[Bike Show]

I knew an old bike from Bagnoles, once long ago.

Patrick

[Looking for someone to deal with artisans and manage a remaining tasks on a build. 80120]

Hi anuvid

I'm in the area and I have 3 properties of my own in this postcode. 

I have sent you a PM

Patrick 

[Anyone for golf? Deauville 29 Sep]

I'm visiting Deauville on 28-30 Sep. and could do with a golf partner or partners.  Does anyone from around there fancy a round of golf?  Either at the New Golf where I'm staying, or any other course nearby.

I live and play in the Pas de Calais normally.  My handicap is currently 15.

Patrick

 

[Marquenterre - anyone around?]

Thanks for that.  Sorry - been having major internet problems or I would have responded earlier.  We're still unpacking boxes and bringing the house up to scratch at the moment - so can we take a rain check on the idea?

When it's all straight and the plaster and brick dust is out of our hair and noses, we hope to find new friends in the area.  Cup of coffee or a glass of something would be very welcome then.

Patrick    

[Marquenterre - anyone around?]

Vanessa, we liked St Valery when we looked for a place there back in 2000.  Unfortunately we couldn't find anything that suited us at the time, but it's always been one of my favourite places in this region. 

Woolybanana, if you're looking for a town with some authentic character in a beautiful setting, St Valery would be my recommendation as a starting point.  I'm sure pagnol8 could tell you more about its facilities and the quality of life you'll find there.  Just a couple of miles outside the town, towards Abbeville, we recently found the prettiest little 18th century (I think) chateau I've ever seen, in good habitable order, for sale at a very reasonable price.  We were strongly tempted to buy, but we would have had to make a lot of changes in order to provide a granny flat, so we reluctantly turned our backs on it.  

We're now close to the Authie estuary.  I used "Marquenterre" in the topic heading to give a general idea of the area without being specific.  We have owned a second house in Fort Mahon for a number of years and we had noticed that the area seems to have a micro-climate of its own such that the weather on this part of the coast was always a bit warmer, dryer, sunnier than at home near Hesdin, only 50 odd kilometres away.  It can get a bit busy in summer, of course, but you can't blame other people for wanting to take advantage of the same benefits we came here to enjoy all year round.  I imagine St Valery can get a bit clogged up in August, too.

I hope you'll both get the opportunity to spend more time here.

Patrick 

 

[Marquenterre - anyone around?]

After 6 years living near Hesdin we've just moved to a location near the seaside towns of Fort Mahon, Quend & Rue.  Got a bigger house so as to accomodate my 88 year old mum.  

Anyone living around here? 

Patrick

[Le vent, c'est tres fort - Pas de Calais]

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

And the boats aren't running either.

I only just put the tiles back on the outbuildings from the last blow.

I blame the wind generators. We have enough wind without having great big machines to make more .........

[/quote]

Nothing to do with the windmills.  It's perfectly obvious there aren't enough of them to create this much wind.

Why can't people see that it's the trees waving their branches around that is the cause of these storms?  Far from planting more trees, we should be cutting them down as fast as we can.

Patrick

[Help needed! Family wanting to move to Northern France!]

Eurostar is pretty useless for commuting to London from Calais anyway, because you can only stay for a few hours before having to get back to Waterloo to check in for the return.

The shuttle is better.  Some years ago we, too, used to get from our house in Docklands to our house in the Pas de Calais (about 80km from the tunnel) in less than 3 hours from door to door.  We don't any more, because after less than a year of owning the house here, we found we preferred to be in France all the time.

Patrick

[Help needed! Family wanting to move to Northern France!]

It is possible to travel to London and back on Eurostar from Calais Frethun station.  Unfortunately, because of the current timetable, you can't get anything like a full day's work in at the office before having to check in at Waterloo for your return journey, so it's not so good if you're planning to work just one day at a time in London.. 

A better bet for people who live in the Pas-de-Calais region is to take a car on the shuttle.  You can buy a bundle of 10 x 24 hour return tickets very cheaply, and although it can be a horrible drive from Dover to London, spend the whole day in your office before setting off to return at a time of your own choosing.

You wouldn't want to do it every day, but if you have to work there one or two days a week, it's not out of the question  

If you were to settle down in a seaside place between Calais and Le Touquet - Hardelot, for instance - you could make the trip in about 3-4 hours each way.  Best if your office is in South London, of course.

Patrick

[North West France?]

Surely the Pas-de Calais should be the region to be given its own section (OK, I'll allow the Somme in, but not the whole of Picardie). Furthermore the Pas-de Calais section should be the first in the listings.

After all, it's obvious that the rest of France is just an appendage, dangling off the bottom of this important, historic region.  A region which has the strategic advantage of being situated within 3 hours drive of  4 European capital cities - 5, if you count Luxembourg - yet retains a truly France Profonde ambiance.

Brittany is so far detached from mainstream France, it should be lumped in with Corsica or even the DOM/TOM bits.

[Internet "cafe": Montreuil/Hesdin area (62)?]

If you are bringing your own laptop I believe you can connect at La Chope, a cafe/bar in Hesdin run by a helpful and knowledgeable English couple.

Our cottages have wireless broadband access for guests, and many hotels in the Accor group do as well.  Some Accor group hotels also have Pay-To-Use internet terminals in their lobbies.

Hope this helps.

Patrick   

 

[Going off to France ?? ...]

According to the BBC yesterday, a guy called Walliams (surely a misprint?) was so desperate to leave Britain that he swam across to Calais from Dover in near record time.

Patrick

[Wanted - Information on Teenagers, by Teenagers]

If it's any help to you, I was a teenager once, and those new Wimpy Bars are really great.  Definitely worth copying if you want to be absolutely with it.

Patrick

[Picardy]

Picardie covers an enormous area, but if you've got the choice of where to go, why not have a look at Chantilly?

It's a nice town in a pleasant area not too far from Paris and close to airports, railway links, etc.  The inhabitants seem pretty well off and there are loads of recreational facilities.  It has a spectacular chateau, parks and open spaces, golf courses, a race course and good shops and restaurants.

Alternatively, what about Compiegne, for pretty much the same reasons?

It might be a bit expensive to live in either of these places, though.

Patrick

[Cinema's Where are they.]

[quote user="Tillergirl"]

Also while i am here and posting. As i do

not know what French people actually like to converse about, (different

cultural prospectives) i am somewhat lacking in confidence to strike up

an attempt at the momement to start a conversation in fear of making a

faux pas.

So

if any of you know of where else i can go to meet other English people

in order to build my french conversational skills over a coffee i would

also be grateful of the information.  I find not knowing anyone

very lonely at the moment.

[/quote]

There's a weekly French class at the Richelieu cafe/restaurant in

Hesdin where you might make some progress with the language and also meet

some new people.

Patrick

[Road sign]

This is true!  A very nice girl once remarked to my wife that there were a lot of villages called "Rappel".

I also like the story - probably not true - about the Belgian family

who kept setting off for a holiday in Britain and returning a few hours

later disappointed.  They explained that they were intending to

cross by ferry from Calais to Dover, but every time they started out

down the motorway they came to a sign that said PAS DE CALAIS, so they

came home.

Patrick

[Where to eat in Lille?]

I can recommend L'Huîtrière in rue des Chats Bossus. It's central and you enter it through a beautiful Art Deco fish shop. For people who like fish, of course.

There was another great restaurant in the rather arty quarter nearby, run by a chef called M. Bardot. I've forgotten the name of the restaurant but could never forget the name of the "patron". That was a long time ago though, and he may have moved on.

Patrick

[FAX to and from PC. How?]

Thanks for the tip, ecossais. We lost our dedicated fax line when we went broadband. Now we can receive at any time via internet, and plug in the fax when we need to send - and all free too.

You can trust a Scot to have it all figured

Patrick - (a proud kilt wearer)

[Pas-de-Calais]

We can't be there on Saturday evening because of loads of locataires arriving at our gites.

Some other time perhaps.

BTW there is a bar in Hesdin, now owned by Brits, which has become quite a meeting place for English speaking expatriates. It's called La Chope. It's a perfectly decent bar, but it can seem a bit too much like a pub in Surrey, as not many French go there.

Patrick

[Paris railway stations]

That's pretty much what I thought.

Thanks all for the help.

Patrick

[Paris railway stations]

I'm trying to work out an itinerary to get some overseas visitors arriving at CDG to my gite on the Picardy coast. The SNCF website says they have to change from one train arriving at Gare du Nord to another leaving Paris Nord.

Are these two names for the same place or is there some distance between them?

Grateful for your help, anyone,

Patrick

[Pas-de-Calais]

Hi Pierre

We live about a mile and a half as the crow flies from the battlefield of Azincourt, a couple of miles from Fruges.

Where are you?

Patrick

[Architectural Salvage? Cast Iron Fireback]

Thanks, I've passed this on to son and daughter-in-law.

I like the sound of the goat carriage.

Patrick

[Architectural Salvage? Cast Iron Fireback]

Our son is restoring an old farmhouse in Guernsey where he lives. On a recent visit to us in France he admired our ancient and enormous cast-iron fireback and asked if we knew some place where something similar might be found.

We know some cheminee specialists where they sell new ones, but they are mostly on the small side and don't come with the impressive heraldic arms and air of antiquity that he admired in ours.

He's also after some old floorboards

Does anyone know of a place where bits of old buildings get re-cycled? Preferably within 2 or 3 hours drive from St Malo

Grateful for any suggestions or information leading to the acquisition of said item.

Patrick

[kitchen worktops]

Don't know about Conforama but at Leroy Merlin it depends on whether the colour/pattern you want is in stock. You can call the store first to find out. If they don't have it they order it - seems to take up to a week. However, I don't know if they will take an order on the phone.

As for delivery, Conforama will hire you a van for half a day or longer if needed, but it's not that cheap. Kitchen worktops will go on a roofrack if you've got one, though.