Fantine<br><br><br><br>Susie

You could have a look on the Plantes & Jardins website: http://www.plantes-et-jardins.com/index.asp?bc=1

Tip: Sometimes when I buy potatoes (5k+) they come in orange net bags; open them carefully at the top and keep them handy to store your walnuts in. 'Stitch' the top of the bag back up when full and hang them up to let the air circulate.

You are not allowed under the ISA regulations to either open or contribute to an ISA if you are not a UK resident. If you are a resident in France you will have to complete a French tax return and will be able to invest in French tax free investments. Your UK ISA will be subject to 11% social charges and income tax at your highest rate in France.

[quote]Is Eastpack what you're looking for?[/quote] I was just about to say that. Funnily enough I've just been into GoSport to change some tent poles and my son was after one "but they're cheaper than they were at Arcachon last week" - They were 45 euros at GoSport - for a rucksack!!!

This is the link to the Arretes Prefectoral document that gives the details: http://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/article.php3?id_article=4217 and this is the front page reports on the secheresse: http://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=741 They now have a table comparing the current drought with that of the '76 drought and we are officially dryer now than then.

Love the motto - I might put a 'polite notice' on our loos. Wee is very good on the compost pile!

There's nothing re domestic restrictions on the notice board at Lisle Mairie. In Perigueux every municipal roundabout is gloriously green and everytime I pass the new Hotel de Ville at Chancelade the sprinklers are going on their new lawns - completely over-the-top watering as most of it is running down the road. I'm not watering my lawn except for a small area recently seeded occasionally and a few new trees planted after building work this Spring. Most of my grass is like Weetabix, as someone on here described it, but it will come green again when we eventually get some decent rain, and the sixty-odd square metres of dirt still to be dealt with will be grass-seeded then too but for now it can wait. The potager seems to be doing well enough without being watered, so just the salad has a can full now and again. There is obviously a serious shortage of water and I think everyone should just be really sensible. Chauffour - I would go with your Mairie.

As an employee (Assistant Maternelle) I can confirm the SMIC rates as of 1st July (augmented by 5.51%) : Net 6,22 euros Brut 8,03 euros Coefficient 1,2905: Salaire net x 1,2905 = Salaire brut Salaire brut / 1,2905 = salaire net And if you're interested I could give you all the Taux de Cotisations, but it is a lot to type out so will only do it if someone asks!

You can count me in. Desperately want to lose some weight - my back can't take it any more.

[quote]A really useful little book (and quite readable for a grammar book) is: Speaking Better French, by Monique Jackman (ISBN 1-84285-020-2) which I've found to be an enormous help (I teach business Fren...[/quote] I also have this book and would thoroughly recommend it - do try and get it if you can.

"we had a short but violent storm yesterday evening" Must have been the same one we had, extremely grateful for the rain but was a beautiful sunny evening an hour later.

"I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz..." I was thinking exactly the same thing when we were being rained upon (at long last). During the day it was like being in a tumble dryer windy and 37 degrees but they had forecast the storms well (on Meteo Consult "Danger, degredation rapide, tres violents vents sous orage etc etc) and we had battened down the hatches so to speak and prepared for the 'hurricane' so were able to watch and enjoy unlike previous years when we were running about like headless chickens trying to save our garden furniture and pool cover and plant troughs. They are forecasting violent storms for later today as well so be prepared! All those poor campers in their tents - wouldn't like to be in one of those during one of these violent storms.

We installed one two years ago, and apart from scale build up it has worked very well. You just have to make sure that no-one puts anything down other than toilet paper (which has to be 'convient pour broyeurs' - but it seems that most loo paper in France is, just check the packet). My FIL put a peach stone down!!!

We had this problem too. Very simple solution to this - it's just scale build up affecting the machine. Unplug the unit from the power supply, add some Hydrochloric acid (available from any hardware store) into the cistern then flush and leave overnight. The next morning plug the unit back in and use as normal. No problem for Fosse Septiques BTW.

The thing that gets me is the meaning of the stars. Unless anyone has gone to 'rate' a thread and clicked on the button, they will not know that one or two stars actually means that the thread is bad/terrible. Generally, I would guess that stars are awarded for good things, and like hotels, varying from 1 to 5 on how good they are, but on here it means the opposite in the case of one two or three stars and only good if 4 or 5 stars are awarded.

Does it have any salt in it? If you don't put any in it can't soften the water. Our water softener (brought over from old house but not yet installed here) needs to be plugged in to the mains. Is yours plugged in? If so just unplug it and it will not function and the water should just run through un-salted.

Try pushing some courgette seeds in about an inch into the prepared soil. I put mine in less than 3 weeks ago and there are fruits coming (I've had no rain for yonks BTW - it's extremely dry here but I have watered them with the can). Salsify and carrots could also go in now too.

They are in the NW area of Dordogne, but Jardin du Soleil in Mensignac (Dutch run Brocante who also sold palms/oliviers/vines) had a big pile of them which we considered buying but didn't. http://www.lejardindusoleil.com/ gives their details (they speak dutch/french/english).

I haven't stayed there myself as I used to live only 5 minutes away, but the Holiday Inn Express, previously mentioned at the M1/A5 junction was only built about 5 years ago so should be in good order, and the Moathouse has a gym and swimming pool, if that would interest you. As for you return journey with a day to kill, you could always take the children to Whipsnade Wild Animal Park - always good for a day out.

Yes, there are a few ladies in our village who do the laundry in the lavoir, and just today while off visiting friends, I saw a lady in Montignac doing her monday wash.

[quote]In my experience, the chemicals you buy at the hypermarchées and bricos really aren't up to much. Try getting some pH- from you nearest pool supplies shop. It might seem more expensive but it will pro...[/quote] I've bought two tubs from Auchan (just started on the second) but actually the first tub I used to try to resolve this problem was from the pool shop, HydroSud. I've found, over the past three years of pool ownership, there is little difference bewteen the two. From the reasearch I've done, I do think that I have a Total Alkalinity problem since filling the new pool from scratch. Hendo's coming to take a look.

Hi Hendo, I was hoping you'd reply! "but the amount you specify is strange" - 2 whole 5 kilo tubs of Ph minus added in reasonable doses over about 10 days, bog standard stuff off the shelf at Auchan Yes, if you could come by that would be great. I'll PM you with the address etc.

Hi, I'm having problems regulating the Ph in my new pool. In my old pool I never had a problem with this - I got it right at the start of the season and it hardly changed at all. The Ph is very high and over the past week to 10 days I've put in a total of 10 kilos of Ph Minus and although it has nearly got down to the correct level, it keeps going up again, sometimes off the scale. This is the spec of our system: 10 x 4.5 pool plus roman end; 1.2m deep for 2 metres then sloping over 4 metres then 1.8 metres deep for another 2 metres; liner pool; Pro-Matic ESC16 salt chlorinator; Zodiac Eden-pac2 heater (which hasn't yet needed to function!); sand filter; and it is covered by an abri-bas. The temperature of the water has been up to 35, usually hovering about 33/34 - last night we have left the abri fully opened to reduce the water temperature as anything over 30 could be damaging to the liner and other equipment. The temperature this morning is 31. We have very hard water (we have already had to de-scale the cell of the chlorinator after only 6 weeks or so). Reading the instructions for the chlorinator, I need to have the total alkalinity checked as this governs the speed and changeability of the Ph (it says that excessive alkalinity can lead to high Ph values) . It also says that this is done with a "suitable analytical instrument". Does any one know how I would go about getting this done in the Perigueux area, could I take a sample down to one of the pool shops? If it is too high what do I need to reduce it? Does anyone have any other advise to resolve the problem? This is my web site of the pool build: http://our-new-pool-build.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/

[quote]I'm Happy, Biff. OMG, what murky depths did THAT come from?[/quote] Too deep for me. I like the boards mix at the mo too.

Quite a depressing article really! Yes, I could see 'a revoluton' happening, more so as Chirac's time comes to an end in the next two years. But as the article says, France needs, desperately, to change but when a politician tries to make a change the (some) people of France protest against it and it doesn't happen. A good article to show to those thinking of moving to France who think that the grass is greener on the other side.