Athene

[quote]We told some friends about Speed Ferries and they booked a crossing for August for £50. The next day we tried to book an identical crossing and were quoted £90 so we arranged to travel with P&O fo...[/quote] Friends of ours travelled out with Eurotunnel yesterday and the xxx thing was 3 hours late! Yes it is Speed ferries for us!

[quote]You have completely missed the point. I came to France several years ago and did not speak French. There was a posting well before your time and since lost due to the change in forum software where a...[/quote] Even if you speak French reasonably fluently, you can still have huge problems when 'patois' is spoken! I always have my French neighbour with me when we have people coming to give quotes etc as he will translate their 'patois' into French!

[quote]It sounds very much like you have the dreaded Minuteus Fluk Beetles! These are very rare indeed, and should be harvested and preserved for future generations to see. These were last seen in Coventry i...[/quote] All these bugs and 'betes' are the price of living in the beautiful French countryside! We discovered this time that something had fallen through the large gap round the bathroom ventilation pipes leading to the roof cavity. (The closing off of this gap has been a 'round-to-it' job for a long time - too long!) The wretched thing had stripped off the wall paper and 'committed atrosities' on the chest of drawers! It was not pleasant clearing it up I can tell you! Whether it was a marten or a squirrel, I do not know but come Monday we will close off the gap permanently!

[quote]Well said Athene. Only I have trouble with 1) and 5), the moderation with the food and imposing petty restrictions on myself don't quite work together. I'm a bit of an hedonist really. Ther...[/quote] Nothing wrong with hedonism or being a little over weight. It is just where excess weight is proving a health problem that I think all these diets should come into their own. Mind you, I would hate to have to pay for someone to tell me to eat less in one of these clubs! I am quite capable of disiplining myself (when I feel like it! LOL!)!

[quote]Sadly, when I am in the Vendée I now trot along to the nearest Weight Watchers group, get weighed and listen to the lesson. I have even been known to join in! Helps my French and I get to meet som...[/quote] Good Advice: * Eat and drink everything in moderation - yes including a croissant a day if that is your thing! * Write down all your good points and love yourself for who you are now, not an elusion of what you would like to be. * Stop looking in mirrors and worrying! Do more gardening! * If he does not love you for who you are, then you are with the wrong bloke! Trade him in for a new model! There are some good offers on this site! * Enjoy your life and do not spoil it by imposing petty restrictions on yourself, remember life is for real and not a rehearsal!

[quote]Funny you should mention a helicopter buzzing about.My husband was working high up onthe church roof the other week when one came down really low and kept flying round and round the village and then ...[/quote] Yes, they have helicopter checks in Dept 17 too. Some of them are the customs officiers checking out what is going on with crops in the vineyards as the farmers are only allowed to sell a certain allocation of juice. Any surplus grapes have to be cut and left on the earth to rot. It all reminds me of years ago when there were butter mountains etc! And yes, we too had out taxe d'habitation re-calulated as they did not seem to believe us on our this year's declaration form when we had stated that we had not converted anymore of the house to living accomodation.

[quote]I couldn't agree more about Brits who can't be bothered to learn French. A couple and small child arrived in our village last July. Last week the woman (who does not work and therefore has all the t...[/quote] As a French speaker it is easy to be critical of others! Give them time and they will probably absorb a certain amount of French by 'osmosis' At least they are trying to be sociable and that is a start! The child will probably speak French ages before his parents and that maybe an encouragement to get them going on their learning of the language. Speaking as an experienced teacher, it is generally not language barriers nor parents that will cause a child to be bullied.

[quote]Sorry Athene, but you had a bad experience, I too have sold extensively on eBay (and bought too). Most sellers take a pride in what they do and as a seller of ceramics myself I can tell you that the p...[/quote] Hi Gay, yes I know you always pack your items well, I have already bought from you! Remember? You probably don't as you sell extensively. However, this awful guy will never get bad feedback as he would only turn round and give you bad feedback in return. At the time, I e-mailed another guy who had also bought from him and he had had a similar experience but felt, like me, that with E-Bay, some you win and some you lose.

[quote]She trades all over the world. Once you have a Ebay login on one site you can use the same login for any other Ebay site. What you have to take in to consideration is shipping costs and different laws...[/quote] I too find E-Bay intersting, but you have to be aware that sometimes the things you are successful in bidding for may not come as you would expect. I collect a particular sort of china and won an auction to add to this. However, when the china arrived, the Scottish seller had packed it in tissue paper and it was all in smithereens! If I was to go onto E-Bay and give the seller negative feedback in protest, I would open up myself to negative feedback myself. So what I did was fire off an e-mail to this guy and ask for a refund, this has been met with serious hate mail in return. I would not dare post negative feedback now! I would prefer to lose the money! My advice to anyone wanting to buy something expensive from this site or any similar is to look where it is being sold, arrange an appointment and go and see the proposed purchase AND more importantly the seller!

[quote]The more time I spend thinking about this subject, the more I think it is all about "mindset". If you have the right mindset, particularly the ability to cope when things don't turn out the way you e...[/quote] I agree with what you say about mindset but I think life is never straight forward wherever you choose to live it and people in general are a mixture of good, bad and indifferent. Hopefully with more of the former!

[quote]Athene I have heard of cases where the commune insist on buying some of the land when a property is up for sale. This is to enable them to build houses at a later date. re. your earlier comment new...[/quote] Hi Gill, I can only speak as I find and I too am in 17.

[quote]I can understand folks buying land so they know no building will go on next door. The down side of this is what the heck do you do with it? We have a small field next to our garden which was inclu...[/quote] My ideas for your land are the following: make a caravan/camping site grow fruit trees or soft fruit and stand the local market with the produce keep bees pitch and put course or become an English landed gent in your 'corner of a foreign land' with green wellies, Barbour jacket and flat hat and of course have the obligatory two labradors. Hope this helps!  

[quote]Many communes are now feeling the pinch, are indeed very poor and their finances even in the "rouge" so it is in their interests to sell off land for new houses. Villages and hamlets are expanding an...[/quote] I think compulsory purchase only happens when they want to build roads and then the compensation is neglible! Probably similar to England!

[quote]I originally asked the question if any person knew anything about retirement villages. It has turned into a different subject altogether, which often happens on this forum. I admit that I have a larg...[/quote] I agree about all the posts about owning a big garden. We have four daughters all with partners/husbands and the first one is expecting twins. I have great plans for when the children are toddlers and we can have a play area with all kinds of slides and swings and sandpits on a  grandscale etc and I am hoping too that we will be able to afford a swimming pool with a lovely shallow area to see the 'littlies' learn to swim in. Also with a big house we can convert an area for the daughters to come and stay without us being under their feet, our small people will be able to scream and shout at leisure and we will slumber on in the other part of the house. Now we could not afford a luxury like this in Essex!

[quote]I for one certainly don't blame you for wanting to buy the land. We almost bought a house that would have had a serious problem with a neighbouring barn. I just gave my explanation in Retirement in Fr...[/quote] The reason why so many little pavilions are popping up here, there and everywhere is that there is a directive from the French government that all the communes, according to size, have to release land for new builds. It is a good idea to keep abreast of where these will come as some of them  get permission for building right next to exisiting houses. If you find out a piece of open land next door maybe taken for building, then you might be able to negotiate its purchase but beware land with building permission is always more expensive than agricultural land. Therefore if you are worried that this may happen, it is best to negotiate a purchase before the building permission is granted.

[quote]I know the area quite well having done property searches for myself and a number of friends over the past few years. The programme in question was an update of an original programme made almost 4 year...[/quote] In our area Dept 17, the English used to come and buy up the old, stone houses as renovation projects but now because they have become wiser and know that it is xxx hard graft to DIY or an xxx lot of cash and hassle to find good French artisans they are now queuing up to buy plots of land and have the custom-build builders come in and do the work.

[quote]No need to shave the cat , a quick run over with a comb or brush produces copious amounts of hair, particularly at this time of the year. One thing about having hard floors rather than fitted carpet...[/quote] I agree with what everyone else has said about the sonic mouse scarers! We bought a daffy of them from Band Q and they were not much use. The answer is to block all the  gaps around pipes, the holes at the back of kitchen units and the gaps under doors etc etc. We have two, exceedingly ancient, house cats who were literally terrified when a French mouse invaded the lounge. It was all very amusing as Rotten and Bad sat either side of me on the sofa and watched this cocky, little character tear into the centre of the room, then see us and zoom back to safety under the dresser! 

[quote]I support Speedferries, but just thought I'd mention something about the freeticket offers! Having bought a number of tickets before and being eligible for a freeticket and Mr W wanting to go over f...[/quote] I am sorry you have missed out on the cheapy offers but Speed Ferries did say on their website that once the allocation of bargain basement fares had gone then the rest would be dearer.

[quote]Hi The sguare metal blocks with a central dot are the actual boundary. I had to attend a "bornage" and watched them hammer the markers into the ground. We've just had to research this. We had a fiel...[/quote] Yes, I too have these yellow topped markers placed by the land surveyor  and I have today bought my new hedge of Eliagnus which I will plant tomorrow one metre in from this. Himself won't be helping as tonight the thermocouple has gone on our boiler and he will have to comb the area for a replacement as visitors are also arriving tomorrow!

[quote]It isn't rocket science is it really. True one has to sweep or vac before washing tiles and the water hopefully isn't really too grubby either when one has finished. But that muck that one washes up s...[/quote] Another good tip about washing tiled floors is to wash them just before you come to bed and make sure you are the last up because sure as eggs is eggs in the daytime everyone will descend on you and your pristine, cleanly washed floor will revert to a mud puddle!

[quote]Mike There are two schools of thought, one is that capricorn only infest the outer "layer" of wood, take years to do any damage and so are relatively harmless, they used to just hack off the affected...[/quote] The firm that did our treatment were Pellin, they are a national company, and they say you can live in the house whilst the treatment is on-going.

[quote]Cat46 The bad news about tiles is that yes, you cover the same ground twice! First you have to either hoover or sweep all the dust-bunnies up (they appear very quickly), then oh joy, out with the b...[/quote] Over the course of the years, I have come to the conclusion that I am not a domestic goddess!

[quote]Mmmm, lovely soft carpet underfoot, heaven! Not very french though, sadly. I always found carpet very easy to keep clean, a weekly run over with a hoover (not one of those silly "pull-it-along-like-...[/quote] I hate housework too, so rule one is do not have plainish white tiles have terracotta, they do not show the grime! I hoover mine before washing them! I have one of these industrial Karcher, banana, yellow jobs!

[quote]Ah tiles, I'm looking for some at the moment. Boite a Outils is far better value than Casto, Leroymerlin is too far to go and look. I used to have a friend who had a business selling tiles. Certainly...[/quote] In the winter, underfloor heating is just magic with terracotta tiles!

[quote]Notaires are, in effect, government officials, and work to a set scale of fees. "I was surprised to learn today from our notaire that we, the purchasers, shoulder all the legal expenses for the sale...[/quote] Many thanks for your replies! It is really helpful to be able to get advice like this! I think this site is just great!