Gardian

As many of will by now know, it was actually set in India. There were a couple of the required Frenchies in it though - I'll bet that the baldy one (who is on the side of the bad guys) switches sides and helps out the hero, only to be skewered in the end by the really bad English guy. BTW, any French person being played always has to have enough of an accent for you to know that he's French, but not so bad that you can't understand a word. I wonder what an Englishman (or Welsh etc) sounds like speaking French in a French TV drama?

"Premature senility" - and just from buying the weekend ones! If I bought one every day, I'd be a mumbling, grumpy, expat Brit. Just as well I'm nothing like that.

Yes, I deserved that! What I don't deserve though is 'them' taking all the Times & Telegraphs, leaving a choice between the Express and the Flemish daily, the name of which escapes me and most people. Just going to have to get up earlier or camp out outside La Presse.

When they descend from the campsite from about this time of the year until around end-Sept, having been up since cock-crow, and snaffle the few copies of halfway decent Sunday papers before I have a chance to do the same thing - at the properly civilised hour of around 09.30. Bloomin' tourists!

Just found out there's a new 2-parter starting tonight at 21.00 (UK time) tonight. I know that it's a bit 'Boy's Own' -ish, but it's always good old-fashioned fun seeing the gritty British hero knocking hell out of the Frenchies. I might invite my neighbour round to watch. On reflection, maybe not. Whatever, it might lead to a quiet interlude (just for a change) on the Forum between 21.00 and 00.00 tonight!

Please see my reply below to a post a month or two back asking what the French is for a Log Splitter. Casse buches. Got mine a couple of weeks ago at Castorama (www.castorama.fr), then jardin, bucheronnage, accessoires, casse buches. 54.90E, ref 601425. It's like a sort-of pile driver and deals with all the oversize half metre logs that I get delivered. Works like a dream and very satisfying. Those fancy machines are probably fine, but you're looking at €600+ and the hardware described above is just the job. It's works up a sweat, but you don't have to do the whole lot in one go, do you?

I've watched all this bickering over the last few weeks / months on various threads. We've all known people in life who don't know when to stop. I suspect that both 'sides' in all this are more or less equally guilty - frankly, I lost track of the point each was trying to make long ago. Honest and firmly held views are legitimate and worth making - on whatever subject. Make them, add an explanation or clarification, then leave it. Don't try to bludgeon the 'other side' in to compliance, because you won't. The sooner this all subsides, the sooner the Mods will feel it appropriate to welcome Miki back in to the fold - always assuming that he wants to. Frankly, I personally thought that he was / is a pain in the ***, but entirely respect his right to be thus. 

Brandade de Moron    followed by  Salade Coventroise    followed by Cynique Farcie    followed by Picky-don de Drome ..... all washed down with a glass or two of Chateau Lurcher 1930

If someone can tell me why you would need a satnav to find your way home, or to your friend's house (who was with you in the car), then I'll stand corrected. Otherwise, it sounds completely 'barking' to me. Just proves my point. The 'Mail' (I only buy it for my wife) has apparently asked for more silly satnav stories. There'll be an American looking for the Channel Tunnel terminal in the middle of Folkestone / London / Birmingham + someone from Kent wondering why he wasn't in the States when he's in Co. Durham + someone driving the wrong way down the M40 or some other motorway (I've witnessed that once - really scary). I'll duck now, awaiting the brickbats from the US and Kent!  

I don't know about lazy - they just seem a bit irrelevent, but call me old-fashioned. I can just about see the point of them in an urban situation, whether in the UK, France or anywhere else. But out in the countryside? As for most of the French being 'in league' & intrpren*****ism - I reckon that they'd think it was all a bit too Parisien. 

SFA to do with France, but a bit lighter than some of the other current 'impersonation / reptilian' stuff (no disrespect or offence to anyone intended) and a tenuous French link, to be explained. Most of you will have seen / heard of the people in the UK who have been guided by their newly-acquired GPS systems (apparently now a £300M / yr business) towards all sorts of road hazards - in one case a 3' deep ford, before which there's a road sign which says "Unsuitable for Road Vehicles". Do you know what?  They try to drive through it, cos that's what their satnav says ........... !  Then the locals charge £25 to tow them out. Now the French link: someone, perhaps KKK or her pal Twinkle once asked about employment / earning opportunities over here. More than a few road hazards out here, eh folks? 

Obviously some very dodgy business going on up there in the North. As to dodgy animals / reptiles down here in the South: Snakes: yes.  Frogs: yes.  Toads: yes  Lizards: yes. All (essentially) harmless, and you'd very quickly get used to them.

Would endorse most of what has been said in the other posts on this subject, but can best contribute with my last 4 days 'diary': Saturday: went for a drive locally and stopped at a 'Vente: Asperges' sign. Walked 50 m through the field, where 3 people were lifting asparagus. Bought 1 kilo for €2 - it came out of the ground not an hour or so before. That was dinner that night, with a bit of melted butter and some parmesan shavings on top. Sunday: our local village 'Foire de Paques', with half a dozen serious nurserymen, selling all sorts of plants - cheap & good quality. Cheese and other craft stalls. Monday: clear blue sky, temp 28C-ish. Spent most of the day potting up the previous day's purchases. Aperitif on the patio of a few / several  glasses of local red (€1.65 / litre - it's not Chateauneuf du Pape, but it doesn't cost that much) Tuesday: spent an hour over a coffee or two with my French neighbour discussing sanglier / fouine / renard and the possible cause of attacks on our cats (see another thread). No conclusion reached, other than apart from him being a lovely man, he's not a patch on ChrisPP. Agreed that the 4 of us would go off for a spot of lunch and a visit to a nursery in the Drome tomorrow. Is it all worthwhile?  I rest my case.    

Anne ......... I have a feeling that many of the world's problems may be heaped on the shoulders of the poor old sanglier. As mentioned on a previous thread, we too live cheek by jowl with them, but I've never actually seen one, sorry to say. I've got a small potager and happily they've never troubled it. Probably they don't like my grub. I do remember being in the Doc's surgery one morning though and listening to a crusty old local describing to an equally crusty old local, how the ******* sanglier were coming within a metre or two of his bedroom window and munching his salade (or whatever) and he wished that it wasn't the close season or he'd get the local chasse out to shoot the **** out of them!  Somewhat direct.  If I were you, I'd press on with my growing attempts and hope for the best. If you lose a bit, it'll have gone to a good home.     

No problem I'd say, but if you lose a few, then you lose a few. If you had an appropriate space indoors, they'd be indoors presumably?  All my tender plants are completely outside tonight and I don't expect to lose anything. Hope not, anyway! Biggest danger are the bloody sanglier, but that's another story.

Christine - 1st step, Mme Serpico (that's not her real name!) re Chris' suggestion on Tues, then when I get sfa from her, then the SPA could well be an avenue to follow. Actually, thinking about it, I might as well ring the SPA straight away. None of you guys know this woman!  

Chris ......... Thanks again for the response. Poison never was an option, so as per your advice, I'll be down the Mairie on Tuesday to discuss the matter with Mme ******.  Problem is that she scares me to death - whatever the opposite of charisma is, she's got it. If I can't get any sense out of her, then I'll pursue it at Uzes. It / them are a problem, because you can't have them beating the **** out of your pets every other week. Quite apart from what it does to them, it gets quite expensive!  I've checked all round the property and can't see any obvious bolt-holes (no barns, no loft), but it / they could be anywhere, not necessarily on our property. Good re the mice & voles, but our cats and the neighbour's (in particular) are already pretty partial to the odd one to supplement their diet!      

Just an update. The 'old girl' of 17 made a full recovery, but there was another event last evening with one of our other cats. This little chap is an adopted stray of five - bit of a weakling really. He was only out for 5 minutes, but came back completely beaten up. Not bitten, but a few specks of blood and absolutely terrified. Off to the vet this morning who confirmed your view Chris - definitely fouine. He hates them - one killed all his rabbits recently. His advice was to get on to the local chasse who will probably have a suitable trap and if successful, can take it off "somewhere far away".  Anyway, the patient is confined to barracks: not that he's all that anxious to be out and about!

My late-night calculations say 85 sq metres. For €12k, that's roughly €140 / sq m. I've just paid €32 / sq m for laying tiles (but indoor and he was cheap), add your tile cost of €20 and (say) another €10 for cement etc. It does sound pricey, but you may need to add a bit because you're in the Var. Even with topography, geography and TVA though, you'd struggle to get much past €100 / sq m. Tell them to sharpen their pencil and / or get another quote. For that sq mtrge, it's worth a few '000€. 

Graham & Lynn .......... We live in the Gard and lovely as it is, it is a bit of a desert re furniture shopping - probably not much different to many other places in France, but there you go. Our advice - buy in the UK before you leave and get it shipped over with the rest of your wordly goods. Advantage: you can test, thoroughly check before leaving + not much on-cost to ship. Disadvantage: no come-back if any problem. However, finding what you want can take ages & a lot of kms. Email me for more local info if you want it. Ian   

Russethouse - we used to live in High Wycombe, the home of G-Plan & Ercol, both companies no longer with us I believe (though I will probably stand corrected). Ercol was named after Mr Ercolani, I think of Italian descent and there is a strong Italian community in that town. At 'Foires' such as I've described, I sense the presence of knowledgable British buyers, who know a bargain (or at least something that they can turnover at a good profit) at these out-of-the-way places. Only thing I saw that I might have even wanted to buy was a set of old Paris Metro seats - do you remember the old wooden ones that were totally upright, in dark wood? Usually with a sign above saying "Defense de cracher". Always remember that. What's that got to do with IKEA?  

Stefan ............ Couldn't agree more with both suggestions: Ryanair et al don't know what they may be missing. A ready, willing and available labour resource ......... at the right price. And that's where it ends.  

It wasn't aimed at anybody personally: just the bloomin' lot of you with all those furry, moving pictures. Enough to make a bloke choke on his brandy. However, as they say over any late night dodgy programmes, "You don't have to watch it, do you?" Returning to the thread, I'd forgotten about the black ash stuff. Bought loads of those panels & furniture 25 (?) yrs ago to furnish my sons' bedrooms - they'd really cringe now. It was in the garage and I smashed it all up before moving out here: probably kept it thinking that someone would want it one day. The secondhand shop didn't even want it, let alone the 35yo Scandinavian teak items (I didn't want money, just a good home).  "Too bulky: only want cookers, fridges & small sofas."  Sad - but then we get like that, don't we?

Dorothy ........ Don't say "Twinkle" - to say the least, I'm not her favourite person! However, that aside, your piece would go down a storm in any of the local markets. What amazes me is the amount of 'retro' stuff there is around that fetches, or rather commands, astronomical prices. Everyone's taste is everyone's taste, but things from the 50's & 60's that are clearly now very collectable ......... well.  Saw a set of glasses there which my Mum & Dad had in that era - rather unsubtle + non-politically correct patterns on them: €60-ish for the set of 6. Now I know (as if I didn't know already) what those guys are doing when they're furtling around at our local Dechetterie for the stuff you and I dump. Hang on to your unit: someone from Antiques Roadshow will tell you that it's worth £5k in 2036.       

I reckon that it's only a matter of time before someone, somewhere makes an example of an individual who hasn't installed the necessary security measures. If you were responsible for policing it, you'd say "Go and find me a national and a foreigner who hasn't complied", wouldn't you? Don't get me wrong, I think that it's worthwhile (though costly) legislation, but like everything, in some places there'll be lip-service to enforcing the law and in others there'll be a martinet. Give it a month or two before there's something in the local rag.