Le martin-pêcheur

Thanks to Dave Lister and no doubt anotherbanana for persevering with the powers that be, looks like we're live again. I hope so, as this forum is too greater resource for so many contributors, past, present and future to be lost. Vive le forum!

Hi, If you can receive ITV4+1 you'll be able to see the snooker. We've had to do this this afternoon as most HD channels on our system are ..........not the best, but they are free. Hope it helps

Nope, I saw one bird changing his watch this morning, he must have forgotten to do it last night😀

Ditto, Dave, Joined in 2003 and used to receive the magazine. Long time ago, but this forum has served us well, and hope that we have been able to help others. Vive le forum!!

We have been in touch via e-mail with URSSAF - again!! Don't ask.........😀 They took 3 weeks to reply, as usual, to just one simple question. You're right Menthe about signing off. To have to put the more traditional business type ending of " veuillez recevoir Monsieur/Madame mes salutations distinguées" does not reflect my thoughts at all as I am hitting the keyboard harder than usual, finishing off with resounding thump on the return/send button. (Often accompanied by a selection of verbal expletives) The sign off I would like to use would not be published on this forum, and wouldn't win me any friends at URSSAF😄

The ubiquitous courgette................Only way I ever enjoyed one was burnt to death on a plancha - it could have been anything really, but I did see a slice or two go on the plancha. Tried many recipes since and courgettes are a filler/carrier of proper flavours😉

My apologies to all who enjoy the Olympics, they leave me cold. I notice that rolling around on the floor or on your head with a hand in the air AKA "break dancing" is making its entrance this year..........what next?................. car washing, ironing, pie eating 🤣With apologies to any break dancers of course.😉

20 years ago, when buying our first very old farmhouse here (sold it many years ago), we contacted a UK surveyor who at the time wanted 2 grand, plus hotel accommodation and travel costs to and from the airport...........we declined. The French gentleman at the time who was doing the normal diagnostics gave us an in depth structural survey for 500€*, which included the diagnostics report. Whether or not the new diagnostics guys - who seem to use a laptop and a range of gadgets - can offer this service, I don't know. * But, the house with no sanitation, cold water feed only and one fuse on the wall, he didn't have a lot to do. He didn't notice anything that we hadn't already seen in the structure, but it did reassure us that we hadn't missed anything. Caveat emptor

We're with you albf, on both counts😀 Our countertop oven /grill heats up to operating temperature in a fraction of the time that our old conventional oven took-and has just three twisty knobs - perfect! Despite our age, both 60+, we call it our student oven.

I have fond memories of "Watch with Mother ",does that count?😉

Well, before the indigenous Indian people were all but eradicated.....................

The fishermen.............hard to be kept at the quayside for a month.........on the other hand, I see the point ref the dolphins. https://www.sudouest.fr/environnement/mer/protection-des-dauphins-pourquoi-500-navires-de-peche-sont-a-l-arret-ce-lundi-dans-le-golfe-de-gascogne-18167077.php

I gave 110%.............impossible surely. Rizz - whatever that is? There must be more.

Edel, Great to see someone arrive on the forum, ask some good questions, get some good answers AND say thank you! Sadly not all do that. Good luck with whichever decision you make.

Yes, and the ubiquitous "like " and "went" not often used correctly in the modern UK parlance, as in "I was like,and he was like and he went and so I went" total nonsense!! What has happened to the English language? Lazy brains..........too many TV people talking in that fashion (could have said like that, but well you know...). Speaking of which, "erm well you know I mean"...I know it's a phrase and not a word, but just taking the opportunity to vent my spleen - init! 😉

Hi, This site should have your info - somewhere. https://www.lassuranceretraite.fr/portail-info/home.html Sign up for an "espace personnel" to access your contributions etc. Hope it helps. Cheers!

We wish people, particularly UK TV presenters, etc would STOP saying "Amazing"!!!!!!!!!!! It is infuriating their lack of vocabulary!!

Peace on Earth. Merry Christmas all.

Just to add our two centimes worth to the French meat thread. We too are 80% vegetarian and have been for many years. Maybe we have been unlucky, but we have, over the years, found not just inedible gristle in sausages, mince and other such products, but a noticeable amount of shards of bone!!! In a sausage many years ago - not touched French sausages since - in beef mince just this week and although a certain supermarket sells corned beef under the name of Hereford (misleading) again this week, another small portion of bone. This has to be bad preparation at some point I guess. Rant over😉 We often do the same as you Hectorsdad. I have to say when we lived in North Wales before coming over here some 20 years ago, the local butcher was beyond reproach and his sausages were just incredible, particularly the tomato and herb variety amongst many others. We wouldn't want return to UK shores of course under any circumstances, but if the French could take a leaf from some UK produce, happy days! Apart from that, still very happy here😉

Hi, Nearest we've ever found is this, not large portions though😉 https://www.intermarche.com/produit/jambon-cœur-de-braise-a-poeler/3275461001638

Not sure if they could help, but take a look at France Services https://www.france-services.gouv.fr/. I'm guessing that you're not in France, but an e-mail to one of their many offices may give a result..............

Hi Menthe, Local sounds of Autumn..............the beautiful chirruping of the Robins in the garden, they always sound cheery and the other small birds who can heard fluttering between the trees and their feeding station. The crows in the fields, the hissing of car tyres in the rain driving past - mostly too quickly - the wipers on my car squeaking on the windscreen from time to time as my carefully selected setting on the variable intermittent wipe does not always correspond to the varying amounts of rainfall from one minute to the next and of course, like many of us, the constant sound of euros racing from our bank accounts and going to various government bodies 😝

Hi Menthe, Just seen and heard two skeins of grue flying over our village. Too quick for me to grab a photo!! We're in Haute-Vienne, so you may see them soon too.

Hi Menthe, Les grues...........we usually see them here in the Limousin about this time of year, but, according to this headline, they're waiting for a 'weather window'. https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/environnement/limousin-la-meteo-de-cet-automne-retarde-le-passage-des-grues-cendrees-4440009 Great sight to see when they do eventually fly over.

This may help. Good luck. https://marketstallfacts.com/what-do-you-need-to-trade-at-a-market-stall-in-france/