Miki

"But if it is due to the tone of the forum changing due to a takeover by a small clique of vocal whiners, depressives and hangers-on who feel they own the place, that is FINE and the rest of us who don't like what we see should just p**s off?" So what would do you propose to improve the site or did you just want to let off steam at the awful clique?  Whoops just looked, I am a fanatic, that must mean I am in the clique then, why haven't I received my badge or card then, it's bad enough waiting for a Carte Vitale but waiting for my  Carte Whinge could be very trying OK the easy way is to hang the damned swine who moan about La Belle France, we must all realise that nothing is wrong over here. It's 10.37 and all's well and all that   If people are leaving because of the "small Clique" going on the fact that you have just whinged yourself, who will be left to whine and shoot straight from the hip, if all the nasty whingers are sent packing? "Please THINK before you start typing." Excellent point, I thought people did that but perhaps not to your thinking?  P.S SB, if you ever come across a fairy whinger, please let me know. I am intrigued as to what one would look like but wouldn't being a fairy whinger go against the grain somewhat? I was told by a chap who gave me a lift in his car to play in a soccer match, that he wouldn't give me a lift home because as I had played like a fairy, I could therefore "fly home"  

Hi Angela, If you want another choice or area, why not try http://www.gites-de-france.fr/eng/ Plenty of selection and some that do evening meals.

In our commune, you are allowed a cabin up to 12m². If you are "agricole" then it is 25m². Over these sizes you must apply for permission. Ours is approx 13.5m² and I mentioned it in passing to Mr le Maire and it inevitably received the shrug and "pas grave". Again though, these sizes and your Maires reaction,  will all depend on your own area. 

"Tonight I heard Amanda Lamb say that if you are going to renovate property in France as a gite or do B&B you may be able to get a grant of up to £12,000' !! I know its true, but without qualification I thought it was rather misleading." Gay, That was one of the reasons why I mentioned her. When she said that, my reaction was, what a stupid throwaway line, no explanations or information given. If anyone thinks that getting a grant for that much is going to be easy, then she really has misled people. That kind of grant comes with plenty of strings attached, none of which we even contemplated when restoring. It might be OK for some I guess ? but the half dozen people we have known that have had a grant, have all regretted it after the first few years.   

[quote]There does seem a never ending stream of these programs and I saw a property search type program today that showed 3 properties in Dorset and 3 in Brittany.The first place they visited in Brittany was...[/quote] Gay, If the locals are anything to go by, Cancale would sound like Kan Karl. It is also how we pronounce it and we have never been pulled up on it so................ We have heard Kan Karly, Kan Sarl, Kan Kalay and all stations in between from our guests, bless 'em! Mustn't laugh as I 'm sure we were probably no better years ago but as you say Gay, you would have thought the presenter might just have got it right. Not sure about any others but even Amanda Lamb is starting to get on my nerves these days, will the TV progs on France ever grind to a halt? The last few years or so, has seen Property, Moving to just about anywhere, Gardening, DIY and the move to France programmes seemingly increasing by the week, when will it end ?

Impressed by Programme.  Impressive site. Bit of a shame that so many of the materials were  UK sourced? Were they sponsored? I think we can take some of the supplies for granted. Why would they give each and everyone a plug if they weren't ? I am sure that at one time, thanks were given to certain suppliers for their help and generosity etc. We have done 3 fairly large renovations and have never thought to put Point P, Pinault etc or the local builders yard on our site !! Why would you ? It would be like adding all your guests on to your site for their help !! Anyway, flipping good luck to them, wish we had some sponsors to have helped us   

I am not sure if I saw them mention the start of the restoration on this forum or another but anyway simply go to and see what has been happening since the start: http://www.chezjallot.com/ Lovely couple and the very best of luck to them and the restoration of Chez Jallot. Of course Channel 4 glossed a lot of it up, that's simply the business they are in. It's out of the hands of the couple what happens in the edit.  

"......it can happen while you're writing a brilliantly witty post, and without warning, pouf,........" Blimey SB, not strictly PC these days, did you have anyone in particular in mind? In answer to your problem, yes I know what you mean. When it happens to me but, in my case I unfortunately am not writing the brilliant witty post that yoos do, I log in then proceed to click on back in the tool bar (is that what it is called ?) a couple of times et voila, the message that I had written, arrives back on the screen. Then post it as normal.

"I just wonder who your customers will be French people dont eat fish and chips" BAF I would in principle agree that it is not really going to be too viable a proposition as far as as making a living goes but, I have to say that there is a well known fish and chip shop in Paramé, Saint Malo, originally started by a British couple and owned for the last 5 years by a hard working French couple, that do quite nicely and the majority of their clients are French. 

OOOOhhh thanks SB, feel a lot better all uncrossed !! When we bought in Brittany, we instructed our bank to send the deposit to the notaire and offered them the whole Swift/Iban etc of the notaires account. On the day the signing of the promesse, there was no sign of the money, we were not going to be there and it was left to the immo and the staff to do the neccessary. It arrived 48 hours later, so late but not desperately so ! but when the final acte was due, the Notaire insisted the money was in his account well before the signing. We instructed our bank in the Dordogne to send so much of our money from the sale of our house to the other Notaire and the remainder to our new bank. The bank got the money within 48 hours and the Notaire never got the purchase money until 14 days after !! We talked to the owners every day until the money arrived in the account, even taking them for a couple of nights out, all the time convincing them that we were extremely serious and, in fear that they pull the rules in and stripe off the deposit. They were great and after a week they even let us stay in the property with them, which was very welcome, as we were by then, spending a fair amount of money on hotels and restos. The cheque had done the Tour de France, the bank in the Dordogne had put in one figure wrong and even though it had the Notaires name and bank account in Dinan etc, no one had the sense to see that it was obviously a simple error that could have been easily sorted, no one it appeared, would take responsibilty, so off it went back to the bank and guess what,they put it back in the system as it was !! Incroyable eh!! but all ended well in the end, so have faith SB.  

French banks, don't you just luv 'em ! Fingers (and other bits & bobs !) all crossed for you SB. You will laugh about all this in mid October (says he, crossing some more bits) 

Sorry to all P&O supporters, but there is a reason why BF are succeeding where P&O failed, whether it is "unfair competition" (whatever that is) or whatever, BF are still here & P&O aren't. It is not anything to do with people being supporters or not, of either company. Your record with P&O is incredible and has to be a one off surely ? How can I go for donkey's years and hardly remember any extra problems with P&O compared to BF.  I suspect other travellers can remember numerous occasions when the evening ferries on the western routes (and other schedules of course) leave later than the written departure time, offering varying excuses but invariably arrive on time in France (UK) and that's with both BF and P&O. BF have been "bailed out" on a few occasions (against European legislation and therefore making it unfair competition) and have since gone on to being a more solvent enterprise. P&O have not been offered this help, so there is possibly one difference. Another surely has to be the management, as I said before, one minute they are praising themselves for turning the corner, then they are hiring low paid workers and then the demise of 3 western routes. Whatever it is, the outcome will not be good for the paying public, unless of course, a competitor arrives to challenge BF on the western routes.   

[quote]I remember you, Miki, Bash Street Polytechnic. Sat on the top row and dropped an ice cream on that snooty kid from Eton. As I remember every time I said "starter for ten" you tried to push me up to tw...[/quote] Got it in one Bamber old bean, I think we settled for 11 in the end didn't we ? Cato and Dick, B's an old mate, it might be silly but it's been a while and it's good to catch up Bamber Gascoigne, well I'll go to the foot of our stairs ! 

[quote]I'm sorry for the employees, but; Ta ta P&O. I for one won't miss your unreliability, high prices, surly staff and stupid sailing times. I switched to BF some time ago and just pray that they don...[/quote] Nick, What about the fiasco this summer with the Pont Aven,  many people felt terribly let down and the excuses pedalled out by BF were rather poor. Then there is the tie up with Condor from Poole to Saint Malo, this fastcraft had to cancel several times this season and people sent to Portsmouth (to travel to Caen or Le Havre) from Poole, many passengers claimed that they were not told of any cancellation and in several cases, the people had already passed Portsmouth on their way to Poole.  I have been travelling to and from France for many years and to be honest, I think both have their plus's and minus's. I can't remember being troubled much by P&O but the same goes for BF.

[quote]I agree with Miki - no resemblance whatsoever.[/quote] Blige me Bamber, welcome to the forum. You don't look a day older than when I met you last and then it was: "Hi my names Miki, reading the Beano, Dandy and the Hotspur 1958-1961" Mr & Mrs Opas will be over the parrot to know you are wiv us.

You were what age then Dick, 11 or 12 perhaps a teenager and just starting to shave ? You have to admit though, the "Gerry" look is there. Stop taking the Michael,  Penny !    Bamber........ nothing like him  

In my eyes, the P&O Ferries part of the company are a really poorly run outfit. Last year they were saying how well they were now performing and had turned the corner, a few months later they were making staff redundant and then employing Portuguese to save money. They are in the competitive cross channel travel market place and you need directors and a chairman who know how to compete and make it work, to my thinking, they did not have a board who were up to the task. BF have gone from being often subsidised, to an outfit who have grown very strong and who will have yet another new ferry on their western routes by 2006. I hardly think it is a good comparison to say RyanAir have taken another 25p off, as 50p each way wasn't working !! RyanAir are like MFI and have a different "sounding" sale every week to encourage people to fly with them and anyway, they ain't doing so bad........... I'm afraid Mr Branson is more interested in "space travel" now and ferry business and Virgin has been mooted a few times before and he has simply kept tight lipped. So what should the workers do, lay down? It is their livelihood and just because one thinks it will do no good, then they needn't  bother to show solidarity, in case you upset the travellers? Well sorry but when the staff are sacked, the passengers won't pay the mortgage and feed the kids will they?  I do have full sympathy with passengers who will be disrupted by any action (I have been stranded on the dockside at Cherbourg for 48 hours myself, in years gone by) but many of these people are from an area that has a pretty poor employment record and finding work for many of them, will not be easy. It is worth remembering that BF went through all this with strikes, a very short while ago and the workers kept their jobs and avoided foreign workers filling their shoes. Has anybody noticed,  BF announced this morning, that they were now going to take over the leases of the P&O ferries, Prides of Portsmouth and Le Havre.  Now that kind of decision doesn't happen overnight, so this arrangement had to be made some while ago, didn't it?  

Dick, Why do you have Gerry Adams as your avatar now ?

University Challenge - I'm sure I'm not the only one who used to wonder how the team on top got up there. So how do they get up there, apart from the obvious..............by ladder.......... and who decides who is going on top then ? Flip a coin I suppose, heads on top maybe? We'll ask Dick, he will know one or two of the people in the teams and he can ask them. How do you pin a camels shoulders down for 3 seconds and how do you know when the camel is submitting? Questions nothing but questions..................... David, you are not originally from the Staines area are you? Long shot but you have an unusual surname    

[quote]A seal?[/quote] Well done SB, That was the only answer I didn't know I thought it was a sabre toothed walrus cork but you are right.

PS Now I am posting this I can see that you can change the size of font at the top of the window! Sorry, though I don't seem to have managed it.  Even so can everyone do it please? Yes, you just highlight the text you want to change in size, put in italics, underline, colour etc using the icons in the bar just above the text box and change it all how you wish. 

People who have "lost" their account with a bank for a certain period are not likely to let anyone know are they ! La Poste do offer the facility to pay your utilities, Telecom and some other bills for a small fee. Some like Taxe Foncière and Habitation I think, cannot be paid there but don't quote me on that.  

Mosquito bites and flea bites really irritate me. I hope this post doesn't irritate Widnesbob too much.............. 

[quote]It was not on loan! It was won fair and square from that daft ****** Conan by a mixed force of Normans and Saxons.Oh it's all gone quiet over there![/quote] The Referee was bent, everyone knows Saxon Norman Rovers paid off the supposedly unbiased Picardie officials...................must be true the Daily Mail sports reporter said so at the time A rematch I say..........  

Living Azerbaijan............. You don't want to go there SB,  if people thing Living France has whingers, then brother (or sister of course) you ain't read nothing yet. Moan, moan, moan, that's all the Azerbaijanis do, posts of where to buy goat curry, someone's always got a problem with their fosse, health carte Azerbaijan Vitale not arrived, price of sheds going up all the time, etc etc. That is why I came back to LF and discuss like TU said, the fuller picture, as many of us see it here. One thing I have noticed, in the time I have been on this forum, is just how many peoples attitudes change somewhat after being here in France and on the forum for a while. No real need to mention any names as it happens to so many, absolutely nothing wrong with a changing attitude and it is good to see those people also offer serious advice on living in France from their actual experience. Is it ironic when a whinge comes on about the "whingers" ?