Guimbarde2

All this talk of olive oil for your ear wax - I know it is more readily available but the finest oil for softening wax, so my great grandmother told me 50 years ago - is almond oil. You don't walk around smelling like a chip shop either!

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"] Then of course there's Otex ear drops.  Very effective but a bit messy.  Actually it is just dilute hydrogen peroxide which loosens/softens wax. [/quote]   Years ago when I used Otex, I had a bad reaction and after 4 days the skin and ear hairs sloughed off like a snakeskin. Beware.

Well would you believe it? I have just returned from 49 where Alison and I have been working on our little house. We had been cleaning up the front garden and transporting the rubble and soil etc in plastic bags to the decheterie. On returning home to N.Yorkshire last week and emptying the car we fould a baby grass snake which must have crawled out of one of the bags. I have housed it in a small vivarium where hopefully it will be acclimatising to Yorkshire weather before I let it go around the wildlife pond in our orchard. Well it's too small to eat!! Pretty little thing though and it hisses with a french accent. www.thebestbedandbreakfast.co.uk

[quote]we have an account with lloyds and britline banks, we just send a cheque from our lloyds account into britline bank they convert it at the commercial rate into euros.[/quote] "we have an account with lloyds and britline banks, we just send a cheque from our lloyds account into britline bank they convert it at the commercial rate into euros." When you say 'commmercial rate' that is probably your Banks' rate, not the Foreign exchange rate, amd what does each cheque cost you per transaction.  I have just sent a hefty sum via a company called 'Foreign Currency Direct'. (There is another one called 'Currency Direct' anyone dealt with either?).  On the 5th Sept I got a rate of 1.4625 to the pound. (the ForEx rate on the exchanges was around 1.4733 at the time) I was charged a total cost of £27.00 and my bank in France will charge me about 10 eruos for handling the transfer. Does anyone think this good, bad or average?? However, from the time the cash leaves my UK account it takes close to 12 or 14 days to arrive in my French account. That's quite a lot of interest someone is accruing and it's not me.  

Similar question. I am UK based and have just received my demand for Tax F. Last year I paid by Standing Order monthly.  QUESTION: does this standing order carry over for this year. I know it's a dumb question but they have sent me a Stadning Order form for Tax F. for  2005. I am hoping by ignoring it they will just carry on taking money from my French account. Tku.

Hello Chris, My wife and I are renovating a house in 49 about 10k north of Saumur. We live in North Yorkshire. I'm retired but Alison is still not quite finished with her career yet, so I'm waiting with bated breath for the time when we can spend more time in France. In the meantime I am kept busy with a two acre garden and running a B&B and a couple of holiday cottages in the vale of Pickering. I have a feel for natural history though strictly amateur and self taught. How about you?     

  "You will find "fact sheets" on all the snakes in France on our site.   Generally as has already been said they are gone before you get near them (sadly)."  Thanks Chris you old Trogoautoegocrat, a good site and great for an amateur herpetologist like me. Look forward to brousing through it when I have the time. If you really want to see snakes - do everything quietly, no talking, walk very slowly, search with your eyes, carry a long cane or stick, and pause every few paces for several seconds. Preferably on a sunny day when the snakes will be basking in the sun. It's an experience!  

[quote]Just don't expect to buy curtains or carpets here. I have hunted in vain for any places that sell curtaining fabric by the metre or ready-made curtains, as is normal in the UK. The French tend to bu...[/quote]  "love making curtains, cushions etc. but am suffering withdrawal symptoms as I cannot get the raw materials to do this. I even took a professional course before leaving the UK to be able to make to a better standard. A waste of time it seems."   Hey Chocolate - Not necessarily a waste of time, depends where you live?? We have a place near Vernoil (49). If you were local to us and we brought the material and tapes with us perhaps you could make us our curtains. And if you can't help us due to location I'm sure that there are others around your area who would pay you for made to measure curtains. Very English; but why not?

Thank you both for the information. Presumably, if I were to take a UK bought suite to France, I would be able to find universal fittings/connectors etc. as I understand the French and UK measurements are different by a millimetre or two? What about taps? Should I buy in UK or France? I have looked on the LM website (thanks for that) and they seem to have some decent stuff but their photo presentation leaves a lot to be desired. Not enough detail or close-ups, that's why we wanted to go and look personally.  

Perhaps Charles Atlas was standing a few yards behind you? 'Perchance you wonder at this show, but wonder on til truth make all things plain.'

We own a house near Saumur which is being renovated in our absence. We trust all or artisans (French) and so far they have done a good job. The plumber and electrician are starting work 'soon'. In the meantime we have to find a bath, basin, wc, bidet, shower and a kitchen sink. Our intention is to go to Boulogne next Sunday and spend 3 or 4 days trawling round the large bricolage etc. outlets to try to find good quality and well designed products. Can anyone help with any company names perhaps? Our problem: (we think) we need to find national outlets in Boulogne or Calais who also have outlets in Saumur or Tours or Angers so we can chose in Boulogne and then give the details to our plumber who will buy locally (in 49) and obtain the lower vat rate and perhaps some discount as well. Do you think this a practical way of finding what we want? 

I can tell you how I would do it. Being ex army and spending quite a bit of time in the desert in the 50s and 60s we caught quite a few snakes. Cut of the head, make an incision on the underside of the snake at the head end to seperate the skin from the flesh enough so as to get hold of the skin and pull down firmly. The skin will peel of like a sock, leaving you with a skinnless snake. You then pare away the under skin around the abdomen to clear out the entrails. These will slip away easily leaving you with a skinless, gutless snake. Cut this up into good chunks and simmer in a pan of boiling water for 10 mins, then drain and fry in a pan of foaming butter until nicely browned. Delicious. A bit like chicken.  

SORRY Abi, the last sentence in my last post to this topic was not directed at you. It was a misprint. NOT how thick are YOU - but how thick are YOUR planks. Just like me - ex army and as they say thick as a plank. Whoops.    

I think if these strips have been stuck down to a base they will lift off with a certain amount of adhesive residue and if you then tried to lay them again would lay unevenly. As I said yesterday, to try cleaning off the residue might be difficult, depending on what adhesive was used in the first place. If they are of a tongue and grooved type which just 'float' on the surface, being held in tension at the skirting board then yes you should have no problem relaying them. Parquet flooring, as laid down in such places as school halls, meeting rooms etc in the UK, were popular in late Victorian and Edwardian times. Usually chestnut or sometime oak they were cut into brick size shaped blocks and laid, often in a herringbone pattern, but also in other geometric designs. You say they are 40cm long. What is the width and how thick are you planks Abi?

I think it would cost you more to get them sanded than to buy replacements.

[quote]Looking forward to hearing how you get on lifting parquet. Part of my downstairs floor has sunk a little due, I suspect, to damp rot affecting the joists carrying the oak "parquet" floor. (The floor...[/quote] I believe when the English talk about parquet flooring they mean flooring composed of wooden blocks arranged in a geometric pattern. They are usually about the size of a small brick laid on edge. When the French use the word parquet they could mean anything from ordinary floorboards to boards which have a pattern on them which, if you were shortsighted, might look like parquet blocks. Once taken up,  a proper parquet floor is very difficult to relay. So bon courage with the floor and ceiling.

Yes, I agree about keeping chickens. Snakes are sensitive little devils and they don't like being disturbed, and chickens with their incessant scratching will disturb them no end. You could try stamping your feet, or bang the ground as you walk along with a stick. They will feel the vibrations, and melt away. You may not get rid of them, but you probably wont see them. I'm not sure that snakes drink milk that often - with or without the poison! I remember catching a rather large snake over near Clere du Bois,. (don't try if if you haven't got the equipment). The neighbours were fascinated and told all the other neighbours to come and look at it. This was 30 years ago in what was a well known snake environment, and yet the locals had hardly ever seen one close up before. I'm sorry about your wifes' phobia.