Paolo

[quote user="Jo Taylor"]So the agent friend, I'm afraid, is misinformed.[/quote] Having dealt with them here, and renting our house in England, this is not a shock. Paolo

Jo, The primary source is the agent, and her friend who was also an agent. Whether that changes when dealing direct with the owner I'm afraid I don't know. Paolo

[quote user="SusanAH"]Paolo, do you know that law apply to all French rentals regardless of what currency the security deposit is paid and where it would be paid into?[/quote] No I don't know, but if you are taking payments in the UK I wouldn't worry about it as it is the norm there to bank a security deposit. A UK personal cheque isn't really worth anything if it is not banked. Paolo

Sometimes you come across a very clear warning sign of trouble ahead, but only see it in retrospect. You have done well to get out of this one. Keeping a security deposit for a rental that cancels is devoid of logic. In any case, as an aside, I am told by a rental agent here that it is illegal to bank a security deposit in France unless there is a need to do so in order to pay for damage/breakages. So banking a deposit for a non-existent rental is even more illegal. For the amount, it isn't necessarily excessive, it just depends what is in the house and what value the owners place on it. But once you hit 1000 euros security deposit it does put renters off. Paolo

I understand that the problem with Wanadoo is that it is an 'open relay' ISP, which means spammers can freely use it to send their wares. Some ISPs systematically block anything from Wanadoo.  A bounce message can take several days to arrive, so if you were responding to a booking enquiry for a gite or B&B, that is not good for business. Paolo  

Does this fix actually cure the problem of Wanadoo emails not being delivered? At the moment I am sending a duplicate by gmail, which is not ideal. Thanks Paolo

Miki, Thanks. I knew you'd tell me what I need to know, in fact hearing the word Toussaint I suspect I asked you the same question last year! Kingston is not that welcoming to me since we moved to France in November. Our friends from there are lined up to come and see us here this summer. Nothing to do with the pool and free booze, of course. Sadly I have not been on Living France for quite a while, I hope you don't mean the regulars have jumped ship? Paolo

I am sorry to post such a boring question, but I have been asked this and naturally thought I would get a definitive answer here: October 28-30 is All Saints Day (is it?), so will this make it difficult to get a car rental since it is a holiday, and will there be shops open on the Saturday? Thanks, Paolo  

I think you have been too soft on them. I would have told them to write their own text. There is another consideration here. Google doesn't like duplicate content. If two pages have the same text, Google only returns one of them in a search. The other is effectively invisible. Whether it is your site, or your neighbours' which is blanked, this is a compelling reason for them to change their text. Paolo

Thank you for the helpful replies. Is a waste recycling centre the same as a dechetterie? I haven't seen compost there. Or is it something else I have not yet encountered? Paolo

We are going to plant a 40 sq m patch as an organic fruit and veg garden. I could do with some advice on where to find some well composted manure - the soil is not too bad but it could do with a lift. I suppose I could buy it in bags from a garden centre but that would be really expensive for 40 sq m. If I call a stables, the manure would be too fresh wouldn't it? Any ideas on where to start calling would be most welcome. Paolo

Hear, hear. Dick, if I am not mistaken, that cheeky, good-looking, tousle-haired boy in your avatar who no doubt went on to charm many a lady, is carrying...a great big bottle of booze. It's not exactly relevant, but the juxtaposition of that and the young Greavsie above it made me think of the great G.B. Paolo

The other thing that makes Livebox special is that it is not just a modem, it give you wireless connection to the internet, so (if your walls allow it) you can wander around in the house or garden with a laptop and be on high-speed internet. I believe that in rural France there is no choice if you want ADSL and/or wi-fi ADSL - it has to be Wanadoo and Livebox. Paolo

I had a similar Livebox problem. It frequently went dead and disconnecting and reconnecting the power reset it. Then it just stopped altogether. I had 8 sessions with the Wanadoo helpline. I am not French but in England I would pass for fluent, and I had trouble understanding what some of the operators were saying - they rattle out technical terms and assume you know what they mean. And each time you call you have to go through their checklist of questions - what operating system are you using, are you using a USB cable, etc. even though they say they are noting all these details on their system. Anyway, eventually I had the bright idea of re-installing the Livebox CD, and hey presto it now works again. So I would recommend doing that if the lights don't stop blinking. Paolo

Thanks all, I think I will head off for Darty tomorrow (got waylaid today - doesn't that seem to happen a lot in France?) Paolo