Jump to content

Owens88

Members
  • Posts

    954
  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

Everything posted by Owens88

  1. You mean that you want to long-term rent some buildings and market / manage them yourselves in the short-term rental market ?   If so I have  no knowledge of the opportunities but bonne courage.   John
  2. Follow this link. Several options are listed for London on Sundays.. car rental   John
  3. I think it depends on your usage. A narrow cylinder is going to have some hot water to draw from at the top quicker than a fat cylinder, I think.
  4. Another consideration is that a lot of the things that we do / they do etc. are 'hand-me downs', not current best practice. So people might say 'I was taught this way' and be correct but wrong.   e.g. when I was learning to drive all the existing drivers told me to slow by going down through the gears, but the instructors said that a) brakes are meant for braking b) the requirement is to stay in control, so if the gear you are in is ok for the speed you are at there is no need to add unnecessary in-between steps   John
  5. Without getting wound up in the laws of offer to treat etc. the reality is that any GOOD retailer will honour a cock-up as long as it is not too ridiculous. (e.g. a computer at 1p or something like that was deemed to be incredulous) :   a) if I had not yet paid I would refuse the whole bundle, loudly. b) If I had paid I would ask customer services for a signature and date of their refusal as my credit card operator would deal with their accounts dept (true) and it cost them more to deal with a 'reclaim' than a credit. (true).If they refused I would take a photo, it may infringe their civil liberties but they have to take the action and the company is unlikely to back them. Good luck   John
  6. I am not an electrician but..   Even if there is a difference between the two Aga's' the 13 amp one should only 'pull' what it needs. The 16 Amp circuit can deliver more but won't force the 13 A device to take it.However you might check other threads about voltage variations Uk and France and whether an AGA is senstive (I doubt it). Your cooker 'socket' may be a hard wired type or one with a ginormous plug.  I think mine in france has a ginormous plug.   John      
  7. I wonder. Has anybody considered this sort of thing for keeping an empty place 'aired' ? http://www.solarventi.co.uk/ John
  8. [quote user="Lollie"]Thats me, just a housewife, meek and mild,  but I have a phone that takes pictures, makes calls and does email!!!   Anyway must go make the roast beef and yorkshire pud!![/quote]   Roll on the days when the phone makes sunday dinner and we can go out and talk to people instead of texting them. John    
  9. [quote user="pelly"]Dont know what area you are in; we have the gite; thought we'd have an income to boost our pension; so far we've had one paying guest last year; who left us with an enormous electric bill; another couple who fortunately had paid in full; stayed one night then left with no explanation, This year we have two bookings; both friends; We can't understand why we get no bookings; every one who sees it says how nice it is; The only thing we don't have a garden or a pool; but the price we charge reflects that; Hope you have more luck than we have; [/quote]   Hi Pelly   I had a quick look at your web-site. You refer to the nearest village but don't say how far away it is. That would put me off. Good luck   John
  10. Hi Quillan   Are you suggesting that there is a difference between the laws applied to gites and to B&B?   If so, I think twas always thus. Holiday lets tend to lag behind hotels whatever country you are in. John     p.s. We do have fire extinguisher but not a CO2 monitor.
  11. No objections at all. But it would help if the site could give at least some indications of what would be needed.   John
  12. You can break your journey. We started at VFdeC and had lunch at Mont Louis then continued further up beyond font romeu.   However beware of timings.   There are covered cars.   John
  13. There is a nice B and B Barry & Sharon Phelan A l'ombre du fort 2 Rue Sainte Eulalie Villefranche de Conflent 66500, France   Tel: +33 (0)4 68 97 16 53 Cell: +33 (0)6 88 23 26 71   Email: [email protected] However. Have you thought of going the other way? Start at Mont Louis (which is closer to Carcassone ) ?   I am not sure the timings will work though. Good luck John
  14. 7. You are witty when I am drunk.   Cheers   John
  15. See this thread http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1515764/ShowPost.aspx   I think that the French system is effectively skewed against 'remortgaging'.   John
  16. If I recall correctly it has a threshold, a high one. If your savings fall below that then no interest is paid. John
  17. re: aligning antennae I suspect that is trial and error (you can download a program called netstumbler which helps you assess signal characteristics ).   If you get an authoritaitive answer I would love to read it. Good luck.   John
  18. [quote user="Jonzjob"] We ain't got no 'Screwits', just chocolate block, but we got nicer, more sedate colouring [8-|] http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/Jonzjob/?action=view&current=Jar-a-worms.jpg [/quote] Is this in the correct section ? Looks like some  Klingon  'ready-meal for one'.   John
  19. [quote user="teapot"] Castorama sell a manual log splitter for 50 euros, like a log splitter but inside a larger sliding tube, very little effort required. [/quote]   I am seriously interested in that. Don't want a chain saw (safety). Am perosnally getting feebler and will also soon loose use of strapping teenage offspring. Have wood burning inset stove and  intermittent, opportunist, sources of wood. Log splitter desired but spending £300 to save pennies seems wrong.   I cannot find a link to the castorama product. Do you have one ? Any experience of it ?   Regards   John
  20. [quote user="Puzzled"] Does anyone please know ( Sunday Driver [:D]) what rights I have when buying on line and paying with a visa card ? I've had enough and just want to get my money back. [/quote] If you have bought with a credit card you can ask your card issuer to make a reclaim. I have done this a couple of times and threatened it (with good effect) many many more. The accounts dept. hate a reclaim as it costs them money. Obviously you need a well-documented case to prove to your card issuer, but mine accepted copy e-mails etc.   Good luck   John
  21. Never been to Provence but I know that the Carcassonne / Perpignan area can be very nice that time of year. Crisp and bright in the hills, t-shirts at the coast. Enjoy   John
  22. Skiing is at Font Romeu/ Pyrenees 2000 or Les Angles. (there are others as well).   Its about 50 mins to the skiing areas, though on a slow run it can take longer.  If you drive you have flexibility of areas as most are accessible from one roundabout at Mt Louis. We have taken to renting our gear from the shop just near the roundabout. Good parking, helpful service and we had no queues. Alternatively the Frogbus has a stop at Prades which might be another way of doing it. Park  the car at Super U and sleep your way up to the slopes. http://www.frogbus.com/en/ The skiing is good for beginners and intermediates. The passes and ski gear hire are cheaper than most resorts we have been to, and are very flexible from half days to weeks, family passes etc.  http://www.lespyrenees.net/en/ and http://www.goodviews.co.uk/area%20goodview.htm#Skiing.   It is a very cheap way of skiing with many options for evenings (including the Thermal Spas on the way back down, commercial ones at St. Thomas Les Bains or Spas Sauvages if you know where to find them). However the drive is off-putting to beginners who like to stagger from their chalet directly to the lift.  We had a group of 9 in vernet one half term, eating together in our place every night but sharing the cooking - VERY economical but with take-aways cafes and restaurants in Vernet as back-up.Snowball fights and sledging in our meadow/garden as well as t-shirt walks to st.Martin de Canigou were a bonus!   Cheers    
  23. Replied by PM. I used to state my UK village but another member of this forum counselled me to be more cautious. John
  24. I have  PM ed you. John
  25. The gist of what I have found is that : a) Re-mortgaging in France necessitates a notaire's involvement which seems to cost between 2-3% of the loan amount involved, largely a stamp duty on the mortgage contract I believe. e.g. My own lender says it is necessary to do that even just to switch mortgage product - NB No change of ownership, property or listing of those with 'charges' on the property. b) Other than that it is like the British system. Brokers may charge you arrangement fees, so might lenders. c) Life assurance (at a hefty fee) seems to be compulsory.       I have given up. Good luck.   John  
×
×
  • Create New...