Cat

You're welcome [:)] There are two ways to check if something has been covered before.  The first would be to scroll down in the section in which you are posting (in this case French Finance) to see if someone has already posted.  This is especially true for anything to do with a recent tax or contribution demand, as these all arrive at about the same time, and always raise all kinds of questions. The second way would be to use the search facility in the top right corner. Searching on "Contributions" would have hauled in quite a big net.  

This was covered here very recently, you mught like to read what was said http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/767703/ShowPost.aspx  

I think the following link has been posted before, but it is quite a useful reference for translating idiom equivalents. http://www.e-frenchtranslation.com/proverbs.htm#Uncover%20the%20mystery.  

I use the cream fixer quite often, and always successfully. You can find fixe-chantilly in the same rayon as cake baking materials, it comes in a box about the same size as a pack of swan vestas When using UHT creme I always add just a little sugar and a drop of vanilla essence to improve the flavour.  

Just as well it was on last night, as I tried to watch the DVD that had arrived from Amazon the day before, and it was unplayable. I'd seen it before, but was tempted by the low prices to order Jean de Florette, Manon des Sources, La Gloire de Mon Père and La Château de Ma Mère, as they are among my favourite films. The follow up to J de F, Manon des Sources, is on the same channel next Monday night.  

Another thing that amazed me was to see my other half eating raw poitrine fumé, I know it's smoked, but to me it is something that shouldn't be eaten without cooking.  Maybe it's a french thing.  I had to insist, when we did a raclette last weeked, on putting the poitrine on a seperate plate to the other charcrouterie. We like to serve quails eggs with the raclette, we crack them into the trays and cook them in the same way as the cheese.  Kids love doing this, and most adults seem to enjoy it too. We're a bit untraditional about the whole raclette thing, we also but out bowls of pineapple slices to cook, and those little artichoke hearts that come in jars, and roasted red peppers (again from a jar, usually), sliced mushrooms, and a big bowl of steamed cabbage with lardons.  I think sometimes french people can be a little wary about straying from the traditional way of cooking and serving food themselves, but they do like to try different things, and end up eating everything with great enthusiasm anyway.  

Donnie Darko, it defies classification.  It makes me feel good, bewildered, sad, happy, and even like singing.  Even though I always cry at the end (or rather, as I have now watched it so many times, just before the end, as I know what's coming). From the moment the film starts, and the music swells, I'm in heaven. And the soundtrack (not the soundtrack album, which is a complete rip-off) is, for me just superb. Sigh...  

All explained, with symbols shown, here.  

I think the original poster was saying that the symbols that he was trying to decypher were not the same as the ones used in programming (as everyone has already posted, less than, less than or equal to, equal to, more than, and more than or equal to). So now I'm interested to see the actual symbols.      

But you live in London, a city.  If you moved to Hesdin things might indeed be different, but you are comparing apples with pears.  Do you think people would smile and say hello in Paris?  

It is indeed!  It's the Château Ribagnac, and if you can't wait until tonight to catch up on what's been happening you can check out their website http://www.chateauribagnac.com/en/index.php   They have a photo gallery and newsletter showing their progress. They sound very happy, and say they have no intentions of "going back".  Good luck to them!  They did their research, got stuck in and worked liked maniacs, had a few disasters along the way but now seem to be really making a go of it.  It'll be interesting to see how the progam tonight portays their story.    

Erm... we can't see them! You might be able to see them yourself, if they are on your computer, but for them to be available to everyone else you will need to put them online somewhere first (Flickr or photobucket image hosting) and then post the link.    

Cheneau=gutter, so... ml of gutter cut to 0.50 Naissance=...erm... could be line (as in naissance des cheveux=hairline) or uprising (up-pipe) or possibly cradle?    

Dave Most notaires are reliable and trustworthy, it might be a wiser move to decide on your area, and then ask for pm's suppling the names of those that people have found to be otherwise. It is usual to use the notaire of the vendor, although certainly possible to choose your own to split the work.  If you do decide to split the procedure between two notaires however, it is likely to take longer to complete on the sale, and is unlikely to work to your advantage. Notaires do not work in the same way as conveyencing solicitors in the UK, and are only obliged to make sure that the formalities of a sale are concluded in accordance with the law.  They do not act in the interests of the vendor or the buyer.  

Often pharmacists err too far on the side of caution, even though have been trained to identify edible muchrooms.  Ours tends to dismiss everything except cepes, couremelles, girolles and mourelles as inedible. We have loads of different mushrooms in our woods, and I've been trying to identify which are which.  One website I've found unbeatable is http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/  .  This is by far the best mushroom identification site, and is written by Roger Phillips, the same guy who writes the mushroom identification books.  It has a very useful Visual Key and Easy Key mushroom identification tool. Perhaps the very best thing that anyone interested in eating mushrooms they have collected can do however, is to make certain that they are able to identify the death-cap (Amanita phalloides) http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~5556.asp .  This is the most deadly mushroom known, and if eaten results in a 50 to 90% death rate!  It's quite common in France, and there is no known antidote.    

[quote user="Eskenazi"]I'm only surprised it's so few. If you asked a cross- section of those who actually know France well but have to live in the Chav-dominated, vomit-ridden, thug-infested, alcohol-soaked slum that England has become, I'm sure you'd get a rating of 4 out of 5. [/quote] It's been said before, but here goes anyway... Sure, anyone who has moved to a sleepy village in France, and maybe doesn't watch or read the french news, might not be aware that France suffers from exactly the same problems in her inner-city areas as the UK. Everything might look pretty rosy here for anyone not living or working in the cities. Drugs, alcohol, urban violence, social unrest, rioting, unemployment, crime, they're all here too.  I'm lucky enough to live in a rural area where we don't have too many of these problems, and I like it here in France (but then I liked it in the UK as well) but I put away my rose-tinted specs a long time ago.  

To my shame I have to admit that I don't, but I know that I should as the site just wouldn't work if everyone was as lazy as me about making recommendations [:$]  

I can't personally recommend a hotel, but I can recommend tripadvisor. They list the CDC airports, and give ratings and reviews (good and bad) based on the accounts of people who have actually stayed at them. I aways use tripadvisor when searching for a hotel, and have not yet been disappointed with any of the hotels I have chosen based on the reviews. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g196587-Roissy_Ile_de_France-Hotels.html Looks like the SuiteHotel Paris CDC is reasonably priced, and rates as the 4th most popular of the 23 hotels reviewed. Hope this helps.    

I don't know about Lille youth hostels, but from my experiences backpacking in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, I'd say that the promiscuity and bed sharing were the primary attraction for quite a few youth hostellers! Not me, I hasten to add [8-|]  

Well I live about 30 minutes away from the Dordogne, in the Lot, and I think maybe the Dordogne flies are taking a late summer holiday in my area.  Although it is quite rural around here, and there are no livestock farms nearby, there are quite a lot of flies.  We get around 5 or 6 in the house each day at the moment, despite only having the windows open an inch or two. Like Louise, I have an electric tennis-racket type fly swotter, it's the best 5 euros I ever spent.  I can electricute the blighters without splatting them all over walls and ceilings, in fact I only have to lightly touch a fly with the bat and it falls stunned to the ground. I'd say that around here, in summer, flies and wasps are definately a problem, although the only places they really bug me are in the kitchen and the bedroom.  For this reason we're having fly screens for the windows in our new house.  

You could try Lapeyre, they seem to have shops nationwide, and have a good selection of countertop porcelain wash basins. http://www.lapeyre.fr/  

[quote user="M"] I wouldn't bother pluckimg the pigeon. Just skin around and remove the breast meat. There isn't much else worth eating on one. M [/quote] Now you tell me [:(] It did seem like a lot of work for very little meat, although the pigeon was easier than the partridges.  I'm going to cook the partridges in the Normandy fashion (with apples, calvados, cream and poitrine fumé). The pigeon I'm not sure about yet. Anyone got any good recipes?  

I've got a little job to do. I've been putting it off all day, but now I can dilly-dally no longer. On Sunday we were up in northern France, visiting my other-half's parents on their farm.  The local hunt had just finished, and we were given two partridges and a pigeon. I'm the type of person who always buys her chickens ready plucked, with all their innards packed in a nice little plastic bag, but in just a few minutes I shall be donning my biggest apron, tying back my hair, and plucking and gutting my first bird[+o(] Thanks goodness I've Mrs Beeton to fall back on, otherwise I wouldn't have a clue. Then I have to truss and cook the beasts... now, where did I last see the string?  

[quote user="Jon D"][quote user="timc17"] [quote user="Jon D"]My brother went out with Bernard Matthews' daughter for a short while. She takes after her dad. [/quote] Which one? Kathy or Vicky? I  used to hang around with his kids when i was a teenager in Norfolk.  [/quote] Lord - I can't remember. It was about twenty years ago. They met at what was then called the Samson & Hercules, I remember that much. Where did you live? [/quote] Oh my, I had quite forgotten about Samson and Hercules.  I used to travel up from Ipswich for big nights out there, and then tuck into the biggest burgers I'd ever seen from Zac's burger van in the car-park afterwards. Must have been the late 70's.    

Might it be due to the same reason as the other french destination flight suspensions? "Ryanair has announced it is to suspend a number of flights to France during the winter months, and defer the launch of its Stansted to Deauville service. The flights affected are: Luton to Brest, which will be suspended from November 11 until February 27, next year. Nottingham East Midlands to Nimes, which will be suspended between November 9 and December 19, and between January 9 and February 28. Shannon to Nantes, which will be suspended from November 9 until February 27. Ryanair’s new route to Deauville was set to take off on October 31 but this will no longer occur, the airline says flights will be suspended until February 28. Peter Sherrard, of Ryanair, said: “We have selected these routes for withdrawal because they were the poorest performers in terms of advance bookings. “However, we have assured each of the relevant airports that these routes will restart next February, well in advance of the summer season when travel to the French regions is strong.”