squidge

evening all am finding hundreds of these creamy grub little rascals in the soil at the mo. apparently they invaded the ariege about five years ago and are everywhere...... and eat everything. bit upset to find that i've got to wait until late july before i can attack the things with miniworms as i'm worried that my new mega veg patch will prove 'fruitless' whilst they're still around to root munch. does anyone know of a french mail order supplier for the nematodes ..... or an english one that'll deliver to france?! i'm ordering a batch for the fridge as soon as i can. thanks! squidge x       

er, there's also already a 'squidge' (lower case 's') - ME!  This post is nothing to do with me either!  Confusing!!!

[quote user="Tresco"] Hi Squidge. I looked again at your website, and the pictures there would lead me to expect all white towels and linen [/quote] errr yeeessss - unfortunately the current pics on the website aren't actually of our house - that was demolished by mark last week as threatened... by the time our first paying guests book (whenever that will be), the website will be showing pics of what they can expect ...as it should do!!!!.. i just couldn't be arsed / didn't really want to put up piccys of how it looks in it's current state.....

evening all a VERY important question this...... do i have to buy white towels for my future b&b guests? (we're going with gdf if that makes any difference).... i've got my eye on a set of beigey tanny coloured ones. would i be incredibly foolish and silly to purchase such a set? thanks very muchly   squidge x  

afternoon all ok... we've just been told we can sign and get the old keys to the house next thursday! yay. the two ways of payment that the notaire seems to be happy with will be a virement or a cheque de banque. which one would be better? we're with credit agricole and we have that thing with them that for a couple of euros a month it doesn't cost us anything for them to draw up bank cheques for us. i've read that virements can take seven days or more...... help!!! which is the cheapest / quickest way of doing this?!!! any advice / costs / suggestions very much appreciated. thanks as always squidge  

ok..... this has been bugging me for ages..... and today i feel brave enough to display my utter brain thickness to you all... the question is this: how do the french know who lives in which house? they can get pretty close by seeing who lives in the nearby houses from looking at the names on the post box 'stacks' on the roadsides.....but that only gets them so far. we're (hopefully) finally making the move down south next week to pick up the keys to our new house. as far as i can see, squidgie and mark's new address can't be anymore than: squidge & mark village name postcode ...... how do france telecom, deliveries etc etc know which of the 150 odd houses is ours?! oh gawd am i being really stupid?! squidge [Www]      

and me and me and me! want to pop a pretty avatar on & add brand spanking new web address ..... but get that error message as well every time i try and save anything... ......help meeeeeeeeee!  

I'm sure he'll kick me off the comp in a min to respond - in an attempt to explain himself and justify (without success) his weird thinking..... 3-0 to me. yay. I win.  

do you reckon it's a good idea to pop a sample dinner menu on the b&b website?  squidgie thinks yes.... mark thinks no. please discuss and help us decide........ majority decision will be carried.

Hi all Apologies if this one's been asked 500 times before...... I'm currently in the Vendee at the moment but moving down to the Pyrenees after Christmas. I'd like to put a names to the 'faces' of bugs, birds, snakes, lizards, butterflies etc that i come across. I'm acting like a five-year-old at the moment whenever I spot something that I've never seen before! Which books/guides can you recommend? I've got the black Collins europe bird book already so I think those flying things are covered. Just been on Amazon and note that the Collins insects of britain and northern europe doesn't cover as far south as the Pyrenees..... so that one's no good. Probably easier (!) if they're in English, but please recommend any really good French langy ones as well! Thanks for your suggestions! Squidge

hi all just wanted to say thanks to all for your input and help...... i've printed off the grille de classement and i'll email the gdf guys down in the ariege and ask for a 'welcome/info pack'! i'll be back soon with another question no doubt! squidgie x    

Thanks for that - looks like it's for gites rather than chambre d'hotes though? please please forgive me if I'm being stupid  ........ So basically, unless you have two points of access into the house (brain considered getting Mark to knock a second hole in the front wall of the house for a moment there).. ..all you can ever hope to acheive 2 epis?!

Hi all Bit scared of writing this after seeing the 'Fil grilling', but I've read the standard French living & running a French B&B books, been on the gdf website and used the search facility fella on the forum.....and still need to ask a stupid question! Is there a list of how gdf classify / what facilities and standards one has to reach to gain the 1-4 epis? This is 'where we're at': http://www.livingfrance.com/blogs/marksblog.asp. We (hopefully) will be moving into the little house in Boussan (near Oust in the Ariege) in January and aim to use the bathroom and bedroom on the first floor for 'b&bing'. We'll consider going through gdf but it would be good to know what's needed for each epis. Does anyone know where I can find this info? ...... or is it simply a case of being very nice to the local gdf assessors 'discretion' at the time of their visit?! Surely not............. Thanks! Squidgie  

Paul, sounds like you're going through the same process in the same-ish area as me, certainly when you say you're considering south of Tarbes.  I don't know the Med end at all, but I'm familiar with the Atlantic side.  It is, of course, less reliable weather-wise, invariably cooler as a result of the winds coming in from the Atlantic, but very attractive.  It's much further west from the area in which I'm looking, so I don't know whether prices differ over towards the Atlantic, but the villages around Cambo-les-Bains, each with their own pelotta walls, regardless of the size of the village, offer a unique cultural, and indeed sporting, experience, as well as being very attractive.  St Jean-Pied-de-Port is lovely, but almost certainly a bit overrun by tourists in summer to be considered as a viable place to live, at least for my tastes, but basically from Pau west to La Rhune and down to the coast at Biarittz, Bayonne and St Jean de Luz is lush, rugged and accessible.  I'd definitely concentrate my efforts over there.  South of Tarbes is massively overrated!

Ah, using different computer!  Squidge/Mark one and the same, effectively!

Hello all We've just purchased a lhd car in the UK (it's just been imported from Germany). We're not paying vat on the purchase (the seller said that vat was paid in Germany). Would we come across any problems importing the vehicle into France as we haven't paid vat on the purchase of it? Help! Any advice gladly received! Thanks Squidge  

Hi I think the newer models (2002 onwards) of the 110 defender (lwb) have this 2+3+4 seat formation.... but we were initially looking for an older one (budget probs!) which seem to mostly have a 3 + 8 formation (3 in the front and then 2 benches seating 4 each in the back). From what we've heard, it sounds as if you couldn't legally register an older defender in France without probs, as the maximum limit of 9 seats would have been breached. We've been told that they're quite strict and look at the number of seats that the vehicle was manufactured to seat rather than how many seats it currently has (scuppering plans to remove some of the bench seats to create a vehicle that seats 9 or less before we move over!!). How many seats does your 90 have? I think that we're going to have to look at a smaller swb instead to get around this issue..... Does anyone else know/had any probs with this maximum seat issue?! Thanks Squidge

I read somewhere that the seating capacity of a 4x4 has to, by law, be limited to something like 10 seats, above which one needs a commercial vehicle driving licence to legally drive the vehicle.  I am considering buying a Land Rover Defender, which would typically have 11-12 seats, but this news has made me question whether I should pursue the idea.  Can anyone confirm that this is indeed the law in France, and if so whether it is easy enough to customise a Defender so that it can legally be driven on a standard driving licence.   Thanks.

Hello everyone! I am another forum virgin ....so please don't laugh at the questions I post......(if, however, I'm still asking stupid things in three months time I'll need to know...).   I'm selling my house at the moment to fund a house buy in France next spring. Do you think I should be putting the savings in a high interest account here or setting up a French account and popping them in there for the nine months or so? I admit to not knowing anything about the current position of the Euro.... or what interest rates are available from French savings accounts....or even whether I would be able to set up such an account anyway! Any guidance/suggestions gratefully received!!