Hectorsdad

We have travelled regularly on BF, P and O, LD and DFDS ferries from Portsmouth over the last 23 years and have never observed any one pretending to be French. Many, like me, try hard to use French when ordering food, in the shop and generally communicating with staff, frequently following up with the English version to make sure all is understood. Most of the BF staff speak good English and see the funny side of some of my attempts at French. I admire the excellent French spoken by quite a few English speaking travellers. It all adds to the entertainment of the trip. ALBF, sorry to hear about your mum’s ill health and I am sure she appreciates your visits and hope she improves.

The link certainly looked inappropriate and I reported it in the usual way. There are too many of these spammy (new word) posts spoiling the continuity of threads or even starting ridiculous new ones. Does a report do anything?

Last year I was caught by exactly that price anomaly. It was in Sainsbury’s in Farnham! I had picked two, identical items from different displays and assumed they were the same, low price but the receipt showed one at the low price and the other at the normal price. It seems to be a widespread ploy or just a problem with computer programming.

If you do stay at that hotel, it is very close to a restaurant called Bistro Regent which is on the other side of the main road. We resorted to eating there because I wanted steak and chips. It was a little chaotic and the staff tried hard. Our food was excellent and I saw many good looking dishes on other tables. It is plain and simple but good value. You will have fun picking your way through the “shamrock shaped multi-roundabout”. I drove through and around it several times when we first arrived looking for our accommodation in a chateau outside the city. It was easier when we came back to eat in the bistro.

Was it on this forum that a member was ronaveyron, or something close to that? I remember checking out his website with the intention of spending a few days in that area. It looked really good but I could not visit at that time and since then he seems to have vanished. His postings were always positive and supportive. Perhaps it was on another forum that has been lost. It is entertaining just trying to workout how these names are created. Edit: What a coincidence that ronaveyron should emerge almost simultaneously. Just read the previous post after my posting.

You have forced me to translate “guardian” and google came up with “herdsman” which seems to be consistent with a name on a French forum. I had assumed, incorrectly, that it was exactly the same as guardian in meaning. I often make embarrassing mistakes due to my ignorance. I should have learned by now to be more careful.

Well ET, I could not get either of those “errors” past you but there was a little more to it. Thanks for your quick reply.

Guardian, you called her Mint!

Thanks AB for the warning and I have made a start. The first hurdle for me, as a UK based, secondaire owner is to set up a personal fiscal number. I have just made an application to register so that I can gain access to the appropriate forms. I will report back if I make any progress.

We have had our secondaire for 22 years and spent as long as we could there during academic holidays when we worked and now we are restricted by the wretched 90/180 days rule. Our French neighbours also think we live there permanently and just visit UK to see our family. It is in fact children and grandchildren and long term friends that have kept us from a permanent move to France. Hector is our latest dog who dominates most of our lives. Over the years we have had three other dogs, all fluent in French. In those early years after buying our house in France I was a member of several forums, most of which have vanished along with the evidence of the fun aspects of the membership. Masses of useful information and advice has been lost with them.

Although we are high in the Surrey Hills at the moment, I keep a keen watch on the Meteo for our second home in 36. We have only had a single burst of light snow here a few weeks ago but in France the forecast is for snow for the next three days. It would be interesting to match your weather watch reports with a department.

That’s good but I will have to wait until March when we return to France. I could practice so I don’t say something like “…toute a l’heure…”.

Thanks for the warning. I had no idea that could be a scam marketing ploy. I just thought it was very odd. There does appear to be many new”members” making a few weird contributions making little sense. They annoy me.

It was sad to hear that B&B Hotels team have been disbanded and the whole team are looking for new contracts. The most notable is Mark Cavendish who was lined up to lead the team, maybe in the TdF. The good news is that he is reported to be signing for Astana who should be giving him a chance to win stages in the TdF this year. He will of course need another, exceptionally talented lead out rider if he is to have a decent chance of winning a record breaking 35 stages. I think his inclusion will enhance the whole tour.

Is it possible that your computer, tablet or phone is automatically trying to logon using a stored, incorrect password? The symptoms certainly remind me of several similar problems I have experienced in the past on several different devices. Your next step is to clear the stored password and store the correct one. Good luck!

It would be easy to misunderstand that word in any context. I must now find a way to impress my French neighbours by including it in a conversation.

Is this a permanent move or just for a holiday?

…he was the author of his own demise….

I normally use my iPad for this site and I can’t even remember using my phone, laptop or desktop. At some point a long time ago I must have agreed with my iPad to stay logged on. I know there is a degree of sloppy security doing this but I just choose the CF icon on my home page and it is ready to go with no perceptible delay.

I would simply wait until a low charge battery problem occurs. Your security system is probably active throughout the down time when it is locked and idle. The device will automatically go into standby mode reducing the current drain while maintaining continuity with the driving record. Monitoring is usually carried out in regular, very short bursts of activity so the battery drain is minimised. If you are leaving the car parked up for a week or more, it should be easy to discover if the battery is low when you first start the car again. Just be prepared to charge the battery if your fears are in fact correct ( and I am wrong - again ).

Perpignan is in fact quite a big city rather than a big town. I have only seen it in passing; once going south to Barcelona and a second time going north on our return trip. I did not see anything that would attract me to stay there. I can recommend staying in Carcasson if you are able to tolerate the crowds of tourists (just like me). It does offer plenty of local interest obviously including the castle but also a trip down the Canal du Midi is excellent. There are many small, pretty villages worth visiting on day trips or as part of your touring. Depending on your interests you could base your tour on the various cathedrals in that region which are often in quite small towns with village atmospheres. The journey will certainly give you a chance to see numerous beautiful, traditional villages. You could simply start your route using Google Maps. Good luck.

Thanks for the explanation. It is easy from the outside to make comments like mine but I understand that it is quite different if you have more serious responsibilities. It is true however that he seemed to be trying hard to kick start several topics, not all to my taste, but even that required some effort.

Where are you going from CDG?

82 posts in 18 days is a very good contribution. I wonder what the total posts is for that period. This is in stark contrast to the more and more frequent total posts by new members of one or two before they simply vanish from the forum. There is very little continuity and bears little resemblance to the early days of the forum when there was so much to read every day. It is hard to reconcile the ever diminishing interest on the forum with the effective expulsion of one of the few active members. Very sad!

I have read most of your posts and didn’t notice any racism though I do skim read most long texts. Who complained ?