Gail Smith

I have just had my bitch speyed and the cost was 120 euros.  The cost depends on how big and fat your dog is.  It ranges locally from 100 to 140 euros.  I hope this helps.   Gail

You have my deepest sympathy suffering from this awful affliction.  The pain is very wearing and can only be understood by someone who has also suffered from it. I was prescribed an anti epilepsy drug for mine called Carbomazapine which worked really well for me. When i was in the UK I was an acupuncturist and I have treated people and also know of others who were treated for TN very successfully.  It maybe a route to look at if conventional medicine is not helping you. Gail

We have a Jotul 500 and we paid 1600 euros for it in the January sales.  We fitted it ourselves. I have to say that it is the best money we have invested since we came here.  It is clean and extremely efficient and will stay in for 10 hours or more with no problem at all.  We bought it as we have LPG central heating and just could not afford to run it.  This stove will pay for itself in 2 years which has to be a bargain. Gail

We have a semi in ground pool (built into the slope).  We are all set for the liner to be delivered and fitted next week and intended to go and buy a pool alarm today, when....  I saw a posting somewhere which has confused me totally. To set the scene we have a gite which we rent out so are we limited as to which kind of pool alarm we can have? or are we able to have any of the 4 methods, i.e. fence, alarm, cover etc? I would be very grateful if someone could please confirm what sort of alarm we actually need. Gail

Do you know anyone with a landline in france that you could use? You could buy a Tele2 card which costs 7.50 Euros and then the calls are charged at local rate, about 1 cent per minute.  Make sure you get the card for europe.  You can use these cards to call from a payphone too although I dont know what the rates are.  I am sure there are other cards as well as Tele2 it's just that is the one we have used and our phone bill has been cut by about 75%. Gail

We offer guided walks and we have thought about getting some donkeys for ourselves and maybe offering the novelty of walking with them.  Those of you who offer specialised holidays, do you advertise in specific places or is it just a part of your normal advertising?  We enquired about advertising in a specialist mountain biking magasine as we live right on a chemin vert which give access to literally hundreds of miles of fully signed off road mountain biking county, but the cost was extortionate and as we couldnt guarantee any income from it we just couldnt justify the expense. Advertising is a mine field and we have spent a lot of money and have only 3 weeks booked this year, we have barely covered our costs. Gail Smith

Thanks so  much for your reply it was a great help.  We are now happy to be able to provide a phone and bill guests before they leave or as you state deduct the costs from their security deposit. Thanks Gail

To get more than a 2 star rating with the local tourist office in Perigueux the gite must have its own phone within the building.  It must be separately billable.  I don't fancy my chances of sending bills on to people after they have left and expecting them to pay up!  Can you get bills daily on the France Telecom site?  That might be a way forward. I agree that most people have mobiles and we would obviously have no problem with allowing guests to use our phone as we have Tele2 so they are not too expensive.   It seems a shame that in every area we can attain 3 or 4 stars apart from having a phone in the gite. Gail

We have recently applied to have our gite 'star' rated and by return of post were sent a schedule of what we need to have to attain different star ratings. Most of the items in the schedule are easy to comply with, but the one which is really stumping us is the one where we need to supply a telephone within the building and we must be able to to 'bill' the renters for calls made before they leave.  Has anyone else come across this and if so how did you supply a phone line?  Gail

Hi I am a fully trained and highly UK qualified acupuncturist. I have recently moved to 24 and am starting to make inroads into setting up an acupuncture practice. At present there are strange rules in France about working as an acupuncturist in that you can practice but you cannot call yourself the word 'Acupuncturist'. You can even get insurance to practice from the French Acupuncture governing body, I would be interested to talk to any other acupunturists in France and hear about their experiences. I don't think there will be many so any kind of therapist feel free to let me know how you have got on. I am also a level II Reiki healer and do indian head massage and basic body massage. I look forward to hearing from you. Gail Smith