Catalpa
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Posts posted by Catalpa
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I think I'd shut the cat in the barn - or confine her with her kits elsewhere. If you feed her well, she may be quite content and it'll make catching her easier when you arrange her visit to the vet. If she's on the pill, presumably the kits will get a dose of hormone too. But if a tom can't get to her, you solve your problem.
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Has anyone used / does anyone know of someone who does translation work in southern Normandy? We've a letter we need translated into good business French (as opposed to our not-exactly-elegant French) and the Pages-Jaunes have a few listed but not locally. Also, I'd prefer a recommendation if possible. Thanks in advance - could you PM me if you know of anyone.
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There was a thread on this very subject (tarmac) not so long ago. If you use the search facility (it's very easy and fast and always delivers what you're looking for) you should find it. Basically a forum guru explained that tarmac is illegal in France as it is carcinogenic. Bit of a bummer, huh? You'd be okay in Spain though, and that's only a bit further south. Good luck.
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I preferred his frozen orange juice, Val.Re horses -you could post this in Sports and Leisure (or whatever it's called) as you might pick up some info from readers of that forum. Also, ask the same question over on totalfrance.com because there are a lot of horsey people over there - possibly more so than over here on LF.As Furrynix says (at least, I *think* Furrynix said) Calvados is horse country - certainly as far as breeding is concerned. So is next door Orne - maybe even more so. But as far as good riding possibilities away from roads, this probably varies a lot but perhaps is more readily available around the national parcs / forests? Or close to a beach?
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No flaw, Gay - except in my assuming it would be obvious that under my (very tongue in cheek) regime suggestion: anything contravening the participation T&Cs would still be an automatic candidate for removal, warnings and / or the poster being banned. The real point of my post was - as Tresco identified!
- don't reply to the windup merchants - who are being contrary for effect, to get a reaction. They aren't looking for rational discussion, they're looking to take the pi**. I didn't get particularly perturbed by (to use the convenient example again) anything I ever saw from Outcast. But I'd never have wasted time responding either.
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another approach...allow (for the sake of an example) Outcast back... but then **ban anyone that replies** to their "only made to be contentious or offensive" posts. This gives us the best of both worlds - the opportunity to enjoy off the wall comments from the Outies of this world (for those that do) but no subsequent degeneration of threads to the point that they have to be pulled or heavily edited. We all see posts (not just OC's) that are clearly made only for their wind-up value. The poster succeeds as the targets (or those who perceive themselves as the targets) do get throughly wound up and either defensive, aggressive or both. While this sometime leads to a very entertaining tit for tat exchange, the fact remains that if those posters who come out to play only when they can say something unpleasant or unhelpful were ignored, they'd find a new playground. Oh... that'd be me then!
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Saturday 28 May, one day only...From 0930 - 1730In the Amphitheatre du Credit AgricoleAvenue de ParisSt Lo, Manche 50Information organised by the Confederation Paysanne and the Members of the Collectif l'EPR: No Thank You - Not There, Not Here... which we take to be an "anti-the-pylons exhibition". We guess there will be a lot of information available. If you are concerned, attend if you can.
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This site and others have deteriorated (in speed) for me just this week - but the degraded performance seems to date from when I downloaded the latest AVG update. Has anyone suffering speed problems done an AVG update? Or am I being paranoid??
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We have a stone built outbuilding which only needs a new roof (well, okay, and a door and a piece of glass for a small window) to make it sufficiently weatherproof for a night-time kennel for our two dogs. We assumed a quick visit to the Mairie would be sufficient to get the nod to put on a new corrugated metal roof. Nope. A visit to the DDE has been necessary to get the right forms... and it may only have a new roof, coloured ardoise, no further changes and absolutely no conversion into accommodation suitable for humans.Around here (southern Manche, 50) the Gendermerie are checking permissions and reporting transgressions. They are, said the DDE official, paying particular interest to British owned properties.
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There is a large section (including a laughably vague map covering the possible route from St Lo down to Avranches / Laval) in this week's La Manche Libre. There was an article last week too, but we were away so I've only just obtained a copy. The edition we buy is St Hilaire du H / Avranches but as the erection of the pylons will impact a large part of Manche and a bit of Calvados too, it is probably covered in all editions.
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I'm so sorry to hear about your wife.
I think Ian is pining and has probably been picking up on the stress, tensions and sadness in the house over the weeks. I think you have young children too? so you may have more than enough on your plate at the moment without trying to provide the attention Ian needs and you want to provide. Friends and family are usually desperate to find ways to offer tangible help at times like this: do you have anyone with whom the dog gets on well and who will provide a home and one-to-one attention for a few weeks exactly as Corrine suggests? I really sympathise with you as it is one more thing for you to have to contend with at the moment - and because it was your wife's dog, the pressure on you must feel worse.
A visit to the vet might also be a good idea - I think there are dog equivalents of Prozac but perhaps more importantly, the vet will have encountered this situation before and should have some ideas about how best to help the dog.
Best wishes for the future.
Carole
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I asked SusieK to put the link on LF because I know there are plenty of people on here who are concerned about the pointless destruction of owls and raptors generally and particularly birds on their migration paths. Some of us - including me - might be quite happy to shoot (and eat) pigeons (I'm not sure magpies are designated vermin and you can't eat them anyway) but I do not believe anyone on here would take a pot shot at a passing thrush or barn owl. On that basis, please don't turn this thread into another pro versus anti hunting / shooting thing. We've been there.Whether you shoot or not, think about signing up to this petition because imo - and obviously Susie's - it is specific and worthwhile.
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I saw one of these scarves yesterday - worn sans pinnie - it was a sort of open fishnet fabric, bright fluorescent lime green at one end graduating (somehow) to fuschia pink the other end. It was... remarkable.Re the more serious side to this topic which I've ignored so far, I don't kid myself that I'll ever seem French to the French. And I don't think I want to be because I don't want to discard the results of my life and style of the last XX years. My sense of identity comes from that. But what I would hope is that in time, to other non-French people, I won't stick out like a sore thumb as obviously *not French*. If you see what I mean.And if I want to achieve that, I'd better go on a diet
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You asked specifically about **savings accounts**.Yes, it does appear that with the news anti-money laundering laws etc, some (and I would therefore assume eventually all) mainland building society-type accounts are for UK residents only. This was discussed a few months ago relating to Cheltenham & Gloucester accounts.http://forums.livingfrance.com/shwmessage.aspx?forumid=279&messageid=134981#bm135196
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Will I blend in eventually?Only if I cut my (blonde-ish) hair short and spiky and put a red dye through it.(Manche, 50)
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<< I've said before (ad nauseum) that I'm not convinced disillusionment with life in Britain is a sound reason at all for leaving, quite the reverse in fact. To make it work abroad in the long term, you've got to have a positive outlook on life and you've got to be able to cope with everything life throws up at you. If you're the type of person that can allow problems at home to manifest themselves to such an extent that you see no other option but to emigrate, it's only going to be a matter of time before a similar scenario occurs in your new country of residence and you want to up leave that too. >>Agree completely.I think that **some** (not all, and certainly not anyone on LF ) are dissatisfied with their *life* not their country. It may be their sense of dissatisfaction is blamed on the way they perceive the UK to be - because "it's all the government's fault" is a more comfortable concept than admitting "my attitude and outlook on life is crap and things won't change unless I do!" The reality is it's their personal circumstances, opportunities, personalities that they're dissatisfied with. And whatever country they live in, that may never change.
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<< (Look forward to seeing you Carol! [Wink] )Coco >>LOL! Unfortunately, both you and Miki are too close to me to justify a stay. Now if someone would like to move to a quiet, rural location near Chartres by this October, that would be very... accommodating ?!
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... after the "we want to be alone" question, what about smoking vs non-smoking? It's one of the few things I absolutely hate - the smell of cigarette smoke in bedrooms. Do you have "no smoking" rules? In the bedrooms? At dinner? I'm stereotypically guessing that a lot of French guests do smoke? And yes, I am beginning to plan a holiday based around The Chambres d'Hotes of Living France!
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I don't think it will "end". It will probably evolve. Maybe people with children will return to the UK because the education system there may ultimately suit their kids better; or a UK university is preferred but I think you have to have been a UK resident for the previous 3 years in order for the university place to be "affordable". Or maybe more parents decide they don't want their kids to join the 25% of under-25s apparently unemployed in France. The baby boomer exodus may substantially increase (assuming it has started) as the BBs continue to retire - either early or at 60/65. The excellent French health service as well as the cost of property may make the move increasingly attractive allowing people to plug pension fund holes with the balance of the value of their UK homes. (Yes, I know - the "excellent French health service" for some members of LF is a joke but that's not generally the perception.)France is always going to be close to the UK geographically, whatever the reality when someone gets here; the culture is viewed as accessible, not alien. Bulgaria, Estonia and wherever the Sunday supplements announce is the new France / Spain will always be too much of an unknown for the majority - even if Ryanair do fly there. And of course, hundreds - thousands - of kids educated in France, returning to the UK to work for 10+ years - may decide to migrate back to the sunny sunflower-filled fields of their childhoods to raise their own families. Isn't evolution grand!
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I think someone somewhere has spawned a monster!
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... and with such superb style and élan
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Well, the result of the election may cause the exchange rate to do... something.
But then, so might France's constitution vote at the end of May. It could be an interesting month. As to what to do... 
Get my bank ready to do what I tell it, I suppose. That'd be a first.
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This is a fascinating thread. Thank you to you all for explaining your philosophies so fully - I do mean that, it's not a tongue-in-cheek remark.If guests are feeling semi-sociable, would you be offended (or relieved?!) if they made clear that they were happy to eat solo but would be delighted if you'd join them for coffee, or coffee and pudding course maybe? I'm thinking here if these were the only guests eating in as opposed to, say, several independent couples. And yes, I am thinking in terms of our own preferred style of holidaying!
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Is your French good enough to accurately translate a legal document? Are you well versed in whether you want to buy en tontine (becoming less popular) or are you going to sort out a 'community marriage' regime? And if the latter, should you do that before you purchase the property? Are you confident you'll be able to decide on what clause suspensives you might want to put into the contract? Then there are boundaries, who owns any trees on the boundaries, is there anyone else with rights to your land? to cross it, harvest the fruit, chop down the trees...Yes, the notaire is independent - but won't necessarily answer any questions you don't ask. Neither will a UK-based lawyer but at least you'll be communicating in the same language. At the very least (if you don't speak French fluently) get the contract translated professionally. As Ron suggested above. If you want to use a UK-solicitor - and I *would* for a purchase of £200K - interview several of them - by phone if necessary. Decide what you want to know, on what you'll want their advice. Get a list of what they believe their responsibilities are. How did they acquire their French property expertise? Buying their own maison secondaire shouldn't be considered sufficient! How many house purchase contracts have they worked on? Over how many years? Agree response times: if you send them the contract, you want a response to your questions within... a week? 2 weeks? All your queries to be responded to within... whatever. How are you going to communciate? Phone? Email. How much are they going to charge you for this service? If you aren't comfortable with someone on the phone, don't use them. Solicitors who advertise in the French magazines *should* be your first port of call. How do you find someone otherwise? - word of mouth ideally so maybe people who used a UK solicitor would PM you recommendations. If someone has a particular skill or expertise, they advertise it to the relevant market - I can't see how that makes them suspect.
Dominique Vile Pain goes to work
in The Complete France Post Bag
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