Liz

If you mean to pay in cash I should think the French will be deeply suspicious even for a smallish sum.  I agree with SD an electronic transfer is perfectly simple and not too expensive. Liz

I have seen them in Mr Bricolage but no guarantee you will find the same thing in every branch. Liz

Thanks.  I also found something on 12480 vertical so I'll see what turns up later today. Liz

Has anyone found the frequencies to view these channels on free to air satellite?  I have drawn a blank on the usual sites I look at for this sort of info.  I could do a scan when they go live but it makes it a lot easier just to put in the numbers. Liz

I was taught that the imperfect translates into English as 'was', 'were', or 'used to'.  Keeping these in the back of my mind has stood me iin good stead for years.  The Perfect is the Passé Composé, it's just another name for the same thing. Liz

In England we lived alongside the A38 which had very busy periods but quiet a night.  A cat that lived a few houses away adopted us and although people sometimes told us that they had seen the cat across the road he was never knocked down.  (He eventually died of cancer so you get heart break whatever you do.)   We had some people with 3 cats move in next door and unfortunately two of them were killed quite soon but the third carried on to a ripe old age. My feeling is that a young cat will adapt and if there are lots of other interesting places to go he will not bother to go near the road.  Have him or her neutered immediately so that, particularly if male, he will not wander too far and if female will not be chased by suitors. Liz

I am a big fan of steam cleaners.  I used to have an Earlex one with several heads and I have used the flat wallpaper stripper head for cleaning tiles using a sponge to mop up and a tooth brush for the grout (you can't do without a bit of elbow grease!).  It eventually sprung a leak and I now have one similar from Brico Depot (currently about 23€) but it only has the wall paper head and I still use the other heads from the old machine.  I sometimes use it to clean the oven and it is great for defrosting the freezer fast.  Wouldn't be without it but unless the Lidl machine has a lot of other features 89€ sounds expensive to me. Liz

Another question (hopefully the answer will turn up soon[:)] ). Is it a pension arising from Government service or a private pension? Liz

Neither of the above AFAIK unless they have set up a web site recently.  You need to contact Centre des Impots des Non-residents, 9 rue d'Uzes, 75094, Paris CEDEX.  Tel 01 44 76 18 00 e-mail [email protected] Liz

[quote user="Loiseau"] Is a restaurant obliged to provide a carafe of tap water, if requested? I stayed at a Logis hotel last weekend, ordered my meal (plus half a bottle of wine and an aperitif) in the restaurant, and asked for a carafe of water as well. The owner's wife refused, on the grounds that she didn't own a carafe... Angela  [:@] [/quote] I always ask for a carafe of water, in addition to wine,  and have never had anyone bat an eyelid. If they don't keep a carafe as such they usually keep the fancier wine bottles for the purpose. I even had a carafe provided in the restaurant on board the Brittany Ferries Pont l'Abbé.   I have also noticed that some people have the carafe of water only, no paying.drinks, which does strike me as a bit cheeky.  . Liz

[quote user="Andy "]Hi, can anyone help?.... i know you are supposed to 'dead head' geranniums but are we supposed to remove the stem as well or leave the stem in situ? I have had conflicting advise on this...[/quote] If you mean pelargoniums (the bright red, pink or white things that go in widow boxes etc) I agree with what has been said.  Most of them seem to have a natural breaking off point where the flower stem joins the main plant, just twist or bend, it's rarely necessary to cut.  But if you mean true geraniums, which are usually a smallish or medium sized herbaceous hummock with pink, blue or white flowers starting about this time of the year, you would cut off the dead flowers.  I usually trim with sheers or secateurs just to keep the plants tidy.  Could explain why there is conflicting advice. Liz

Hi Anna If you know Janet's surname you can search all of the French telephone directory by clicking on www.pagesjaunes.fr and then go to Pages Blanches.  It is a bit tedious as you have to check either each Department or Region, I forget which, but it can be done. Good luck with your search Liz

[quote user="Will "] On the other hand, it could be something to do with what they charge for a packet of paracetamol. [/quote]   Which, of couse, you cannot buy off the supermarket shelves. Liz

[quote user="Cassis"]Only thing is, Rob Roy, almost all (if not all) on the programme list are normally open all summer anyway - so what is the point of that weekend!  All the ones listed for the Corrèze charge for entry, by the way.  Sorry, but the event's a bit misleading. Phil [/quote]   From my experience there will actually be a lot more gardens, often quite small, that will also be open locally.  There doesn't seem to be any central point that lists them all and the only way I have found them is to buy the local paper, ours has a 'what's on' on Saturdays, or to ask in the tourist office who sometimes have a list Liz.

Nowhere near Limoges unfortunately but this did remind me of a Chelsea exhibitor I saw on the BBC programme last night. A lady called Ginny Blom who said she was half french and went on to say that 'the French are plonkers'.  This was in the context of gardening, I hasten to add, and what she meant was that the Englsish style of gardening is for drifts of plants that merge and the French style is to 'plonk' plants so that they each have their separate space with a nice neat patch of earth between.  Thinking about gardens I have seen on both sides of the channel it seemed to me that there is a lot of truth in this. While we're on the topic of garden shows I came across this site the other day which gives a lot of ideas of gardens to visit in Brittany and elsewhere in France. http://hortiauray.com/Bretagne.htm Liz