Suandpete

Ours here in Deux-Sèvres have already started forming their seed heads and are no longer following the sun as they are now too heavy.  I just hope that they don't die again this year due to lack of water as they have done in recent years.  They are really only beautiful for a couple of weeks and soon "go over".  Hold on to the memories!

We have just one gite which will accommodate up to 7 but which rarely has more than 4.  We have always provided a washing machine and Calgon - as it is in the bathroom in the gite I have no idea how often it is used.  We like to improve something each year in the house and this years was the addition of a dishwasher - which is proving to be very popular.  We provide enough dishwasher tablets for one each day and a couple over because I prefer them to use the ones which include rinsaid and salt.  If we didn't provide them the visitors would probably use the wrong ones.  Once in three years  someone staying there put the dirty sheets in the washing machine before they left.  It  just doesn't seem to occur to people.

What a small world - my husband and I were both stationed at RNAS Lossiemouth - 1968, 69 and 70!

We have one gite and a pool.  Until now we have only provided towels, for a small charge, for winter weekenders when the pool has been shut.  Next week however we have a family of two adults and two small children arriving for one week - and we have agreed to provide towels.  The beeg question is - how many.  I was thinking of 4 hand towels, 4 bath towels and 4 pool towels.  How many towels do other people provide?  Would my suggested 12 towels be adequate or a bit mingy?

I just managed to get in to the quiz - so thanks Russethouse!

No worries - I appreciate the fact that you organised it in the first place!   We're with wanadoo....

This morning I've tried a few times to take part in the Trivia Quiz but I just get a page saying "Access denied......".  Has anyone else had the same problem?

What part of the country?   Never seen them here in Poitou-Charentes!

I believe that you divide the water temperature by two and that is the number of hours per day you need to run the filter for - so 14 hours for us at the moment.

That was strange - I was looking at the forum and admiring some peoples work when all of a sudden I got the following!    "Critical information.  You have been banned from this forum!".  I hadn't even logged on to it and had only been there a couple of minutes!  After that I got the same message each time I tried to look at something - so there must be some sort of error in the software.  Maybe you're not banned at all Chris!!

I am shortly going to be travelling from Poitiers to Zurich by train which entails getting across Paris. It is quite some time since I was last in Paris and would appreciate comments on how feasible it is to do the trip by metro.  Going I have to get from Montparnasse to Gare de Lyon and returning from Paris Est to Montparnasse.  The trains suggested by the SNCF web site would mean that I have about 50 minutes to do each of the trips (from one train arriving to the next one leaving).   Is this feasible?

Afraid we had to do the axe thing too - but it was quick and that was the important thing!

There have been odd traces before but it's only recently that we've actually heard them moving about.  I thought that fouines were nocturnal?  We've been investigating a bit more this afternoon and have found a "larder" with a number of dead birds in it.  No more growling though - to start with the growling sounded a bit like a feral cat but then got louder and there was a kind of chattering noise as well.

We considered them - but until a couple of months ago we had chickens and I would have thought that a fouine would have finished them off - even though they were securely shut up at night.

We have a range of outbuildings where the first floor was at one time used as bedrooms for the servants, the ceiling is boarded and there is "something" which we have not yet seen living there.   We have spent the morning breaking through the ceiling to get into the loft space and the resident was extremely angry about this - growling and chattering at us.  We have so far found the shell of a hens egg and lots of feathers - could this be a glis glis / loir / dormouse?  Does anyone know if they growl when angry or scared or possibly protecting young?  I have heard it moving around during the morning and thought that glis glis were nocturnal.  The building has a stone wall about 60cm thick and there are plenty of ways that this animal could access the loft area through various holes and gaps.   There are droppings which are old but are much larger than those of a rat.  Do other rodents co-exist with rats?   We have a big live trap which we will bait up with apple - if we catch anything how far away should we take it to stop it coming back? Back to the fray now - on with the masks and gloves! (The smell is quite horrid - they seem to have been using the old insulation, which is probably glass fibre, for years - I'm surprised they don't die of lung disease!)

Yes - apart from the area where the original problem was.  The situation is being monitored but it seems likely that they will be allowed to be outside until the autumn migrations begin - when there is the possibility that the regulations will be reimposed.

Just had 2 very odd questions which seem to be the second part of other questions if you know what I mean... 1.   Also the outlook of their monks' outfit was changed. What was the new look? 2.   On this "trip" through the Britain's islands, in which direction have I've led you? Has anyone else had these two?    Edit:   Just did it again in my other persona - didn't seem fair that I had no chance at all with those 2 questions!

We thought long and hard about this one - we have a wood burning stove in the living room and so it seemed a bit pointless to make the gite non-smoking.  We ask people who smoke to be thoughtful of other users and not to smoke in the bedrooms.  Perhaps one in four or one in five users are smokers - and we have had no comments or complaints from anyone so far.  Interestingly most smokers eem to choose to smoke on the patio outside the living room - totally their choice.

Just in case anyone thinks I was cheating - the first time I did the quiz as suandpete the questions changed part way through (it was 7am) and a message told me to go back and do it again - and then added both my times together!  So I did it again (with different questions) as peteandsu!

Yet again a majority of Scottish questions - very odd.  Shame I know hardly anything about Scotland really!

Appalling this morning - should have stayed in bed!

There is another article in La Nouvelle République today - the restrictions are still in force everywhere and no official announcement has been made yet about relaxing them - however most people round here are ignoring them as they have all along!  750 euro fine if "they" decide to check up though.....

Question for missyesbut - what would the French equivalent of "about as much use as a chocolate fireguard" be?

If you log on to laposte.net about three quarters of the way down on the left hand side is a line saying: Choisir un autre service; in this drop down box choose "Boutique de timbre" and a new page opens.  Near the top is a box labelled "tarif" - click on this and a new page will open, scroll down through this and hopefully it will have what you are looking for.  Sorry, can't do a link.

Is it just me having a bad day or was the quiz harder today?