Alan Zoff
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Posts posted by Alan Zoff
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Thanks S D.
Seem to have tried several routes round Paris - including a few unintended disasters - and tend now to stick to the peripherique, trying to avoid busiest times, unless I have had advance warning of delays. I make about 8 crossings of the city a year and on the whole have got through without major problems.
I haven't tried the Cergy Pontoise-Versailles route you mention (you presumably meant West rather than East). How does it compare with peripherique on an average day?
As you imply, much depends on the state of the peripherique. It works really well until it gets to saturation point. What's really needed is an early warning system 20 miles north and south of Paris centre to let you know what peripherique traffic is doing. It's usually too late to take avoiding action by the time you get to the Paris overhead signs. And I haven't had a lot of success picking up warnings from radio stations - but then I could do with a better radio....
Of course, Paris will be a doddle when they have finished the new undergound motorway links, assuming the construction companies/EU don't run out of money. (Have a feeling these won't be toll-free like existing Paris roads, except perhaps to local residents....)
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I still reckon the quickest way round Rouen from Calais or Boulogne is via Paris!
I've tried Sunday Driver's route past Rouen a couple of times - I may have been unlucky but even allowing for hold-ups on the peripherique, we invariably do much better going through the capital. That said, we are aiming for central France rather than west of centre.
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When I was negotiating for my house, the TV was working whenever I visited the vendor. But my new French TV wouldn't produce a picture when I moved in. The aerial was still on the roof; I had plugged the aerial lead from the set into the same aerial wall socket used by the vendor.
I eventually discovered that they gone to the trouble of removing 30 feet of coax cable between the aerial and the socket!
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"This is a good system and one which I employ myself - only using "tu" when it is used to me."
The only problem with everyone waiting for the other to make the first move is that no one then makes it!
I enjoy French politeness, too, but am none too keen on remaining excessively and unnaturally formal because of a protocol that French people themselves seem unsure about. If they are loosening up a bit, I see that as a positive thing. It doesn't have to mean that good manners go out of the window and I would not dream of causing offence by tu-ing someone who clearly preferred to be addressed with vous. I see that as their prerogative.
I am finding that even some quite conservative French people seem to enjoy the effect on themselves of having less formal Brits (lager louts and other loud-mouths excepted) in their midst. Not long after I bought the house, my son-in-law (a very outgoing character who could then speak hardly a word of French) and I were invited back to the home of a French couple we had met only that evening, for refreshments. There followed a very lively discussion, my son-in-law succeeding in getting his points across remarkably well with a combination of effective body language and gesticulations, supplemented with dodgy translations from me. The husband's views might be described as reactionary, right wing, nationalistic, etc, but they said they had a really enjoyable evening (as we did). I bump into him regularly now and while our opinions are often miles apart, he seems more tolerant than he was at first and we get on like a house on fire, using first names and tu-ing and vous-ing as we please. (If he thought I was being offensive or disrespectful, he would probably set his hunting dogs on me....)
I agree though with the approach "whenever in doubt, use vous".
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I quite agree and, as I said, I use it all the time myself. Just feel some people expect a bit too much.
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This is not directed at a particular poster but it intrigues me how often people expect definitive answers on a forum, free of charge, to quite technical questions, whether concerning building work, the law or whatever. Whilst it is helpful to have the views of others - and I have gained lots of useful tips through the forum - technical work is usually done by specialists for a reason.
I agree that many of us are capable of carrying out quite technical tasks if shown properly how to tackle them, but I doubt the ability of a forum like this to provide specialist training. Furthermore, you have no way of knowing whether a poster - however convincing or forceful in their views - knows what he is talking about. (At least one with a suitably impressive Forum name, posting in capital letters to emphasise his authority, has as at times clearly offered quite inaccurate advice.) You will certainly have no come-back on a poster if they are wrong. And as KKK pointed out, there is huge scope for misinterpretation of both the problem and the advice, when communicated in this way. Not perhaps the most sensible way to risk large sums of cash, or perhaps life and limb.
It's largely for these reasons that I have just engaged a surveyor to go through my house with me from top to bottom. Not only will he tell me where work needs to be done and how it should be tackled, but he will identify what I might do or not do myself, and what I should expect to pay others to do the work for me. Now I am sure there are people out there who will tell me that I am wasting my money, and that I could work it out myself or get a local builder to look at it for me. I reckon the surveyor will save me a lot of time, possibly a lot of money (on unnecessary or inappropriate work or excessive bills - unlike the builder, the surveyor has nothing to gain by telling me whether or not I need a completely new roof) and give me peace of mind.
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You will need legal advice on what the seller was required to disclose as opposed to the normal "caveat emptor" - let the buyer beware. The Notaire would be a good starting point - he has been paid after all for making sure that the transaction was dealt with correctly.
I suspect, though, that the answer may be that you had an opportunity to obtain your own survey which should have picked up major faults. If you did not take advantage of that opportunity, you have accepted the risk and have bought the property "warts and all".
In the UK, for example, few people would buy an old place without having a full survey (which a mortgagee would insist on anyway if a loan was necessary). If problems then arise which should have been picked up by the surveyor, you claim from him for his negligence. I imagine a similar situation arises in France.
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Thanks again, Lee.
The Maplin unit is apparently 100V or 230V.
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Thanks for replies.
Lee, when you say a "second-hand box" and a "card" - what box? what card? It's foreign language stuff to me I'm afraid.
When I know exactly what I should be looking for, where is best place to find it - classifieds in paper, perhaps, or - another mystery to me - Ebay? What's a reasonable price to pay for second-hand? Are there any ongoing charges?
I'll let you know about voltage of Maplin kit.
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Maplin have just sent me their Summer Sale catalogue. Includes a Free to Air kit for £80 (£73 with voucher supplied), consisting of receiver/LNB, 57cm dish, wall bracket, sat finder and cable. Anyone know if this will work in central France and enable me to pick up the main UK stations? Not interested in having interactive facilities but would be nice to have a change from basic French channels.
I can call into a Maplin store to ask them but don't know how reliable their advice would be concerning a French application.
Feel free to suggest something better, if available for around same price.
Sorry, I'm a complete dunce on this topic, as experts out there will no doubt already have gathered from the question.
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I'm not a builder. Nor have I owned a stone house. I doubt however that an old stone house would have a damp proof course and would guess the weak point in such a house would be the mortar joints. Worth checking the pointing near ground level and making good if necessary, perhaps with the addition of a waterproofing additive to the mortar mix?
Alternatively, you might "tank" the bottom of the wall with bitumen (I have done this on an outbuilding made with concrete blocks) but this may be cosmetically unacceptable with a stone house.
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I have found the following website to be helpful in relation to a lot of house maintenance problems:
www.diydoctor.org.uk
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May be something else in your case but we had damp walls and ruined plaster simply as a result of the soil level having been allowed to accumulate well above the damp proof course - instead of well below it - so water went straight through brickwork. Previous owner had tried to tackle it by putting waterproof concrete on inside wall in place of the ruined plaster but this merely pushed the damp further up the wall.
Only solution was to excavate hell of a lot of soil to get the outside level down below DPC. Walls eventually dried out and we were able to replaster without further problem.
The above related to our English house but we had a not dis-similar problem with French house. Soil had accumulated above the air vents on two sides (the house has wooden floors with - supposedly - an air ventilation void beneath). A fair amount (8 wheel-barrow loads!) of soil had gone through the vents and was breaching the gap between the soil and floorboards, allowing damp into affect the joists and boards.
So well worth anyone checking their ground levels. Prevention better than cure....
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The "rules" seem rather blurred now except that you should continue to use "vous" with non-acquaintances (officials, shop staff, etc) and people treated with particular respect (e.g. Monsieur Maire, the elderly).
I have a good French friend who liberally uses both tu and vous with me now so I tend to do the same. When I asked him about it he said not to worry too much about which was used in our conversations, although he preferred that I slipped in a few "tus" regularly to show friendliness. Another French person - whom I have not met in person but we both contribute to the same car website forum - said that exclusive use of the "vous" form can appear stuffy and as unwillingness to treat the other person as an equal. I have noticed in his PMs to me through that forum that he has used both forms without it seems following any particular rules.
So if in doubt, use "vous". But feel free to test the water with "tu" with people you know and if you hear some "tus" come back, you know you are in! Just don't leap in with "tu" from the start.
Of course, there may be regional variations....
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You might find this link helpful:
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So the "1 view" of my PM to Ty Korrigan some weeks ago was not a viewing at all but simply down to me posting the message. I assumed it was showing that he had read it and that the lack of a response was that he had chosen not to acknowledge it. If I have correctly understood this thread, he hasn't a clue (unless he now reads this, which is a little late in the day) that I sent him a message.
Perhaps I should have posted one of the "daft messages" saying I had PM'd him....
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Has this been sorted yet, cuz I'm still getting same problem?
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My sentiments entirely, Simon.
If they could just sharpen up things and be a little better at keeping to their time-table - without prejudicing safety issues, of course - I would be more than satisfied. Who needs frills on a one-hour crossing?
I am sure I make more trips to France now largely because SF have brought down the cost of getting over there with the car. Long may they succeed!
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When I tried the "shine the lights at a wall" approach, I was surprised to discover that my headlights appear to dip vertically only - they do not deflect to the left at all. This being so, there would not seem to be any need for beam deflectors with this car (Mazda Xedos). There is no way that it should dazzle oncoming drivers, whichever side of the road I/they are on.
However, if - as has been suggested - gendarmes near the ports are routinely issuing tickets to Brits with no obvious deflectors in place, I think I might attach a token bit of tape to each lens anyway on my next visit. Hopefully, this will avoid being pulled up and having to try to explain why my car doesn't need them....
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I can see your point, Dave, but I quite like the idea of being able to run a thick bead of mortar along the joint before pressing it in with the old bucket handle. It's the getting it in the gap without tedious tooing and froing with trowel and bucket - and dropping half of it down the brickwork - that I have most trouble with.
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Thanks for the comments.
Will make sure to park near some lorries - and will hope I haven't presented myself to some really big time bandits!
(The security point is well taken though. A couple we were speaking to were forced to stop on the road near Dreux by a blue car containing 2 men dressed as gendarmes who proceeded to rob them....)
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Not planning to do this. But if I decide that I want/need to pull off the autoroute for forty winks after midnight, will I be breaking any law if I drop off to sleep in the car for an hour or two in one of the unmanned picnic sites ("aires")?
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Have just come across this helpful and quite funny item on converting headlamps for driving on the continent:
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Thanks Mary.
When I look round our English home, I see that a lot of our stuff was acquired while on trips which started out as nothing to do with buying furniture. (We have never been great at planning things.) I remember deliberating outside a shop in Minehead as to whether we left the newly-acquired table behind or one of the kids. We managed to squeeze both in somehow - and, 15 years later, both remain in good order.
carrying paint on ferry
in Travelling to/from France
Posted
When I enquired about taking a variety of petrol-engined tools (a lawn-mower, chainsaw, hedge-trimmer and strimmer) in the ferry, I was told there was no problem as long as the fuel tanks were drained and that I waited till I was in France to buy fuel to fill them up.
They did say, though, that they would prefer that they were kept out of sight. Not because there was anything wrong about taking them but to avoid delays while the security people felt obliged to check them all for absence of petrol.
And having experienced the not altogether desirable effect on a car boot floor/carpet of a leaking paint tin, I would definitely recommend putting in plastic bags - preferably not supermarket bags with anti-suffocation holes. You'd think I would learn from my mistakes....