vervialle

I always read Miki and Dicks posts as they make me smile, so lads my other half goes down our local for a pint or two every night whilst I cook dinner and just recently he has changed from mild to old peculiar he never has more than two pints and always returns after an hour but since he has been drinkung this old peculiar he fall asleep after dinner what has it got in it cannot seem to get any sense out of him, when he returns now!!!!!

I am in the limousin and have been quoted 70 euros a metre  plus your materials on top, I have just had 50 metre of slabs delivered including 3 ton of sand and it came to £500. so working on yours being 70 metres I think you are being ripped off.Have you tried contacting people who put in fosse septics as they usually do ground work.You really  have to get a few quotes, but it is not always easy to find people.Incidently I got my slabs and sand delivered from castorama.I hope this helps.Good luck.

On the subject of ryanair and prices if they start getting to expensive in August people will start using private charters,someone we know just chartered a twin engine plane from southend to limoges for £1600. It can take six people and they also bought there cat, they got a cooked meal and champagne and were treated like royalty at Limoges, I know its a bit pricey but if you need to get back in a hurry or you have difficulty comming on a normal flight its worth thinking about, they said it was so hassle free.

Afriend of mines son went in the navy and did not choose to go down the university route despite a grammar school education and excellent exam results, he had a brilliant training and it gave him a wonderful discipline and he has a really fantastic job in civy street now and is very happy and saw the world in the process. I forgot to mention in my post that my son was the only child not to go to university in our family and I was really upset about it as I expected he would just progress in that fashion as he went to an independent school and they all naturally fed in to university he was one of two boys in the year that did not go in that direction, but he loves what he is doing, he is now a stockbroker for a firm that really value him , he has a great life is very well financially rewarded ,and I guess university was not for him and it seems unless you come out with a 1st now employers do not give you a second look, so the pressure is on as there are an awful lot of youngsters with degrees working in menial jobs.My niece has a brilliant degree and cannot get on teacher training course.So the accademic route is not always the answer.

I cannot give you any constructive advice, but just tell you that I went through the same thing with my 15 year old he was bright,and could have made mincemeat of  most of his class, he seemed to have no direction whatsoever and only thought about having a good time, I honestly think he thought the fairys would deliver his GCSE certificates, I hated parents evening and had to have a drink before going because they always told me how capable he was , but he never handed homework in on time and he was lazy. I was really worried and thought he could follow in his dads trade if all else failed (ceramic tiling) oh no he said I couldnt do that its boring.I made him stay on for A levels and let him choose them as he blamed me for the choice of his GCSE, but I was only guided by the teachers as to what he should take.After his Alevels, results not brilliant, he did not want to go to uni as he had no idea what to do, so we made him get a job it took 6 months, but he is flying along now, loves every minute of it, enjoys London life,he has moved there as he hated the train journey and shares a flat with a friend,he is totaly independent and I have come to the conclusion, although he liked the social side of school , he was to immature to think about the future.I really did stand back in the end because he always blamed me for everything which is so disheartening when you strive so hard for them.I know he was not educated in France, but I think he would have been just the same if he had of been.I think sometimes they just cannot live up to the expectations they think we have of them, its a really difficult age for boys as they do not mature as young as girls do.I know what did work, I made him get a part time job when he was 16 and he hated it and that made him think that he did not want to do a job like that for the rest of his life.I know what you are going through but I do believe they find their own way in the end even if it takes longer than others.My lad appreciates home now and works very hard and long hours in the city, who would have thought it, not me!!!!I wish you all good luck, perhaps they could somehow come to the U>K to do a course if you have family in the U>K they could stay with, its suprising how much they change when they leave home.Incidently my lads 19 years old now.

I paid £19.70 including taxes to Limoges six weeks ago , I notice today it is 129.99 plus taxes so I think it is best to book early, I think they look at the bookings weekly and adjust accordingly, there is no easy way to work how they opperate , but I have always booked early and saved money.

I work in a bank in the U>K and we are obliged to enquire  the origin of  any regular or iregular amounts of cash being paid in,if we feel uneasy about any transaction we have to report it through our manager to our fraud department who will then monitor transactions on an account,incidently they co-operate with the other banks in the uk,this has all come about since september 11th and the new guidelines the goverment have introduced on fighting money laundering, its quite amazing what drastic results this is bringing as it is making it harder for the criminals to get rid of cash, incidently I have reported to suspect drug dealers.Yes it is like big brother, but it is making our country safer and although it appears snoopy if you have a valid reason for paying in cash to your bank account there is no need to worry.I am suprised this is happening in France though but maybe they have intelligence from the uk that we are having results in the uk, incidently I can get prosecuted for not reporting anything unusual.Even car dealers in the u.k now have to do a report if anyone wants to pay in cash the a friend of mine the other day was told to pay with a bank draft because of this,so I assume they can be prosecuted as well under the new money laundering guidelines.

Wow this thread caused a response,I do not contribute all the time ,I must say I think the forum is great and love reading the regulars posts and often wonder what it would be like to have a forum get together it  would be brilliant to meet some of you.From a personal point of view my partner watches a huge amount of television, so I go on the forum,I laugh out loud sometimes at some of the postings, its like a good book except the characters are all familiar and real, I have learnt so much about France even though I have had a house there for fifteen years.I would have loved to have taken the plunge and moved to France but my work is a bit restrictive and frankly my partner was never very keen to up sticks, so the forum has bridged a huge gap in my life, it may seem sad but the winters are long and it entertains me in the long winter evenings.Long may it continue and thanks to all you great characters.Regards.

My neighbour has just phoned me to say it has been 20 degrees in our village in the limousin today, wow we are still under the threat of snow at the weekend in Essex, lovely day today but as soon as the sun went it was freezing, spring is really behind here and still have not hung washing out yet.

I really laughed as I thought it was seriously moving towards a suspected bird flu case, very funny, the family have just looked at me as though I am mad laughing out loud to myself, perhaps you should put it in the lighter side of France section.Yhanks for making me smile.

Thankyou for all you comments, I am also changing to the tempo system as am only there in the summer and have been told anyone with gites and swimmingpool heaters would benefit from the low white tarriff 300 days of the year, and the expensive tarriff is for 14 days I think between november and march.regards

Thankyou for posting your advice, I am taking my cat for the first time as i am going for the whole summer and am very anxious,have written it all down, thankyou once again.

I have EDF comming to change my electricity from 9kw to 12kw does anyone know what this entails and how much it costs any information much appreciated.

I  bank with credit Lyonais and whilst they do not have many small branches anymore I have found them O.K. they charge for cancelling directdebits about 13 euros so the answer is not to have any and pay by cheque, they charge about 18 euros a year for a cashpoint card, which I do not think is to bad and they do not charge for receiving bank transfers from the U.K. they do charge to stop a cheque , but they do in the U.K. So I just pay for the cashpoint card there is no required balance on the account.The main branch I use are always helpful and will always find someone who speaks good english to help you.I do not think you can ask for more than that.

I  telephoned the english speaking france telecom today, which I must say is handy as I am not very confident on the telephone, I paid my bill with a debit card (I live in England) I explained that my telephone was not working at christmas and was not working now  they told me they could not deal with that or pass a message on to have the line tested as that was not what they were there for and I would have to get a neighbour to report it or go to a public phone box in France, alittle difficult whilst I am in England.So I gave up on that and went on to ask if they could correct my address as it was very incorrect wrong town no postcode, the opperator then said most indigantly, well it is correct on my screen madam so it cannot be wrong, I then said very politely, would you like me to fax the bill through for you to look at, he then said there is no point as he cannot do anything, so what do you suggest I do, well you will have to telephone your local France telecom and tell them because it is right on my screen.Alas I ended the phonecall wondering what this english speaking service could actuallydo.I am sure he could have sent a message for me to engineers to test the line and forwarded my correct address on.But I must say having had fifteen years of  it, I do not even get so annoyed as I would in the U>K it must be down to no expectation and then you are not dissappointed.

Well funny as it may be , my parents who have a house in the same village as me received a letter before christmas asking them to find an english buyer for her friends house in the same village, having been told in no uncertain terms by other villagers that although we were an exception as they liked us, they really did not want anymore of la anglais.We did have to smile and kept her request a secret, but it does go to show that the french now see there houses as a way to make money and who can blame them, we have  done that for years in the U.K.But equally so they should not ,moan about it.Incidently they did sell to English nobody we knew or reccomended, that is more than we dared to do, in actual fact we feel sick every time an english person buys near us as we get another load of comments from the neighbours.We have even found ourselves sympathising, what else can we do, we have happily lived there for fifteen years and been accepeted and all of a sudden we are becoomming black sheep.Any suggestions on how to deal with it diplomatically.

I was four years old and tried to iron a table cloth when my mother left the ironing to answer the door, I burnt a big hole in it, she went spare, smacked me and sent me to my room,I climbed out of my bedroom window (it was a bungalow) and walked round to the kitchen singing ( walking back to happiness) I got[:'(]another smack and sent back to my room.

What a nice tale, makes a change,and a good job you were not driving to fast,if it had been me would have had a couple of weeks withot a lamb chop, I always feel like that when I see lambs.I have probably set all the vegetarians off now.Well done anyway.[:D]

I remember mine as though it was yesterday, fifteen years ago, no translator just the notaire and his assistant who just smiled she did all  of the talking and the notaire just sat there,he had obviously had a large lunch as he fell asleep at one point he looked like Mr Bumble with a red face.It was hilarious as we did not understand anything the office was like going back 40 years we were in there two hours.We all shook hands at the end then the notaire got out a bottle of whisky to drink to his .triumph and we all joined in with his joy at organizing the deal. It was one of those experiences in life you never forget,they gave us the keys which looked as though they belonged to a Jailhouse and we went on our way.We cooked steak and chips on a camping stove and celebrated with a 50p bottle of sparkling wine in our new very unhabitable farmhouse happy as pigs in muck,we did not know then the adventure we were embarking on and the happiness our little piece of France would bring us.Sadly our aged notaire died of liver failure a year later with no sympathy from the locals, but he made us smile.I hope you enjoy your signing and good luck.

Thanks Lee, much appreciated.[*]

In fifteen years I would say I have had more good weather than bad,the rainfall is quite high as it is the first set of hills the weather of f the atlantic hits not unlike the lake district in the u.k.However I am the sort of person that could not stand weeks and weeks of heat so I find the climate great.The countryside is very green and lush due to the rainfall and on a lighter note the lovely Limousin cows stay very clean indeed  and look the picture of health.

I have just returned from France and I have never been in January before despite having a house for fifteen years, so I was interested to see in our little hamlet the movement of the shutters, it has always been a subject that has intrigued me as I cannot seem to establish a rule of thumb.In the summer I spend three months there and they have there shutters closed permantly unless it rains.At Easter it depends if it is sunny or not, so I thought in January they would be open but oh no all were closed and I am intrigued as ,I can understand them being shut in the summer to keep out the heat , protect the paintwork from the sun, but do they really enjoy spending the short winter days in darkness or with a light on all day.Most of the village do not pay for there wood so it cannot be to conserve heat.Is it burglar protection, they must think I am crazy as I cannot stand the short winter days with the shutters shut.My house is in the limousin by the way,is there a reason as it is a subject that really fascinates me.

Can anyone tell me if a cover that conforms to anfor NF P90 308 is good enough.

 I have  visited both super besse and Le mont Dore, Le Mont Dore is a wonderful spa resort with lots of restaurants and shops with the ski slopes in the backdrop, super Besse is higher and a ski resort with lots of activities, they are fairly near each other and you could visit both although the road up to Super Besse is quite steep and if there is a lot of snow you will need chains.They are primarily french resorts and you do not see many english as the alps are higher and have more ski runs and gauranteed snow, personally I love the central masif resorts and if you fancy a french snow experience go.I love the sking there as I am not very good and they cater for the likes of me with plenty of  easy ski runs.Good Luck.

Have really chuckled, a good tonic on this ice cold winters day in Essex,mind you the rest of the family think I am barking mad laughing into my laptop.Thanks,will now pass them round the family to prove the state of my mind!!!!!!