HoneySuckleDreams

I haven't seen many times where the mayor has said no and the DDE have said yes or vice-versa,  but I have had the chance to see the mayor say no, the DDE say no, and the people concerned take it all the way up to Paris and win. Not something to worry about for the odd window change I should think.

I thought any alterations to the exterior of the house needs permission. Not building permission per-se but permis de travaux or something like that. I have an interest as I want to change two windows to French-doors and block up an existing door   note: just because the mayor is not interested doesn't mean that you don't need to do something. They don't know everything and I thought the DDE had the last say anyway. The mayor is just one piece in the puzzle.

forget the skew for now, that is just for fine tuning. Concentrate on the elevation, it doesn't take much with a big dish to miss the mark even if you think you are pointing in the right direction.  What have you got the dish fastened to ? If it's a chimney then make sure that you are working off a vertical. Ours was leaning by 6degrees so it took a while to adjust. You should have found the satellite by now though, We had our 1.5m dish fastened to a wooden stake hammered into the garden and managed to get a signal OK (not the best but it worked for the 6Nations).

Has anyone tried to reset their password when you access the online Tax site ? I've forgotten mine and need a new one but every time I try and the funny little "capcha" characters it doesn't allow it. What is even stranger...my eyesight is not that good so I thought I was misreading "1" and "l" (that is ONE and L) so I thought I would click the thing that says you can listen to the characters. What it said was completely different to the characters on the screen, and I mean completely. I managed to get one lot of characters that were all numbers, the "ecouter" link gave something absolutely different.   Am I missing the point, doing something wrong ?

As Quillan has mentioned Size is all important. I had to change ours to a 150 and we seem to have sorted the loss of signal now, even in the rain. Go for the biggest your pocket can allow, but also consider getting a man with a box in as it's worth getting the thing setup properly. I put the old dish (1m) on leboncoin to try and recoup something, as it's only 6 months old. It's surprising the number of French households who had the UK channels and have now lost them. ALL  the enquiries I have had have been from local people, probably within 10km of where we live. Unfortunately I can't help them as they have to upgrade to a 120 minimum.

[quote user="sweet 17"] huh, a bit like the proposed London underground strike then? Don't they sell Leffe?[:D] [/quote] Leffe...yuk. they give it away here   A strike on the underground may cause issues, but only local ones as there are alternatives. They just seem very big issues because it's London. Airfrance on the other hand...national and international travel and because there is feck all competition , there are no alternatives. I've just spent a couple of hours trying to find alternatives. The EasyJet website has melted, within an hour all the flights got booked. SNCF looks OK, and I have now booked travel home, overnight (which I don't really like), I just hope the SNCF unions don't come out in sympathy. I get really fed up with the stress of travelling home, I never know if I'm going to make it because of one thing or another. This is what the unions want, to put pressure on the government, but in reality it is just alienating the customer. For most of the French population it means not a jot, most of our neighbours haven't travelled more than 20km from their homes in their life, but for the business people and tourists it's a right royal feckup

[quote user="idun"]Cannot just stick with it, on french tv over the years, (and it was a french production,) they have shown little girls having their genitals mutilated, and men being castrated, so please excuse me if I am wary of the worst. [/quote] As this was on BBC2, even after the watershed, I wouldn't have thought it my wildest nightmares that a program about bears, wolves and vultures would transcend into something akin to FGM ! You must have had had some really bad experiences with French TV. I'm even more glad I can't be bothered with it and stick to BBC fluffy bunnies and Bambi

sweet   I think the conversation over croissants went like Henri: allors Francoise...regarde..les rosbifs de l' underground vont greve Francoise: pour combine des jours Henri:  les 2 Francoise: pffft , nous pouvons show them a thing or deux ... tout le monde dehors pour un month  

however, someone seems to be doing very well out of AirFrance   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10793257/Air-France-executive-and-wife-ran-2m-prostitution-ring-through-airline.html  

[quote user="idun"]Why they are doing this I do not know, it is so stupid. [/quote] For me, it's because these businesses are not run for the benefit of the customer, but for the employee. We happen to be superfluous. I would love the French government to say stuff it, sell off their share of the business to the highest bidder (if they could get one), and watch AirFrance slowly sink. I think KLM may have a say in the matter and are probably pulling their hair out as we speak and crying into their Heineken/Grolsch/Amstel ... take your pick

I just read in the Daily Wail (so I had to confirm it elsewhere) that the Airfrance unions have called for a strike throughout May, from the 3rd to the 30th...but only at peak times. Which means that they've lost me as a customer as I rely on the Paris-Lourdes link fairly regularly. I will be travelling EasyJet to Toulouse and taking the train, which is a pain when you only have a weekend at home.   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2616048/French-airline-pilots-threaten-month-long-strike-right-strike.html   http://www.air-journal.fr/2014-04-28-le-snpl-france-alpa-confirme-la-greve-du-3-au-30-mai-2014-5105095.html   Edit: take a moment to read the comments on the French air-journal site. It seems that a lot of travellers are championing les British - as they would get you to your destination. It's not just the rest of the world who think the French unions are culs  

I have one of those rubber sleeves with clips. I bought it at Pum Plastic and used it for a couple of months until I replaced the whole fosse system. It's sitting in my garage doing nothing if you want it. Cost me around 70€ I think. I'm home for the weekend so I can take a photo of it if you're interested

I did have my tongue in my cheek about the luxury quote (just a bit tho). You raise an interesting point though as I was thinking of converting the end of a bedroom into a bathroom. What is the minimum definition of "bathroom" - just a sink or does it have to have toilet/bath/shower etc. ?

We had a neighbour who gave us a few hens and a c0ck, nature did the rest. However, there is a local market that sell live stock; hens and ducks and rabbits etc. Pellets and corn...we pay around 22€ (total) for 25kg of corn and I think 15kg of pellets from Gamm Vert

The space (m2)  is still the same, isn't it ? Besides, having a bathroom is deemed a luxury, so having two ! won't you pay more ? Having been stung with an increase of over 300% on our TH after filling in the form I would suggest in keeping schtum

From what I've read GE only want the power part of Alstom. Some of our friends are employed by Alstom, it's probably the biggest employer in Tarbes so it's understandable that they are a bit twitchy at the moment although I think the Tarbes site manufacture power units for the trains so I think they will be safe. Of course, it's OK for French companies to buy up parts of companies abroad, just not OK for others to do the same in France. Vive la difference !

Just a heads up. Tonight on BBC2  (9pm) there is a program about French wildlife. Bears, Wolves and stuff. There has been a lot of interest in our local rag about the re-introduction of the bear into the Pyrenees and also the worry that the Wolves are spreading from the Alps into the Pyrenees. So I'm watching to see how many 1000's of wolves are on their way to kill my chickens

I would like to point out that we can buy English bottled beer from our local L' Eclerc. Bishops Finger, Abbots, IPA, XXX (I think Batemans), Bombadier, HobGobblin, Spitfire and St Peters Porter (my favourite at the moment) amongst some others. They range in price from €1,85 to €2,80. So reasonable in my view. Those French friends who do drink beer, and they're not many of them that do, like the wheat ales, normally Belgian. You might do well close to one of the big cities, but then you would probably come up against the Frog and Rosbif chain of pubs that brew their own beer. And I would like to reiterate what other posters have said, you won't make a lot of money and the bureaucracy will do your head in. But if you want to do it for fun, then why not ? Life's too short.

[quote user="idun"] Sorry I have never used a recipe. I probably put a couple of good tablespoons of rice in a casserole dish and slightly less sugar than rice and then add a tin of evap and at least a litre of full milk and top with knobs of butter and nutmeg. I cover in foil and then make a little hole in the top of the foil to stop it boiling over. I do put the casserole onto a tray, just in case, as I would hate boiled over milk all over my oven. Then I put it in with a long roast joint and it takes a few hours. If it gets too thick I stir in more milk. This is actually the getting to be the time of year when I make most rice puddings, as we love cold rice pudding with fresh strawberries and topped with fresh cream. Maybe not to eveyone's taste, but we love it. [/quote] That's two recipes to add to my collection...thanks for that Idun [Www]  I agree with the Nutmeg by the way. My dad always used to have an upside down Jam Tart in his.

Round Rice. it sometimes says on the packet, Riz Au Lait. There are plenty of recipes on t'interweb using short grain rice. As long as you cook it for long enough. This one is lovely ... http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/15423/french-rice-pudding.aspx    

This is one reason why I went for 150cm. Everyone was saying that 120-130 would be OK but I wanted to be sure. Foul weather at the moment but still 95/90% on the Strength and Quality..... smug mode [:D] [NB; I was one of those people who bought a 1m dish last Autumn thinking it would be OK, sadly not. However, if any one knows someone who wants a 1m dish...probably north of the Gers then drop me a line and we can come to some sort of arrangement]

[quote user="NormanH"] You can compere qualificatiions here [/quote]   Compering qualifications Norman ? That I would like to see [:)]

My kids and wife all have a 2€ sim. They can SMS as much as they want. I think no1 son pays 1€ more for MMS and 3G (but the limit is not a lot, enough for emails etc.). The only draw back is that they can't phone me as I'm outside of France.   Edit: Is Free being bought by someone ? it may change in the future if so

Doesn't the Draytek do what you want ? You can set up a WiFi Vlan specifically for your guests (or direct Ethernet if that is what you want). They seem to have been built to give you total fliexibility over the security of your network. Like I said, I never even scratched the surface of what it was capable when I had it up and running but I'm sure it can do what you want.

An update: 1.5m dish up and running and 90%/95% quality most of the time on all channels (both on a Humax and a Sky box). We had a snow storm here this morning as well but the S/Q remained steady. I finally got a professional in to set it up as I've been rather poorly and didn't have the energy to lump the dish up a ladder on my own. His box of electronics has done the business as well as everything seems spot on. He did say that a 1.3m dish would have been OK but I explained that it might be OK today but SES might do more fiddling over the next few months.