Monika

Or ask at the Mairie, I only just realized how much the French use the Mairie and the Maire. Our French neighbour practically "lives in the Mairie", having changed his mind about 10 times where he wants his garage!

My only worry is that Dick does not have Internet Access in France. I would definitely have withdrawal symptoms not seeing him on the forum for such a long time.

I found those two sites (recommended on this forum) very useful (and not too difficult to understand with my french): www.batitel.com/revues/tva,php and www.devistravaux.com/fich-practique_l.html. I hope I have copied them O.K otherwise they are on page 9 of the Home renovation

Thank you to you both. Have forgotten to mention the state of our garden and the look of the Fosse: Whilst the Contracter has done a very good job we now have not one blade of grass left on our 700 m2 of garden but many more huge rocks.  It looks like a herd of pigs have been let loose. (How long will it take until we have our "lawns" back? We have sown some grass seed) Whilst we do not have exactly a burial mount, the fosse is slightly raised but they have landscaped it with stones.

We have just returned from France, but did not meet the English neighbours. Our French neighbours told us that they are not there until May. We could not really see much, a few bushes removed, on the land you can see no tyre marks (perhaps the terrassier had already reinstated it, he apparently went to talk to them, so did the people from SPANC). We even heard rumours that they might be willing to sell that piece of land to us. While we were there, we were offered several pieces of land for 3 francs the m2 (it is agricultural land)by a french family. We were very tempted, but it is across the lane and it does not make sense and I remembered the good advice which was given on this Forum, that the Notaire's fees are around 900 Euros, which was confirmed. 

Thanks for all the good advice: We decided to go on a 24 hour trip to see if we can sort things out, it is difficult to tell from the e-mail of my neighbour, as I am not a fluent French speaker, if he was supposed to tell us or how much! We will certainly take a bottle of Whisky with us! The Fosse does not need to be emptied that often (according to this Forum only every 4 years), as it has got a filter bed, and we still do not understand why they had to access our garden via their strip of land (but I suppose the mistake was made, because it does look a bit like our access, as it is accessible via a gate and then a long overgrown track, leading up to some boulders who show our boundary). Well, I keep you posted, but then again, it's not really that interesting!!!!!   

Thanks to you all. Just to clarify a few things (I had been waffling on a bit). I had the e-mail from my immediate French neighbour who was approached by the English people and who asked him to offer an explanation, I suppose because the French neighbours live there permanently.  The English people live about 200 yards down the lane and they own the strip of land ( & 12 hectares), on which the Fosse man has trespassed! When I was talking to the Fosse man he said that access via our drive would be fine, he would just have to enlarge it a bit (which in the mean time had been done by the masons driving their vehicles in and out). Well, yes, the Fosse is in and hopefully we can sort it out amicably.

I thought I share this "interesting" problem with you, as I said above a problem....! We had an E-mail yesterday from our French Neighbour, that two weeks ago our fosse has been installed and to access it the "tracto-pelle" trespassed across a strip of land (which had been used by a tractor some time ago, when we bought our place in 2003). This strip of land now belongs to our new English neighbours down the lane who had just bought the old deserted farmhouse with most of the land around us. When they came last weekend they were very angry and demanded an explanation (compensation was mentioned) from our immediate French neighbour, who could not give any but explained, that we were surely also unaware of this. He then informed SPANC (I think this is a agricutural organisation) who got in touch with the Fosse Contracter. We also sent an e-mail to our Project Manager who I think did not know about it as I had organised most of the Fosse installation myself. Now shall we just lean back and not do anything, shall we write a letter of apology to the English People whom we don't really know (if they  belong to this Forum please accept our sincere apologies), should we "hang, draw and quarter" the Terassier? Advice gratefully received.

Hi Menace, we are not happy, you can never guess what happened, we just had a long e-mail from our French Neighbours telling us while he was on holiday (and of course we were not there) the "Fosse Contracter" has gone through an unused strip of land which belongs to English people who have just bought the delapitated farm further down and all the land around us, to access our house (why he had to do this is a mystery to us). The English people who have just arrived , apparently are very angry about it and asked our French neighbour for an explanation which of course he could not give. They are talking about compensation and he says that he has informed SPANC (which I think is an agricultural body) of this trespass. So I think I better not recommend this Contracter. And we have to sort this all out, a good start to our new life in France!! 

Hi Menace, we are not happy, you can never guess what happened, we just had a long e-mail from our French Neighbours telling us while he was on holiday (and of course we were not there) the "Fosse Contracter" has gone through an unused strip of land which belongs to English people who have just bought the delapitated farm further down and all the land around us, to access our house (why he had to do this is a mystery to us). The English people who have just arrived , apparently are very angry about it and asked our French neighbour for an explanation which of course he could not give. They are talking about compensation and he says that he has informed SPANC (which I think is an agricultural body) of this trespass. So I think I better not recommend this Contracter. And we have to sort this all out, a good start to our new life in France!! 

Hi Menace, our Devis is for 3000 ltr Fosse with Filterbed exactly 2983 Euros (this includes TVA). We had originally applied for a grant (the Mairie encouraged us and gave us the necessary forms). It was agreed that they would contribute 1500 Euros. But I think we have missed the completion date now, as we decided to do the renovation first The firm doing the fosse ist: Gauquelin S.A.R.L. 61100 Les Tourailles Tel. 02.33.66.39.27 Website is: www.gauquelin.fr (The contact person is Patrice). I will let you know if we are happy!    

[quote user="Hoddy"]I have found this thread very informative. As I am only a mediocre French speaker I shall give the word "negre" a wide berth, although I can't really think when I would have wanted to use it. Hoddy[/quote] Hoddy, you could use it when you fancy a "tête nègre", I was pleased to hear they are still called that and still available, they are yummy! Here in England it is now politically incorrect for children to sing: "Bah, bah black sheep..." It has been changed to "rainbow sheep". It amused me to hear my future daughter in law who is Brazillian say to my "demanding" son: " I may be black, but I am not a slave!" 

Oh dear, we might well end up with a burial mound as well, because it is very rocky (with the disadvantage that ours would be in the front garden). We are going to see it next week, I will let you know!

Thanks a lot to all and Pumpkin. I now feel more confident when I discuss it with Project Manager.

Thank you to all of you for your very helpful advice. Just to clarify a few points: It is just the screeding which costs 750 Euros per 25 m2 the concrete floor cost much more (I think about 2500 Euros) so I just feel if it is not absolutely needed then this money could go towards a wood or possibly tile floor. The space up to the French door jamb (is that what the thing is called were you step on?) is about 3 inches. Could the cables go behind the plasterboard? And the pipes "cased"? (It is actually going to be a bedroom, a bathroom and a separate WC)

The last job on the workschedule given to us by our Project Manager is the screeding of floors (after the plasterboarding!!). The screed will go on a new insulated concrete floor (750 Euros for 25 m2).  Is this absolutely necessary? I would be happier to have a wooden "floating" floor similar to decking but with no gaps, so pipes and cables could be buried under that and we would already have a floor ready to be varnished or painted.  Before I make a real fool of myself and ask, could this be done, or is this a stupid idea?

Thanks for that, I did not know that. Our fosse septique is pretty close to the house and I have visions of strange smells wafting through the air on a "balmy" summer's evening. Perhaps you could also give some advice how to keep the right bacteria alive so no smells can develop. No bleach, I know that,  but what else can you recommend? Thank you.

One day: sounds good. Will let you know about the connecting pipes! Thanks!

Sorry to change the subject, but I am not!!!! Well, my biggest nightmare on the Forum is that nobody answers me, or that with my reply I kill a thread, so I say a big thank you to all you people who valiantly and courageously come to my aid and answer me, clique or no clique!

We are soo exicted, our fosse is being installed at last. (Hang on: Its only a fosse??). But it is frustrating not to be there. Can anybody out there tell me how long the installation takes, does it depend on the weather? Do they usually also dig the connecting trenches to the bathroom/kitchen? I think the fosse consists of a big tank (3000 ltr.) and a filter bed? Thanks for any information on it.        

Sorry, I meant to quote Will's posting regards Wine and Beer World Majestic in my previous posting.

I have sent them an e-mail to ask about above promotion. Answer as follows: Thank you for your email. I'm afraid that we do not have an offer for a free ferry crossing from Poole or Portsmouth to Cherbourg. However if you place an order with us for over £300 we would be able to arrange a £30 discount. This is basically refunding the equivalent cost of the Dover to Calais day trip.   I hope that this helps and if I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.   Kind regards   Edward Betts

With the advance of science I strongly believe that it will happen in the not too distant future, especially with cancer or illnesses brought on through psychological factors. "Miracles" will become an every day occurence even for non believers!

I think at present you Dick nor me could be healed spontaneously because we don't have the belief, nor could we lie on a bed of nails. But I think self healing will be used in medicine in the future, through a drug or hypnosis or a gadget (like seen in Star Trek).

I grew up in a place of Pilgrimage (St. Nikolaus, Patron Saint of Switzerland). And the healing of a tumour was one of the miracles which happened in my childhood. All doctors had given this lady up and it also vanished instantaneously, this was attested by two doctors, one very sceptical. The lady in question was very devout and  had travelled many times to his shrine. She must have had such a great believe and perhaps was on a spiritual level to a Indian Yogi. I think the catholic church even in those days were quite careful what they called a miracle.