Gardian

No. It was aimed at the counter staff and the particular lady in mind has, I think, exited through the trapdoor in to retirement. She's been replaced by a younger, but equally po-faced apprentice. On a more serious note, the cost of mail distribution in rural areas like around here and many many other parts of France, must be astronomical.  Quite apart from her cost of employment, the lady driving the little yellow car must go through tyres every 15k kms or so, given the rate of knots that she does her handbrake turns in our little lane.  

It's a well-known medical condition, known as 'DP' - doofer paranoia. Happily treatable, as Andy has explained. 

Everybody's decision to move over here is a very personal one and a mix of financial, lifestyle, work situation, health etc, etc, factors. For some, continuing income is vital (CdH, Gites), for others just the change of location at a time in life when that's the 'lift' that you need. Whatever, "Be informed" (as well as you ever can be), but "Don't look back" would be my advice. Adjust, accept the mistakes that you'll undoubtedly make and think positive. 

[quote user="TWINKLE"] I'm a bit confused and then I see this huge giant of a long haired, bearded man dressed from head to toe in black leather striding towards us with the smile of a demented Cheshire cat.  He introduces himself and points in the direction of a small white building which is the 'club' we'll be playing in.  It is of course as you've already guessed a Hell Angels moto club. [/quote] Sunday Driver?

[quote user="Dog"]I eat red and white varieties of quinoa every day in my own mix of muesli. I toast 10% to get a better flavour. Also have hemp seed, linseed, sesame, millet, white poppy seeds plus various nuts and oats not forgetting semi-dried prunes and apricots. A bowl of this keeps you going until afternoon tea.[/quote] No, no, please.  I give up. (What's for afternoon tea?  Not more quinoa?) 

[quote user="pads"]Just read that it is high in iron and releases more hematocrit which passes more oxygen to the brain slowing down senility.[:D][/quote] Sorry, too late for me.

We're a bit far away (!) so doubt that any of our local guys would be interested in coming your way, but the going rate down here is €40. Don't muck around with doing it yourself with all those brico rods etc - at that sort of price, it isn't worth it, because you won't get a certificate.

[quote user="TWINKLE"] And find out what the monks get up to - probably following the CAC 40! [/quote] I knew ........., I just knew, that sooner rather than later, the monk / nun thing would surface!!  Apparently the monks, when they're ocassionally seen, have long beards and (so the locals say) look a bit sinister. It's the old, old story about perceptions, eh? The ladies there are very gentle and not at all outwardly pious. I would imagine though, that they would be disbelieving of the cut & thrust and brutality of modern business life that many of us have or are still experiencing. It's a different world there and who's to say they're wrong?  

Thanks everybody - sounds bloody great !!  You've saved me from a fate worse than ........ quinoa !!

My wife has just seen a recipe for the above. From the photo, it looks a bit like cous-cous / semolina / rice.  Anybody know exactly what it is?

Bless you sister.

We like apricot jam.  It just so happens that there's a monastery nearby where the nuns make some really good stuff: strawberry, quince, etc, as well as apricot which seems to be their most popular line. It's not a dodgy sideshow - it's a very 'commercial' operation and the product is professionally packaged and tastes delicious. We don't buy it from them out of any religious or sympathetic reasons - it's just really good stuff, but pricey. Anyway, we needed to stock up and the usual Sister wasn't at the market on Saturday, so I dropped by the monastery yesterday to get the supplies in. Bought the jam, got blessed by the young sister (which is unusual, because I've spent most of my life being cursed) and then spent ten minutes admiring the work they are having done there. The monastery is in the middle of the deep countryside. The Order is based in Greece and there two other monasteries in southern France. According to the locals, there are monks around, but you never see them. Old buildings, 1/3 of which are being extensively re-furbished.  A brand new winery has been built, to produce their 'bio' wines. Accommodation (I think) for those seeking a retreat, is close to completion. I watched an elderly gentleman (he must have been 70+, but not a monk!) on some scaffolding 'dressing' some stone which he was fitting to the top of a pre-cast arch some 8M high - skilled and intricate work, which was probably 3 days work in itself. A carpenter was putting the final touches to a superb balcony to the 'retreat' accommodation: the supporting beams were solid oak around 15cms square.  Fantastic watching them work.  Everything is being done in the greatest possible taste and with seemingly no expense spared.  My guess at the overall cost?  €2M-€3M.  That's a lot of jars of jam.  

[quote user="Tresco"] Unfortunately the thread was hi-jacked by a rude, pompous, arrogant, bombastic, boastful, patronising and really just plain out of order person. Oh Crikey, I am banking on the fact that that combination of attributes, so fully demonstrated by the Hi-Jacker, has led to him being banned. [/quote] It's a shame that diatribe got zapped.  I read it last night and thought "What the hell is going on here?  What's all this got to do with Indian takeaways?"  Was going to print it out so my wife could have a good laugh. Having said that, there was more than a grain of truth in some of the things said - must have taken him hours to write it though.  

WJT ........... Funny you should mention it, but Rasteau is probably my favourite poison of all the CdR Villages. The Co-op there does their 'Tradition' mid-range' red for about €5.50, but you can get the same stuff (labelled slightly differently, but essentially the same) in the grands surfaces for €4-ish. I bought some in Leclerc's Foire de Vin last week. Look out for anything with Vignerons du Mont Ventoux Bedoin embossed on the neck of the bottle. The co-op there is in a nice little village on the south side of the mountain - technically Ventoux, but southern Rhone as near as makes no difference and 2/3rds the price. They sell extensively to the hypers (saw it in Auchan at Calais a few yrs ago) and they once told me that the price that they have to sell it to them means an undercut of 30% on what they ask at the retail shop. Got some at Leclerc the same day as the Rasteau for less than €3 and it's a bargain! Like you say, it's hell, but someone ............   Happy drinking.   

[quote user="WJT"] I am sitting here now with a glass of red that we bought yesterday for about 12 euros and it is pretty ropey [:(]. But at the same time we have bought some at around the 5 euro price that has been very nice. So if anyone has the secret could you please let me know what it is? [:D] [/quote] I honestly don't think there is a secret.  There's more snobbery about wine than just about anything I know. The taste of any wine and it's value for money to you is a very personal thing. I would never (well, almost never!) knock anybody else's taste, because one man or woman's 'ideal bottle' might taste like rat's piss to somebody else, or alternatively be OK-ish, but simply not worth the money. It's bit like the 'Come and look at this area to live' contributions: I've done it, we've all done it, and they're honest and well intended. But at the end of the proverbial day, what's nice to me or you, might be hell for somebody else.   

First reaction - if you've got some 18mth old stuff, then it's had two Summers to dry and perfectly usable now. But if you've bought some wood recently that's (allegedly) older, then mix the 2 up a bit and see how you get on. As for storage, I'm fortunate. The previous owner built a covered store that will take 10 cu metres. Nice little project for you in the coming yrs! My problem is that the small estate in which I live is in an oak wood which needs pollarding: trouble is getting somebody to come and do it. Access / too big a job / wrong time of the year, etc, etc. So I end up buying the stuff which is on my doorstep.     Re storage though, I wouldn't fret too much (though I suppose it depends how wet it gets where you are). Down here, few bother, i.e. they just leave it in a semi-organised pile for use as and when. I guess you'd try to bring a week's worth under cover somewhere to get the worst of the damp out of it.  Think about timber yards anywhere: a lot of the stuff is in the open year-round. It doesn't affect the essential dryness of the wood. (not a technical term, but you know what I mean).   

One thing not mentioned so far, which we've always found (and most friends concur). That is that you can often 'get away with' a cheapish red, but it's fraught with danger with a white.  I'm not saying that good cheap whites don't exist, but it's a bit of a lottery. Accordingly, we buy the local coo-operative oak-aged chardonnay at €4 / bottle for the odd occasion when we fancy some white, but the 5 litre merlot boxes for everyday drinking. The latter isn't fantastic, but certainly not dire. Bottles of CdR Villages Rouge at €3-€5 for guests or visiting. 

Certainly, the older and dryer the wood is, the better (and hotter) it will burn.  Having said this, you'd be hard-pressed to get anything much older than timber cut (say) last Autumn - most places just don't keep that much stock. I've just cut up some big branches that broke off a tree last January and I reckon that it's about the same 'age' as the dry stuff that I've just had delivered, but both lots have had the Summer to dry out and aren't at all sappy. They'll burn OK. Terminology: quite simply sec or vert, or as our local supplier around here says in the case of the former, "Bieng sec!" At the risk of stating the obvious, buy as much as you can store now and replenish annually, all with a view to building up a supply of 2yo+ material.

Pun (and anybody else who's interested).................... Excellent device and as you said, worth every penny. I had 3 steres delivered yesterday, which was already cut in 50cm lengths, so most of that just needed stacking. There was however, loads of other stuff to be cut, ranging from long lengths of fallen branches (15cms diam) to tree stumps that I couldn't face trying to saw through, to old pallets to be cut up as 'starters' for the fire. Nothing needs to be added to your description of how it works, except to confirm that it's as safe as anything like this ever is. Just treat it with respect and don't rush it.  Wear all the sensible (no, essential) safety gear. I may not use this thing for more than a couple of days every year, but it would have taken me forever to cut by hand and probably done my ticker no particular good! Order to availability at the store was 10 days - you'd probably get it in to a biggish estate car. Happily, my neighbour took me in his clapped-out white van, where it sat in the back with the sand / gravel / sundry other crap that's normally in there! Thanks again for your recommendation.  

There was a short piece about Marie-Segolene Royal at the tail-end of tonight's BBC1 10 o'clock News. Apparently, she's 53 and they showed a 5 sec clip of her when she was working with Mitterand, probably 10 yrs or more ago. Looked pretty dour then.  Prompted me to dig out Saturday's Midi-Libre which showed her doing some kind of politicking down here last week.  Bit different now!   Face-lift, or what?!!!  MCP du Gard  

The "strong, basic, solid stock" was pretty much what I thought, but your advice is v specific and I'll follow to the 'T'. Winter protection?  Give it a 'winter woolly' won't do any harm I guess? My plan is to be sitting around the new area, early evening in late-August, plucking the odd grape off of the vine and (simultaneously) imbibing a glass of something akin. Thanks Chris.   

On impulse, we bought a Muscat vine in the Spring and 'parked it' in a large plastic pot, pending my construction of some raised beds (the terrain is very stony and it's murder trying to dig any sort of hole for a shrub). All ready to be planted now: the vine has done really well during the Summer and has grown on from it's 1.6M to (at it's longest point) probably 3M. Should I prune some or all of that growth back before planting?  There's built-in support in it's new spot, so training it wouldn't be a problem if the view was to leave it. Secondly, should I be concerned about low temperatures?  It's not unusual to get -8C around here, so I could fleece it up if it was thought necessary, however (obviously) none of the vineyards do anything like that, but then they are established stock. Thanks in advance for any advice. 

Pun ........... Had been looking for something like this, so have bought one on your advice. Went over to the L-M branch at Avignon and saw the device. Ordered it and picked it up (2 wks dlvry) last week. It's all a bit damp around and about just now, so will wait for a day or two till things dry out and I can give the thing a go.  Will report back on success (or otherwise!)

Nihil illegitimi carborundum est.

Just a thought - find a local nursery to look after it for you.  If you're a customer or potential customer, they may well be prepared to help.  They're pro's and have the infrastructure. If it's a 'special' plant, could well be worth €30 to you for the peace of mind.