Owens88

Our ONLY add-on charge is for towels and bed linen (£7.50 pp) and that is because the mainland continetals like to bring their own and expect a lower price. The flights (Ryanair especially) discourage luggage at all at all  so few brits/irish bring their own and we keep the price down as low as poss.  Could you get your new caretakers to farm it out to somebody cheaper ?   John

....will totally drop the word "plumber" or "builder" or "carpenter" or "bricklayer" from your vocabulary because the word "artisan" sounds so much more rustic and professional    Perhaps you are right. But also I cannot remember the terms for the myriad of sub-trades (mason anybody ?) and also some trades overlap. For example my French plumber is the village electrician (qualified to do both trades !) and is a star. To be honest I am not sure why everything has to be anglicised. Is it more correct to keep your watch on UK time then make a mental calculation to get to French time, or to adjust to where you are ? As it happens I have a good plumber where I live in the UK as well. I am neither defending nor attacking, just commenting in a thread.

Open-air hot spas, possibly with full 'pampering' packages thrown in. Snowboarding. Barcelona ( I know it is not in France but you are talking winter !). --- err that's my lot at the moment.  

[quote user="Boiling a frog"] Customer service exists in France. They are experts at saying no [/quote] But also real artisans/tradesmen and shopkeepers. A dying breed in the UK.     FWIW I think that village france is different than corporate france. Give me 'Expert' customer service vs 'Auchan' customer service anyday.            

How he connects is irrelevant to how you share. How you share depends on how much faffing you want. 1) You could connect a wireless router to his modem. From that you can connect with wires  (ethernet) or wirelessly (your pc should pick it up through one normal wall) 2) You could replace his modem with a combined modem/router with or without wireless capabilities. Then as 1) above.   Bon Courage  

Re the free advertising   It asks you to register an interest and they'll get back to you. I did they haven't yet.    John

This sound more like ground clearance than felling before they fall ! Unless you are in a rush you might get a better deal if somebody chopped down 40 a year and stored/dried them for firewood for sale. OTOH I have referred you on to some lumberjack types I know !  

Blame the media not the excited passenger. The News services make a story out of what visuals they have, irrespective of fact or analysis. Not sure they can do analysis anymore ! BTW I often knock Ryanair for their anti-family pricing stance and  their 'back-street trader' pricing policy that has more add-ons than the headline price. I also wouldn't touch his PR agency for any price, to succumb to his ethics of showmanship they must have precious litle to add. But in this situation Ryanair seem to have done everything correctly, even rustling up a replacement flight. Is this a PB for Ryanair ? John

Hi Ernie Thanks. I am hoping that you are wrong. http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/asnresidentiel/hd/hdtv.aspx?idnode=180     If my potential renter 'bites' then I will ring FT and investigate any hidden downsides. I'll list them here.   John

We once stayed in a spanish apartment (NOT GOOD NICK BUT WONDERFUL SETTING) and saw a French family spend half a day cleaning on departure. Now to mop the floors effectively means evacuating - like do that with small kids !   Our handle on things is that we expect our renters to respect the place,; empty the bins, sweep up during the week, empty the dishwasher and leave the kitchen clean etc. We include a standard cleaning charge as we reckon it is damn nigh impossible to have a family in tow and leave the place as clean as others should find it. These are holiday lets after all. John

Is the router granting IP addresses ? (Some verbiage about dhcp and dynamic addresssing ) ?   If not it is possible that you have allocated the same ip address to each of the 'client' devices so they don't work together. NB If you are entering them manually then they must be in the same subnet as the router   e.g. router is 192.168.25.12 pc 1 is 192.168.25.1 pc2 is 192.168.25.2 wii is 192.168.25.3 etc Bon courage.   John  

I seem to recall seeing something about French operators having a form of temporary opt-in ADSL. I am now struggling to find any reference to it and would welcome any advice. Thanks in advance. John (p.s. my line in France is with FT and is occasionally suspended under the maison secondaire system)

[quote user="WJT"] it is not the fact that it is horse that is being eaten it is the absolute barbarity and cruelty involved in the horse meat trade that is so disgusting. [:'(] [/quote] As a non meat eater anyway (vegetarian) may I say that my reasoning is as WJT's, but for all animals.   Its not that they die (get killed) its how horrible their life often (mostly) is. The few exceptions are exactly that, lucky exceptions. I have farmers around me who really care and others who are frankly quite awful - and that is even before we get into road shipping 'live carcasses' for hours/days. By comparison the family who keep, catch and despatch their own sound admirable. John

I cannot confirm or deny the interpretation of arrhes, but I think the one that has already been given sounds good. Your contract seems to be out of sync though. John   Edit i.e. What is the point of the 10% thing ?

Yep   There are plastic containers. And alos there are some tinned goods (usually some fish in a sauce).   As regards the general cleaning stuff and lightbulbs/bog rolls --- I took all that as a necessity.   John

>I used to clear out all oil, vinegar, sugar, flour etc. but provide all of this now and have had nothing but positive feedback from guests, especially those who have stayed in places where none of this is provided. People don't want to fork out for a full bottle of these things for a week or two on holiday.   We have one small cupboard with condiments and such things. Our welcome notes explain that they are 'as is' for anybody to top-up or add-to and for anybody and everybody to kick something out when advisable. I do warn against 'open ' packets as these attact ants. This seems to work well and makes it easier for the cooking to be 'richer'.   John

[quote user="Nick Trollope"]Small aside; John's link to fleetnews says that 17% of crashes in the UK are caused by Poles... Does this mean that the number of Polish drivers in the UK has reached such a level that this statistic is true (work it out!)? Or does this (once again) prove that there are "lies, damn lies and statistics"? [/quote]   Sounds a bit Clarkson esk. 'There are too many poles in the ground, we keep running in to them'.

Warning note for the future though   http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/story/?nID=47900   Cheers   John

In the sale & purchase process the vendor knows the property and has agreed a price. So its only a price and date thing for them from then on.   The buyer may be proceeding in good faith but still finding out lots about the property (no vendor delivers all the info on a plate, do they ?) e.g. anything from CH that hadn't worked in 10 years to a possible right of way issue. So the buyer is the one needing the protection and the option to back out (with legitimate reasons).   John

My wife thought Michel Thomas was good stuff.  Me I am relying on GCE stuff (i.e. pre-GCSE !). 'Free flowing' conversation is in fact the hardest for me*, after a while one can feel that its a strain for everybody. Mind you sometimes I sit quiet even in UK parties where the noise level means real conversation is killed. I do find that I learn a lot by listening though. If you are in sales you must be reasonably gregarious ?   *caveat  - when sober. However I have this story involving a bar, several french people and others of various nations..... oops varying off topic. John

[quote user="The Riff-Raff Element"] But that would assume that Ryanair's policies are about weight. Which they might not be, of course. [/quote] Aha. You have seen through their plan. The baggage hold could clearly carry more passengers (I gather that trials have been done using  i Legal i m Migrants ). Once the space is cleared then RyanAir can trailblaze again. Former baggage hold becomes standard class. Seats with ambient air carry a small surcharge etc.    

But on Ysatis map 1 the South East doesn't exist.  On Ysatis map 2  of the South East dept. 11 doesn't appear (no surprise to me but obviously to some).       Very French I say.    

[quote] They probably figured that syphoning would be assumed and they could come back next night and drain the re-filled tank again. [/quote]   Ingenious Moriarty. I wish I had that guile !  

People make bombs out of sodium chlorate don't they ?  

Firstly don't go all 'British' and assume a refund is needed. We have had loads of happy renters and one or two 'litanies'. Funnily enough if people 'complain' its a litany. If they are pointing out a single defect it tends to be part of a positive message. But all the feedback is useful. e.g. amidst one litany of generally off-the-wall stuff there was a comment about enough wardrobe space when we have 6 individual adults in (NB families even 2*4  have not mentioned it before) and so I added a wardrobe at the earliest opportunity.   I am always taken aback when people complain after the event but have not commented (locally or to us) during the rental. After all if something is wrong I want it put right for them and for the next renters.   p.s. We keep a stock of light bulbs freely available. We also have backup stock of lighting/heating/fans/crockery/cutlery/bedding/gas/wine/water ....If only people ask. Our changeover team live only 1 KM away