nimportequoi
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Posts posted by nimportequoi
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My vet said that is what happened in the rabies case in SW France last year, dogs with proof of innoculation were OK, but all cats in the area were shot regardless, I will try and find out more detail (he is a very good vet and was furious about the lack of controls or people bringing animas from N Africa).
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I think its difficult to survive on a gite income alone unless a) you have a number of gites (at least 3) b) you have a usp (e.g. fishing lake, painting, or a pool c) you are on the coast d) you live in a really popular tourist area. Overheads are high, the gite market is saturated and there is more supply than demand except in August. Standards required are higher than ever, so it costs more to furnish and maintain properties the the expected level. You also need to pay a lot more in advertising than previously as there are so many different websites/brochures etc. available. Have a look at this article from earlier this week in the Daily Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2005/07/02/pgite02.xml
I agree that 2 x 2 beds are better as you have more flexibility. I can rent out my small cottage from May to October no problem, but often end up letting out the larger ones at a reduced rate as there is far more demand for smaller properties outside of the school holidays, both for the UK and French market.
My partner still works in the UK and I work here in France, even though we do have a good income from the gites (we have a pool and are fairly close to the coast), but we put so much back into business with improvements and maintenance, that we couldn't live on the income alone!
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My dogs are all vaccinated against rabies, but when I was speaking to my Vet about the case last year, he said that all cats were shot regardless of whether or not they are vaccinated, so is it worth it for cats? Consequently I haven't bothered, but would if I knew they wouldn't get shot as a matter of course in the case of rabies in the area.
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I will try it tomorrow and let you know how it goes! Thanks Jan,
Susan
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Thanks for the suggestions, I've tried everything, but there is still a faint yellow tide mark left! It must have been a particularly high factor. I wish I could ban guests from putting it on before swimming, but of course its not possible. I will try the Karcher on it as a last resort.
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I have the same problem, I have used all the Desjoyaux products, the powder and gel, spent hours scrubbing, and no difference! There are some particularly thick suncreams that people use for their kids, that seem impossible to remove. Ours is a new liner and it looks horrible now so if anyone has any advice on other products that won't harm the liner, I'd be very grateful.
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Hi Poolguy
You still need chlorine, just less of it. I'm giving it a try as since we have had the pool, I get bad skin rashes if I swim too often, which I can only put down to the chlorine level in the pool. So far so good, the pool has never looked better. Despite the fact I have always put a lot of time and effort into the pool, there have sometimes (more often than I like) been algae problems and I have had to resort to an strong algaecide as a last resort. I am willing to try anything in order to reduce the chemical input in the pool.
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Has anyone tried mineral sanitizer for their pool, such as PoolRX, if so, are does it do everything it promises? (reduce chlorine requirement, clearer water, etc)
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I once stayed a gite where the owner got up a lot later than we did and consequently the pool was never ready for use until about 11am. As we had children with us who wanted to be in the pool all day, this was a bit annoying. Now, as a gite owner, I always get up early and to make sure that the pool is ready as early as possible. As we have an abri and floodlight in the pool, guests have their own key and can swim whenever they want, midnight swims are very popular! So I would hate to put restrictions on guests - basically I just fit the cleaning around whenever they aren't using the pool, they do tend to have lunch and then dinner in the evening, so there is always a créneau available for maintenence. Very interested to hear Catherine S comments about prefering an excmusive pool or sharing with more than 1 other family, I worry sometimes that having 3 cottages sharing one pool its too luch, but maybe there is safety (and more anonymity) in numbers, providing the pool and facilities are large enough!
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Just be careful of some companies who are to commit l'arnaque and will tell you that there is a problem when in fact the holes are very old and no longer active. It is also very cheap to treat yourself, I got quoted 7000€ for my 'woodworm problem' which doesn't in fact exist on cmoser inspection.
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I used the article with my French students at my English lessons today, they thought it was really funny and actually agreed with most of it, especially the arrogance related adjectives. As one of them said, the rest of Europe is just jealous! Their only surprise and (mild) annoyance was that more nationalities didn't recognize their legendary prowess in the bedroom!
Sue
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I thought GdF was a commercial organisation which offers graded accomodation. I chose not to go with them, because they want exclusivity in the summer, said I could only ask for half the amount of rent I can get by advertising privately and they take 10% commision. I know that they provide a certain quality, but at a price. We have one cottage where there is a beam that doesn't conform to their criteria, therefore the cottage cannot be considered, despite in their words being charming and full of character. My gites are registered with the local centre des impots and I declare my earnings and pay taxes accordingly. So who exactly are GdF after?
'Tide Mark' around swimming pool
in Swimming Pools in France
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I've nowspent hours scrubbing and tried everything suggested on this forum, plus bleach and brillo pads, nothing has worked (not washing up liquid or shampoo I'm afraid). However, any fresh stain is easily removed with the normal pool cleaning products. I wish I knew what brand had caused the problem. I too would love to ban the stuff, it has runied my lovely and expensive new liner which has only been in since April.
Has anyone any other ideas of what might work? I'm tempted to use liquid chlorine, I would rather have a white mark than that awful sickly yellow colour.
The only thing is that the guests haven't commented on it, when I apologised about it being there , they said they hadn't even noticed it.
Would having a shower that guests have to use before getting in the pool have any effect on reducung the greasy tidemark?