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I am delighted to say that the owners were found yesterday by one of our team. They are a French family, who were devastated that they had lost her, they will all be reunited at the weekend.

What is noticeable is how a thread where the OP asked a reasonable question, and was getting sensible and helpful replies was Hi-jacked by another poster with nothing helpful to say on the topic. I think the moderators should remove such posts from the original thread and invite the person concerned to post in another topic e.g. "Moaning about everything French" or some such title so the rest of us can go on offering whatever help or information we can about the original topic.

Spam posters are banned at the same time as deleting the offending post. Of course, if they manage to post half a dozen times before we get to them it might seem as we are letting them have another go. We're not, it's just a case of who's fastest with the fingers. FWIW there are a couple of tells I've discovered which I wouldn't want to mention on an open forum which means I'm able to ban 'new members' before they get a chance to post their spam. 10 so far today. 🙂

Given the two threads running here, Lori, could you not use your electric toothbrush to beat the egg whites, save time and trouble?

Have been using an electric one since I was in my early 30s so about 40 years ago and I couldn't go back to a manual now. It's like driving a manual car, no longer want that. No, the water jet thingy just do not appeal. But all those years ago, I asked my then dentist if an electric toothbrush would wear out my teeth more! Well, they'd just come into use then and there was little information on them. And he said no, the electric ones do the job properly and exert less pressure than you would yourself. In the old days, there weren't battery or rechargeable ones so you had to take the charger with you when you were travelling Nowadays, one charge easily lasts a month so unless you are going on a long trip around the world, you only need to charge it before you leave and you'd still have plenty of charge left at the end of your voyage.

Never mind a photo of a pan of stewing raspberries. The thing which grabbed my attention was the shots of the impressive handwriting. A dying trait in today's world.

Only one furry these days I am sad to say; he put one paw into the flooded garden, managed a pee and came straight back to bed after demanding a treat which he got.

It is all the tattoos and the cig hanging from his mouth that do it!

Well you obviously haven't read our terms and conditions 🤔

Made me laugh when I found it in our post box - the item still worked thought.

Have I missed something? There was loads of pre-Budget talk about changes to Inheritance Tax. Not mentioned.

Not hijacking…just saying the rules work both ways. With examples of real life issues that French peeps face. This is a ‘French’ forum so we can talk about the issues that effect the French as well. No ?

We have never been questioned in 20 years. Maybe you do look like a Colombian drug smuggler. French can stay in the UK for 180 days

How does it work the other way around? French owners of UK property? Is it the 90 day rule ? Everytime we go through Border force they quiz us like we are Colombian drug smugglers. Where are you staying…when are you going home ? umm…staying with my mum for a couple of days….mate. Is that alright with you ?

Thank you, chock full of information. Some of it is well-known and just commonsense but some of it not so frequently come across.

Of course if it's genuinely a new and better service from a new satellite then it might be worth trying. But over the years of reading nordnet reviews I'd be very careful about using them, I don't know if it's still the case but for ages there was a clear pattern that new customers got an excellent service for the first three months (which was the period where you could wriggle out) and then the speeds would collapse, leaving you locked into a contract that had another 21 months to run. Is the internet really that important? Are storms on this scale going to happen so frequently that your life is going to be constantly and completely disrupted? I must admit that *some* backup is comforting, here in Devon we have a couple of 4G routers, and when the fibre to our village was cut off by a lorry (that was too high and which stripped the fibre from the poles) we were glad to have an alternative, as it took BT nearly two weeks to repair things (not their fault, the road had to be closed and it's an A road). A 4G (or 5G) router is far more reliable than tethering to a phone, although of course if the base station is deprived of power it's not going to function.

Well done, DL! We all have to be vigilant. Goodness knows the Forum has gone through some shaky times and it doesn't need the input of scammers to put the last nail in the coffin.

Me too, anything that says you have to do something with the whites of eggs after separating them I just ignore!!

Ha! ha! Lehaut about not arguing with someone with sharp tools in your mouth! Agree wholeheartedly with that. There are some dentists who always insist on talking to you when your mouth is open and you are at your most vulnerable! Fortunately, my present dentist is not one of those. Thanks for the recommendation of Philips Sonicare model. I think I saw one on offer in Amazon. Thought I'd get one and then I'll have a toothbrush ready when the present head wears out on my present one. Sometimes I do wonder if it's cheaper eventually to buy one at low cost with say 3 heads included than to go for an expensive one and spend another small fortune for extra brush heads. Having said that, one head can last for months. I don't change them after 6 months as recommended. If all the bristles are still nice and straight, I keep the head until the bristles start splaying out. Thank you again, Lehaut, for being always patient and generous with your time and advice.

Immediately googles "egg in a cloud recipes"!

Spelt isn't gluten free. "If you have a celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), the bottom line is that spelt still contains gluten and can cause similar reactions to wheat when eaten. For those with celiac and non celiac gluten sensitivity, spelt should be avoided" https://www.glutenfreesociety.org/is-spelt-gluten-free/

Ha! Ha! Loiseau, I hope the drill includes how to clean out the buanderie? Relieved and happy you got home in one piece. That rain where we are was like driving through a car wash. Even the French drivers were slowing down...so, that says it all?

Thanks for bothering to do that. I think you are right.

Loiseau, if you'd stood behind the pan, pouring out the contents, it could have been a Vermeer. Except for the gas stove of course!

I just thought the scene looked like something by a Dutch Old Master! Thanks for the good travel wishes, folks. Home and dry now, and - astonishingly - emerged from the Shuttle to brilliant sunshine. The worst part of the trip was getting from chez Wools to my car, parked on higher ground. Although the current along what used to be his road (!) is nothing like as fierce as it has been, it was very scary to wade through for the few moments when one had nothing handy to hang on to. Luckily we both had stout wellies. Made some "emergency jam" yesterday, to help use up some of the rapidly thawing freezer contents.

Lovely !!! Lori’s version sounds best - but thanks everybody for your input.

From Oiseau, a natural photographer.

Not in Nantes, but on the Loire this herd of cows were cut off in their field with no food by floods at Coueron. Local kayak club "tempted" them out through the flooded water onto safer ground with hay in a kayak yesterday. 50 cows saved in all, they belong to a 20 year old female farmer who feared she was going to loose the lot. Thought it was quite a nice story.

Thanks for that information Lehaut I will try that.

It's a good job you are there, Loiseau. Being waterlogged like that must be literally and figuratively an isolating experience. Never seems as bad when you have someone to be with you and share it all. Good Luck, you two! Anyone else with similar flooding problems?

I don't know what you guys think, but I feel like online privacy issues have gotten worse over the past few years, especially after the pandemic. Because of the pandemic, people have had to rely on the internet more than ever; we purchase more online, we communicate more online, and we spend more time being entertained online. Businesses and big tech see this as an opportunity. It's become much easier for them to collect data from us than ever before! (I think the pandemic also accelerated the development of ChatGPT; we are feeding AI with our own data.) According to research, 80% of the revenue of these big tech companies like Twitter, Meta, Amazon, Google, and TikTok comes from advertising companies. They utilize our data for their profit, refine algorithms, feed AI, and even provide our data to the government to censor us. We provide these resources for free, and they don't give a damn about our digital privacy, not even our right to free speech. I'm just so tired of all this censorship, data breaches, and all kinds of other nonsense!

You have not offered any advice Norman….just two insulting posts. Given I have lived in France over half my life, have a French wife and three French kids and also a very large French extended family of all ages. Some in their nineties. I kinda know stuff. I have lived all over France from rough suburbs to quintessential villages. I have rented many flats and bought houses. I spend my time living to two very different areas of France. I think I am more than qualified to voice my opinions and concerns of French life. You….hmmmm…..not so much. I tell how it is. No bias.

Far better than ANYTHING you would get in France? Really? ALBF, when are you going to learn not to make sweeping statements and, if you do have a contrary point to make, to do it in a sensible, logical manner? So ALL food in Scotland is "far better" than ALL food in France? Well, that is what your statement is saying. Do you stand by it? Can you give any actual examples, any credible research, any statistics to back you up? Or are you just being utterly ridiculous and not for the first time?

and you'll be surprised how quickly the first five years will pass. 😀

I've always fancied going to Edinburgh. I'm glad you liked it.

Once you get the initial visa as a visitor, (which is what foreign retirees get), renewals are usually fairly straightforward provided you supply any documents requested. It is fairly unusual for subsequent compliant renewals to not be granted. Don't give up, many Brits have been getting succesful yearly renewals since Brexit.

Not quite such a sunny life for those born in the Empire just before WW2 I'm afraid.

Visa’s and permits are way above my pay grade. But please really think twice before retiring to France. I personally would not retire to France today. In the 1990’s ok….today……noooo. Save your dosh and spend it on holidays if France is your thing is my advice.

Barometer at about 1400hrs. Never seen it so low.

I think most of us that are residents moved well before Brexit so our understanding of the new visa systems might be limited but by doing a bit of research I can confirm that a Visiteur visa would not entitle you to apply for either a Carte de Sejour pluriannuelle or Carte de Resident 10 ans.

But that's the point, isn't it betise? A cat is never "yours", they only belong to themselves😏

Perhaps we need to remind ourselves that the State of Israel came into being through acts of terrorism. British soldiers and diplomats - British - were shot, bombed and hanged by Zionists. At the time they were described in the House of Commons as terrorists. Now the American President and the British Prime Minister rush across the world to hug them. How times change. This is not hate speech. It's how things were, and are.

Apparently that comes with aging. 👴

https://www.pour-les-personnes-agees.gouv.fr deals with most aspects of aging and where to get help

The 'clean all' command will be sufficient and “do the Trick”. If it is in a laptop or tablet, ensure it is plugged into the mains throughout the whole process, as it is not recommended to rely on the unit's battery in case it dies mid-clean. Then you will be in schtuk.

Do you mean a clean to factory reset? I think this wipes everything on an Ipad but for the rest I have no idea.

Hopefully Jyothi k will be back shortly with the answer.

Puducherry?

As ssomon said mine is automatically entered on the declaration in any case it would be at 7DB Best look at official sources as I used to say quite often https://www.impots.gouv.fr/particulier/emploi-domicile

Gardian, a little dirt never hurt anyone. I got the same comments from one of my kids, so I put out a full cleaning kit for them when she next came. No more comments!