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Monika

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Everything posted by Monika

  1. We had exactly the same experience as you Ford Anglia at a Campsite in Burgundy. I thought then that I  would not want to live near a Vineyard but then again living in the country near any crop is not really that healthy!! Regards the Asbestos roof: they have just put a new roof on our church hall, they did not remove the asbestos roof but covered it with ply wood and then put somethings like Zink sheets over it. It looks really good.
  2. Monika

    Gastro?

    [quote user="PossumGirl"]Oh yes. We had that in the States too.  Also, we used to have Pepto Bismal which is for all types of stomach upsets.  I'm waiting for the rain to calm down a bit to go over there... PG [/quote]   I came across this topic while searching for a remedy for my neighbour's dog. So can you really give Pepto Bismol to dogs? Thanks!
  3. [quote user="catalpa"][quote user="jxedwards"] So for us it would be the cost of the property is what we are paying for renovation. [/quote] I'm guessing you didn't pay €25,000 for a ruin, then? [:D] [/quote] That Formula did definitely not work for us! Let's say Purchase Price x 3
  4. Hello Blisters, we have had a holiday home in Suisse Normande since 2003. It is a great area, near the ports and with plenty to do. (Sight Seeing, Walking, Canoeing, Climbing, Swimming in rivers or local pools etc.)  The locals are very welcoming although quite a few English have settled in the area (there are quite a lot of businesses owned by English people). From what I have learned from my French and English neighbours, the schools are very good. I will ask a friend of mine to answer your topic more in depth as she has settled in Suisse Normande permanently. Welcome in Suisse Normande!
  5. I am so pleased that another discussion on woodburners has started. This topic is very dear to my heart and I have done lots of research into it. I agree with Ford Anglia I would buy French too. I won't name ours either but we had so much tar coming out of the flue joints (on the outside!!) because the installer used a French Flue (smaller than the English) on an English Stove, so somehow he had to turn the flue upside down for it to fit (I am still in discussion with him and we have not resolved the problem yet) I also have to admit that to start with we burned the wrong wood and now only burn well seasoned hardwood. Regards insurance: I have gone over our insurance and can't find anything about installation of woodburners and their cleaning or also if it needs to be installed by a registered chauffagiste? Can anybody install a woodburner? Or if you don't have the relevant guarantees of installation by an expert does this make any insurance claim difficult or impossible? I am going to ask the farmer down the lane, if he could sell some wood to us. What is the translation for well seasoned hardwood? Somebody on this Forum once told of a "secret Code" the farmers have: they display something at the roadside to tell you that they are selling wood. But I can't remember exactly what?
  6. Years ago we had exactly the same scenario with our new neighbours in England. They had two huge Alsations and they threatened us just like that and I was so worried for our cats but in the end it never happened, they had one or two confrontations but they lived to a ripe age of 20/21 (the cats!)  As long as you have lots of trees around your property, they will be pretty safe. They will soon know where they are safe and I have found that cats sometimes are quite provocative towards dogs and they quite enjoy a challenge. I hope everything will go OK!
  7. It was really strange to read my very old posting and I think it would be useful to tell you what happened in the end: We withdrew from buying the property and decided to convert our barn opposite. A young French couple bought the house in question and  to overcome the problem the Notaire set some money aside (I think it was about 3000 Euros) to safeguard eventual expenses in sorting out the problem of landownership. In the mean time the land and delapitated farm has been bought by English people who generously let our neighbour have the land in exchange for water and using their washing machine. So it was a happy end!
  8. Your Summerhouse, Ab,  sounds exactly what we are looking for. I actually saw some on the Castrorama Website, can we actually buy one at Castorama itself, i.e. at Caen or does one need to order it through the Internet? Were you able to rely on the delivery on time (it says on some of them that it is under a week). We don't have much time as we are only there for some long weekends.
  9. This is an amazing topic and La Roche can't really be serious but he is playing "devils advocat" to get an interesting discussion going. Surely anybody who would do this would burn their bridges, just imagine, you could never go back to the UK again, you could never ever get a credit rating again. And in the long run, we the consumers suffer for such acts.
  10. All these situations pale into insignificance, we had the ultimate nightmare scenario: we have bought 14 houses in England over 34 years, everytime we asked all the right questions, did all the right things and the 15th time we bought an apartment in a block of flats on top of a cliff it happened, exactly 1 year later, I was just in Switzerland, my husband phoned me: "Do you want the good or the bad news? The good news is, our view is even better than before, the bad news is, I am phoning from the beach!" Well it was not quite as bad as that, but what he was referring to was a huge landslide which had taken away part of our garden and the coastal path, the value of the apartments made a huge nose dive and I can't think of anything worse to happen, this is nature and not much can be done against that. Anything else going wrong can be dealt with. However the good news is, seven years later, the flats are selling again and more or less at the value they should be!
  11. Reading that post sent a shiver up my spine! I am glad I am not on a sailing boat going through the (Chenal du Four) or worse the Raz!
  12. I think (some time ago) I have read on this forum that if you get smells from a Vent Pipe to put a pair of tights over it (that's apparently what the French do!).  As there are so many knowledgable people on the this thread, do you think this really could work before I send my husband up the ladder?
  13. I agree with J.R and believe that you should meet the costs yourself especially as you know the people and I am sure they told you in good faith that the tank was working. I would think 90 % of old French houses' septic tanks don't conform to the new regulations. So whatever you would have bought, the septic tank would need replacing. It's not that expensive especially if space is not an issue (it should not cost more than £ 3000) and once you have the necessary soil samples and permission it is only a matter of a day or two to install.
  14. I wondered thunderhorse if you are OK now having turned the flue around? Ours is the other way round, i.e. the female/socket pointing down towards the floor and we have a huge tar problem all the way down the outside of our flue. Could this also be because our outside flue (on the roof) is not insulated?
  15. I don't beliieeve it! I booked a week ago and it cost us for 4 days £217.00 Poole Cherbourg return with Cabin one way (car 2 people) and discount on 12th May. I looked today and due to the new special offer I could have had the same trip £ 34 cheaper!! So it does not pay to book early!!
  16. Great! Congratulations. How is your search going in France?
  17. You could try and find the nest which is usually in a hollow tree. Then you could get a special "foam" spray to kill them or I would personally prefer to call the fire brigade and they dispose of the nest but it costs about 40 Euros.
  18. I can't quite see what the problem is in contributing by submitting you opinion. After all "Living France" provides us with this Forum and surely they are entitled to some "benefit"! To be able to use the Forum of the most popular Motor Caravan Magazin you have to buy the Magazin in order to know the Code (it changes every month) to access the Forum!
  19. We have renovated and extended an old barn. I often ask myself why we have done this, because there are no original features left (and I love houses with lots of them!) apart from one beam and the stone walls on the outside. All other beams had to be replaced, and inside it is all "placoed" and highly insolated and we don't even have a resident mouse now!
  20. Just Katie: I am intrigued about your "Avatar", what is it?
  21. I have a question regards booking/price/availibility inquiries on the LD website: what am I doing wrong, for all dates requested in May and June there is the message that there is no availibility from Portsmouth to Le Havre. Are they already fully booked?
  22. Mystery is solved, this is "insider information": apparently Barfleur had a great streak of black oil/tar down her side w, which has been washed off.
  23.   I too have recently been considering this aspect of my life in France.   Many French people have told me that superficial friendliness is typical of the South, and people will be all over you at first, but just out of nosiness (or curiosity, that sounds less harsh!).   Once they know what they want to know, you won't see them again.   My english sister in law who lives in Canada complains about exactly the same thing, that all friendships with Canadiens are superficial and a friend of mine (also english) says exactly the same thing about the Americans. 
  24. In Normandy and our area it starts the last Sunday in September. That is, if there are any animals left to hunt!
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