saddie

For the last few years, with the exception of 2003 early August has been prety poor weatherwise.

There is a company called "Les Coutelleries de Thiers" They sell all manner of knives and small kitchen gadgets. They have mandolins in s steel for €99 or plastic for €39. Around here they come in a camion. Their website is www.auvergne-menager.com

A French aquaintance told us his son had given up cycling because even at local level drugs were used.

My inlaws who are in their early eighties use saga and find it reasonable. It is not sufficient to have cover just for medical needs. The brother of my father in law died while holidaying at his son's home in Dubai. Sorry to mention the thought but it cost the family a lot of money and anguish for the repatreation.

We have two hazels with reddish leaves in our garden.The nuts won't be ripe until September. However, the squirrels like their nuts a bit underripe and are currently sitting in the trees chomping away. They left us non at all last year ditto the walnuts!

I don't think that it is quite that straightforward - after all this is France - rooms over a certain size (20sq m I think) are counted as 2.

I have grown them in open ground in the UK and they can get about 1.5m in each direction but one I had in a pot over here didn't make the winter in spite of being wrapped up.

I can't imagine why anyone would want to go to Sarlat market in July or August. It's not just the crowds but the market positively blooms with tat. All sort of junk you could live without. Out of season it is a fine local market and you have the space to appreciate the architecture.

A Naughty trick I check out such possible chilis by giving them a squeeze using my fingernail. Suck the fingernail and you have a good idea of what the heat is like.

I agree that colorado beetles adore aubergines. Last year I did not grow potatoes but still had the beetles on the aubergines! This year my husband has been poorly and checking for the CBs was put on hold. The potatoes are OK they had already grown enough but I am now finding the larvae of the CB even on weeds. They may take over the world!

In France it is not just excessive speed which can get you in trouble. You can have your car confiscated for doing 70k in a school area clearly marked as 50k. This was illustrated in an episode of a TV series 'pere et frere' I think.

treatment for life threatening problems is free. I had surgery for appendicitus/peritonitus (sp) two years ago and this was the case. I wouldn't say ignore a top up for this reason as MOH is having lots of xrays and scans at the moment. If there is a big problem it will be free if not we will have to pay. What would be your choice?

We haven't had Mormons but the Jehovah's witnesses have been twice. The first time they left us a watchtower in French and said that they would come back with an English version. This turned out to be Dutch. There are not many English around here.

It's amazing how cats can avoid the toilet  requirements when they are not available. We bought two on an eighteen hour journey in large travel cages with newspaper on the base. Only a little wee and no signs of stress.

I would love to be able to swim. I scared myself at an early age and consequentley I am scared of water. We have a pool which came with the house and I would love to be able to make use of it. Are there any general swimming lessons in France (Correze) or would I have to find someone private?

You would have no chance with a dutch hoe in my garden. It's fairly heavy and clay. and has to be caught between sticky and concrete to be workable at all. The draw hoe is not a french tool. it is pretty universal. What I can't get to grips with (literally) are the spades with no 'D' handle. I have one gardening book which is an absolute treasure. How to Grow & Produce Your own Food by  Charles Boff. I don't know when it was originally published but my copy was reprinted in 1946! It covers all fruit and vegetable production and even goes into rabbit,goat and bee keeping.

My husband was diagnosed with pneumonia last Monday by doctor D having been diagnosed as having intercostal neuralgia by doctor B the previous week (no problem as it can take some time to diagnose properly) The doctor left a message for a nurse to come and give him a shot of antibiotics and an emergency appointment for a scan. No nurse and the scan was positive. Monday night he was so bad that I went down to the cabinet to use the emergency phone about 6 am Tuesday. Phone dead so I phoned SAMU. I expected flashing lights etc as pneumonia can be fatal. What I got was "where do you live?" "Perpezac le Noir"   "phone this no" Dr D's no. He arrived promptly and arranged an admission to hospital with an ambulance - only a taxi-. Skip to leaving hospital. We had a prescription for antibio and a note for the nurse. I phoned a number from the yellow pages and arranged for someone to come next morning. Someone arrived next morning - fine. However, half an hour later the nurse I had phoned arrived! Apparently the first nurse had spoken to doctor D and had been told MOH was out of hospital etc. Strangely the nurse I phoned had the same surname as doctor B! I feel that I am in the middle of a turf war between the medics. The commune is < 1000 people how can they justify two infermiere stations and fancy not leaving a message that you were on holiday - which the first nurse apparently was. I am wondering how much the patient comes first or is it the cash. Anyone any similar experiences?

I have the same problem. Impossible to read the message. If I go on as the main user in mail and then change user I can't get in either. I have reset the passwod for myself while logged in as the main user. Still no good. Getting irritated

I agree with the spelling. Our first house had crepi in the living room and stairs. It was impossible to remove. Even knocking off of the points in the stairwell to avoid getting grazed was a major job. You could try getting some smooth crepi and going over it. Our first house also had the striped flock wallpaper and lambri in other rooms. Full set of French decorating taste.

This may be apocryphal (had to look up the spelling) but I was told that an English lady was treated so rudely while at the tax office and basically told she should go back to the UK that she reported the official to the gendarmes and the lady was sacked. She now receives phone calls asking her to help get the person reinstated. Tough result for a bit of PMT perhaps.

You can't get 20A and 20B on a standard number plate so something had to give.

Our poster came from Leclerc. It shows the hexagone with regions,departments, department numbers and main towns and DOM TOM departments, territories and collective territories (whatever they are). My husband is a bit of a number freak. He knows all the department numbers and their prefectures. He has even collected, train spotting style, vehicles one from each department in sequence! 90, 2A and 2B being the rarest.

Thanks Ron for sorting out the netting query. We do get a lot of heavy rain/storms here. Just had one it nearly stopped MOH watching the footie!

I believe that if you want to do it in the sun you need over 90°C every day . I started to do it in 2003 in the canicule but I waited a little too late  and we had rain. Probably an Aga or the slow cooker drawer of a range cooker like the one I have ( Belling) will suffice. I am not sure of the economics though. Perhaps someone else may have a view on that.

I would definately be wary of taking an apple tree into such a warm climate. Here in the Correze they grow "golden" - AOC no less but even they have a sort of gauze screening over them which I assume is against the sun. I was told by a Dutch apple grower over here that Cox's do badly here because it is too hot.