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Mac

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Everything posted by Mac

  1. Cullen Skink (scottish smoked haddock soup) 
  2. Due to circumstances beyond ou control(redundancy and vendors dragging their heels) we now find ourselves in the position that we will have approx.1 years cover from our NI payments and will then need to find full health cover(not top up) for about 4 years after that. We always knew that we would have to fund our health care for a few years as we are not working but it will come about quicker than we thought. We have money put aside for this but wonder if anyone is using a supplier for a health care policy that they can recommend. We neither of us have any ongoing or chronic medical conditions or family history of heart or other medical problems. Any recommendations put there?
  3. Thanks for the advice. A local antique centre sells this brand of wax so I will go and check it out.
  4. We bought our property last november and didn't find out until we turned up to sign the final paperwork that according to the mayor of the commune the property had 'no drainage'. This was a surprise to us and the estate agent who had not been informed of this although the notaire had the letter which was dated July. After a lot of phone calls we discovered that what the mayor meant was that the drainage did not comply with the new requirements due to come in in January. The vendors then agreed to go halves with us on the estimated cost of the new system and we eventually signed for the property about 3 hours later than planned following the notaire receiving e-mails from the vendors agreeing to her holding back part of the sale price. The mayor of the commune was also the head of the local water board and I suppose he has quotas to hit as I understand that he is insisting that all older properties sold have 'no drainage'- not just those sold to foreigners.
  5. Our property has some old internal beams in the stone walls. What should I treat them with? I don't want to stain them or anything like that, and there is no sign of insect infestation so thats not needed.I didn't know whether to wax them with a liquid wax or use something like Danish Oil just to bring out the grain and beauty of the beams. What can you suggest? 
  6. The advice about different flours will be very helpful when we move to France soon. But one thing I need to know. Clair suggests using T55 flour for cakes. Do you need to add a raising agent to that ? I would assume that you do or is there a french alternative to SR flour?   
  7. Interested in the replies for this as we are in the same position. Is it allowed on the forum for you to give us the name of the company you bought from and what do you do with the car when you get it to France? Just reregister it?
  8. Mac

    White Goods

    Thanks for all the advice. I think my first job must be to go round local traders and see whats on offer and then I'll check out the bigger boys.
  9. Mac

    White Goods

    Just about to move to France. Finally about to sign Acte de vente. I will need to buy some white goods,in particular a gas cooker(bottle) and a washing machine. I have checked on the Darty website but I can't remember any of the other suppliers of these items. Does anyone have suggestions of the best places to buy? We are or will be in the north dordogne and will not be on line there until after christmas so on-line purchases may not be an option unless we can order from UK for delivery to french house. All suggerstions gratefully received.
  10. Can you please say where for someone about to move to the area? Same venue as last time really doesn't help me!!
  11. Thanks for the answers. So when I start paying my taxes ( foncaire & habitation) I just go to the marie and get a permit?
  12. In the UK- at least where we live-you are not allowed to use a van to take items to the local rubbish tip as that is deemed a commercial vehicle. Does the same apply in France as we have a large van which we will be using when we first take possession of our house to clear garden rubbish ect? Also in UK you can take most things to the council tip and seperate out into different dumping areas e.g garden waste,small amounts of demolition rubbish,old carpets ect. Can these be taken to the dechetterie in France and where can I find a list of rules or will they be different for each area?
  13. Why do you need to change your licence for a french one? I thought that a UK driving licence was valid in France.
  14. It would be handy if people could indicate roughly where they are when talking about coverage for mobile phones. I need to get a new one when we move to France but a lot of the comments about coverage are useless as I don't know where you are
  15. I'm so glad I saw this post. I was begining to think that I had a serious medical problem.I too get headaches after drinking red wine-even if only 1 glass. I intend now to keep a diary and see if its just one sort of red.
  16. I know that French Health care became free of charge at the point that you reaches statutory retirement age in the UK( subject to maybe having to have top-up health insurance),bur now that the retirement age for women is on a sliding scale for those not yet 60 at what age are you eligable for free health care? Is it 60 or is it the date that you become eligable to draw your state pension in the UK?
  17. We are about to complete on a house in the Dordogne. We offered about 20% below the asking price but that was because work was needed and before we made an offer the estate agent arranged for a builder to join us on our second viewing. We waited for his estimate of the cost of the work required, added a bit more for contingencies and then deducted that from the asking price. Since the estate agent had already pointed out to the sellers (getting divorced) that their failure to look after the property and do running repairs would impact on the value of the house they were already aware that it would not make the asking price and they accepted our lower offer. May be different if the family do not need to sell .
  18. Can anyone help me. The house we are buying has not been lived in for a couple of years-hence the fosse has not been used for that length of time. What do we need to do to it (if anything) when we do take possession of the house?
  19. Does anyone know of a good online translation site? I can translate easier stuff but some official paperwork is harder to do, even with a good dictionary.
  20. But Norman I'm english and I don't understand or like Tommy Cooper. Does that mean I'm not integrated?
  21. Is this the same fish that is called River Cobbler in the UK? If it is the when I worked for a large supermarket we sold this fish and it was farmed in Vietnam and not taken from the rivers. We also sold it smoked at it is a very tasty fish and a good alternative to the dearer fish.
  22. I think this depends on where you live. We used self storage last year when we down sized.We used a small but locally well known company and rented what was called a 'single bedroom'size unit which was approx 7ft x 7ft and that cost £78 a month. We live in a large town so whether that would be cheaper or more expensive in a bigger city with more choice I don't know. Also that would be nowhere near big enough if you wanted to store your whole house contents.  The firm we used also had large containers in its yard that you could rent but I don't know how secure that would be. The firm we used also had 2 levels of access. If you only wanted to access the unit during office hours that was cheaper and there was always someone there. If you wanted 24 hour access you had to be checked to go noto their access system. Hope this helps
  23. Thanks for the quick replies. I knew I could rely on the forum. We have researched the prices and since we are moving 'out of season' so to speak its quite cost effective plus we will sell the van in GB after we ahve finished with it.
  24. We are in the process of signing paperwork for our house in France. We are not selling our english property but renting it so we have no set date to move out. We also have some work needing to be done on the french property. If we decide to move our furniture ourselves (over a couple of trips)-we have nothing exceptional large or valuable( except sentimental value)-do we need to provide any paperwork that the items are ours? The newest items we have are a sofa bought a year ago and a washing machine also bought about a year ago-everything else we have had for some time.Will customs on either side need anything al all? I know that some people advocate selling everything and buying new but we don't want to do that.We have a long wheel base mercedes van which would take most of our stuff in about3/4 trips over.
  25. I've just read through this post and I have to say ( as a gite user rather than an owner), some of you seem very unlucky in your guests. As expressed by others who use gites I would prefer to book one that supplies towels and sheets and an extra cost would not deter me-its just the convenience of turning up and not having to make beds. I always appreciate the welcome pack even though I do shop before we reach the gite normally. I think the thing here is respect on both sides. I always stick to the arranged arrival/departure times and phone if any problems arise. Due to getting stuck in an horrendous traffic jam in Paris this year we phoned ahead to say that we wouldn't arrive until 7pm -at which the gite owner took my shopping list of really needed items for the first 2 days and went and shopped for me because the shops would be shut when we arrived.I always clean,replace(and leave behind) packs of toilet rolls and ambient grocery products( coffee, oil ect.) Not having towels and bedding provided would make me look at a different property first. ( however this would be outweighrd by properties that didn't accept children. Mine have now left home and I appreciate not having small children around and I am sure that parents would rather holiday somewhere were they are not worried about their childrens noise annoying others)
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