Mjc

[quote]Lorraine ,

Our trusty old fax machine has finally decided to retire itself after many years of faithful service. Since the number of faxes which we send and receive is now quite small, we wonder if we should bother to replace it. Consequently, I have experimented with sending faxes from the PC, and despite an almost total absence of instructions, did manage to get one away correctly. However, it would be nice to feel a little more in control, and I wonder if there is any simple idiot's guide to sending and receiving faxes via a PC (assuming that such instructions are not  lurking somewhere on the system already - and where?)? Presumably, it is necessary to be up and running and connected to the network in order to receive a fax? Is there anywhere (any organisation), who will hold incoming faxes, rather in the manner of emails, until one logs on and downloads? I have found one or two, but they are only interested in high volumes and their basic charge is uneconomic for the very few which we now receive each year. Thanks in advance for your enlightenment.

As all you honest people know, any winnings on your UK premium bonds must be declared on your annual French tax return. Does anyone know if the UK authorities will be advising the French tax authorities of all Ex-pat winnings after the 1st July - or will they be deducting the 15% withholding tax?

We too live in the southernmost part of 17, and wondering if there might be others like minded, we posted the following in "another place" with a singular lack of success (bar one). The same posting is repeated here to see if we can engender any interest. "I have just visited the excellent Limousin ex pats web site:- www.limousin-expats.com and must commend them on, what seems to be, an exciting initiative. Is anyone in Southern Charente Maritime/Charente interested in doing something similar in "our" area? There are enough of us, and perhaps between us we could start something up. If you would like to be involved, reply to this posting, and let's see what we might do."  

Our local garden nursery, which has some super citrus trees, tells us that we should cut off all the branvhes which have frost dried leaves, and the trees will recover. If we do that, we won't have much left!

[quote]Interesting about the facilities, Mjc... I used Rochefort recently, having never used either it or La Rochelle before. It was *tiny*! Well OK, it had a loo and a small bar counter (though I was gla...[/quote] Hello Angela. I confess that my information about Rochefort airport came from Charente Maritime's official quarterly publication, which, last year, had a two page write up on the new facilities and extended runway at Rochefort, suggesting that it might be more central , and therefore more suitable, than La Rochelle. L.R. I know is quite small, and so I believed the Charente Maritime blurb. Sorry if I (they) got it wrong!

It's a pity that the switch to Rochefort is only temporary, as they  have longer runway, better facilities and, above all, is much nearer to where we live.

We were in southern Spain for eight weeks during the winter, where, we were told, it was the coldest winter for forty years. We noticed that all the citrus groves had most of the trees suffering as you have described. When we arrived home, we found that all our, previously healthy, citrus had been ravaged by frost, despite being under glass and fleece wrapped. We have just noticed a few new buds on the shrivelled branches, so hope that they will recover.

Cary wrote :- He is also quite revolting and will eat everything too that most dogs would roll in!  He is particularly fond of poo, any type will do horse, cow etc he can be quite disgusting!  Cary, that problem can be fairly easily resolved with just a little patience. If you are interested to know how, send me a PM and I'll let you in to the secret.  

Again, many thanks for all the helpful replies. At the outset, I did not know whether the advertised devices gave shocks or simply some audible warning that the dog would learn to associate with "No". Normally, this particular dog is extremely responsive, having been fully trained by us in all the basics of sit, stay, heel, come, down,  etc, but once she gets in to the great outdoors she becomes totally deaf - even ignoring calls that promise goodies. She had been raised with a pack of some ten salukis with total freedom in her breeder's private wood, and we did not acquire her until she was nearly ten months and totally free spirited. Looks like an expensive fencing problem, which is doubly annoying because we are planning to move shortly, after ten happy (dog-problem free) years. What's the cost of about 750 metres of fencing - plus access gates?

Thank you for all your helpful replies and comments. If I1 is correct, there is absolutely no way we would use an electric system which administers pain. Our understanding was that there was a very slight shock similar to the static which you sometimes experience when touching a car door for example - just enough to make one jump. This is borne out by the posting from Cary above. I will certainly read the various web sites listed before we do anything which might be harmful or painful to our dog. We have experienced, some years ago, one of our dogs, touching an electric fence in the countryside, and then turning on our other dog, presumably in the belief that the latter had bitten her. Prior to that, they had been (and became again) the best of friends, but the amazement of dog number two was a picture!

I think this question was raised some time ago, but I cannot find it. Apologies if I am duplicating the query. We have a very large, open garden in the country, which would be extremely expensive to fence. We also have a fairly newly acquired and wilful dog, who, we found very rapidly, loves to chase our neighbours chickens. Since our neighbour is also our mayor, we do not want to antagonise her - or her chickens! Has anyone installed (or seen) the "fenceless" system of restraining a dog within the confines of its own territory. Do they really work - and how do they work? Another alternative would be to close off a smaller area of the garden with an electrified fence. But is that practical or indeed safe and painless to the dog? What sort of cost might one anticipate? Any help and advice from two frustrated owners and one frustrated saluki would be very welcome.  

Thank you Richard, for your very helpful reply. Do you happen to have or know where to find the precise specification of the alarm system as defined in the French legislation? As for an alarm system having to be active 24/24 7/7, what happens when one goes shopping or on holiday or whatever? The alarm may be active, but in the countryside, who would hear it? Would one still be within the law having installed an alarm and then going away? I seem to remember that, several years ago, my Canadian based brother telling me that they had had similar legislation. However, somewhat paradoxically, after the law was enacted, the number of child drownings in pools actually increased because parents relaxed more, assuming that the pools were then safer, but, as we all know, children will find a way around many obstacles. The law was (if my memory serves me correctly) subsequently cancelled and fences are no longer required.

"It (the fence) must be at least 1M from the waters edge." The above is culled from a recent reply to this thread. Very interesting! Our pool has high walls on three sides. Two of these are walls of our house and of a barn, the other is a garden wall some two metres high. However, two of these walls are less than one metre from the water's edge. In order to comply, we will, presumably, need to knock down and rebuild the garden wall one metre away, and secondly, demolish one end of our house and move that wall back by a few centimetres....or of course, we could make our pool smaller! These regulations really area nonsense. We know one person who has a 10x5 metre pool in his garden, which will require fencing. He also has an ornamental fish pool about 20 metres square and up to three metres in depth. He does not have to fence this! You cannot leave a bicycle within 1.1 metres of the fence, since a child might use this to climb over the fence. BUT, you can leave it two metres away, because a child would never, of course, move the bicycle to the fence himself! Can someone please clarify, because we have read conflicting advice, is an approved alarm, all that is necessary, or must it also have a fence?

Yes, it's a beautiful area (10 years here), but, unless your funds are unlimited, look just a little inland to find the "same" property for significantly less than those with a sea or estuary view - and you will also avoid the crowds in July and August. We have been thinking (and looking) to move elsewhere in France, but after each trip to another region, we are always happy to get back to Charente Maritime.

In a recent BBC programme on this topic, it was stated that if you have lived (legally) in New Zealand for ten years when you reach retirement, you will receive a pension equal to 40% of the average wage - whether or not you have made any contributions during that time and irrespective of the value of any savings you may have. Any one want to join me on the next boat? I wonder how many people who are worried about the size of their pensions, have a large amount of equity locked up in the homes, which could (carefully) be released. Do you hope to leave that sum to your children, even if you have to lead a threadbare old age? We have calculated that, should we need to boost our retirement income, we should be able to do so through an equity release scheme (if we could find one in France), and feel that at the end of our lives, our needs are greater than that of our adult children. Am I missing someting?

... or US Dollars? For those of us whose earnings/pensions are paid in sterling or dollars, the increasing value of the euro starts one thinking about how to protect the value of those earnings. We have just received notification of a small increase in our pensions wef April, but the gap between last year's euro and this year's means that our income is still considerably lower. Has anyone found any way to mitigate the difference (short of returning "home")? We do buy a fair amount of groceries from England, by mail order, which is cheaper than the same or similar items here, but what else could we buy in sterling? House insurance? Car insurance? Haven't found any, but if anyone has some good experience of paying for French needs in sterling...

I thought that the hunting lobby claim that they hunt to destroy vermin and that the "sport" is secondary. According to someone I know near Pau, although there are foxes there, the locals do not consider them a nuisance. Kind of blows the hunters argument out of the water!

If it helps, CCF (now a subsidiary of HSBC) do not charge for internet access. As for Boghound's tirade against Mazan - I found it totally unnecessary and incomprehensible.

Could be glis glis, or the edible dormouse. Quite common in France. I think there was a thread on thes ebeasties a  year or two back!

Do the hunters realise (or care) that there are more birds legally allowed to be shot in France than in any other European country. That's bad enough, but birds which are on the endangered and protected lists of neighbouring countries, such as Luxembourg and Belgium are "fair game" in France. Most hunters to whom I have spoken in France are not aware of the above and usually shrug their shoulders and say "If it's permitted, I will shoot them!" Like Mazan, we live in the countryside as we did in England for most of our lives, and found, both there and here that the majority of country dwellers are either indifferent to or against hunting. Mazan's 5% indicates the apathy in this country and, happily, that percenatge is falling steadily each year.

Try www.canissimo.com We use them but have not yet had to claim. You may find leaflets of other insurers in your vet's waiting room.

My local computer supplier is constantly suggesting that it would be better to switch from Windows to Linux. Being a total greenhorn, I have a number of questions which I should like to ask of those who have experience of both and who are possibly unbiased .... but can you please keep it simple? 1. Where do you get Linux... and what do you actually get? 2. What does it cost? 3. How easy is it to learn? 4. Apart from avoiding viruses, what are the advantages? I thank that will do for starters, but I'm sure I shall think of many more questions as I learn more. Thanks in advance.      

Thank you for your helpful reply. I have been offered a fairly new computer by a friend here in France, which has XP French installed. Interestingly, it is a Packard Bell, so I will investigate further the situation regarding the recovery CD. If she has this, is it a relatively simple matter to ru, do you know? 

How does one replace the French version of Windows XP for an English language version? Would the cost for the Windows XP English version be the same as buying new, if one only wanted to convert the "narrative" - after all, the bulk of the coding is identical? Anyone had any experience? All help gratefully received.