Andrewjspencer

thanks to everybody for your tips and advice. I'm back over next week so will go hunting. May even treat myself to a bottle !

thanks both for your advice. I'll pose the question to my MIL of a visit to the Orange Boutique at Herouville and see what she says!

hi All. Looking for some advice based on your experiences of having broadband set up by Orange in France. My mother in law already has a normal France Telecom phone line and can get Orange broadband okay according to the various test sites. She is rather advanced in years so my wife and I need to be with her in Normandie when the kit is delivered and / or installed. We could order it online from the Orange Boutique but I can't see any indication there on how long it takes from placing the order until the line is activated and the Livebox kit is delivered. We will be out in Normandie in August so if the order lead time is a few weeks then we may need to get things underway now. Is it all done online or do Orange require signatures and bank debit forms signed etc? Anyone able to share their experiences with me? regards Andy

Hi. Does anyone know of and can recommend any gites/house/apartement etc for rent situated in any of the beautiful towns along the Loire (Saumur, Angers, Tours etc)? We want a change from a rural retreat this summer and it's hard to find anything located in a town - i.e. somewhere with restaurants, shops, bit of life etc. Feel free to send a private message if you prefer. thanks Andy

hi Steph 1 tenniswitch's suggestion is probably the easiest way to tackle this. If all the documents and images etc you want to transfer are held in the "My Documents" folder on your old PC copy this to a CD or USB dongle thingy - they are cheap and are available with more than the limited 650MB capacity of a CD- and then copy the contents to the "My Documents" folder on the new PC. I've done this with no grief on many occassions. If the documents and images are scattered across your hard drive then best to create a folder under the C drive to "round up" all the files and the copy these to CD/USB dongle and copy to to new PC as above. Hope this helps and that you enjoy your new PC ! regards Andrew

I concur with Tim. A Sagem freeview box purchased in Comet Dec 2005 works a treat in Calvados )altho TF1 drops out occasionally) and at the time was considerably cheaper than the exact same box on sale in Comet's French arm Darty. regards Andy

We've had 2 family holidays in Auvergne. First was around Lac Chambon - great drives around mountains passes and lovely quiet villages - hardly any UK reg cars to be seen! Second was at small hamlet of St Julien des Chazes on the Allier just south of Langeac. Again great scenery and interesting places. Fairly quiet even in August - again hardly any UK reg cars to be seen! We had trip on the Train Touristique de Gorges de l'Allierwhich was great fun. We were staying with family friends and one of their ami's was the Chef du train so we got croissants in the cab and a driver's eye view of the track ! I'd recommend it for a  quiet getaway holiday. regards Andy

hi Ac50 Will is right about what you can expect at the Ouistreham terminal - even at 7.30am on a Sunday. There are local taxi companies available - I've got this number on my phone and used them in the past - 02 31 97 39 41. Hope this helps. regards Andy

I've found reading subtitles on 888 and listening simultaneously has helped my french a lot. ALos good for alte night viewing when everyone else is "au lit". However, they are not as common as on UK TV.

hi Egger ........it's a device about the size of a box of kitchen matches that picks up a signal from a sensor above the Liber-t lane at autoroute peage stations and automatically raises the barrier and lets you through.You usually install them above the rear view mirror (altho' it may work from anywhere in the car). You can get them from any of the autoroute companies. I got mine from Sanef. Paid a 30euro deposit, costs 2euro a month to "rent" (altho' 1st 3 months are free) and you get billed for the toll charges incured. You don't need a french bank account or credit card as thye accept a UK debit card number for billing. Here's the link http://www.sanef.com/fr/ecommerce/particulier/index.jsp HTH Andy

hi Laphroaig57, used mine for the first time at the weekend. First time thru held it above the rear view mirror (black dotted zone on Scenic's windscreen) - it bleeped okay then pulled over, peeled off the backing and pressed hard to the glass - and it's still there! The height limit is 2.0m - I would recommend you measure and then measure again the height of your car plus roof box. If you can get through a "normal" carte bleu lane which also has a 2.0m height limit fully boxed then you should be okay for the Liber-t lane. Worth it's weight (X10) in gold - queue where A28 joined A29 south bound was 20 plus cars long - no queue at all at the Liber-t lane - sailed right thru. Also returned home next day all alone and didn't have to reach across and out of the passenger window once - joy! Wish I'd invested years ago! Also used a SatNav toy for the first time and deliberately took some "wrong" turns - that worked a treat too (but that ought to be AN Other thread..) HTH Andy

hi we had a thomson set for some time. very good quality picture, usual features like some and format control were easy to use AND it was PAL & SECAM compatible!! We have a simple Thomson VCR in France and this has always been relaible and gives a good picture. I beleive Thomson is a french owned company so if you ever need any after sales service it ought to be easy to contact them. HTH

hi Poppy have you connected the aerial lead to the DVD recorder?( Apologies if you have already done this.) This may be the reason it can't tune into any channels as it isn't receiving a transmitted TV signal otherwise. The SCART is just allowing sound and vision to flow between TV and DVD recorder. Also, you ought to have an option to select the tuning system either by country or by a letter representing a country - think it's I for UK.... not sure but no doubt someone will correct me? HTH Andy

hi, we are going to spend a week in St Julien des Chazes in August - meeting up with some family who live nearby so we didn't personally choose the place. Don't know much about this area so wondered if anyone else knows the area and can recommend places to go things to see etc. thanks in advance PS meant to say that St Julien des Chazes is in Haute Loire (43)....

How long do you have to live in France before you know where everything is and the numbers of the departments? V.Good question Cathy.... my 81 y.o. French mother in law and life long resident of France still has to look up quite a few on a map. Mind you, she did spend the first 60 years of her life in Paris......... And my wife has even less idea where places are - again too long in Paris and now she would say too long in England! So it seems you will never know unless you have "Rain Man" like abilities. We have a Michelin poster style map on the wall by the PC with the dept nos. and main routes - think it was free with a rival publication to LF a few years back - very useful. regards

it's 2 metres

I'm on the €2/month when used option. Deposit is €30, returnable if you no longer want the device. HTH

thanks for the tip Alcazar. Very impressed with speed of delivery. Ordered online Weds evening - whole package arrived here in Angleterre Sat morning ! Just need to "create" an opportunity to use it! regards

hi Brian took the plunge with the monthly option like you - also get the first 3 months free of  charge for the €2/mois fee. Just waiting now for the doofer to arrive...... I used a UK debit card number to register which must mean you don't need a French bank account - least I hope so! I will be driving a 2001 Scenic with the antithermique windscreen so will place the device in the black dots zone around the rear view mirror - wait to see how easily the readers pick it up. Andy

I know sat nav devices have been discussed on here before and one of the issues was the lack of decent France/Europe mapping with many low priced devices.  Also, maybe those of you still predominately UK based have signed up with www.pipelinecard.org hoping they will negotiate a discount deal with a UK petrol supplier and are still waiting? However, they have negotiated a very good deal  - with Navman a leading supplier of in car sat nav devices. Follow the link below link and you can save circa £60 on the new Navman iCN530 - £239 instead of £299. You get free delivery (normally £14.95) and free European maps on CD (normally £90) - I  have received my bundle and can confirm it includes street level mapping for UK & France plus Spain, Andorra, Italy, Luxembourg, Germany, Belguim, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal,  Eire, Sweden.  Orders should be placed directly with Navman at http://www.navmanstores.com/pipeline  before the end of June. I have a 2001 year Renault Scenic with a antithermique windscreen which can stop GPS signals reaching a sat nav device but the iCN530 works fine. It also comes with a USB lead to sync the maps from CD to the device - all you will need extra is a SD memory card to load the european maps - these are really cheap to buy now - try looking on ebay. With the summer vacances fast approaching and (if like les Spencer-Jouets) you have a hard to find location to get to (in our case in la Auvergne profounde en aout)  this offer my be just what you are looking for. If anyone has any qiuestions about the device please ask. Andy

hi We can recommend the Hotel du Centre at nearby Wimereux. Short drive away - restaraunt on site and secure parking. Can't remember too clearly how well it rates on accessibility issues but worth giving them a call (they speak English). Their web site is at: www.hotelducentre-wimereux.com

hi Turkey2 try this site - http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/pb.cgi? hope this helps

Returned home from France yesterday northwards up the A28 -> A16 and when we got to the peage before Boulogne the peage barrier was up with a note on the booth window "en greve (on strike)" - so we got that bit of the route for free! Not so good for those using telepeage / liberte t as their barrier was down. Autoroute FM had been advising that some motorway staff were protesting at the barriers  - presume it is about the plan to automate the peages as discussed on here before.

hi some Windows updates - which can be set to run automatically - can remove restore points as the update makes changes to the Windows configuration that cannot be restored. However, spend some time looking through the Help & Support Centre resource and check your settings as previously suggested. HTH regards

With regard to UK bank issued cards and automatic petrol pumps things are beginning to improve. Recently the Esso garage on the road out of Ouistreham started to accept UK cards without any hassle - providing you remember your PIN of course! Hopefully the supermarche pumps will follow this lead. UK Visa and Mastercards work fine at les peages as do Visa Delta debit cards but make sure your bank don't charge a set fee for debits o/s the UK - a £1 fee on top of a 1.50E peage fee is very annoying. For example, Nationwide FlexAccount debit cards don't levy a fee whereas Lloyds TSB do. toot toot!