Coco

I presume that if your husband is mostly living and working in the UK then he does not have a carte vital or a French social security number?  I think this is why you can't be issued with a new card because if you were it would be under your husband's number even though it would bear your name.  Well that's the case with me anyway;  I have a new carte vital with my name on it but the SS number (very appropriate ) is my husband's.  You're probably too much for the system to cope with!!!  Recently my step-dad's E106 expired and he was covered by my mum's E121 and the same happened to him, he got a card in his name but with her number on it.  So presumably if you are covered by your husband's form but he doesn't have a number he can't be issued with a card and therefore neither can you! That's the way I see it anyway but I'm sure someone else will know better.

....for something that isn't even your fault? During my first season I used to receive emails from people asking if a room was free on a certain night; I would write back and say yes it was and then never hear any more from them, so I would chase them up asking if they wanted to book; still I heard nothing and that was how I learnt that if people aren't interested, or change their plans, they don't let you know.  However, just occasionally someone would come back two weeks later and ask for directions, presuming that their original email had been enough to secure the booking. So, to clarify things, in my second season I would reply by saying, yes it is free, would you like to reserve it, if so I require blah blah deposit?  I still had the same response from people and at the beginning of the season still chased them up but soon learnt how time-consuming that was and so took it that if they didn't come back asking where or how to send a deposit they were clearly not interested. This year I have carried on in the same way, except that I follow a very strict routine of after replying to the initial enquiry, when I get a response I send a second email with my terms and conditions which gives them an option of how to pay their deposit and also asks them which direction they are coming from.  That way they have to reply again confirming that they are coming, and then I send a third email giving them directions.  However, last night I got an email from a lady saying that she is just checking that everything is still OK for the room and dinner on Sunday and that she appears to have lost the directions so could I please resend them.  Well I NEVER delete an email related to bookings and I have trawled back through the lot, since her first enquiry, which was the standard, "Do you have a double room available for Sunday 28th May?  If we don't arrive til 8pm are we too late for dinner".  The only other email either to or from her is mine of the same date saying "yes we do, no you're not, shall I reserve it for you, if so we require blah blah blah"  From then (early January) til last night NOTHING.  I've since let the room to someone else, am fully booked for the weekend but still I feel REALLY MEAN.  It's absolutely NOT my fault and my husband thinks that she knows she has slipped up and by saying that she has "lost" the directions is her way of trying to wriggle out of the fact that she forgot to book.  But I still feel aweful!  Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else?  And do you feel equally as bad as me, or am I just being much too sensitive for my own good?

Thanks Andrew, that bit of vocab will help explain what we want doing.  I think Poitou Charente is a bit too far from Manche!!!

I also posted this topic in the Language section and Teamed Up suggested looking under elagage (pruning)in pagesjaunes.  I then came up with 31 people in my departement who are registered to undertake pruning and felling.  Perhaps you'll have the same luck if you do a search in our area.

Thanks for the suggestion but I think she probably came up with that literal translation out of, as you say, confusion and frustration.  That's where we started on Saturday - with French friends - who really had no idea what I was talking about!!! Teamed Up has come up with an answer for me which was to look up elagage in pagesjaunes and lo and behold I've found 31 entries for Manche, all offering to prune or cut down trees - just what I'm looking for!!! Thanks for responding anyway.

Going back to Fiona's original question about whether the CdH needs to be registered if it is not the main source of income or if it is irregular, then certainly the answer in this area (Manche) is, as Bill says, that if it is not your main income, then it does not have to be registered.  However, being an irregular income does not necessarily mean the same thing.  When I spoke to the Chambres de metiers about this I was told that it didn't matter how irregular it was if it is the MAIN source of income it has to be registered.  If it isn't, it doesn't!  But you do have to pay cotisations of some kind. Yes you do need a petit licence, no matter how infrequent the CdH, but this is free and very easy to obtain - probably the easiest bit of French bureacracy we have had to deal with, once we made the douanes aware that we do actually need one! I think the table and chair bit is only necessary to qualify for Gites de France categories.  We do have bedside tables and lamps and one chair in each room and our local tourist offices have found these perfectly adquate but I believe GdF suggest one chair for each person in the room, and also a proper table.  Although, I have to say, we haven't always been supplied with these in GdF that we have stayed in, in the past.

Can anyone help with the term for a tree surgeon.  I looked it up in the dictionary and came up with arboriculteur -trice but of course that also means a tree grower, and everyone I've tried in that section of pages jaunes is a grower not a cutter!!  Alternatively, does anyone know of such a person (with insurance) in the Coutances-Saint Lo-Villedieu area?

Can anyone help with the term for a tree surgeon?  I looked it up in the dictionary and came up with arboriculteur -trice but of course that also means a tree grower, and everyone I've tried in that section of pages jaunes is a grower not a cutter!!  Alternatively, does anyone know of such a person (with insurance) in the Coutances-Saint Lo-Villedieu area of Manche?

Can anyone help with the term for a tree surgeon.  I looked it up in the dictionary and came up with arboriculteur -trice but of course that also means a tree grower, and everyone I've tried in that section of pages jaunes is a grower not a cutter!!  Alternatively, does anyone know of such a person (with insurance) in the Coutances-Saint Lo-Villedieu area?

As for those I'd refuse. I've had a few, perhaps 6 couples in all. I guess that out of the average 150 to 200 or so couples we get a year, we'd not be sorry never to see 25 again - not because they are really unpleasant, just because they are generally rather negative. Do you mean per year Ian?  That seems awefully high! - I think I'd give up if I had that many.  It looks as though we have a similar amount through the door as you, but I'd put my number at about 2 or 3 per year that I wouldn't care if I never saw again.  Usually because they seem to think they are at a 4 star hotel and are extremely demanding for what they're paying, or they are rude and don't respect the fact that they are in my home.  As far as not paying goes, I haven't had anyone do a runner but I've had two lots leave early and not pay for the nights they booked and didn't stay and unfortunately last year I had a LOT of American no-shows because I had no way of taking deposits from them.  Hopefully that's been rectified this year with Paypal.

Israel have been in the competition for donkeys years, but I've always wondered why.  My French friend kept complaining that all the songs sounded the same with that horrible aerobic beat - I couldn't work out what an aerobic beat was, but as she's an ex professional ballet dancer I presumed she knew what she was talking about. Then the light dawned when the Turkish song came on and she really let rip about how they shouldn't be allowed to join the EU and that they were a bunch of aerobs not europeans!!!  She had been complaining about most of the songs sounding too arabic and that they are trying to take over the world with their influences.  Someone on another thread made some comment about French people not discussing politics but our friend was right in there, telling us all to vote NON! next week and she was quite astounded to discover that we can't vote, especially when those highly feared musselmen can!  Oh how they have ruined her beloved Paris. Anyway, we were all backing Norway, Denmark and granny on her drum.  Couldn't really see what was so great about the Greek song - and how transparent was it that for the first time in history Turkey gave Greece douze points!  Not very obvious that they want to get into Europe.  Might have helped them more if they'd given those points to France though.

A baseball cap is probably as good as it gets!  Lots of horrible cheap sweets.  The race itself goes by in literally the blink of an eye, but you'll get plenty of warning by the low-flyin TV helicopters!

Personally Tel makes it for me!  But you could turn the volume down and have Radio 2 on and listen to Ken Bruce, but then, I can't stand him!!!  Last year we didn't have UK TV so watched it on French TV.  They were quite amusing but not  a patch on Tel, until it became evident that France had no chance of winning and then they completely lost interest and started having a private conversation between themselves, on subjects nothing to do with Eurovision whatsoever!! Thanks SB, I knew I would be able to rely on you  Let's hope my host decides to use the BBC quiz - but then, could my conscience allow me not to own up?......

We discovered recently that the previous previous owner had not declared the swimming pool and was not listed on our tax forms.  The pool was installed 25 years ago And were you liable for any kind of back-tax?  I'm a little concerned at the moment, as we are converting our barn into living space and our kitchen is already an agro shell built inside the existing barn, done by the previous owner, and I have my doubts as to whether it was ever declared, especially as our taxe d'habitation is so low.  And I don't want to be landed with a huge back-tax bill for the last 15 years!!!

Especially if you remember her in "The Graduate". I always think that two riotious, apparently happy marriages in the UK would be those of Lenny Henry and Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders and Ade Edmondson! However, "Springtime for Hitler" does take some beating! Hey Hoddy, don't see you on here too often.  Speaking of great partnerships, have you made an honest man of that wonderful other half you have yet?

I think my personal favourite last night was the guy in the silver lame suit thing (with the guns&roses type backing band) - can't remember which country, although the granny in the rocking chair with the drum was really something special..... He was brilliant wasn't he Fi?  Reminded me a little bit of Freddie Mercury.  Believe it or not, it was the usual "Nil points" Norvege who did the silver lame bit - I think they might score a few points this year!  And apparently granny is fast becoming the hot favourite!!! Furryknickers, you're absolutely right, what a load of rubbish that Javine is, and if anyone burns their fingers I think she should be sued - usual c****y entry from the UK, makes you embarrassed to be British sometimes The guys doing the sign language did get through last night, but I can't remember what country they are representing.  Anyway, I think tomorrow night could be a classic, there is certainly plenty of material for Prime Minister Wogan to get his teeth into. BTW, can anyone give me any Eurovision facts?  I think our host is planning a quiz, with prizes

You could be right Margaret.  They so hate to let anyone know that they don't know/can't do everything perfectly don't they?  Like when you take a wrong turn or get lost when you're going somewhere and they won't a) turn round or b) stop and ask someone directions - now that's a real man thing

I'm probably talking rubbish because in our house the boiler is a boys thing, so I don't have a lot to do with it, but I do know that we don't have a water tank at all and we are running a B&B with 3 bathrooms and have never yet (quick, touch wood) run out of hot water.  Perhaps we have a different type of boiler though

One of our neighbours is having a Eurovision party tomorrow night - French, English and Swedish participants - but I think all three songs are C***.  I'm going for Moldova - did anyone see the semi-final last night?  A Euro-rock band with a fat granny holding a big drum, dressed in national costume and sitting in a rocking chair has got to get SOME votes surely  Apart from anything else I can't wait to hear what Terry Wogan has to say about them.  I thought the eastern European/Baltic states were soooo much better than the original western European competitors - they seem to understand the spirit of the competition much more.... lots of catchy, kitschy tunes and outrageos costumes; the more established countries all seem to take it too seriously. Am I the only sad soul who will be watching?

You definitely won't get me on there then - I'm big enough as it is!!!! I don't know if it's on BBC Prime but you can watch it on the internet apparently.

So is anyone going?  I was up for a stopover in Paris but unfortunately we will be busy with the B&B from Thursday next weekend; otherwise I would definitely be there. Both my mum and I made two separate applications about 3 years ago when T B Liar was going to be in Milton Keynes and we both were offered tickets.  Again, unfortunately I was unable to go but mum went.  So it's obviously not too difficult to get accepted if you apply. Sadly there are no contraversial MPs attending next week's show but they have got Eddie Izzard so it should be good for a laugh if nothing else. If anyone's going, let us know what you look like, so we can keep an eye out for you!

I'd agree with Hegs too.  I used to think I was pretty good, but the more I learn the more I realise there is to learn.  However, English is the same and I often regard foreigners as being fluent in English when they probably feel exactly as we do at the moment! Speaking of Brico Depot, or the like, we once heard an aweful Englishwoman in the Caen one speaking extremely loudly and just prefixing each English sentance with "Qu'est-ce que c'est?"  The sad thing is, I think she truly believed that by doing this the second part of her sentance was also understood.  But the sales assistant soon got fed up with "Qu'est-ce que c'est does this shower unit cost?"  And I heard him string a sentance together in English along the lines of "we don't have any in stock but I think you'll get one from the Brico Depot in ....."  Talk about passing the buck - but who could blame him?!?

Gifi is a very inexpensive shop if there is one near you. We used Conforama for some furniture and took the opportunity of using their van hire service, paying by the hour. The cost for a transit sized van was about 20 euros for the hour! Excellent value. And if they work on the same principle as 'But', if you hire your van from say 11.15am for an hour, you don't have to get it back til 2.0pm, 'cos they're closed from 12-2!!!

No to the first part of the question and only that I'd like to have done it ten years earlier, to part two!!! Seriously, I think the only thing I might have done is buy a property a little closer to a village.  We are half a kilometre from the next nearest house, 1km from the bulk of the properties in the village and 3.5kms to the nearest village with any kind of shop.  HOWEVER, as 99% of all visitors to our B&B remark on the lovely location, perhaps we wouldn't get so many referrals or repeat business if we were in a village.

I'm not even going to consider fences in this case, I most firmly come down on the side of "this is a B&B NOT a self-catering gite"  They get their breakfast, provided by me and they can order an evening meal, prepared by me.  If they want anything else they go to a restaurant and eat it there, if they want a McDonalds, they eat it there or in their car.  I have allowed people to picnic in the garden and have offered glasses for the like (I just don't think anything tastes right out of paper cups) but fortunately it has always been French who have wanted to do this and they always come fully prepared!!  As far as I'm concerned, someone eating their own food in my property is of no benefit to me whatsoever and only creates work for me.  The ONLY exception I have to this is the availability of a microwave to heat up bottles or baby food.