vervialle

Do not be fooled,by the figures and make the most of it, the French health service is going to go through the most radical shake up it has ever known and nurses and doctors will no longer be waiting at the door to attend to your every whim, how do I know, I cannot say, but I do know, so make the most of it whilst you can.

Thankyou Gem,I will try and have a go before christmas.

I have owls in my chimney, but only when they are breeeding, they have had babies every year for the past eight years, are you sure they are not babies from this year.I find mine have left by christmas and the parents return about May time, to have their next brood.

[quote user="Gemonimo"]And why not a chapon?  I know they are expensive but certainly worth every euro.  This year we're having a 'gigot a la ficelle' cooked in the fireplace.  It's lots of fun and everyone takes part with the basting in between drinking.....................  Jen [/quote]Can I ask you how you do that,it sounds brilliant,I have an inglenook fireplace with a massive dog grate,would I be able to do it?

Attitudes are coragious, are yours worth catching?

Well you will all probably be suprised that I have met a great deal of alchoholics in my job in a bank, but often it is the finances that often bring someone to book.I can honestly say in all my dealings, alchoholics are people with a generous nature and kind beyond belief,soft hearted and wanting to make everyone happy and always unselfish,lovely lovely people that always want to be givers.I am only putting this into the discussion, because people can so pigeon hole people without any experience.Everyone must ask themselves why has it got a hold of me, is it trying to fulfill a dream that is impossible, are you responsible for someone elses happiness, do you take all the blame for something that has gone wrong in a relationship.I had a very very strict upbringing,and was always taught to put other people before myself, and always blame myself if things are not quite right.Why do I do that, it cannot always be my fault. I am interested in how all of you feel and if you do take responsibility for everything that goes wrong in your personal relationship.I honestly know dozens of people who are so soft hearted that drinking was a way out.

Helen if he has already hibernated, could you make a kind of small shelter with some bricks and wood  on the top ,to give him a bit of protection and put some dry leaves on him so he can get away if he wants to.

I think it is easy to let alcohol control your life, it is nice to drink, it is sociable and I think you are more of an outcast if you don,t drink, people think you are odd.It can become such a habbit at certain times of the day and I think it is very difficult to try and change associations with it, like cooking dinner, nothing nicer than that first slurp whilst peeling the garlic.I get into very bad drinking habbits when I am in France and not going to work,so when I come back I cut down gradually  over two weeks until I reach a level where I can take it or leave it.It is suprising how easily I slip into the bad habbit when back in France.So although I have not got a real problem it shows you how it can be association.I kind of look at it as a villain, I must control it and not let it control me.Incidently I was  married to an alcoholic, who eventually tried to kill me and it is only down to luck I am here to tell the tale.Anybody tried the non alcoholic beers,I think they are quite good and there is nothing wrong with brandy essence in coke as soft drinks do get a bit boring all the time.Thanks for your pm Chris.

Truth is always the winner !!! hey its not just the internet, its the living france forum crowd, and we are all rooting for you and we are real really!!!!

Yes they really are adorable and incidently their fleas do not bite humans or live in carpets, they only love hedgehogs and I can vouch for that as spike was covered in them and you must not put frontline on them.As you say they are so good for the garden and I must say I seem to have quite a few in my french garden,amongst the bats ,barn owls ,salamandas , I could go on, it really is a joy to share my garden with them all.

Good luck Chris tommorrow, glad you are finding a new way and glad you came back to the forum, there are some lovely people on here.Are you still in the Limousin ? because you were only about 40 miles away from me.You are always welcome to drop by when I am in France.You are so talented and a real artist and I know I speak for a lot of people on the forum.Your inner strenghth is carrying you through all this and you will just go onto a better life, I had a dreadful experience when I was in my twenties and I pulled myself out of it and have never looked back. I changed as a person for ever and it is suprising how many people have gone through something dreadful in their life, it is not until you talk about it , you find out how many people have shared similar experiences, this thread for example.We will all be thinking of you tommorrow, God Bless.

I had some advice off the forum in the summer as I also had a baby hedgehog I was trying to save, I was advised that if they did not weigh 500gms by the winter they would not survive the winter, you can over winter them in a cage with straw somewhere warm,but they need to be fed as they will not hibernate. They can only digest goats milk not cows milk and cat food with meat in is best. If they appear drunk whilst walking round there probably is not much hope,hedhehogs suffer from many diseases.Our little one which we named spike only lasted about 48 hours, I was feeding him every three hours round the clock,but although he was taking the goats milk he did not survive.I was so upset our little spike did not survive, but at least I tried,good luck, let us know the outcome.Apparently sometimes there mothers just abandon the weak ones, it is upsetting, but that dreaded thing called nature.

Oh goodness, I wish I could wave a magic wand.I have to say we are pretty lucky in our village in France ,nearly everyone looks after their animals well and I think people would get together if someone was not.Thankyou again for telling us about your work, let us hope it helps to spread the word to anyone thinking about taking in one of your refugees.

Thankyou Christine for explaining a bit more about Niort and good to know you are having some success there.Is there a kind of R.P.C.A. in France that works for the care of any animals not just cats and dogs? I have read on the forum from time to time of concerns for animals, is there no one to report it to in France.I  often say of France, certain things are how England was a long time ago and that is some of its charm,so let us hope the welfare of animals becomes a greater concern in France, one change we would all aggree with I am sure.Christine you may think you are just an ordinary person and that is what is especially nice about you,but I think all of us who love animals on the forum admire you and your team of helpers and have so much respect for what you do.One question I would love to ask you,how do you cope with the miserable side,I think I would be crying all the time and I am not sure I would cope, I think it would take over my life and I am not sure I would be strong enough to deal with it.I just wonder how you do that.Thankyou for telling us about your work.

I know my imagination runs riot sometimes, but the pictures of the rescued darlings waiting for homes breaks my heart and then when I see a good outcome, it gives me such a good feeling and really makes my day. I do not fully understand how the rescue of animals in France works and I do not know how different it is to England and whether or not it is a big problem . In truth I am quite ignorant about it, so I would like to see some facts in an article, as Christine always talks of Niort, like it is a kind of concentration camp.My only thought to making more public her work, it might attract some support in some way or another.France seems to have such a division in the care of pets, you see nicely dressed ladies with their dogs under the table whilst they have lunch, where as in England we would leave them at home, on the other hand you see some animals having the most miserable of existances in France.I cannot quite get my head round it and wonder, is it mainly down to them not having their animals neutered.Again is it not encouraged by vets in France? I was the laughing stock of the village when I told them I had had a rabbit neutered, as you can well imagine.It is a very emotive subject the rescue of animals.

If Christine had been living in the U.K. she would have been put forward for an MBE by now, we cannot do that as her work is in France ,but Living France can celebrate her success story, we all read the heart rendering stories of these animals, and I wonder how she sleeps at night sometimes always hoping that some loving family will come forward to rehome the latest victim. We read it and probably shed a tear, but we are not dealing with it, she is day by day, never ending, always another darling waiting to be loved.Christine is remarkble and as much as she will hate this, it needs to be said. She is a one off, we would all like to do what she does, but we have not got the determination that she has, she is special, very special, I hope Living France celebrate her success and feature her in the magazine.I also hope it will lead to a whole new generation of homers in France, her success is amazing and you know what, I bet she never gives her personal success a thought.She really is a Gem.

I have subscibed to living france since issue 10 in the olden days when Trevor Yorke used to be editor,and a wonderful photographer, wonder what he is doing now, so a request from me should throw some weight don,t you think.Yes a good story and a nice donation to Christines cause, do you think we need a petition, no of course not, Living France will take the right course of action.Feel Free To Support The Request Living France.A picture of Jerry on the front cover will make every one buy it.

Well good luck Lassie, yes France is a wonderful country and just because you move back to the U.K. it does not mean you have failed, I think you have to do whatever is right for your situation and if you have a happy relationship you can settle anywhere, I think you will enjoy facing the new challenges ,just as you did when you moved to France, it will be wonderful to enjoy the family and rewarding to be on hand.Our health service is one of the best in the world despite what people say and what the papers say.France has its time to come where that is concerned.How lovely to have had the experience of living in France, but you probably knew it would never be forever.We are hoping to have some of our retirement years in France but should my families needs be greater then we would return unconditionally.You know ,it is not that bad in the U.K. in retirement, much worse in the work place and  young families have a lot of pressure as most woman have to work these days and family life does suffer.The U.K. has given me greater oppertunity and choices, than I could have ever have wished for and I do not understand people who run it down at any given oppertunity.All my family have good carreers and have never been out of work and have been able to progress up the ladder successfully.My son is 21 earning £40,000. per year he does not have a degree, but again he works hard and has had choices. I find it hard sometimes listening to people on this forum constantly running the U.K.down. I think life is what you make it. Good luck and let us know how you settle, I think sometmes people are scared to tell us when they return.I now await a shed load of controversy.

I know it has all been said before, but I just feel it has to be said again,all of us on living France witness the good work that you do on behalf of all the animals that are abandoned for one reason or another.Seeing your success is uplifting and every time you manage to find a new home for one of these darlings ,we all sigh a sigh of relief, I am sure I speak for everybody who is part of the forum.Christine did you know your name is a form of Christopher, so you see you really are a saint.It would be nice to have a story in the living France magazine in return for a nice fat donation to your cause, lets hope the editor is looking.I am so glad a home has been found for Jerry he looked delightful.

I have not posted for a while, but your posting just reminds me of the loss of my little darling a couple of years ago,I nursed her until her quality of life was just awful, she was only four and I felt so cheated for her, she had an inoperable tumour, those last weeks were a blur and nothing else was important, I realise now I was starting the grieving process  then and when I had to give in, it was a relief that I never expected, I had done so much crying and so much heartache and waking up in the morning and then a moment later realising it was not a dream, just made me feel worse.When I  had her put to sleep, I was so glad she was not suffering, anymore her four years had been good for her and she was above all loved and cherished.Why I am telling you this is because after, I really felt so depressed,and thought I ought not to rush into another one,it had all been so traumatic.But the house was empty, and it was not the same and I owed it to molly to give another waif and stray a home.I always think of Molly when I look at that special place in the garden where I buried her, and now I have Lily she will never take the place of Molly, but what joy she has brought to our lives, she comes to France with us for three months in the summer is a real character, and I thank Molly for giving her to us and thats how I deal with it,because we would not have her if it were not for the loss of Molly.When you have to make the decision you will know it is right and you will deal with it ,with unknown strength, but cellebrate her life with another little one, it will not be the same it will be different and you will love them just as much. I do not think I would ever have wanted to live my life without my pets,they give there loyality ,and ask for so little,I always feel sorry for people who have never experienced the wonderful companionship an animal can give.Bless you for sharing this with us, I think we have all given our pets that extra cuddle this week.But we all know what you are going through.

Thanks Chris, its breathing is very laboured, we fed every three hours during the night, but I don,t hold out much hope, at least we have tried.I did not realise the mortality rate was so bad for hedgehogs.Thanks again.

Itwas really falling over all the time when we found it and not with it at all, it has taken a fair amount of the goats milk, but its breathing is really laboured tonight, it does not appear to have an injury, but the outcome does not look good,we will carry on with the feeding every three hours and keep it warm,will let you know what the outcome is in the morning.We really hope it makes it.

I have found a baby hedgehog today wondering about in daylight in a drunken manner, I have brought it in and put it in the warm and it is taking milk happily in droplets, does anyone know how much they have to weigh before introducing solids, it has teeth , I do not want to carry on with the goats milk if I shouldnt be, it does not seem interested in the cat food.It seems fairly healthy, no wounds and it seems in fairly good shape,it is about the size of one and a half tennis balls.I will keep you posted of how it progresses,it is such a sweety.

Well this is very Italian, but introduce it to your french neighbours ,ours love it,when I am in France I make a sp onge and cut them up, in England I use triffle sponges, I soak them in 300ml of strong coffee together with three tablespoons of Tia Maria.I mix a litre of custard with two tubs of marscapone cheese or riccotta,if you cannot use custard , make your creme anglaise  a bit on the thick side.Layer it in a nice glass dish and top with grated chocolate.

As you will have guessed I am passionate about home cooking and whilst fresh pasta seems Italian, I have had many a good home cooked ravioli in a decent french restaurent.First of all Pasta is very simple to make and great fun, if you have kids get them to help, they will just love it.The basic recipe is 10oz pasta flour , three eggs,tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of salt.You can use 6 egg yolks instead of three eggs for a richer pasta but the former works just fine.I make it in my breadmaker on the dough cycle or my food processor and once it is pliable you can then put it through your pasta machine,which costs  about £15.00. or just roll it thinly with a rolling pin.If you want to make tagitelli just cut it into thin strips and hang over your door to dry for an hour or two.If you want to make ravioli , roll it out into oblongs fill it with what ever you fancy, make a long parcel wetting the edges of the pasta and cut it into squares, you can use a pastry cutter and make round ones if you like. I fill my raviolis with tai chicken, or crab and prawns, anything you like.Once they are made cook them for five minutes in boiling water, place them in a dish cover with a fresh homemade tomato sauce sprinkle with mozzerella and bang under the grill until golden.I add fresh chillies for a change ,you will never want to eat dried pasta once you have made it fresh it is superb.We have a great restaurent near us that fill their raviolis with lobster, it is delicious.My pasta machine was £15.00 in argos.