed a peek into the Musikverein imagining ourselves at the New Year’s Day concert. One of the highlights was a performance of Die Fleidermaus at the Volksoper and a free organ concert in the Stefansdom. We had booked tickets 6 months prior to our trip to see the horses at the Spanish Riding School - unfortunately OH is allergic to horses but it only took 24 hours for the swelling to go down!! thanks again for reminding us of a wonderful time.
    2 points
  8. The Scientific Advances’ study’s conclusion is predicated on a single climate model, the Community Earth System Model (CESM), projecting far into the future and it’s also predicated on an amount of ice melt that has not happened in our lifetimes. Even then, the CESM had to have its pump primed with unrealistic meltwater data in order for the researchers to come to the conclusion they got. What they did was to run the model, then add modeled freshwater very gradually to the modeled North Atlantic, presumably simulating a melting of the Greenland ice which might shut down the AMOC. There’s only one problem; the amount of freshwater from melting that they injected into the model is about five times the actual amount of ice available in Greenland to melt." So it's very much a fake news scenario. https://climaterealism.com/2024/02/no-cnn-and-other-media-outlets-climate-change-is-not-causing-the-ocean-circulation-to-collapse/
    2 points
  9. Last Wednesday we signed an Acte de Vente for an appartment we intend to downsize too in the next couple of years. We originally made a verbal offer to the agent which was rejected and the sellers propsed a higher offer price which we rejected. The following day the agent accepted our original offer on behalf of the sellers and requested the offer to be made in writing. We declined the request to use the sellers notaire. This is an edited copy of the offer we made via email. Objet: offre d’achat au prix concernant un bien immobilier situé à Résidence.... Full address. Madame, Monsieur, Nous souhaitons faire une offre d'achat pour Résidence ....Full address Les acquéreurs: Monsieur Full name, résidant à Full address, né Date andPlace of birth. Madame Full name, résidant à Full address, née Date and Place of birth. s’engagent à acheter le bien immobilier dont les caractéristiques sont les suivantes : Appartement (avec terrace,garage et cellier) Full address xxx m², type x Notre offre d’achat s’élève au prix de €xxxxxxx, offre text euros . Conformément à l’article 1583 du Code civil, le vendeur et l’acheteur sont réciproquement engagés lorsqu’il y a un accord entre les deux parties sur la chose et le prix. Le prix mentionné dans cette offre vous sera versé lors de la signature, chez le notaire, de l’acte authentique de vente. Dans l’attente d’une réponse positive de votre part, nous vous prions, Madame, Monsieur, d’agréer l’expression de nos sentiments distingués. Monsieur Full name et Madame Full name. The reason we included the terrace as a separate, independent plot was because the original purchasers/owners at the construction stage purchased the two top floor plots but only had an apartment constructed on one plot and the 2nd plot was constructed as a terrace but still retains its individual plot number. Do your research and your homework. Good Luck.
    1 point
  10. Good show, Edel! And don't worry about the bureaucracy too much. It's one of those things, if you say France people think bureacracy! In fact, it's no worse and often even better than in the UK. I say this rather sourly because I have been dealing with UK bureacracy for months now;
    1 point
  11. I read that the system is 99.6% effective, so yes it will be good to have the proof just in case!
    1 point
  12. And this one, heard on the radio: Engueuler comme du poisson pourri
    1 point
  13. Whatever you choose to offer make sure it is at the market price. Whatever the price it is being advertised at is not its market price. I can guarantee you that. The French housing market is on its knees….go play with the offer you make.
    1 point
  14. Ref Lori's post. It may be the seller paying the fees (on paper), as many adverts proclaim but in effect it's always the BUYER who pays. This is because only one party is paying in money and that would be the buyer. It's also the case that sometimes the agent agrees with the seller to take a lower fee in order to have the sale go ahead. While the agent would like the full fee, it's also reality that when a property sticks on the market, they get nothing. In times of buyers' market, the agent often agrees a lower fee to enable the sale to go ahead. The seller still gets the price they want, the agent gets their fee (albeit a bit less than they'd like) and the buyer gets the property because after all it is always the buyer who coughs ALL of the money;
    1 point
  15. If you do agree a price remember you don't have to use the sellers Notaire. Here's the official website for finding an English speaking Notaire in the area. https://www.notaires.fr/en/directory There's also lots of generic information on property purchases and succession rules.
    1 point
  16. I know. She'll get a real hoot out of the question, no doubt. And, I suspect, the answer might be 'what the He** Mom, I have no idea !' If she actually knows, that could be even worse !!
    1 point
  17. In our last purchase in France, the Notaire was not involved until the the agent (who was representing the seller and in this case the seller was paying the agency fees) had prepared the written offer (which was a good bit less than the asking price) and submitted it to the seller. Our first offer was accepted by the seller. A compromis was then prepared, signed and an appointment for 3 months out was taken at the local Notaire's office. We had to pay a portion of the Notaire's fees about two or three weeks after the appointment was taken. The remainder was paid the day we signed the Acte de Vente. The agent preferred to give the seller a written / signed offer as opposed to verbal conversation as it was seen as much m ore serious. There was a second couple very interested in the house and had made a third visit the day we were preparing our offer. We really wanted the house, so put in the written offer and it was accepted the same day.
    1 point
  18. Menthe is right. The Notaire isn't going to want to draw up a compromis until the final price has been agreed. If you are paying the agents fees then they are working for you. Use them to sound out your offer with the owner without making it formal. Something like ' I believe the property is worth more like xxxxx'. Remember the agents fee's are normally a % of the selling price so they won't be keen to go too low. However, that's their problem not yours. I do advise you to get as much information about the property as you can before placing an offer. Again use the agent. It's their job. FWIW my last 'property' purchase was some land 10 years ago. The 'price haggling' was all done in the agents office with the owner on the phone. Only then was an official offer made and accepted.
    1 point
  19. Edel, is there an agent? Could you not ask them to informally sound the seller out about price? Can't you just say, you'd like a rough guide as to acceptability before going ahead engaging a notaire and all the rest of it? Personally, I don't think it's a lot to ask of an agent, considering the level of their fees.
    1 point
  20. Lori, it's good to have your recent experience described. I suppose it could depend on the agent's input. The ones I met seemed to be able to negotiate with both parties and agree a mutually acceptable price and then get the compromis done. You were able to say that there would be clauses suspensives and then these were written down in the compromis. As you say, practices do vary and local conditions are always going to have to be met. I sold our last house myself and I had agreed everything informally with the buyers and then I made an appointment for us both with the notaire nearest to where we lived (which wasn't near the house being sold). I see now that the procedure is somewhat different which is no bad thing. Stops timewasters and makes people reflect carefully before commitment.
    1 point
  21. You can use any Notaire you wish. Not necessarily one local to the house you're buying.
    1 point
  22. Our latest experience in Dec. 2022 was that the offer had to be in writing (on paper, not email) and signed by the agent and prospective buyer before submitting it to the seller or his/her agent. If you don't read/speak French, I would ask someone to accompany you through this who does. Your agent will likely do their best, but you really need to understand every word of every document - and they are plentiful. The diagnostics can be 100 pages long and are very very important. Things can vary from department to department and in many departments (such as where we live) appointments with Notaires can have long delays. That is what delayed our purchase to be 3 months (cash sale). Notaires round here were overloaded. We could have closed in as little as 30 days as it was a cash sale, but the Notaire's office took a long time to process and the required documentation. Good luck to you.
    1 point
  23. My understanding is that any 'offer' can be considered legally binding. Here's a translation from a French estate agency. Now that you've found your ideal home, it's time to make an offer to purchase! This is a document that commits you to the purchase of the seller's property. It must therefore be drawn up in accordance with certain rules. Here are the essential points to bear in mind: The price at which you propose to buy the property from the seller. The period of validity of the offer, which is generally 5 to 10 days, corresponding to the time you give the seller to accept or refuse the offer. How the seller should respond, i.e. by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, or by bailiff. Your own withdrawal period, which by default is 10 working days. The financing of the property purchase (loan and/or down payment). You should mention that the sale will not be final until the preliminary contract has been signed. You should indicate that the offer to purchase will be cancelled if it has not been accepted by the seller within the specified time frame. You can also indicate the type of property involved and describe it (surface area, number of rooms, etc.). Warning: remember to include suspensive clauses so that you can withdraw from the sale if something unforeseen occurs beyond your withdrawal period (such as a poor assessment of the property's condition, for example). Remember also that suspensive clauses have to be agreed by both parties, you can't just include them at a later date into the Compromis.
    1 point
  24. In my day, the agent could get your offer accepted or rejected by the buyer. And only then is the notaire involved in drawing up the compromis. Don't know the present rules and whether that is changed but hang on in there, someone will be in the know and hopefully will read your post.
    1 point
  25. Not just for pot holes, for other holes in the ground too. For example, when I am walking with my French friends and someone wants to warn of holes in the ground, they say attention, y a des nids de poule.
    1 point
  26. For us its the "Pomme de terre Noirmoutier". Gently boiled in their skins then rolled in butter, a little salt and just eaten. The joy of sinking your teeth into the skin which resists then gives to release the unique potato flavour. We just eat them on their own. A kilo between two seems a lot then suddenly they are all gone!!
    1 point
  27. OK, so the topic doesn't fill you with enthusiasm. But, NO new topic for several days so here is one that should be non controversial and nobody is excluded from putting in their tuppence worth! Mine has to be aubergine which is on an equal footing with kale. How do you make either of those tasty? And don't mention ratatouille because I have lots more interesting things to do with onions, tomatoes and peppers than making that. As for kale, there are literally dozens more tastier green vegetables than that! Over to you...and do try to put some sort of life into the forum, svp...
    1 point
  28. My apologies to all who enjoy the Olympics, they leave me cold. I notice that rolling around on the floor or on your head with a hand in the air AKA "break dancing" is making its entrance this year..........what next?................. car washing, ironing, pie eating 🤣With apologies to any break dancers of course.😉
    1 point
  29. Lehaut, thank you, yes, I filled in the cert of cession and sent it with the cancelled carte grise, etc to the people liaising between me and the assurance. At the time, I was thoroughly confused. The car was picked up from a garage near our house. Then it was sent to the car expertise tens of kilometres away. After, I must say, a very thorough and fair assessemnt, including comparison with other cars of the same make and model for sale, I was given the choice of having it repaired at my own cost or scrapping it. I thought the expertise bods were going to repair it but, no, it would have to go to another garage for repairs. Then the administration of the reimbursement was handled by yet another company in Nantes. At one time, I had 4 different places to ring for information about different aspects and choices. As you know, I felt extremely ill and frightened (nothing to do with the accident) and all this phoning and explaining and being explained to gave me much stress and many sleepless nights. To cut a long story short, I let the car go to save my sanity!
    1 point
  30. What happened is well documented. There appears to be be little doubt about what happened. I really have a great deal of difficulty in understanding why somebody isn’t grabbing this problem by the neck and dealing with it. Immediate (and significant) compensation for those hundreds of people affected. At the time, why on earth somebody in senior management there wasn’t saying “Why are there loads of postmasters being found to have ‘fiddled the books?”. It made no sense. But that question can be answered later. Here we have one, if not the, biggest scandal in UK modern times. The people affected need to be exonerated and (quickly) recompensed. BTW, I have no personal involvement in any of this. Just an overwhelming sense of injustice.
    1 point
  31. Are you declining to take part in the 'mea culpa', 'we're all doomed', ecolo hysteria, Harnser? 😁 How refreshing! I wish I had your ability to come up with trenchant counter-arguments backed up by facts. Seriously.
    1 point
  32. Behave yourself! 🤣 On the birdie theme, after two weeks I finally managed to capture a colibri (hummingbird) in the gîte garden.
    1 point
  33. Quite, could not agree more. Especially since I've just today had my second 3-month clear report - but need to go at least a year before anything changes .. but as you say, dear Menthe, one is never totally free of cancer .. until death, of course. Sorry to be morbid, but you know that is true, as see above, so does NormanH and I presume several more on here. Still, I shall celebrate my news for one evening, at least!
    1 point
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