tonyinfrance

Richard - I liked the brochure: light years ahead of typical French property marketing literature.  I agree with others here who've mentioned the price is not immediately obvious, and for those who might not be up for rebuilding the barn it might be useful to have a separate price for the main house without the barn (although I imagine you'd prefer to sell it all as one). Good luck with the sale.......

I thought I'd do my bit for the community, so I Fostered a Chav, got him right between the eyes with a full can

My poor budgie...   Broke its leg a couple of weeks ago, so I made it a splint out of a couple of matches.   His face lit up when he went for a walk..............

Back in the 1970s a young lady friend was caught short one evening so she hopped over a wall and did what was necessary.  She was surprised when a security light came on illuminating her in all her glory - she was in the front garden of a gendarmerie.........

I pay my credit card bills by phone via Barclays, who told me this week that payments of less than £10k are transferred same day/next day, no longer the 3-4 working days it used to take.......

It isn't hard to be too subtle for the average audience these days.........

BLs have had a poor year in England and several newspaper articles advise they have some kind of fungus problem.  Ours all died a couple of weeks ago..............

About nine years ago my wife and I took two of our godchildren from England to Disney in Paris via Eurotunnel - they would have been 6 or 7 at that time.  Since we had not taken them out of the country before we asked the two sets of parents to give us a letter of authority just in case - to be honest I can't remember the details now but I know we got there and back with no problems at all even though all of us in the car had different names (my wife uses her maiden name). We are not parents ourselves so we were initiated with a lengthy "are we nearly there yet" chorus but it was worth it as the girls had no idea where they were going til we arrived at Disney's gates - absolutely priceless!  And almost a decade later they still talk about it......

Thanks to a friend in the office I read all the Jack Reacher books one after the other.  As for Mr Cruise, I have to believe he will be the producer of the film as no-one in their right mind would think of him for the part.  And for a better candidate, how about Jason Statham?

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.......

We stay in gites quite frequently and the quality of the mattresses varies greatly; our gite earlier this month was really quite nice but the mattress was completely worn out, which was a disappointment. Wandering off topic a bit, we were surprised to find no breadboard or breadbasket in the gite (and no wine rack).  Not major points but curious all the same.....

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.

Thanks for the tip Cooperlola:  in fact the house looked so good on the website I contacted the owner but unfortunately it's fully booked in June. Although I have seen on other threads that the gite business is tough, it's remarkably hard to find a good property in a good location....... Cheers

Thanks again Cooperlola - we return the same time every year and I always forget it's race week! I think we'll look for something a bit further to the south of LM but many thanks for the comments. Cheers Tony

Hello Cooperlola:  outbound will be May 22 - 28 and return will be June 11 - 18.  I recall you have a contact maybe NE of La Fleche or was it Le Mans? Regards

Thanks Cendrillon:  I already checked Gites De France and was surprised at how few choices there were, but I'll certainly try the other sites. Cheers

Hi - we're on our way to our annual gardening labours in Provence May/June and we'll be looking for a quality gite on the way down the last week of May (Burgundy or slightly north) and also on the way back mid June (Sarthe would be ideal) in each case for a week. It would be nice to stay at a Forum member's property but if that doesn't work out can anyone recommend the best sites to search on? Thanks

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!