sadie

If the land is greater than certain size it must be offered to the farming comunity. They have two months to reply. After that time it is deemed that  they are not interested. So two months delay! after that I do not know.

Oh, was it on? I flicked through the channels, registered "nothing to watch" and reached for my book. Tonight is not looking good either. I enjoyed strictly come dancing for the first two or maybe three series but again and again ad nauseum.

We had six replaced  for €7000 They were the type that sat inside the original window  "renouvelement". We also got 25% back from the impot,this has reduced to 10% I believe.

I have no problem with the doctor taking during my consultation. He is the one who decides whether the call warrants his attention, not a secretary. He also makes calls to book appointments with specialists etc while you are there. No waiting for a letter to arrive telling you when the appointments is. I have never come across the young family bit but when attending the surgery with an obviously poorly husband someone has said "please take my turn" in French of course. Not much English spoken round here even by the doctors.

Typical piece of pointless and uninformative journalism. No mention of KW output and "best" is subjective. Why do they waster the space?

[quote user="WendyG"]Hi Glad to hear you are back on. Have found can use most things together until flicking on the kettle which immediately switches everything off.  It is most definitely the kettle.  Difficult to remember I know as you get everything working and think now I'll have a nice cuppa and bang| WendyG [/quote] We solved this by using a stove top kettle. Simples (also handy when the power does cut out for real reasons)

For a completely new installation it is 25% but for replacement it is 40%. The old foyer must be taken away.

We are in the same situation with an elderly Godin. We enquired about replacing it with a free standing poele. The guys who supply the chauffage de bois reckoned it was either not possible or very impractical. The entire fireplace would have to come out,  The rear wall would have to be refurbished, a new hearth put in which would accommodate the poele at the neccessary distance from the wall. The ceiling would have to be repaired etc. We have gone for a replacement foyer ferme. The false chimney brest will have to be broken and replaced, new chimney liner, cap etc. Allowing for a credit d'impot at 40% and a grant for renewable energy the net cost will be €2100 which I think is reasonable. The foyer has a puissance of 15kw. I have assumed that your situation is similar. If you have an insert (we thought that ours was but it is actually a foyer ferme)and a real fireplace which it fitted into it may be possible. Best thing to do is to have an "etude" done by a supplier.

We are just going to have our foyer fermé replaced. To qualify for the full 40% credit d'impot you (obviously) must be a french taxpayer and the old woodburner must be removed. If you have none to remove you only qualify for 25% credit d'impot. In our case, I believe it is because the house is more than 5 years old we also qualify for 5.5% TVA. The appliance must meet the norms and we are told must be supplied and fitted by the same company. Here in Correze there is apparantly an additional €400 grant available. So the bottom line (net) for a 15kw foyer with all neccessary tubage, capot and rebuilding the false chimney brest will be about €2100.

There is , of course, the argument that not wearing socks increases the chances of fungal disease of the toes in particular. I used to know a retied naval officer who always wore socks with sandals but he wore knee high white ones and actually looked quite smart.

Are you sure that it is not an immature Robin.

Sorry, I left out "single". There will be nothing for me to do to exercise my mind. My French is pretty good but not up to intelectual discussion. The only thing around here for seniors is an exercise class. I once saw a reference to the French U3A but only once. If my neice (37) thinks that there is nothing much here for her what hope?

My neice, who has been here 6 years - 2 less than us- and has two children one who was born here and a job as a basic level  teacher of French said that she looked at her life one day and thought "is that all there is?" Result, her husband is already back in the UK in employment, their house is sold and she starts a new job as a teaching assistant UK in September. I know left on my own I will not be able to exist here. A foreign female pensioner has no place in society. Still house to sell though.

I doubt that the domestic ones are as good as the professional ones. Is there nowhere near you where you could hire one for the day? We hire one from mr Bricolage and the cost of the cleaning fluid is more than the hire fee.

[quote user="pachapapa"]Avocados+brown paper bag+apple+banana+dark+warm=ripeness.[/quote] It won't help to ripen two or three for a specific meal and if I want to make guacamole I have to plan the rest of the meal around when the avocado is ready!

[quote user="Swissie"]Fresh veg should be used asap- sell by dates are silly as it depends whether the weather is hot, humid, etc - whether kept if the fridge or not , whether stored away from light, etc. One reason I can think for UK fruit to keep longer, is that it is usually sold way before it is ripe - still rock hard. Like apricots for instance. Here I buy apricots which are  full of sunshine and ready to eat - ad yes, if you don't eat them within a few days, they'll go. I gave up buying such fruit in UK because they were inedible when bought - and were still tasteless a week later. Fruit and veg need a little planning - and I try and cook them within a day or 2- and freeze if necessary. Much prefer buying tasty, ripe fruit- even if it means buying little and often.   [/quote] I can't entirely agree with you. I bought some apricots in Leclerc a few days ago - they looked fine but they were rock hard. A couple of weeks previously I bought some in Grand Frais which were superb. Trying to buy avocados around here is a lose, lose situation. I remember having a conversation with a Parisien lady while we were picking over the "pierres" her word She said that it was "not like this in Paris" I must stick to Grand Frais. Those of you who do not have access to one of their stores have my condolences.

In today's news BBC a grandmother in Liverpool has been charged with "birth concealment" of 4 infants. No further details but perhaps it is even more widespread than mainland europe.

[quote user="zarathustra"]You have to appreciate it works both ways. My wife's French and if we're abroad, and she comes across another French family, she usually cringes and wants to disassociate herself from them. I remember being in Madeira last year: we'd gone down for breakfast fairly early, but a lot of the fresh fruits and bread had gone, and the staff won't replenishing them. A French family sitting opposite us had their breakfast and had also helped themselves to lots more. They sat at the table making themselves sandwiches and a picnic lunch from the breakfast meant for all the guests! Even I was quite gob-smacked at their audacity. [/quote] One hotel where we stayed in Tenerife had staff on the doors of the breakfast room. They were searching the bags carried by the Italians for excess food. Apparently they were recognised for making up lunch from the breakfast foods.

So, is this idea a goer or not?

[quote user="sweet 17"]Neighbour has just had this done.  Be warned (that is if you don't already know), the units are huge and hideous and very visible mounted on an outside wall! But, that's just my opinion so please ignore me completely if you don't mind the looks of these things and feel that they would be a solution for you.[:D] [/quote] This is my point. The grenier in question is about 40m2 and so no outside visibility. I am sorry that  I am obviously not able to give a precise view of the situation.

The house is basically built from concrete and brick. The floors are concrete.The only wood seems to be in the roofing timbers.The grenier area never freezes. There is little or no heat coming up from downstarirs.

I am thinking about updating our heating. Reversible climate control via a heat pump seems a possibility. We have an upstairs grenier(unused space) and my thinking was: If the exterior unit could be put in this area would it help with the loss of efficiency I believe happens when the temp drops to zero and below? Does anyone envisage any problems with this idea? Thanks in advance