Lehaut

My bad, yes please.

I read that the system is 99.6% effective, so yes it will be good to have the proof just in case!

From I April 2024 no need for the little green slip on the windscreen for your car. The scheme has been in place since 2019 which allows visibility of your car insurance in a central data base. Allegedly you can check to see with the FVA if your details are correct. Hopefully an automatic scanning system will now be set up that alerts the authorities to those who drive without insurance. If some towns can scan cars to check they have paid for their parking, it should not be too difficult.

On TF1 today, how SNCF incentivise(?) the controllers on trains. I am in two minds. One how does management know (if they do not allow this) that the controllers just sit in their booth for the journey (they will be paid anyway). Or, does it lead to abusive practises. I am sure we all have horror stories of using the wrong ticket, making genuine mistakes etc https://www.midilibre.fr/2024/03/13/les-controleurs-sncf-touchent-ils-des-primes-et-des-commissions-lorsquils-mettent-des-amendes-aux-voyageurs-11823816.php

Road sign "Nid Poules en Formation" pot holes.

For us its the "Pomme de terre Noirmoutier". Gently boiled in their skins then rolled in butter, a little salt and just eaten. The joy of sinking your teeth into the skin which resists then gives to release the unique potato flavour. We just eat them on their own. A kilo between two seems a lot then suddenly they are all gone!!

There was a very bracing wind, which perhaps explains the lack of people. We were passed by two cyclists on the way back, the only ones we saw. It was very interesting country/seaside to be in. The tide was well out as you can see. That said, the café we stopped at for a coffee at the half way point was packed with people eating lunch. Having looked at the colouration in your post Menthe, I lean towards a young hare too. The bones for the back legs to me also looked very pronounced as well.

No, not for eating! Went for a 40 kms bike ride in the "Marais Breton" yesterday. Lovely sea/marsh landscape teaming with birds and water fowl. Great going one way but the wind had got up for the return. Anyhow, cycling along a track with a ditch on one side full of water, I spotted this little chap just crouched in the windswept grass. I carefully got of the bike and took his/her picture. They were not fazed at all. I have seen many rabbits but never a hare so close up. Google lens says hare, but there may be those better versed in lagomorphs who can clarify.

I found this article in the Guardian quite interesting in that the study was carried out by a French team. The breakfast they describe is the typical one (I think, or a variation on the theme) consumed in most French houses for breakfast!! https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/06/people-who-eat-breakfast-high-in-refined-carbs-rated-less-attractive-study-finds

Artichoke, waste of time cooking and just an excuse to eat butter. Did not think much of Ratatouille till we found the tinned version by Cassegrain. More expensive than some but worth it imo.

"Transformé en France" is another trick wording, it means the product was manufactured and packaged in France. The ingredients can come from anywhere. And without getting into the current debates raging over UPFs, nearly all these things are, indeed UPFs, as are 90% of the special offers in supermarkets.

The volunteers who go out and mark up all the local routes we have done in the Loire Atlantic, the Alps and other places do a great job. The yellow path markers are a great help. During our snow walks in the Chamonix this year we would have been completely lost in the forests if it was not for the local tourist office marking the trees with purple dots. Hope you manage to do your part OK.

As part of the "writing off" of the car, did they also contact ANTS on your behalf and remove the car from your ownership? (cession de véhicule). You don't want the extra headache of having your numberplate cloned and you getting the fines etc.

Have visited Vienna too, found just the architecture of the buildings overwhelming. Although, despite the ancient building etc, my favourite place was the repurposed gasometers on the outskirts of the city. We have just come back from a long weekend in Venice, a city we have never visited. Out of season we missed the crowds and, apart from the deluge on the Friday, had two days of glorious sunshine and warm weather. I was very pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness of all the places we walked - mostly away from the tourist traps.

A predicted catastrophic event which will have devastating consequences for places further south than Scotland. Would be ironic if the climate refugees started a reverse trend in boats across the Channel!

Black catting, good news for those who want to move to Scotland https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-68119951

3000 degrees will probably melt our flat too😊

Long story short, but can add more if it helps anyone. Both wife and I made sufficient Voluntary NICs at class 3 rates (then about £800 per missed year) some time ago to qualify for the "old" state pension. My wife "worked" in France for 7 years teaching English for 2 hours a week to our Notaire's daughter in Normandy. All done by the book with full paperwork (Notaire's husband is a lawyer), even appeared on our French tax return automatically, though not always accurately! Realised last year that my wife could top up her NIC contributions to eventually get the new state pension (over £200 a week cw £156 ) She rang the relevant UK pension authority in Feb 2023. A very helpful chap asked if she had ever worked in France. We thought initially the derisory couple of hours a week would not count, but he advised we try. The aim being for HMRC to class her as being employed and thus pay class 2 NIC for the missing 7 years necessary to take her up to the full 37 years contribution for the new pension. We wrote in March 2023. Got a reply yesterday from HMRC saying that they would accept the furnished French employment record and allowing her to pay Class 2 NIC at £163 per missing year instead of £900 class 3 for each of the 7 years! Quite a saving and worth the multiple phone calls, long waiting times and a year for a written reply. She just has to live long enough to benefit😁

Have to disagree with the counter top oven! How do you get a roast dinner meal for several people in one of these? A chicken would just about fill it, where is the room for the roasted veg, potatoes etc? (at least the ones I have seen are very small). If I need to do a pie or something small, we have a combination microwave/fan oven which takes a very short time to heat up and cooks/browns just fine. The new oven has many bells and whistles and cooks up to 300°C which should please the pizza makers in the house. As for the washing machine, have a Samsung bubble model which can take up to 2h30 do do a white wash. It did signal the end of the programme with a rendition of "The Trout by Shubert". That got stale very quickly so got deleted. Also had the option to send you an email when the wash as finished - a hackers dream.

It is on a separate circuit on the fuse board. All I can surmise is the earth leakage detector on the main breaker is very sensitive (500ma) more so than the MCB on the fuse board (age unknown but flat built in late 80s).

Its the second time a heating element has burnt out in the same over in 6 years (Ikea Oven) so I put it on Leboncoin for 10€ spares or repair. No takers yet. Have ordered a more up market make, so have that to install which is only a 5 min job.

Banned from the rest?😁

Switched the oven on, started the Sunday roast, film ready for the big screen, whisky poured for my once a week apéro and bang! everything plunged into darkness. Dash to the fuse board to get the projector fan back on and began searching the flat for signs of electrical trouble. Eventually determined the heating element in the oven had short circuited after only 15 mins of use. Second time it has done this (repaired first time under guarantee). Left with a barely warm chicken, un roasted potatoes , carrots and cauliflower to sort out!

I don't quite understand why, when all these data bases are "available" more use is not made. Theoretically, auto number plate scanning (ANPR) can determine a few things; Wrong plate for that type of car/tractor (cloning), no control tech associated with that car, no insurance for that car, driver of the car may not/has no driving licence, car stolen etc. Not much uses of this tech seems to be made. We went to the Alps a couple of weeks ago, used the autoroute and our dongle. Passed through the new "no toll booths sections" and could hear the dongle "pinging" a few times. However, on the way back one gantry system failed to activate the dongle. Within 3 days we had a letter asking for payment of €4.60 as the ANPR back up for the activation system kicked in. If they can do that for such a paltry amount, the criminal scans should be possible. And if you don't pay the tolls if you don't have a dongle, the penalties can be high. https://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/a-la-une/une-autoroute-sans-barriere-de-peage-comment-ca-fonctionne