Opalienne

Where I live domestic violence is common and no-one seems to find it very strange.   It's good news to hear that something is happening about it, even though I think it will take a long time for lots of people's attitudes to catch up with the law.

The Luxembourg Minister for European Affairs made a good point, according to Reuters: "Avec tout l'amour que je porte à la langue française, je crois qu'il y a d'autres problèmes, notamment en France", a-t-il déclaré alors que les Vingt-Cinq allaient dîner.

And Yes, you do have to change the number plate on your E type and get it registered in France.

I posted before seeing your last post so at least you've thought about taking the car away...... I just hope that you make it back to the port without further problems.   But please do register in France the minute you can.

I'm not going to go in to the rights and wrongs of this (though I can't understand why you think you can keep an English registered car in France for 5 months before registering it there, and I'm puzzled about the insurance too) but why didn't your husband just move it somewhere else, e.g. an underground car park?   They were bound to come back for it, and now he will have real trouble getting it back without a tax disc........ And of course they will take it rather than the abandoned cars in the street because they know (1) it won't be hanging around the car pound for ever and (2) it's not a cheap car and he will be prepared to pay a considerable amount of money to get it back!  Sorry if it sounds harsh, but there's really no point in feeling sorry for yourselves when you haven't had the common sense to avoid any of these problems.  

[quote user="St Amour"] Also discovered that St Pierre is John Dory, which everyone probably knows anyway.  Does anyone know what Doreé is in English though? [/quote] Isn't it another name for St. Pierre (at least in the south)?

Yes, apparently Mrs. Chirac's parents were not at all amused when they discovered that she intended to marry Jacques..... NQOCD, as my mother would have said!

Has anyone noticed that 'French surveyor' has popped up again, using his own name this time rather than in disguise as Ms Duff?

No, no. my husband is definitely Victor Meldrew (and proud of it)!   Re Brits,  what I really don't like is the assumption that because you are the same nationality you are automatically going to be their friend. helpmeet, translator, sorter out of problems with administration, language and God knows what else.   Nor do I want to spend hours listening to them complaining that they didn't expect France to be so different and have so few facilities for them.  I would like to be friends and spend time with people because I like them, not because I was born speaking the same language.

Excellent!   Thanks, Christine

It's a charity that collects small change (pieces jaunes) and supposedly gives the money to fund projects aimed at improving the lives of children in hospital.   They charter a special train and go all over France.   The 'frontmen' are Bernadette Chirac and ex judo champion David Douillet. I need to be careful what I say here, but anything with that family's name on it raises very considerable suspicion in my mind and there's no way I would part with any cash to any of them.

Amateur footbal club Calais beat Brest last night to get into the semi-finals of the Coupe de France, where they will be up against some real giants.   This is the second time in 6 years they have got this far - in 2000 they reached the final and only lost because of some inventive diving by a player from their opponent Nantes. They have little money to support the players and last time round the municipality had to pay for them all to have a week off work before the final; otherwise they would have been coming to the Stade de France straight from their jobs.   If anyone is passing through Calais please do buy something at their supporters shop - scarves, key rings, car stickers etc -  in the new Quatre Boulevards shopping centre in central Calais (near the theatre).    I am not connected with this enterprise, or the club, but just want to try to help the team to have the best chance it can.   There are some depressing things about Calais, but this is not one of them!

Ah, but don't you remember reading not so long ago that an awful lot of the more esoteric stream of consciousness stuff in Ulysses was actually due to it being typeset in France by people who didn't understand English?  That really did make me laugh out loud, having being forced to spend ages poring over it in order to 'interpret' it........

I have never heard of this with gites.   With chambre d'hotes, yes, but friends of ours who used to offer evening meals gave up because it was such a tie and guests were always complaining that they didn't like this or that, so they ended up cooking separate dishes for different people.

I think that they may have confused it with Grandmother's day...... don't take it out on them!

Cat is completely silent apart from the occasional squeak (for a male he has a most un macho voice).

Yes, mine is on the 4 key and holding control and alt down simultaneous works for €

Cats can be quite embarrassing too.  One of ours humps a very old and squashed teddy bear.   Normally he keeps him in the bedroom but when there are visitors he carries him downstairs in his mouth, and then goes into energetic humping mode.   He is usually rewarded by much laughter, so presumably thinks that he is doing the right thing by exhibiting his strange habits in this way.......

I am a bad sailor and for three years commuted every weekend by ferry (Dover-Calais).   Sometimes in the winter it was horrendous, but I found that so long as I lay down the minute I got on board, shut my eyes, and didn't move until the ferry docked the other end, I was usually OK.   But I too would recommend the tunnel for someone who gets so sick.   There are plenty of hotels in and near Calais that have secure parking.

[quote user="Tresco"] Thanks Opalienne re/ notification for Christenings and best received gift. Do you mean a chair for a toddler, a small wooden chair for instance? [/quote]   It was actually a small upholstered armchair, suitable for a 1-4 year old.  It's still being used even if the little girl is now 7 and has to squeeze herself into it!

You are not alone.   I am fairly recent too, so maybe this kind of thing went on in the past and I missed it, but some of the posts in the last month or so have been very tiresome indeed.   I don't have a problem with vitriol, but some of the recent stuff is just plain silly........

For Christenings, we have always been invited at least a month and sometimes several months in advance.   For funerals, we get a death notice in our letterbox, but maybe this doesn't happen in larger places.   Re Christening gifts, the best appreciated one we have ever given was a small child's chair.  Otherwise silver eggs cups, spoons etc

Our dog runs away whenever the hoover comes near. We tried once to take him him to toiletage, but the lady who runs it said that his coat had to be hand-plucked and we lacked the courage to ask her to do it........

What do you mean, French tax?   There isn't any.   How is it insured?  If it's still on UK plates and no UK tax I would have thought that they were perfectly within their rights to tow it away (or worse).   I hope you sort it out.......

The thing that has always stuck in my mind, above all others, about Thatcher is that she once said "there is no such thing as society."   Maybe that's why some of us like living in France, where people do seem to care about others and 'solidarity' is something to be proud of rather than just an embarrassingly socialist concept.   We live near Calais and there are a small number of brave and selfless French people who look after the hundreds of refugees who are still milling around with nowhere to go after the closure of Sangatte.   They get no thanks for it - and indeed are regularly picked up by the police and prosecuted for any excuse - but they go out twice a day, every day, to try to help these poor people have a bit of dignity (not to mention something to eat).   Some of them even take complete strangers home with them so that they can have a wash and a bed for the night.   I can't see that kind of thing happening in either Thatcher's or Blair's Britain.   I hope someone can prove me wrong, though