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Loiseau

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Everything posted by Loiseau

  1. The banana and I have taken to googling the aires with "Paul" concessions before setting out on a motorway trip. You can be sure of good coffee and tasty viennoiseries for breakfast; they have little quiches that will tide you over a lunchtime stop; and you can revert to the breakfast goodies and/or cakes for tea. Shops in some of the larger aires do now offer a good selection of takeaway sandwiches (not up to M&S standards, though). I vowed never to succumb to another motorway cooked meal after a particularly disgusting one ingested just south of Avranches - ?aire du Mont St Michel.
  2. You do see parking spaces reserved for handicapés, but I think I have only seen them at, for example, a supermarket, tourist attraction, etc. In my residential street in the U.K. there is one outside the home of a very disabled neighbour, but I have never seen a similar situation in France. Also, I suppose ANYbody with a blue badge could in theory park there, not just him. I agree, it’s worth asking at the Mairie, but not sure you will get anywhere.
  3. Yes, Sue, I noticed the good grammar and neat writing - and almost wondered if it was not genuine. He would probably only have gone to school until age 10 or 11 max. But I guess they would have been drilled in the 3Rs, with plenty of dictées.
  4. The estate agent may be able to give you advice from an aesthetic point of view. You say it's an “ancient” house. Maybe the upstairs flat owner thinks the partition has turned out to be a bit of an eyesore, and is hoping for the chance to get it changed.
  5. Extraordinary story here about 19C messages scrawled on the underside of the floorboards in a French château. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-44265475
  6. Loiseau

    UK savings

    What about NS&I Premium Bonds, mint? You just might win £1m; even a few £25 prizes are not to be sniffed at.
  7. You really would think they would give you a REDUCTION, on hygiene grounds, for putting a sink in the room with a toilet.
  8. LOL, Lehaut! So true! And the "fermeture..." notice sometimes finishes with "Merci de votre compréhension" in lieu of apology, which can raise the annoyance level another notch.
  9. Betty, they embauche and débauche in 85 too... "Péter des plombs" is a phrase I have heard a few times. I am guessing it means “totally flipped”. I was thinking Chancer might be along soon to remind us about the exceedingly useful "eurrrrrrrrrh", that can be held as long as you like to keep your place in the conversation while you think of a riposte.
  10. [quote user="Théière"]...is get vollage (sp) boards ... [I] [/quote] Volige :-
  11. [quote user="Théière"]...is get vollage (sp) boards ... [I] [/quote] Volige :-
  12. Hello Mark, and welcome to the forum, It looks as if there's a Leroy Merlin on the St Pol side of Arras that might be useful for all sorts of material. You could probably buy cheaper elsewhere, but LM staff are usually very patient and helpful to DIY-ers.
  13. Yes, I’ve wondered that, Betty, on the occasions I have rented a gîte through GdF, and signed the contract (with my fingers crossed). I think I may have some sort of "third party" cover with my home contents policy, but must check.
  14. I promise you, dear mint, that there WAS such a name! I suppose it was a shop for sports shoes. Maybe somebody has now pointed out to them the meaning of the title! Ah, here it Is! http://www.theathletesfoot.com/fr-dz/about-us
  15. Isn't there a French sports chain called "Athlete's Foot"? Always made me laugh. Though I don't suppose it would attract many clients if it was called "Mycose"!
  16. And the three youngsters at least have real building experience, rather than airy-fairy design ideas! It's a very entertaining series. I just wish the producers would not show/tell us everything three or four times.
  17. I am always always diverted to those checks when taking the Tunnel at Folkestone. I must look incredibly suspicious (lone septuagenarian) - or else they just want to see my embarrassment as I fumble about trying to find how to open the bonnet...
  18. I just had a little snigger at this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-43883369/trump-and-macron-s-most-touching-moments
  19. Have you considered asking for a reduction in your UK rubbish collection costs for the periods you are in France? ;-)
  20. We would never have been allowed to take "ordures ménagères" to the dump anyway; just stuff for the huge multifarious recycling bins. There may be different sizes of domestic bin at different rates for official collection though. The secretary at my local mairie once suggested that, if I was only there for half the year, a half-size bin would be appropriate. But I reckoned when a family was in residence, it would fill a normal-sized bin as quickly as a local family would!
  21. Much food for thought and resolve there, Betty, thank you. We had a friend many years ago who was diagnosed with cancer, and when someone said to him "You must wonder 'Why me?’", his attitude was "Well, why NOT me?"
  22. Horrible thing, TP. So sorry to read it. I am glad you and Madame TP were not the ones to make the discovery. Did anyone photograph the scene of the crime? That at least might be helpful to the gendarmes. Can you lock your gates in future? Maybe Chancer could advise on setting up a security camera?
  23. I decided to make my daughter JOINT holder of my French account, in case I should have snuffed it before having sold my French holiday home. You might consider this if you might want to continue using the account in the event (hopefully not on the horizon) of your father's death. Just having "procuration" is fine in the lifetime of the holder, but would stop with the account-holder's demise. I suppose only half the credit in the account would then belong to you, but at least you could move money over and continue to pay bills until the house were sold. It was quite hard to convince the French bank that I did NOT want my daughter just to have procuration, but to be a full "co-titulaire". We took her passport with us, plus anything else in the way of documentation that we could think of - birth and marriage certificates etc. (And if you happen to be divorced, you should probably take your divorce certificate, too.) The main thing they then insisted upon, which we had not thought to take, was her UK tax reference number (presumably an anti-money-laundering precaution; they regularly ask for mine.) So if you do go down this path, take plenty of evidence of that too. We did need to make an appointment in advance to see a conseiller; it was quite a palaver, but I was relieved once it was in place. Neither of us was French-resident.
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