Will

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/14/11/2012/346214/Debenhams39-research-shows-customers-confused-by-coffee.htm

Just for interest, Laden is one of the brand names used by Whirlpool, which also owns Bauknecht, Maytag and KitchenAid among others, and makes appliances for Ikea. Fagor is basically a Spanish brand, which also makes Brandt and De Dietrich. Bosch is in fact a joint venture between Robert Bosch and Siemens, that also makes Neff and Gaggenau appliances.  

I'd rather vote Conservative than UKIP. And that's saying something...

Although we sincerely hope this actually comes to fruition, Euroferries does have a bit of a history for premature enunciation - i.e. announcing a service before anything is actually agreed (See here for one example - there are  plenty of others to be found online, including an abortive attempt to acquire a totally unsuitable ferry from Canada). At least this time round the ship being chartered actually exists, though those in the business believe it's the wrong vessel on the wrong route - shades of LD Lines and Norman Arrow. Euroferries as a company has actually been around for a long time, at least seven years, though it has yet to start its own ferry service. It was formed by the former Hoverspeed management, and originally was meant to be a competitor to Speedferries, built and run on a more stable business footing.

It's too late for Idun now, but there is a program called msgtag (www.msgtag.com) which notifies you when a message is opened (of course you can't be sure that the receipient has actually read it - you do know it has been received though). You have to have Msgtag activated when you send the message. There is a basic free version, and a paid-for one (which I have used for ages) that is customisable and works with multiple email accounts. The problem with the receipt in Outloook etc is that the recipient can opt not to send receipts. Msgtag gets round that. (posted from Norway, where Idun is a make of tomato ketchup)

We had a standard height short wheelbase Transit, which was just under 5m long and just over 2m height. I used to book it on the ferry as a motorhome, which cost virtually the same as a car, and we seemed to get away with that because it had a window in the sliding side door. That always worked OK with Brittany Ferries and P&O as it was then - though I think LD is a bit more fussy about vans.

The neighbour is right, it is a direct equivalent to 'ay oop me dook' which was certainly very common when I lived in Derbyshire - in fact it was the use of that phrase that was said to characterise locals from the area near Belper where I was. Some sources suggest that the origin of the East Midland phrase is this same French term, although others suggest it comes from 'The Dukeries', the area around Worksop in North Notts. The phrase in French seems perfectly innocent, so I don't know why the neighbour may have felt sheepish. I don't think it's purely local to your area - a quick Google showed it is also current in Belgium, and comes up frequently in lists of French terms of endearment.

Thanks for the link Norman, very interesting. I suppose if there is any sort of pattern, it's that most of them are either close to larger centres of population and employment, in the same way that somewhere like Surrey or Bucks contains 'prosperous' towns which attract wealthy commuters, or are places on the coast that are desirable to live. The biggest surprise for me was Saint-Denis, which when I have been there was certainly the ar5eh0le of all of France. But a lot of effort has obviously been made to improve things.

The question of taking payments by card often seems to crop up. But the cost of renting the equipment etc seems to put most B&B owners off. This may be of interest: www.payatrader.com. I don't know if it works, or is available, for French bank accounts and/or credit cards, but may be worth looking at for dealing with UK customers. It seems to be aimed at providers of household services rather than B&B/holiday let owners, but don't see why I shouldn't work for you. I also saw something recently that looked similar, but worked with a mobile phone. I should have made a note of the name.

Q, our Miele sometimes does something like what you describe, i.e. smells, makes odd noises and loses suction, and it also tries to pop the bag cover open by itself. That's a sign that the Hepa filter needs cleaning, or, better, changing. I don't know what model your is; ours is called a 'Solution', it's blue in colour, and is otherwise identical to the cat/dog version but comes with extra tools for cleaning hard floors. We've had just about all makes in the past, including building up a Dyson graveyard, and the Miele is the only one which shows any signs of longevity and decent performance. There was some resistance at first because a cleaner with bags looked like a step backwards, but we are convinced now. I think the Sebo is equally as good. But having said that, in England at present we have a bagless upright Vax which came as a bonus deal with a carpet washer, and that seem very good too. I'd definitely steer clear of any French vacuums, which seem to cost a lot of money for rubbish performance.

I'd forgotten all about that forum. Haven't been there for years; I got kicked off in the early days, if I remember correctly. I think because I got an email from the then owner of the forum more or less ordering me to "post some pictures of my house restoration" in a bit of the forum he'd set up for doing that. I refused, because I didn't want personal information plastered over the Internet, and anyway we bought the house in its 'restored' state, it having actually been done by a Corsican a few years previously. F got upset with that for some reason - maybe he couldn't get his head round the fact that French nationals sometimes restore houses themselves. I also remember that he used the forum for a personal crusade against a hotel (which I don't think was even in France) where he had stayed and had a bad experience. I did try returning, along with a couple of other banned members (one of whom was barred for posting pictures of a kitten), under a totally different identity, but that didn't last long. I always imagined Herr Horn as looking rather like Herr Flick of the Gestapo from Allo Allo. The alias is in fact quite close to his real-life name. Didn't they have another big clear out not long ago, maybe it was when they got bought out, resulting in some of the mods going off in a huff and starting their own, green-coloured, France forum?

The one we have in France is a non-upright Miele, which, like Rabbie's, has proved by far the best at picking up animal hair, and in a house with up to four dogs and a score or so of cats at various times, it has been tested to well over the limit. Q please note - it came with hard floor and carpet heads and is particularly good on rugs. Various Dysons have been consigned to the vacuum graveyard (or cleaned out and flogged to AngloInfo users, which is probably a worse fate). We haven't had a Sebo. but by all accounts they are excellent as well. In England we are currently using a Vax bagless upright which came as part of a deal with a carpet washer, so was virtually free. It's surprisingly good, too.

I found I can log in using Internet Explorer, but in Firefox it rejects my user email and password  

Just got back from the count in our very small commune (accompanied by two very generous plastic cups of pastis provided by M le maire). Sarko 20 votes, Hollande 7 votes, 3 empty envelopes, 1 blank. General feeling that Hollande would win in a close contest, and general dissatisfaction with either candidate and a lot of pessimism for the future of the French economy.

[quote user="pachapapa"] Chirac was a gentleman and a Gaullist with character and some moral scruples. [/quote] So not this Jacques Chirac then