Flora

Hello, there is a place at Burie, which seems to specialise in them. It is just as you leave Burie on the road to Cognac.

It is always the last week in July so looking at next year's calendar it will be either from Weds or Thurs 25th or 26th up until and including Sunday 29th. Don't miss it!

Hi Helen, have sent you a private message.

Well it's working again for me now too, thanks. www.logis-la-cabane.com  

Has anyone else had problems using Visit France's Update this morning or is it just me? Can't get onto the main site either........a bit of a nuisance as we have a few last dates to fill!                 www.logis-la-cabane.com                                                           

Hello, you can buy something very similar to TCP in any pharmacie here. It can be used in just the same way and is called SYNTHOL. Also you can get Cetavlon which is much the same as Savlon cream and something else called Homeoplasmene ( I think it is like that) although I admit that I still ask people to bring us the original Germolene anyway as there is something so comforting about the smell of it! Flora www.logis-la-cabane.com

[quote]Just updated it OK, and did so yesterday too. Is yours still not working?[/quote] Yes it is working again now so that's okay. You must have been lucky Catherine and caught it before and after the problem.                          Happy updating everyone!                                           Flora     www.logis-la-cabane.com                                 

Hello, I have been unable to update on Visit France since yesterday evening and this morning it still doesn't work. I've tried on another pc, no different and if you look at the site itself there is virtually no change on the order of properties so it obviously isn't working for most other people either! Tried to e-mail them but that won't work! If it was due to planned maintenance I'd appreciate an advance warning; If it is just 'technical' problems, I'd rather they occurred less often.                   Flora.                             

Well yes I am a bit confused now! Anyway, I took my laptop to a couple of computer bods ( small french enterprise not too far away) and they got it going again and re-loaded everything without losing what I already had on it. Total cost 35 euros. If it can just behave itself for a while  then I won't have to make the choice.                   thanks for all the advice, Flora.                                          www.logis-la-cabane.com

Hello again, thanks so much for all your input. I use my computer for our gite business ( website, all enquiries and bookings), general e-mails and, with our numeric camera and for leisure surfing or 'drifting' as my husband calls it which includes this forum of course! I get exasperated as it is always crashing ( problems identified variously as being caused by windows, aol and norton) although at least it goes faster with adsl now and I often get that blue screen of death. Last week it came up and says there is an ' erreur irrevocable'. Now it won't work at all and keeps on starting up, that message flashes on for a second and then the thing stops and restarts itself continuously. I know I should be cleaning out regularly, defragmenting ( whatever that is?) etc etc but I'm afraid that I am not at all technical and don't have much spare time either as I work as well, so I have to rely on the goodwill of my sons to come to my rescue. As someone said I am not very interested in what goes on under the bonnet , I just need the thing to work! I'm writing this on son's laptop now as he is still in bed , being only 21 and having finished fac for the summer! He reloaded the master cd for me last week when it was already misbehaing and had lost loads of e-mails, but now can't even do that because of the continual turning on and off. I know I'll have to take it somewhere to see if it can be repaired ( it is a laptop so that's not difficult) but as it is 3 yrs old I thought it might not be good economics and that perhaps I should change to a simple trouble and virus free MAC! I've looked at the apple. fr site and the mac mini does look interesting esp if I got a TFT screen in the sales elsewhere. It is the idea of having something that won't go wrong that temps me most. It would be better if I didn't have to splash out though really of course so if I am to go for the sensible course of action does anyone have any repairer to recommend (french or english) around depts 16 or 17? I thought if I could get it repaired for a reasonable price then I could pass it on to my younger daughter and get something else anyway later.... ?. Flora www.logis-la-cabane.com

I'm so frequently exasperated with my windows XP and being at the point where I am thinking of replacing my system, I wondered if any of you have opinions on choosing between a mac and a pc? Thanks, Flora.

It's a work out programme. I've got the book but there is a website and apparently gym sessions in uk. supposed to give amazing results...here's hoping!  

Has anyone tried The Bodydoctor?

[quote]The SIMIENS CREW thing came back yesterday evening and this morning I still can't log in to update etc! Last time I thought it was just me until I read that other people had been having problems too....[/quote] All working again now.

The SIMIENS CREW thing came back yesterday evening and this morning I still can't log in to update etc! Last time I thought it was just me until I read that other people had been having problems too. Hope they get it sorted quickly.

Hello, have sent an e-mail to you,                                         Flora.

I agree with Mikey  and the others. I have been with FC for 4 years and almost all of our bookings have come through them but I really don't think I'll be renewing in April. Since the changes in Dec I have had no bookings through them at all and in fact we have only had 2 enquiries and one of those I couldn't even reply to as the contact e-mail address was wrong. I've written to FC 3 times...one of our photos was missing, details were incorrect..little things that have eventually been corrected.  However my main concern is that when their main page opens it looks as if they only really deal with chateaux, manoirs and skiing holidays. There is not a lot there to attract, dare I say it, 'normal' holiday makers who want a fairly standard summer gite. The photo they used to have with pretty blue shutters was much more enticing. One other thing the position on the details pages does not shuffle at all, meaning that if you are several pages along you stay there, which obviously also diminishes your chance of bookings. I too was pleased to hear that the site was going to be revamped and improved. What a disappointment! I am certainly not getting the service I had come to expect, and even worse, that I have already paid for.

We have a bilingual 7 yr old who is not progressing well at the local, very small, village school. Basically I am asking if anyone can help us to find a better school for him. Our other children went through junior school here in France with no problem at all...we were very happy with their schools. Then we moved 12 km bringing us into another department and thought it would be a good idea to transfer our then 4 yr old to the village school to help support the school( dwindelling numbers) and help him make friends in the area. I know that my son is reasonably intelligent, just like his brothers and sisters and has had the same type of upbringing apart from the fact they did go to School in UK for a while, although No 4 had only done reception class and moved here age 5. Problem is that now he has had the same teacher for two years (CP and CE1) and because of class numbers the school has proposed keeping him and 2 others (the 3 youngest of Sepember's new CE2 class) with the same teacher for a third year. We find that virtually all his real learning work is given as homework( at 7 the amount of work he has had every night for the last 2 yrs is horrendous) and any progress he makes is due to our insistance, mostly combined with sulks, tantrums, tears etc. Obviously this cannot all be the teacher's fault as other parents in the class appear to be satisfied,but we have decided that her methods are just not right for him.By the way we are not maniacs about his progress but feel that he should be able to read reasonably by now and at least be capable to write a few simple phrases, and this is really hard work! We were only informed of this proposal the day before the end of term. We are not happy with the idea of a third year in the same class and when we requested that he go into the other class with the rest of the CE2 the other teacher in the school tells us that her methods are the same anyway! We don't want to be thought of as the difficult English but we have to do what we think is best for him.I might add that he is perfectly happy with the social side of his school and has friends there , but just doesn't seem to learn anything at all. Trying to teach him ourselves when he gets home tired after an 8.20 to 4.30pm day is just a frustration that we feel we have to stop.It really spoils his free time and all our general family time when we should be able to do other things with him. Now we have to find a school that will be right for him. We thought perhaps a bigger school in town might have a broader outlook as well as more chance of having a one year grouping. He has been in a class of only 13 children for the last two years (two year groups in the class).It seems that teaching two year groups is more time consuming even when the numbers are so small. basicially we have a reasonably intelligent child who won't work unless there is someone behind pushing him! anyway, have gone on too long I know....does anyone know of anything good or bad about schools in or around Cognac? The idea of moving him is not an easy one bt but as we have been to express our concerns numerous times and nothing has changed, we don't feel we have any choice. Wherever he goes we will have to find the funds somewhere to buy a second car to take him. We would just drive him back to the neighbouring department where the others went to school but I don't think transfers between departments are easy to get because of education finances of towns and villages. HELP!!!

Hello Karen, I was a UK trained nurse and then a midwife too before moving to France but I didn't even try to look for this kind of work when I first arrived because first I needed to improve my French.It goes without saying that being able to communicate properly is vital. Getting my qualifications verified by the UKCC and then the French equivalent organisation took ages, but in the meantime I made contact with local hospitals and once the paperwork had come through obtained first tempory and then eventually ,permanent contracts. On the whole I found people to be very welcoming and helpful, but I can't exactly say that it has always been easy to get where I am now. It was strange to see some of the different ways of working here at first, but midwives have to be adaptable and the principal of having a baby is the same the world over. I'm just happy to have been able to continue to do a job I love.