halfblind

Well perhaps the first thing to establish is whether your house is in a "de-groupe" area. In other words are other operators apart from Orange able to offer a service for telephone and Internet. If your property is in the sticks then it may not be which means that you are stuck with Orange for a fixed line and Internet. They do offer a package for unlimited calls to fixed numbers in France and Europe/USA/Canada combines with broadband for around €39 per month - you wont get any prices like the UK from any French operator. As regards mobiles, e.leclerc offer a sim card only system for €1,50 per month plus calls if you rarely use your mobile. I am sure other people on the forum will offer their pennies worth !

This could be due to the change in France to digital ?

Nibbles, you have my sympathy. We went through a similar experience but for different reasons and we took time out to chat with a local Hussier for advice. In broad terms if the tenant gets difficult it can take up to another 3 months to get them out after the "winter period". The process would seem to involve several letters from a hussier and getting them involved with visits to the tenant much like bailifs in the UK but the tenant seems to hold all the cards. See if you can have a chat with your local Hussier, see yellow pages, ours did not charge for the advice ! Good luck.

There is a garden centre in Aubeterre - dont know about trade prices, but ask for a deal price for bulk.

Around here firewood is sold by the stere - (=1m3)

[quote user="Keni"]Our Super U sold out, awaiting new stock,[/quote] Panic buying or did I miss the months of March to June ? Will probably be out of date by the time November arrives !

[quote user="Pickles"]I think I've found the source for the "latest" date announcement: according to http://blog.40millionsdautomobilistes.com/2012/02/20/circulaire-obligation-detention-ethylotest/ Claude Gueant has sent a letter to the prefets announcing 1st July as the intended date. However, as the article above points out, this is just another statement of intentions and not an official announcement. [/quote] Looks like the decret has been published - 2012-284. Always keep an unused one in your car or you will be busted - after November of course ;)

[quote user="Pickles"]I think I've found the source for the "latest" date announcement: according to http://blog.40millionsdautomobilistes.com/2012/02/20/circulaire-obligation-detention-ethylotest/ Claude Gueant has sent a letter to the prefets announcing 1st July as the intended date. However, as the article above points out, this is just another statement of intentions and not an official announcement. [/quote] Looks like the decret has been published - 2012-284. Always keep an unused one in your car or you will be busted - after November of course ;)

[quote user="willow"]Is it our imagination or are bookings slow this year???[/quote] Not quite as slow as 2011 but not fast ! Depends on your type of property as always. Edit :- Sorry realised this is for B&B and Ch d'H, dont have one of those ;)

[quote user="Théière"]You are correct, our chlore Choc is granules or 20g pastilles usually put in the Skimmer for 24h dissolving. Larger galets are slow release all contain some CYA. The non CYA that you mentioned are calcium hypochlorite which just turn into mush so are not slow release either. These will add to your already high calcium level so would be a bad move as a lot of France has hard water to start with[/quote] Thanks for that, so just stick to brico javel then ;)

I am a little confused by your answer chem geek - not unusual. You talk about chlor choc lasting about 5 days in a dispenser but I thought that the large gallets were slow release and that chlor choc came in either powder form or small quick dissolving tabs. You can get slow release chlor without the "stabilizer" part - no little blue bits - would these still contain cyanuric acid ?

[quote user="Richardbk"][quote user="halfblind"]I have used CPL for a while and they are good, just one word of caution though, the CPL plugs need to be on the same phase of the electrical circuit to work. This is not a problem if you only use one phase of your 3 phase supply for your house/barn wiring.You can overcome the problem with a piece of kit to "link" the phases together.[/quote] You can couple the 3-phase to enable CPLs to work across phases very cheaply by just connecting a 22nF capacitor (500Volts or more) between each pair of phases. Of course please don't do this if you don't know what you are doing ![/quote] Thanks Richardbk thats interesting - I bought a bit of kit for around €9 from Conrad

I have used CPL for a while and they are good, just one word of caution though, the CPL plugs need to be on the same phase of the electrical circuit to work. This is not a problem if you only use one phase of your 3 phase supply for your house/barn wiring.You can overcome the problem with a piece of kit to "link" the phases together.

With the Optimal Internet you can also get unlimited calls to French mobiles - any operator - for €5 per month on top.

Clair, I suggest you change your search engine to duckduckgo - they dont track you.

Personally I would not put a pool in a barn as it wont help your letting potential in the summer and if your planning on heating it for winter lets then hang on for your heating bill ! Just cross it off your planning application and then apply separately for an inground outside pool later, this used to not need planning permission just a declaration at the marie (this may not now be the case) This may reduce your tax bill in the short term

With the Six Nations starting that weekend I know what I'll be watching !

[quote user="Gardener"]Windows vista. I will have a play about with it tomorrow.[/quote] Vista Oh Dear !

There is a local garage here who sells these things and for a while outside on the forecourt was one in very gaudy colours with a huge GTO logo down both sides - for those who know something about American muscle cars that just seemed wrong !

Well here is the solution then. And with the Human Rights Act I should be allowed to follow my religious beliefs ! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16424659

WRT fims, stop dubbing English language films with crap french voices and changing what the directors/actors/producers wanted the films to say ! Subtitles - yes Dubbing - No

As regards fitting there can be some clips that hold in the glass and these can become "fatigued" after time and it is sometimes necessary to replace these. You probably need to do a google on your type of Godin to see if you can get an exploded view of that area - or do you have the original documentation ? Don't rely on your local brico having the glass in stock.

Glad you got something you feel you can work with, however Gnome Classic or Gnome 2, as is known is not going to be further developed as the Gnome developers have moved onto Gnome 3 which is a little different to get used to. If you have Ubuntu installed on your computer, as I suspect you have, then at the login screen where you type your password there is a little "cog type thing" to the upper right of the sign in box and if you click on this you have a choice of what window manager you use for that session. There should be Ubuntu, which is in fact Unity window manager the one that Ubuntu are pushing, Gnome fallback, which is Gnome 2 and Gnome which is in fact Gnome 3. The computer is still running the linux operating system but its your interface with it that you can change. Have fun and experiment, personally I like gnome 3, welcome to the free world of GNU/Linux.

[quote user="Tim_Quincaillerie"]Totally agree VAL!!!!! The best tip to moving to france is to in,tergrate into the society by attending local clubs etc. It will take time but it can and will happen that you will be accepted. Anyway back to the AE route. I have already a friend that is going to be building soon and has asked me if I can work on his house ie carpenty/ placos/ doors windows . How would you play it? Would you get him to pay for the materials and bill him on a daily basis? Any ideas really appreciated!![/quote] As your social contributions as AE are based on turnover then to reduce these you should get your friend to buy the materials and you invoice just for the labour.

A little late in this conversation but the OP stated that he had tried Linux and then there was a lot of lists of dont like. It would seem more accurate to say he had tried one flavour of linux, probably Ubuntu with the Unity desktop, but there are so many variants built on top of the linux base system that I am sure everyone could find a flavour to suite. If you dont want to spend the time and are happy with windows then remain where you are - its all about choice really. I chose linux about 8yrs ago as I was fed up with XP slowness and having to pay - or use illegal copies - of software to get what I wanted done.Happy now !