LesLauriers

Some friends of ours send their child to our village`s school rather than their own communes. This was not a problem at all.

We bought ours with us. All connections fine, just change the plug.

9online charge 24.90 (19.90 if you also use their telephone service) for unlimited 24/7 ISDN (Numeris) service.

I bought, in Auchan probably, 'Quatre Epices moulues' by Ducros which I use in my recipes where mixed spice is called for, such as fruit cake. The jar lists the ingredients as cannelle, gingembre, girofle and muscade and can be used for sweet and savoury dishes.

Following on from SaligoBay's earlier thread where I mentioned that I'd heard that it's possible to make your own white wine vinegar... I put a thread on bbc.co.uk/food's forum and have been referred to a american 'wine' site which has a section all about making your own vinegar and refers to 'mre de vinaigre' (mother of vinegar obviously), which is a slimy goo at the bottom of a vinegar bottle - personally I have never seen this but on the site it says "Since I didn't know of anyone who had a crock or a barrel of vinegar which contains the slimy Mother of Vinegar I let my fingers do the walking and found a hardware store on the east side of Detroit which specialized in wine-making supplies. They also stocked the mycoderma aceti , the bacteria culture, used to make vinegar. It comes in a jar and is clear, like water. I purchased it and a crock and was on my way." Maybe there is somewhere in France or on the Web where this is available - I'll try to find out. As there seems to be a demand for White Wine Vinegar and no supply......?! The page with all this on is http://208.55.167.161/diversions/vinegar/index.html Susie

You could always try asking someone in the supermarket to show you where it is. Then you can enlighten all of us!

My son is 9, in French school, and last year a nurse came to the school to do the scratch test on all the children to check for imunity. My son hadn't had his BCG in UK because just before we moved over the vaccines had been recalled and so there were non available. However, he did show some immunity, possibly because we was breast-fed for 11 months and picked up the immunity from me. The nurse will return sometime this coming year, to the school to re-test him. My nearly 6 year old hasn't been tested/immunised yet. They were asked when we registered at the schools and we were told they should get their immunisations done soon, but we have not persued it. My son will get the retest this year and I believe that my younger will have hers done when she goes to primaire next september. This topic has been covered fairly recently, if you do a search, I seem to remember it had an awful lot of replies.

LAST EDITED ON 18-Dec-03 AT 06:38 AM (GMT) * Sud Ouest - on average twice a week, good on Sundays 'cos you get supplements including a TV guide and Womens mag. * Le Gap - Freebie advertising rag * Hebdo Prigord - Ditto * occasionally newspapers online - various including Libration, Le Figaro, Le Monde. * 'Cuisine' magazine bought each month (mostly) * 'revising' my french class work * and not forgetting all the wonderful 'junk mail' we get in the post box - particularly mouth-watering at this time of the year. I avoid letting the kids see the toy ones otherwise all day I hear "I want......"!! Not very intellectual I know, maybe one day I'll tackle a novel as I always have one in English on the go - any recommendations that wouldn't be too arduous. Susie

A new website on moving to France & living there. Apologies if it has already been mentioned.

A new website on moving to France & living there. Apologies if it has already been mentioned.

I have used www.european.fr and found prices/delivery very good.

FT charge 104 for installation and offer their modem for 150, I followed Mazan's advice and bought an Olitec modem for 56 (from www.european.fr - excellent service). Internal PCI or external USB are both the same price. The line rental increases from 26 every two months to 51, but you now get 2 digital lines and an analogue line. If you use the two digital lines together, you will obtain a connection speed of 128 kbps but this ties up your incoming line although you can still call out on the analogue (fax) line. If you connect at 128kbps on pay as you go (access libre) you will pay twice the single line rate. As Mazan has said in previous messages 9online currently allow 128k access on their unlimited service for 24.90 or 19.90 a month if you use their phone service. Please note that any discount telephone service provider, One Tel, Budget etc will be disconnected when FT change you on to Numeris and you will have to ask your provider to reconnect or you will pay FT prices and in the case of One Tel a 2.90 a month minimum charge until you cancel the account. It is vitally important that you give your internet service provider the correct phone number (they describe it as tete de la ligne) which should be your previous analogue number.

Having previously sustained 3 months of agony with France Telecom where eventually an engineer gave me his mobile number to save going through the 1013 service, we upgraded to Numeris as this was the only way I could see to guarantee a line which would work for more than 48 hours and hopefully better than the 9 to 30 kbps we were getting on the internet. Numeris works well and the Olitec modems were simple to install, so being a glutton for punishment and swayed by the lure of 128 kbps I signed up for 9 online. It worked in a fashion for the first few days although it was hit and miss on the connection, and then stopped! The 'user name/password invalid' message was coming up. After the first of many calls and e-mails to 9online we realised that we had given them the ISDN line number and not the 'tete de ligne' number, so we asked that the number be changed - sadly it still did not allow access to Forfait Illimit, only to 'Libre Access'. Following further calls and e-mails we got the following response from them: "Le problme ne vient pas de chez vous, nous avons un dysfonctionnement au niveau de l'authentification sur notre rseau qui est en cours de rsolution. Si cela perdure trop longtemps prenez contact avec la hotline pour faire un dossier que l'on transmettra aux agents du rseau". Having been told that it was their problem we chilled out and went back to using our 'Tiscali 5 to 5 service'. Tonight we called 9online helpline in the hope that the service was up again and were told that 9online were unable to provide Forfait Illimit to any 'bas-debit' (I assume this is non ADSL) clients, and that all they could offer was Access Libre pay as you go. The next call was to obtain a refund of our 20 and to retain an Access Libre account, at this point we were told that despite having called 2 weeks earlier the 'tete de ligne' number had not actually been changed, however we were now being assured that everything will be alright "demain" and we will get a month free of charge. So the question is - Mazan, have you connected any clients on Forfait Illimit on Numeris during the last month? And if so have you experienced any problems - I find it strange that they are saying they cannot connect any new clients at Service Technique without Service Client having any knowledge of the problems.

LAST EDITED ON 01-Dec-03 AT 10:11 AM (GMT) LAST EDITED ON 01-Dec-03 AT 10:11AM (GMT) I use Amazon, they have many books being sold second-hand through the 'marketplace': some sellers post to France, others I have posted here via a friend in the UK. Prices from 1p + P&P!! If you are in NW Dordogne area, Riberac market on fridays has a large English second-hand book stall.

I noticed this in the TV listing and thought some of you might be interested. It's on at 2.15AM GMT on BBC4. It's billed as an evening of French music at the Liverpool Cathedral with the BBC Philharmonic Orch & the Royal Liverpool Phil Orch conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier.

There is a class in Riberac at the Palais de Justice Tuesday mornings 10 - 11. All abilites at the moment but as the class increases in numbers she will split us up into our ability levels. 6.10 a session paid termly. Susie

Hi Jacqui, I sent a message to your private inbox Susie

Hi Kate, I think I remember seeing some in Joue Club (the city centre branch in the arcade near France Telecom) Susie

You don't say if you are you looking for a church choir, English or French ? If you would like to sing in a church choir you could get in touch with the Chaplaincy of Aquitaine (I think S Lot is in Aquitaine) which is part of the Church of England Diocese of Europe. There are several church services in the Department which have choirs. I have sent contact numbers to your private box.

Are you not in the CAF (family allowance) ???? I have just received over 250 for each of my two children entiltled 'La Rentree' which the government pay to help with the cost of such items!! This has more than covered my costs. Susie - 24