ChezTinns

Try Guy Laffitte in Eauze, they also have a very good website. Www.gascogne-immo.com

As mentioned there are lots of good restaurants to choose from in the area, and the Auberge in Fources itself is lovely. Condom is not far away and again has plenty of good restaurants La Table des Cordeliers, Pizza L'Origan, or try the Auberge at Larrissingle - and a lovely place to visit. Or chez Simone in Montreal. I could go on ....

Hi Pads, yes I can confirm that my maiden name was used on our house purchase. However, we did use a UK solicitor (as well as the French Notaire) just to help us as we were very nervous about doing the right thing. The UK solicitor is a specialist in french property and was very helpful. PM me if you want his details, he was recommended to us JT

Thanks Theiere. The chlorine we have been using is the long lasting pastels. I can get the chlorine but it comes in huge big blocks for pools and won't fit into either the skimmer or the floating chlorine holder. In addition we use staine and scale inhibitor, stuff to get rid of foam, a highly concentrated spa 'sparkle' plus the usual PH and alkaline +/-

We have a holiday home in the Gers and a couple of years ago installed a Spa/Hot Tub. It has been absolutely fantastic and I don't know what we would have done without it. In the past we have had chemicals sent out from the UK, but would much prefer to get them locally but can't find a supplier anywhere. We have tried the usual places - Mr Bricolage, Gamme Vert, Castorama etc but they only sell items for pools and not hot tubs. Does anyone know of anywhere in the Gers or Pau, Mont de Marsan where we can get chemicals ? Many thanks

We got the battery operated ones for our loft, which emit a very, very high pitched noise when something comes within its range. We have had it for a couple of years and we don't have any mice up there any more!!! The plug in ones are useless. If you are intersted I can post the website we got ours from

Yes wept buckets! Thought the whole series was very eye-opening particularly as so much of what front of house do is taken for granted! Michel Roux came across as a fantastic mentor too. I also agreed with his choice of scholarships, and although I really liked Brooke and Nicki I thought they would succeed without winning.

Depending on how fatty they look, I would put them in the slow cooker with stock add orange juice and some orange zest. When cooked, the fat should rise to the top, skim it off, thicken stock to make sauce, and crisp legs under grill before serving with the sauce - mmmmmmm

We have had our place in the Gers for over 4 years, and I am convinced that there are some fantastic river walks along the banks of the Adour - but we can't find them. Has anyone any experience of walking along the Adour and where to start? Many thanks JT

Hi Although we are in the Gers (32), we used a company called Philippe Schreinemachers who are brokers for Generali They are dutch, but their English is better than mine.  They are very helpful, and send everything out either via email, or direct to us in the UK.  PM me if you want contact details JT

Thanks Patf.  My computer kept on refreshing the Toulouse ariport website to the English version !! - which makes no mention of anything!!  I can see now the announcement regarding the strike.  Am looking forward to a week in the Gers !!!

Am I missing something - Toulouse airport closed ????  When, how long for?  I am due to fly out on Saturday, and since reading this post have checked with Toulouse Airport, Bristol Airport, and Easyjet website but can't see anything about it being closed, except for the Bristol and Madrid flight being cancelled???  But no reason why

Thanks all, we are going out at the weekend, so will definitely get one of those gel things.  The wall in question is constructed of what looks like plaster blocks and as all the walls sits on tiles.  It is a totally internal wall between a bedroom (on the ground floor) and a corridor.  I suspect that there are little  in the way of foundations, and that the wall probably sits on earth - which is very clay-ey.  Strange that it is the only wall to have this problem and that it is totally 'internal' JT  

We have an old property in the SW which is empty for most of the time.  We manage to visit about once every 5-6 weeks either for long weekends or 1 - 2 weeks at a time.  The house is sound, warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  We don't have a problem with damp or mould, but there is an internal wall that during the rainy season does get very damp - wet almost.  The damp does come from the bottom upwards, and is the only wall in the whole property to suffer from this problem.  We have removed the wall paper from one side to let the wall dry out which it seemed to have done over the summer.  We are spending a week out there over Christmas and had planned to try and address the problem. Can we paint something on the wall to seal it?  Also I have seen de-humidifiers for sale in the brico shops but would be nervous about leaving anything plugged in whilst we are not there - has anyone used those recepticle things with gel like sachets in them which are supposed to suck up moisture in the air?  Any suggestions very gratefully received.  JT

Hi, we bought a Leclerc sim card for our old unlocked Orange phone - works fine!  This was a year ago, but I wouldn't imagine that they would have changed   JT