Alcazar

LED spots are the dog's danglies! Fitted two in my lad's room above his sink, excellent light, and don't suffer from pin overheating and consequent oxidation like so many low voltage halogen lights. His 20W halogens were constantly failing. Alcazar

Oops, yes, I forgot the dogs when I wrote my reply. Not sure about Newhaven Dieppe, though, friends who have used it were singularly unimpressed. I'd be inclined to use the tunnel, then get the driver, and dogs, frequent rests at motorway aires. There are even resting places, both with, and without petrol, on the N154 part of my route, although S. of Chartres is a bit bare of facilities, until you hit the A10 again, then theres an aire and a service area within about 20 miles of getting onto it. If you want hassle-free, get plenty of rest, even if all you do is walk a bit with the dogs. Be prepared for it to take longer, (my missis never is), but you'll arrive feeling better. Not sure about trailer sizes in the tunnel, but caravans go through OK, and I can't see anyone towing a trailer larger than a 'van. JUST south of Rochechouart? There's about 25km between Rochechouart and the Dordogne. We're about 4km N.of the Dordogne border, near to St Mathieu. Where are you/will you be? Alcazar

Sounds like your "off" paint has ALREADY been treated..........by a cat! Cats will spray urine at anything with a strong smell, and I guess paint comes into that "cat"agory, (sorry). Tried washing it repeatedly with plenty of soapy water? Alcazar

Since our property is about 40 miles SW of Limoges,  we've done this MANY times now, and from a similar distance to you, Scunthorpe in North Lincs, just a bit further north than Manchester[;-)] Been doing it since 2002. We've done it both with, (three times), and without a large box trailer. Our preferred route is now out via Dover-Calais, usually travelling down England during the evening, to arrive at Dartford after 8pm, to avoid queues on the M25 and at the Dartford crossing. We use the ferries, as we have shares, but it also allows you a nice break and leg stretch on board, even if you don't have to wait long. A decent break after 250 miles down the UK. On the other side, we do A16 to Abbeville, A28 to Rouen, A13, then A154, then N154, bypassing Evreux, Dreux, Chartres, before joing A10 near Orleans. We then branch off onto the A71 to Vierzon, before joing A20 to Limoges, where I alternate between getting off and going across country via Bellac and St Junien, or off at Limoges and across via Aixe sur Vienne and Sereilhac. It takes about 9 hours to do the French bit with a trailer. Can be as little as 6 without, and the last 60 miles can take over 90 minutes! I've stayed the night at various chain hotels, with and without the trailer, but now usually do it in one, with a couple of hours in the car on a service area once I get TOO tired. Back up is the opposite direction aiming to arrive at Calais for a visit to Eastenders, then a ferry at 2000 or 2100, before coming back up England in the quieter hours. Alcazar

Ask at the Mairie if the Pompiers still do wasps. If not, buy some stuff to put OUTSIDE the nests that they take inside. It kills the grubs and the queen, similar to, and made by, Nippon, for ants.. My mate used it at his UK house last year, no wasps survived it, and all were gone within a week. He DID have to climb a ladder to put it up near the nest entrance though, he made a little landing stage for the wasps, and put it on that, then stuck it up after dark when they were all inside. And HE'S scared stiff of even one wasp! Alcazar

We had a very active wasp's nest last year in the eaves of the woodstore next to the barbecue. We ignored them, they ignored us. This year, they seem to be gone. Alcazar

[quote user="Jonzjob"] Blimey Alcazar, eating grass and drinking water, I'm not nsurprised that you lost waite?????? John. [/quote] Ho! Ho! Sigh. Alcazar[:D]

What about the "Jours Ferias" in Beziers, August time? MASSIVE, three day event. Alcazar

I cut 2000 sq m of grass with a 6hp mower, twice, while I was last out there. Ate like a horse, drank like a fish, but when I got home I'd dropped 8 lbs! Alcazar

The American one looks good, but I'd be worried on two counts: 1. how much to get it here/to France? 2. and very worried about using it for very long, complete with a full load of mortar, AND a drill. Operator fatigue, anyone? Unless, of course, the rest of you have forearms like Popeye? Alcazar

You'll..............be....................sooooorrrrryyyy! Alcazar

[quote user="Rtony"] Anton, The CU & MCBs are wired as UK, so I presume thats OK. Unfortunately all the sockets are too ie the  live is on the left, and as the sockets you buy are now marked the other way I suppose I'll have to wire them and the plugs the other way round. Tony [/quote] Actually, live is on the right in a UK socket, as you look at it on the wall.........

[quote user="Rtony"] There's a 1994 Memera 2000 consumer unit in our French house and has single pole mcbs in it. Can I assume that it would be ok to add more single pole mcbs to it? Tony   [/quote] AFAIK, that's an English make, as we have one here in the UK. Are you sure it wasn't put in by a previous UK owner who didn't kniow any better? Alcazar

We're off again 27th May, so we'll see what they've done by then, although it may be dark when we go down, we tend to travel through the night. We'll have to look on the way back. The Autoroute doofer was brilliant, saved me LOADS of time queueing, and loads of hassle NOT getting out of the car to run round and pay. I've just received two more holders for the doofer, one to replace the one I installed badly on one car, and one for the other car. Wish I'd bought one years ago. Alcazar

[quote user="Alane"] Alcazar Thanks for the information - I had actually purchased the rod and clamp at Screwfix! I didn't buy the regard as the label is in English and I'm not sure if it will fail the Consuel or not if it doesn't say Terre rather than Earth. Once again thanks for going to the trouble of posting all the links and if I don't find one in France I will get the Screwfix one.   Best Regards Alan. [/quote] I bet it WOULD pass if you used Humbrol enamel and carefully lettered it "Terre", and the symbol.

What about using one of those things for protecting cable that runs across an office floor? They have slots for the cable, and could be taken up and put down with the cable when needed. I think Sctrewfix do it http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=A331812&ts=21814&id=13285 Alcazar

It would sure be nice if they by-passed St Remy sur Avre and Nonancourt. Dreux is a pain, and Chartres is little better at busy times. The road from Chartres to the A10 at Allaines, or a bit further, can be painful too. Get stuck behind a lorry at busy times, and you've had it. I've started cross country-ing via Voves. Alcazar

No-one else seen them, then? Must be SOMEONE else uses that route. Alcazar

Your electrician, being French, will probably eat the dormice, ignore the toad, and shoo the barn owl away if it disturbs HIM!! Only joking. We have a barn owl, it roosts and makes a right mess in the barn we keep the caravan in, usually ON the caravan.......which now has to have a tarp over it!. Oh well, it was there first. Caravans clean. Alcazar

Had TWO Xantias, unreliable, expensive to buy parts for, expensive to work on, (especially suspension), poor design, (front foglight bulb replacement needs bumper off, £100 +VAT)., and not that comfortable to drive on a long journey, the seat squabs seem to be short, and I'm not that tall, myself! Ours is also lethally expensive on insurance, it's a 2.0HDi, and is in GROUP 13 !!! A similarly engined 307, or even 206, comes in at group 7 at the most. Avoid like the plague. Alcazar

Screwfix do a "regard" for earths, as well as the earth rods, clamps etc. http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=A231846&ts=60545&id=16092 http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=A231846&ts=60590&id=13335 http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=A231846&ts=60620&id=13801 Although I see the earth rod is now copper plated steel, mine were solid copper, at least 1200mm long. Hope this is of help. Alcazar

[quote user="Dick Smith"]It's great - we can count the cows in the field opposite! Pity there isn't something similar for the UK. [/quote] There is, but you do lose some detail, although you can buy the pics printed, with the detail restored. When I say UK, very little of Scotland is included, and I'm not sure about N.Ireland and Wales, although I THINK Wales is all done. Go to www.multimap.com. Make sure it's set to UK, put your, (or a chosen) postcode into the space allocated for it, (or alternatively, click on the UK map, keep clicking on successively larger scaled maps, until you are where you want to be), then click on the camera logo, labelled "aerial" in the puple header above the map. Hours of fun. You can see ferries leaving Dover, trains in some large stations, and on larger engine sheds, etc etc. Alcazar

On my way back last time (May 2nd), and going North up the N154 dual carriageway south of Evreux, there were what looked suspiciously like peages being built at SOME newer junctions, but nowt at some older ones. It's NOT a motorway, AFAIK, and is 110km/h rated. Anyone know what's going on? Thanks, Alcazar

Well, I dunno. Every year since buying our house in the Limousin, I've been shocked and saddened to see verges cut, and cowslips, bluebells and orchids cut down willy-nilly. And every year they are back, often better than the year before. Maybe the people looking after the verges know a thing or two? Alcazar

We had FOUR of these, at just above floor level, two on either side, front and rear. The originals were "blocked" off, (if that's the right word) with a mixture of wooden frames with chicken wire over them, shoved into place, old jute sacks and black bag  binliners over the lot, and held in with forked sticks propped on the floor, and lumps of tree trunk. We junked the whole lot, keeping two jute sacks and the two bigger tree trunks that now do service as chopping blocks for firewood. The replacements were made here in the UK to my measurements, out of uPVC with single openers, hinged at the top. I also had to bring some uPVC strips which I used to cut to shape and fix inside and outside at the tops of the frames, as the openings were slightly arched. They wer cut with a jigsaw, fine blade, slow speed. The windows were first wedged into place with commercially available wedges, again, bought in the UK, , then stuck in place with white silicone window fixing adhesive. The arching was shaped, glued to the frame with superglue, then gone round with a thin bead of silicone. The whole took about two days to do, including removal of old stuff, cleaning up and fitting new. It wasn't easy working from the inside, as it had to be done while lying full length, and propped on my elbows. Leverage was well nigh impossible. Outside work was up a long ladder. It's a neat job, even though I say it myself, and the windows CAN be opened for ventilation. They DO need frequent de-webbing in spring/summer/autumn though. Alcazar