joidevie

Hi.. I was wondering if anyoune had any experience buying through this company? They have good customer reviews often stating that goods are delivered sooner than the 10-14 days they say. My situation is that I need to have a cooker, fridge, dishwasher & washing machine all delivered during a 2 week 'window' when I'll be at the house.. I beleive that they order the products 'sur comande' and then deliver them to you. Potential problem with 3 different manufacturers as in my case? I was planning to place my order around 14 days before leaving and hoping they all come together in one delivery.. Or am I hoping for too much here.. ? Thanks for any experiences.. PS I'd also be interested in any feedback re IKEA deliveries too - ie from ordering to delivery, how long this takes? ( Toulouse or Montpellier branches ). Or should I just hire a van & collect.. ?

Fair comment, although I was parked half way between the Airport and the Town Centre, a bus journey away and in a residential area with ample parking... Parking right outside the Airport is fine for maybe 4-5 days, but no more.. What is the actual law regards the 7 day rule ?

Has anyone else had their car towed away under the 'over 7 days' rule ? In the past I've left mine in a residential street for around a month at a time with no problems, but now came back to find it has been removed accumulating over a month's storage fees! 480 Euro for the official airport car park is pretty steep - but in this context perhaps good value .. Nightmare. Anyone have any experiences?

So, if I want to wire 3 bedrooms each with 4 x 12v downlighters, how many crircuits will I need to allow? I've heard some people counting each room as 'one light fitting'.. It seems madness to count one light fitting per 12v downlighter ??

Firstly, please excuse the poor superimposed picture - strictly for illustration purposes only! I'm hoping to grow a vigorous grape vine in a pot on a first floor terrace to climb up a back wall and to cover some wires / trellis / pergola ( see image ). I want it to trail along the full width of the wall ( 8.5m total ) and to make a good 'seal' over the top to create a sort of 'canopy' ( to protect from the neighbours  ). I'm in the far South where it is hot. The wall you can see is SW facing. I need something quick and dense/bushy. I'm not bothered about a fruit crop, in fact the less the better as I don't want a nightmare with wasps!! Also cleaning up will be a mess too. Will I want more than one plant ? Will the growth stretch sideways enough to reach all the way accross ( in the picture over to the far wall that can be seen ) ? Will another plant be more suitable? I thought about a Virginia Creeper, but they have a habit of completely taking over! ( which may lose me a lot of light..) Any good suggestions ??

Thanks all, much as expected - complete contradictions! Great info on the seperate dishwasher & washing machine etc... A recent mini book from a Brico shop actually does not say a ceiling rose, but still other people say absolutely! Any offers on the bathroom circuits? Cheers

Can anyone either point me towards a relevant thread, or clarify the current position regards ceiling lights. Is it still necessarry to have a ceiling rose in the centre of a room? I actually just want 4 x 12v recessed spots per room evenly spread out. I'm also getting conflicting local info about the number of sockets I can have per circuit - with either a max of 5 being mentioned, or others saying it;s merely about the total load of each circuit. Also, I presume I can run a washing machine and a dishwasher on the same 20a circuit? Just one more while I'm at it ( sorry ), I have two adjacent shower rooms, can I run their lighting circuits together, or do I need to run individual ones? Many thanks for any advice anyone can give me.

Thanks, perfect.

Hi, I'm trying to find the French equivalent to the UK's DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). In particular something as detailed as their publication "Control of Odour and Noise from Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Systems" Report to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs kitchen. It's a 100 page document setting out all the regulations for installing commercial kitchen exhaust systems. ( available online as a pdf or as a publication ). I need details of flue positiong in relation to neighbours, odour & noise output etc.. Many thanks if anyone can oblige !

I've never sold in France, but may choose to do so in the near future due to a neighbouring restaurant installing a new extractor system which has radically increased cooking smells and causes a low himming noise. It is the other side of a 30ft wall and invisible from my property. I'm considering taking the issue to the Mayor ( whom I'm good friends with ) but am concerned about creating an "issue" in itself and potentially blighting my house. Tongues wag and all that.. Is this something I will need to declare when selling or can I just let any buyer do their own research ? I'm not sure whether I'm being paranoid as I know such a situation would just simply not bother some people.. Thanks for any help.

Has anyone any experience with living close to a restaurant and whether there are any guidelines / rules on cooking smells and extractor systems ? Is there any 'control' on smell ? Filtration requirements ? Maybe it's the heat at the moment ( and lack of wind ) but the smells can be quite intrusive.. ( albeit quite tasty ).. Thanks..

TOTAL rebuild.. Apart from the main beams. This involved all carpentry, marine plying and pan tiles cemented on ... They had to demolish an enormous amount roof and the rubble ! That would have taken me weeks on my own.. They also fitted some skylights for free ( I supplied ) and moved a beam without charging.. I'm often amazed at how many people don't budget for roofs - it is such an important job and the peace of mind later is hard to beat. Thunder storm.... No problem 

I recently paid 145 Euros per sq m - I am in Aude 11. I beleive this was a good price and the job very well done ( albeit in pan tiles rather than slate! ). You need to add at least 20% to the 'floor' surface area to calculate the roof surface too. Also expect maybe 1000 or so if you want the old roof completely demolished and thrown away. Not a nice job to do.. Hope this helps

I've found some of the ready made coloured waxes ( in tins ) to be good, with good coverage too. Many tints and pretty convincing. Apply with a thick, quite heavy paint brush - preferably in warm weather as the wax spreads and penetrates much more easily... I thinks you might be quite impressed with the results !

Brico Depot is definitely cheapest - The branch in Perpignan is usually heaving. Gaillac is busy too. I would however urge that you really check the quality - some of it fine, but some a bit so so. Personally I found the windows a bit nasty. Went to Lapeyre in the end, but in truth, the windows my builder fitted were by far the best ( from the builders merchants - to order & standard ). Find a builder to buy at 5.5% and bung him a 'favour' is an option !

I'm torn between fitting all of the cloisons ( partitioning ) on the first floor of a new barn conversion myself, or having the work done. Some of the ceilings are quite high, and although I've been offered the use of a board lifting machine, watching ( a very strong ) builder friend of mine struggle, I'm thinking maybe not. Some of the stud walls will need to be quite high too. Being in the barn only for a couple of weeks at a time, I'm not sure I'll get it all done ( Three bedrooms, two shower rooms ). In September I'll be getting a couple of quotes to do the work, but was wondering about a guide for the work. I would guess it's by the m/sq - for placing and then filling ? Are they likely to  charge for the windows and doorways too ? I'd be interested in any figures anyone has - as a guide. By the way, I'm in Aude 11. Cheers..

My builder has left me with a new wall to plasterboard - which has new window frames fitted to take 100mm thick insulated plasterboard ( it's a new rear wall in grey blocs ). Looking in the builder's merchants, there's a choice of card, wool or polystyrene backed boards. Which is the best to use and how are they easily fixed to the bare walls ? Many thanks for any help ..

Please appologise if this has already been covered, but I have found the new search engine on this forum quite useless at retreiving appropriate threads .. I'm asking on behalf of a British builder friend of mine about whether you can obtain a good quality 'multi finish' plaster here in France ( more particularily in Aude 11 ) ? He is convinced you can't and says all the French products are 'impossible' to work with.. Is he right ? I'm not so sure ( he can be very 'sure' sometimes, and proved wrong later on... )... Are there any products we should be looking out for ? Thanks

.. Thanks. Great reply. I've ( for my sins ) just bought a RICOH Secam / Pal / NTSC recorder off the internet ( a 'brand' at least ) for a mere €99 - originally €250.. Seems it's DVR+ and DVR- too.. For £65 it's worth the gamble to me.. Who knows, but even if it lasts a couple of years I'll be reasonably happy..

[quote]HiCould I ask the question the other way around?We're thinking of getting a cheap Umax Yamada DVD recorder (French); would this work OK with our British (well, Toshiba, but you know what I mean ) TV...[/quote] I think you can buy Yamada in the UK, so it may be worth doing a search on compatability.. As far as I can imagine, it's far more likely that a SECAM ( French system ) unit will have the additional PAL facility, or am I being totall naieve here ?

Thanks for the quick reply.. Shame as the Panasonic reviewed well for spec & quality, and at £250 OFF, seemed a snip ! I've been doing the rounds in the supermarkets and cannot really decide whether to buy a dirt cheap recorder ( usually a 'promo' or 'chinese unbranded' ) for a hundred Euros or so ( and then wait a couple of years before possibly getting something a bit more sophisticated ) or get something 'decent' now.. My main purpose is mainly to watch a few quality programs recorded on satelite from the UK and be able to wathch them at a sensible time of day... I find the 1hr time shift enough of a problem to get too tired to watch say a good Channel 4 movie which starts at UK time 9pm ! I'm not too fussy about brands, but want something dependable.. And I've got to kit out a whole place here ( cookers, washers etc ) so a 'posh' recorder feels a little OTT.. Has anyone got anything in mind that they're happy with ? Thanks...

Please forgive my ignorance, but I have seen a good deal for a DVD recorder in the UK but I want to use it here in France... The technical specs read as : Television system Tuner System PAL-l Channel Coverage PAL-l, 1.75ohm UHF Ch21-68 video Video System PAL colour signal, 625 lines, 50 fields / NTSC colour signal 525 lines, 60 fields Recording System Dolby Digital 2ch, Linear PCM 2ch (XP mode) The unit is a Panasonic : http://www.panasonic.co.uk/dvd-recorders/dmre65ebs/index.htm Will this be any good to use here with a French PAL/SECAM Television set ? Thanks..

Makes some sense.. I hadn't really considered those reasons at all. Maybe I was just being cynical and thought NEUF were being paranoid about losing revenue... ? Surely not..

Does anyone know any more about what's happening with certain ISP's looking to use "filters" to block out SKYPE ? A friend recently mentioned NEUF & CEGETEL were looking to do this - which is a pain because I just signed up with NEUF.. Looks like I may have to start paying the €5 + per month to opt out of their calls. Strikes me as commercial censorhip.. What next ? (!)

I haven't quite got the hang of this yet.. I have no existing telephone line and am in a NON degroupée region. Is there any way of having a new line installed without going through / contracting to FT ? Seems a waste to pay them AND an ADSL provider. Do FREE provide a slower broadband in a NON DG region ? Thanks