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Le martin-pêcheur

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Posts posted by Le martin-pêcheur

  1. 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    The sign off I would like to use would not be published on this forum, and wouldn't win me any friends at URSSAF😄

  2. 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😉

  3. 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

    • Like 1
  4. 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.

  5. 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! 😉

    • Like 1
  6. 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😉

  7. 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 😝 

  8. Hi Norman,

    I couldn't agree with you more. The France-Services are superb and usually not far away from home, 8 km in our case.

    Having run a small business here since 2005 we wanted to apply for our meagre French pensions. We had a RDV within 2 days and everything was sorted - bar a few minor issues which we dealt with easily. For most things we deal direct with the various fragmented parts of the French bureaucracy😉, but felt that a helping hand with pensions was worth a chat about. 10/10 for their service and it's free!!

    Have a good weekend

    Cheers,

    Tony

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