Pixietoadstool

Hello there everyone! I have already posted this on another forum - but the more replies the merrier, as far as I am concerned! After having a holiday home in Normandie (Manche) for more than 6 years now I/we have been toying with the idea of moving to France for a variety of reasons. My son and I have spent all the school holidays at our house for most of those years with my husband joining us for a few weeks at a time. We also feel we have reached the stage when we realise that the grass is not always greener on the other side but various situations here in the UK look like they may push us to move to France earlier than we had anticipated. My son is just about to start his GCSE course and is due to take these exams in 2 years. Really what I am trying to do is gauge what sorts of obstacles he would have to overcome in order to make a successful transition between here and there. On the positive side, my son has wanted to move to France for the last 5 years and would jump at the chance. He also manages to communicate with the local farmer's family pretty well although I have to say that his understanding of French (particularly the grammar) is not very good at all (even though his French teacher in the UK describes him as gifted - I think she is flattering him!). He is bright but probably not going to be an academic - I can't see him working in an office. The only career he can envisage at the moment that doesn't involve hard landscaping/farming/digging holes is the law and of course if he were to choose this route I would imagine he might have problems achieving good enough grades in a French school to be admitted to law school in France. Does anyone else here have experience of moving a child to France in their GCSE years or just afterwards? What exams do French children take after the equivalent of their GCSEs? Would he be able to fit in with the system or would he be held back for a year or two in order to get up to speed on various subjects? What chance is there of him doing well in local Normandie schools? These are my main questions for starters but I should be very interested to have any comments or learn of your experiences. Thanks in anticipation of your help anyone! Valerie

I have just looked on the Freebox website which suggests to me that I have access to this even though our house is in the sticks in Normandie not a major conurbation as referred to earlier.  I have already looked at my telephone costs in France last year and they amount to €313 without including the monthly charge to FrTelecom.  If the monthly charges are included this would amount to about €440 and so €360 a year for Freebox would be well worthwhile.  Can someone confirm that you don't have to pay the montly (or bi-monthly) abonnement to France Telecom if you go to Freebox?  I just went on the Freebox site and entered my  number with the following results: Inscription de la ligne téléphonique XXXXXXXXX Votre ligne est éligible à l'offre Freebox (adsl non dégroupé) 1216 kbps Vous bénéficierez de l'offre de téléphonie Freebox Vous recevrez le Modem Freebox Thanks in anticipation of your help. Valerie  

Maybe goldfinches?   Valerie

Was it like this? http://www.reserve-camargue.org/IMG/jpg/lezard-vert.jpg or this? If so it is a lezard vert! Valerie  

Well Haute Normandie is certainly a long way away from Basse Normandie at its extremities and so Pas de Calais is even further (and the Somme??!!).  It is difficult knowing where to draw the line.  We are in Manche (Basse Normandie) but only about 25 minutes drive from Brittany - the scenery is very similar and it is Armorican - the same land mass as Brittany.  I expect this is why someone somewhere takes the plunge and decides where the limits will be. Valerie

It sounds like a gall - which would be made by a gall wasp.  The little seeds will be the eggs waiting to hatch. Valerie

This is a UK based post but I just wanted to share my glee with you all.  For the last 2 days we have had a family of swallows - 5 babies and 2 adults roosting on our TV aerial just outside my office at home in Hampshire.  It is an amazing spectacle to watch the adults feeding the little ones whilst on the wing and then suddenly, all at once, all the babies fly off and do a bit of insect catching themselves, supplemented by an occasional in-flight fuelling from a parent.  I watched the group roosting for a full 15 minutes and one of the babies was never fed at all whereas others managed to get 3 or 4 feeds in that time.  How does the parent know which one to feed?  I noticed that the ones that made the most noise were more likely to get fed.  Maybe the fifth one was being more successful in its own insect finding forays and wasn't so hungry - I wonder? Another interesting thing about swallows, which I have just found out is that the juveniles don't have the long swallow tails of the adult - which meant that I mistakenly identified them as house martins for the first hour or so and thought the swallows were attacking rather than feeding them (shocking I know for a zoologist like me - actually there is so much I don't know about animals it amazes me!). I also can't see the red on the swallows - they just look black and white to me - is this normal? Anyone else have interesting thoughts to add about the swallows?  

They were probably mites.  I often see them on bumble bees - yes they are parasitic and probably causing the beetle quite a bit of bovver!  I think there is a particular type of mite causing problems with the indigenous honey bee population at the moment.  Of course mites and other parasites carry other organisms including bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa which can add to the injury.  Not a happy beetle I should imagine! Valerie

Has anyone else experienced the same as we have in both our UK and French gardens?  We haven't spotted any greenfly at all yet, whereas at this time of year with the roses in full bloom we are nearly always having to spray against aphids. I remember old Geoff Hamilton (RIP - sadly missed) used to say that if you fed the birds in the winter then you'd reap the benefits in the summer because they'd keep your garden pests at bay.  Last year was the first time we took bird feeding seriously.  Is it a coincidence or do they really eat the greenfly?  It's odd - since we're still feeding the birds generously and I haven't spotted them on any rose bushes! Valerie

Sounds like a fouine - (stone marten) to me.  These look a bit like large stoats.  I imagine they would growl when cornered and are certainly partial to fowl and eggs.  They might also still have young to feed - so another reason for the growling. They are mainly nocturnal but maybe the young ones move around in the morning.  Might be an idea to wait a while so the young have a chance of maturing before leaving mum.  Chris will probably have an idea about when they will be old enough to leave home? Here is a link to a picture: http://www.fourmilab.ch/images/animal_magnetism/fouine.html Valerie

That would be the humming bird hawk moth.  I have only seen this once in the UK but many times in France (Normandy). Valerie

My favourite perfume is Wrappings - now discontinued by Clinique but can be bought from the USA.  It is a very unusual perfume and I wonder if Barry could tell me what are the main ingredients - there is one unusual note - a bit like pine but something else?  Is this a synthetic perfume or made with real essential oils? I expect some of you have read the novel Perfume - a bit of a classic which I found completely unnerving! Valerie  

[quote user="Chris Head"] I'm surprised the post stayed up! [/quote]   Ha ha - of course the post stayed up!! [6] It wood wouldn't it? "(Reminds me of a silly childhood rhyme - wouldn't it, wouldn't it, wouldn't it be funny if a lady had wooden ***s) [:$]  Maybe that could be your next project Chris?! [;-)] Valerie

[quote user="Chris Head"] I'm surprised the post stayed up! [/quote]   Ha ha - of course the post stayed up!! [6] It wood wouldn't it? "(Reminds me of a silly childhood rhyme - wouldn't it, wouldn't it, wouldn't it be funny if a lady had wooden ***s) [:$] Valerie

I wouldn't burn it on the fire, Chris - there may be some very interested gay men out there who would appreciate it as a nice garden ornament, as they wind their way round their various garden rooms.  It could nestle snugly in a nice cave or something similar!![;-)] No - really I AM SERIOUS - you will probably get paid more for this than anything else before ... but is it art??  (YES!  YES!). Valerie[Www]

Apparently there are Siberian chipmunks in France - see this webpage (found by searching Google using "chipmunks in france": http://photo.sensibles.free.fr/displayimage.php?pos=-502 Valerie  

It is very definitely a slow worm - I have seen 3 here this week alone in Hampshire (heaths). Be careful when you pick them up because they will drop their tail if they are trying to get away - it happened to me once and the bit that was dropped was nearly as big as the animal it left behind!  I felt so guilty watching this poor foreshortened legless lizard "hobbling" away from me! Valerie

I am really interested in the details of this story - I have been on the Ouest France website but they insist you pay to make a search! I was very unhappy with the services of the old head honcho (Vincent Gray as far as I remember) - is it him?  How do I get to see the newspaper coverage please?  By the way they have always charged us for sending £ cheques to our Britline account - usually works out about £25 per transaction - which is a lot but certainly more convenient than queuing up for ages in the NatWest and then trying to get the transfer sorted out by someone who has no idea about the range of services offered by the bank and can give me no worthwhile advice! Valerie  

Dick's link doesn't seem to work, so I have reproduced it from the original EU site: Euromyth: Tear up hedgerows full of wildlife     European chiefs have told British farmers to tear up hedgerows full of wildlife - because they are too wide. The Mirror, 13 March 2000, p17    Farmers have categorically not been told to "tear up" hedgerows. Under the Common Agricultural Policy, aid payments are made on the basis of area. The existing Regulation appeared to provide an incentive for farmers to turn hedgerow into field area. Concern for the consequent wildlife implications led the Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to agree that existing rules should continue to apply.   Now, however, the Commission has announced a proposal stating that hedgerows, traditionally part of good agricultural cropping and utilisation practices, which are up to 2 metres wide, can be considered as eligible for aid. Under certain other conditions, hedges wider than two metres could also be eligible in view of specific environmental needs.   However, it doesn't help much in our search for the facts, does it?  I will try and find some more information ...   Valerie[geek]  

Hi there "Cat"! I remember a similar thing about re-allocating parcels of land to make them more useable by the farmers.  I think it went along the lines of doing "swapsies" from one village/town/area to another.  I suppose this could mean breaking down hedgerows to make larger fields.  It is certainly worth keeping an eye on ...[blink] ... as are the HT power lines in our back yards ([;-)]NIMBY - moi?). Valerie      

I absolutely accept what you say Chris but in my part of Normandie (the bocage area of Manche) I have seen absolutely no evidence of farmers ripping out hedgerows - just the normal felling of tree trunks in mature hedgerows - which looks quite shocking at first but in time grows back as coppice. Valerie

I had presumed that it was farmers doing their wood harvest - I have heard they cut down the trees growing in their hedges every 7 years, thereby providing firewood and allowing a useful coppice environment for wildlife.  Coppicing seems to be quite beneficial for the environment, in certain circumstances and it is a nice way of growing your own fuel!! I also think it is quite characteristic of the typical bocage countryside - well known in my part of Normandie. This is not the first time I have noticed it in Manche.  The coppiced trees from a few years ago have now produced lots of healthy shoots and will probably be harvested themselves in a few years time. Valerie

Having looked at this site it confirms what I thought - that rouget is in fact red mullet.  I believe red snapper is a tropical fish (but could well be wrong) and so I suppose I shouldn't be encouraging the importing of fish from so far away when France has so many of its own good stuff. My husband has just cooked me a red snapper dish (a Rick Stein recipe) substituting sea bream for red mullet and it reminded me why I often don't eat many kinds of fish - there were so many bones in the fillets that it seriously put me off and my son rushed into the back garden to offload the contents of his stomach in an effort to dislodge the vicious bones stuck in his throat!   What a disappointment!! Yet when this recipe is cooked with something like red snapper there are almost no bones to spoil the enjoyment! Valere

Hi Twinkle! Thanks for that - I see it is a type of cat fish.  It was OK but we had been looking for red snapper and didn't know the French name for this.  Any ideas what it is ... anyone? Valerie

When we were in Normandie at Easter we ate some filets de pangas (Vietnamese frozen fish fillets) bought from Leclerc and I can't find the on-line translation - what are they please (they were very good)!? Valerie