Peterm

...and it's not just so Santa can visit us! Some kind friends have given us a lovely Godin "poele a bois" but at present there's no chimney at our house to connect it to. (Our house is just north of Barneville-Carteret on the Cotentin peninsula).  Do forum members have any suggestions/recommendations of artisans for getting the work done? Peter

Very many thanks to all of you for your helpful posts. We're going over to our house this weekend, and I will look at the thing and ponder further... Peter

The previous owner of our house in Manche has installed a system whereby ground water can be pumped up to serve a small garden pond and also supply a buried network of pipes leading to  sprinklers in the paddock behind the house. Unfortunately he took the pump with him when he moved and I neglected to ask what type it was.  We've plumbed the depth and there's three metres from ground level to the surface of the water; there's about five meters depth of water.  The pipe diameter is about 4 cm. Can anyone advise what size of pump we'd need, please, and where we might find it in France?   Peter  

We had one in our garden in Manche last year, which was a surprise as I didn't think they got this far North.

Certainly the feeling locally is that Flamanville will go ahead. There's an upsurge in building in the area and the word is it's all in connection with the EPR project. I have a gite in Surtainville which was rented (very much out of season!) by a group of engineers working at the reactor - one can only assume, in connection with the EPR. Apparently they're keen to take it again once the main holiday let period is over. Same story round about - lots of people who've started working at Flamanville,  looking for short-term accommodation in the surrounding villages.   Peter  

Thank you all for your helpful comments! Clair actually assessed my intentions right. Currently the euro income from our gite goes into our French current account and helps pay for taxe fonciere etc.  There's a little surplus but not really enough to go to the trouble of transferring it back to the UK or converting it into sterling. And of course we do pay tax in France on the gite income.   Peter

I'm thinking of opening a French savings account in which to stash the extravagant proceeds from the rental of our gite (HA!) While there's lots of information in the UK on comparisons between different accounts French banks etc seem a lot more cagey. Does anyone have any advice on which is the best to go for? I'm UK resident.   Peter

We're further north than you, in the Barneville-Carteret area (so half an hour from Cherbourg) and as well as our planned retirement house have a chalet which we rent out.  The departure of P&O (at least as far as we were concerned) led to a virtual collapse in UK bookings - however in response the marketing service that we use targeted other markets, notably the Dutch and Belgian, and if anything the level of bookings has gone up (though they pay less!) Our region seems to be as popular as ever with other European nationalities and the French themselves - it just seems to be the Brits that can't navigate from Caen!  Local house prices seem to be holding up though this is probably due to the expansion of the Flamanville central generating station pushing up demand. I agree with you about Brittany Ferries though to be honest I'm less bothered about their pricing (it is exorbitant, but this was always going to happen once they got the monopoly on the Western Channel) as the fact that they can't be arsed to run a Portsmouth-Cherbourg service in the winter months! I think their loyal clientele deserved better. Peter

From the 19th century, Louise Michel, heroine of the Paris Commune

Well if I had the choice, I'd vote for Segolene.  But the wretched quiz aligns me closest with LE PEN!! I'm appalled. Obviously my French isn't as good as I thought it was...  [+o(]

How do I go about joining then?

I saw the report and was greatly amused by it - and found it very credible, having lived in Belgium for over 10 years.  It's a terribly dysfunctional country and there seems little love lost between the two halves (there's actualy a third linguistic group, German-speakers in the Eupen-Malmedy region but no-one seems to bother about them much). Certainly my highly intelligent and civilised Flemish Belgian boss didn't hide his contempt for the Francophones, who he felt were stuck in the past and lacked enterprise and drive. We had friends in both groups, and each had tales to tell of people who'd been done down by the other for jobs, promotions etc.   Peter

I would change all those French people I meet that can't understand their own language when I speak it to them

www.hirondelleholidays.com If these cottages are the sort of thing you're looking for, please ring Marjory. What sort of dog do you have?   Peter

I appreciate the problem. "Crapaud dans le trou" doesn't sound particualrly appetising does it? Mind you I'm not sure that "saucisses cuites au four dans de la pate â crepes" is much of an improvement either.  

The same logic does not appear to apply to rail services though, for example. It would no doubt suit southern region rail companies to only run trains into London from, say, 7  a.m. to 9a.m  and 5p.m. to 7 p.m. because then they're packed; the trains're uneconomic for the remainder of the time. They don't do this because (as I understand it) when they take the franchise they have to undertake to provide a certain level of service. Pity that the ferry compnaies aren't under a similar obligation - with if necessary EU support being provided to maintain an off-peak service. EU cash is spent on worse things!  

In the Portbail/Carteret/Flamanville area, as well as the Cabestan at Portbail we'd recommend l'Anse de Sciotot, at Sciotot. We eat there regularly and have never been disappointed. It's in an attractive setting overlooking the beautiful Sciotot bay and if you're very lucky you might, as we once did, see dolphins playing out to sea. Alternatively if you just want moules frites, the restaurant in the sort of portakabin on the quayside at Dielette, just up the coast, is almost invariably jammed with knowledgeable locals! Well worth a visit for a cheap lunch. Incidentally the pub-like restaurant at Portbail previously mentioned is the Auberge des Vieux Pecheurs.   Peter

That's certainly true Will - however those of us who use the Portsmouth-Cherbourg route now find that there's no service from mid-October 2006 to mid-March 2007, when the fastcraft restarts!  OK, P&O's service on the Western Channel routes left something to be desired, but at least they showed some responsibility to their customers by maintaining a service year-round. Does anyone have any insight into BF's thinking here? Peter [:@]  

Brilliant - someone was quick off the mark!

Take some water with it.

Well I found it amusing anyway SB, after my brush this week with EDF & Credit Agricole (to say nothing of a certain UK bank that claims to offer "another way" but would probably be better off as a trendy wine bar). No doubt the situation described is a foretaste of what we will have coming to us once we finally make our long-desired move to the Cotentin.... Peter  

Does anyone on the forum know about metal detecting in France? I have an idea that it's illegal (except presumably on one's own land?) but this may well be wrong - can anyone enlghten me please?   Peter

Does anyone have any information re alpaca keeping/breeding in France?  (Our house is in Manche, on the west coast near Barneville-Carteret but I'm not aware of any in our vicinity).   Peter & Sue

As to when the final sailings on the P&O Western Channel routes might be, although the company themselves (typically) aren't saying anything I suspect the analyst on the BBC news this evening had it pretty much right. He pointed out that there will now be a three month "consultation" with the TUs which will bring P&O into January, when passenger numbers are at their lowest. Don't expect any to be running by February. (We're still proceeding with signing the acte authentique on Friday on our new house in Manche though (30 mins from Cherbourg) - we love the area and we'll get there somehow!) Peter and Sue

Our impressions are similar to Coco's (though our area is Northern Manche) - namely that some of the steam seems to have gone out of the market (and about time too) though prices are holding steady. Still, we were very pleased to have found our new house for what we felt was a reasonable price.   PeterM (Peter & Sue)