Cacknanty

Checkout http://www.v1ne.com/champagne_houses.html for contact details. It's got some good hangover 'cures' as well.

I concur with MWJ, Mercier is well worth a visit. Moet et Chandon  is quite an upmarket visit and contrasts well with the Mercier tour. They are fairly close to one another. Castellane, to us is the most 'down to earth' visit and has a butterfly house (costs extra). We have also visited Taittinger and Veuve Cliquot in Rheims, we found Vve Cliquot to have been the most friendly and helpfull of all champagne and vineyards we have vistied (and we have visited quite a few!!!). We were given a full size book, 4 mini books and the children got a set of caps for each champagne they produced. Couldn't help but buy some of the produce. 'Factory gate' prices seemed to be similar to supermarket prices and about 2/3 the price of UK. Oh yes, the cathedral is quite impressive as well. cheers  

On our last visit we heard that a village dog had got into a field and killed 17 sheep. The owner of the dog has had to pay the farmer for the sheep, the dog is still alive but kept inside or outside on a chain. The owner of the dog that bit my son has had to put his dogs in a 'run'. Strange how it takes a dog to kill another animal for something to be done in the village. Thanks for all the info and advice. Regards

Our theory as to why french supermarkets don't sell dry Martini is that it is because they sell Noilly Prat. Although we have very occasionally seen dry Martini. It is not the same and at first we didn't particularly like it, but we persevered, well we did have a bottle to get through. Now we quite like it. My question is, why have they stopped selling 47 proof gin ? Cheers

I just wish he wasnt called Nigel Regards Nigel

Being cheapskates, a couple of people in the village have our UK contact details and that is it. The immobilier who sold us the property remains in contact and helps with official docs and issues, this 2 years after buying. The place just sits there and the grass grows around it. If we don't go at the end of May holiday, then come the summer the grass takes three days to cut and burn (weather permitting). It is draughty enough to never smell or be damp. We don't have a pool so that is one headache less. Water and electricity are switched off. A key is available for those that know where it is, should it be necessary to get inside. Looking at the height of the grass in other properties, a lot of other people do the same. Good luck  

We did the same as Leschenauds, excepted painted it on. Reduced the 'fall out' considerably. Cheers  

Sorry Keni, I've not answered your supplementary question, the glass plate (bowl), if it's not covered in black soot, allows you to see the warm glow of the fire, ahhhh. However it soon soots up and all you can see is black, booo ! When you take off the small left front plate, that is the boiler, you definately do not want that full of oil. Oil flows into the bottom of the boiler where it is burnt. So it should be full of flame. You need a good seal around the plates, as smoke can escape around the joins. Ours has a sort of rope seal. The oil filler (if it's the same) is a pipe which opens up to a wider neck (about 1") with a tin cover. Located abover the controls just below the glass plate. Good luck

Yes we have cooked in the oven, it's superb for baked potatoes, Pizzas and anything else that you might normally put in an oven. We have also cooked on the top and have bought a stove kettle. Around the chminey stack is a collar with rods that can stick out to hang washing on to dry. Very stylish ! Cheers

We have a Rosieres cooker at our maison secondaire, on buying the place we thought it would have to go. However after using it for a few of the cooler weeks have found it to be brilliant. Ours is not plumbed in, either for oil supply or water heating. It has it's own oil tank, guage is rear left of the heater plates. Filler is the largish pipe with a tin cover behind the small door. We use a plastic watering can to fill it from the tank in a barn. The chimney vent (open it to light the beast) is accessed by opening the oven door and is top right. Pull it out. Turn on the oil tap, behind the small door at the bottom and turn the control knob (numbered 1 - 6 or more) to 3 to max. Oil should now drip/flow into the boiler. Take the cover off the lighting/inspection hole (possibly has a chain so it doesn't get lost) put in a splint/cotton bud etc to soak up some oil, light it and put it back into the boiler. Let the oil get hot (approx 5 mins) and cover the inspection hole and close the chimney vent thing. Depending on how cold it is 10 litres lasts about 2 days. Our place is a one up one down with a farmhouse to be renovated. We have not burnt anything other than oil in it. If you don't want your Rosieres we will be happy to take it off your hands for our farmhouse project ! Hope this helps, cheers

Another way of checking the current weather is to go to the Autoroutes website http://www.autoroutes.fr/index.php?lng=2 Clicking webcam, clicking the burgundy area and you have a choice of Auxerre, Moulins, Beaune and Langres webcams. Doesn't look to bright at the mo! I also note that meteoconsult now charge for a 6-10 day forcast, for a 10 day forecast try http://uk.weather.com/weather/local/FRXX0164?x=14&post=post&code=code&y=10 for Nevers or change the city to wherever you require.

Last summer my son was bitten by a large dog in the centre of our small village. At the time we accepted the profuse apologies from the family that owned the dog and their offer to replace the lads torn trousers. Since then we have learnt that the same dog has bitten 4 other people, including the Mayors secretary! It would appear that nothing has been done about the dog or it's owners. Is this normal or should the owners be reported to some authority, if so which one? We are mindful of the fact that as we are only there in the holidays we don't want to cause any ill feeling amongst the community, at the same time none of us want to become the equivalent of a few tins of PAL. Thanks for any help.

Have just looked thru the T & C's of this latest Frequent Traveller scheme, they say a supplement will be due for using a vehicle over 1.83M high, but don't mention what the supplement is. Also the account holder must travel on each leg of the trip, what happens if ones partner travels seperately? I have asked ET for answers to these 2 queries and will post their response when I receive it.  

We had this problem, so sent the OH (should that be BH) to the local EDF office with the current meter reading as this was significantly less than what we had paid for (by Direct Debit). The EDF person took some convincing that no one would be at home in January when the meter would be officially read, or that we couldn't leave a key with neighbour. Whether our reading (which won't move between then and February 05) will be used for the next bill I don't know, we shall see. It is possible be to have fitted a remote meter reading device, at a cost. Not sure what that cost is but I think it has been mentioned in previous threads. Cheers

We started off with a DdT, but had it returned as we were putting windows in the roof, (both velux & chien assis) and converting the upstairs to a habitable area, we needed to complete a Permis Construire. Both our agent and the Maire thought the DdT would be sufficient.... ho hum. We had to present 4 copies of everything, including a map of the area, plans before and plans after with the changes in marked in red. Our total habitable area came to about 160 sq m so got away with not engaging an architect. good luck

If Dyneff is a Fioul depot then yes, that is what we did at first. 3 x 25 litre plastic oil containers. Occasionally you may find a petrol station has a fioul pump. We have had occasion to use diesel when we have run out on a Sunday but it is more expensive. We eventually got round to having a delivery from the depot, it worked out cheaper and didn't stink the car out. I have since noticed that Carrefour and Auchan/Atac offer a delivery service as well. Also we once had occasion to use fioul in a lorry, but don't tell anyone as it is just as illegal in France as it is in England ! Cheers  

I think Troyes is where all this designer outlet factory shop malarky started out. Huge areas of buildings, Macarther Glen is only a part of one area which include Marques City, Pont Ste Marie. Marques Avenue is another area on the Dijon road out of town with lots of other places dotted around the city. So much therapy - so little time !

Having the roof replaced at the moment, to save on cost we removed the old tiles and laths ourselves. The tiles on the north side were in a lot worse condition (lamination) than those on the south side, presumably due to staying wet, absorbing the water then freezing. The old tiles were dated 1972. We assisted in the removal of tiles from another property in the village where a similar problem had occured with tiles dated 1984, although not quite as bad as ours. It seems very poor to me if roof tiles only last 20 years.My house in the UK (built 1939) still has the original tiles but very little lamination. I am wondering if it would be worth spraying the french house roof (certainly on the north side) with a waterproofer (say Thomsons). Has anyone any experience of the effectiveness of this, or would I be wasting my time and money ? Thanks

CCF are a french bank owned by HSBC. I think there are less than 300 branches. Checkout www.ccf.fr for further info. Cheers

Not really, but it might have grabbed a bit of attention. I am looking for the cheapest and best 'Vins en Vrac' in Burgundy. So far I have found the Cave de Mazenay at 1.35 € for 13deg rouge to be the best . Their 11 deg is at 0.95€ per litre. On our next trip we will visit a Mssr Bouley at Change who has Pinot Noir & Chardonnay at 2.20€ per litre. Anyone else have their favourites ?

I opened an account with CCF from my HSBC bank in the UK. Some other threads indicate that CCF are a bit like Coutts, however they have always been ok with me and there isn't any more than a few hundred euro in the account. Cheers  

I have found that buying slippers a size too big and a pair of hob socks generally means I can win kudos in being able move away from the front row of the heater ! Providing I'm wearing said items of course .....  

Bixy,  We took a 7.5 tonner twice last year on the chunnel, it cost £350 return. Turn up and go within I think 72 hours of the date stated on the booking. It was very quick with no waiting at all and a hostess serving tea/coffee etc in the 'mess' car. On one of the trips, rather strangely a German VW Polo came across on the 'freight' train. I wonder what he paid ? Cheers

At the rear (left) of our hotplate is the fuel guage showing empty, half and full. I believe it to be a simple float device. At the bottom is a drawer presumably for pots and pans, we use it to catch any drips as it is filled up. On the front right is a timer but no model name or number. The boiler is a Dutch make but I can't remember what and as we are also back in the UK can't check it out. Hope you get it sorted on your next visit. Cheers  

We have a Rosieres oil fired cooker, it has it's own 10 litre tank which is filled up with a jug! To get the thing going we do :- Open the chimney vent, a pull handle, top right inside the oven door. Turn on the oil tap at the bottom of the boiler, turn the heater control to 5 or 6 and allow the oil to flow into the boiler. Take off the cover to the lighting tube and insert the taper, or long cotton bud and let it soak up the oil, take it out and light it. Put it back in the tube to ignite the oil in the boiler. Once it is well alight take out the taper/bud and let it get up to temperature. Close the chimney vent and select a heater control setting that you require. It took us quite some time to get this process right and smoked the place out on numerous occasions. But now we think it is the best thing since sliced bread. The only issue being filling it up with the smelly oil every couple of days. Oh and not spilling any of it ! Have fun ............ cough cough splutter