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Our youngest son has an allergy to eggs.  Neither the school nor the vaccination centre would risk giving him the H1N1 injection as its incubated in eggs. The local centre said we would have to go to the CHU Caen for the special injection ( 90 mins away).  We would need to ring to make an appointment.  The Doctor gave us the number. Rang CHU using the number given, it was the wrong number.  Contacted Caen for the right number, rang it to find an anwser machine announcing that they were shut for the two week holiday period, but wished us all the best for the Christmas and New Year!  Sadly non of our French frends were the least surprised.  

When we first got our NEUF box, it was lights on,  I changed it to lights off.  I think they ran a campaign some time ago to get people to turn the lights off to reduce energy consumption (bit like John Prescotts' bid to get people to put the SKY box to standby).  I think they then changed the default to lights off, again to save energy. You cerainly don't need the lights on,  the only ones that you cannot turn off are the  RJ45 sockets for the connection to the computer, TV etc, if its on you are connected.  There is nothing for the Wi Fi lights wise. If you want to get "into" the NEUF box, typing 192.168.1.1 into the address part of the tool bar in Internet Explorer brings it up for me.  You then push the centre top light on the NEUF box for 5 second and press enter on the page, or use you pass words if you know them, and you are in.  Much safer then WD 40, hammers etc, but know what you are doing before you change the settings in some areas!

Perhaps after all the message is getting through - an apology of sorts: Madame, Monsieur, Il est possible que vous ayez reçu ce week-end des mails avec un message de l'anti-virus. En effet, notre plate-forme de messagerie utilise un anti-virus pour protéger les boites mails. Suite à un dysfonctionnement, l'anti-virus a supprimé par erreur le contenu de tous les mails que vous avez reçus samedi entre 0h00 et 12h30 et l'a remplacé par le message suivant: "Bonjour, Votre option Anti-virus Mail a détecté un virus dans l'un des messages qui vous était destiné. Le message ci-dessous contenait un ou plusieurs fichiers infecté(s) par le virus suivant : Exploit.PDF-9669 Le virus a été détruit ainsi que le cas échéant les pièces jointes infectées. L'expéditeur déclaré pour ce message est [adresse mail de l'expéditeur]. Pour plus de sécurité, nous vous invitons à le prévenir des virus détectés. Merci de votre confiance, Le service technique SFR" Le contenu original de ces mails supprimés n'est malheureusement pas récupérable. Néanmoins le message contient l'adresse email de l'expéditeur. Vous pouvez ainsi le contacter pour lui demander de renvoyer le mail en question. Depuis samedi 12h30, la réception des mails est à nouveau normale. Nous sommes conscients des perturbations importantes causées par ce dysfonctionnement. Les équipes techniques se sont fortement mobilisées ce week-end pour rétablir le service dans les meilleurs délais. Vous pourrez trouver plus d'informations sur la page : http://msc1.s-sfr.fr/webmail/InfoVirus.htm Nous vous prions d'accepter toutes nos excuses pour cet incident et vous remercions de votre compréhension. L’équipe Messagerie SFR

Fingers crossed they have fixed it, hopefully they will re-transmit all the mail they have deleted! Will be interesting to see if they send their clients an apology.

You are both lucky, I have 5 on my email account, all my incoming emails have been "deleted" by SFR. If you Google the error message and add SFR, you will see that  its all over France.  

I think this problem is throughout the NEUF and SFR network at the moment, it started Friday/Saturday 9 Dec 2010  All emails received are being treated at being infected and all you get is the following message.  I know for a fact that the emails are NOT infected, neither do I subscribe to the SFR anti virus! "Bonjour, Votre option Anti-virus Mail a détecté un virus dans l'un des messages qui vous était destiné. Le message ci-dessous contenait un ou plusieurs fichiers infecté(s) par le virus suivant : Exploit.PDF-9669 Le virus a été détruit ainsi que le cas échéant les pièces jointes infectées. L'expéditeur déclaré pour ce message est [email protected]. Pour plus de sécurité, nous vous invitons à le prévenir des virus détectés. Merci de votre confiance, Le service technique SFR ------------------------------------ Ce message est envoyé automatiquement. Merci de ne pas y répondre : votre demande ne pourrait être traitée. It might be worthwhile not accessing these Email accounts until SFR/NEUF resolve the problem.  Don't know if its possible to recover these "infected" emails when they solve the problem.  Anyone else suffering the same?

I think the mother board has 4 memory slots, colour coded (for example) two yellow and two green.  You need to populate either the two green or the two yellow with RAM.  If one of either of the one of the two colours was already  populated with 1GB  OR two of the same colour were populated with 512mb of RAM,  then you have not progressed in actual physical RAM (ie you have still 1 GB).  If you have populated one yellow with the original 1GB and added  two lots of 512 in the other two green slots  hoping to get 2GB of RAM- the system will not work!  You can get different speed RAM (PC2 4300, PC2 5300, PC 6400, 200Mhz, 333 Mhz, 400Mhz etc, but you cannot mix them) but it sound like you have exchanged 1 GB of RAM for 1GB RAM. But, COD 4 (SAS/USMC in Russia today, rather than COD 2 which is WW2 Russia)  (not COD Modern warfare 2 ie COD6) does not seem to be very  demanding on the system anyway!  By the time you have solved all the RAM problems, you could have finished the game on single player COD 4 (which is longer evidently than single player in COD 6, but thats another subject).   

Just out of interest, did you take out the old memory before you put the new stuff in?  How many memory slots do you have.  I have just done the same thing on three machines in the house, if you mix the old and the new in the slots it might not work, and you must (at least in my case) put the new memory in the same coloured slots. Just a suggestion.

I downloaded the freevpn after reading about it here. Have had no probs at all on either Windows Vista Integral or Windows 7.  The homepage change is the only downside, but only when you are using freevpn.  Thanks for the heads up.

In a similar vein, our Lidl's in Avranches shut for a month for a rebuild.  We had bought a clock just before they shut which was turned out to be defective.  When they re-opened after the work, we took the clock back.  They would not refund the money as we had gone over the 7 day period - despite the fact the shop was not open! They sent the clock away to be repaired (recorded delivery which cost more than the clock).  We never got the clock back, nor the money, we just gave up!  

The first thing to try is to reset the box by unpluging the power supply to the Neuf box, count to 20 then plug it back in again, wait a couple of minutes then try the phone.  It sometimes happens to our Neuf box.

Hi, Anyone going past Avranche on the way to the UK next week (21 Sept)?   Looking for a lift to the West of London to pick up a motorbike.  Will gladly contribute to fuel costs.

[quote user="BIG MAC"]Sunbeam  / Rapier have been PCT Rootes names for years.  In Europe Rootes Begat Hillman (Sunbeam being their sporty division in the 60s and hence the Rapier) which begat Chrysler (Sunbeam...I had one with a Hillman imp engine at the wrong end! The ally engine was designed for a water pump originally not a car) which begat Talbot  who are the T Part of Peugeot Citroen Talbot and therefore the tenuous link back to your old Rapier is established. I fank you.............[/quote] Most enlightening, thank you.    

I had, many years ago, a Sunbeam Alpine, Sunbeam also did (I believe) a Rapier. My current car (bought off UK Ebay) is a Peugeot Rapier

Thanks for the replies.  No suitable Dominators in our area, could not face driving 100's kms looking at ones on the 'net.  Ended up with a Suzuki DR 650 instead, one of the Dominators rivals.  So far great fun! 

Having decided to take up bikes again, I am in the throes of buying a 650cc Suzuki.  I did not go firm on the sale until I too had tapped in the info on several insurance sites to get an idea of the premium rates.  Having settled on the MAAF quote, I went ahead on the purchase.  Rang MAAF to pay today only to be told - that price only applies to people who already have a car or house insured with us.  I told the agent that I considered this an "arnaque" and asked where this was written on the internet quote.  She told me that it was not,  the very competative quote given was just a "hook" to lure in more business.  Armed with this, I then rang my car insurance company (Carrefour) who quoted me about 100 euros PER MONTH for the same machine. They classed me as a "young driver"  (a complement in other circumstances as I most certainly am not!!). I am going back to MAAF, as the quote is so low and the price of the car insurance is about the same as I am paying anyway, but feel quite bad about it. Caveat Emptor!!

Giving serious thought to taking up a motor bike again, whilst I still can! Having done some research and taking into account the style of riding I enjoy, the Honda Dominator seems the best bike to fit the bill. Have a French pal who has (unfortunately) recently sold his, but is fulsome in its praise. Insurance seems reasonable, spares/add ons are reasonably priced and available.  Wondered if anyone out there has had experience of one and if there are any owners in the 50 area who could give me a more "hands on" feel. Thanks in advance

In conversation recently , I was told that in French "Open" Horse events, only French Nationals will be invited onto the podium to receive their prizes.  Others ( British children in this case) would still be awarded the places they had won, but would be given their prize "off camera" as it were, even when this is classed as an "Open" event and open to other nationalities. The person relating the story has young children who are very active in this sport and has been informed of this rule should his children be successful this year. Has anyone else heard/been subject to this?  

Hunt for the Red October K19 the Widow Maker - fact based, an heart wrenching look at how the Soviets worked. Basic - good twist. All the Terminators!  

Hello Cathy You wrote in your post about English for English children  "I would welcome knowing whether this is so."  We came to France when our children were 8 weeks and the other 20 months, they are now 12 and 14 so the only schooling they have known is the French system.  Unquestionably their verbal skills are equal to any English child of the same age (we have British friends who are teachers/University tutors who help assess this) but their written english skills are not at the same level.  For example our youngest spelt  "usual" as "youzuelle" when doing an English dictation exercise.  They have two English subject teachers at their Collège, one with whom I converse with in English (she did her year in Scotland and is very good indeed) the other we usually end up speaking French.  When the latter is teaching English to our eldest's class, she writes the sentences on the board, then looks at him so see if its correct!!  If he is smiling all is well, if he his frowning, its back to the board!!  That said, he has been top of the year every year  in all subjects overall so far at Collège, (he is in 3ème), so the teacher does this out of respect of his knowledge rather than her lack of it! The youngest in 5ème does 3 hours of English a week and 5 hours of French, in 3ème its 3 hours of English and 4 hours of French, which would indicate that they are getting quite a bit of the same basic grammer grounding in both languages, but of course the rest of the subjects are in French plus Latin and LV2 (German). Both teachers mark our childrens written English much more stringently that the others in the class, which we are fine with given their advantage.  At the last teachers meeting we asked why the eldest had only 19 out of 20 for oral.  She has knocked off a point because he did not speak much in class.  In his defence he explained that he did not want to dominate the class and felt that he was giving the other children a chance! We do English with a young woman who is retraining to be a teacher he in France.  She has to study all subjects up to "Terminal" level.  Her English exercises consist of reading a passage/article, study the content, precis it and give her opinion of it.  She has twenty minutes.  We were amazed to see that the articles in the test papers are all taken from top quality newspapers dealing with articles that needed a deep understanding of English and idomatic English.  Bearing in mind that (in my own opinion) a very small percentage of the overall newspaper readership in the UK can read and understand these articles, they are setting the bar very high for the current intake of teachers.  If this is the way forward, then it should stand our English children in good stead. At the orientation meeting for Lycée this week the Principle said that the lack of good second language skills will close the doors in the future to 80% of jobs in France - so they appear to be taking learning English seriously. We are delighted with the overall level of education, discipline and quality of school life our children receive. ( The last school Spectacle was a Musical involving half the total Collége, with its own school orchestra, choral, theatre group and was performed twice to an audience of nearly 1000 people in total). Our only question/worry we have (living in a predominantly rural area) is would they be doing as well in a UK state school?  This ignores of course the stress we would have with catchment areas, over the top PC, quality of life etc etc etc.........! If you want to know more, will be pleased to help.  

Its worth knowing that is not always telephone lines for broadband.  In Manche we have West Telecom.  They run a wireless network independant of the telephone lines.  We were with them some time ago and got SDL (2mb up and 2mb down).  They were operating under the name of Nomotech and their, then, service left a lot to be desired (they were in their infancy as a company).  The company are rolling out WiFiMax which is even faster.  They system is designed (as I understand it) for the "Zone Blanche" areas that may never get telephone/Fibre Optic/Cable ADSL.  Similar telephone/broadband packages are available. http://www.west-telecom.com/offres-particuliers2.htm for some info.  There might be similar schemes elsewhere in France.    

I well remember playing ducks and drakes with Winchester Disks (bigger than dinner plates, 30 mb capacity) in mid Atlantic after scoring their surfaces - even the "Glomar Explorer" would have a hard time dredging them up!

Lisleoise, If the school has already engaged in exchanges with familes, I don't think you need to be worried.  The trip I went on was organised by a French commercial company.  The UK rep was supposed to have vetted all the UK families before the children got there.  Without going into specifics, the problems seemed to occur because the UK families we being paid and their aim in some (not all) cases was to feed the children as cheaply as possible to maximise their revenue.  The children were all warned before hand about the (to the French) bizzare eating habits of the British. There will be meetings at the college to discuss the trip.  My advice would be to take the veretarian issue up with the teacher responsible for the visit and to make sure either the company responsible or the host family are aware.  Certainly when we hosted the German boy here as a host family, we were provided with a full list of like, dislikes, medical problems etc (he did not have any).  Our greatest difficulty was coming to terms with the fact that at 15 whilst at home, he was expected to be in his bedroom by 2000 on school nights, 2030 at weekends!!!  He also would not let my wife do any laundry for him and when pressed replied that he was taking it home because "my mother has nothing else to do"!

Two years ago I went as an "Aide" on our son's College,  5 day visit to the UK.  It was all arranged through a French company and that included accommodation in Bath.  This was with host families who were paid by the French company to lodge the children (aged 12/13), give them breakfast, dinner and a packed meal for lunch. I stayed with a delightful elderly lady and her two other foreign students and was well looked after.  Unfortunately the same could not be said of many of the children.  Putting aside the normal "home sickness" elements of any child away from home, the combined experience was sufficient to put the school off the idea of repeating it! The "twin town" school has decided not to offer the usual exchange visits for several years now as they now exchange students with India.  Our college here has an exchange system with Germany which works fine.  We have had a German student here for 8 days and our son goes off to stay with his family next month for 8 days. Wondered if any other parents have been invovled with organsing/taking part in taking French students to the UK to improve their english/taste of UK etc?  If so could they recommend a better system.  Being a British family in France, we are keen that the UK has a better impression on French children.  Have to say that only the accommodation/food was a problem.  The visits to Bath and Bristol were well appreciated.  

Must say Thanks for this thread which encouraged a different approach to a  headbanging problem I have had for some time between my son's computer and the second relay Neuf box  We rearranged the position of the computer in his bedroom (raised it off the floor by 3 feet and moved it 2 feet to the left). His reception is now very steady and much upgraded.  He is delighted and my head hurts less.  Had previously tried moving the router, but this had little or no effect and as there are three computer all using the same router, what was good for one was a disaster for the others!