Clarkkent

Where's the junction with the A16? I don't remember seeing any roadworks?   There isn't a junction with the A16. It is a continuation of the dual carriageway access road from the A16 and begins (if I remember correctly) at the roundabout on the Boulogne side of Leclerc. In other words it goes from the port area to Leclerc.

I used it yesterday - from the autoroute into the port. I do not recall seeing signs specifically for the ferry terminal as I approached the port. At one roundabout there were signs for Port de Plaisance and (I think) Port de Commerce. I followed the latter and ended up a block away from the terminal (not a problem) so I suggest you follow the Plaisance signs. All in all, a good road which greatly simplifies what was a puzzle of a journey.

A quick look via Google suggests that Tetrahedron Publishing Group may be little more than a vanity publishing outlet which allows Horowitz the opportunity to give a veneer of respectablility to daft/dangerous conspiracy theories. Dick is right - dustbin fodder. Michael Creighton is a writer of FICTION who (as a result of a medical training) knows enough to identify points in biological science where he can take a flight of pure fancy and make it seem plausible. He is clearly better at doing that than the risable Dan Brown.

As a UK resident, this is the first time I have heard this. However, my own view is that a motor car is only a tin box on wheels which gets you conveniently (but inefficiently) from A to B. Citroen is owned by Peugeot and some Citroens are rebadged Peugeots, and some Peugeot models are made in the UK. Could this be the source of this story? I have never understood the social perception factor in car brands, it seems so irrational. A few years ago VW were considered technically better than other brands and yet their production plant at Wolfsberg was so outdated that about 60% of its product had to be reworked before it was fit to leave the factory gate. At the same time they were in a joint venture with Ford to produce people carriers in Spain: Ford Galaxcies, SEAT Alhambras and VW Sharans on the same production lines and Sharans and SEAT Alhambras were physically and functionally identical except for trim and badging. Yet people paid significantly more for the VW badge - illogical.

The best railway timetable site that I know of is: http://www.db.de/site/bahn/en/start.html Assuming that TGV schedules have a fixed daily pattern, there are through trains between CDG and Poitiers at: 08.45 13.44 15.42 There may be others later in the day - I did not check.

I fear, Dick, that:  "that the average Ofsted report would fail as an MA dissertation on methodological grounds and the quality of statistical work, poor sampling etc." was not perceived by Callandclan as a negative statement about Ofsted. Unfortunately, your sentence contained (I think) 47 words - there are people about who cannot cope with such linguistic complexity. I thought you made your point with force, but others clearly disagree.   

[quote]I was referring to Dick's comments, not yours.Dee[/quote] Apart from its verbosity, I see nothing wrong with Dick's answer. He answers the question by including an authority for his view. Do other countries have ofstead type reports then? If I recall correctly, Ofsted was invented during the time of The Mad Woman from Grantham, whose government, in an attempt to mollify her devoted Daily Mail reading following decided that most of the failings in British society could be laid at the feet of teachers, and so (a) demonised and demoralised them, and (b) swept away the inspection system (perceived as having gone soft) and replaced it with a semi-commercialised system which had its roots in industrial quality assurance.    

I received a letter, in the UK, from CA earlier in the year asking me to provide evidence that I paid my taxes in England. I sent a copy of my most recent P60 from my pension scheme. This seemed to satisfy them.

In order to add a little order to what has become a very confused discussion ... The registration of births in England and Wales is NOTHING to do with local authorities. Births are registered with the General Registry Office which is a central government activity. The website of the GRO, (www.gro.gov.uk) on its adoption page, states: Upon reaching the age of 18, an adopted person is legally entitled to apply for access to their birth records. The date the adoption took place will determine whether an informal chat with a counsellor is required. This suggests the following: (a)   The birth record - the entry into the register made by the local registrar in the local registry office - is not destroyed.  (b)   "An informal chat" counselling session may not be required. (c)   A counselling session may just conclude that a counselling session is not required. Would not the pragmatic solution be that Clair's OH find out what the counselling arrangements are and - perhaps by telephone with a counsellor - agree that counselling is unnecessary? Alternatively, when next in England, could he make a personal visit to the registry office where his birth was registered and speak to a registrar who will have more flexibility to deal with an unusual circumstance than a clerk at the Southport call centre? Incidentally, am I right in believing that it is possible to visit St Catherine's House in London to inspect the Index of births and - for a fee - obtain a copy of any certificate?

Someone has suggested that some types of pensions can ONLY be paid gross. I can only say that my understanding that once the pension provider receives notification FROM the UK IR they will pay the pension gross. Your understanding is incorrect in so far as UK government employee pensions and similar pensions (eg teachers) are concerned. Such pensions are not funded and are paid directly from Treasury sources. The Treasury effectively withholds the appropriate amount of income tax at the point of payment. No other arrangement is permitted.  

There was s ite someone linked to recently, a '419' (?) busting site. There were some marvellous suggestions as to how to most effectively 'help' people like Hermann Possibly www.scamorama.com. This is a gem of a site - you can spend hours seeing the scammers being outconned by the likes of Sir Marmite Luny-Binns and Lonslo Tossov (late of the KGB) and Lady Agatha Bristol CBE.

If you have a reasonably new computer and broadband, then go to http://earth.google.com, follow the download instructions and prepare to be amazed.   This is not a search engine but a seamless satellite photograph of the whole of Planet Earth with – in some cases – the opportunity to zoom in and recognise your own house in high resolution. Some lucky people will be able to show their relatives, friends, customers exactly where their French house is.   It has – apparently – dozens of customisable options including point-to-point driving instructions, the location of retail outlets.   This is what the internet should be about!

A sad indictment of American education and media influence? I don't know. But I do know Americans who would be horrified by the drivel found on this site. Why, in the "land of the free" is it necessary to HATE so much? Particularly since about 90% of Americans never acquire a passport and never experience the rest of the world.

Is your daughter already in France and working through the French education system? If not then she should find a copy of "Sixty million Frenchmen can't be wrong" - it has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum. Although it looks at France from a mainly north American (mostly Canadian) point of view, it has some interesting observations about higher education in France, in particular the relationship between universities and Grandes Ecoles - universities are second tier institutions. The only personal observation I can make is that in my former existence as a university lecturer (in an institution at the low end of the pecking order) I came across a growing number of French students who deliberately chose to study in England. Their reasons were: - factors related to English language - overcrowding and poor resources at French universities - possible better acceptance of English qualification (eg BA rather than L s L) In addition, they said that in England: - they were much less anonymous in classes - they would almost certainly graduate in 3-4 years - there were well developed student support systems (libraries, welfare, study help etc) - thriving student social life - their opinions in class were considered important - not just write down everything lecturer said - HE was concerned with personal development, not just loading memory. If these statements DO reflect the reality of the French university system, then I would find it difficult to imagine why anyone with access to both HE systems would want to go to a French university.

Insure and Go (www.insureandgo.com) provide travel insurance for over 65s. If you go to their website and click on "travel insurance" you will find a number of options and travel insurance for "over 65" is one of them.

My property is just a few miles from Agen. I bought an Optex branded elliptical dish (80cm longest dimension) from Castorama and fixed it to the wall, using a meter to obtain the strongest signal. Picture quality is generally good except during storms when the signal may be unobtainable.  

I certainly believe that the cardboard tube in the centre of UK loo rolls has increased in diameter over the years. Maybe there's a technical reason for this, the manufacturers wouldn't want to put less sheets in for the same price, would they? At least UK suppliers state the number of sheets in each roll! Last year, in an inexplicable moment, I counted the number of sheets on a French toilet paper roll - it was 80. The pack of Tesco rolls I bought yesterday says "Average 241 sheets per roll". (Special Offer - 4 rolls for £1) The other thing I noted was that the surface area of a French sheet was nearly 40% less than an English sheet. French packaging describes the contents as pure cellulose ... as though paper is not! I cannot think of any real reason why UK sourced toilet paper cannot be used. Incidentally, according to the Tesco label: Average sheet size 124 x 110mm Average total area 13.15m2 Average roll length 29.88m Information overload?

Unless it is a dish in which salt is an essential ingredient (salt cod?) there is no reason why any salt should be added to anything while cooking. In cullinary terms it is totally unnecessary. (I used to be told that a small amount of salt should be added to boiling vegetables because it lowered the boiling temperature but the amount of salt required to make a noticeable difference in temperature would render the vegetables inedible!) Salt masks the - often subtle - flavours contained in food substances. My visitors are told that my kitchen is a salt free zone and if they want salt on food that I give them they add it themselves. One beacon of light in salty French hypermarkets is butter where the vernacular variety is doux. Tesco own-brand muesli is available without added salt and sugar.

Piriton and Zantac are brand names for formulations of chlorpheniramine maleate and ranitidine hydrochlorate respectively and should, perhaps, be written as Piriton® and Zantac®. It may be that these formulations are known by other brand names in France or are available by their generic names.   More to the point, as I understand it, the pharmacy in France is a cottage industry. At present I think French law forbids pharmacies to be owned or operated by anything other than a sole trader or partnership and this is why there are no Boots-type pharmacy chains in France. This means that the individual pharmacy has very limited negotiating power and has to accept the price charged by the manufacturer. Everyone in the supply chain will want his cut. I suspect that this may be a significant factor in the high price of drugs in France.   I'm reluctant to use a pharmacist to diagnose health problems. About 20 years ago, while we were on holiday in Provence, my daughter complained that her ear was hurting. We were told that the local pharmacist would be able to deal with the problem. The pharmacist examined her and declared un bouchon and promptly sold us wax remover. Later that day, when the pain had become worse, the GP diagnosed otitis media and prescribed an antibiotic.   Incidentally, last week when I was in France I wanted a very common home remedy (in UK) and went to find it in a hypermarket. I found all kinds of remedy, including pills to:   -          improve my brain power -          to remove my cellulite -          to improve the shape of my breasts (!) -          to make my stomach flat -          to improve my eyesight -          to rid me of wrinkles   but nothing to control my dyspepsia.

After discovering a £260 difference in fares between BF (with Property Owners discount) and Speedferries, for crossings starting at the same times on the same dates, I decided that BF (and its discount) can go and sink themselves in midchannel. For short stays in France it is cheaper and easier to fly and hire;for long stays in the summer the additional travelling time is unimportant since the distance I have to drive always requires an overnight stop.

Flybe ask for your seating preferences at Check-in and allocate seats accordingly. It is best to arrive in good time at the airport so that you can ensure your seating arrangements will be satisfactory. The departure lounge at Birmingham's main terminal is a great dismal black hole surrounded by shops - the only place you can see daylight and airport activity is at the Starbucks outlet. It isn't very child-friendly, but then, what airport is? I don't like travelling in Flybe's BAe 146s, but I suspect any child (particularly the 6 year old) won't be bothered once the journey gets underway. The flight time isn't very long anyway. By the way, some Flybe flights use Dash-8 aircraft - with only 4 seats abreast (2 + 2). The 146 and 737 have 6 seats abreast (3 + 3).

Yes, Alice is rather enticing isn't she. I suspect that Tiscali decided that increased market penetration could be best achieved by making their portal more female friendly. The site now has a similar feel to some American sites which are aimed at women. Beware - we are being manipulated!

Have a look at www.insureandgo.com  

This is a serious answer to your question which I take to be genuine. Your posting appears to be very naive. If you you think you have done research already you are deluding yourselves.  Just reading a few of the threads on this forum should provide you with sufficient information for you to question whether you are really aware of what you are doing. There are, for instance, innumerable entries and discussions about: *   The isolating effect of not being able to speak French. How will you run a business if you can't communicate with your customers? *   Unemployment levels more than twice those in Britain *   The profoundly anti-enterprise culture prevailing in France *   The meagre returns from running a gite (which may not be even enough to keep you in    poverty) It is estimated that more than 50% of immigrants form Britain to France return after 3 to 5 years. If your plans (such as they are) do not come to fruition, you are likely to witness the unenviable spectacle of your equity being converted into quasi-income leading to the worst of all worlds: being trapped in a situation you cannot escape from. Of course, there are people who have done what you have done and thrived. But they are a small number. Best of luck, I think you'll need it. For heaven's sake - don't burn your bridges ...  

I have had my cat vaccinated against rabies and subsequently tested. Unfortunately, because of the cat's anatomy, the best place to draw blood for blood tests is from the jugular vein. This is an operation which requires the area to be shaved. Since cats usually take little notice of detailed explanations and are somewhat concerned for their own short-term well-being, several very brave people will be needed to draw blood from a conscious cat. I don't think that your vet is being heavy handed, just concerned about his own safety.