Maggie

Whoops - sorry - not the Royal 'We'!!  OH goes to him to[:)]  He's not Jacky, but thanks for the info Tony ... he's Jean-Philippe Armanet, his salon is on the same side as CC, near to the opticians.  Excellent hairdresser [:D]

We know an excellent (English speaking) hairdresser in St Cyprien - if you would like his details let me know?  We've been using him for the last 5 years and are always happy with the outcome!

Success I think!  Very many thanks Chris & ejc ... I've looked at the links and it certainly does sound / look about right.  Difficult to be absolutely certain without having the little wotsit here, but hey, I'm not complaining!  [:D] Best regards

Brilliant, I'll have a look ... no further occurences, so hopefully it was a one-off! Thanks very much indeed for your help Chris [:D]  

Nope, sorry Chris [:(] ... the body shape is about right but there were wings similar to a house fly ...

Hi Chris Thanks for your help again, yes, it did have wings and it flew, but it was more of 'hop & fly' if you seen what I mean??  It was very dark brown / black in colour, the size of a big common house fly.  We really don't think it had legs / anything near to it's head, and it's body was flat (similar to the hard shelled, flat green insects that are everywhere at the moment).  We really did think it was some sort of fly initially, but it moved very very fast & we didn't see it actually use it's wings.  It really was extremely difficult to dispatch, we'd caught it in some white kitchen towel so could see that it appeared to be full of fresh blood once we'd finally got rid of it.  As I said earlier, it really did drive our cat mad, we've never ever seem him re-act like that to anything before ...  We've been racking our brains as to what he / we've done differently recently, the only thing we can think of is that he has recently caught a couple of young rabbits & brought them into the house!  He's been treated against fleas / ticks etc regularly (the last application was Saturday) and hasn't had either of those pests for quite a few years.  Any ideas??  

Hi Pierre Thanks for your suggestion too - but I'm 100% sure it wasn't a tick!  We've had cats for many years now and before all the anti-tick / flea stuff became easily available I was always removing them from both the cats and our neighbours dog!  It was very strange the way it affected our poor cat - he literally rushed all over the house, skidding on the mats and trying to get into small holes ...  When I managed to comb it out it jumped / flew onto my husbands arm - that was how we know what it looked like - we really did think it was a fly initially, it was only when I managed to squash it that we discovered it wasn't [+o(] Chris - I've checked out your search suggestions too (thanks), but I still can't find the little wotsit ... perhaps I should have kept the remains!

Hi Chris Thanks very much for the suggestion - but unfortunately it wasn't like that.  It really was very much like a house fly - but with a flat back.  We've seen a few of the insects above (unfortunately!) so we know it wasn't one of them.  I'll check out your suggestions tho - very many thanks.

Hi, hope somebody can help us identify this horrible critter...  Last night our poor cat was madly scratching/biting, then started rushing around the house - obviously trying to escape from whatever was 'attacking' it.  We managed to catch and comb him and found a fly-like insect.  It looked just like a fly, similar in size, but it's body was flatter.  It moved extremely quickly - sort of flying and hopping at the same time.  We managed to catch it, but it proved extremely difficult to 'dispatch', it's body was very hard.  When we finally did manage to squash it it was full of blood - yeuck.  Has anybody any ideas as to what this thing was??  We've never seen one before and only one of our cats was affected by it ... any ideas please?? Very many thanks

Brilliant ... thank you both very much indeed - we feel much happier now [:D]

Hi Wonder if somebody could advise us please ... we're having a new house built (24) and the wooden roof struts were fitted at the end of July - no tiles.  We've been told that the tiles will be done at the beginning of September, but in the meantime the wood (treated) has been open to the (horrible!) elements all this month - is this OK, or could the rain etc have caused any damage please?  All appears OK and a local roofer has said that there's no problem, but we're still a bit concerned - can anybody put us out of our misery please? Many thanks

Have you looked at http://www.pearl.fr ?  I've just bought some Epson compatible inkjet cartridges from them - very quick delivery .. I paid 11.90 euros for 4 black cartridges and 15.90 for 4 colour ones ... they had a good choice too.  Maybe worth looking at?  I haven't tried them out yet, but they look OK.

Thanks for all your suggestions ... I'll pass them on.  I suspect that re-painting will be the first option as the loo doesn't seem to be damp at all - I've never heard about putting essential oils in the paint before, what a wonderful idea! Thanks everybody for your help - I'll try and let you know how it goes

Thanks to you all for your suggestions, but unfortunately it's definitely not a cat - there is no way that one could have got in.  Also our friends say that shortly after they finished painting the loo they noticed the smell ... they have cats (in the UK) and said that it smells as though one got in there!  They're sure that it's not the drains ... and having smelt 'the smell' too we would agree.  Evidently another friend of theirs said that he had something similar after he'd used some very old paint ...

Help!  Does anybody know how to treat the smell of 'off' paint please???  It's in the toilet of a friend's maison secondaire ... the toilet was painted last year, but when they arrived this year it smelt quite strongly of cat!  The smell just refuses to go ... does anybody know of any magic treatment please??

Hi - could you help please ... are the English help forms available on-line??  I've tried to find them, but without success ... Many thanks

Whoops - sorry [:$] We're in 24 - currently just outside Beynac (towards St Cyprien) and want to move to Le Coux (near Siorac) - approx 20/25 km ....  

Hi - does anybody know 'A Man with a Van' please to help us with house removals?  Mainly packed boxes and a few items of furniture ...  Can anybody help please? Many thanks

Urgent please!  Does anybody know of a house to rent near St Cyprien (24) for about 14 months?  2 adults and 2 extremely well behaved cats – can anybody help? Many thanks.

Thanks to you all for your replies ... I think I may well try it.  At the moment we can't get broadband here - we can only 'upgrade' to their slightly faster connection - and France Telecom have advised us that it probably won't work here most of the time anyway!  Thanks again.

Hi Does anybody have any experience of this please?  They are advertising broadband speeds with dial-up connections at a good price ... but I don't know of anybody who's used them ...  Can anybody help please? Many thanks

Hi Frejean I know an excellent one in Sarlat ... our 2 cats have been extremely happy there ... I've sent you a PM ...

Hi Thanks very much to everybody who posted replies or emailed us ... we have now found the perfect rent very close to us.  Thanks again for your help.

Hi Thanks very much to everybody who posted replies or emailed us ... we have now found the perfect rent very close to us.  Thanks again for your help.

Hi Sorry, should have put that ... dept 24 Thanks