DaveLister

Personally I have great sympathy for most of the strikers. They see their parents or grandparents enjoying retirement with a good pension and a full social calendar and want to aspire to the same. BUT, The country as a whole cannot survive with increasing social costs and an inflexible workforce. Advances in medicine means most people are now living longer, and more active lives than before. The proposed increase in retirement age is not unreasonable. In order to have a country fit enough to pass onto the next generation I hope it is brought in.

I think that might just say something about the company you keep. My French friends love a good debate. I don't know why but I find that very sad.😔

I'm not talking about Brexit. We're talking about France. Should I have a say in your kids or your other halves future? Absolutely! After all they have a say in mine. It's called democracy. You personally may choose not to take part but as someone once said 'the rules are made by those who turn up'.

So by your logic, anyone who doesn't have children should be excluded from voting. I'm assuming you would extend that to French Nationals as well. We all have our vested interests, that's what makes universal suffrage so important.

So I guess you can't stand me ALBF. I'm one of those 'self serving muppets' in that I am in the process of applying for French Nationality. Two reasons really. The first is that I want the right to vote. I feel I should have a say in who gets to spend my taxes. Secondly I can very well imagine myself ending up in an EPAD. I've no family and, as for moving to the UK, I spent ten years there once & didn't like it. My right to live in France currently requires me to apply for a residency card every ten years. What if I became too infirm to go through the formalities? I read recently about a woman with dementia in Sweden who is being deported back to the UK because she was unable to complete her residency application despite being in a care home for the past seven years. You are right, not having French Nationality doesn't have that much of a bearing on my life currently but who knows what might happen to any of us in the future. As I intend to die here, I'd rather apply now instead of waiting until it does become life threatening.

I traveled on Eurostar last month. I was siting at a table for two and the man facing me was French. As the steward passed through the carriage he would speak to people alternatively in French and English. I was spoken to in French whilst my traveling companion got the English. We exchanged wry smiles throughout the trip.

By visiting the site, meeting with all interested parties, examining not just the cadastre but historical maps and satellite images. Remember a Geometre is the only person who can legally deliminate a boundary.

I tend to take my lead from whoever I'm talking to. If they speak French to me I will reply in French. If they speak to me in English I will reply in English. It doesn't bother me either way. I know I'll never be French so why pretend.

Ah, the English Frenchman😀. Haven't been on a ferry in years but I remember them well. Sorta like this

I think that if one was to superimpose the cadastre plan over most satellite pics you would find that it was, at best, a guestimate. The only way to ever be truly sure is to employ a geometre. Another chemin story. My neighbours ( french ) bought their property whilst working overseas and when taking up residence discovered that a track that ran down two sides of their property was not their private access but a Chemin Rural belonging to the Mairie ( no I don't know why the notaire wasn't across it either ). They ended up employing a very expensive Advocate in Paris who assured them that, if no one used the track for more than 10 years they could claim ownership. So they started to make it very difficult for the general public to gain access ( parking their car in front of the house that sort of thing ). They had many an argument with the hunters who wanted to get to the woods and even demolished a wall to give the impression that the chemin stopped short of where it actually did. Some fifteen years later we bought a stretch of land adjoining the track and were surprised to discover it belonged to the commune. We started using it ( albeit mostly by foot ) and our neighbours, on checking, found that their lawyer hadn't even begun the process of applying for it to be erased and, anyway, our new usage now made that application nul and void. They sold the property last year to a Belgian couple who appear to have done their research and are quite happy with the situation.

I've been a member of this forum since it was called La Mairie and have seen some wonderful people come and go but have we come to the end of the line I wonder? This year will be my 20th year as a resident and I now come here, not only to learn, but to converse with people whose life experiences are similar to my own ie a foreigner living in France . However I feel that we are no longer the community we once were. Perhaps the time for internet forums such as this is over. Anotherbanana now has the solo responsibility for moderation along with the ever increasing need to remove all the spam. Is this fair when I think most people, like me, glance at the active topics once or twice a day then move on? All things change and everything has it's time. Should we thank AB for his service and allow the forum to die?

Sad news indeed, my condolences to her family.

My understanding is that a chemin d'exploitation is private and therefore the Mairie would have no interest in knowing how wide or narrow it is. They would assume that your sisters plans were correct in that regard. I suspect someone saw the planning application at the town hall and realised they could earn a bit of "compensation" if they sat on their hands for a couple of years. Have you tried talking to the other parties to see if there is a compromise to be had? Maybe that's not possible but I can only second Lehauts comments. You really don't want to go down the legal route if you can avoid it. It could ruin you financially.

I hoped you would say that. In my experience most French people can't conceive of changing career no matter how much they might hate their job. When it is forced upon them most appear to be able to do nothing more than wait for something similar to turn up. The ' c'est mon métier ' still looms large. My car mechanic is a notable exception. He used to be a nuclear engineer at Flamanville on the French coast which he found mind numbingly boring. So he spent his free time training as a mechanic and, once qualified, resigned and set up his own garage. He once told me it was three years before they finally stopped calling him to ask him to come back. Not because he was particularly indispensable but because they couldn't conceive that anyone could make a success on their own.

Nice to hear someone falling on their feet like that. I assume he was French?

It wouldn't cross my mind that a supermarket would hike it's prices just for the weekend. https://www.midilibre.fr/2023/02/12/augmentation-des-prix-dans-les-supermarches-le-dimanche-les-enseignes-ont-elles-le-droit-de-monter-leurs-tarifs-10992942.php Good thing I normally shop on a Monday.

If you want to buy ready mix you can normally get Aspen at a local Bricolage or Stihl at an agent. It's more expensive than mixing your own but remains stable for two years. I tend to get a bidon at the end of the season just to finish up so that I don't end up with a tank full of old fuel. Ask your friend what he'd prefer. https://www.ruralmaster.fr/cohade/lubrifiants-carburants/33237-carburant-2-temps-5l-aspen-7330045973001.html

Sweet French Pancakes. ( makes around 20 ) 30g Buckwheat flour 350g plain flour 100g salted butter ( melted ) 110g castor sugar 3 large eggs ( beaten ) 1/2 litre milk a little water put flour in bowl, hollow out center and add eggs and the sugar. Begin mixing the batter with a little water then gradually add the milk mixing until smooth. Finally beat in the melted butter. If you like you can also add a small tot of rum to the mix.

Idun would be the person to ask I would think. I know she's not posting here much so perhaps a PM?

Have you tried using another browser? Or deleting the cache and cookies from the one that you do use. Perhaps there's a hang up from the older version of the website on your machine and it's causing your password not to be recognised. I seem to remember when they did the update a load of us ( me included ) lost our accounts.

Interesting. I don't think any of my cars are that clever😀. Most sit outside with the battery disconnected and I haven't noticed any of them running more roughly when I start them up (although I don't pretend to be an expert on these things). Certainly none of them have failed an emissions test during a Control Technique and I've had no comments from the garage when I've taken them in for service. In fact I think it was a mechanic who first suggested the interrupts.

Thank you ssomon for your timely intervention. I have a number of cars but none is less than ten years old ( heck one even has a crank as the emergency starter ). You were right to raise the alarm when I suggested disconnecting the battery. 👍

Have you thought of getting a battery disconnect for the little used car?

Tell that to Shakespeare 😁

Cats can be taught, just like any other animal. I've always had cats and they were taught from an early age that the kitchen counters and the dining table were no go areas. On occasions we would share meals ( fruit de mer ). The cats bowl would be put next to my chair and food dropped into it. If they attempted to jump up they would be taken out of the dining room. They very soon learnt that, if they wanted a prawn, they had to behave.