Liz

A couple of weeks ago we were in a restaurant in Paris and, sitting near us, was a young woman dressed in the strangest black outfit with silver lace trim, hair fashioned into medusa like curls, black makeup and 6 inch high patent platform shoes; even her hanky was scarlet with black lace trim.  The whole lot must have taken ages to put on and cost a bomb.  A friend later told us that this was a Goth. Now I've had chance to have a quick search on the internet I can see this is pretty commonplace in the UK.  The person we saw was not French, do they exist in France?  Round here I have never seen anything remotely like it. Liz

[quote user="Bassman"] I noticed they have lots at BricoDepot near Morlaix anyone know what they are like for delivering as I have now sold my Transit? [/quote] They don't but they will hire you a truck at modest price. Liz

I have just tried to delete a duplicate post but I get a message to say that the facility is timed out. As I tried to delete within seconds of realizing there was a duplicate I find this a bit hard to believe.  I know I have deleted, in the past,  using the current software so what is going wrong? Liz

[quote user="Benjamin"]    I'm starting to feel embarrassed that I asked this question. I could still carry on with typing the word EUROS. Benjamin [/quote] I would stick with that!  I sent someone some fairly detailed info on Euro payments the other day and, although it looks perfectly OK on my screen, it came out with some very strange symbols at his end. Impossible to make sense of it and I had to do it all over again. €Liz€ (Ctrl + Alt + 4)  

[quote user="Benjamin"]    I'm starting to feel embarrassed that I asked this question. I could still carry on with typing the word EUROS. Benjamin [/quote] I would stick with that!  I sent someone some fairly detailed info on Euro payments the other day and, although it looks perfectly OK on my screen, it came out with some very strange symbols at his end. Impossible to make sense of it and I had to do it all over again. €Liz€ (Ctrl + Alt + 4)  

We looked into this as our doors were not too special and covered in bits of wall paper.  AFAIK doors always come wth the frame so dump the frame and use the doors.  We have a barn full of 'free' wood like this and very useful it is too.  One of the reasons we didn't pursue replacement doors was that ours are not a standard size and we couldn't justify the expenditure of having them specially made so we spent many happy hours refurbishing [:(] .  Not too bad in the end.  I agree Brico Depot (also at Plouigneau) may have what you want if you're just after a basic Chapeau de Gendarme style, and their frames are of such low quality you will probably be glad to put it on the fire.  A bit more upmarket are Lapeyre also at Brest or Reseau Pro (used to be Pinault) at Morlaix and I think elsewhere in the Department. Liz

[quote user="toni"]We are about to get some work done on our house and are wondering what is the standard proceedure for payment for work agreed-that is how much does the builder/artisan usually insist on prior to commencing work with regard to (a) materials and (b) labour?[/quote] This came up a while ago (a few months I think) so it might be worth going through the posts in this section;. I wouldn't recommend the search faciltiy.  I don't think there is a standard procedure as you have probably gathered already.  Personally I would not pay in advance unless I had ordered some special high value item.  We have only had a couple of expensive jobs done by tradesmen and both times they did not ask for money in advance but were very prompt in giving me the final invoice (and I paid it very promptly).  Both had expensive materials to buy in advance but, don't forget, they will run an account at their suppliers, so won't be handing cash over the counter in advance themselves. Progress payments are OK but make sure that you have got, roughly, what you paid for. Liz

[quote user="Clair"]I cannot help but intervene here, as I cannot think of any situation where a restaurant waiter/waitress in France would approach a table and ask "satiété?" before taking the plates away... [:D] As reported earlier in the thread, he/she would ask "ça a été?" (meaning was everything alright?) to find out if everything was to the clients'satisfaction. [/quote] That makes me wonder if there is perhaps a play on words? Liz Anyway, thanks all for the comments.  I shall know next time that I am right to say, 'tres bien,merci'. 

It has happened again.  We've been out to lunch and the waitress takes away the plates and says 'ça a été?'.  At least that's what it sounds like.  I think it means was the meal alright?  Does it and what is the grammar?  It just sounds like the perfect tense of être to me and the individual words don't make much sense, perhaps I've got it wrong. It reminds me of 'ça y est'.  It took me years to work out that when they said what sounded like sye-aye that is how it is spelt. Enlighten me someone, please. Liz

[quote user="Lautrec"] The question I would like to raise is, would the UK authorities accept a French doctors note to my medical fitness? Has anyone had any experience of this situation? I would like to hear from you! Lautrec. [/quote] Unless the rules have changed recently, AFAIK you do not have to have a doctors note to renew your UK driving licence over a certain age (70 I think).  You simply sign the form to say that you are fit, unless of course you do have something that makes you perhaps borderline for fitness.  No personal experience but my mum and dad were doing this into their 80s. Liz

[quote user="Gay and happy"]I have a buyer for my house which I advertised myself . What do I have to do now ?[/quote] In addition to setting up arrangements with the Notaire you will need a survey of, at least asbestos, possibly lead, possibly termites depending where you are.  The Notaire will probably have a firm to 'recommend' who will do this at your expense.  

[quote user="Gabe"] Anybody know the rough costs of hiring a scaffolding tower with a 7m working height ? I also note that Bricodepot are advertising one for about 990 euros and have been thinking of buying one as a long term investment. Does anybody have any experience of these as they seem relatively cheap, but might be c**p ? Gabe [/quote] We have a sturdy tower we have been thinking of getting rid of for modest price.  BUT is is only about 5M working height.  PM or e-mail me if of any interest.   I can send photo and full dimensions. Liz

Julia, this is certainly true about automatic washing machines.  Washing Machines often look cheap in France until you look to see the spin speed and find that it is only a few hundred rpm.  To get the sort of speeds we are used to in the UK more expensive models are usually necessary.  Liz

This tallies with the ones I happen to have handy (surely everyone has breeze blocks handy?[:)] ) 50 wide by 20 deep x 20 height. Liz

We took our cat for his first rabies injection just over a month ago.  Since he had never had any injections he also had 3 others (I forget the details but Typhus is amongst them).  I asked the vet about side effects and she said it was posssible there could be some.  It wasn't until about a week later that he stopped eating and drinking, was very lethargic and (worst of all, from our point of view, as we have previously had a cat that had cancer) developed a small lump under his arm pit (for want of a better anatomical description!).  As such a long time had passed we took him straight back and the vet said he was pretty sure it was a reaction but did not say what to.  He gave us something to re-hydrate him and after about another week he was fine.  He has just had the second lot of 3 injections and so far is OK.  So whether his reaction was to the Rabies we don't really know. I don't know what you can do about it except to question the vet very closely next time and be prepared.  If there is any possibility of travel to the UK you can't really afford to let these injections slide. Liz

With a single property the usual way is to make a declaration of the gross income.  A percentage of this is then deducted by the tax authorities and you pay tax on the balance.  You can then offset the amount paid to the French against tax you have paid in the UK. Liz

[quote user="Jaxcasban"] Any suggestions for something cheap, hardy and pretty ? [/quote] It sounds as if you might need to consider a weed suppressing mat to give your plants a chance to get established. This will also help to retain moisture. Unfortunately not a pretty sight until the plants have spread themselves a bit.  For choice of plants I would suggest you look around and see what grows nearby.  Shrubs that come to mind are cistus, lavender and thyme, all these grow wild, I imagine, in your area but there are lots of different varieties.  Also ground cover roses might be OK and a great favourite of mine is Hypericum Olympicum which is much lower growing than the one you probably had.  I would also suggest you put off planting until the early Autumn if you can which will give small plants a chance to get established before the winter, then firm them in if they are lifted by frost. Liz

I must admit I hadn't given this a lot of thought.  A spot of Cif for kitchens and bathrooms is probably so dilute by the time it hits the fosse it makes no difference.  You can buy loo blocks which, although marked to contain javel are also marked 'sans danger pour les fosse septiques'.  I think this must be on the same principle, it is only a little.

How about http://www.gites-de-france.fr/fr/index.htm  or http://www.brittanyferries.co.uk who market Gites de France and many other holiday properties in France. Liz

[quote user="Graham Woolf"] My wife and I are hoping to take the plunge and retire to France later this year, having got fed up with the daily 9 to 5 grind. We are in the fortunate position of being able to buy a house outright but we would have a pension of about 2000 euros a month to live on. Can anyone advise me whether this sounds reasonable or are our dreams unrealistic. [/quote] I'm with the 'definitely do-able' camp.  But two points I would make: I would be nervous about not having a bit put by for the inevitable extra expenses. There aren't too many french houses that don't need something doing to them to bring them up to scratch and you'll need something put by for car maintenance/replacement. Alps sounds chilly from where I'm sitting.  There have been some posts on this forum recently about the cost of electricity and heating oil which I would suggest you look into. Good luck! Liz  

[quote user="Ronan"] Even recommendations from family and friends seem to useless at the moment. Any of you had a similar problem? how did you find people to do the work on your house? [/quote] Failing the family and friends I would have a look at yellow pages www.pagesjaunes.fr . For artisans (it wouldn't work for architects I think) I would have a look at the nearest restaurant that serves a 'menu ouvrier' at midi and note the names and phone numbers of the numerous vans that are in the car park. Liz

I've just posted the same message twice because the first time I clicked 'post' it came up with 'page not available'  I have tried to delete this second one but got a message to say that it was outside the time limit.  As I tried to delete within less than a minute of the postings there is something wrong somewhere [*-)] Liz

[quote user="Rob G"] Electricity We've been amazed by how many kilowatt hours of electricity we seem to be using. In the last week, our meter says we've used 195 kWh. What I don't understand is this: we have roughly the same appliances as we had in the UK (with one exception - see below), and the cost per kWh is substantially lower here, yet our overall bill is much higher here. This seems to be because, as I said, nit's showing our usage in kWh as very high. The only major difference in appliances is that the hot water here is electrically heated with a "cumulus". This apparently comes on automatically during "heures creuses". Rob [/quote] I've just had the reminder from EDF to send in our reading for Electricity for the last 2 months.  It is 641 KwH for the period, so, say 8 weeks, that makes 80 per week.  There are 2 of us, we have the usual appliances except no dishwasher.  Our water is heated from the oil central heating. We use a thermostatically controlled electric stove in the sitting room most evenings from about 6pm to 11pm.  I try and remember to turn off the TV completely but hardly ever do!  Electric oven which I don't use much but the microwave gets a lot of use.  We do not have any plans or heures creuses, just a straightforward 9Kw abonnement and payement per KwH and the bills don't seem too bad at all. Hope this helps. Liz

I think we've had the lot, bits stuck on bits, bits stuck on with filler, polystyrene underneath of course and a foil like substance presumably to 'treat' damp and newspaper - not an interesting souvenir edition but just some old paper from the 60s.  An acquaintance of ours once said (and I have to emphasis this was a long time ago before we got to work) your house has that funny french farmhouse smell.  It did and I put a lot of it down to the wallpaper and glues that were used.  Now we have stripped everything back, fixed the damp and aired the place the smell has disappeared. We discovered an odd thing  when we took up the fitted carpet that was glued to the boards in the bedroom (and what a job that was).  The boards had been varnished except in a area about the size of a small bed.  Could someone really have varnished a floor and not bothered to move the bed?! Wierd is the word! Liz

[quote user="Spg"] So I looked in the pre-packed cheeses in the fridge for inspiration to find Cheddar, 200g for 1 euro 98, 'fabrique en Grande Bretagne', I was so astonished to see it that I bought a pack. I haven't tried it yet - it does say 'affine' on the pack which, according to my dictionary means 'slimmed down' so perhaps it's low fat. So, it might be dreadful, I do hope not. [/quote] Like you I nearly tripped over me trolley when I spotted this on the Geant (Casino) shelves.  It is a funny colour, very orange, but the flavour is fine.  As I also had a block of Tesco's mature in the fridge I was able to make a direct comparison.  I think Casino must be having a GB moment.  After spotting the Cheddar a few weeks ago I have also seen a pack of fruit scones, a large sliced loaf (Pain de Mie Anglais), small apple pies (touch of the Mr Kipling's) and a lamb Rogan Josh.  All these are elaboré or fabriqué en Grande Bretagne.  So if they won't take UK beef we slip in the back door with a host of other products. Liz