Opalienne

In my experience French parties go on much longer than British ones.   I remember the first New Year's party we were invited to - we expected to go home around 2am but things were still in full swing at 5, when we left.   Apparently most people stayed till around 8am and had breakfast before leaving...... With weddings too, it's the same - 5am is considered to be quite early to go home.    We live relatively near to the Salle des Fetes so do suffer noisy wedding parties quite a lot, particularly in the summer.   But that's how things are, and we put our earplugs in and get on with it.

And that nasty little Italian player twisted Zidane's nipple just before - it was clear to see.   Of course he shouldn't have reacted like that but however saintly you are, there's only so much taunting that you can take.     I thought France outplayed Italy the whole way through and the Italians were undeserving winners.   And I'm not anti-Italian at all; when I knew which teams were in the final I really wasn't sure which side I would support. I am supposed to be working but my husband just phoned and said there were amazing scenes from the Place de la Concorde with thousands gathered to welcome the French team home, so I had to switch on the telly.   Practically the whole team was in tears - me too.   It was very very moving.

No, it was for a lot of people.   And now I really am off!

During the Miki banning episode I got so fed up with the childish behaviour on this forum that I said I wouldn't post anymore.  That doesn't mean I was taking Miki's side;  I never worked out what he had done so couldn't take a side.....  But it hasn't stopped me dropping in to take a look at times, and that's only confirmed my belief that I did the right thing.   As I`said at the time, I joined because I thought I might be able to help people and learn something myself, but almost everything I saw seemed to be about people taking offence at each other.  Sure the moderation seems a bit heavy handed too, but it's primarily the posters who seem to have serious problems, and this is particularly worrying when it concerns people who are living in another country (think of the impression it must give to the French  of foreigners!)  Grow up or go to see a psychiatrist;   I'm really off now.

Where we live people get very upset if their pigeons don't come home from a race, so I would say probably Yes.  I found this, which may help: Pour signaler des pigeons égarés français ( si les données portées par la bague adresse sont insuffisantes ou erronées ), vous pouvez maintenant envoyer un e-mail directement à la Fédération Colombophile Française à l'adresse : [email protected] Si vous recueillez un pigeon voyageur égaré, vous pouvez lui donner de l'eau et du grain (blé, maïs, petites graines... ou, à défaut, des petits pois ou du riz). Il vous en remerciera, son propriétaire aussi. Essayez d'éviter le pain qui provoque souvent des problèmes intestinaux. Bien abreuvé, bien nourri et reposé, il devrait pouvoir repartir le lendemain de bonne heure s'il fait beau, ou quelques jours

I don't know about Montpellier specifically, but generally speaking it's relatively easy to find  somewhere by the month if you don't mind a holiday let, which will be much more expensive that a regular longer-term lease.   What might be sensible would be to look for a chambre d'hote for the first few months while you see (1) whether you are likely to stay for a long time or not and (2) which areas you like.  Good luck!

It's not just the Brits who race Ferraris on public roads in France.  On Saturday I saw 6 Belgian cars being stopped (just outside St. Omer, indeed) for the same thing.....

Eurostar have confirmed to the Maire of Frethun that the Calais Frethun stop on the Paris run will end next year in order to shave a couple of minutes off the London-Paris time.    Anyone who is concerned about this, please make their feelings known to Eurostar.  Or join Opale Link, a new association based in France which aims to help develop the economies of the Cote d'Opale and Kent by encouraging cross channel commuting in both directions.  I can provide further details if anyone is interested.

I am in the same situation - complicated further by the fact that I work a lot in Belgium too - and have had lots of conflicting advice on this.  But I think  it is the case that you would continue to pay tax in UK, but would have also to make a tax declaration in France, on which you would include your taxed income from the UK.   This would not be taxed twice, but would be taken into account when calculating what rate of tax (if any) you had to pay in France - if your wife was working there or had other income of her own, for example

Yes, it should be belle-fille.  I would offer to help you but honestly I don't think that my written French is good enough.   I would hate to lead you up the wrong track.   I think you need a native French speaker to be sure of being correct in the written language (which even lots of French people have trouble with....)   Good luck!

Are you sure they're bad dreams and not just exciting chasing stuff?   Our dog whimpers a lot in his sleep and waves his legs around but I have always assumed he was enjoying himself.   I hope I am not wrong.......

I think it's probably a literal translation of a step-daughter!

Mizz

She has a very moving stone on Sartre and de Beauvoir's grave in the Cimetiere de Montparnasse with an inscription about boys and girls living together in equality and respect.

Can they also get rid of Madame Le Maire, Madame Le Ministre at the same time?   I try to get round the Mademoiselle/Madame one by calling everyone Madame unless they're very young indeed, but hadn't thought before that I might be insulting them.......  Personally I don't like it when men call me Mademoiselle as though they are doing me a huge favour (I am well into Madameing age)!   However, there was an unmarried lady in our village who died last year at 93 who was called Mademoiselle Simone by everybody.

We initially had problems setting up Wanadoo ADSL and eventually asked a a local IT person to come and sort it out for us.  He spent an hour and charged €40 - it was money well spent.   We found him through the Pages Jaunes.  I suggest you might think about doing the same.  If it's a problem their end such a person would be able to negotiate for you, too.

No problem at all with being in Paris on your own.   I have done it frequently, starting with when I was in my 20s, and I have always enjoyed myself.   There is a huge amount to do and you will thoroughly enjoy it.  I actually prefer travelling on my own for the reasons that you state and am sorry that I can't get to do so much of it now, except on business (other half would object if I started taking holidays by myself........) 

Yes, but we don't have edible bread, so you win on that one!

Our bar (village pop 700) was closed for two years and has just reopened as a cafe/restaurant.   It does open very early but always stays open in the evening until 2am if people are still there.   It's not at all the 'one lonely alcoholic and a prostitute' type.   I would say the average age of the customers is around 30 in the bar and maybe 45 in the restaurant.   So it's not impossible to have a village bar which is pleasant to visit.......   The one in the next village, which we used while ours was shut, has an older clientele (there's an old people's home in the village) but is equally friendly.

[quote user="Tresco"] The only time we went to a bar just for swifty, everyone stared at me, because I was a bit mucky. I mean after working in a field mucky. This bar was a dive, totally unmodernised etc, and everyone else in there was in working clothes. Never did that again. [/quote] I quite understand what you mean about the first visit to the local bar (particularly if you are female).  But it honestly is worth perservering.   Once you are accepted there you will be really be part of the community, and it is a wonderful place to find help of almost any kind.   I know that if I turned up there saying there was a flood in the house, or the horse was sick, there would immediately be a rush of volunteers - and knowledgeable ones at that - who would come and help out, just out of the kindness of their hearts.  

€60 for a set of tungsten.   I don't compete so can't help you on that, I'm afraid.   But there seem to be plenty of horse shows as well as lots of endurance cross-country racing.

I did it last week.  It was quite straightforward, although the machine didn't seem to want to enter the number on my ticket - it kept either missing digits or entering them twice.   In the end I managed it.   But there is the option to call someone to help you if you need, and when I was there there was one person to help for about each four check-ins, so not too bad.   I think there were about four or five people in front of my in the queue in both directions, though it was a weekday and not peak hours either.

I saw something similar on Belgian TV about Belgian women who had worked with the Resistance.   It was incredibly moving - they went back to the village they operated from for the first time and talked about their experiences.   Hankies were needed in abundance.........

I used to work for an organisation with a US CEO who sent us exhortatory emails rather too often.   The two expressions I disliked the most were 'pushing the envelope' and 'drink from the fire hose' (????)   Sometimes I had the impression that he was writing in a foreign language.   Then he got a personal PR adviser (this in a communications company!) who told him to stop this tactic since a lot of people laughed about it.  He was apparently quite shocked........

See http://www.chemins-compostelle.com/