sid

Jon We think it's a great place to be... but it depends what you are looking for! Anyone who knows me would fall about laughing at the idea of my offering gastronomic advice [:)]... so I won't. Seafood is of course available at the local market (Saturday) in Chef-Boutonne and the local shops and supermarkets have plentiful supplies of good, fresh food. This is primarily an agricultural area, so you wouldn't expect anyting else. What worries me about this question is the thought of you planning to come here on the recommendation of someone you don't know, and having picked a spot seemingly with the aid of a map and a pin. We spent 25 years holidaying in France and had an exact idea of where we'd like to live based on previous visits. At the very least I'd say you need to visit the area yourself and check out those criteria YOU think are important. Do you hope to make a living from your guesthouse? If so, you could be disappointed, there are hundreds, if not thousands of Brits here already, many of them with gites and B&B. Whilst the area is fantastic for us it's hardly directly on the tourist trail (thankfully!). I recommend an extended stay, and also a visit in the winter; the sun doesn't always shine here. Regards Sid 

Hello... yes? Sid

You can use the manned booth as well; just hand your card to the operator and they swipe it... no PIN required, it's quicker than cash usually! Sid

Excellent!!! Don't get me started on car drivers and  mobile phones....[:-))] Sid

Hello again Morse98 I'm glad you've got it sorted. Sometimes it takes a disaster to make you look at how you could do things better. I lost my harddrive this year and even though I had secure copies it was still a pain getting everything back together. We don't have much choice of phone service supplier here, just FT and Tiscali. I'm with FT but I see that Tiscali are offering an inclusive ADSL/free phonecall package. FT have been pretty reliable; we rarely get any interruptions to the service. The devil you know ...? Regards Sid

I'm sorry to hear about the disastrous deletion of your email account. It'd be a good time to reconsider your security methods, by which I don't mean just virus protection, but basic back-up and recovery methods. Contrary to an earlier posting, in my opinion the best thing in future would be to use a conventional email application, like Outlook (there are others if you're not a Microsoft fan) and to download all of your email onto your own pc. This way you are in control of what happens to it and you can make back-ups as often as you wish. All of your emails, contacts etc would be stored locally on your own harddrive. If there's one thing I've learnt in 35 years in IT it's never to rely soley on someone else for your security. I hope you're taking security of your other files seriously;  important documents, photographs etc. I can't think how upset I'd be if I lost the last 10 years worth of digital images of the family and so on. I keep several copies of these, on a USB drive (they're relatively cheap now), and on CD/DVD copies. With a web-based service you ARE at the mercy of the provider, not the ISP, but the webmail provider. If they decide to delete something, intentionally or accidentally, it's still gone for good! Regards Sid

Hey, this is great! I've had an ADSL problem when I have a BT phone plugged into one of our phone sockets and I just assumed it was an incompatibility issue with the handset. It's an amplifying phone for my wife who is deaf, so we just plug it in when required, but the ADSL service tends to drop off. Having read the above message I thought it would be worth checking the junction box, and lo and behold there is one of those capacitors/condensors there. I removed it and the phone and ADSL both work again... at the same time! Many thanks BJSLIV for this information. Regards Sid

A reasonable guess would be that he's "Pierre" somebody, given that the link is "pierre156.jpg". Now that's not a common name is it? [8-)] Sid

...or here for midi to USB perhaps? http://www.pccables.com/cgi-bin/orders6.cgi?action=Showitem&id=ID2168073&partno=70825&search=MIDI&rsite=google.co.uksea&rcode= Regards  Sid

I used French taps for a kitchen which I fitted before we moved here; they had the flexible 'tails' but I found that they didn't work very well for the hot water... there wasn't sufficient pressure from the header tank to overcome the narrow bore of the tails. They're meant for mains pressure systems. Sid

I don't think I'm going to be convinced by either side in the continuing and boring debate on chains versus shafts. Like Bugbear, I have a chain-driven machine, with Scottoiler, now at over 30,000kms and it's still on the original chain. Maybe some people just can't afford a BMW; it doesn't make them lesser people, and we're all still motards! Happy motorcycling Sid

Thanks everyone. I get really curious when someone deletes a posting [:)] "Paint your Wagon"  got it! [:D][:D][:D] Sid

......????  [blink] Lost me, but I'll see you next time. Sid

We have had major work carried out over the last 18 months. We have accepted devis from a mason, electrician, plumber, chaufagiste and plasterer. None of them asked for a deposit. Sid

Of course, I wasn't thinking about anyone else needing to renew their licences! [8-|] How can I jump the queue? Would a carte de sejour help? It seems to be indispensable for other things! [Www] Don't bother, that was a joke! Sid

We lost our potatoes virtually overnight. The stems just turned blackish and keeled over. It looks like potato blight to me and I think it has been brought on by this warm humid weather. We should have sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture but left it too late. the undersides of the leaves have a greyish dusty depostit which I think are the spores. The rain washes the spores into the ground and it affects the tubers. We have cut all the stems and we'll leave the tubers for a few days before harvesting what's left. Next year we'll be prepared!! The weather hasn't been like while we've been here, normally it's getting very hot by now with little or no rain so the conditions are quite different. I think the French call this disease "mildou", and it does affect tomatoes too. EDIT: Sorry, I've just spotted a thread about Potato Blight further down the list!! [:$]

Daisymay Actually, I've never seen any on the road! [blink] This one of mine must be nearly 100 years old judging by the local maker's label. I agree that natural wood would look better, but I'm told quite categorically that blue is the colour and I can see traces on various parts of the frame. I think they're referred to as "charettes bleues". I can't envisage any farmer taking the time to maintain the paintwork on a working cart, and I guess that's why most of them finish up looking grey and neglected. If I am to to do a proper renovation I'd have to use the original colours, but as it's not going to be used as a 'show cart' for concours events, and it's just going to stand in the garden, I think we can use discretion on the colour choice, so I'm going to mull it over. In the meantime there's plenty to do before I can start painting. At least I don't have to worry about getting a registration for it! Regards Sid

Dave This sounds like what I heard about. So, it's all about feeding the wood, a bit like oiling a cricket bat? I wondered about this; presumably lasure doesn't have any nourishing effects. It sounds like a long process as the cart is just over 6 metres long. I'm going to need a bulk supply of linseed and the other ingredients. Are they available at the usual DIY places? Sid

Oh Daisymay! Apparently tradition says that they should be blue, now I'm blue! [:(] Sid

Hardly "house renovations" but I didn't think it should go under "driving in France" either! Here goes... I have obtained an old charette (a cart), in a very dirty condition (carte grise? [:)] ) and I intend to clean it up, paint/lasure it, and put it in the front garden loaded with flowers (well, that'll be next year). A friend has told me that I need to treat the woodwork with linseed oil as it will be very dry and brittle, and if I don't do this it's likely to deteriorate very quickly once it's out in the weather. Apparently this treatment needs to be done over many weeks as each application soaks in. My intention was to clean it with a pressure washer, give it a couple of coats of 'xylo' and later to paint most of the woodwork with a microporous paint, the chassis with lasure, and the iron work with a 'fer' paint. I'd welcome any advice. Sid

Chrissie It's not so easy to stop the anti-spam, as far as I can see you can't de-activate it online. However you can change it so that the messages identified as spam are left in your Inbox (and not moved to the "indesirables" folder).  Go to "messagerie" and just below "mes preferences" you should see "Anti-spam [actif]". Click on this heading and the next window will give you the choice of where to receive your spam messages, in the inbox or in the indesirables (default). By changing this the messages will come directly to your Outlook (or whatever you use) mailbox but they will be tagged with **SPAM in the subject line. You could if you wish set up an Outlook rule to move them to a separate folder on your pc so that they don't clutter your normal inbox.   Sid

Chrissie You need to log in to your 'messagerie' (go to www.Orange.fr and log in using the username and password provided when you signed up) and you should see your message folders. The spam is moved into the "indesirables" folder. You can mark any or all of the spam messages for deleteion and that will move them into the "corbeille" (dustbin). They will be automatically deleted after a week (I think it's a week). I don't know why you can't just delete them from the indesirables folder. Anything you wish to keep should be moved to your inbox where it will be picked up by your mail program (eg Outlook). Sid

As an additional comment to my earlier post I have to say that the Orange/Wanadoo Anti-Spam system does appear to work. The messages which it identifies as spam are put into an "indesirables" box, they are not deleted immediately, so you have the opportunity to check them and mark any erroneously stored ones as "not spam"; the system 'learns' with use. My 'cynical' comment was with regard to the dramatic increase in spam, over 100 messages a day in my case, from the day that Orange became Wanadoo. It appears to have settled down to around 20 a day now.   Sid

Hi BB Edit: I've just been told that I can't come out to play this weekend... we have relatives coming! Sounds to me like a good reason to be going out, but I've been overruled. We should go 'oop north' to SD's neck of the woods at some point. He keeps making the long journey down here. Sid

I had a message from Orange today to say that Anti-Spam is now free and included as part of my abonnement ADSL, thus saving me the princely sum of 18€ a year!  I can't help thinking there's a link here. the amount of Spam increased dramatically when Wanadoo changed to Orange. Are they trying to show how well they've managed to cut it down? Cynical... moi? Sid