vivienz

I'm just back from a lovely 10 days in Brittany (despite the best attempts of the weather to scupper our plans) and have a question that I forgot to ask our French neighbours. Over the years and from time to time, I've noticed a sign painted on roads at intermittent intervals; sometimes not at all.  It looks like either an omega or a horseshoe, depending on your artistic interpretation.  I say the former, hubby the latter.  There is usually one on either side of the carriage way and they are reversed, i.e. they look the same for each direction of travel. I can't link these to anything concerning road conditions or the type of road - I don't have a scooby doo as to what they are - can anyone enlighten me?  Please?

I'm rather late with my reply here, but I heard lots of the articles about this and I was delighted.  I don't roast a large piece of meat very often but, when I do, I always make sure I pour off the excess fat and juices so that I can have dripping and jelly on toast.  My tastes run on the savoury side of things rather than sweet, and dripping on toast is one of the most delicious things.  For years, though, it's been a bit of a guilty secret although I could never see that much difference between lard/dripping and butter from a fat point of view.  I can come clean now!  My late mother was Irish and one of my most mouth watering and abiding memories of Dublin is the smell of the chip shops there - they always fry in lard rather than oil, and their chips are delicious. 

We were over at St Jacut the week before last and our local Carrefour at Ploubalay had all its trolleys set fire to with the aid of tyres and fire accelerants (I think petrol or something similar), and the glass doors were smashed, too, by pig farmers.  The same happened at Lanvallay.  The Carrefour at Ploubalay also makes a big deal of sourcing/selling local produce, but the manager of the shop pointed out that if consumers chose not to buy those specific products, there wasn't much he could do about it as is was their choice.  Whilst I have some sympathies for farmers, I don't think that this type of protest increases my sympathies.

I can't help with the sourcing of emulsion in France, mint, but noted your comment about using a small paint roller.  I'm a recent convert to paint pads; I don't know if you can get them over there, but I find them far easier to use than rollers as I have a touch of arthritis in one thumb joint, and the roller action is rather hard on this.  You don't get the spatter that you do from a roller, either, although the pads do have a tendency to drop a dollop of paint now and again, when they're fully saturated. 

On the western side of the St Jacut peninsula, from the plage de la banche and northwards, out towards the sea.  The oyster beds start at this point, though they are close to the deeper channel that still has some flow up to full low tide.  It's on the doorstep of our place over there and, being a lazy devil, I shan't go any further afield than this. I shouldn't need to, judging by how popular it is.

Thanks, both.  The local tourist info have a leaflet with just these things, including a handy size guide for the different creatures to be found.  I noticed back in April that there were signs up further down the estuary making it clear that peche au pied was not permitted because of the algae problems, but at the top end of the peninsula it was okay.  I guess that's why, even in mid April, it was very busy.  I only want to get enough clams for one meal of spaghetti vongole rather than filling a freezer so I won't be having a great environmental impact!  This may also lessen considerably if my clam digging talents are non-existent!

Ah, yes, that looks like just the thing.  I'll have to pick one up in a garden section.  Thanks!

I'm off to Brittany again in a few weeks and really want to have a go at digging out some clams and shellfish in the bay, along with the hundreds of others who do this when the tide is out. Does anyone know the best place to get one of those nifty clam digger things?  Lots of people seem to use something that looks like a modified hand fork - 3 long prongs that are bent towards the end.  I've never seen/noticed these before - any ideas, anyone?

I usually drink Earl Grey - Twinings for preference as most of the own brands seem to skimp on the bergamot flavouring.  A while ago, Twinings made a limited edition tea called 'rose garden' and it was lovely, like Turkish delight tea.  For normal black tea, I think that Yorkshire gold takes some beating, especially if it's the loose tea. Tisanes are so often disappointing, but Elephant make one, 'ligne et equilibre' which is yet to make me lovely and slim, but does reduce my caffeine intake.  It has rosehip, lemongrass and elderflower, which make for a nice combination.  The ingredient I always avoid in herbal teas is liquorice root.  I love liquorice, but find that this makes everything much too sweet for my taste.

It was really fierce along the south coast.  Even though it was dry yesterday, the wind was still gusting up to 40 mph here. It's much nicer today - bright and breezy.

I have no idea of the identification, but it's absolutely beautiful!

I'm heading over there next week - I'll have a look and see if there is any info available as we head out, although we're travelling BF rather than Condor.

Events within the FN are an extreme example of what makes me generally suspicious and wary of politicians.  A politician goes to the public with his/her set of values and beliefs and asks the public to vote for them on that basis.  If they discover that they aren't going to get enough votes to gain power, they then set about 'modernising' their party, i.e. changing those supposedly deeply held values and beliefs so that they will get enough votes to gain power.  So, how can the voters have any confidence that the values that they have voted for will be held to in the future when the the politician or party seem to change at will in order to get elected?  I can understand how a person's point of view can change, but not how they can do this within the same political party - surely, they should move to a different party if their values have changed so radically? I am a bear of little brain when it comes to politics, but I'm confident that I shall always distrust politicians and those who would be politicians.

For a few years now, OH and I have been threatening to ride part of 'le petit tour de manche'.  We're close to Poole from where we'd get the ferry to Cherbourg and then head due south to St Malo, now with a little further ride of on to St Jacut.  The main constraint at the moment, as ever, is time.  But OH's retirement should be in the next couple of years and I think that will be the time for us to undertake this little adventure.

It might be worth checking out independent cycling holidays for Brittany and the Vendee to see which towns they head for and overnight in, on the basis that there are likely to be suitable B&B places there.  It's also worth considering what type of route you want to take - fast with slightly larger roads or prettier with lots of stop/detour opportunities.  Make sure that there are places you can top up your drinks during the day - if it's a hot one, you get through liquids very quickly and it's very unpleasant to run out without knowing when you can next get some more.

I wonder if your last batch of yeast wasn't that fresh to start with, idun?  I don't know if mine would defrost to a liquid state as I always put it straight into the warm liquid for the dough.  A friend of mine doesn't use any purchased yeast at all - she's a big fan of making sourdough and very successful with it, too.  She's had to give up on it recently, though, as she's losing the half stone she put on after eating too much of her own produce!

I usually buy a 'brick' of yeast from my local Sainsbury's bakery counter for about £2.  I chop it into roughly 15g cubes (weigh the first few, then eyeball the rest), put the cubes on a tray and freeze them, then pack into a freezer bag.  I find that the yeast has a freezer life of between 6 and 10 months.  When I use it, I dissolve a cube of it in whatever quantity of liquid is needed by the recipe, warmed up to just beyond tepid.  If the yeast is getting to the end of its freezer life, I put in a little sugar and wait to see if it's working before adding to the flour as I'd hate to waste the flour with a dead yeast mixture.  I've usually got some dried yeast on hand, in case the frozen stuff has succumbed.  It works pretty well for me - I make pizza dough most Saturdays and a loaf or two of bread on a Sunday.  The hardest part is not scoffing all the bread when it's fresh out of the oven.

I always think that looking at ageing Hollywood stars is a great way to put one off having so called anti-ageing surgery.  Most of the American (and some European) examples just end up looking like cloned freaks who can't put an expression on their faces, and don't look like themselves any longer.  Madonna is a great example - age aside, she looks very different from her younger self, though not quite as freaky as the likes of Barry Manilow.  He was on a UK chat show not too long ago and was very scary.  Even with the more restrained versions, I never think they actually look any younger - just less tired and 'good for their age'. Whenever I've seen any of the make-over programs, I've always thought that the thing that makes the biggest difference is grooming.  A good hairstyle that suits well, a little subtle and enhancing make-up, etc. all make a person look far better than just a nip and tuck.  Christine Lagarde is a great example of this for me - grey hair, no obvious enhancement, but immaculately groomed and looking very well on it.

My understanding is that having been resident in France won't make any difference as there is no exemption that relates to that circumstance.  CGT gains are only ever relevant at the point of disposal of the asset; he will have to pay tax on the gains either in France or UK and can't avoid the taxation of these (or a portion of them) simply because he was non-resident.  He's best off deciding which regime, French or UK, offers the the least worse option, and going with that. Depending on when or if he becomes a UK tax resident, he could sell part of his investments just before the end of the tax year and more in the new tax year.  There is also the option of gifting shares to a spouse or civil partner and they can then make the sale, thereby giving two capital gains tax allowances rather than one (roughly £10k pa each).  There are various things like EIS and VCT that you can defer capital gains into, but these usually have a much higher risk associated with them compared to more run of the mill shares, and have all sorts of other conditions around them.  Perhaps if he is making so much from investing, he could invest a little of his profits in some expert advice?

Thanks, John. We didn't touch them - I'm always wary of very fuzzy caterpillars and so we did just watch them for a while. There were plenty squished on the road that they were crossing, mind you. The did appear to have originated from a tree, but I can't remember what type it was; I think it was a holm oak, but can't quite remember. I'll check it out next time I'm there. It seems like all types of trees are under attack from all types of nasties at the moment; horse chestnuts are often looking very tatty these days and it's awful to hear of so much ash die back.

Well, I never!  When hubby and I were at St Jacut (Brittany) in January, we saw a whole load of these processing across a road.  We weren't sure what they were (other than that were caterpillars), so we just observed with interest and then went on our way.  We were surprised to see them as it was quite chilly at the time of our visit, down to freezing overnight, and a wet and windy day when we went for a walk. 

Surely that date would imply that they were decades ahead of everyone else in the use of the www and email and were just waiting for the rest of the world to catch up?

Funny you should say that, mint, but I was looking at the weather forecast for this bit of Blighty earlier today and it's predicted to go from the 2C or 3C of the last couple of weeks to about 10C at the weekend. The wind direction is turning 180 degrees, and what a difference! Mind you, it may accompanied by some rain, which I'm not so keen on. I went for a lovely frosty walk yesterday evening and it really was glorious - very wintry but with all the promise of spring.

None of the parties involved covered themselves in glory in this incident; it's hard to have sympathy for any of them. I once bought a rather expensive pair of very high heeled shoes.  I still have them but don't wear them very often as they are 'car to bar' shoes; I dread to think of the cost-to-wear ratio.  Still far better value than a legal bill for arrogance and political vanity.

My word, mint, I didn't realise that distance mind-reading was one of your talents?!