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Cassis

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Everything posted by Cassis

  1. Today I posted the same message twice by mistake and found that I was unable to delete either of them even though I tried to do so within 30 seconds of the postings!  I was able to edit one of them, though.
  2. I agree that it would be foolish for anyone to sign up to a paying portal site without a free trial period - as B&B owners, we are stunned at the number of 'special offers' we get encouraging us to risk 110 euros or more on a fling with a website with no guaranteed return on investment. But it is not true that 'you only get what you pay for' - since the end of December we have signed up with every free tourism portal we can (unfortunately this means putting in a load of reciprocal links, but they are shoved on the bottom of our French language Links page where they don't do any harm to the overall look) plus any free directories with a tourism section.  Most of these are probably a waste of time, and some are clearly rubbish, but others have produced enquiries and we have taken a number of bookings as a result. Though I suppose that you could argue that we paid for this in the time and effort it took to search for all these sites and set up the links! Interestingly, we have also signed up for free trials with a couple of paying portals and have not had anything from either of them yet - needless to say, we won't be paying unless this changes!
  3. By all means send us a questionnaire - I too used to be a market researcher!
  4. On a related front, does anyone know whether the plug has been pulled permanently on the Transmanche catamarans from Newhaven to Dieppe?
  5. Hiring a bloke with a JCB would probably do a job like this in a fraction of the time it would take a mini-digger.  We had a trench dug 4 metres deep, 2 metres across and 20 metres long to lay a new 'buse' to drain the lake and it cost 150 euros including tax - took him 2 hours to dig and 1 hour to refill and he only charged for the time he was on site.  But I don't know wheter 50 euros an hour is typical rate nationally.
  6. I got one from Castorama but it's only a 5m working height and cost 130 euros in a sale.  I've used it for re-jointing the stonework on the house facades and it was stable, rigid and lightweight.  But obviously not professional quality at that price.  Brico Depot have a professional quality 7m platform that conforms to HD1004 for 957 euros, 2 metres long and with stabilisers.  I would have thought for 990 euros you should get the dog's  whatnots!
  7. A lot of the companies are regional, so can't help on that, but the lady at our CPAM gave us a list of companies and advised tor ing around and get several quotes - just as you would in the UK.  Some companies are better for covering families, others for couples, then there's whether you're salaried or independent, medical history, etc .... so it's impossible to recommend just one or two companies.  Just cos one person got a good quote from Company A doesn't mean the next person will get the best deal as well.   Do what our CPAM lady said and get quotes from as many as you can (and if the CPAM doesn't offer you a list, ask for one - some fonctionnaires won't give any information unless you ask for it specifically!
  8. Spot on advice above.  The CPAM should be able to give you a temporary Medical Cover number on the spot and a carte vitale will come later.  Remember to take your birth certificate(s), marriage certificate (if applicable) and a bill as proof of residence and your passport - all are needed in addition to the E106.  You will still need a top-up assurance maladie if you want full reimbursement - the E106 does not cover the full cost of consultancy and treatment.
  9. Gastines is spot on - the UK is now on same voltage as rest of Europe.  The telly and video problem is related to transmission frequencies and PAL rather than voltage.  Everything else will work.
  10. I can endorse what Nick says - taxe d'habitation, taxe fonciere, water bill (consumption and sewerage as we are on tout a l'egout rather than a fosse sep) and waste collection are all separate bills where we are, as well. On the water front (great film) does anyone know whether the authorities are going have all hamlets/villages of 10 houses or more on mains drains by the end of this year, as the govt. said they were aiming to do back in 2000?
  11. I'm tempted to wait and see if we get a reminder - I know for a fact that the French lady who has a gite on the other dside of the village does not pay hers - she says she just ignores it and has done for years!  But if push comes to shove we'll just fill in how many nights and send a cheque - life's too short for the amount of unnecessary detail - what would the Tresor do with all that info, for goodness sake?!?
  12. [quote user="Teamedup"] far too many personal details [/quote] My thoughts exactly.  Have you ever had the amount you pay queried?  i.e. have they asked for proof?  I can't see how one could prove anything except by reference to bank details, and obviously they don't include every transaction.
  13. I think we'll just give them a total number of nights, pay the tax and see what happens .... for 2005 I don't even have all the info the form seems to request and in 2006 I don't want to have to keep a detailed running record of how many soldiers and sales reps visit, whether people on on benefits etc. if I don't have to.  I wonder what they use this money for? 
  14. Me again As regards rules and regs, if you are 5 rooms or less you are not subject to hotel regulations - more than that then you get into all kinds of health and safety issues, fire regs etc. In many departements you need to register and be classified 3 stars or above with Gites de France or Clevacances or similar if you hope to get a grant from the Conseil General for any conversion work you have in mind.  They will give you a provisional rating based on your detailed plans.  They have VERY exact rules about room sizes, facilities etc. to classify for this sort of grading - but they are not unreasonable.  You can find the rules for GdF on their website (only in French). Phil
  15. Hi Kevin We just started a B&B last year, having moved here in 2004, and of course there are forms to fill in when applying for building grants, sorting out planning permission, registering your car,  getting onto the health system, etc. etc. etc., but you would expect that when moving to a foreign country and doing what almost amounts to creating a new identity from scratch.  The systems are different, they can be hard to fathom out and you need to have a fair grasp of French language.  But then there are forums like this where you can ask for advice when you get stuck!  Just don't expect it to be like a long holiday; it really is hard work as Quillan says; you need to do a proper business plan and see if it stacks up; you will probably need to have some 'fat' to live off for at least a couple of years before you can even hope to break even if starting the business from scratch rather than taking over an existing one; and be sure you are ready to share your house with strangers ..... but we love it!
  16. We've just received our first demand for Taxe de Sejour payments from the local tourist authority /Tresor Public.  We seem to be charged 50 cents per person per night.  Is this common to all areas and what sort of rates do others charge?  Our area's charges start at 20 cents and rise depending on the rating of your gite or B&B. Also, the form they have sent asks to list details of every stay - date, name, no. adults, no. children, number of nights, whether we claim the stay is exempt of the tax (includes visits by commercial travellers, people with army pensions, people on social security, etc.) - looks like an admin nightmare!    Does anyone else fill this in properly, or do you just state the number of visitor nights susceptible to the tax? Given that the only traceable record of stays is cheques, one might think that some people might be tempted not register all cash transactions ....
  17. I suspect like all these things, it is down to the individual owner and we shouldn't stereotype by the nationality of the owner.  I only know that we use our experience as former users of B&Bs as much as we can to make our guests' visits as nice as possible - after all, we want them to come back again, not to be scared off.  So in winter the heating goes on in their room first thing on the day of their arrival, the towel rail goes on in the bathroom etc.  And we leave an extra electric heater on the landing in case anyone needs an extra 'boost', though no-one has up to now.  I know I wouldn't fancy staying somewhere that felt cold and damp, so I wouldn't expect anyone else to, either!  If an owner doesn't want to pay for heating, they shouldn't be open in winter, in my opinion.  I think even if a guest arrived unexpectedly then we could probably have a room warmed up within an hour, but that may not be possible for all B&Bs - depends on the heating system! Phil
  18. Hi Cookie The problem probably stems from the narrow gauge pipe rather than the pressure; it just can't deliver the quantity of water that's being demanded if it is 12mm throughout and the taps are stemming from a common feed, regardless of pressure. Phil
  19. Please don't misunderstand me - I didn't suggest that people should be free to lift material from other's websites, in fact quite the opposite, I was saying that no-one should do so without asking first.  For travel and tourist information that's free to copy (provided you acknowledge the source) I think Wikipedia is pretty good, though like everything you see on the Internet, I wouldn't trust it to be 100% accurate.
  20. What's the 'distribution' tag for?
  21. [quote user="Iceni"]I would advise caution though on lifting and editing the words of others if copywrited, there is software that will search the net and identify breaches.[/quote] I think before you copy anything that appears on the viewed page, you should contact the author, ask permission and offer to put in an acknowledgment - even a link, if what you want to copy is substantial.  That said, I wonder how many people have actually been prosecuted for breach of copyright on the Net?  If I put something up on the Net for all and sundry to access, I would be flattered to think someone liked it enough to copy it - sincerest form of flattery and all that. 
  22. Well, I find all that you've said here and on laymyhat.com makes sense and it ties in with what I've read on other sites.  There's a great temptation to go for too many images, rollover effects, marquees and the rest - and I fell for it when I did our site last October - my first attempt.  As a result I'm now in the process of 1. stripping out a lot of the fancy effects and reducing the number of images without making it look too bare-bonesy in order to improve load times and 2. rejigging the html to make it easier for search engines to analyse - simple stuff like putting all the text at the beginning of the <body> section, loading images last of all, putting in more keyword phrases in the body text and so on.  My difficulty now is making it read nicely at the same time! Please don't talk about listings and directories until I've done this lot!
  23. [quote user="mascamps.com"]seen .... laymyhat.com re the hits I've been getting (worth reading: it's in the "personal website" area, called something like "typical number of hits"). Anyway, it would appear that as a consequence of a series of seemingly minor updates I made on some pages of my mascamps.com site in September, the number of hits across all of my pages went up around 10-fold Arnold[/quote] Cripes, Arnold - that's quite a string you started off there on laymyhat - just finished reading it and I gather no-one's any the wiser about what caused the jump in stats!  The posting has pushed me to have a look at the rest of the same website to see if I can pick up the same tips - but I bet they don't work as well for me!  Good for you anyway - hope it brings those bookings in! Phil
  24. [quote user="Renaud"] We have often stayed in a B&B run by a delightful couple .... we came over at the end of November, when it was decidedly cold. As we arrived our hosts switched on an electric heater in the bedroom. We slept with two duvets on top of us. ... after three nights the room had just got to being tolerably warm and the snow on the velux window now just looked pretty. We are due back in a couple of weeks and have decided to stay in a hotel.[/quote] I can only sympathise with you and agree with Miki - and I don't blame you for changing to somewhere else.  But please don't tar all B&B's with the same brush (another cliche for the collection) because of one experience - we've stayed in some rubbish hotels but we don't expect them all to be bad! 
  25. Thank you, Baz and John, your views aree much appreciated.  Sounds like moss is not a good thing to have on our roof, then!  I think I'll get the pressure washer out come the spring then give the roof a good dousing in anti-moss spray.  But for now I think I'll stay indoors! All the best for 2006.
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