Frenchy

I have just seen this post as this is not normally a forum I look in. Unfortunately, it would be impossible for me to take them on as we already have two dogs (one very large) and downsized to a very small place in the UK in order to buy our house in France.  I would agree with what someone else had mentioned, I would put this in the Post Bag Forum as it would get more exposure, I would also recommend posting on the Total France web site www. totalfrance.com. there are quite a few animal lovers on the site that may be able to help. Please keep us informed and let us know what happens.

That is great news Maddogwoman!  So happy to hear your dog has fully recovered. A lesson learned by me as well. I removed many ticks from both of my dogs last summer. I had always heard the best way to remove a tick was to use a match just blown out and touch the tick with it to remove. I did this each time but left the head in each time I did (including once on myself!). After reading your post I will definitely be more diligent and try and find one of the tools you mention to remove them in the future.

Hi Chris, the photo's aren't showing up at least not on my computer. All I see are squares with red crosses.

Hi Chris, would love to see the photo's. It sounds very interesting. Why not post them on this site for all of us to see?

Iceni, I have heard that it is quiet over the holidays. We don't mind a quiet New Years but a bit of a kid at heart for the lead up to Christmas so maybe a little disappointed on that score. But in any case really looking forward to spending some time in front of a roaring fire and exploring the area a little. Sarah, thanks for the information on Eymet we are only about a 45 minute drive north so we will definitely check it out on the 11th.

[quote]Many thanks Indeed one of the pressures for doing this is to allow my renters (even the weekly ones) to access the net ! The account tracking on-line, or by ringing 'allo allo', sounds good. Now if...[/quote] Tried to use the quote and it didn't work. John when you said you would like to keep the cost down when it is empty, France Telecom do offer a service for second homeowners. They allow you to have services temporarily disconnected when you notify them so for the times that it is empty there would be no charge. However, they do require you to have the service turned on for at least two months at a time though.

Thank you both for the information. Bordeaux is a couple of hours away or more  but will try to get out there for the market must be beautiful this time of year. Great tip about The News will definitely pick it up once we are there.  Thanks again. P.S. Don't know what is happening with my text and the font seems to have a mind of its own Thank you both for the information. Bordeaux is a couple of hours away or more but will try to get out there for the market must be beautiful this time of year. Great tip about The News will definitely pick it up once we are there.  Thanks again.  

Hi Emma-Jane, I can totally sympathise with your situation and I certainly don't think you are being too British or too soft only a kind person. They are the ones that should be embarrassed and are not normal. I am going through the exact same situation as you, our neighbour has this poor little dog on a very short chain spends all day laying on top of a log in an old woodpile near the road. I am not sure how he is being fed but is terribly thin and the poor thing has so little slack on the chain that it must be hard for him to move around properly. Fortunately, I only see him when I am driving by, I always stop just to have a look and sure enough he is always there, I hear him barking throughout the day. My husband feels as yours and is very worried about causing trouble as we are newcomers of only a few months and only visit at the moment. The only thing I have done up to this point (very cowardly must admit) is put a note in their post box saying "Tres triste pour votre chien" with an upside down smiley face with tears. However, they could probably guess who it is and of course it had no effect. We are going back for Christmas and I am sure I will find it very difficult to do nothing. I also would like to report them so I may take Punch's advise however I too will have a problem if they do not speak English. By the way I1, speaking of how they train dogs in France, again in my car driving along behind some other cars, I saw this man walking holding some sort whip, the dog was following behind him by several feet literally cowering, luckily I didn't see him actually beat him.

Hi Emma-Jane, I can totally sympathise with your situation and I certainly don't think you are being too British or too soft only a kind person. They are the ones that should be embarrassed and are not normal. I am going through the exact same situation as you, our neighbour has this poor little dog on a very short chain spends all day laying on top of a log in an old woodpile near the road. I am not sure how he is being fed but is terribly thin and the poor thing has so little slack on the chain that it must be hard for him to move around properly. Fortunately, I only see him when I am driving by, I always stop just to have a look and sure enough he is always there, I hear him barking throughout the day. My husband feels as yours and is very worried about causing trouble as we are newcomers of only a few months and only visit at the moment. The only thing I have done up to this point (very cowardly must admit) is put a note in their post box saying "Tres triste pour votre chien" with an upside down smiley face with tears. However, they could probably guess who it is and of course it had no effect. We are going back for Christmas and I am sure I will find it very difficult to do nothing. I also would like to report them so I may take Punch's advise however I too will have a problem if they do not speak English. By the way I1, speaking of how they train dogs in France, again in my car driving along behind some other cars, I saw this man walking holding some sort whip, the dog was following behind him by several feet literally cowering, luckily I didn't see him actually beat him.

We are spending our first Christmas at our house in the Dordogne (can't wait)and would love to know if there are any Christmas markets in the area. We have friends that live in the Loire that say there are wonderful ones in their area. We are located in the Perigord Noir but are really looking forward to exploring. Does anyone know if there are any Christmas markets throughout the Dordogne?

Cheers Piprob, thank you for the information.

Thank you Piprob for the information. If you could post the web site, I would very much like to have a look at it. Thank you again.

We will be looking at installing a pool sometime in the future. Out of interest Piprob was the £15,000 all inclusive i.e. include your terrace surrounding the pool and landscaping as well?

Well said SB, your post proves to me at least once again what a clever bunny you are. If Chirac and Schroder had backed up the then threats of war to Saddam as you said our boys may not be dying over there now.

Just out of interest, who would you like to see replace him?

Hi Weedon, will definitely try what you recommend when we visit our house over Christmas. I assume you mean the small sheets that you purchase in a box for your tumble dryer that are coated with fabric softener. Unfortunately, we do have the terrible problem with flies and even though this will be our first winter we also suspect we will have mice, did hear a few noises just before leaving last month. We do know that we have a pole cat in our roof void any advise on that one?

I agree with GRT17. If you have other means to heat the house, what a shame to put a wood burner in a beautiful authentic fireplace.

Hi Alcazar, yes I have tried changing the font but the minute I start typing it automatically changes. I don't know why it would just be me having this problem. That is very interesting what you say about painting xylophene on because we have seen it for sale in the shops. However, we have even had a French Carpenter/Roofer that has no interest, meaning, does not do this sort of thing, tell us it does not work and that we would have to have injections. Would love to find out that he and others that told us this was wrong. Can I ask how long ago you treated and was your infestation mild or heavy? We do appear to have a very heavy infestation maybe that is the difference.

Hi, we are located in the Dordogne and also have an infestation of Capricorns and vrillets. We were told that spraying would not be effective, that the wood would have to be injected. We have had several people come out to quote, they have all said it is not serious in our house where we have hardwood because they cannot eat the heart of hardwood. Whereas in our garage where softwood was used it could and is becoming serious. We want to treat the house as well because you can see the damage and can even hear them eating the wood  I would be very interested to know if just spraying the timber would be effective. The few quotes we have received are expensive albeit they do provide a 10 year guarantee. Would much prefer to spray ourselves if indeed it works in the long term.   P.S. Wish I knew what was going on with my print, can't seem to change to a smaller font.

Thank you very much EleanorR for your response. It is very helpful although a bit late for us but hopefully others will take note. As for my bit of advise from our experience and your comments I would strongly recommend using An English speaking Notaire and not bother with the UK based Solicitors that say they specialise in French property.  I am not sure how we would go about having this clause added to our CU after the fact but I am going to try and look into it.  Thank you again.

[quote]Hello,You can change the regime at any time. It is a little more costly if you do it after the purchase.If the notary feels that you are changing in order to disinherit your reserved hiers then it ma...[/quote] Hi EleanorR, I tried to post a quote from your post, still can't figure out how to do this. Can you please explain what you mean in regards to you stating that you would recommend "reduit aux biens acquit en France" because of the implications of the CU.  I am still not clear how this changes the inheritance of one spouse from the other.

Hi, we are in a similar situation to you and were advised to adopt the change of marriage regime (Communaute Universelle) mainly because of very high inheritance tax. I can't remember off hand but the threshold with the en Tonine clause is very low before inheritance tax is due at the time of death of the first spouse. With the CU there is no inheritance tax due to the surviving spouse. However after adopting this regime we have found that it may be impossible to disinherit your children. So it goes on. I would certainly recommend getting in touch with a good Notaire and not a UK based solicitor specialising in France. We used one and they were a complete waste of time and money (an understatement) send me a personal message if you would like to know the name. In any case it does all seem to be very complicated. Please keep us informed of your decision, I for one would be most interested in what you discover and finally decide upon. Best of luck.

Me too. But I just heard that it would possibly be another two hours before they could predict Ohio, considering it is 4:30, I give up. Good night.

Thanks for that Jonzjob. I was hoping that was the case. I too have the first 8 and the Language builder. I am totally involved with the Pimsleur tapes at the moment, which in my opinion are fantastic. But as soon as I am finished I would like to do the Michel Thomas Advanced. Must admit though I do prefer Pimsleur to at least the first 8 of Michel Thomas. Thanks again for the info.

 I assumed after reading everyone's post that the new Michel Thomas Advanced French was a follow up to the first 8 CD course with another full course. However, after looking on Amazon it appears to only offer the one CD.  Is this correct or is there another one that offers the full 8 CD course?