Opalienne

[quote user="Cat 46"] Leverage, as in "we could use this to leverage our sales/market share/position".  Totally awesome     [/quote]   That reminded me of 'positioning', as in 'We should maximise the client's positioning vis a  vis decision makers' etc etc.   Horrible misuse of language!

[quote user="SaligoBay"] [quote user="Opalienne"]'I hear what you say' and 'with respect', both followed by a disagreement with what has just been said by the other party.   Why not just say 'I don't agree with you'?[/quote] Aren't they just little politesses from the days when people knew how to debate?   It's a device designed to take the sting out of what you're about to say, and (more importantly) it shows that you're listening.  People appreciate being listened to.    [/quote] I am not at all sure that they are.   In my experience they are usually followed by something much ruder than would have been the case if there hadn't been this 'polite' prefix!    I can't see anything wrong with 'I don't agree with you' - this also implies that you have been listening, doesn't it?  

'I hear what you say' and 'with respect', both followed by a disagreement with what has just been said by the other party.   Why not just say 'I don't agree with you'?

Our land is chalk and weather much colder, so can't help you there.   But we have the choice of three farriers all within a radius of about 40km, and have found the vets to be excellent.   Much cheaper than the UK too.   We also only feed hay.

[quote user="Anton Redman"]It is not the card reading software that is the problem,. The bank of petrol pumps dials up for authorisation of the card after you have input the pin number. Nobody has agreed the protocals for aiuthorising UK cardsn France .  [/quote]   If this is the case, it is only at automated petrol stations.   I often use my UK card in chip and pin machines at French supermarkets and other retail outlets, with no problem at all.

Well, I suppose that if his merguez spurts too often he may not have much energy left to think about spelling........

There are only the present and the imperfect forms of the subjunctive.  Using the imperfect is a sign that you are very, very highly educated (some might say a bit snobby).   So don't worry about it, as SB says!

Yes, you can do it as a non-resident with no problem.  That's what we did when we bought our house and we only converted it to a resident account when my husband finally became full-time resident in France (I still am not).   It really depends what you want it for, but if you are going to be in France regularly and are contemplating a house purchase having a bank account in place is one less thing to worry about. Personally I would go for a proper French bank rather than Britline, and I would also avoid Credit Agricole, but I know that others might not agree.

We found Llivia almost by accident on holiday a few years ago.   It's worth going to for buying cheap booze but not much else - although it's interesting to find a Spanish enclave in France...... Font Romeu is supposed to have the sunshine record for all of France.

I saw one only last weekend!   A British registered car turned right in front of me and proceeded to drive on the LH side of the road.   I flashed and hooted like mad and he got the idea, luckily before he had met anyone else coming at him head on.......  I think it's turning into another road where the real problems arise and where you really need to keep your wits about you, particularly if you are in a RH drive car.

The vet came out to our horse (15 km) because we thought she had a vision problem, did the eye examination, took blood for a blood test, returned to surgery, did blood test, and then sent a bill for €46 for the lot.   I think that's pretty cheap!  

Cliff Richard kissed me (but it wasn't a lot of fun......)

I am far from being an IT expert, but I think you just need to make the change  in 'email accounts' - you set your incoming email address to your BT Internet and your outgoing to Wanadoo and that should do it.   For a permanent solution, can't you automatically forward your BT Internet emails to your Wanadoo account? Then you won't need to keep changing back and forth.

I'm sure that it wasn't genuine.   I have had loads of these over the past few months and deleted them all without replying.   Last week I paid for something via Paypal with no problem.   If I had really had to 'update my account' to avoid losing it, surely it wouldn't have worked.......

La Boite a Cadeau?  I've noticed that shops round us that have 'cadeaux' in the name seem to do better than ones that don't, even if they don't sell a lot of presents.   For example, the nearest florist closed down a couple of years ago and was replaced by one that sold 'fleurs et cadeaux'.     They don't actually have many cadeaux but they seem to sell them all and the shop is doing really well - particularly on Sunday mornings.   We live in a pretty poor area but people are always ready to take a present when they go to visit.

Thanks.   Yes, SNCF do know how many people use Frethun, but they won't tell us - or even the maire of Frethun.   We need to try and put some pressure on the British side and it would be helpful to be able to quote some figures, even approximate.   It's less the economics of the stop and more that they want to reduce the travel time to Paris (Brussels Eurostars don't stop there), we have been told.   To begin with no Eurostars at all were programed to stop at Frethun, but local pressure brought about a change - so it can work!  

I have recently become involved with a new association called Opale Link, which aims to encourage cross-channel commuting.  We would like to see French people from the Pas de Calais commute to work in the UK, (there are many more jobs available there than in Northern France); and also encourage UK residents to move to the region and continue to work across the Channel, thus taking some of the pressure off the British housing market.   The long term aim is to enable the Pas de Calais to benefit economically from its exceptional geographic position. However, we have learnt that from 2007 Eurostar trains will no longer stop at Calais Frethun.   We want to bring some pressure to bear in order to try and prevent this happening, and are therefore interested to make contact with British families living in the Pas de Calais who currently use the Eurostar to commute to London or Ashford.  If we can show that there is a demand we will have taken the first step!   Please get in touch if you are in this situation or feel you can help in any other way.   Thanks in advance.  (This is also posted under the relevant regional site).

I have recently become involved with a new association called Opale Link, which aims to encourage cross-channel commuting.  We would like to see French people from the Pas de Calais commute to work in the UK, (there are many more jobs available there than in Northern France); and also encourage UK residents to move to the region and continue to work across the Channel, thus taking some of the pressure off the British housing market.   The long term aim is to enable the Pas de Calais to benefit economically from its exceptional geographic position. However, we have learnt that from 2007 Eurostar trains will no longer stop at Calais Frethun.   We want to bring some pressure to bear in order to try and prevent this happening, and are therefore interested to make contact with British families living in the Pas de Calais who currently use the Eurostar to commute to London or Ashford.  If we can show that there is a demand we will have taken the first step!   Please get in touch if you are in this situation or feel you can help in any other way.   Thanks in advance

Try http://www.grandoptical.com/index.asp They seem to have lots of branches and deliver glasses pretty quickly if you have either a prescription or old lenses

Dear Chessie, I hope you have taken comfort from some of the other posts.   If it's any reassurance, our old dog was put to sleep by the vet here in France last year with the two injection method.   She first gave an anaesthetic in a vein, but then couldn't find another one and ended up doing the second injection directly into the heart, which she said that she was trying to avoid.   The dog reacted quite badly to he anaesthetic - she was 19 years old and her heart was weak - but after the second injection she died almost instantly.   The vet said that she wouldn't have felt anything at all almost straight away after the first injection    Please try to remember that you did the right thing for your cat and that it's very unlikely there was any suffering at all.    I am thinking about you.    

[quote user="Loiseau"] [quote]...for the o, there's trapezoide (sorry, can't work out how to put the symbol in), hemorrhoid,  and probably others too.   [/quote] Sorry to be nit-picking here, but  think actually the two dots would come on the *second* of the vowels, so: trapézoïde, Noël, haïr and so on... Angela   [/quote] You are not nit-picking!  You are quite right..... If I'd worked out how to put them in I would have seen that for myself!

Can't think of any for the u (though you never know when you might want to use a German word) but for the o, there's trapezoide (sorry, can't work out how to put the symbol in), hemorrhoid,  and probably others too.  

I like: walking down the street and saying hello to everyone and vice versa people taking a real interest in what you do (though some might think this is just nosiness, it has been absolutely wonderful when my husband has been ill and I haven't been there, for example) having conversations with people without their raising what they think your/their house is worth or what kind of car you/they drive in the first five minutes being able to eat really well at any number of small and reasonably priced restaurants in the vicinity, even though we live in a very poor area having friends from all walks of life who don't make a big thing about being different from each other (with a very few`exceptions)    

I live further to the north than Picardy but would suggest that either Amiens or Abbeville are nice towns with plenty going on.   Like all larger towns they have rough areas, though.   Generally speaking, the nearer the centre you are, the better/safer the area.   I'm afraid I can't help about schools.

There is a good range of alcohol-free aperitifs whcih taste not unlike vermouth called 'Palermo'. There is also an alcohol free pastis called Pacific.