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Sheltering from the current awful weather in LA (Loire Atlantique)!

I lived and worked there for over 8 years, east and west coast, diving and sailing some of the great sites on both sides. My wife is a Scot. It was a toss up between moving to France in 1996 or Oban. It still tugs at the heart strings when we visit.

Went to Scotland last year to do the NC500 (Applecross 500). On a motorbike, absolutely stunning, despite it being only 6°C at one point in thick fog and driving rain. Send us a picture of the Glenfinnan Viaduct if its on your train agenda. Got to see the Black 5 puffing away in Mallaig one year.

The great thing we found with the French school holidays was the different dates for different regions. For several years we took the two boys down to to Sanguinet in the camping car. Wild camping by the side of the lake for the Easter holidays it was like a deserted tropical island. The camping infrastructures were there, but all deserted, a post apocalyptic feeling as that region was not on holiday. The summers we spent on the Brittany coast, never crowded and certainly no need to go abroad with children for holidays.

Have to agree, we took ours in June. Mind you it is more difficult if you have kids at school.

Even these do not have the security you might think they have/had. The advice is to contact the issuing bank to verify with them they have issued it. So no selling on a Saturday afternoon/Sunday or Monday when the banks are shut. The traps for the unwary are many. The other problem with a test drive is if they disappear when you have given them the keys - the insurance company takes a dim view of that too! Anyway it all worked out in the end. I have sold several cars/bikes before and accepted cash. The last car we sold here in Nantes I took the cash as the young buyer had brought his grandparents up with him to inspect the car, so made a judgement call 🙂

There are quite a few articles in the French press over the pros and cons of buying a property in this state. I think that the poor DPE can be used as a bargaining tool to drive down the price - in principle anyway. If you are able/capable of doing the work yourself it would be an interesting proposition.

Sold a motorbike last week on Leboncoin. Two chaps drove up from Spain to buy it. From the outset I made it plain to the French speaking Spaniard that cash was not an option. A virement should be made after seeing the bike and before any test drives. This was all agreed. In the end, it was two of his friends who arrived with a trailer, not a word of French or English between them (that they would admit to). I have no Spanish but luckily our youngest was home with his Lycée Spanish (regretfully not including all the technical motorbike nor banking terms). They wanted the bike and (much arm waving and translating) the virement was arranged - or not as it turned out. Much telephoning, texting, computing and an hour later, no money. Spaniard one pulled from his pocket thousands of Euros, so I agreed we would go to the (our) local Credit Agricole and get the money checked and paid in. We asked at the bank if they could verify that the money was real (the €500 notes had me instantly worried). Turns out the Bank has no facilities to verify notes of any denomination The main Nantes one may have, but you have to leave the money there and wait. We then went to the post officer (he had a Spanish PO bank account). I had not the heart at this stage to tell him how effective the French PO bank was. Yes, he could pay in the money, no he could not transfer it to me until it had cleared 48 hrs later. Yes PO transfers were allowed 1500€ per day, €3000 maximum to one person. The PO chap spoke perfect Spanish, but the bike buyer could not believe how complex and restrictive the banking here is. In the end, he asked a friend in Spain to send the money through his bank and all was cleared 2 hours later (not so instant SEPA virement) Until I saw it in the account I was convinced it was an "arnaque" to get me to take the unverifiable money out of desparation.

Thanks to people like you, there is a thriving "Seconde Main" section on Amazon. If you do find the phone you want on Amazon, check the "Autres vendeurs sur Amazon" box, often below the section with the pannier etc. If you buy from Amazon itself (not the other sellers) you get the same conditions for returns etc (and Prime advantages if you have that too). We have bought quite a bit of tech stuff that way and only had one duff purchase, a computer screen that had a line across it - sent it straight back.

Society is in the process of normalising this appearance. No Doctor I have heard of (we have 3 in the families) ever says "you are fat and need to do something about it" to patients (indeed one GP in the family is heavily over weight, eats massive meals and has already had one heart attack!) Hospitals etc have fat people seats, as do the buses here in Nantes. Try confronting someone in this state and see how far you get (if you survive) People are not stupid, they know the relationship with food and on their health (people still smoke!!) is the line most experts trot out before trying to give advice. The very reason you go to Spain is also a contribution to the problem - cheap food. The worse the food is for you, the cheaper it is. The more people buy it and eat it. Governments make too much tax profit from cheap food and the lobbyist's want to keep it this way. The IQ 86 effect.

Both our boys have the Google Pixels, very reliable phones, pure google. I have a Huawei P30 pro plus, the last one I think before the ban took place. I got it as it has a 5 times optical zoom built in and I find the pictures take with it of excellent quality. One thing to consider is the ear phone connections. Most new phones have a USB C charger and often this is used to connect a pair of ear phones (if you have them) or connection through Bluetooth. if you preferer the more traditional 3.5mm jack plug type connection then you need to check the phone you choose has one of these.

The local Leclerc has a notice board tucked away in a corner where they stick notices up. You really have to look for it!

We are with Total energy. They used to give a reduction in the fixed price, about 5%. When the prices went up, they scrapped that and gave an incentive programme instead. If you could reduce your consumption compared to the same period in the previous year, they gave you "cash" , a sliding scale up to a maximum of €120 - a challenge no self respecting Yorkshire man could resist. Given the mild winter, the copious use of blankets, judicious use of the heating we got the full €120. Mind you if they do the same thing this year, we will have to live in the dark!

There are hundreds of products on the https://rappel.conso.gouv.fr/ page some 6819 listed in food alone. Given that many of us have itemised bills on the phone, linked to the loyalty card, I again fail to understand why the supermarkets do not alert us automatically when this happens. Who has the time to check through this after you have bought something,

Its almost the opposite here in Nantes. The people leave the city to go away for their holidays, the tourist influx does not seem to replace them, so it actually a bit quieter. We tend to do away June/early July to avoid the rushes and the heat. According to TF1 1300 programme the other day, they do road works during the summer months in France as there is less traffic on the roads - go figure!

Gosh, thought I had an exciting childhood with a weeks summer holiday in our builders hut at Withernsea - had to stay indoors on a Wednesday morning as that is when the council came in a lorry to empty the chemical toilets on the camp. Your childhood sounds much more interesting....

Ah, my wife has vocal recognition on the Royal Bank phone service.

Most advanced one so far experienced is the UK Government Gateway site. You download their app and it scans the RFID tag on the front of the biometric passport (if you have one). It lets you see what is on there. The app then scans your face with another weird system (not normal, possible fit inducing colours) before it confirms it is indeed you. The app then appears to disappear from your phone. Annoyingly, the app page on Google Play for the Government app actually has adverts and it is possible to download the wrong app. Had to to the face recognition to open a Revolut account, all worked OK.

Forgive the long post, but I got this from the French customs site, google translation. The bit about how they "value" "free" goods (which the card would fall under) is of passing interest. We to have been hit by this patently arbitrary added tax. They do tell you who to contact in case of questions! https://www.douane.gouv.fr/fiche/valeur-en-douane-de-votre-marchandise-limportation Basis of customs duties and other ad valorem duties, due on the importation of goods into the European Union, the customs value is part, with the tariff type and the origin of the goods, of the elements constituting the basis the establishment of the customs debt, term designating the amount of duties to be paid. The customs value of imported goods is determined according to Articles 69 et seq. of the Union Customs Code (UCC). For any regulatory questions, we invite you to contact the economic action center of the regional customs department on which you depend. General rules for determining customs value The customs value of the goods is determined by applying one of the valuation methods provided for in Articles 70 to 74 of the UCC, specified by Articles 128 to 144 of the Implementing Regulation (REC). In principle, the customs value is determined on the basis of the transaction value, i.e. the price actually paid or payable for the goods when they are sold for export to the customs territory of the Union (TDU). If necessary, this transaction value may be increased or reduced to take account of certain costs listed exhaustively in Articles 71 and 72 of the UCC. Price supplements under Article 70§2 must also be included in the customs value of the goods. In the absence of sale, or in the event of rejection of the transaction value, the customs value is determined by applying secondary methods defined in Article 74 of the UCC. In case of sale of imported goods When the goods have been sold at the time of importation, the customs valuation is carried out on the basis of the transaction value, that is to say on the basis of the price paid or to be paid, which may be increased or reduced according to the costs to be added or deducted from this value. The elements to be added to the price (article 71 of the UCC) These are the various costs, products or services related to the manufacture, use or transport of imported goods: sales commissions; container and packaging costs; input costs; amounts of royalties and license fees; value of any part of the proceeds of any subsequent resale, disposal or use of the imported goods accruing directly or indirectly to the seller; transport and insurance, handling and loading costs to the place of introduction on the TDU. Any element that is added to the price actually paid or payable is exclusively based on objective and quantifiable data (article 71§2 UCC). Elements to be deducted from the price (article 72 of the UCC) Certain costs incurred after the importation of the goods should not be included in the price actually paid or payable: costs relating to work subsequent to importation; transport costs and related costs after the introduction of the goods on the TDU; duties and taxes related to the importation or sale of goods; reproduction rights; purchase fees; interest for deferred payment. These payments are to be deducted from the price insofar as they are identifiable and quantifiable. In the absence of sale or in the event of rejection of the transaction value When the imported goods are not the subject of a sale (free goods, imported on consignment, rented or loaned goods, etc.), or when their transaction value is not acceptable (art. 70§3 of the UCC) or is rejected by the customs administration, the customs value is determined by applying one of the secondary methods provided for in Article 74 of the UCC: Comparative methods: the customs value is established on the basis of an existing transaction value already accepted by the customs authorities concerning identical or similar goods, imported at the same time and of the same commercial level; The deductive method: the value is established from the resale price of the highest quantity in the EU, after importation, from which are deducted the usual commissions or margins, transport, insurance or post-delivery handling costs ; The calculated value method: the value is determined from the cost of raw materials and manufacturing operations, profits and transport costs; The method of last resort: the value is determined by reasonable means based on objective and quantifiable data available to the importer. In practice, this method consists of applying one of the previous secondary methods more flexibly or using other reasonable means. Authorization of Provisional Value (AVP) Within the framework of the provisions relating to the simplified declaration provided for in Articles 166 and following, the UCC makes it possible to defer the

This might help for the crank part as a start; https://www.amazon.fr/Sortie-caisson-Articulation-Fabrication-françaises/dp/B096XLHVRV/ref=sr_1_7?crid=I80XQRRL429S&keywords=volet+roulant+manuel&qid=1688971902&sprefix=volet+%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-7

+1 Riggers comment Menthe. You probably do it anyway, but sit on the edge of the bed and count to 10 before you stand up at night/morning

Smashed a coffee cup on the floor on Thursday, followed by a plate when a pot handle fell on it. I joking said that in this situation my grandmother would have found an old piece of china to smash it, breaking the "it happens in 3s" curse. But I did not. In the evening turned on the computer for the home cinema for our evenings entertainment (last episode of the Silo). Black screen of death with a Linux fatal error (a bit weird as we were running Windows 10). Wife retired to her computer to watch tennis, youngest and I stripped out the computer I had build 5 years ago. After much cursing and head scratching (no CD reader, no hard copy W10 repair tool etc) I eventually replaced the SSD with an old HDD and lo and behold the USB W10 installation key burst into life. SSD Dead, only 5 years old! (Kingston, so not a cheap make) How things have changed, new Verbatim SSD 256GB cost €18, new key for W10 (the old one is somewhere on the the dead SSD) 17 centimes from CDiscount. Now to reinstall W10 and find all the passwords for the programmes. Should have listened to my long dead grandmother.

Me too. What makes me sadder is the chairman of Shell defending increased exploitation of fossil fuels so "poor people don't suffer" when the world highest temperature was beaten 4 days in a row. Millions will suffer on the alter of corporate greed knowing full well they are making the situation worse day by day. Us - nobody cares The bottom line - 1% care

Money is the only difference. Many people watch dangerous sports and follow celebrities not so much for the entertainment value but to relish it when things go wrong, the more spectacular the better. The chattering classes don't care much for billionaires, so when things go spectacularly wrong, they love it. It sells papers, gets clicks on monetarised sites. Dozens of YouTube videos on the subject by numerous "experts" have sprung up - all with the aim of making money for the content providers, advertises and data gathers. Equally rich people can bring pressure on other organisations to do all they can to save other members of the 1% club. Migrants - who cares?

It took us two years to sell our big house. At the moment (if the press and other events are to be believed) house sales are in decline and credit is harder to come by. Don't leave it too late to push the button. Its hard to put your house up for sale, but it is even harder to realise people are not queuing up to buy it!