nimportequoi

I live in a longere, so the direction for the signal is straight. I want my wifi to be hacked, the idea is to give wifi access to the people staying in my 3 gites, which together with my house make up the longere. I've done a test with a Netgear router and no relais, but the vitesse inside the houses was only 27kb, very slow, although outside was better. Nothing has been installed yet, and I just wondered if relais would make much of a difference.

[quote user="BJSLIV"]The only possible downside is that if you have very thick stone walls in your house the distance of the wifi might be restricted but even that can sometimes be overcome.  [/quote] BJSLIV - I have this problem - 1m thick granite walls to be precise - would repeaters work for this and how do they function (power etc.?)

Just going back to the fosse emptying - yes it is great if you have a friendly local farmer to do it - but they don't have the equipment to jet spray clean the pipes which can get incredibly blocked with grease etc. I don't know if there is a new law in place but I always get ours done professionally now - there is nothing worse than having fosse contents coming up in the downstairs showers of the gites.....[+o(]

[quote user="Coco"]The best internet "guestbook" of all of course are the independent traveller sites where people can put their own views, good or bad, after they have returned home and can also remain anonymous.  Even those aren't failproof though.  We have some excellent reviews on one such site and over the last 12 months I have had as much business via that site as from many of the paying sites I advertise on. [/quote] Coco, which one do you use for your reviews? Some people just don't like writing in guest books, my other half for example. It doesn't necessarily follow that they have had a bad holiday, they just don't want to be obliged to leave comments. I have a few examples of people who didn't write any comments but have re-booked, so they can't have found the experience of staying with us that bad!

I have a 'livre d'or' on my site and people who have stayed have said that they were impressed with the comments and it helped them make their decision to book with us, so I don't think they are a waste of time. I haven't made any up (honest guv!), they are all copied from the books left in the gites, although there is no way to verify this on a website. I do ask permission from guests before putting them on the site. I find the French like writing in guest books a lot more than the British guests do!

It has been such a mild winter that they probably haven't made a lot of money out of it this year - we've only had 3 red days and a handful of white so far - fewer than this time last year. I don't know if they have stopped it for new customers, but I think you do have to have a minimum kw supply to qualify for it in the first place, it isn't available to everyone.

Everyone around here uses the local Gitem, and the guy who runs it is always rushed off his feet with work. They are part of a big network and can obviously source the spare parts which are required easily. People in this area are generally not very wealthy and will get things repaired rather than buy new straight away.

[quote user="Miki"][quote] For bed linen I have to do a 90°c wash and also use the K2r mousse spray (very good) and a vanish tablet for backup. For the loose sofa covers, the stains come off a little easier, at 60°c. In the summer stuff often has to be washed twice or more especially if I miss the stains the before the first wash. I don't enjoy July and August! [/quote] And that's without those damned birds (sorry Chris !!) doing their stuff on the bed linen on the line as well ! We bought two sofas with loose covers for our living room and in..................................dark blue !! We learned pretty quick after the 2 sofas in the residents lounge (in cream and light grey)  got hit a few times but in general, that room suffers very little fly damage. What is K2r mousse spray and where do you purchase it ? [/quote] Miki, I get the birds pooing on my washing too, isn't it supposed to be lucky??? The Kr is just a détachant that you spray on to stains prior to putting in the wash. You can get it in most supermarkets, my local SuperU does it. It was recommended to me by a local resto who use it for their tablecloths, which as you can imagine get a lot of hard-to-remove stains. The mousse seems to work a lot better than the liquid K2r you can also buy. I still have 2 very light covered sofas - but the  dark throws come out in the summer! I always advise guests to shut the doors and windows during the day to keep the flies out and the house cool, but of course, they never do.[:(]

I find the booking pattern changes every year. This year I've got loads of bookings for April and May (low season for me), which I didn't have last year and bookings already for September which I don't normally get until later in the year. I only keep the 7 weeks of peak the same (mid July to 1st September). I never make the last week of May peak, even though it is always guaranteed to be fully booked.

[quote user="Miki"] OK Susan, fly poo !! And what a real nuisance as you say, to get it off soft furnishings, can I ask what you use and how succesful it is ? Tina has tried a few but blowed if I can remember, I think Vanish was one. [/quote] For bed linen I have to do a 90°c wash and also use the K2r mousse spray (very good) and a vanish tablet for backup. For the loose sofa covers, the stains come off a little easier, at 60°c. In the summer stuff often has to be washed twice or more especially if I miss the stains the before the first wash. I don't enjoy July and August!

[quote user="Miki"]My thoughts on the dark wood and furniture in Brittany, is simply so the fly spit don't show [:)] [/quote] Is that a mis-spelling in the word after fly?? You are right, those stains are sooo difficult to get rid of, especially from soft furnishings.

[quote user="Teamedup"]Susan I just couldn't stop laughing at what you said. Quality not quantity that counts.......... I am obviously tres exigent, because I insist upon not only quantity but quality. And I really always thought that practice made perfect, really I did.[:D] [/quote] TU - in an ideal world I'd want both too, but I'm happy to settle for the quality aspect at the moment (as I'm 7 months pregnant the quantity isn't too important to me at the moment!)

It is quality and not quantity which counts! As Lori said, you tend to make up for the time apart when you are together in all aspects of life. We don't find it difficult but I'm sure it wouldn't suit everyone.

I haven't got the inclination to be unfaithful and I'd be hard pushed to find the time even if I could find a Frenchman around here taller than me! It isn't always easy, but absence can make the heart grow fonder and just because you don't live with someone permenently it doesn't necessarily increase the chance of infidelity in a relationship. It suppose it helps to have a good solid relationship first, though.

[quote user="Coco"] it's all a bit of a farce really and yet again, boils down to a money-making policy rather than a security one.[/quote] Totally agree, especially for children. My daughter has had her passport since the age of 3 months - she is 5 now and when we went back to the UK in November it was a joke at the passport control - there is no way she could have been identified from her photo.

TU, I've been a "widow" since moving over here - OH never stopped working in the UK, he has a very good job and 2 sons from his first marriage there that he obviously wants to see regularly. Maybe it isn't ideal, but at the moment it suits all of us and we are now in our 5th year (although I'm sure he will be over in the next few years!). I run a busy gite business and teach out here, daughter is 5 and happy at school and used to the arrangement, am currently expecting baby no. 2 which will probably more difficult, but we'll manage. I'm very independent and when we were in the UK I didn't see a lot of him in the week as he was often away on business, so it suits both of us. He couldn't cope with all the dogs and cats all the time, and I couldn't cope with his football! But we really enjoy our weekends and holidays together and very rarely argue. We'll probably find it more difficult when he does move out here full time!

We had to add a couple of things to our pool notice (which before as Andrew said was no diving, no running etc.) No flippers No oars to be used with inflatable boats. They could both puncture the liner and a lot of people seemed to bring or buy these things to use in the pool last summer!

[quote user="Leslauriers"]My bill in France 1139€ using the same consumption figures on the Uswitch site they give the lowest figure available as £1321.61 or 1942€ at 1.47 to the £. A saving of over 800€. [/quote] I hope that is an annual and not bi-monthly bill!

I haven't had many cancellations, but one was a group who had booked all 3 gites and they had to cancel due to someone in the party being diagnosed with cancer and having to undergo treatment during the summer. I think it would have been difficult to refuse the refund of deposit in those circumstances, even if I've had the "no deposit refund" clause in my Ts and Cs.

Thanks Cooperola - I'm going to to do that tomorrow. I'm not a rider myself - but there were four of them out this morning, churning up the little footpath that I regularly walk the dogs on. With all the rain we've had recently, it is barely passable now thanks to them!

Does anyone know if there is a law in France about where quadbikes are allowed - for example is it OK for them to be used on footpaths or bridlepaths?

I return the deposit as long as the weeks are re-let.

I'm another Acova fan - I put Acova rads in the gites a few years ago to replace the old convector heaters in there - they are excellent and seem a lot cheaper to run!

Here is the article if anyone is interested in reading it.

Also check carefully the detail of the cover offered. My insurance company AXA were, on the surface, offering cheaper cover than my mutuelle Mutouest, but when I looked into the detail, the cover was not as comprehensive.