Neil Henshall

I must admit, the first few paras of free.fr looks inviting. Free phone calls mean nothing to me as most of our calls are international or mobiles. However the free.fr deal includes international destinations gratuit including Australie (I am Australian). I just have to work out if it is compatible with my home network (I have a router/modem) I am an ex-Tiscali user, their customer service is awful and they are difficult to leave. The French forums say the same. Wanadoo are expensive. I used to be a memebr of a email group hosted by wanadoo which has been off the air for the past week as Wanadoo had technical problems. Not encouraging! France suffers from a lack of real choice. I've been reading a French website which lays the boot into all the FAI's/ISP's. Still confused! Neil

I am just quitting Cegetel ADSL after a year of problems and I notice Neuf (or N9UF!) are doing some interesting deals.   Does anyone out there have ADSL with Neuf telecom and is it any good?   Thanks Neil

There is no equivalent of "Browning" in France. Plaster here is a good deal more expensive than in the UK. Sand and cement is the way to go, (I use Tradifarge + sand on stone houses) and then over the top with Lutece 2000C. It's a lovely plaster to use, but expensive at 15€ for a 32kg bag. I've only found it at PointP. If you have a large area to do and it's in poor condition, then consider overboarding. This is the preferred option in France, its fast, and cheaper than doing the same in hard plaster. You end up with rooms that are easier to heat. A couple of months ago I did a calculation, and per square metre, overboarding is by a long way the cheapest option, even if you arent paying for your own labour. The polystyrene-backed board is used on external walls and stick it on using Mapp or PM1. Finish it with PM5 on the joints. In France you dont render the board, just the joints. I had a house rewired last year and all the French sparkies told me that they are obliged by EDF not to install electric heaters unless the walls are doubled and the rest of the house is insulated. One guy even said double glazed. This is probably not what you wanted to hear. When in France... Cheers Neil