parsac23

Our daughter was the one that was most enthusiastic about her move to France, however she lasted a year and 1 month and was increasingley miserable as the time went on. The teachers had no experience of any other English kids in the college and basicly left her to her own devices, which meant copying from the board or just sitting and waiting for the lesson to be over. We got a French tutor for her and this helped a great deal. She is a very bright girl having just got 4A* including French, 3 A's and 3B's in her GCSE, she missed the whole of year 9 and then returned to the UK. The french teachers said in her reports that she had a bad attitude and never tried, which was a real negative  and we never seemed to move forward from there. We regret putting her through the experience.

Has anyone an idea what the weather is forecast to be in the Creuse this weekend? All the internet forecasts are giving conflicting advice, some say sunny and others say black clouds and thunderstorms. Perhaps somone has seen an "official forecast on the telly perhaps?Many thanks.[:D]

tried last month, got really excited as I could see there were 20 people watching it, ie had clicked it into their ebay to track it, I felt sure that someone would go for it, after all it was first week summer holidays, property sleeping 13 with a pool, not a sausage.

Yesterday I plucked up courage and rang the number at the top of our EDF bill and in very slow french managed to give a meter reading to the young lady and she took the details and that was that, it remains to be seen whether or not this results in an ammended bill, watch this space.

We just bought a cheap cement mixer from Brico Depot and built our own, no previous experience and it looks fine. That said you have to be quite strong just to lift and carry the flags. As the pool could not be sunk into the ground completley because we hit a spring we in fact had also to construct retaining walls 1.2m high with 2 steps up from lawned area, which involved an awful lot of earth shifting and leveling but the plus side is the labour cost not a euro and very satisfying, took the two of us about a month but it was February so we were rained off quite often.Not everyones bag I know but its not difficult.I would post a photo if only I knew how!

Just to say having seen the last reply I have been onto First for France and have uploaded info about our house in Creuse and it was wonderfully easy to do, a real doddle.

I was in dispensing optics in the UK for years and the combination of thinner lenses and photochromic are definatly avialiable in plastic and glass (plastic preferable because of weight and safety) my daughter is pretty shortsighted -5.00 and is currently wearing thinner/photochromic. Maybe if the prescription is very unusual with lots of astigmatism or prism this may preclude this combo of lenses.Good look with getting sorted, I am a bit paraniod about having some sort of spare as I know how debilitating it is being without.

our 13 year old spent a year at our local college, when she started she was full of enthusiasm, within several months she was miserable. We encouraged her to last the year out, we were glad that we hadn't upped sticks and moved permanently, as for her it would have been a disaster. She has told me since that she was desparatly unhappy. Here in the UK she is a predicted straight A GCSE pupil with a fanatstic attitude to school. In France every report the teachers sent reflected the fact that they thought she would not try at all and had a bad attitude which we know not to be the case, she was isolated, lonely and in many lessons ignored. I do think if she had been a few years younger she would have managed to learn something but we felt that we could not jeoperdise her education by staying in France (which is what we as parents would have preferred) we will wait until she has completed her education and make our move then.

at our high school in the UK there are many kids who's first language is not English and they have teachers assigned to them individually, they are also assessed for special needs and streamed accordingley, we have non teaching assistants and higher level non teaching assisstants thses days too.There is a lot of support for these kids and they pick up the language quickly. We don't regret our year in France even tho our daughters experience was not a complete positive. We would however not have taken the chance on her not being able to pick up after a year out of the UK systemn had she 1. not been enthusiastic to go to France and 2 had she not been considered bright enough to cope with the year out and have her Education blighted as a result.

our daughter had a difficult year in France at her college, in many lessons she just sat there and waited for the lessons to be over as the teachers did not/could not communicate with her. Spanish in particular was a nightmare, she said that that particular teacher actually spoilt her time in France and her memories will be very bleak. We tried to talk to the teacher concerned but hit a blank, it was all blamed on our daughters attitude, she may have appeared unconcerned and bored but she had to deal with it like that or else be in tears all the time. Our daughter is now in her final year in the Uk doing her GCSE;s and is an A grade pupil who is always given the most excellent reports in all respects, yet her reports in France reduced me to tears, she sounded a terrible child.Having said all this at least she has had the experience and saw the venture through to the end.The Latin teacher who in fact did not have any officail lessons with her at all arranged some extra French lessons which was kind of him, he said he just felt a bit embarrassed with how little support she had. The plus side is she intends to do an A level in French and possibly a degree after that.

Hello Ernie, RA is correct, you must use a good face mask and don't reuse the overalls. A good tip when you are working with asbestos products is to thoroughly wet it, this keeps down the very fine dust that causes all the health problems. In the UK when you take asbestos to the tip you have to wrap it up well in strong plastic sheeting.

Hi, we have 2 properties in Creuse that share the same garden and pool. We usually have house hunters in the small cottage all year as its very economical and it seems to be in demand. The big house that sleeps 8 is hardly ever occupied out of high season, was empty all year apart from July and August. Having said that we don't market it very aggressivley as we really only use any revenue to cover costs, having said that it has more than covered costs this year. So our upshot, if was doing it as a business, a couple of small units would have done better than one large one.Also we probably get snapped up in high season because we use the 2 houses as 1 ie sleeps 13, so good for 2 families and of course the pool.

anyone know if there are usually taxis waiting for hire at the airport, if not anyone have a contact? Possibly need one next Saturday evening to Parsac Creuse23, 15 minutes beyond Gueret. Takes about 1hour 10mins, any idea how much roughly it would cost, thanks.

we bought ours from a shop in Bonnat in Creuse23 Limousin, shops name was Prudhomme. 

does anyone know if well water is likely to be ok for topping up swimming pool in the event of restrictions? we have a well close to the pool and no fosse septiqes around as we are on mains drainage. We expect we would have to have the well water tested, is this the case and also where would you take a sample to test it. 

the train from Paris to Montlucon could be better for you as Montlucon is only about 25 miles from Clugnat as opposed to Limoges being around 80 miles away. Not travelled it myself but relatives have and had no problems at all.

don;t know about the school set up there or the name of the bar people but will ask for you. When you get sortred I can send Jo's phone number to you no problem, she also works as a translator invaluable when we were at the parent/teacher evenings etc.

Hello, just about Golf, we have a place at parsac which is about 10 mins from Clugnat, our nearest town is Gouzon and there is a golf course there. We have a school and college in our village, our daughter attended for 15 months but is now back in the UK. Our friends go to the bar in Clugnat quite often and the lady who "Creusois" mentioned that teaches French and lives in Clugnat is Jo and she was a great help to our daughter, gave a lesson every week.

we used m Jammet, he is he mayor of Bonnat and he has a largish garden centre/pool business in Bonnat which is in the Creuse. 

Hi Mary, its Karen here. We paid the notaire directly when we bought ours it seemed easiest. Every time we have transfered lumps of cash accross we have been asked why we are doing it and they have always just accepted the reason given. Hope all is going well for you and that we will see you once you are moved in and settled xxx