ericd

For a full rewire of a 2 x bedroom house, large lounge/diner, kitchen, washroom, bathroom, 5 cellars, 2 barns and an entrance gate light, a tad over €5000 (some cash in hand of course......)

Check www.leboncoin.fr enter tuile canal in the general search engine and under Maison for the search. Plenty on offer there.

Driving down from Newcastle, we have always stopped soon after Calais and over the years have discovered a nice quiet safe hotel with restaurant situated in Marquise (a couple exits after Calais). The hotel is called "Le Guindal" and there is ample parking space for free. It is next to a 24/24 Petrol station supermarket which is ideal for cheap petrol. You wouldn't spend a fortnight holiday there but for an overnight it's perfect. This year we are crossing Hull - Rotterdam for the first time. I wonder if the Calais/Rouen/Orleans/A20 route is the best choice then.....any ideas??

Living in Canada you may have better opportunities to learn French than many.......with such a cute deep cut accent and words last used when the Huguenots were babies.....If you are going to learn Franch better avoid areas with heavy accent concentrations. A colleague of mine Brit through and through spoke fluent French with a strong accent from Toulouse. Hillarious !!

Ask for " tranche de fillet" and as it is France, there will be a choice of hampe, araignee, persillee etc....

Christmas Eve and a local convent is in mourning. Seven of its oldest nuns have just passed away overnight. The seven find themselves at the Pearly Gates where they are met by St Peter…..” Sisters, you have devoted your life to Christ and your sudden death on the eve of his re-birth must be a shock to you all. I have been granted special authorisation to let you have one wish each”….The seven sisters surprised at this generous offer consult themselves and reply all together…” All our lives we have cherished and prayed the Holly Blessed Mother of God and as a wish we would very much like to meet her to ask her something. Impossible says St Peter, Holly Mother is a very busy person and even the last Pope didn’t get to see her”…..Sad but respectful as always the sisters started to walk away when a voice coming from no-where was heard…”Peter, let them in !” ….St Peter couldn’t believe his ears, Mary The Virgin wanted to see the seven nuns, and immediately for that !!!.....The seven nuns were rushed through a side door and ushered in front of the Holly Mother. “Sisters, I want to thank you for your lives of devotion to my son and I. I believe you have a question for me………Holly Mother of God, we have prayed to you every morning and every night of our lives. We have seen pictures of you in the Bible, in lovelyoil paintings and we have seen statues of you in our church. Every time we saw you, your face was sad never a smile to be seen. We wanted to know why.” # # # # # # # # # # Virgin Mary looks at them and with a very harsh look on her face she says “……………I wanted a girl !”

Great choice of a campsite Bugsy (a bit dusty if you are given a pitch next to the small road but at this time of the year it should be ok). For cheap and excellent food can i recommend "Le jardin de Noirmoutier" on the road leading from town to "Plage des Dames". They have a great "repas ouvrier" for €12 each. My Mother's house is just a couple hundred metres away. Don't forget to attend the Sunday market in Noirmoutier town itself, it's just a great place to shop for food. I want a full report when you get back. Enjoy!

Thanks Derf. I did google it too but the butchers in the UK don't differentiate between these many cuts. It all goes into minced meat i guess......and i am not prepared to give them a course on cow anatomy

Very difficult to compare cuts of meat in the UK and in France....We have a great very friendly traditional butcher on our high street and his meat is sourced from Scotland. One day I came in his shop with a piece of French purchased steak (hampe) which is particularly tender and tasty (I had flown in that same day) to ask him if he could serve a similar cut in the future. Half dozen butchers prodded the piece, cut pieces from it and were unable to tell me which part of the cow it came from !!!! I consol myself by buying his Ribs with bone on (matured and in excess of 21 days old).

Bastille day all roads are very quiet (especially Paris to CDG route) , it's in the evening that it starts getting busy.

Sonnnez-moi is employed by the French speaking Belgian people (that's how us French can tell them apart.....) it's therefore "faites-moi savoir". French speaking Belgian also use different words ie. for "torchons" they say "essuis".......

Fully agree with you....Our UK bank (Barclays) has always been exemplary in their customer service attitude. Our French bank Credit Agricole is less so.

Well may be the VOSA man was wrong and i don't care because i can ride my US mount in the UK or may be my bike has a straight beam glass pattern.

Well if it is mis-information it comes straight from VOSA UK. They checked my beam and there was no need to have it changed for UK use (mind, my beam can be fine-tuned on two axis via 2 x small screws access inside main head.

It takes us 2 days to drive down to our place and understand why some of you (especially from the Southern Counties) restrict their choice to a full day drive from Blighty.

I had to think long and hard about this thread and have just clicked.....3 years ago i imported a Suzuki Intruder from the USA (that's when i got £1 = $2 !!) and took it through the VOSA people. "Just had to" add a side light in the main beam (a visit to the local scrappy and a drill in the main headlight did the job) run it through a thorough MOT, un-plug a couple connectors that gave a constant feed to the indicators and i was done. I am a bit confused on their request to have a new headlight fitted as for me, all motorcycle headlights shine a straight beam of light (otherwise you can bet your last €uro that VOSA would have had it changed). I was told at the time that any bike made in EU would automatically be approved for driving anywhere within EU countries (just a matter of getting a new number plate).

Yes many thanks.

Sorry to hear about that but advice here might not have been the right one. I am French and my wife is British. We got married in England. When we signed for our house in France earlier this year, the Notaire told me that "....as we got married in England, UK law will apply for inheritance, divorce etc..." I hope this helps.

Hello everyone. As mentioned by someone in a previous post, nobody bar a few exceptions actually mention which town they live in and why. I guess the fear is that unwanted forum members might suddenly appear for a cuppa and stretch their welcome a tad too far....[;-)].....To the exception of one or two members who have already advertised their request for '"pond clearing volonteers"'............Sorry i don't eat pizzas. I just thought it would be a nice idea to locate people and their reasons for being their, so here i start, hoping others will follow: Near Laguepie 82250, saw the house on the internet last November, went to visit in January and that was it. Being used as holiday home at the moment but we are busy bringing it up to standards as we intend to retire there.   .....Over to you now......

......Cross the Aveyron and join us in 82 !!

Hi, good luck with the move. Whas the Tarn getting too hot for you?

I don't think there is anything wrong either by saying: J'espère que le soleil brille toujours quand j'arrive ....

Here is the latest info: Content deleted. Please read the forum rules, you can put a link but not the content. I have added the link below. Foreign Exchange Daily Insight – The Pound rallies to a fresh 18 month high against the Euro of 1.21

......You don't 'need' any bedrooms at all .......Not realy the type of answer sweet17 had in mind. We have purchased a 2 x bedroom but there is also a "click-clac" in the lounge. We will be converting the loft area to creat 1 bedroom + en-suite. That will give us 3 bedroom which i think should cover our visitor's needs. If you have a large garden, there is always the possibility to buy an old caravan or ask your guests to sleep in a tent overnight (they would get their privacy and you too!)

Any advice about what??? which hand to snap it off from? You don't mention the price so it's all open. Peugeot Diesel engines are unbeatable on quality. The 406 has been around a few years so no surprise there. Is the car coming with it's maintenance book? Do you know the seller etc. etc.