Lori

hoverfrog - every time I see that photo of your dog (I am guessing it is your dog in the photo), I just want to find him/her and give him a big hug and kiss !   So cute.. Nice to have those French commands too.

timc17 - that is exactly what I intend to do in the future.  Have informed daughter and that is that... thanks.

I meant to say Sorbonne   .... good heavens !

Rich - I'm glad you posted here as you might find a great deal more info. than the forum you previously posted on. I wish I had more info. for you, but my daughter is only in Jr. High (U.S. type), so I have not encountered the situation yet.  I believe the AUP is a private univeristy in U.S. standards, so it will not offer you the price of standard French Universities.  Check out the Sorgonne's website, just for comparison info. Good luck to you.

teamedup - I like your philosophical attitude.  Makes sense to me. Mistral - In the past, I have never seen a list distributed telling who is on strike and who is not.  It makes the situation much more confusing and annoying.  This is the first strike day letter I have gotten.  I think I may write back the truth and ask them to send me a copy of the list of striking teachers they supposedly sent home (since I did not see it and daughter says she did not see it).  I plan to add that from this day forward my daughter will go to school whether there is a strike or not - as, for me, it is virtually impossible to get the real facts prior to the strike day.  So, she may be stuck in permanence all day - well I prefer that than these types of letters.  I won't add that part in to my response.  I'm not trying to be difficult, but the whole strike situation affects the students too and the teachers don't seem to give a rats patooty about that.  I can ask another parent if they received a list - no problem - and good idea. Thanks to all who have replied.  Always appreciated. Lori

Dotty O - I can really appreciate the honesty thing as I am a real stickler for that, but I remembered reading - here on the forum - how unexcused absences (such as it would be if I tell the truth) will stay on my daughter's record through her educational life here.  That is why I was concerned. Teamedup - that is exactly what I thought.   It is kind of hard NOT to tell the truth as the whole thing is really annoying and I would like to make that known.  However, I don't want to do it at the expense of my daughter.

If the question is how much you can borrow, we borrowed 100% of the purchase price with Credit Agricole.  I have read here and in many books that this is not possible, but our bank had no problem doing it.  They didn't really bat an eye.  In our case, the major factors  seemed to be the price of the house and the amount of household income.  The mortgage loan rate was not elevated either. I'm sure each case is dealt with individually.  May work for some, not for others.

I received a letter from my daughter's college regarding her absence last Tuesday.  It is asking me to state why she wasn't there.  She wasn't there because all but one of her teachers were on strike.  That is what they (the teachers) told her the day before the strike.  The letter I received in the mail also stated that a list of the striking teachers was sent home on Monday.   My daughter said no list was given to her.  I don't know if she is "stretching the truth" on this one or not, but she insists no list was given to her.  I did find it odd that they said a list was sent as it never has been before.  I did check the Cahier de Correspondencce and there was no evidence of any note or staple, etc.  On the previous strike day (the week before), I had to call the school a bizillion times (line always busy) to get through to find out which teachers WERE on strike in order to determine whether daughter should go on to school or not.  Question is, should I just mark down that she was sick or should I tell the facts - daughter said she wasn't give list, all but one teacher said they would strike,  they struck the previous Tuesday, and so on and so on.  plus ....  I have also decided that strike or no strike, I will send her to school.  I do not wish to get any further letters in the mail.  Which reply should I give??  I have to send it back Monday morning. Thanks.

We have a wild vine that we can't seem to kill (it is badly located).  However, we always use the leaves for stuffing.  They are wonderful.  We even pick, wash and freeze bags of them. However, I have to add that the jarred ones are available at our Carpentras LeClerc and our Le Pontet Auchan.  So, we can always buy them if we need to. You might also try any ethnic markets that may be near you. We love them too !

I agree with the other sentiments and I've told Wilko before.  I too saved the website so that I can offer it to friends when we have no room - AND for that miraculous day when hubby offers me a special weekend OUT !....

This is hilarious !!!!

Chessie - I am so sorry for your loss.  The tears started rolling as I read your post.  As I don't want to add to your current stress level, I will not say anything about the Vet procedure except that it sounds terrible to me.  I too am very glad you posted so that we can all be very aware if we should be in a similar position.  Your lovely pet is now at peace.  Try to keep your thoughts on that part.

I don't want to sound rude to the original poster, but I have to agree with everything Will said. I will admit that it took years of living here to actually know enough to form an opinion - which is, only my own.  I do respect the fact that other folks have other likes/dislikes. We love France and there are many nice things about living here.  For us, the overall lifestyle is better.  So far, it seems to be safer for our daughter who is 12 (was 7 when we arrived) and us - although I am sure that is debatable, depending upon exactly where in France you live. I guess if you are of the opinion that everything in France is perfect, you are better off continuing on with those sentiments.  You might not want to ask anyone elses opinion as they might surprise you.  Hopefully not offend you.

Annie - We are no where near you, but perhaps you have a similar marche somewhere near you.  Out farmer neighbors told us about the Eleagnouses and where to buy them.  It is a huge weekly market in Carpentras that sells nothing but gardening things and plants, trees.  We bought 45 Eleagnouses that were about a 90 cms tall and not very thick, rather tiny looking for 1.45 euros each.  It was, to me, dirt cheap.  When I had a look around Auchan, and the gardening centers they were FAR higher than that (same variety).  So, I guess you should ask around and look around.  We are still amazed at how fast ours have grown and how lovely they are - and for next to nothing.  Although I will tell you, being the one that dug all those holes, it did take a bit of energy.

Yep - Eleagnous.  We planted about 45 tiny ones 3 years ago and they are huge now.  And, yes, the smell the flowers offer is magnificent.

I also had horrible problems with Norton Internet Security.  Towards the end of last year, the troubles were so bad, I tried to call them. Email service turned out to be a joke.  The call service was the worst I have ever experienced.  So, I tried to call the service number in the U.S., thinking I  MIGHT  get better technical support.  What a joke, my call was routed over to India.  I got so fed up with the lack of any real help, I decided to de-install Norton and buy something else. Have you tried DE-installing it???  I thought the previous problems were bad - the de-installation was nearly impossible.  It took weeks to get it all straightened out. Norton - NEVER....again.

Funny as I was recently talking with my 12 year old daughter about this same subject.  Her recent "taking" to 50 cent reminded us how those in the rap life can use names for each other that those out of the rap life had better never use.  We were also discussing how her friends in college have begun using the English/American term "black" when referring to people having black skin.  I thought that was really odd.  I still don't know if that is considered derogatory or not.  Daughter tells me that noir is better than negre, but neither are considered polite.  So it leaves us going back to referring to national heritage name - I guess - or simply referring to people by name only.... Very good question.

Val 2   Now that conjures up some very "interesting" visuals and brings to mind some other funny hoover stories ....  but I won't take us off topic..

Thanks Viva

Viva - thanks so much.  I am in the process of sifting through their website.  Already I noted there is a Drama camp and the prices seem much more possible than the others I have found.  I emailed them for a brochure.  Have you used this camp organization before??  If so, did you use one of the France camps or a UK camp?   Thanks again.

Russethouse et Judy - yes it was ME, the one with the guests from outer space last year.  It really was an awful situation for two solid weeks.  Terrible screaming at the sight of our collie (and he has to be the most gentle thing on earth).  Our collie was always mentioned on our websites as we wanted people to know he is here.  We realize some people are allergic or simply don't like dogs.  We do have a totally separate closed garden for him on our property, but we do let him have free run of the yard every early morning and late evening (I say do - we don't rent anymore, so he is always free to run in the larger yard area). Anyway, there are lots of different types of people out there.   These folks never said anything about the child having such an intense fear of dogs, even when given the tour of the property and an introduction to the dog (adults not kids).  There were other problems with this family, not just the dog.  But, in the end, we decided that we would take a break from renting our home.  As said by someone else here, it might not be two businesses that work well together - just my opinion.  Some people are great with animals and they make their stay even more "homey."  Many of our guests loved having our dog near them as they missed their own dogs.  Others can be quite the opposite. Either way, good luck in your planning.

Have to agree with Cat  ..  We received a couple of these over the years.  I always found it totally odd when  first contact is asking me to advise the price and in the same note telling me payment would be immediately forthcoming.  Who does that?  None of our REAL bookings did, thats for sure.

Am looking for a possible summer camp for my 12 year old daughter.  I found the VSF website and their Arts camp is perfect for our daughter.  However, the cost for 20 days is 3400 euros.  Unfortunately, we are not rich.  Is this the going summer camp rate?  Anyone know of anything similar here in France or even the UK???  that is maybe a bit cheaper. Thanks.

I agree with the others here who are wondering why you would HAVE to translate a Compromis de Vente.  Our translation requirements involved legal issues, nothing to do with the purchase of our house.  They didn't seem to care whether we understood the documents or not.

Nick - I'm not sure why you say that.  Once we knew we had to get a France certified translator - to translate a document from French to English, we simply asked at our local Mairie's office and we were given a list.  She is certified to translate from French to English and English to French.  She is in Avignon.