seb47

Good luck Clair - did you see that Lidl have petunias on offer Thursday 10th - 10 plants for 1.99. I bought some last year and they were good strong plants. They also had pelargonia (hanging geranium) at the same price last year on 20th April, so that'll probably be next week.

Buy! Buy! Good grief. Get down to your local Terre du Sud (or local equivalent), raid the bin with the broken pallets in (after asking permission of course) transport it all home then spend a couple of hours working out a design (plenty of examples on the internet) incorporating an old curtain pole as a perch, and then pull the pallets apart and put them back together. Quick coat of eco-friendly green paint and bob's your uncle. Our chickens love it. Whatever happened to the "Good Life". With a little imagination you can even incorporate a mini pigeoniere! Pete

It depends very much how much and how urgent it is. When we bought our house in France we took a forward contract to purchase Euros (through our UK bank) because that way we knew exactly what our commitment was as the exchange rate was fixed. Three months later we signed the Acte de Vente and it transpired we had saved about £4000 as the pound had deteriorated against the Euro. We were lucky. But even if things had gone the other way at least we knew what we had let ourselves in for and there was no nasty surprise. Talk to your UK bank and ask exactly what it would cost to buy Euros. There are other agencies that advertise in the popular French magazines. We have "lost" quite a bit of money because of the recent  exchange rate changes but it was not easy to foresee the effect of the "credit crunch/sub prime lending scandal" or the effect of the UK/US governments borrowing and we are now trying to balance our euro/sterling savings to minimise the effect of such fluctuations in future. However, nothing is guaranteed. We comfort ourselves in the knowledge that our sterling savings are more then keeping up with inflation and will still buy "roughly" the same in the UK as they did a year ago. Getting to the point (as mu OH would say), bite the bullett, get down to your bank and do the deed asap next week. Don't rely on what the ECB may or may not do. Even if they reduce interest rates it will not necessarily lead to an improvement in exchange rates from your point of view. Sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate and balance any  losses against the benefits of living your dream. Who can say what might happen in a few weeks time, never mind a few years ahead. Pete

Thanks Clair - I'll try that.

Thankyou Lisleoise - I'll check that out next time we go to Villeneuve Auchan.

We're going back for a quick visit to UK and I have tubes of ginger puree at the top of my shopping list - great in spicy dishes, sauces, fruit cakes. I can get them in Sainsburys, but am just wondering if anyone has seen any in France (specially South West). I know fresh ginger is easily found, but the puree is so much quicker and easy.

We bought a 6 bladed Husqvarna - the blades can be removed to fit narrower rows. Not the cheapest, but it will last for years. It has a Subaru Robin 6hp, 4 stroke engine using 95 RON unleaded petrol. It starts first time every time (if you remember to turn on the fuel) and has forward and reverse gears. The right hand "go" lever is pneumatic and is less of a strain than gripping one connected by wire. It works fine and the potatoes, tomatoes, courgettes etc we grow are wonderful imho! With 6hp it copes extremely well with our stoney soil. My OH Sue manages with it very well. I'm not going to get drawn into the relative merits of rotavating versus ploughing versus double digging. Pete

Thanks for your kind comments about the photo. They are one of my favourites, along with wrens and red kites. One of these days I'll manage to photograph one (Hoopoe) with its crest sticking up. We usually have a pair here during the Spring and Summer. Jays are beautiful and love the oak wood next to us - as Pads photo shows. However they seem to prefer our cherries and plums to acorns when these are freely available! The jury seems to be out on whether they (and supposedly magpies) raid other birds' nests or not. They certainly compete to make the loudest squawk in the woods! Pete

Coops - we are paying for our English policy quarterly, and the policy states that so long as no claims have been made, they will refund any premium or part of premium in the quarter of cancellation on a pro rata basis.  

Our preferred route is to the west of Paris on the A16. Occasionally to avoid Paris altogether we use the cheaper ( i.e. free - I've got Yorkshire blood in me too) option of the A28 Rouen to/from Abbeville then Evreux, Dreux etc. The A16 is much quieter than the A1 with far less heavy lorry traffic. Southbound take exit at Jctn 10 (L'Isle-Adam) then the N184 to Cergy Pontoise, then the A15/N14 towards Rouen. Turn south on D28 to Meulan to join the A13 towards Versailles. Take the A12 exit and then the N12 past Rambouillet for the A11 or A10. We sometimes fit in an overnight stop in Cergy Pontoise and although the town is a bit "high rise", the marina area with a mixture of restaurants and bars is quite attractive. Seems a complicated route but using the Michelin Environs de Paris map 106 it all makes perfect sense! Pete

Just spotted this little fellah in our garden in 47. I don't recall seeing one quite so early in the year. This is the first time I've posted a photo so hope it works (I followed the instructions on the photography forum). It was taken through a window so might not be as clear as it should. Pete [IMG]http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh99/peteandsue_photo/IMGP0522.jpg[/IMG]

Sorry Allan - it was just me making a very stupid flippant remark. They haven't actually said anything yet!

Thanks Clair - now we know! I hope I haven't missed the same info in earlier helpful posts.

[quote user="opas"]Superb help and advice, but why can we not vote in the Canton election?[/quote] Same question from us Opas. The municipal bit went fine, but when we went next door for the cantonale, both officials were very confused to see our voting cards, but not able to find our names on the list.

[quote user="hoverfrog"]"resurface" the driveway in lumpy stuff. Signs are only good if respected, so if not then make it so they can't do more than 10 mph! Not your jurisdiction? Well just happen to let fall some 'big' pebbles and make it so that they can't exceed your speed limit... I think they call that the 'ways and means committee' :)[/quote]   Sadly that was the state of the track before we had it resurfaced - we realised speeds might increase, but there was hardly any surface left!

[quote user="Clair"]If you wanted to say the equivalent of "whatever" (as used in as dismissive manner), you could say "n'importe quoi!", which is short for "tu racontes n'importe quoi!"meaning "you're talking complete rubbish" or "you'd say anything". [/quote] Clair, and allanb "I'm getting bored with this conversation but I can't think of any intelligent way to end it" So dare I say that when Agen CPAM phone us to say they actually do want 2006 revenue and not 2007 as previously indicated?  

Thanks Allanb - that's a really clear explanation. I'll be trying to fit that phrase in as much as possible - and more important - I will remember what it means. Any follow on with commonly met colloquial phrases?

Thank you both for your suggestions. We'll go down the laminated sign route initially as it's cheaper. If that doesn't work will try the ralentisseurs.

Yes - that makes sense now I think about it! Stupid me. Thanks both of you. Just watching Jamie Oliver - maybe he'll finish off with 'quel que soit'!

Our neighbour has a droit de passage over our land to his house. We are good friends and he generally drives carefully and respects our presence, though many of his visitors treat the small track as an autoroute - including la poste. We are thinking of putting up a speed limit sign. Has anyone found a supplier of eg 10 kph signs? 

We've heard this phrase so many times recently, but are struggling to understand it. Help please?

Thanks Claire - I'll have a look at them. I've got the shopping urge - Spring must be just around the corner and welcome after that long anguish ridden winter!

Has anyone got any good mail order sites for large size ladies clothing? Cheers,

We too approached our local CPAM this morning ( Head Office Agen). Having spent ages collating paperwork for 2006, the lady said she required 2007 details! Also, she looked us up on the screen by our previous social security number, and said she wouldn't need certificates again as they'd been seen when we applied under E 106. I then rang Agen to check on the year needed and she confirmed 2007. We will still take all the filing cabinet with us when we go back. Still not quite there yet!

Fully agree with all the other postings. We spent one particularly unpleasant wait on the Eastern docks at Dover parked next to a coachload of students going to a beer festival in Germany. It looked like they were taking all the beer over with them! However the real problem was the fact that the coachdriver insisted on keeping the engine running to power the air con with the usual exhaust fumes belching out in our direction. We politely asked him to turn the engine off but got the usual reaction. "Can't do that mate, they would all suffocate". Poor mites. The fact that most of the students were stood outside the coach drinking and smoking seemed not to have registered.  It's not the only time we have witnessed this blatant waste of fuel. Peter