Lehaut

Who whisks egg whites by hand, that is what an electric mixer if for 😊. My wife take about 1 minute to get mounds of it.

Oddly enough just read an article about poaching eggs, juice of half a lemon in the water was suggest to stop the whites running. I have taken to buttering a small ramakin and putting the egg in that, then in boiling water to avoid the runny whites. Anyone seen an egg poacher for an induction stove? Used to have a 4 egg poacher, but not induction compatible. Have only just discovered "egg in a cloud". We mix grated cheddar in the whites before cooking, served on hot buttered toast with smoked trout under the egg. Sublime.

Philips Sonicare Daily Clean 3100, since August 2021. 4 heads for it are €29.98. Would not go back to a manual one either. Spoke to our Dentist who came down on the plus side of having such a machine. It makes one hell of a noise in your head if you touch your teeth with the hard part of the brush Dentists can tell if you are right or left handed by the pressure you put on your teeth with a manual brush - or so I was told by one. I have never found it profitable to argue with someone with sharp tools in my mouth.

Thanks menthe. Spent a week in Chamonix in the summer and went up the Aiguille du Midi, Mer de Glace etc, we should really go back for a week in the winter. Will look into that. Will have to be by car as the trains are still in disarray after the rock fall.

Hope the Corsicans are more tolerant with mis-pronunciations that they are with French road signs! Saw loads like this when we were touring there.

Where are you planning to go, if you don't mind me asking. We are waiting see where the snowfalls are before planning our next walking week in the winter. Rather spoilt by the stunning view in Les Deux Alps last year, and are looking for somewhere new.

Not in Nantes, but on the Loire this herd of cows were cut off in their field with no food by floods at Coueron. Local kayak club "tempted" them out through the flooded water onto safer ground with hay in a kayak yesterday. 50 cows saved in all, they belong to a 20 year old female farmer who feared she was going to loose the lot. Thought it was quite a nice story.

Is that the wood for the Ark floating away?

Exactly the same problem for my wife's card! She rang the help line listed on the site site and, after about 10 mins checking, they got it sorted. What we don't understand is she has two SS numbers one on the Carte Vitale, and another one for the Espace Sante. Thanks for the feedback, seems like the roll out is slower in some parts of France than in others.

My wife got an email to create her "Espace Santé" . After a bit of checking, this appears to be a new (?) legit site which is going to correlate your current health requirements and treatments in one place, separate to the CPAM and your Medecin traitant. I did not get an invite but have created my space, which had on it the Covid jabs I had and the flue jab I had same morning - so there is a link between the carte vitale which was quite quick. We both gave permission for other Doctors and emergency services to see the info if needed. Anyone else created their space or have views on the subject?

Serves me right for being too complacent, found our normal Sunday bike ride blocked by this fallen tree. Need to take a saw with us after future storms!

Lots of rain here too, though much nicer today, almost a "placido domingo" storm😁

True, we really miss deep fried Mars Bars, jock pies, (both normal and deluxe) all washed down with copious quantities of Iron bru - Aw, deep-fried Mars,ah spied ye oan the menuo ma local chippie.A speshialtie o Caledonia,wee, fudgie, chocolate, caramel bar,ma hert’s desire,bung fu o calories,cholesterol choked,cannae whack ye,a cracker, a stoater.Unwrapped, in the scud,belly-flopped in batteran frazzled tae perfection.

Went for a walk in the wind and found this poor boat, was undergoing restoration along the banks of the Loire from, us well crushed by a "Saule Pleureure". There will be some weeping too when the association find it.

154 kmph just on the coast at St Nazaire, some people on the outskirts of Nantes have lost electricity. Starting to die down a bit. No bike ride for us today, great going with this wind behind you don't relish the idea of pedalling back against it!

Interesting. If you have Amazon Prime, Video, music and some books are included. No need for a separate Video account

If you price them to go, Leboncoin served us very when when we left our house in Normandy. If you peruse the sections with similar stuff for sale, you will see the (unrealistic imo) prices the French think they can get, and how long they have been trying. Normal selling is free, as are three photos. If you have interesting stuff, (old oak tables etc) you may get dealers turning up to "take them away for you". We had people coming over 100kms to buy some of our furniture, but we sold it a give away prices as we had no further use for it. When selling a house, some people are happy to take the contents for free too.

Our residence has numbered parking bays on private land outside the flats. Its clearly marked "Private" but it does not stop people driving in and parking. When you remonstrate with them, the speed with which hate ladened invectives pour out of them (who are clearly in the wrong) against you, the owner is incredible. ("Mange tes morts" a gitain curse used against a resident last week in this situation is a new phrase I have learnt). It is as if the person in the wrong can make it "right" by shouting the loudest and never admitting their fault. Very fragile egos?

Emmaus may take some stuff.

Here at Nantes the airport has been closed too. If I remember correctly, when we worked in the MOD in London, the IRA had an "official" code word. When they were bombing us they rang the police with the code word so they knew it was a real threat. In these French cases such a thing is not possible This part of the article is a hollow threat "The justice minister said minors' parents could be made to pay for damages, while the interior minister said that student pranksters won't get off" The delay to the airports/airlines/passengers would be in the millions. And then there is the potential disruptions to the Olympics to think about.

My wife had a visit to a specialist on 04 April 2023. Normally the electronic paperwork transmissions work fine, and the repayment is made in days. However, this one failed to appear. After contacting the specialist's office, the secretary informed us it was "lost" in the system, so we needed to collect a paper duplicate. This done, we walked across the Loire (via a bridge) and physically put it the CPAM documents box. Two months later, no money. The CPAM seem to make finding the message section on their internet site difficult to find, but after emailing them, they confirmed that they had the paperwork and were processing it. Contacted them again this week, still no payment 6 months later! They replied saying that the CPAM would have to contact the "competent" section responsible. Still waiting.

Had our 5/5 covid yesterday, sore arm this morning. The advice was to wait till later in the month for the flu as it prolongs its efficacity into next year. Lots of people having it done.

Same with the turmeric for colour and part of a chicken or veg stock cube for flavour if using the rice in a salad. MSG if frying it for an extra "kick".

Much as I love technology, a medieval approach works well too. St Ives, Cambridgeshire has one of these "traps" at the end of a bus lane. Wide enough for a bus to pass, but not for a car - as the second picture shows. Look forward to seeing one in the bus lanes here in Nantes.

We do debate on buying a second hut to do up somewhere from time to time. Last week we spent 5 days in one of (imo) the most beautiful part of Brittany, a camp site on the shores of the Golfe de Morbihan, specifically Presqu'ile de Conleau. The picture below shows us waiting for the little ferry that runs from the other side of the main land, at then end of 30 kms bike ride, back to the camp site. Whilst waiting for the ferry we got talking to a local French couple who had brought down their sea kayaks to launch. Their tales of the area in the summer, infested by both holidaymakers and second home owners was quite dreadful to listen to. They too were of the option that those who found it too hot down south were moving up/buying up houses. Our dreams of buying something with a the view in the photo are long dashed ( a similar flat to ours in Vannes is heading towards a million). However, holidays in areas where we could never afford to live, taken at (relatively) low cost with non of the other financial burdens seems to best option for us.