Motorhead

Linda you really should be talking to your local drainage authority and getting the whole scheme sorted out with them before you even contact a builder about it. If you get a builder to do all the paperwork you may well end up paying for more than you need eg a vertical sandpit when a cheaper horizontal onE would have been fine. http://forums.livingfrance.com/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=285&MessageID=248290 Details my experience with the local DA. It would be a lot simpler for someone who is not as awkward as me. Before the fosse is covered over the DA have to come out and inspect it to see if it conforms to the regs DTU64.1. If it conforms then a certificate of conformity will be issued. No cert and it's no payment for the builder but legally you must get him to state on the devis that it is to conform to DTU64.1.

Muc Off is actually very good stuff. Weird but good. It's dear but you can get 5l refills which makes it a lot cheaper.

http://forums.livingfrance.com/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=288&MessageID=246807&TopicPage=2 and some other stuff I've written that you can do a search on. The tanks can usually take a bit of bleach etc but it all depends on how well they are working to begin with. It's wise to minimise potentially harmfull substances as much as possible. The four year max vidanges are to do with public health (or the authorities' perception of it). A tank may well become smelly and generally unpleasant long before it's a health hazard.

The difference between Britain and France is that France is one nation and Britain is not. If one can be English/Scots/Welsh British then one can also be Pakistani or Carribean British. Another difference is the British enterprise culture. Nobody would give decent jobs to non white immigrants in Britain either but then they were able to make their own work. 

Yes and not a lot of people know this but Silkolene is a brand name of Fuchs Oil. Muc Off has only been around for four or so years. Where have you been or is that a silly question to ask a plumber.

OK then the modern type of fosse septique that everyone is supposed to have for next year is different from the older type in that it is "toutes eaux" ie it takes all the water from inside the house and not just the toilet water. To tell them apart you really have to look at the pipework from the house to see what is going in. You will have to get the tanks emptied by a licensed contractor at least every four years. There is other advisable maintenance (do a search there's been loads about it here in the last year) but the fact that you have to get a vidange every four years means that the authorities aren't expecting folk to be all that carefull with their tanks.

Good to see that Mark has done his homework before posting a question unlike so many others. French bikes are all suposed to be restricted to 100ch or 73.6 KW/Kg (not quite the same as 100bhp). Registering a bike over this limit can be done but it has nothing at all to do with documentation. You cannot get a full cert of conformity for a bike like this even from Yamaha France therefore you are at the mercy of DRIRE who may or may not be awkward. The main problem is that the restriction/derestriction is very easy to do and motards routinely derestrict their bikes often by as little as cutting a wire in the fuel injection circuitry. So in theory it is usually easy to make your bike conform to the power limit but in practice try convincing the DRIRE. DRIRE inspectors actually have a lot of leeway in these matters and you might just be lucky and get one who takes your word for it. Probably ,though, you will get told to have the mods done and certified by a main dealer and have to come back for another inspection (86 euros a time where I am). Then it will be "come back again with a dyno certificate" and then it's "that's a rear wheel test, you need a crank dyno" and so on right up to " I don't think you will keep it restricted so no chance mate". And this is all above the other niggly things they can do like insist that all your plug caps etc have E numbers. Unless you have loads of money and patience and are prepared to ultimately write it off, don't even think about it. However, there is a 100% legal alternative which I am currently pursuing for my FJ1200. http://cgi.ebay.fr/Cadre-carte-grise-de-GSXR-1100-annee-1991_W0QQitemZ4586255277QQcategoryZ117469QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem is an example of a registered frame being sold. I have already found one at 250 euros but it was a slightly different (later) model than my bike. Once you aquire a cadre avec carte grise it is perfectly legal to reframe your existing full power bike into it and DRIRE don't even get to sniff at it. Of course you could just swap the plaque constructeur (VIN plate) over but that would be illegal strictly speaking. Alternatively you could just keep it on a British plate, it is far easier to do it with a bike than it is with a car and we all know how easy that is (for the time being).  

Andy's right that only full licences are recognised internationally. But, if you are over 21 and have a full UK (or other swapable) car licence and change it for a French one you will notice that it will then also give you a full licence for bikes of up to 125cc. BTW you will need a full licence for the chemins also.

http://www.ffmoto.org/ Look particularly under "randonnée verte" in the drop-down menu. There should also be a local club. France is full of public green lanes known as chemins. Get an IGN Series Bleue map (local supermarket or www.stanfords.co.uk) and you will see most of them as bold single black lines. Anything that does not terminate in a dead end or have a notice at the start saying "chemin privé" is fair game but beware of stray bullets in hunting season and always remember that livestock has right of way 

  Some communes will have the capacitiy to do every thing in house but they are very rare, usually in areas where private drainage is common the communes are  too small to support their own "experts" so instead they rely on the departmental quango which is usually known as SPANC or SATESE or BDQE and what  a bunch of chancers they are in my experience. They will tell you that certain things are compulsorary when actually they are only recommended. The technician from the BDQE told me that I had to have a 300litre "indicateur de fonctionment" which is really quite a good idea but try asking for one at a builders' merchant. There they are known as decoloideurs and are not made in a 300 litre size nor with the false bottom shown in the "fiche technique". It was only when taking this up with the BDQE that I found out it was only recommended. The procedure where I am (03) is you go to the mairie to get the forms for the BDQE, fill them in (not difficult but you can get a private company to do this for an inflated fee) and take back to mairie. It does not matter much what you put down in the application as no matter how good it is the BDQE will want to change things. As the secretary at the mairie told me the form is "only to get them to come out". Mairie sends paperwork to BDQE who then sends out a technician within two months to do a site visit who tells you what you need and that he will send out a "fiche tecnique", which details everything, within one week. Two weeks later phone the BDQE to find out what has hapened to the fiche......."ah" the technician says he's talked it over with his boss and has to do another site visit. After second visit finally get the fiche (loads of pictures in it with measurements changed by BDQE and which do not add up) that may or may not contain some components that are actually available. Phone BDQE to query measurements and supply situation, head of BDQE clarifies matters but will not put it in writing as he is "the one who will do the final inspection" (hmm). Once you get the fiche you can then either go DIY or get quotes from companies to do the job. Some building or terrasement companies will say that they can do the application for you but I would distrust their motivation for doing this. 

Check for redness around the operculum (gill cover). This is a sign of ammonia poisoning which can mimic the effect of low oxygen levels.  Ammonia may or may not show up in the lab test as the nitrosomas bacteria may have converted it to nitrite by then. 

Well Ron it's because you're going to be filling up yet another land fill site. Brico Depot do a stuff called Oxygen which is based on phosphoric acid just like coke and I would recommend this as the first option. Dave is correct in saying that you can use almost anything, even dairy hypochlorite, in your pan as long as you don't flush it into your tank. Exactly what you can and cannot flush into your tank varies according to individual circumstances. To find out exactly would involve a calculation that took into consideration: 1) The buffering capacity of the tank (large tanks wiith few solids have a better buffering capacity than small tanks with a lot of solids). 2) The current PH of the tank. 3) The acidity/alkalinity of the substance used. 4) The alkalysing effect of the limescale removed 5) Whether you have taken a previous recommedation of mine and stuck a bit of tufa rock in the tank.  There's a few more variables like the prescence of chlorine that I really don't have the time to go into right now but what I am trying to say is that it can all be worked out scientifically but usually it aint worth the bother. Like I said in 90% of cases being 100% scientific is a waste of money but it can be done. If anyone is having problems that traditional  wisdom cannot overcome  PM me and if I'm not away on a research contract elsewhere I will help.  

Well let's get deeper. I'd never thought of France in terms of a "buffer zone" before, a crazy mixed up country that can't decide  whether it's north or south and does this make it the place that we love?

Point taken Ty. But if all or most of this weed is genetically similar it shouldn't be too difficult to create a disease to kill it eg think of dutch elm disease.

I got this post from a French guy on another forum. Made me think!   "A thing to understand about France is that the existing laws are rarely applied in most cases. France is not a "communty based" society but a highly individualistic one, which means that social pressure is not strong. if you break the law, not many people will say something about it. If the governement decides to crack down on something it will be through repression : want people to respect speed limits ? set up automatic radar devices, triple the amount of cops doing random speed chacks and ask them to increase the number of fines they give out... governmental policy is really hypocritical, heavily institutionalised, slow moving. In a way revolutions are a telltale sign of a reactionnary country... but it's not all bad, far from it.  these aspect of french mentality can be in fact at times highly enjoyable, or despicable, depending on the circumstances. A lot of it comes from the fact that france is a buffer zone between latin europe and northen europe. A weird mix..."  

I love a good conspiracy theory too! However it usually proves to be more a case of cockup. The interesting thing is that all this stuff is actually possible or would be if the upper echelons were organised enough. The 1918 virus probably was dug up from an icebound cadaver otherwise, how would they know it was the same thing? Even if there is a pandemic some people will die and others will live. Life has always been a lottery, it's called evolution. I don't intend to cramp my style over this.

The Day of the Triffids beckons. Really I think this horticultural lecturer chappie was talking mince. It is possible for two separate species within the same genus to breed together eg horse/donkey or lion/tiger but the resulting progeny are what is termed as "unviable" ie they can't breed any further themselves eg mules are infertile

Ever been to an American 'feedlot'? I think BSE is the very least they should be worried about! "Yes sir, would you like fries with your avotan, aureomycin, zinc bacitracin, clenbuterol and assorted steroids. Have a nice day!"

Had one years ago. They work best with newspaper rather than the glossy stuff and the "logs" take ages to dry out.

Don't think it's anything to do with friends. There is currently a guy in the Scottish prison system (who has already walked away from 2 murder prosecutions) who I have a relationship with. My side of it is that of a prosecution witness and on his side he just wants to kill me. When he gets out it's really going to be a kill or get killed situation. I am not afraid, I think I would have a fighting chance (he's aready tried to knife me) but  I am not willing to entertain the potential jail time. No wonder I'm in France!

No, you can use any JPEG image stored on your computer. The forum software will resize it for you.

http://www.yamaha-motor.fr/corporate/yamaha_global/country_finder.jsp?continent=Europe Is the webpage with the addresses of all the Yamaha importers in Europe If it's a relatively new bike it might be worth speaking to Yamaha UK before the French. A lot of bikes like TTR250's have actually been coming into the UK through France. Yamaha France are generally very good but if they don't play ball you can always go above their head to Yamaha Europe in Holland.   

Viva Older septic tanks will have the washing water going elsewhere but they are supposed to be illegal next year. The modern type take all the water from inside the house. Many washing powders contain bleach which is bad in large amounts relative to the space inside the tank. Aggressive washing powders can cause a lot of lint in the run-off, this can clog up the epandage or filter beyond the tank particularly if it's man-made fibres. Tag They're called hoors in Glasgow too! 

Hard to find French insurance for a bike not reg'd here. Best bet is probably a local broker that you already insure a car with. No CT for bikes but this can sometimes make things more difficult.

Ron I hope you don't try an experiment on yourself.The wood boring insect threshold for tolerating low moisture conditions is way lower than the human one. However, there is still a limit which is achievable for non termites. You can prevent the blighters coming in the first place by sealing up all the cracks in the wood. Only the grubs can actually eat the wood, the parents can only deposit the eggs in cracks. Dave Bagpipes are traditional round here! Did you get my email about the phone no. Kathy I think if they were active it would say activite.