Tom

According to the environment ministry website, there are no restrictions at the moment   http://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=741

I find the best way to negotiate Paris  is to follow signs to Bordeaux until you  eventually get to the A10. It's less stressful than looking out for the road numbers,  A3-A86-A6B etc. On the way beck follow signs for Lille. According to viamichelin, going to Carcassonne via Rouen to the A10 is  only about 15 minutes and 15km longer, and on average you would expect less chance of jams.   But then non-Paris routes are for wimps!

I  find that the gates for cards only very rarely have queues. Obviously it's  not as quick as a doofer,  but you just put in the ticket, then your UK or French credit/debit card, and away you go. No PIN required.

The office where I work in London is overrun with clever French people. I'm sure I would have made assistant chief by now if it hadn't been for them. Most of them seem to live in SW London and even have their own magazines, websites and forums. http://www.marchealondres.com/.

I have a one way ticket, Stansted to Carcassonne, that I can't use for Friday 24/03.  £30 including transfer cost Current price around £75.  Anyone  interested please PM.

Tonino Benacquista co-wrote the screenplay to The Beat That My Heart Skipped and he also writes novels. I've just finished one called Someone Else in English. It's about two blokes who meet at a tennis club in Paris, and decide that they need to change their lives. They agree to meet up three years later to see how they have got on. Each chapter alternates between the two stories.  It is very humorous and a great read and the description of  French office life is about 100 times better than the Merde book in my opinion. As a matter of intrest, in the inside cover it says that "the book is supported by the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, as part of the Burgess programme administered by the Institut Francais du Royaume Uni on behalf of the French Embassy in London and by the Ministry of Culture(Centre du Livre)"       

The only one I have seen from the 2005 list is the The Beat That My Heart Skipped. The cinema was full when I saw it. It's a scary film,you are on the edge of the seat thinking the main character is going to do something really horrible. Definitely worth seeing.    

[quote]another percentage, only 2 percent of reformed alcoholics stay reformed.hope im one of the few,been without la booze for just over four years now.i dried out in a clinic,about 70 percent male but an...[/quote] I know someone who works in a reception centre for drug and alcohol addicts in the UK, and a far greater proportion of public money is allocated to help the drug addicts, even though most of the clients are alcoholics. 

What made me laugh was that the English father-in-law of the Frenchman living in London had  more or less tha same prejudices against the French, as the French father had against the English.    

There was a bit on BBC Breakfast this morning about the relaxation of the licensing laws in the UK. They interviewed a French journalist who has lived in London for 10 years, and mentioned the usual things about the French getting drunk at home and rarely on the streets, and drinking usually with food, but there were obviously problems such as more drink driving in France. There was some comments from viewers on the BBC website,  among them this from Connor Hickey in Brixton ( sounds like an Irishman):   It is a red herring that 'Europeans' drink 'with restraint' and Britons do not. In hard working areas of Europe, like Northern Italy, Northwest Spain and the Germanic & Scandinavian countries the drinking culture is exactly the same. Of course, the French have plenty of time to drink slowly, but then, they don't have much to do and this one: I regularly go to France and you can go into any restaurant in any town or village and see lots of French people having lunch each day. In with the meal is a bottle of wine. It is always drunk fully (of course!). But then you see these people get back into their cars and rive away from the restaurant, or get into their vans and go back to work - as building site workers, electricians, plumbers - all sorts of things that we British would find unacceptable for health and saftey grounds alone!

Ryanair are starting some new routes from Nottingham on March 7 - Nimes, Carcassonne, Nantes, Dinard, Limoges and Bergerac.    http://www.rte.ie/business/2005/0914/ryanair.html

[quote]Thank you both for the response. Now why didn't I think of that in the first place? Catherine - I've usually had no problem with flexible tickets but for no apparent reason one Sunday night in June w...[/quote] I belong to the Frequent Traveller scheme and rang them recently on a Saturday afternoon to book for early Sunday morning around 1.00am. They said they were full and the first spaces would be at 4.45am.  When I arrived in Calais at 1.00am they did let me on the next crossing. There seemed to be plenty of space. Mind you I nearly missed it because I got stopped by customs - for the third consecutive time!   

An opportunity to start a mag called Leaving France?

[quote]Tom/anyone else, did you read Fred Vargas in French or in translation? I only ask because one of the reviewers on Amazon felt the translation of the one set in Paris didn't feel right/help set the to...[/quote] I read 'Have Mercy On Us All' in English -  my French isn't good enough to criticise the translation. The only other book of hers in English is 'Seeking Whom he May Devour' about a small community in the French Alps. Helen Stevenson's book is set in the Pyrenees. It's not your typical expat living in France book.

There's some good quotes in this Grauniad article today about the French economy. It helps to explain the flexibility versus social welfare debate for the referendum.. One prof says about the unemployment system that "The longer you pay people for doing nothing, the longer they will do just that" You can read other articles by economists saying that Uk growth is only based on consumer spending,which is down to house prices, and that because nobody makes anything there's going to be trouble.    http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1491574,00.html

I got a pair of distance glasses from www.glassesdirect.co.uk. They have quite a wide selection from £15 upwards. Mine cost £27.50 altogether and arrived within 2 weeks - you can either order online or ring them up.

I have borrowed the "Swimming Pool Season"  from the local library, and am enjoying it greatly. Thanks for the recommendation.

[quote]Is that the one about the wolves? It is a pity it is not a good translation, the original is very contemporary. I too looked on the amazon site, and I did wonder whether it was an American translati...[/quote] Tonino Benacquista's crime novels have had good reviews. Only one has been translated in to English though.  At first I thought Simonin must have been a typo for Simeon

The book I read by Vargas was Have Mercy on Us All. It is a good read with an ingenious plot, but I felt towards the end it was wrapped up a bit too quickly and neatly. On Amazon the translation gets criticised for being too dated. The other one of hers to be translated is called Seeking Whom He May Devour, set  in a village in the Alps.   I enjoyed Chocolat but did find it a slightly sickly. Maybe that was just realistic writing.   Was the Swimming Pool Season made in to a film?

I like Instructions for visitors by Helen Stevenson. It is well written and believable and I wanted  to live in Ceret in the Pyrenees Orientales after reading it. I'd also recommend decective novels by Fred Vargas set in Paris

It's not on general release until May 18th.  www.cinefil.com is another good film site that shows what's on where, and if it's VO or VF. You can order tickets and buy film posters from them as well.

I've been on the non TGV train direct from Carcassonne to Paris Austerlitz. It's a long journey, nearly 8 hours, but it is the cheapest option. There is an overnight sleeper on this route as well  The quickest route from Paris is the TGV changing at Montpellier rather than Toulouse.   

If the bite breaks the skin, you should consider going to the doc for some antibiotics and a tetanus jab.

This website lists forthcoming Brocantes and Vide Greniers etc. http://vide-greniers.org/

This website lists forthcoming Brocantes and vide greniers etc. http://vide-greniers.org/