Lou

Dear god, does someone actually pay this guy to write such utter drivel?? I suppose there must be an art to it.......   Lou

I've just clicked on this thread to read it because I was intrigued by the subject.......I thought it said "shrunken foot"!!!!!!! Lou

[quote user="NormanH"]I just had an apéro with a charming estate agent (one of the biggest in the area). He is selling his agency because he is losing 10,000 euros a MONTH. He used to have aé chain of shoe shops and said quite openly that he knows very little about Estate agency, but bought it about seven  years back when the "English idiots " came over and started paying idiotic prices. He believes he has a buyer, and if he sells he is thinking of opening a Matrimonial Agency, especially to help divorced women in the 35-55 age group. He is a genuinely nice guy, but that gives a fair picture of the level of professionalism among French Estate agents. [/quote]   I hardly think one single example gives a "fair picture" !! I work for an estate agent and know others, and they have qualifications and decades of experience. Clearly this guy will do pretty much anything if he thinks it could make him a quick buck. My guess is that it is his lack of knowledge and experience that explains why he is now going under when others who ARE professional are still keeping their heads above water in hard times. Clearly some estate agents do have bad reputations but not all of them! Lou

The Hairdressers Husband (Le mari de la coiffeuse) is one of my all-time favourite films! I would also recommend - Delicatessen - just superb Indochine (several tissues worth of soppy but also interesting historically re France's involvement in Vietnam) Le bonheur est dans le Pré - also has local interest as set in the Gers not far from me! La vie est un long fleuve tranquille Nikita - that's the proper French version not the rubbish US remake (although now I come to think of it wasn't the remake called something different?? EDIT The remake was called The Assassin) Tatie Danielle - a brilliant comedy about looking after your grumpy old relations....though Tatie Danielle is bordering on evil not just grumpy! Lou EDIT have just realised that Le bonheur est dans le pré, La vie est un long fleuve tranquille and Tatie Danielle are all directed by Etienne Chatiliez

Hi Judith Partly it depends on how you're going to access your "spot" - the gendarmes will close the road the Tour comes along potentially up to several hours beforehand. If you've got side roads you can use and you choose a relatively "unpopular" spot then just before the caravane could be ok. Otherwise you could be looking at getting there a few hours before to stake out your place. If the weathers good - take a picnic, a hat ad a book and relax and chat to the neighbours while you wait.....in my opinion (having seen at least one stage every year for the last 5 or 6 years!) it's definitely worth the wait - a real event. Regards Lou

I reckon the second picture (and probably the third too) is Cordes sur Ciel, also in the Lot dept. Lou Edit - oops! no, Cordes is actually in the Tarn............

Bugbear, I don't think it's the .fr which causes the problems but rather the ISP. I have problems on a regular on/off basis (if that's possible) with Orange/Wanadoo and BT/Yahoo in the UK - it seems that orange.fr / wanadoo.fr get "black-listed" by other providers for excessive spam (which judging by the number of spam emails I get on my Wanadoo address is probably perfectly justified though very annoying....) My yahoo.fr address doesn't seem to cause any problems with any other provider - so far. Hope that helps Lou

val douest - I received a pm from you - did you mean to send it to me or to the OP shropshirelass? Lou

shropshirelass I've just replied to the other thread in Sports and Leisure. Lou

What about Gavarnie? South of Lourdes. You can walk up to the Cirque de Gavarnie (UNESCO registered and well-worth the walk) in about 2 hours (round trip) if I remember correctly (not a very difficult walk) and there's quite a few hotels in the village itself. I suspect there will also be other walks in the area though up to the Cirque is the only one I've done. I can't recommend any places to stay or eat as personally I've not used any of them, but if you search for Cirque de Gavarnie on Google you'll get results. eg www.gavarnie.com is the official Tourist office site Hope that helps Lou

You do need a grease trap if your fosse is more than 10m from the house - ours is and we have one! We had a completely new system installed and inspected by SPANC last year. Our bac à graisse is 300L - fosse 4000L and filer bed 30m3. Lou

I agree with JR about the abuse of the system if you just fancy a day off...... but surely this system in France must cost the state an absolute fortune if everyone has to go to the doctor for a note just for a bad cold/stomach bug which will go away by itself in 24 hours? (mind you I know everyone goes to the doctors anyway for the slightest sniffle) I wonder if there are stats somewhere which show that the French take less time off work than the British (for example) and could you say it was because of this system? Lou

Very likely the same people who buy ready-grated cheese and bags of ice cubes............. Lou

Odile, we saw a badger just the other night on our way back from the cinema at about midnight - it crossed the road a little way in front of us. Dept 65 near Castelnau Magnoac. We have seen odd ones before around here but not on a regular basis at all, some live as this one, others as Dog says dead by the side of the road. I'd say no more than 4 or 5 max in almost 4 years. Lou

Hi When we bought our house three years ago, we had a clause for this. HOWEVER at the time of signing the compromis we already had a buyer in place for the UK house, and were able to argue convincingly (albeit with fingers crossed under the desk!!) that the sale was certain to go ahead - our solicitor was able to confirm to the notaire/sellers expected dates for exchange of contracts and completion.  The sellers weren't thrilled to have the clause but agreed as they were pretty desperate to sell, but did insist on it being time limited. Wording: Condition suspensive de la vente de la maison en Angleterre des Acquéreurs Les présentes sont conclues sous la condition suspensive que la vente définitive de la maison sise en Angleterre des Acquéreurs soit intervenue avant le 30 septembre 2005. Si au 30 septembre 2005, leur maison n'était pas vendue, chacune des parties sera libérée de des engagements contenus aux présentes. In other words if we hadn't sold the house then we could have pulled out but equally so could the sellers, with no penalty on either side. We signed the compromis in July, completed in the UK at the beg of Sept and in France mid-october. Of course the UK market was rather different then......whether someone would agree to this now under current conditions is another matter. Hope this helps Lou

I bought this for my husband for Xmas and have just finished reading it myself. I thought it was a very good read, his passion definitely comes across and the stories behind the recipes were really interesting. I loved the story about the Queen Mother singing the Marseillaise. I did skip some of the more intense food bits - several pages on making souffles - it's the OH who does the cooking stuff!  It did make me hungry every time I read a chapter though.......not good for the post-Xmas diet! Lou

We changed our accounts from CA Britline to the local Credit Agricole when we moved over. The new bank did everything, took a list of direct debits and notified all the people, including transferring the balance of the old account to the new one. I don't think there were any problems or mistakes (unless I've blanked them out!) - perhaps we were lucky??!  I don't think it was anything to do with it being both CA either. Lou Edit: I think we did have to write to the old bank though to tell them what we were doing, though I think the new bank provided the letter and we signed it

Raindog, There were some dodgy ref decisions on both sides in the Toulouse - Bath match. As well as the one you mentioned there was a blatant late tackle on Jauzion (I think) which the ref completely ignored. Stade Francais are looking good so far this season...... Lou

Was at the match yesterday - Toulouse's performance yesterday was hardly inspiring - I don't think they deserved to win, Bath were attacking far more and far more convincingly, it wouldn'ty surprise me at all if they win at home against Toulouse.  Toulouse looked like they had no game plan, a team of individuals, who made SO MANY errors, wish I had a euro for everytime they dropped the ball.  Every report has focussed on the last-second kick by Skrela and glossed over the rest of the match.  Emotions were high but can't say I agreed at all with the booing from Toulouse fans when Butch James (how can he live with that absurd name??) was lining up to kick. The (French) commentary behind us ranged from "send Skrela back to Paris" when he missed a kick, to "Skrela is a true Toulousain" when he got it through the posts......! Lou

Well, they did - but the wonder-boy wasn't playing...... apart from Toulouse's own in the shape of Byron Kelleher of course! A good result for Toulouse but not a brilliant match - lots of mistakes on both sides I think. As for the new rules.... I never really understood the old ones so I'm not sure it makes much difference to me! Lou

Thanks Val. The wedding was yesterday - they also had a honeymoon fund and box at the reception so no problems there.  Dress varied between very smart suits and ties to jeans and casual shirts - we fell somewhere in the middle!  Lovely sunny evening, loads of people, delicious aperitifs and everyone smiling.... My only disappointment at my first French wedding was not being able to hear the ceremony itself as there was about 4 times as many guests as the room in the Mairie would hold! Lou

Hi I've done a search but not really found exactly the response I was hoping for. We have been invited to a wedding - our first in France - and are not too sure of the etiquette.  It's complicated further by the fact that we don't really know the people very well - they are next-door-but-one neighbours and we really know them through their two kids who have been fascinated by us since we moved in (funny English people who can speak French but sound strange doing it) and often come round to say hello and laugh at our accents! My husband has helped them with their bike chains a couple of times, and we've sent them home with surplus tomatoes from the garden - we know their parents to say hello and "ca va" to, how are the kids, etc but that's about it. (sorry this is turning into a saga) Anyway dad turned up at the door last weekend with an invite in his hand to two parties - one is to their "obseques qui clotureront notre celibat" which I thought was quite a nice way of putting it! which I assume is a sort of stag/hen do. This is at their house this weekend. The other to the ceremony at the Mairie the weekend after, with aperitif afterwards at the salle de fetes. I have already sent a little card back saying thanks very much, we'd love to come.  What should we wear?? Should we take a gift?? I don't want to cause offence by doing something awfully wrong.  I was thinking of being casual for the first party, slightly smarter for the wedding itself, and maybe taking a bottle of decent champagne and/or nice artisan chocs by way of a pressie.  Found a thread where people mentioned a box at the reception for money, so will go prepared for this too! Any advice please? Many thanks. Lou

A case as always of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? I work in an estate agents in France and we have noticed that the 'high-end' market seems to be holding up.  People with LOTS of money don't notice the odd 50k they've lost on the exchange rate .......? Lou

Hi Monty in France I work for an estate agent (French/English) in the area you're talking about - you may have already been in touch with us possibly?  I sincerely hope we weren't one of the ones not to reply!! I'm sure I'm not allowed to recommend myself here, so please pm me if you'd like contact details. Lou

No no no raindog, you've got it all wrong - it's Allez Toulouse!!!!!! Lou