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Also look out for une brique which is 10,000 francs!  you could quite easily hear this particularly from the older generation.  

Could we just limit val to this topic.....i am sick of finding "new messages posted" email alerts only to find thank you notes and not the next chapter. Bob and yes I know I have just added more junk to this thread............. And now me too! But I have a suggestion. If Val starts each new chapter as a new post marked with the chapter number we will all know where we are.  We can then post feedback without concern but will know not to expect more from Val in that particular post.

Jan,  The link you are looking for is http://www.thewordsmith.cjb.net/  

"could really do with a boost has anyone any tips for quick start weight loss"  Benson Drink water, water and more water.  Fill up with water so you have less room for food - more importantly less appetite for food. Also, try to build a little more exercise into your day.  Even a short walk will help. "Can anyone tell me what to eat when I come in from work (yes, work, it's brilliant, I love it!!!) absolutely ravenous?"  Saligo Bay What about unsalted nuts and raisins.  Especially walnuts as they are lower in fat than other nuts.  Or perhaps a small tin of peach slices or other fruit (in fruit juice though not sure if that's readily available in France).  Or a small bowl of cereal?  A banana or even two!  A bowl of natural yogurt with a swirl of runny honey or nuts and raisins or all three! By the way, congratulations on your job. I am also feeling v. pleased with myself as I was offered a job yesterday!

I was about to say how lucky you are to be able to enjoy so much wine.  But then I thought again.  Perhaps I am the lucky one as I fall asleep after half a glass!!! 1 Kilo Janey? That's amazing - well done.  

According to recent research (reported on BBC news this morning) overweight people are statistically much more likely to suffer from senile dementia in the future.  For overweight women, the figure was 200% more likely! That should be a good motivation Gay!  

I don't weigh very often, and I don't like to use the word 'diet'.  To me the word resonates the feeling of being deprived. I try to think of myself as someone on a healthy eating plan.  I was rather dubious when I got on the scales earlier this week as I didn't feel I'd been as virtuous as usual, having had a bad cold that not only made me want to eat, but to eat all the wrong things.  Why don't you feel like eating fruit when you are ill - or is that just me? However, I had only put on a pound (I had expected to have gained several) so was really pleased and have now gone back to my healthy diet with renewed enthusiasm.  (It did help that my daughter commented that I looked slimmer!) Well done to all of you whether you have lost or not.  Surely, the most important thing is that you are making an effort to do something about your weight.  The hardest thing is having the patience for the end result and of course, believing that you will get there in the end.

Welcome to the forum Epsilon and it is interesting to see your contribution to the discussion from a French person's point of view.  

 Saligo Bay said <<I'm sure I remember taking all my clothes off there>> Good job she's born to be lovely!  

If you go to www.fastupdate.co.uk and sign in there is a button on the left called Online shop.  If you click on this you get various options including an invoice page.

Worth waiting for - well done! Keep up the good work  

<<I am curious. Where did you base or get your thoughts or knowledge from ? and by "North" where have you geographically calculated that to be, apart from the obvious , so I guess I really mean which departments ?>> Miki, As I said I am no expert but surely I am not alone in observing that in general, when people ask for advice on this forum as to whether one can make a living from gites they seem to get 'blasted' (even newbies like Dilbert).  So, as I say, I am simply curious as to what is really different here, aside from Dilbert's wife's situation.  I have no axe to grind here and wish Dilbert success whatever he decides to do. By the 'North' I mean those cooler climes, which, I thought it was generally accepted, tend to have a short summer season.  I was thinking specifically of Brittany as that is where Dilbert enquired about and Normandy as that is where we rent our gite, though there would be the NE as well.  I was only talking about gites as that is again what Dilbert referred to I assume a B & B tend to me more all year round being more flexible with short breaks as you suggest. As for my own experience we have had one or two out of season bookings and as I previously said, having checked with one of our online advertisers they confirm that Normandy properties are only receiving 2 .46 enquiries per month. Their figures not mine! Properties based in the south must surely be able to expect a longer season as spring and autumn may be more attractive than our areas at these times, but if I am wrong I am prepared to be corrected as I know you have experience of both!    

LOL Weedon, but I don't think you read the previous posts, in particular the ones I made (not that I blame you as I don't always bother)  

I am just curious, but wondered why Dilbert seems to have had almost exclusively positive responses to his idea of moving to France and running a gite (and in the North at that where the season is notoriously short) when many other people who have asked the same question seem, in my opinion to have had almost all negative replies. As I said in my post, I am not a French resident, only a holiday home owner, but I am intrigued.  Can someone enlighten me please?  I realise that Dilbert's wife already has a foot in the door so to speak and their language skills would help them to integrate more readily, but is that enough?

Further to my previous post, I am now pleased to report that I have managed to attract sparrows (both tree and house) and chaffinches back to my garden!  All it took was a new bird feeder filled with ordinary loose feed so the sparrows can't have been very far away.  So, if anyone else is missing sparrows or just wants to help them along a bit spend around £3 on a cheap feeder (I have a bird table but they don't seem to like that) and place in it the trees filled with a mix of seed.  It's worked for me!  

Benson, Have just dug out a previous bill of ours that was an estimate.  The thing to look for is under the entry:- "montant prélevé le --/--/2005        20,00 € TTC" it reads:- "Cette facture intermédiare est basée sur une estimation de votre comsommation" Alternatively, if based on an actual reading it would read "Cette facture est basée sur le relevé de votre consommation." Hope this is useful.        

Hello, Dilbert and welcome to the forum, I recently posted the following response (amongst others) to a post on another forum (www.vienormande.com) to a poster requiring similar advice.  The difference was that the other post was specifically referring to Normandy though I have no reason to believe that it wouldn't apply equally if not more so to Brittany. "I have no personal experience of living in France and running a gite business.  However, I do have a holiday home that I am renting out to help cover costs.  I have only two bookings covering 3 weeks so far this year (much worse than last year). I contacted one of the online agencies who advertise our property to ask them whether response to my ad was in line with others and their response today was that properties in Normandy receive 2.46 enquiries per month. I doubt whether that is enough to make a living even if one had more than one property.   I am sure others in a better position to comment than me will give more relevant advice but from friends who have moved to France and need to work, I don't think it is easy." As Tresco says, there have been similar postings here on this site if you can find them.     

At the risk of stating the obvious - could it be an estimate?  

"Does anyone have any hints for controlling a relly sweet tooth" I recommend having a square of dark chocolate after dinner.  It is good for you after all and if you have the dark chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids I find it satiates the appetite yet feels like a naughty treat.  Alternatively, someone else recommended popping in a chewing gum.  Gum wouldn't suit me but I'm sure others have their ideas too.

The one that gets me is "Tu Parles!" meaning "You don't say!"    

We have a relatively new EDF box. Do you have to add something else and if so how much would it be?    

Sabine, Unbiased or not I welcome your opinion as a native!  

We are only half a mile from the South Downs so you would expect that we would see more birds here.  I did look up the RSPB site and it says that once sparrows move out of an area they tend not to come back as they only travel a short distance from where they were born. If so, that is quite sad as it could be a long time until I see them again here. At least when we go to our place in France we can enjoy a larger population of visiting birds (some of which we can't identify like Swissbarry in a recent posting of his).  Added to which we have been thrilled as we have often seen a red squirrel in the garden though we haven't seen it on our most recent visits.  Edit - I must learn to neglect my garden more often!

<<Jsey, you will pleased to know I have enough Sparrows waking me up at day break to ensure they are not in any real danger of extinction.>> Then I must say Gay, that you are lucky.  I too live in S.E England, in an urban area and I honestly can't tell you when I last saw a sparrow in my garden.  In fact, walking home from school this morning I thought about contacting the RSPB to ask them how to attract them to my garden.  I already leave fat balls and water and have some bird friendly hedges but only now see one or two blackbirds, blue tits, dunnocks, a robin, a couple of pigeons and of course seagulls.  I wouldn't have seen a thrush for a long time were it not for the school run where I was privileged to hear one in the park singing for all it was worth. Not that long ago we had more sparrows here than any other bird and had occasional visits from chaffinches and siskins, etc.  I abhor this loss of natural wildlife. It will be too late once they are all gone.

Well done Saligo Bay!  Maybe dieting is a bit like getting pregnant.  If you try too hard it doesn't work!?!