Wozza

BQF We have just ordered our CH, so can give you a comparitive price. It is €13,000 for boiler and 14 radiators, installed. Oil fired system and includes cuve. Excludes installation of hot and cold water pipework - just the CH pipes. Also excludes supply and installation of boiler flue. We are using a reasonably large and well known company in our area, not a one man band. Hope this helps. Warren

Thanks Andy and Opas for recipes - will try them very soon. We inherited some quite large and well established fig trees when we bought the place. I guess they are brown figs (look purple when ripe, though). The larger ones are ripe, but still a lot of small green ones on the trees. I guess if we have a bit of sun after all this rain, it wont take them long to ripen too. Now, what do I do with all the Charente melons? Bought too many plants...... Warren

If wall is that thick, I assume that it is stone? If so, just use a hammer and chisel and/or a crow bar and prise the stones out one by one. The outer layer on each side is normally stuck together with anything but cement, so come out fairly easily - the layer between the two outside walls tends to be loose fill, so comes out very easily, as long as the stones are smaller than your hole. You normally end up with a much biggerhole than you need, but trying to drill or cut the right size hole tends to break the stones and they fall out anyway. Thats how it works here, anyway. Have just made about 20 such holes for the beams for our bathroom floor. Warren

Sounds perfect Opas - I,m digging out the poppadoms now! Look forward to the recipe.

Where do you buy the square 2 litre milk containers in France??

Thanks John. I haven't got the van, nor the villa in the sun, so I am seeking alternative uses for our bountiful fig harvest. Anyone got any nice recipes for chutney, jam etc using figs. Our neighbour tells us that he uses them to stuff chicken? Will try that, but haven't got that many chickens. Warren

Can anyone tell me the correct method for drying figs? Warren

Sorry, having a bad day - I actually live in dept 16! I should remember, same as my IQ!

We bought ours from the Haven site south of Bordeaux - they had a stock of about 20 for sale, both English and French vans. We opted for a UK van as the French ones felt really cheaply made. Haven arranged delivery and siting. Where is your propertys - we still need ours, but there are quite a few for sale around here - dept 16. If you want Haven's number, send a PM and I will send the info. Warren

Helen If you haven't topped yourself after Colette's message - don't fret! Charente life is fantastic. We have been here a year now (even spent one of those winters in a mobile home) and love it. This is by far the best place we have ever lived, and it is the people here that make us feel that way. My wife used to nurse in the UK before we left, and is glad to be out of it. We are taking time off to do up the house before we go back to work / start looking. Neither of us speak very good french, but the more you practice the better you get - and we have found that at least trying to speak french goes a long way. If you feel like touching base with other Brits when you arrive, then PM me and I will send you our details. We live near Vitrac in 16. Good Luck, or should I say Bon Courage! Warren

Welive in 12 and our Maire told us about grants available later this year (November), including roofing, insulation, drainage, and crepe. He didn't tell us how to get a grant though - that was months ago and it didn't seem worth asking at such an early stage. Bound to be strings attached, though. Would have replied earlier, but at the time you only had one reply and I got a bit scared.....

Mark I'm in Dept 12 also, and I sometimes go up to Poitiers for large quantities of DIY stuff etc - behind BricoDepot there is a place that sells second hand minidiggers. It's on the back road that you have to take to get back onto the main drag. There are also some UK companies that specialise in selling minidiggers into France - I think there are even a couple based here - try searching the web. Also, there is a large second hand tractor place in Nontron (I think) that may sell minidiggers too. Regards Warren

All sounds good to me - I plan to do the same, although I will use copper pipes for the water, protected against reaction with the concrete by covering with insulation. I believe that there is no problem laying PVC pipes in concrete - it is common practice here and in the UK, especially for toilet wastes. Warren

I am an engineer and live in the Charente. I do occasional contract work overseas (not France or UK) for a week or so at a time. I mainly work for a UK company, who pay my invoices without VAT. I realise that I should register to pay tax in France, but I am not sure whether I should register as an individula, sole trader, or what? Anyone out there doing something similar - if so, how are you registered to pay tax? Warren

Wherabouts in Haute Vienne? I am in Charente and managed to get an excellent roofer to cross the border from Dordogne.

I bought two 150cm concrete lintels from my local builders merchants a couple of weeks ago. They don't always have them in stock, but they are available to purchase to whatever length you require.

I currently have about 8 etais from Bricomarche (11 euros each in a promo) supporting a 6m by 4m beam and block concrete floor - no problem. Have used them to support oak beams, walls etc without problems. I think it would have to be something really heavy to damage them - if you have something that heavy to support, why not ease the load by using more etais?

Anne Try 'mignon' - sweetie / cutie. Our neighbours use this for our siberian husky and she loves it! Having said that, we speak to her in English, although we bought her in Spain - truly multi-lingual dog!

Cassis Our neighbour told us to go to the local Intermarche and pick up a few of the used wooden fruit and veg cases they leave by the checkouts for you to stick your shopping in - so that's what weare using. He says he always uses them. Then he starts to tell me that to pack the potatoes, you pick a spot on the north wall of the cave, wait until the moon is at the right point in the sky, sprinkle over some magic powder etc etc...... Warren

Meant to mention La Betoulle myself as well - also highly recommended - we had a lovely stay there last year.

I believe for a 3000 litre fosse, you need a drain 25 m2 (5 x 5m), 3000 litre being standard fosse for a 3 to 4 bed house.

Abi We had about an acre of garden the same, but about 8 feet high brambles, trees and everything but grass. Our neighbour kindly came along with his tractor with an attachment on the back that had three huge blades and cut the lot - a bit like a tractor drawn strimmer. When it all started to sprout again, two doses of roundup killed it. Unfortunately, we then left it and it is now resprouted, so will be doing the roundup again in september. If you have a friendly neighbour-farmer, he may have a similar device, alternatively, you can hire them along with a mini tractor, but not cheap. Worth it though, our garden was cut in about an hour! Hope this helps. Warren

Captain 25, Not in your area, but I passed a tractor breakers yard / second hand yard today in Dept 16, at Marthon, just off D16 road. Take turning to St Germain de Montbron and it is just on the right - big place. Sorry it isn't nearer! If you want to call them, let me know and I'll look number up in my pages jaune. Warren

Graye We moved to Charente from Malaga area last year with nine cats (don't ask!) and a Siberian Husky. Dog and two cats only had the Andalucian pet book, as too young for passports / rabies jabs. As soon as the required time had elapsed (for the dog) and rabies jabs etc done for the kittens, we got our vet to issue the passports here - no problems at all, he is Belgian and seemed quite happy transferring everything from the Spanish books to the passport. The vet also sent off the forms to re-register the microchips under our French address - you get the paperwork back quite quickly, which also includes a section for chenge of address to fill in when you move on. If anyone is reading this and thinking of moving from Andalucia to France, a word of advice - get your blood tests done there! They were free when we had all ours done and they cost a fortune here. Luckily, we only had to get two of them done! Generally, I have found the vets here much more familiar with pet passports than those in Spain, I guess because they come across them more. The border crossing was no problem. I believe that if you have had your animals vaccinated against rabies and microchipped, then you meet all requirements for crossing the border between Spain and France - that is what we were told. Bon Voyage Warren

The one that needs to be fitted by the engineer probably has no refrigerant in it (a mixture of various refrigerant gases) - this would probably be a better unit that can be serviced and have the refrigerant changed when required (I believe every 4 to 5 years, but don't quote me), may also be more efficient if better refrigerants are installed - worth checking on the self-assembly unit if it is easily maintained, or 'sealed for life'. As with everything, I guess you get what you pay for..