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Cadence braking, that takes me back.......mind you you'd have to drink a lot of Red Bull to pump the brakes as quickly as abs does! :) I agree, theory and techniques just don't come naturally in a split second emergency. I'm glad for you that your car had the techniques built in.    Steve

[quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"]We disconnected our ABS[/quote] Would this not invalidate your insurance if a claim was made against you? In many cars abs is a feature which is an integral part of the safety of the vehicle, unlike esp which can be switched off from the dashboard. I had a close call in a Devon lane once when, as I hit the brakes, a head-on collision seemed inevitable. Fortunately both cars had abs and in fact when we stopped there was still a car's length between us. Personally I'd get it repaired! Steve

"Has anyone any idea about the cost of having a cam belt fitted to cars,we have a passat 19tdi and the garage has just quoted for a full service and the cam belt replaced 700 euros,it sounds a lot but am not a mechanic and i know its a bog job to do. Any thoughts please John " I had a 120K service including cam belt and water pump carried out at a VW dealer in the UK last year on our 06 2.0 TDI Passat and the charge was £661. Last week I had a full set of brake pads fitted at a VW garage in southern Spain - 267€. VW UK standard price £258. Its just not the case that everything in the UK is cheaper, multinationals have had three years to increase their prices there to reflect the fallen value of the pound, and they've done so. Steve

Oh well, looks like I'm the expert now that I've tried it! The kennels are half a dozen large sized transport boxes loosely tied to the plumbing on a noisy landing above the engine room. Owners can only visit during the voyage by arranging a security guard to come with them, 11 hours into the voyage, at 8AM, the guard shrugged and told us "not until 9.00 when my boss comes". There's no-where to walk the animals during the 15hour voyage. Doggy hell really. We'll drive next time. This may help sombody else decide. Steve

Hi, does anyone know anything about the kennels on the LD lines Norman Asturia on this route? Are they warm and can passengers visit and exercise dogs en 14hr route? The LD office is vague about this. Thanks, Steve

We're opening an account at la Poste in case of disruption at CA following "an orderly default", especially as that moment may be a good one to move some money over. Do you think we're being overly pessimistic? Steve

Was it those prices for the same brand of tyres Mel or was it just a cheaper tyre? Last year I bought online at Norauto: 4 Pneu Tourisme été 215/55 R16 97W XL PIRELLI P7 + fitting and balancing for £601 The same tyres were (and still are) £558 at Tyre Shopper uk (National Tyre Service). I don't know about you, but I notice a considerable difference in roadholding and wear between quality and cheaper tyres. Our s/h Punto came with Norauto own brand tyres and in the wet the car felt very tender and the abs activated during relatively mild braking. Despite good tread depth we replaced them with 4 UNIROYAL RAINEXPERT 81T 165/70TR14 T 81 £179.20 fitted at National Tyre service. The Uniroyal tyres were slightly cheaper to buy at Norauto, but after adding their fitting charges would have been more expensive than having them fitted in the UK, which we did on our next trip. I'm confident that the car is now considerably safer than before. Steve

Thats it, thanks! Steve

I once found a website that had details and video about a hillclimb on public roads in a village in north Brittany or lower Normandy, but am unable to find it again. Can anyone help me please? Thanks, Steve

Probably old news as it deals with the links between Tor and failed Crown, but this commissioned article on the Money Saving Expert website is informative on registration shortcomings: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2011/01/torfx-what-are-the-links Me, I've decided to wait and see what happens to pound/euro values during the next few months before I move some money, as I can't believe that the ECB's purchasing what are effectively junk bonds will lead anywhere good for the euro. The only certainty though is that on the day after I make the transfer the pound will rise against the euro substantially! Steve

Anton said: "My life time experience of changing headlamps to dip the other way ; Ford Anglia 105E, Ford Cortina Mk 1 Estate, Ford Cortina Mk 2 GT Estate. Round yellow units with a prism held on with clips and rubber springs which resembled suspenders. " Aah, suspenders....... That brings back memories! We covered over 3000 miles in France and Switzerland in a 105E in 1970 with the yellow beam benders. The springs were black elastic ribbon so even more like suspenders Anton......... After the beam from the ubiquitous 7" Lucas's had been bent to the left by the glass lens and then to the right and turned yellow by the beam bender there wasn't a lot of light left on dip, however there was probably as much visibility as all those 2cv drivers had. Our Anglia, which was considerably modified, attracted a lot of attention, mostly because it had seatbelts, and the only car which entered into the spirit of things was a sporty rear engined Simca (its rear wheels at about 45* negative camber!) through the Tarn Gorge. Most 2cvs though, were driven at speeds on single carriageway roads, that were no different to today's speeds. Doubtless the accident stats were somewhat worse.... Steve

Bugsy" "You should have watched the Moto-GP at Silverstone, far more exciting and far less prima-donnas." But slower despite the bravery of the riders. This from a 2010 enthusiasts' forum: "Moto GP lap times around silverstone recently were just over 2 minutes. Just looked at the F1 practice times from today, and they are around 1min 30seconds. Are the cars using a shorter circuit....because they can't possible be 30seconds faster than the bikes? Downforce through the corners, later braking. Television doesn't do F1 justice - the things are beyond logic. A formula 1 car can drive upside down at 120mph+ and it wouldn't fall off the upside down track - if you know what I mean! Still have two wheeels too many though.... For what its worth, the F1 cars break 150 meters later into one of the Silverstone corners, and some of the corners are flat out 6th gear bends for cars, but 4th or 5th gear knee down jobbies for bikes. The difference is amazing. " On a clear road with bends, I've never had a problem keeping up with bikes but I've always felt relatively vulnerable on a bike. Steve

idun: Wish they would do them again with modern engines. Nice and cheap and simple inside not all the carpets you see these days, so you can put a mucky dog in or bags of cement, or bang the camping gear in and be off. They were really snotty with me at my Renault garage when I said all that and that was several years ago. Apparently the great french public didn't want anything so down market. Me I'm all for simple, probably because I am a simple soul. I take it an 'old' R4 at that price would have a slightly different 'life' to the one I would offer a new one" Buy a vbc and pull out all the carpets and you have the quatrelle equivalent! I think only the French make them (van based cars) Steve

You couldn't make it up. From the Wiki link mentioned earlier: "Shortly after HADOPI's agency logo was presented to the public by Minister of Culture and Communication Frédéric Mitterrand, it was revealed that the logo used an unlicensed font. The font was created by typeface designer Jean François Porchez, and is owned by France Télécom. The design agency that drew the logo, Plan Créatif, admitted to using the font by mistake – although the font is available only illegally on pirate sites – and the logo was redone with another font." Clarkkent said: "don't know about French systems, but in England I have a BT Home Hub 2. In addition to being my modem-router, when it is switched on, it also acts as a BT Fon wi-fi hot spot and may accessed by anyone wishing to connect to the internet. ..........And if so, would not such a device free gite owner from the threat of Hadopi?" Freeboxes do this, Neuf and maybe others too. The Free hotspot user is given a separate IP address to that of the local subscriber, but still needs someone's (Free) account details in order to access the hotspot, so if you provide your details its still down to you. Steve

If you receive a parcel delivery message from "United Parcel Service of America" with a zip file attached purporting to be the tracking code, its malware so don't open it. If anyone had just placed an order online as I had, it would be so easy to be fooled. I believe its a new threat and the filters will probably weed it out soon. Steve

>Dolby Digital + Thanks, looks like thats the problem. The TV doesn't seem to have any other output options in the menu. I'll try connecting the analogue audio cables to the TV as well tomorrow. Steve

I'm not keen on military history myself as political history history upsets me before I get to the actuality. I guess that you folks know about the Lancastrian? the worst single loss of life in British maritime history. Kept quiet at the time for reasons of morale, there was a documentary a few years ago, but it's still largely unrecognised. Perhaps because most of the victims were civilians? Steve

I've just connected a sound system to our TV via optical cable. The sound system works on Bluray, Freesat and French TNT TV channels - but not on French TNT HD channels (all via the TV tuner - not a separate box). Is it the sound format? I've tried all of the TV settings. Steve

Further to this thread we've been going back over our CPAM statements and found something that we don't understand. Over the course of the last few years we've had two ops, and each time the major charges at the clinic (3500€ and 1600€) were reimbursed at 100% by CPAM rather than 80%. Does anyone know why? We're "régime génerale" (not CMU) and neither of the ops, a cruciate ligament repair and inguinal hernia repair were life threatening. All the associated costs, nurses visites, etc were reimbursed by CPAM at 65 or 70% less the franchise as one would expect. Steve

I've found out why the Myriad website devis is misleading, it makes the assumption when a couple adds a child to their quotation that they are between 18 and 54 and tailors the policy to suit -actually it includes obstetrics and bandages+similar, and a post accident examination for under 28yr olds, the over 55yr old basic policy doesn't include those. However, a devis for the two of us that defaults to the over 55 policy, plus a separate basic policy for a 22 yr old, comes to 57€ as before. A phone call to Myriad didn't give quite the same results, but we're waiting for an e-mail from them. We still think the deal is good but are concerned about the lack of non-hospitalised imagery in the policy. To cover that would be 116€ pm, just a little more than we were paying last year before the premium hike. Pommier- Galaxie Myriade is for age up to 54, Serenius for age 55 and over. Within each there levels of cover, maybe you policy changed when you both passed 55. If we do decide to take it up, I believe there's 20€ in it for you. You can drive to Brittany and take us out to lunch :) Steve

Sharp! I didn't notice that....thanks The online devis was filled in correctly I can assure you. One does have to be on the mark here, even with supermarket special offers, let alone insurance policies. Perhaps they're just fishing. I'll follow it up later. Thanks, Steve

Thank you for that. Actually on the face of it Myriade is certainly better than the catastrophe insurance I've seen so far. Although I've not looked at the fine detail the highlights of the offers for the three of us for: Chirurgie 140% Médecins Généralistes 100% Médecins Spécialistes 100% Pharmacie 95% Soins dentaires 100% Prévention 100% is 57€ per month. Details here if anyone's interested: http://www.myriade.fr/Fiches_produit_2010/GALAXIE/GALAXIE_Alpha_1.0.pdf NOT included is optical, dental prosthesis, and imagery+ actes tech/medicaux except when in hospital 313.68 Euro et 398 Euro global for an IRM. A private room option is extra 21€ per month which seems steep to me. I paid the extra for a private room when I had an op close to me willy, and it didn't cost that much for three nights. Actually it wouldn't have mattered if one more person had had a look, most of Brittany did anyway.....it wasn't at its best, but no-one laughed openly:) Steve

I understand that one is charged for SAMU services if the callout is considered to be unjustified. If I'm correct I'm sure that the fine detail would be defined somewhere. Views on justification will obviously differ between the parties, and I do take on board your points and will look carefully at any policy I consider. One wouldn't want to feel inhibited by cost in those situations. Thanks. Steve

Thank you for your comments. I do hope that your treatment is showing results. I had been thinking along the lines you suggest lines and I can't help wondering why any averagely healthy person wouldn't do the same. The only time that a monthly repayment by our complimentaire has exceeded our monthly premium was following a cruciate ligament repair, a tricky procedure but common in the skiing season, and even then it wasn't by much. Afterwards the three 30min physio sessions pw for five weeks were 15€ each with the complimentaire contribution being 67€ for the entire physio treatment, monthly premiums at that time being 109€. Fortunately travel wasn't an issue, but I take your point. On the subject of medical transport MOH spent a night in the clinic alongside (same room, not same bed!) a lady in her eighties who had had a cataract op and was bemoaning the fact that she had a paid 70€ return taxi fare to the hospital each time to see the surgeon, then the anaesthetist, then for the operation, and the only one that her Caisse (and her comp) would pay for was the one to and from the operation. I stumbled across a 2003 INSEE document the other day that showed that excepting non-european immigrants, the group least likely to subscribe to a complimentaire are those in "Profession intellectuelle supérieure (libérale)". Thats interesting :). We have had different insurances (buildings,health,cars) with Groupama, Pacifica, GAN, Mutuest and Generali. and have had different issues with them all although the only issue that prompted us to change each time was cost of premiums, making a saving of 500€ in one year for similar cover (or removing unecessary features). In common with dealing with brokers in the UK, each time one changes one saves money. I've seen an illustration online that would cover all our usual charges plus the usual minimal amount towards specs and dents for 100€ pm rather than the 140 that our previous insurer wanted and I may go for that. It's a question of that or the "catastrophe" insurance at 70€ pm. I had been thinking of trying to persuade MOH and our daughter to have a sex change as I believe the premiums are lower for men ;). Steve

I should have made my post a little more clear, We have always had insurance cover from CPAM, it is complimentary insurance for the part that the state doesn't pay that I am considering reducing or doing without. When your wife is 60 Joe,hopefully she'll be eligable for an E120. Steve