Fay

Hello Pyewacket can't help with your request but I saw the name come up and had to show you MY Pyewacket - my avatar, here on the left. (She's a Devon Rex and has now grown into her ears a bit more.) Great name! Good luck with your search. Fay

I was there with my 'journo' hat on, so heard the background (at the press launch) as to why it was smaller this year. Apparently the company who had been running it (into the ground IMHO) for the last few years backed out only last August. Archant have now taken it over but of course only had a very limited time to resurrect it. I think they did a good job and, despite its small size, I thought it better than last year on the whole. (I had forgotten that last year I swore I wouldn't bother again.) I think a key thing it has lacked over the last few years is the presence of the regional tourist boards. If Archant can persuade them to re-appear it would return to something like its former self (who can forget the charming wine expert on the Loire stand? Happy days!). There were some other big non-appearances, such as Eurotunnel, and as you say, the fashion show was missing, but Archant seem committed to rebuilding the event so fingers crossed for next year. Incidentally next year is quite a bit earlier - around 11 Jan - which suits me as it often used to clash with the ski trip! PS. I've no connection with Archant, by the way - I'm a guide book editor. PPS. If only they could ban those flaming schoolkids! PPPS. Why have I lost the blue dot under my avatar??

Level 6 for me - 25,332 - Africa and the Middle East let me down big time! But a bit embarrassing for someone who edits travel books (albeit not to Africa or the Middle East).... Great fun!

Hi Jacquie Nord-Pas-de-Calais falls, in Completefrance terms, into Northwestern France, along with Picardie (where my house is), Normandy and Brittany. There are quite a few posters (not posers) under that grouping that I think are in the same sort of area as you, so you may get more feedback by re-posting there. Sorry to be so slow in spotting this - I don't usually look in this section but was trying to work out which area covers Haute Savoie for some chat about the snow levels! Fay PS - Oh good grief, I just noticed when you posted this! You may have moved on by now!!!!

Thanks again everyone! I was hoping I could just take the doofer and hold it up roughly where the normal holder is - I agree it seems pretty darn hard to prise the holder off the windscreen...

That's great news - very many thanks!

Excellent news - many thanks!

The follow-up to Snakes on a Plane...? I posted this in the Driving section then thought it's perhaps more pertinent here: Has anyone tried to take a telepeage doofer on a flight and do they lock you up, confiscate it or both? We're flying to Geneva (from Luton) in January for the annual ski trip, and hiring a car. We usually drive down. Like many folks here I'm a big fan of my telepeage doofer and it would save LOADS of time at the peages around Geneva and beyond, but I don't want to risk taking it if I am going to cause an international incident at security checks! Anyone been there, done that? Thanks!

Thank you for that! I am still wiping away the tears of laughter!

Has anyone tried to do this and do they lock you up, confiscate it or both? We're flying to Geneva (from Luton) in January for the annual ski trip, and hiring a car. We usually drive down. Like many folks here I'm a big fan of my telepeage doofer and it would save LOADS of time at the peages around Geneva and beyond, but I don't want to risk taking it if I am going to cause an international incident at security checks! Anyone been there done that? Thanks!

Hi all A St-Valery part-timer here (boo) - in fact, if I turn round as I write this [pause] I can see the sun shining across the bay and the seabirds swirling around over the water (am I making you homesick, Ness?!). Love it here, spent six wonderful weeks in the summer, but now it is just as gorgeous and I'm regretting only being able to be back for 10 days. In fact, I have to nip the cat down to the vet's in a moment as we return to England on Monday. It does take a while to find the pefect place and propery moves very fast here, so it can be luck of the draw, but there's always something new on the market, it seems. Good luck with the search. Fay

I and all my schoolchums were mad about him in "Monte Carlo or Bust". He seemed to us (at about 12 years old) the ultimate Frenchman - a twinkly-eyed, handsome, charming seducer!

Speaking personally, also a frequent lone traveller (well, apart from the cat), it's not a case of being afraid of anything, but it's a great joy not to have to get out and run round the car (especially in cold or wet weather) to take a ticket, or to have to lean right across the vehicle (and the large wicker cat basket in the passenger seat) and risk dropping the money when paying.

Simon, I'd be happy to complete the questionnaire as well.

Forgive me if this is a silly question, but does your dog already have a pet passport? Otherwise it won't be possible in time: a) rabies shot b) 1 month wait for blood test c) blood test clear (hopefully) d) 6 months wait after clear test result before you can bring him back into the UK.

Just over 3 weeks 'til the annual ski jaunt to Combloux (near Megeve) and it's still walking terrain there! In past years we'd have been there already, up to our eyebrows in the white stuff (thank goodness for the nephews' SATS this year that have delayed the trip). I feel so sorry for the villagers, they must have lost most of a year's worth of livelihood already.

That explains a lot. I haven't been able to make it for a couple of years as it often clashes with the annual ski trip, so I was REALLY looking forward to it and was REALLY disappointed. I thought maybe I'd built it up in my memory. I used to spend most of the day - this time I was in and out in not much more than two hours. I missed things like the tutored wine tastings but, as well, there were whole areas of France not represented and more bland, commercial stands just trying to flog things. I was fortunate to have a press pass as I'm a travel editor, but I didn't find it useful and felt I'd wasted the £22 off-peak train fare, to be honest.

Whereabouts in Picardie are you, Vin Rouge? The chimney on my house on the baie de Somme looks like a half-finished game of Jenga - hope it's still standing!

We travelled out on Boxing Day, back on 4 Jan, with no problems at all. Waved through passport control with no checks on the way out (Folkestone side) despite dire warnings in the previous Sunday's Observer that the Tunnel was on high alert as a terrorist target! Usual 'swabbing' on the way back but no delays. Pyewacket got seen straight away at Pet Control, too.

That's a bizarre and pointless situation, Teamedup! I thought that the key thing was the time your pet is checked in, when its documentation is checked and its chip verified - so long as you are (strictly) within the 48-24-hour window, whenever that occurs, you're ok. I assumed the logic was that, from then on, it wouldn't be coming into contact with any more wormy, hoppy infestations so it wouldn't matter how long it was before your arrival in the UK. I had a nasty moment the other day when my vet nearly wrote 2/1/06 on Pye's passport - fortunately the vet said it aloud as she was writing it so I was able to shriek '07!' before it was too late. I don't like to imagine the reaction of the pet control people if a date is obviously altered. I watch like a hawk as the vets fill in date and time...

Merry Christmas and a great Reveillon to everyone! Please keep the roads clear on Boxing Day as Pyewacket and I will be hurtling tunnelwards as fast as our wheels will spin - though of course within the speed limit, officer. If you see a grey Rav-4 with a 'Devon Rex on Board' sticker (yes, sad but true), give us a wave.

Re Neal's Yard Dairy in Covent Garden - yes, it's still there and still doing fabulous British cheeses. As for the perfect French cheese - for me it has to be Vacherin Mont d'Or. It's just come into season now and will be gone by April. Heavenly as it is, and out of this world when baked to make the world's easiest fondue, only to be indulged in after a day's strenuous skiing. Liquid paradise!

It looks a hoot, very clever. Matt Lucas took its predecessor, The Meaning of Liffe, as his 'desert island book' the other week. Maybe your fella should send him a copy of Liffré?

My vet even opens (briefly) on public holidays so you might be in luck too. I hope so. By the way, it's worth noting that the 48-24 'window' applies to the time you check your pet in, NOT your actual crossing time. I guess because if there was a departure delay and you missed the window they couldn't really throw you off the boat/train. On the Defra site it says: Your pet must be treated against ticks and tapeworms not less than 24 hours and not more than 48 hours before it is checked in with an approved transport company for its journey into the UK. This can sometimes help with tricky, fine-tuned timings, as you could check in early to be within the limits, even though you might not be crossing until an hour or so later.

Ours was way over in Haute-Saone, near Ronchamps - a former watermill in its own forest clearing down a long, winding track in the middle of nowhere. A rickety bridge over the mill stream on which to lie in the sunshine, river to paddle in, deer emerging from the forest, frogs plopping about, moles popping their noses out of the ground, a billion stars in the sky (no light pollution) and a vast fireplace for when the evenings grew chilly. Peace, silence but for birdsong and the splash of water. Can't remember how much we paid but it was very cheap. One year it was on the front cover of the GDF guide, it was that pretty. The last time we stayed there (I think 10 years ago now) the owner had just put it on the market at £110,000. We were too poor and it was too far away anyway, but I'll never forget it, it was magical.