Me0wp00

Theres never two markets in the same month so I think its on the 28th

I was wondering about this today, as my neighbour hit my car while parked outside my house with his tractor !!! Luckily I saw it as he bashed it out of the way with his hay bale and pushed it into my garden wall. Looking at it, the mirrors broken, has big scratches down the bonnet, side of the wing and at the back the back wing is all scratched and scuffed. At least it needs a respray and mirror. His response was *phone your insurance* no mention about his insurance company. Would this be like the UK and it wouldn't affect my no claims as its his fault ??? My insurance company was shut to ask otherwise I'll get him to fork out for the repairs himself. thanks in advance pippa

If you have a bricomarche near you they sell them and are cheaper than Leyroy Merlin but a slightly different shade of clear, coloured ones and patterned are available in Leyroys though.

I bought some yesterday, it's pretty much the same as UK Filo, just make sure you cover it with a damp cloth so it doesn't dry out. It's 8-10 big sheets. Made some lovely samosas with it ;o)

If your talking about Lloyds, which I think you might well be, I had the same situation but luckily we have both business and personal accounts with them and have banked for the last 19 years with the same branch. On threatening to move both accounts they *managed* to set up a fax list codeword setup, I have money mover forms here I fax them to them with the next codeword on the list, they check it off their copy and process my instructions. I had to open a business euro account with them and they will transfer money between the two although only by written instruction. Then it takes ages to credit in france as they are drawn on uk banks. I wasn't told about the 10k per day limit though so perhaps it isn't lloyds. I know they are a right pain in the B......... though.

[quote]If any body can give me information on some of these items it would be greatly appreciated. 1, Money Transfer What is the cheapest way to transfer/pay the 5% deposit and the balance of purchase ...[/quote] 1, Money Transfer What is the cheapest way to transfer/pay the 5% deposit and the balance of purchase for the property i am buying. Dont know about the cheapest but the notaire will only accept euro's. A cheque is fine as would a transfer be but they wait to see the transfer is completed and it sometimes get held up in the paris banks. We opened a french bank account got the money transferred into there and took a euro cheque. I have spoken to the bank but they have advised me they charge £30.00, the exchange rate will apply on the day of transfer & it will take 1-3 days to complete, Yes true, although it often gets stuck in Paris and can take a bit longer. the £30 fee is also correct, I bank with Lloyds. I was advised that the French receiving Bank may also charge a fee, is this correct? I know credit agricole charged me for it coming in. 3, Planning requirements for an extension I have been told that there is not a fee for doing this, (only if it is passed) is this true? I wasn't charged when my permissions were passed I can draw up plans and drawings myself, do they need as much detail on the drawings as in English. Didn't seem to at all, they like photos of how it is now though from all angles. The extension will be approx. 150 metres away from a lane (not a main road). I was told by the Notaire that they can see no problem in getting the permission. If you draw up the plans and want them looked at quickly go to the DDE direct, I went to Argenton, she looked at my plans and said there wouldnt be a problem she didnt think, they'd hurry up the visit and luckily they passed them within a week. If your planning on doing the extension in the long term though, I've got a feeling planning permission has a time limit on it, not sure.

I use firefox as a web browser and get stuck at the same point as you with speedferries. I always have to book using IE so it could well be a mac browser issue.

I stayed in Limoges hospital for 5 days and the food was excellent. The only disappointment was that there was no vin, eau or coke served with the meal. I had a choice every day and 3 courses for lunch 4 courses for dinner, including veal, rabbit, porc, beef, steak.

Most supermarkets now stock some english food, alot more than 3 years ago but it is at inflated prices. People living here fulltime either tend to go back to the UK to visit family and stock up then or friends have family over that bring things back etc etc, We tend to stock up on gravy granuales, marmite for a friend, uk bread flour, golden syrup, dark brown sugar, mincemeat, suet, baking powder, nutmeg, mixed spice and tea bags. But then we do like to cook alot.

Ab for excellent fish and chips follow Jamie Olivers recipe, dead simple and just like the chip shops up north WidnesBob, god your lucky not to have any brits nearby, the St Benoit/Limousin border seems to be filling up with them. I was talking to the mairie of Mouhet about ADSL, we need 100 people to get it here sooner than 2006 but out of 103 habitants 36 are now english, whereas hubby and I were among the first and the first primary residents. Chaillac is evening running english lessons for the french and 2 nights a week they are full.

My postman informed me today that from 1st March the price of post from France to the UK is going up. At the moment it's a 50cents stamp for a 20g envelope but from 1st March it's 55cents. 10% increase

I'm not very good at directions, its north west of Limoges and is signposted as bellegarde. I don't come from your direction so am not sure of the turn off from the A20 but its past the town junction. I'm pretty sure it's signposted, maybe someone else can assist with junction number. As for parking, it's free, fairly safe in that the airport manager told me it was disgusting that last year a uk car had it's tyres stolen. Lots of brits leave their cars there for months on end. Infact getting a parking space maybe the problem but it's winter so should be ok, HTH Pippa

what a heart rendering story and all my sympathy. Having a five month old baby myself and being in France I can explain the smear side of things. When I found out I was pregnant the first consultation the gynae asked when my last smear was, 3 years ago just before leaving the UK and after my post natal check up, an appointment was made for 3 months time. I've just had my smear and the results good or bad will be here in under a month. The Gynae also told me to make sure I go to my GP or him again in a year for a smear and have them every year. On the other side though, my mum had a full hysterectomy *sp????* due to cancerous cells 6 months before moving to france and was told to have smears every 6 months for 2 years and then every year for the next 5. She has had them here in France as told but this year went to the doctor and asked for one and he said theres no need wait until next year. Bit worrying so she's going to ask again when she goes next.

you don't get takeaways here except pizzas and then you'll usually have to go and pick them up and wait 40 mins so anything *fast foodie* is an improvement, although I'm not yet desperate enough to drive 30 mins for a kebab on a sat night :o)

Not lamb like back in uk think it's veal and poultry, although not 100% sure, I never seem to be in Argenton in the early evening when it's open. The La Sou van goes round twice a week to different places, again I've never been there yet. The kebab houses in Chateauroux aren't too bad at all ;o)

I live 20km's from St Benoit and you'll find english everywhere. It's a right pain alot of the time. If you go into SuperU you'll find loads of english especially on the weekend, most will start talking to you when they hear english being spoken. RE eating, theres a new kebab restaurant in Argenton, curry houses in limoges and chateauroux, the chinese in argenton isn't that bad and theres lots of very good french restaurants on the outskirts of St Benoit. HTH

Even more concerning I became a man ;o( am back to self now after eating the nasty cookie :o)

I'm thinking of making individual fruit pies with the pastry, I'm sure they'd be yummy. Mum'll hopefully bring mincemeat over from UK next week if they are still stocking it after Xmas.

I've just worked out our household expenses for the last 3 years as a budgeting exercise *Sad I know* Now the house is practically finished this years bills, habitation, electric, water, rubbish, fonciers, house insurance, internet and telephone rental have worked out to be 3300E. it's a 3 bedroom house with underfloor heating using solar/electric and we're double glazed with good insulation. Our car insurance is always hugely high as we have many vehicles and that equates to 2400E a year alone. Animal and our food/living I reckon on 80E a week telephone calls 20E month, mobiles 20e month. Petrol always very high except one of the vehicles is GPL so works out about 30E a week. Without major disasters, illnesses or car problems I reckon we can live very comfortably without scrimping on food, electric, even perhaps a holiday on between 13-18,000E a year in the UK we paid that for running the house alone without food and telephone bills.

I'll go see the mairie, we're not holiday homers so will ask him about grants, everyone here seems to have the attitude that mains sewerage won't come and so leave be but with a growing family I'm not too keen on the soakaway but with never having any major problems and not really wanting the garden dug up I'm tempted to let things lie so to speak :o)

**ps from on parent here in france to another,cjd you only get the fam for 2 or more kids you wont get nowt for one,or is there something you have missed out.I,m here in france** You get a monthly payment from the CAF until they are aged 3 if you qualify under the income bracket. I think the government then think you'll have decided that No 2 will be on it's way by then to get the benefit for the both of them until older Children at school. My son is now 21 weeks and the same in lbs and gladly has been sleeping through the night *12-14hrs* for the last month to 6 weeks, He always slept quite well but woke up for a feed. We were advised by the PMI midwife to change the nappy before feed to help with reflux and also to keep Jacques sleepy enough although I'm using Lidls nappys that have a wetness indicator so ideal for not having to change them unnecessarily. I fully recommend having children in france and am reassured by the care he and I have had, I'm very glad I didn't start my family in the UK from some of the horror stories I have heard recently. We're even talking about no 2 although won't be attempting for another 9 months or so

Val as a matter of interest, our property still has a soakaway and I had heard that all areas were having checks done to see how mains drainage could be brought to the rural areas, there is hardly any chance that we could get mains so I assume we'll be told to get a fosse installed. Am I right in thinking there will be grants for this when there isn't any form of *proper* drainage as forking out for a fosse will be a major hassle as we don't presently have any sewage problems, but a grant might just sweeten it a bit? Thanks in advance pippa

Hoverfrog, We bank with CA Centre Ouest but the St Benoit branch and I ordered a cheque book for my dad when I was in there last, a week later it hadn't turned up and when they checked it had been requested but for some reason not printed by Limoges, so they reordered one and it arrived 2 days later, perhaps their system has been playing up. Another time we said we'd like it sent to the house and it got sent to the bank instead and sat there till I went in.

Ive had underfloor heating for the last year and infact it's often a problem to cool the house down enough. With a baby in the house and having to keep it at 19/20C its the easiest form of heating to manage this and is exceeding it. We used plumbbase for the purchase of our system but its a wirsbo system effectively. We bought the insulation from sheffield insulation are VASTLY cheaper than anywhere else and will give trade. The kingspan insulation was £700 from Wirsbo and we got it for £230. Just put this down, clip the clip rails in and run the pipes. We had a problem with the screed not being wet enough and drying too quickly which was a nightmare having talked to the screed engineer at wirsbo he said 70% of screeds aren't wet enough. We then tiled on top of the screed and had no problems at all. Upstairs we have it under a wooden floor. We made sure our floor insulation would be sufficient and laid rockwool before laying the silver bubble insulation and then put the pipes down and floor ontop. On the whole an excellent system and easy to run, We've got solars as well so didn't use an oil boiler but may do as the electricity immersion backup may prove too costly.

This is the recipe but I always at least double it 7ozs of self raising flour, 3ozs butter, well softened. pinch of salt. Half a tub of mascarpone cheese. So around 125grs You could either bang this in a food processor, if you do, put the pastry to one side for at least ten minutes before rolling it out. Or rub in the butter and salt then mix in the cheese, sort of kneading it in. Roll out as usual. Can't go wrong and is delicious. Bake in a pre heated oved at around 200°c until golden.