Richard-R

This is a bike I saw in a little village here in the Corbieres. [img]http://www.franceinfocus.net/zzx433.jpg[/img]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]There is massive Carrefour on the way out of town towards Narbonne Plage, they sell cheap bikes. As an aside, you see hundreds of bikes strapped to the backs of camping cars and cars heading down the Autoroutes but hardly ever see anyone on a bike at the beaches or campsites, I wonder what % of bikes stay strapped in the racks???[:)] [/quote] All the bikes seem to end up on our b roads in the summer, all riding 2 or 3 abreast. Must be some form of French suicide holiday special.

Decathlon at Bonne Source ( rte de grussian) got's adult bikes for 100€ ,there is also a new store there caledl veloland. Also there is an InterSport all of these are far better than Carrefour.

You now get to talk about the 'good old days' 'the war' ' 'you youngster don't know how easy you have got it' You can now also fall asleep mid conversation. What do you want? I'm counting the day until I'm 60. Only 9500 to go! Than I will become Victor Meldrew on Acid.

getting them fine here, and we have had about 6 inches of the white stuff today.

When a friend of mine moved here from NYC he went to London and done a 2 week intensive course and go a U.K. licence. He said it was far cheaper and easier than having a test in France. SOrry I do not know the answer to your question.

The 'old bill' seem to have phases for what they stop you for. A couple of years ago it was for breath tests. I was stopped about 9 times in two months. Than it was tyres and condition of car. Now it is insurance and cg.

I'm off in a few days to attend a friends birthday party in Nice. The hotel I'm staying at offers wireless broadband. I have about 200mb of photos and videos I want to upload to my website and have been putting it off at home because i only have dail-up. Does anyone know want up-load speeds I will get if I conect at the hotel (in mb per minute)? Many Thanks

They mean in a 40kmh do 60kmh, in a 50kmh do 80kmh and in a 60kmh do 90kmh. Where no speed limit is post lorries are to go as fast as there engine allows.

In the summer we open the ones in the shade and have all the others ajar. In the winter we open the ones in the sun during the day and have all the others closed. Some people never seem to open there shutters at all. They must enjoy living in the gloom or have 100w light bulbs all over the house.

I noticed that the "IRISH PUB" was closed at lunch time and there was a hole in the glass window. Someone must have got a bad pint of stout.

The weather was far to dull to imspire the misses into a shopping frenzy, so a good day for me. Amazing amount of parking there I must say but Perpignan is better for shopping and about the same distance for us.

Never seen the point of freezing the dead. Once frozen it would never be possilbe to re-animate the copse because of cell damaged caused be freezing. My wife is thinking of having here mothers ashes turned in a diamond, but now they will just have to stay in one on the guest bedrooms.

Not sure about in France but if you paased your test in the U.K. when they introduced the written part than you are not covered to drive a LWB landrover if it is a county.

Spam/Junk mail is a fact of internet life just like getting junk mail/leaflets via the postman. Some days I get 10-20 other days I get 200+

One must remember that 'Graffiti" is a political form of expression first and foremost . In the U.K. is is council house scum writing it on wall ( Shazie eat eat my ####) and the like but there is still stong tradition in Europe for political slogans, hence the the lact of responce to erasing any messages painted on buildings etc.

So I guess no department stores. Oh well will have to to spend 2 hours drinking fizzy beer while mon amis eat lunch LOL. I have drive in La Cité so basse Ville is fine for me. WHO DARES WINS.

Have a look on bravenet.com (?) I seem to remember some such thing on there plus loads of other free wemmaster stuff

I've been to La Cité more times than I care to remember but never to Basse Ville. Are there are good shops/Department stores there? My wife want to go there shopping for some reason. Also are there by chance any English/Irish bars in the town. A small reward for me driving there would be a good pint of draught beer. Thanks in advance.

I live in Aude and use Orange, never had any trouble and even the smallest villages are covered. Best to buy an unlocked phone ( about 100€+) here or get your current phone unlocked. I would also keep your old U.K. account on PAYG and leave an answer phone message with your new French number and an e-mail address. The only down side is you need to top your French phone up with a NEW credit every month or so.

There is a good range of magazines in France for all kinds of motor sport. Have a look in the local newsagents.

There was enough Foie Gras in the local shops to give a small country a coronary BUT not the sligest sing of a goose! All very starge. One of the local-ish sipermakets even had whole turkeys this year and exotic fresh fruit seems to be very popular this year also.

This is now the 3rd year running that I have done all my xmas gift shopping online. I also order specalists foods online and use Carrefour only for the basics. A trend that is catching on more and more in France.

Yes therte are laws that say what you can and can not burn , like the U.K. laws on smog, but it all depends on if you are extra rural, rural, urban, extra urban. The only way to stop someone burning toxic substances is to report them at a departmental level. If you live in a rural village (less than 500 people) you can burn what you like, within reason. Yet to see a seweto tyre for petty crime lol.

Once needed to visit a female doctor in Athens, Greece and she had more stubble than I did.