Karen

Although we use the Eurotunnel property owners club,we have been telling people about the speedferries fares. However, we had people go to our house just over a week ago and outbound the sailing was cancelled. As no reciprocal arrangement exists with the other operators speedferries solution was to give the customers their money back and leave them to make alternative arrangements. On the return journey the ferry was delayed indefinitely. The choice was wait or have your money back. Our friends decided to take the money, drive to Calais travelled by Seafrance, which meant paying extra money(again) and as they arrived in Dover saw the speedferry just departing. I suspect that too much of this will deter people from taking the chance of having their trip ruined and as our friends said,"finding an alternative in October was one thing but what would happen in peak season?" Elsewhere on the forum you will see that Eurotunnel are scrapping the property owners club fares and possibly cutting services. As far as speedferry2 goes, well I would say don't hold your breath, remember the current service was over a year late in going into service.    

Thank you all so much for your replies - we have been working and spent last weekend in France (nice weather) and haven't had a chance to look at the forum. We will definitely have to get the atlas out to decode all those dept. no's!!! Will(the conquerer) has probably hit the nail on the head as different people want different climates. Personally we would like the English climate if you could guarantee a descent couple of summer months but the idea of mild springs and autumns with guaranteed 70/80's in the summer would be idillic. Is there such a place? If you had 35 degrees last week Will,where do you live? Isn't it REALLY hot in summer? Regards Karen & Dave    

This probably isn't much help, but when we bought our house in Le Quesnoy en Artois we received the deeds but not the factures. We have asked the agent on numerous occassions but the notaire hasn't sent them. We wanted more units for the kitchen and the bill would have given us the suppliers address and we also wanted to know when the septic tank was last cleaned. The notaire concerned is in St.Pol could this be the same notaire? If your notaire was in St.Pol I will send the name to your private box.  

Yes, Replacing the 3 (why?) existing fuse boxes with a new one and getting edf in to check it etc.

Having bought our house in Le Quesnoy en Artois (Nr Hesdin-62) just over a year ago We have been asked if we are thinking of retiring to France. We have always said that we would probably go further south IF we were able to retire but frankly where we would we go? Obviously this year has been pretty poor in a lot of northern europe. we live in Essex which is one of the driest parts of England but the pas de calais always seems slightly better than home. We don't want the heat of Greece,Spain, etc. in high summer but it would be nice to be somewhere where you can expect a good summer and mild spring/autumn. Would you reccommend where YOU live?    

we posted messages about our electricity prices sometime ago and our abbonement of 52.50 euros per month! It turns out that we are on 3 phase electricity and we are now arranging for it to be changed to single phase with a low abbonement which, hopefully, will justify the 650 euros to get it changed. The electrician has to fit a new consumer unit so is fitting an "intellegent" unit that will prevent the system tripping. Once the house is up and running the appliance thermostats should mean that all appliances can be on, However, if you arrived at the house, turned everything on, it would trip, but the consumer unit will turn say 2 heaters off for 10 minutes then switch them back on thus reducing the load in turn. The work should be starting about now so we will have to wait and see!

Some of you will remember our posting about our high standing charge (52.50 Euros per month) and we got some valuable information about how these are calculated (thank you all).It turns out that we have 3phase electrics in the house and we will need to get an electrician to calculate the total requirement change to single phase and fit a lower capacity fuse.We would then be able to advise edf of our new requriement and get a standing charge of around 17euros a month. Our good friend the mayor contacted an electrician to do the job, but unforunately he hasn't had time to arrange a "rendevous". I don't want to pester him because he has been really helpful to us, so if anyone knows of an electrician, preferably who might speak some English, could you let us know.

From Dave(not Karen) I Have been flying on a PPL for some 15yrs and have frequently flown from the U.K. to Le Touquet for lunch or a weekend etc.. However, now that we have a holiday home near Hesdin it would be nice to find a private airfield nearer to Hesdin than the municipal airports of Le Tuoquet, Berck or Abbeville. As there is always loads of information and many queries get answered on this web site I thought it was worth asking. There was a small airfield at Mouriez marked on the aero chart a number of years ago but nothing recently. So if any of you know of say a farmer who operates a light aircraft from his land or have any suggestions or would like a chat please reply . Regards Dave & Karen

Have you also noticed there is a bridge which hides your view of the lay-by(probably until it's too late). I am sure many a driver has looked in their rear view mirror and seeing no police car chasing them think they have got away with it like a couple of months ago when a BMX? overtook me as if I were standing still.(I was doing 80) I didn't see any police Sunday night though.

Yes we looked last May? For the start of this new service - then was it August that this was supposed to start? We sent them an E-mail asking for prices,start date etc., they said they would let us know as soon as they had more info., we are still waiting. In fact we had forgotten what they were called so thank's for the reminder. Karen & Dave