tonyinfrance

Put the trousers in the curry?

If you enjoyed Stieg Larsson, have a go at Jo Nesbo (a Norwegian),  I've read them all and apart from the first (The Redbreast, a bit laboured) they have been really gripping: Nemesis The Devil's Star The Redeemer The Snowman and I've just started his latest, The Leopard. Happy reading!

Our month in Vaucluse was a bit of a surprise this year - stair rods and hailstones in the middle of June!  Back there in September and hoping for the previously dependable sunshine....

Too many to mention all of them but in round terms - 1968      1930s Austin 10 (almost as new, bought from a bus driver in Staines) 1969      Austin 7 special (the back fell off it on Weybridge High Street) 1970s     An array of Fords, Humbers and Wolseleys along with an E Type, a Jensen Interceptor and a TR3A I kept for 34 years 1980s     Happy days of company car free motoring!  Mostly Ford Granadas 1990s    Mercedes S500 coupé, an Escort and a BMW 318 2000s   Mercedes 280SL (still have it) and a BMW525 as the daily car I like to see the Consuls and Zephyr/Zodiacs of my teenage years but there are few of them about these days.....

Arriving by car at Hook of Holland 30 years ago I mentioned (pleasantly) to the Passport Control officer that it had been a bit slow clearing immigration today.  He had a sense of humour failure and directed me to park in an adjacent layby, where I had to wait until every last vehicle had been cleared: I then had to show every conceivable piece of documentation this chap could think of.  Delay - about 2 hours. Moral of the story is don't upset Passport Control or Customs people - they have plenty of ways to get their own back.......

Never-ending legislation and increasing costs of employment must make the restaurant trade a tough one to be in.  Even now most of our favourites are family run (which means a degree of patience is required since there's usually only one person working the dining room) but I suspect the old ways of home-reared chickens and pigs etc. for the table have largely disappeared.

Where did all Les Routiers go?  Used to be everywhere (or so it seemed) but now we struggle to find one....

We visit Rouen fairly often (and drive through it very often as we use the Newhaven - Dieppe route to go south) and it's a great town for a long weekend.  The Best Western hotel in the old market has an excellent location in a pedestrian zone and has underground parking (yes, you have to drive around the pedestrians to get to it) - really handy for a tour of the local restaurants, shopping etc etc.. The Sunday market is a few minutes walk away and is a traditional, bustling affair..... Well worth a visit.

Very nice with pasta as a simple starter.......

Hi - we'll be house-hunting in the Ambrieres/Lassay area from next Saturday for a few days: can anyone recommend a gite or something similar within a half hour or so? Thanks Tony & Sue PS: we are the world's best guests!

Back in the 1980s I had a business meeting one winter in Geneva so I thought the drive would be nice.  I'd spent years driving throughout Europe but in my foolishness I hadn't given enough thought to the mountain passes - one night in the dark and cold I had to put on unfamiliar snow chains which I'd borrowed from our fleet manager - they were chunky steel things, difficult to fit and they were too big!  Got down the hill allright but I stripped out my rear inner wheel arches!  That was a wake-up call and no mistake.....

Hello - we're planning to come over this weekend to look at properties in the Gorron area:  can anyone recommend a hotel or gite locally?  We stayed in (I think) the IBIS in Mayenne last time but I wondered if there was anything a bit to the north.... Thanks  

The Provence garden we work in uses a Bosch electric shredder - quite superb and copes with heavy duty work without complaints.

Our local boulangerie charges E1.80 for two gros pain so that's where all our small change goes......they don't seem to mind at all.

Older films often have the soundtrack of a car careering around a sharp bend when on-screen it's doing 15mph........

Our local Intermarché has 5L plastic barrels of red/roséwhite for E7.95.  We drink the rosé in heroic quantities and haven't suffered yet....in fact it's really quite good.....

Albert - we are on mains drains here so one thought was to use the pool water as a serious flush for the drains system.  We have about 8000sm of ground so draining onto an unused part of the garden would not be a problem  Today the owner came up with yet another idea: he has a fosse septique which has been unused for many years and he's thinking about using it as an irrigation reservoir.  We have access to effectively unlimited canal water so it could be filled very quickly and he was thinking of using the pool water to flush out the tank a couple of times. So many options!

Albert, Baz Thanks for the advice: having said it was hot and sunny yesterday in Vaucluse (we had 27 degrees then) today we had a damned good rain storm so the pool might well get a day or two free from chlorination since no-one will be swimming for a while.  We'll check the levels and see how we look next week. Thanks again.......

Any thoughts about the effects - if any - of chlorinated water on trees?  They are 4 year old conifers forming a long boundary and they could use the water (still hot and sunny in Vaucluse) but we would not like to risk damaging them. Cheers Tony

The garden I'm working in has a concrete above-ground reservoir which is now used as a swimming pool with the usual chlorine treatments etc..  The owner will empty the pool (about 10 cubic metres) for the winter - can this water be used to irrigate established trees or might the water be unsuitable? Thanks for your comments.

These sound like morguettes:  ordinary snail deterrents don't work so look out for a solution with the word morguettes on the packet (about £15 will do a 700sq metre area).  If they are on the lawn, a cheaper method is sulphate of iron - good for the grass, kills lawn moss and the morguettes don't like it........ Good luck

Well the outbound trip was perfect: left LGW early yesterday morning & arrived on time, sailing through passport control in Marseille (something you can't take for granted at least in the summer months). Today we have clear blue skies and a good temperature so it's off to the gardening labouring tasks for us!

We're on an easyjet flight tomorrow LGW to Marseille - the easyjet website indicates no probs.  However, we're booked to come back Sunday 26 - is this likely to be an issue or might we be OK?

For several years running Sue and I have used the same gite just south of La Fleche (Sarthe) and we were always struck by the fact we knew more about the town than our hosts - lovely people and a super gite but practically no connection to the local environment. Sadly they sold up and the new owners are awful so now we have to find a new destination.....   

Caught the tail end of a news item this morning - looks like the Norman Arrow hit a buoy on the way into Portsmouth over the weekend and service is currently suspended.  I understand the extent of the damage (if any) is unknown and there was no mention of when service might be resumed.