steve@sarah

Hi, yes I know about the French attitude to micro stations, I have had a devis for one produced in France, with the correct 'NF' markings. I can't see any way round using one as we are on solid blue clay, about 30cm under the topsoil. This would make a fosse touts eaux difficult and as costly as the micro station. My real question is about the grease trap position and pipe colour. I have a lot of 110m uk brown pipe and fittings which I would obviously like to use up: it wont cost me anything, the pipe is bigger with much more sweeping bends. Our current drainage system [installed by the previous owner 15 years ago when the house was "renovated"] comprises of no fewer than 5 knuckle elbows from the toilet into a pre existing concrete inspection chamber - just a box with a pipe in and pipe out [no central trough] this runs across the garden in concrete pipe to another similar box to change direction and theoretically emptied into a roadside ditch. Lovely. No fosse at all. The concrete pipe was installed in the distant past for grey water, when we asked him, the previous owner said 'I just found a pipe and connected to it.' I don't know how he ever thought this would function. Mind you, it was totally blocked with tree roots and s**t, so had never emptied into the ditch. This all seemed to work until we were here full time - then oh the joys of digging out a totally blocked drain!

Finally moved into our property after 10 years ownership and have embarked on a major renovation project. Having worked as a property renovator in UK for 40 years I am intending to do the works myself, and find that old stone buildings in France are the same as old stone buildings in the UK from a builders point of view. However our first project is the installation of a new drainage system via a micro station and I am having trouble finding out where to install a grease trap in the system. Some sources state that all grey water should be directed through the grease trap, others that only the kitchen waste. the former would involve installing what is effectively separate systems to each bathroom whereas the latter would be a simple installation outside the kitchen. Also as I have quite a large quantity of UK 110mm brown drainage pipe and fittings left over from various projects in UK I would like to use this up in France but all drainage seems to be grey here although I have found 110mm brown pipe for sale here from a large internet seller. Is there a mandatory colour for foul drainage or is grey just what they use, no one seems able to tell me I just get the usual shrug.

We have used LD lines regularly for the last couple of years, ever since they started taking dogs on the Newhaven Dieppe route. We find them an economical alternative: Brittany ferries just got too expensive, even with the owners club discount. The western channel routes are much better for us than going via Dover as the drive from Shrewsbury is shorter, as is the run to 18 when we arrive. We worked out the total cost, includind fuel, tolls and it comes out at almost the same cost, without such a long jouney. PaulT- our 2 retrievers are fine on the car deck, they stay in the car which to them is "their" territory. We get to the port in time for a good run and try to travel over night when they would be asleep anyway. We have waited out of site to see if they settle, but they always lay down right away and go to sleep. Our last trip was free with the ld lines miles on the loyalty scheme. They have recently changed it a bit- to claim your miles log on to the frequent traveller bit of the web site and follow the links to book a crossing- the same search engine as the rest of the site except you pay with miles instead of money. Our last visit should have cost about £300 for the transit and 2 dogs Newhaven Dieppe, but was free. The only downside is the onboard food- I would rate it as only ok if your hungry! And not cheap either. Much better to go prepared with a picnic. Like others, we have noticed that most of the trade seems to be lorries rather than cars. Sometimes so many that you wonder where they can be all going!

If its all in the van, and you pay for the size van you have, then take as much as you can cram in! When we go in our transit, its the same if its full or empty, unless you've got something on the roof which puts it over hight.

Forgot to mention, if you phone and book directly with Transmanch Ferries you can get a 20% discount on the Newhaven dieppe route if you are disabled, over 60 or under 25. My DiL booked their holiday like this and got the discount as she is only 24, despite the fact that my son is 27. So it pays to check....

We have used LD lines about 8 -9 times in the last year. Both on the Newhaven Dieppe and Portsmouth Le Havre routes. We find the boats clean and comfortable and loading and unloading fine. Sometimes it seems to take a while as sort out which size of vehicle to put on next, but normally not too bad. We went on the ferry from Barcelona to Majorca a couple of years ago and that was choas! After that LD lines seem really organised! We have used both the reclining seats and the sleeper seats which are more comfortable. The total no. of cabins seems limited, so book one early if its an issue for you. The food seems quite expensive for what it is, so take your own is the best bet. Although the brandy i had as a nghtcap last month was large enough to fell an ox! We find the western channel routes much better for us as both the drive to the port from the west midlands and from the channel to 18 are much easier than going Dover Calais. We used to go with Brittany Ferries - but now the price difference is too great to ignore, and I check every time! Hope this helps

Now I've failed, does that mean I'll get kicked out?

I too make apple jelly- the same recipe as above but at 1 pound sugar to one pint juice- but usually make several different variations. If you add balsamic, cider or wine vinegar, about 1 pint for every 4 pounds of apples, along with lots of finley chopped mint while the apples are cooking you get a great mint jelly. Add more mint leaves to the strained juice before boiling with the sugar. Or a couple of oranges, peel finley, chop the flesh and cook with the apples. Cook the thinley sliced rind seperatly in a little water until soft and add this to the strained juice before the sugar is added. If you add chopped fresh ginger to the raw apples and sliced stem ginger to the strained juice you get a very tasty orange and ginger flavour. Make sure the rind is very soft before adding the sugar otherwise it will be very hard and chewy. Or try lemon and cinnamon............................. Or sage instead of mint for a savoury jelly with pork. If you have blackberrys growing wild near you apple and blackberry jelly is wonderfull, as is apple and elderberry, which has an almost smokey flavour.   The possibilities are endless.....  

It costs us between 65 to75 euro for our 2 goldens- it seems to depend on which vet at our local practise sees them!  We time the ferry so that we see the vet at the 2pm drop in surgery,then drive to the port the next day. The earliest ferry we could use would be 3pm the following day and the latest 3pm on the day after that. Do work out your timings carefully, an hour over or under the deadline time and you will either have to wait for the next crossing, or if you are over the 48 hrs, get another treatment and wait another 24 hours. For eample, I wanted to book an overnight crossing to return to the uk on a Monday night- impossible as the dogs would have had to be treated between 11pm saturday and 11 pm sunday, when the vets are closed. We travelled on tuesday instead and went to the vets on monday. Also, make sure the vet has signed, dated and stamped both the tick and flea sections of the passport- better to double check than to get to the port and panic! That being said, we travel regulaly with our 2 and no problems so far.

Last Saturday here in rural shropshire.....Tally ho, woof woof, clip clop,   Just the same as last time we were at home in France- except here the hunts men pretend not to be hunting by having some one there with a pet owl. oh, and of course they dont eat the catch! 

I hope that you get away with it! If you had found them in the UK, English Heritage would be called in by the county Archieologist, and you could be made to have the remains excavated to E.H.'s specifications at your expense! If you were allowed to dig at all that is, they would be within the law to insist that all building stopped and no further excavations done at all [including deep rooted plants!] Iknow this from personal experience with a similar situation in the UK. I hope the rules are not as strict for you!

It sounds relativly easy then to change the supply at the meter, but what happens when the overhead lines which bring the supply to the house are like bootlaces? There is a small transformer about 200mts away with thicker wires feeding it, but I am concerned that the thin wires to our house wont be up to the job. Also the a couple of the poles look worse for wear- are we resposible for the cost of replacxing them if they are on our land and feed omly our house?

We had our dogs "passported" a couple of years ago and £165 sounds about right, although I think the cost of micro cipping has come down since then. If you are worried, ask 1 or 2 other vets for a quote.   As for the tick and flea treatment, it cost us 75 euro for 3 Golden Retrievers in January in Chateumelliant. It might cost less if you have small dogs as they need fewer tablets ect. By the way, that included all the tablets Penny [old and experinced Golden]  managed to spit out!

Be carefull taking a heavily loaded van thro, Dover. Speed ferries insisted that we went on the weigh bridge as they thauight we were over weight- the limit is 3.5 tons total v. weight. Also, there was a letter in this months caravan club mag from a member of the port of Dover police saying they were targetting over loaded vehicles leading to a fine and points on licence. 

When my daughter got to her early teens and started this "must have" nagging, I gave her an allowance. I worked out how much I was prepared to spend each term and gave her the cash. I paid for the school uniform, school shoes and  school coat which all had to be a specifc type, and she choose the rest. If she spent the lot on rubbish, well she had to wait till next term or do some work to get more money. She did make some mistakes [the fun fur jacket springs to mind!] but learned a lot! You do have to go deaf when the money runs out tho'! 

I presume the kitten would need to get a pet passport, I'm not sure how much this would cost in France, but would mean micro chipping, rabies vaccination, a blood test 1 month later, then a 6 month wait before travel to the UK. When does she want to travel? 

Have just been listening to "Broardcasting House" on R.4- apparently the man was a Brasillian electrician who had been working in London for over 3 years. He could speak good english. He came out of the block of flats which had been under servailence, was challenged, ran, and was chased into the station and as we know, shot on the train. Why did he run- he must have known about the situation in London at the moment. Perhaps he had been involved in petty crime and panicked?  It is easy to sit safely in front of a computer and critisize, of course we hope the police are supermen and never make mistakes, never get afraid or act in the heat of the moment. But how would any of us acted, faced with a man running onto a train in these circumstances? Get it wrong and either you've shot an innocent man or you give the terrorist time to set off his bomb. Not a decision Iwould like to make.               

We have travelled with our 2 dogs regularly from the UK to France and back and yes, the dogs papers have been checked each time and their "chips" read, this all takes longer than checking our passports! As for not getting a pass port- do you really want to risk it? You say you never want to bring them back, but no one can know what the future holds. It's not difficult to get one; 1 Have pet micro chipped 2 Vet gives pet rabies vacination 3 1 month later, pet has blood test to make sure the vacination has worked 4  Pet passport issued and the pet can travel OUT of the UK. 5 6 months after the succesful vacination the pet can return to the UK 6 24 to 48 hours before the time of travel, the pet has to have a tick and flea treatment at the vets [usually Frontline and Drontil] The vet will sign and date the passport. Make ABSOLUTLY sure that the form is filled in correctly- date, time and treatment given for BOTH treatments. If not you will get to the check in desk and be turned away! 7 Make sure you keep the rabies vacination up to date- the passport will show the renewal date and your vet must fill in and sign the passport when it is done. If this is done, you can continue to travel with no further blood test or 6 month delay. 1 day late, and you have to have another blood test and 6 month wait. 8 Cost; last year my vet charged [ I cant remember exactly but more or less] £15 for the microchip, £50 for the rabies jab and blood test and £12.50 to issue the passport. The blood test was the most expensive thing! I think this would prove to be value for money if somthing happened and you had to bring your pets back to the UK in a hurry! Good Luck, Sarah  

I dont know if anyone else remembers this, but a couple of years ago wasn't there a scare about blue/green algea polluting lakes in the UK? Rutland water was one place- pets had died and when we visited there were signs saying not to let dogs in the water because of the algea. I think it was caused by nitrogen polution and then hot weather causing an algea "bloom".   

I've checked their web site and they do look cheap, but as they don't take pets we wont be trying them! Sarah

We were recomended to use a scalibor collar for our dogs last year. Apparently it will prevent bites from sandflies [ not the sort that live on the beach these live inland and I'm sorry I dont know the "proper" name for them] Sandflies carry a disease called Leichmaniosis [?spelling]. I checked with our vet in the UK and yes, this is a very unpleasent illness for dogs, no frontline wont work, and Scalibor collars do. They have the added benefit of also helping to repel ticks and fleas. This year with the collars I have seen far fewer ticks attaching to the dogs. Needless to say our dogs wear the collars in France! Sarah

Why not make your own? Its not difficult tho' the copping of peel is time consuming. You dont have to use sevileoranges, grapefruit is good and have reacently made large quantity of lime marmalade with a box of limes bought cheap on the market- a realy tangy flavour!

Oh my god! The mother in law from hell! What a laugh, more please! Sarah

Yes, you can grow things in large pots! The trick is to give them plenty of food and water. Dont let them dry out in hot weather. I have grown tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and beans in pots succesfully. Also that type of leafy lettuce grows well, where you just pick off the leaves as you need them. You could also try stump rooted carrots and in a big pot, new potatoes. If you fancy an unusuall container, you can get a variety of tomato called "tumbler" which grows in hanging baskets. Sarah

Hi! I don't know about using clay but it sounds interesting... What I was going to say is that I wouldn't use pvc damp proofing plastic as sunlight makes it go brittle so the liner would soon degrade at the edges. We used it for a pond in the UK as we couldn't afford a proper liner and tried to cover the edges with concrete so that the sun would not shine on it. It worked for a while but after a year or two we kept having to up the water level as it had sprung a couple of small leaks. Sarah