Cassis

How about posting that info as a sticky, Sunday? Phil

Is that why they're called aoutats, then?  As in août? Phil

I've read other posts here and elsewhere that give the maximum as anything from 30 days to 3 months to 6 months.  I know the DVLA allow 12 months as long as you maintain road tax but not sure that the French rules coincide.  The commonest quoted max. for UK registered cars in France seems to be 3 or 6 months. When we had been here 6 months our French insurer asked us to provide a copy of the Carte Grise - he said we needed it after being resident with the car for 6 months. Anyone able to quote the French regulation verbatim? Phil

Well, I've opened my eyes, looked up to the skies and seen .....

I didn't realise anyone here had a real life.  Is this the real life?  Or is it just fantasy?

We insured with AGF through an agency run by a chap called Thierry Marcq.  His agency specialises in English-speakers and he arranged insurance for our English registered car when we first came here in 2004.  We did need proof of no-claims but we got fully comp for less than it cost us in the UK (mind we used to live in London).  Tel. for Thierry Marcq is 00.33.321.111.710.  All his staff seem to speak very good English.  Email [email protected].  I believe that by law you have to get a carte grise within 6 months of your importing your vehicle from the UK so you may be on dodgy ground if you're planning to bring a Brit registered car over for 9 months without registering it here. Phil

I can only share your distress.  There are many people in this part of Normandy trying to persuade the authorities to leave the verges a little 'untidy' at least until the spring flowers have set their seed.  They have had mixed success but the movement is gathering momentum. If you can't find someone to give you an instant message, you can email me what you want to say and I can do a translation for you if you wish - it won't be perfect but it will make sense! Phil

Just had a look at Chris's website - his creations are absolutely wonderful.  Real jaw-dropping stuff.  I hope to win the lottery soon to afford some of it! Phil

Roal Isoprotection Fabricant Zone Artisanale 57245 Peltre    .03 87 38 15 66 fax : .03 87 38 10 46 Mail :   [email protected]  "Roal" le volet 4 saisons, fabricant,  Aluminium-PVC-acier, moustiquaires,  Consultez notre site... <br>Is all I can find in Limoux, having tracked down your location, but they look like a specific brand supplier. You could extend your search in yellow pages in English here: http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/pj.cgi?lang=en Look under security and shutters. Hope this helps a bit. Phil

Sounds awful.  I don't know where you are but obviously a long way from Paris.  We always get an ETA from guests and tell them they must call if there is a problem.  We've maybe just been lucky so far that we've had no problems of this sort - or it could be because we're just a couple of hours from Paris. I think I'd baulk at waiting up until 11.00pm for guests on a regular basis - we're always in bed by 10.30! Phil (EDIT: Jude says I'm also asleep on the sofa by 9.00pm)

Could it be this lot? Dutch bank, stands for Bank Mendes Gans http://www.mendesgans.nl/intro.htm Phil

Make sure you use sterilised compost and containers and water with distilled water in the first place and it should be less of a problem. I've heard of people using Chamomile to prevent damping off. Pour boiled distilled water on four chamomile teabags and steep for twenty minutes, then pour the concentrate into a 5 litre sterilised container and top off with more boiled distilled water. Use this in a sterilized spray bottle to mist seedlings. What sort of eucalyptus are you growing? Phil

We've currently got an ancien combattant of the 2ème D.B. staying with us who is delighted that we have a book (long out of print) describing the liberation of the Saosnois in minute detail - the tank he was in features in the chapter on the liberation of Ancinnes and he's mentioned by name.  The old chap now lives in Bourges, was freed from a POW camp in North Africa by the 8th Army and spent 1943 in Hornsea before joining in the Liberation of Normandy in 1944.  And last night we went to the Ancinnes  - Schwarme jumelage meeting where we finalised arrangements for a visit by 25 of our German friends at the end of the month. Phil

I notice Quillan serves breakfast until 11.00am - how do you manage it, Q?  We're lucky if people finish breakfast in less than an hour, which doesn't give you a lot of time to clean the bathrooms, hoover, change the beds and towels etc. before the next lot arrive.  So we serve breakfast from 7.00am (we're lucky our baker opens at 6.00am) to 9.30am and ask people to be out by 11.00am on the day they are leaving. We also find that SOME English parents are much more indulgent of their offspring, allowing them to bounce up and down on the sofas, kick the furniture, pull plants out of the flowerbeds etc.  No French child has ever attempted any such thing, never mind got away with it.  Not all English parents, but definitely some. Phil

Were these the same people who didn't actually turn up at your place until 5.00am in the morning? Sorry, not funny! Phil

Hi St Amour Well, I'd be fuming.  We always try to find somewhere else local for guests we can't accommodate, but this lot take the biscuit.  You know that the only group we have lost money on through no-show (so far) were also from the USA, so I don't think I'd be tempted to help either, after the way you've been messed about.  As you say, it's a lot of money in this business and it's always nice to get a long stay from a big group, but there are limits and this lot sound like a waste of time. Wen - what on earth is going on that people were turning up at your place at 5.00am?  I assume this was a one-off incident, where were they coming from and how do they explain themselves?  But you make it sound like it has happened at least twice.  It beggars belief, surely you dreamt this? Phil

Well, what's happened is that the Big Man played a rather nasty trick on me.  I started life as a caterpillar, turned into a Swallowtail butterfly and woke up one morning a couple of days ago (admittedly after a rather good party) to find that I had re-pupated into a sausage.  And with the barbecue season coming into full swing I fear the worst ....

The problem is that because they burrow quite deeply, in order to kill them the wood normally has to be injected.  Not a problem for structural timbers, a different kettle of beetles when it comes to live trees. There has been some success against the Asian Longhorn Beetle in the USA in living trees through treatment with imidacloprid, a systemic insecticide.  Ideally this is done by injection, but it can also be taken in through the roots if the ground around the tree is drenched.  I don't know how effective this treatment has been, though you may be able to find some studies on the internet if you look hard enough. Phil

Well, you know how caterpillars pupate and emerge from the chrysalis as butterflies ....

In that case, I wouldn't even bother giving people your new number, just let them ring on the old FT number.  I'm not sure why all the companies bother issuing new numbers - maybe it's a technical reason.  We've had Club Internet and Freebox numbers issued to us and we've never once used them. Phil

I have noticed in French home and garden type magazines adverts for 'dog barking stoppers'.  A device that emits a loud but high pitched whistle, like a dog whistle, whenever it detects a barking noise.  The adverts make a big play of the fact that it works through hedges - it would seem a lot of French would like a bit of peace and quiet as well.  Not cheap - about 50 or 60 euros if I remember correctly. Phil

I'm not sure whether we would have to charge extra or give a discount for that arrangement! Another interesting test along those lines is to run it through another language before coming back to English. We are hoping to open a bed and breakfast business. 1. Nous espérons ouvrir des affaires de lit et de petit déjeuner. 2. Ελπίζουμε να ανοίξουμε επιχειρήσεις του κρεβατιού και του μικρού γεύματος. 3. We hope to open enterprises of bed and small dinner. Marvellous.  I've just noticed that Babelfish is powered by Systran, by the way.  I used Systran myself until my French became good enough to realise what a bullix it made of things.  The software CD now dangles from a fishing line in the garden - it makes a better bird scarer than a translator. phil

Snitty means grouchy or moody.  I do find that emails and posts on forums can come across in a way that may not have been the original intention of the sender - yours did come across a bit grouchy (though I wasn't the one to say it). [6] Phil

[quote user="catalpa"] But, as I think CJLaws (unnecessarily snittily imo) suggests, if you have anything complex to convert from English to French, you should find yourself a professional translator - ideally native French speaker. [/quote] You could always employ CJLaws - occupation teacher/translator - but obviously it won't be free, you pay for what you get.

One of the problems is that all of these systems are so literal.  Unless you know a bit of the language it's hard to know if what you have produced is nonsense or not. For example, here is Altavista's Babelfish translation of:  'We are hoping to open a bed and breakfast business.' 'Nous espérons ouvrir des affaires de lit et de petit déjeuner.' I'm not sure a Frenchman or woman would know what that was supposed to mean. Phil