londoneye
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Posts posted by londoneye
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Do you mean this one Jean ?www.lamaisonshoppingservices.com?Never used it myself ...
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If they are selling something I immediately say I only speak English. 9 times out of 10 this has the hugely entertaining added value that you can then hear in the background (Henri, Henri (replace name with whichever fibbing salesman/woman has declared an extensive level of english on their cv) - ou est Henri ????? Anglaise !!!).Poor Henri, who by this time I can visualise as attempting to slink towards the men's room is finally dragged to the phone (meanwhile I've prepared the dinner).Poor Henri rarely speaks more than two words of English - I test him for a while and it's just not working, at which point I tell him in French that thank you very much but I cannot understand your English and hang up.Now I am not a mean person normally and I don't do this every time but it works a treat.
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NickI know nothing about pools and have often posted on here and had very good advice from theiere and poolguy.We had a problem with our sand filter and ended up having the sand changed and new laterals put in just before closing down the pool last winter.We keep our pool on a certain amount of filtration during the winter and everything everything worked perfectly ..... come spring when we opened up and started hoovering the pool, same problem, dirt, sand at bottom. Well, long story very short it was actually our hoover thingie that was broken and letting sand into water (ours had sand in it to weight it down) and was clearly not sucking up dirt at all.Probably this is absolutely not the reason in your case - but having spent quite a large amount of money on something which didn't really need doing (albeit not a bad thing it was done!) you might want to have a good look at your aspirator first !
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I think he's pretty.Sadly not the right time for any more pets at the moment.Hope someone takes him on - as he is so small he could still have some years to enjoy his retirement !
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HiThanks everyone - I know what you mean about selling the dream - that is what I am hoping a PR company might do for me, for less money than I would probably spend myself trying - still working on that one (well, only just started working on it, last couple of days).P-D R I was actually hoping you would respond because I know you are in the 'business'. We are using an agent (as well as on-line sites) and when we decreased the price slightly in March to bring it into a different price 'range' they told us they thought it was too early and that the price was correct.Our neighbours and friends are delusional regarding price and tell us that our price is at least 100,000 less than it 'should' be. We are, I believe, fairly realistic ... as far as I can see our kind of property is actually priced more favourably than a lot of similar properties, but it's hard in France isn't it, there are some many different kinds of properties. I take your point however, everyone has a blind spot to their own property (bit like thinking your kids are all gorgeous).We are willing to drop the price but unfortunately I just can't seem to find an immobilier I trust enough to tell me what the most realistic price would be for a quick sale ! And I am not against estate agents - I am one of the minority who has been lucky enough to find absolutely great estate agents in the past (admittedly in UK) but sadly seems not to be the case in this area.P-D R - any views on auctions in France please ?
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Thanks mel.Mortgage-free thankfully debbie - other reasons more pressing than finance are driving this, but thanks for responding.
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Don't disagree but then again (I am female) the men around this way are hardly a sight for sore eyes either - we have one youngish (early 30s) very good looking guy who delivers parcels to us sometimes and I feel ridiculously girlish when I see him (!) - such a change from what I normally see around here- neighbour down the road, big handle-bar tache, probably 65 but looks 90, who sleeps in his chair outside all afternoon, alternating snoring with f**ting.- neighbour opposite who has a severely unpleasant habit (he is about 40) of wandering around in summer with underpants on (only them) and the world's most HUGE belly hanging over top.Thankfully I can only see these two from the house ..... I am sure there is worse down the road.
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Just to add what others have said we have buildings we do not use very often and within a week or so of hot weather we have an almighty fosse smell from either sinks or shower (most commonly) where there water has evaporated from u-bend and thus there is no longer a barrier to prevent smell. However, it does take a time so assuming you are using the basin (most!) days I would have thought it is another cause as already suggested by sid and others.
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HiDoes anyone know of any gite management companies in 87 please - preferably in the 87500 region (close to St Yrieix la Perche)?Please feel free to pm or email me.thanks
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Thanks for the support - clearly there is still hope (strangely just got back from walking dog to find a phone message for viewing on Thursday - fingers crossed for me please !).
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Actually I agree with the original poster - the French in this area do seem to look a lot older than they are. And even more scarily I have now joined them. Perhaps it would have happened anyway, but I feel like I have physically (ie appearance-wise) aged 10 years in the 5 years we have lived here.I don't doubt for a moment that the reason is related (largely) to cost. In the UK when I was a hard-working, highly paid gal, I thought nothing of a facial once or twice a month, hair-cut every 6 weeks on the dot, gym membership (ha ha never used of course !) going to the local pool two or three times a week. Not to mention buying clothes whenever I fancied it. These things make a lot of difference to how people are perceived to be ageing. Here in the Limousin I would say that a lot of women who are 50 plus seem not to be working, and simply do not have the money for these kinds of things. I have been to each of our two local fetes for the past 5 years and every female neighbour has worn the same dress (well, not as each other clearly). Now these neighbours have (as do we all) become slightly more porky in the last 5 years but still streeeeeeeeeeetch that dress across the belly. Not their fault but it doesn't help.On the bright side, as far as I can see once you reach 70 here you don't actually get any older, just a little bit shorter every year.
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Hi everyoneOK, will try to make this reasonably short.I need to sell my property in France. The reason is unimportant, I just need to sell and as quickly as possible.Our property has been on the market for about 6 months and although we have had a few viewings, no offers. I have three thoughts for trying to find a buyer and being out by the end of this year (my aim), and would like, if possible, feedback on any of these three ideas.1. Very simple - drop the price drastically, ie to well below the value of the property. Of course I would take a financial hit, but I have already come to terms with this in my own mind, so can live with it. The only problem here is that if I drop the price drastically and it still doesn't sell, then can I put the price back up again. Yes, I know it sounds a bit crazy - but if no-one is out there buying at any price, then I would basically have to stay here until sold, in which case I might as well get the best price I can. Suspect that logic may only make sense in my own slightly weird mind, but hopefully someone else will understand what I mean.2. Putting the property up for auction. I have read everything I can find so far and sort of understand the process. The things I don't know are- Who can value your property and do you have to pay for it?- If the property does not sell at the auction what costs would I still have to pay ?- Confirmation, if anyone has sold at auction and/or knows, that the 'standard' reserve price is around 60% of property valuation, but that the vendor is able to tell the auction house what reserve price they would like (ie 80% of value for example).3. I am currently looking into PR firms to see if there are any that get involved in selling houses in France. Has anyone used a PR firm to help them sell a property and was it successful?Anyway, thanks for reading and any ideas/pearls of wisdom would be gratefully received.
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For what short of shopping ??
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I've used Premier Furniture direct several times. There was a delay on one occasion but they were very good at communicating about the delay and offering to loan us the beds they had in stock currently (not the ones we had ordered) and then replacing with ours when they arrived.Apart from that occasion they were great and the quality of the beds and mattresses was more than acceptable. Admittedly being a skin-flint I had purchased the cheapest beds, but the mattresses are very good quality.Also, we wanted metal beds and they resourced some for us, which were not shown on their website. However, I actually hate recommending places because what works for you doesn't always necessarily work for someone else, so important to check them out yourselves and make sure you are happy if anyone does go ahead and use them.
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My ex-neighbours slightly wayward pooch was returned 3 times when the finders called the phone number on his collar and we have found 5 dogs since living here and 3 were returned very simply via calling the number on their collars.The other two (very sweet) chasse dogs that we found had no collars, and no tatoos. We took them to the vet, which was luckily open) and as it happens much to the astonishment of both us and the vet, they were chipped.Now had the vet not been open we would of course have kept them safe etc, but it would have been frankly a complete pain, because we have a cat and also our own dog who is less than fond of other dogs.My advice would be therefore to definitely have at least your phone number on a tag - of course they should also have a tag saying they are chipped but I am willing to bet that given the option most people just pick up the phone and dial the number rather than running around trying to find somewhere to read the chip.
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HiJust to reiterate what AnOther has said really, I think it depends on bank.When we came here (admittedly 5 years ago), OH walked into local bank with passport and a deposit cheque and opened an account.We had no bills etc in his name as all is in my name, including the house. Of course bank procedures may have tightened up since then. He was not required to give UK bank statements or any other form of identity, other than his passport (seems a bit weird in hind-sight !) just to sign an awful lot of copies of papers and hand over a cheque (which was a largish one - we thought that might help !)
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Blackie I am very sorry to hear that.Never had Danes but when we first came here we were convinced that we wanted a certain breed of dog but ended up with something quite different (!) hardly a 'breed'. Always worth looking at something else.Actually reason I am posting was that I felt I had seen one on the Battersea site but cannot get on there right now - might have gone now anyway.Hope you find a new Dane soon.
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that is so funny because that would be the first place we look. Every morning Little S as we call him (fondly) strolls over to car and stands there raising merry hell until we open the door and let him in. He then sleeps there (unless he is AWOL like Saturday) all day ..Still, one good thing which came out of it - two things actually - one of course that the cat was fine. The other was that the problems with gendamerie paled into insignificance - losing the cat would be so much worse than having to change a driving licence etc, so we are a bit more chilled out about it now.Cat looks gorgeous by the way !
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thought I would share this with you.Day before yesterday (already a slightly traumatic day for other reasons), our cat went missing. When I say went missing, we hadn't seen him for two hours.That's a long time for our cat. He is 9 now and he just doesn't do that - he invariably comes in once an hour to check we are still there ready and waiting to fulfil his every whim.We started searching - worst bits first - the road, the verges (feeling sick), nothing. Next down the road to where the nasty dogs are (feeling even more sick) - nothing. Into neighbours garden, nope, all round the hedges of our garden, all around our outbuildings. Nope.Half an hour later - repeat procedure.Third time around, now seriously worried I her a faint noise from the derelict (or fairly derelict) bread oven.Go in, call him - yes I'm here .. Where though, just couldn't find him. eventually I see this little nose poking out of the slit of the oven door (long since blocked up).That's right he has 'fallen' or more likely 'slithered' down the chimney.Two hours later, most of chimney dismantled by fuming OH (who has not had a good day so far) the little s**t is eventually retrieved none the worse for wear - dirty, VERY cross but unharmed.And I honestly thought he was past all that behaviour. Just goes to show ..Still good outcome in the end !
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Oh not as mysterious as I made it sound - sorry to disappoint. In UK he lost his licence (as in mislaid) and got a new one. When we got to France and eventually unpacked we found the original licence, which I am sure we should have returned but of course never got around to, so in effect he has two.Fully accept that it can't be legal though so not a good idea - generally speaking we are pretty law abiding (ha ha clearly not always otherwise we wouldn't be having this debate).I suppose we will have to chance the licence - annoying but not end of the world.
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Hi Coops - ok ?Finally seen your piccie on facebook - not that I ever really go on there .... never seem to have the time - goodness knows why - just been sitting outside with stereo on number 45 (of 50) wondering why we want to leave - hey ho, swings and roundabouts.Err actually Mr Stupid has two UK licences (best not go there) so I suppose it's not the end of the world if he has to give one up and wait a while - meanwhile I can (although I hate it) do the driving if necessary. Thanks for the heads up though - really could do without this but am seriously considering now appealing at Tribunal (hopefully will get some advice from Sunday Driver at some point) if only to delay the process long enough for us to leave.Doesn't seem right after 13 months to be hauled in to change DL, when it was never indicated and the point regarding points (no pun intended) was somewhat obscure. Even herr flic today couldn't actually confirm whether he had given us points on the licence or not (he peered quite extensively at the inexplicable squiggle in the box).Ah well - the ability to play loud music (right now), the friends and neighbours (off to dinner with them in 10 minutes) I will miss, the bureaucracy (sp?) I will not.
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thanks Sweet - actually he is no longer very contrite because it happened so long ago (I thought 6 months but when I checked paperwork actually it was last March - over a year ago!).Well, visit to gendarmes completed.We pointed out the fact that the box requiring licence to be exchanged was not ticked and also that there was no requirement for EU driving licence holders to change their licence after a year. Mr Plod was slightly embarrassed and admitted that they had had a meeting last night and taken on advice to clarify the situation (presumably prior to us turning up today).Yes, he agreed we were correct on both counts, there is no requrement for me to change my licence and they never knew (les flics) that they had to tick the box. Now they are going to tick the box everytime it's a foreigner (probably for tourists as well - that should be fun!!)Anyway we can apparently appeal to a tribunal if we so wish regarding the box not being ticked and therefore OH not being aware that he had to change his licence.But we are to attend the Mairie and change his licence to a French one anyway. I will search old posts on this issue as I am sure there is plenty of advice on here !!So, suppose it could have been worse.Sad that they just can't get it right though isn't it?Never mind. Thanks all and good weekend.
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Suein57 -thanks also - the point about these forums is that you try to help people .. and you did, so thanks.
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thank you Sunday Driver - hate to sound sycophantic (not sure I can even spell it - several glasses of wine required tonight !) but I knew that you would know.I will print the link and go with Mr Stupid (OH) tomorrow and the neighbours in case my French is not up to the case and see what happens. I honestly didn't believe that, after 5 years here, I could have missed something like the law changing but you never know.thanks again, I will update tomorrow after the fateful event !K xx
oh no, questions on selling house in france again !
in Finding/Owning French Property
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