bryansmith

Hi Steve very interesting web site and diary - we are moving soon to 47 and I envy you the skills to establish your own web page. I am not computer literate to that extent but I am enjoying reading yours.We will just have to keep an old fashioned diary as we have always done when in France Please keep us updated  

Having had a CA bank account now for nearly a year (whilst living in England but travellig regularly to France) I can say that after many transactions (by cheque and by debit card) we have only been charged for setting up the two debit cards on the account. As we are shortly moving to France we have started to transfer cash each month. We tried our own bank and several other of the'big five' but the costs were prohibitive. We were then told about HIFX which has been really good for us. The contract is fixed for one year, so you take a chance on currency exchange fluctuations but there is no charge whatsoever for the transfer or the service provided and as yet no charge from CA. The exchange rate we agreed for the contract has generally been in our favour for the three months so far, although I appreciate this may not always be the case. At least we know exactly how many euros are going into our account every month which suits us well.    

Hi Dick we currently have Tiscali in the UK and have found it very good. When we move to France(47) in September we hoped to transfer to Tiscali.fr but they tell me that is not possible. I have sent them notice of leaving and they have accepted that without any problems. My question is can we set up Tiscali.fr (dial up only there is no broadband in our area of France at the moment) before we leave UK as you seem to indicate in your last post. If so how do we do it? We have a broadband connection at home.We have a telephone line installed in France.  

Thanks to our computer literate son we have set up a wifi connection (and LAN) between our PC and laptop. We have a Belkin modem and wireless card and we have had no problems whatsoever. Our son set it up so I do not know how technical you have to be to do that.

I have been using Skype for a short time in the UK without any problems volume or otherwise but this is Skype to Skype users only, not Skype out. I have also spoken to one of my friends in France via Skype and it was just like talking to him in the same room - and all for free!!! I accept that we are all on Broadband (including the French friend )and that the one friend who is on dial-up connection does sometimes have poor quality sound and time delays.

jayjay smaller font does not seem to have solved anything. Not only your posts but any that follow yours are similarly affected. The text on your postings only reaches half way across the column and not to the edge. Is there anything in your set up which may cause this? 

jayjay I have noticed this effect before when you have posted. you are using quite a large font - could this be the cause? back to the thread Vache Qui Rit is a more than tasty cheese spread if that is what you are missing - but as others have said do try some of the many other cheeses as well.

Thanks all very much for the information - Neil,-  I had already had a stab at autotoute.fr as a wild guess!! but it does not really give the information I need although it appears to be an excellent route planner.  

I remember seeing some time ago reference to a web site which gives details of all Frence autoroutes including tolls. I cannot find it now can anyone please provide the address ? thanks very much

The electrified tennis raquet can be bought at any branch of the Casa store. They are very effective

I have recently discovered Skype and on checking for contacts found friend in France when we spoke it was just like we were in the same room and all for free It may not suit everyone as it works much better with broadband than dial up but it worth exploring.

thanks mpprh for a most entertaining site and a good laugh. I have just dipped into TF forum to see what was on offer and I see that you have a photo there with your postings but not on LF - don't be so shy.

I logged on for the first time using the links in the posting of Deimos and it worked fine. The topics seem to cover the same sort of territory as LF but I have not yet explored fully. I must agree that the updated (presumably) photo of Dick does not do him any favours.

We opened a Credit Agricole account in Perigueux last September. The only charges we have seen so far were for the cards for my wife and myself. The only down side (as we travel about France occasionally) is that each CA bank is independent of the others -  we can only pay in at Perigueux for instance. Not too much of a problem but we thought in our innocence that CA was a nationwide bank like the ones in the UK. We have received regular statements although we are still in the UK at the moment, and are very pleased with the service from CA

I am using Tiscali broadband in the UK (at the moment) and  since a noticeable drop in speed some weeks ago there has been a decided increase in speed in all parts of the forum - reading and posting - you can only speak as you find.

Will thanks very much for deleting the duplicate - I have now found out how to delete such messages after your advice.

I watched the Great Man's last Open as well - as you say Miki not a dry eye in the house and that included ours (MOH is not a golf fan but even she was moved to tears). We have seen the end in Britain of a truly great golfer and a gentleman.

Has anybody knowledge of the price(approximately) of parking at Bordeaux airport for about two weeks. I have looked at the web-site for the airport and note that there are four car parks but no other details are given. Also is the car park a good security one ? This is not urgent but help would be appreciated.

I have posted questions (and opinions) in various parts of this forum. The questions have always been answered sometimes in great detail. As we are moving to France in September we have found this very useful indeed. The opinions have not always been well received, bu by the same token I do not always agree with other opinions so it all works out. Both my wife and I have used the forum exensively and we both agree that it has been a wonderful help to us in preparing for our move, and also provided us with abundant free entertainment.

We had one of the raquet type zappers bought for us by friends as a joke - the joke is it really works ! They can be bought at Casa shops.  

Another source of information might be the Regiment that he served in. When we were researching my father in law's father's medal history the curator at the Regimental Museum was extremely helpful

Just come from Boulogne to Dover with Speedferries for the first time. Loaded on time departed on time and arrived Dover on time. Smooth crossing and friendly staff. More power to Speedferries and hopefully the other companies will come to their senses and have a realistic and checkable in advance price system

We will shortly be moving to 47 and wish to have internet available. We currently use a Belkin wireless system so that we can use our PC and laptop on the internet. We still have the original modem provided by Tiscali but would prefer to keep the Belkin. We are only bringing the laptop to France - will this type of modem work with a French ISP and if so which ISP would anone recommend to use (I understand that broadband will be available "shortly" in the area). thanks very much

Hi Val just got back to UK from a month in France(without internet) and caught up on two chapters. Most enjoyable and really funny. Please keep up the good work

We have just made our first crossing with Spedferries and it was first class. Loading was on time departure on time and arrival on time. Friendly helpful staff and all for £19 single! What more do you need ?