Catalpa

Whereabouts are you, Lucie? And what are their natures like? Are they 'people' cats? Carole

Epiphany time... It is suddenly so obvious. Outcast, Albi and Wendy James are *all* the same person.

that's really good news about Holly... I do hope someone can give Monty a home soon. Carole

apparently there's a procedure in place whereby the Gendarmerie, Mairie or whoever notify the local inspecteur des mines - or similar. Then they come and collect the stuff. The cartridges are now carefully stored well away from us till someone arrives. No cute Barenton gendarme then. I suspect we'll encounter a similar sense of urgency to Mikes.

Great, thanks - the Gendarmerie it is, then. Apparently there's a really cute Gendarme at Barenton... I wonder if my French is up to requesting him...

the digger digging the hole for the fosse has uncovered a cache of rifle ammunition. It hasn't been fired and is possibly still live. It's date-stamped 1943. Who should be the lucky recipients of this? Gendarmerie? Marie?

I used to buy sales stuff in M&S and Tesco etc... and wear it in France. I bought some excellent quality clothes from Cora and Leclerc... and wore them in the UK. Mass-produced clothes suddenly look original when you transplant them. Best ever buy were two cashmere winter jackets from Cora (atelier Reflex ) for 300 ffrancs each. They're still going strong 6 years and many dry-cleanings later. Now I'm in France and, while packing for the move, was forced to accept that I have sufficient clothes of all kinds in 3 sizes to last me for the next 20 years. Now, I don't buy anything. (sad sigh) Except shoes...

C&G advised me of this likely change about 6+ months ago so it's been long in the planning. For comparison of rates, terms, conditions etc, I used www.moneysupermarket.com. Select offshore and see what's available and what appeals. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/Savings/

can I be Sydney Bristow next time, please, Tim?

Bear in mind that furnishing a house in France with predominantly IKEA products will lead to a decor personality that could just as easily be Basingstoke as Bayeaux. That might be something you'd want to avoid... or at least dilute.

cc will have to die away one day... it means 'carbon copy' doesn't it? Wot's a carbon copy?? The age divide on knowing this may perhaps be described as carbon dating?

We've assumed that in many cases, they probably also have farms or some sort of registered business already and if they *do* declare the income, it probably gets rolled in with that. Or maybe not.

[quote]Surely the word GITE cannot be copyright, Can it?? Almost every search engine uses the word when you ask about holiday accommodation so why do the French think it is sacresanct? Anyway as long as ...[/quote] If anyone has any GdeF literature or paperwork - or if they look at their websites - any registered trademarks *have* to be shown as such either by a tm or c* after each term usage or by a general statement within the literature / paperwork / whatever stating that - for eg - Gite, Gites-de-France, Chambres d'Hotes are all registered trademarks of... whoever the registrants are. Consistent failure to do this jeopardises the ongoing safety of the trademark registration. A real case of use it or lose it. Even within a company, internal memos, reports etc including trademarked words or phrases should have them designated as such even if only by capitalising, italicising or underlining. Of course, companies often don't but the fact they should indicates how important the trademark ownership statement is. So, if there's no indication on GdF literature etc that the terms are trademarked, they wont't be. Even though "this is France!" *can't remember the difference between tm and c registration / usage.

yes, we have brought lots of plants over, sometimes waving gently in the rear window (ie, absolutely visible from 100 yards) with no officials showing any interest even during the foot & mouth epidemic. however... hijacking this thread slightly but not thinking it is worth starting a new one... a few of the rose bushes which came over haven't taken off particularly well. A few locally acquired rose bushes *have* so that suggests it's not the soil or planting location. We're in southern Normandy in slightly alkaline soil. And I should say that the rose bushes which came over are about 7 years old and I know roses don't last forever but they did get good soil prep prior to planting. The selection of roses I've seen this year in the various garden centres in Normandy are a) limited and b) often very expensive. Over €90 for one plant we saw. Has anyone ordered named roses in the UK, brought them over, and have the plants subsequently done well?

quote: > Nope. I've used mozilla and now the firefox version for several years. I have no formatting functionality on LF exactly as you describe; I can only put in basic smilies. On other sites - Total France being an obvious comparison - I have all the formatting options available. I'm content to live with it - I wouldn't be bothering with changing text sizes, colours etc anyway.

I don't normally laugh out loud when I read a recipe. Thanks Jond.

We've been in a similar situation to you while we get a vehicle re-registered. I'll pm you some details. Carole

Ideally, I wouldn't like to see the animals put down either but I think we should be realistic and accept that being put down isn't the worst thing in the world for an animal. A poor home with ignorant and / or abusive owners probably is. And I say this after I indulged (indulged?) in a yelling match in the street yesterday (in France) as I strongly and vocally (tho' unfortunately not very articulately) told off a woman about the sustained flogging - no exaggeration - she was doling out to her dog. Sadly, I doubt I made a difference to that animal's quality of life. Carole

Jec - first of all, approximately whereabouts are you? There may be an experienced LF chicken killer in your area who could call in and demonstrate. Secondly, do not be surprised if the bird does continue to flap wings or it's legs continue to pump. Providing the neck is broken (or the head has been removed!) this is a reflex action and does not indicate either continued life or pain. Finally, give some thought as to how you're going to get hold of the birds before doing the deed. Stressing birds by chasing them around a pen isn't a recommended preliminary for either the birds or the dispatcher. There may be a calmer, gentler option! Good luck.

> I think it is, Nurse. More expensive stoves seem to direct air in front of the glass to stop it tarring but if you want a controllable burn, then not that much air will be rushing round the logs and you'll get mucky glass. In my experience anyway. We have a different solution to you though - we don't clean the glass. The other thing that'll make a difference is the quality of the logs. Very dry oak and beech will generate less smoke and tar than wetter wood. If you are cleaning the glass daily, you may find that a handful of crushed, damp newspaper and a little of the ash will rub the worst of the grime off before you finish off with the glass cleaner. Carole

I did some brand and price comparisons about this time last year and choices and pricing was much better in the UK - presumably because of volumes of machines used in the UK vs France which doesn't have so much of a gym culture. Also more companies selling = competition = competitive prices. Better = £1000 for a rowing machine in France translated to £700-ish in the UK, for eg. UK purchase has obvious disadvantages if something goes wrong or you need to get annual overhauls taken care of. I'll see if I can find some of the brands and sites I looked at and I'll post them later today. I agree with richardbk - in general, I think Lifefitness would be my preference - they're robust enough to survive use in public gyms 16 hours a day so should survive holiday useage. Re machine type recommendation - some people hate them but I reckon for non-impact general fitness a good quality (Concept II-type) rowing machine is excellent. Carole

[quote]Also, just checked and there are not too many people active in the last 20 minutes so activity is pretty quite.[/quote] ... but then, perceived lack of activity might just be related to the time of day / year, dontcha think?

thanks, Jon. I'll do some reading and advise my father accordingly. Carole

My parents take glucosamine + chondroitin and have done for several years. What's the background to the recommendation for men to avoid chondroitin?

++ These electric fan thingies, are they expensive? Do you have to knock walls down to fit them? ++ They're assembled as part of the insert and imo couldn't be retrofitted to the stove. A fan pulls in cold air at the bottom of the stove, passes it around the firebox to heat it (there's a gap between firebox and a second metal skin for the air to flow through) and hot air is fanned out of vents at the top. Usually come with 2 or 3 speeds depending on the model / cost. An alternative is to have a grill in the chimney breast to let heated air from a non-turbo insert into the room. Ours will happily stay in for 8 hours providing it is closed right down and it approves of the wood! Didn't like chestnut recently - definitely prefers oak and beech.