Loiseau

Ha ha! Love 'em.

And welcome from me, too, idun. Only yesterday I was wondering where you were, and hoping things were OK with you.

The "donation entre époux" is only relevant if you have children, and would be worth doing if you do have any in the future - but not until/unless. If there are children, on the death of the first spouse the survivor picks up around 75%, but the children HAVE to inherit most of the remaining 25%. This could pose problems, as they could either pressure their parent to sell or, conversely, block a sale the survivor wished to make. A "donation entre époux" does not prevent the children ultimately inheriting, but it does guarantee the surviving spouse can live in the house, with all its furniture, for their lifetime if they wish to. It is not expensive to do, and it doesn't have to be done at the same time as the house purchase. (The above is based on my experience of 15 years ago, so please correct me if anything has changed since.)

If your pompiers aren't interested in coming out, like mine weren't, turn to "pages jaunes" for things like "hygiene, dératisation, désinsectisation, désinfection" in your department, and some suitable enterprise will come up in the area.

Funnily enough, Alan, I too have some spinners - but only on this forum. I suppose they are trying to load some of the banners, adverts etc that surround our golden words. As I type, I can see three of the blighters; I don't think they are slowing anything down much more than is usual with my aging ipad 2. I am not using Windows, and am not very techie, so cannot be of any actual help with your problem though.

Yes, I think Persians did use French a lot. Certainly the Persian girls at my school in the 1960s spoke fluent French (very dispiriting for the rest of us in the A-level French class! The French sites I have seen seem to vary in interpretation. Some, as WB suggests above, and some give a notion of hypocrisy mixed in there.

QUOTE And how could it possibly be applied to nettles and brambles? -------------- I wonder if, in the context mentioned, it could mean that both those plants are so difficult to eradicate, you might as well love them for - respectively - usefulness as a fertiliser, and provider of delicious blackberries?

Sacré bleu, Patf! That's a weird one... It looks like a slight misquote: I can only find it as "Baise la main que tu ne peux couper." No mention of putting it on your head! As you probably already found out, it's from a 10C Persian poet called Abu Shakour - and seems quite well-known in France, but I don't see anything about it in English. And how could it possibly be applied to nettles and brambles?!

Whew! Well I have just signed my half of the compromis to sell my holiday home in the rural Vendée! It's a big step, after nearly 50 years with a toehold in an area that provided material for my first guidebook, and where I have made many brilliant friends. But the house is looking good, and I am still (just) on top of the garden, so it's the right time. As mentioned throughout this thread, houses below 200,000 euros are easier to sell and, once I convinced the (French) agent of that, things moved quite swiftly. The Wooly one and I have spent a week ruthlessly (him) and reluctantly (me) binning up tools, ancient tins of paint, potions, wire netting, hardened filler cartridges, empty jam jars etc to be shared between the déchèterie and Emmaüs. Most poignant are the beach games, kites, fishing rods and butterfly nets (even if a bit mouse-nibbled round the edges) - souvenirs of many jolly family holidays past. The young French buyers have expressed an interest in keeping a few choice meubles, but by no means all, so things will be getting even harder on the next trip when we shall have to wrangle over disposing of things I actually care about!

Ooo, thank you for asking this question, mint! I am hopefully going to dispose of my aging French car to a neighbour, so it's great to know how to go about doing it. Thanks everyone for the advice!

Trouble with AirBnB seems to be that it is NOT simply BnB any more. I think it was originally intended to be a way of people letting out a spare room in their home, in a friendly, fairly informal way. But now that it has moved into the realm of independent self-catering accommodation, with "hands-off" owners, it has become another beast. This gives rise to the lurid newspaper stories about drunken revelries and trashings of property, or even of properties being turned into temporary brothels for a month.

It is indeed wonderful, Chancer! I have stayed there... (If it's still the same lovely guys, I think one is Canadian and one Spanish.) But a gîte it ain't...

Check out standards required to get into the 5-clé/ 5-épi category for Clevacances/Gites de France. That means your prices should deter the riff-raff! Kerb appeal No invasive wildlife; I.e. Rats and mice. Tasteful furnishings Good wifi Efficient heating State of the art bath/shower rooms (so often the shower head no longer fixes to the wall, or has suffered twisting to its hose) Immaculate kitchen, with new machines - and enough electricity to run them all. Professional-looking refurbishment (I have stayed in a few that smacked distinctly of DIY renovation) Excellent and reliable arrangements for cleaning etc at changeovers. I hope it's close to Eymet!

I am casting around for annual European breakdown cover for my much-loved 2003-reg VW on its occasional visits to France. Most cover seems to cut off at 13 or 14 years. I spotted one company that claims to insure vehicles up to 20 years old for European breakdown, as long as one took their domestic cover too. The price was not excessive, but the few reviews I could find of it have not filled me with confidence - the only two glowing ones, from 7 years ago, sounded as if they could have been written by the management. (I am not sure we are allowed to name names, but its USP was that it was "ethical"; not my top priority for a breakdown service.) Has anyone got a tried and trusted service they could recommend?

I was surprised to read the other day that she had died, cos I thought she had been dead for ages! I found Jules et Jim very whimsy, I remember. Not sure what else I might have seen her in, but she never seemed to have much variety of facial expression.

Aitch, you are just having to prove where you are fiscally resident, in case you are wriggling out of French taxes. I too am a second-home owner, but UK resident. I have had these requests at least twice over the years from the French bank where my account is held. Give them your UK tax reference number or whatever it is they want. As stated above, it's a box-ticking exercise so they will keep badgering you till they get it.

My fosse septique works fine, its fonctionnement particularly admired by both the SPANC technician and the vidangeur. However, the latest SPANC visit a couple of years back wanted to see the bac a graisses - something which I have no idea whether I have or not. It was never pointed out to me when the house was built, and I am reluctant to dig down if I don't even know it exists. Anyone know if this would have been a compulsory feature 25 years ago? My house is currently on the market, and I fear buyers could be put off if they think they are going to have to renew the system within a year of purchase.

You probably need the very fine-grade wire wool, mint. I think it's 000 grade in the UK.

Well, I have to say that the weather in some of those shots did not look any better than a wet English summer!

It is one of the organs of Archant, who kindly provide us with this forum, albf.

There seems to be an iOS app, so if you have an iPad you could probably get it that way.

Blimey, Norman! I usually feel fairly ok on French grammar, having done only that for the first 7 years of being taught it at school! But I was not up to speed with 2, 4, 6 and especially 10. I am often horrified when I am out geocaching in France to read the ungrammatical "logs" written by others - presumably French native speakers - such as the following, seen in Brittany this week: "la journée défile a grand pat ! il est grand temps de déjeuner! je partirais donc dans la foulé sur xxx et c'est alentours ! je ne connais que tres peu se coin ! juste de noms ! sa fera alors l'occasion d'y découvrir de nouveaux coin grâce au géocaching et c'est owners ! un très belle viré en fesant le tour de ces très belles croix ! pour cette géocache je me rappel y être venu il y'a déjà pas mal de temps! je ne l'avais pas trouver! c'est étant rendu sur les lieux que les souvenirs refont surface! le logbook est mouiller! j'ai oublier de prendre mon sac a dos avec tout l'attirails du géocacheur! tempi je ferais sans ! j'arriverais a loguer mon pseudo ! mes je suis navré de pas avoir pu effectuer la maintenance! "

Read the first few lines - very funny! Reminds me of - was it- Roy Brooks' ads in the Sunday Times in the 1960s. Sadly, the whole LBC ad refused to appear on my screen, so I have probably missed the best bits. Pity, as I hoped to pick up some hints on selling my "nid d'oiseau" , which is currently on the market!

I know, I know, Chancer. It was only that she had put "bocales", with an "e". Otherwise it would have been perfect Franglais. Just call me a pedantic ol' former sub-editor... :-)

Un bocal, Des bocaux Like cheval/chevaux