Zap

Thank you for the suggestions Carole.  If it comes to that I'll try these but I'd rather stick with what I know if at all possible. I can't believe that finding this stuff is so difficult.  The French didn't "invent" Eau Grison but they sure made it the fungicide of choice for almost 100 years.  Ah well, the quest continues. , Zap

Lydia, Canada is a great place to visit!  If you're into anything related to the outdoors it is truly spectacular.  I lived in Vancouver for years and it is mecca for anyone into outdoor sports.  I used to cycle along the sea wall: rain forest on side and the ocean on the other (both less than 20 feet away!), mountains looming all around and no one there but you and the gulls if you were out early in the morning.  I miss that a lot.  Climbing, hiking, kayaking, skiing, wind-surfing, you name it.  Wilderness beauty is Canada's best, and virtually unlimited, virtue.  I spent many years enjoying that part of the country very much and I'm grateful for the opportunity to have done so. That said I'd have to add that unless you're in Quebec City or a few places out East "history" means stuff that was built or happened since 1900.  Many Canadian cities, Vancouver especially, make it a point of pride to rip down "old things" and build new stuff whenever and wherever possible.  Some construction sites proudly display a "heritage plaque" saying what used to be at the spot where they're building a new Super-store or whatever.  Heartbreaking!  Great for the developers, pretty abysmal for everyone else if you ask me.  I could go on with this but I think you get the point.  To quote an old friend, it's a great place to be from. 

Happy here?  Yes!  Unreservedly so?  No, but then that's pretty much life isn't it. I think I'm in something of a minority here on these boards because I'm Canadian, live in Paris, never owned property and the closest I ever get to children is when I go home to visit the rellies.  I had lived pretty much all over Canada and briefly in the States so I was used to the relocation thing.  My wife and I moved to France a little over two years ago because we were bored to tears with Canada.  No offense intended to Our True North Strong and Free, it's just that that's where we were in our lives. For us France has been a real gift: we like the people a lot, we love the food (produce mostly because we're vegetarians and most French restaurants haven't quite wrapped their minds around that concept yet, not like in London for example).  We find that Paris really is a moveable feast, we love travelling in France when we get the chance and find the weather quite agreeable North, South or wherever.  Sure the French paperwork can be a headache and the taxes kind of take your breath away for a while but the compensations are legion so we're not complaining. For us being here is a dream come true in a way.  It has so many things that we never had back home: history (I mean real history), the Arts, museums with something in them, and, well, the French!  I'm not sure what it's like for others but for us the French are _interesting_. (Trust me, Quebec isn't the same thing, not by a long shot.)  It's hard to describe but that old-worldness that some have mentioned feels more like home to us than home ever did.  That's a subtle but very big deal when you get right down to it. For what it's worth we don't find the French to be particularly bad drivers, comparatively speaking, and have found the French to be very helpful toward a couple of clueless ex-pat Canadians. "Resentment towards Foreigners"?  Not in our experience but then we've made a point of trying to remember that it's their country we're in and their ways of doing things, not ours, are the norm.  Some foreigners seem to forget that, to their considerable discomfort. Would we go back?  At gun point, maybe.  Will we stay here?  Who can say but we'll certainly be here for a good long while, maybe permanently if we can do the property thing (country, not city).  As others have said, the countryside really is pretty spectac.  Someday maybe I'll even be able to speak the language, things might really get interesting then.  My wife does much better in that department than I do, but I'm working on it. So sayeth a newbie, Zap

New to these boards.  Looks great.  Fingers crossed ... I live in Paris and am looking for a source for Lime Sulphur.  It was easy to find back in Canada --hard not to find it actually, every gardening store had bags of the stuff-- but I can't for the life of me find it here.  It's an old-school fungicide used to treat wintering roses, fruit trees and bonsais. My research indicates that the old French name for it is "Eau Grison".  It is actually calcium polysulfide or "polysulphure de calcium" and is also known as "bouillie sulfo-calcique" (or BSC), "bouillie nantaise", sulfure de calcium, etc. Any assistance in finding this stuff would be much appreciated.  As I said I live in Paris but I'd be happy to order or commute if that turned out to be the way to get ahold of the stuff. Merci, Zap