Gardian

I’ve received a message relating to our (former) district nurse, which said that she was working “en binome”. Would somebody help me with what means?

I passed our local (small - just two pumps) Intermarche filling station at 16.00 today. Didn’t need fuel - filled up 4 days ago. There was a queue there of 8+ or so cars. OK, some would have been nearly empty I’ll concede, but more than a few were queueing for (maybe) half an hour in order to save 20-30 c on (let’s say) 25 - 30 litres of fuel. Beats the hell out of me.

BTW, our GP (who is a bit old-fashioned, but no worse for that) reckons that it’s best to separate the Covid & Grippe vaccinations. She wasn’t suggesting that anybody was going to die as a result of having them both done at the same time ......... simply better to have a gap of a couple of weeks. Makes sense, eh?

As I understand things, you’re eligible for your next ‘booster’ 6 months on from your last one. I say “As I understand things”, but I went on to the Ameli site a couple of days ago and went through the q&a thing, and it was quite clear. Makes sense. May well get a reminder to do something in the next month or so, but we’ll have booked ours by then.

It all started in July. A new neighbour decided to have a 5m x 3m monocoque swimming pool delivered. Fine, but we live at the top of a 300m lane which is no more than 3-ish metres wide. No consideration by way of advance warning so that we could make alternative access arrangements - instead we were ‘blocked in’ for four hours while this thing was craned in by a lorry in reverse. It took 4 hours ........ and wiped out our ligne fixe. They said that they’d report the problem, but I had no confidence. Since early July, I’ve logged the damage on the SFR website multiple times, but no response. Tried to speak to a human being on the phone, but virtually impossible. Meanwhile, no phone and no internet (have got by with our mobile phone & Bluetooth). Then the water was cut off regularly during the height of the canicule. Nothing particularly unusual in that - many on here will have suffered that difficulty. However, our son and his Czech partner (they both live & work there) were here at that time. She said to us “I thought that I was the one who was supposed to live in a third world country”. A result this week though - SFR rang to say that they’d send a technicien in 1 - 2 days. This was after some diagnostic checks to validate that it really was a damaged line. They’ve subsequently rung again to say “Actually, 3 - 4 days”. Pretty good service - 4 months. And then the latest. The power went off at 17.00 yesterday. Cheese & pickle sarnies to eat last night. Enedis website said that we’d be back by 22.00. We weren’t and still nothing this morning. No signs of any blue vehicles! I went out to the local DIY shed to buy some battery-driven lighting and on my way saw a couple of Enedis wagons heading the other way. Sure enough, on my return the cavalry had fixed the problem (tree branches had wiped out our cable) - they told me that most of their ‘fixes’ were for that very problem. It was a 23hr outage - Mrs G not a happy bunny !

Despite all of my / our deprecatory comments, you have to feel just a bit (not much though) sympathy for Truss tonight. Binned after barely 6 weeks as PM leaves your career in tatters. It goes with the territory though. Where / who now though? Johnson again? Please save us from that (remote) possibility. Therein lies the problem .......... no obvious candidate. Yes, many will say Sunak, but for me always a 1st Lieutenant, not the main man / woman. Wallace ???

A little bit of that 6/1 begins to look quite attractive now! Too late though.

The 1st thing that I’d want to say on this is that Liz Truss as PM seems to me to be someone who looks like, sounds like and acts like .......... someone completely out of their depth. As to whether she’ll be able to continue for long, the bookies aren’t often wrong as Lehaut pointed out. What they realise is that there isn’t an effective mechanism for removing her. Yes of course, one exists but it would take a lot of Tory MP’s to put their hand up, or most of the Cabinet resigning as happened with Johnson. They’re all in to self preservation just now and the whole lot are praying for a period of quiet and stability. Hunt has taken on the mantle of PM. Although I’d like nothing better than Conservative political annihilation (and I say that as a traditional Tory voter), the UK desperately needs that period of quiet and stability. I say this because even though we’re French residents, what has been happening in the UK murders the value of sterling from where our income derives and hurts our UK family’s cost of borrowing.

Yes, thanks everybody for correcting me. However, may I return to my original question over what caused it to suddenly ‘flower’? I can’t remember exactly how long we’ve had it, but it must be about 15 years.

I’m probably missing something here, but I’ve always thought that everybody’s local tax was calculated on the basis of an identical set of percentages for a given Commune, applied to the valeur locative (in UK-speak, the rateable value) of one’s property. I appreciate that there some caveats to that, where you get whole or partial exemption on the basis of age & low income, and (I believe) a surcharge if your property is a second home (that always seems rather unfair to me, but hey). Therefore, the variable is the aforementioned valeur locative. Many properties carry an artificially low vl, because the owners have ‘forgotten’ to declare a significant enhancement, typically a swimming pool. I can think of two properties within 150m of here where forgetfulness has ruled ! Hopefully the move to re-assess nationally using Google Earth will address this issue, but it’ll take years. Accordingly, I’m at a loss to understand how up to 60% of properties attract an incorrect assessment, but someone please correct me if I’m barking up the wrong tree.

For the first time, this plant has produced this monster ‘growth’ with what you might loosely describe as flowers. What are the circumstances that have led to this we’re wondering? Presumably it’ll die away eventually? Any insight gratefully received.

Well indeed Loiseau. I mean ........ if the notaire has said that you need ‘whatever’ from HMRC, then surely that’s where you need to go? Maybe searching on the document you quoted will get you more directly to the people there that you need, but it’s predictable that it’ll be a bit of a nightmare.

Lori ........ This situation occurred in the UK, so Linky’s aren’t involved. As to how all this occurred, it’s all (to say the least !) more than a bit hazy. The only things that I can say categorically are that: the account was being (innocently) underpaid for years there had been no meter readings for years - you’d have to point the finger at the utility company a massive forecast bill was generated, which the Utilitie’s software should have halted The lady concerned in all this is charming and by no means daft. However, losing her husband (who managed all their finances) clearly left her a bit adrift. Happily, her daughter has taken over and sorted things out. My point in all this is that the Utilities need to ensure that there are checks & balances in place. Sending out a demand for £39k to a ‘private customer’ as opposed to a Company, makes no sense.

Hectorsdad ......... Unless I’ve misread him, I think that Lehaut was suggesting that ‘old meters’ rather than Linkys were liable to inaccuracies.

Heard earlier today from our elder son. DIL’s Mother (thus his mother-in-law) was sadly widowed 4 yrs ago. Everybody thought that ‘things’ were being managed OK. With what has been happening in the UK recently, a few surprises have emerged, not least a demand a day or two ago for £39k as her energy bill next year. As you’d expect, she was more than horror struck. Now, this is a widow, living in a 4 bed detached house. Not flush with money, not particularly short either. It turns outs that her mthly debit had been ridiculously low for years + there’d been no meter reading for ages. DIL has sorted things out - a quite large one-off payment , another one in a few months time, and a much more realistic mthly payment. My point is that there will doubtless be folk in DIL’s Mother’s situation who don’t have somebody to sort them out. If you were all alone and received a demand for £39k, how would you be ??? It seems to me that the Utility involved is as much to blame (if not more) in this nonsense as our DIL’s Mother. The Utilities really must, IMO, stand back and say to themselves “Is it right to be sending a bill for £39k to a normal household? Need to talk to them”

We’ve been here nearly 20 years, but this Summer has been quite different. Obviously the Canicule - for us down here it was more than 2 months of 40C (no exaggeration). It was very, very tiring, but you have to live with it. Secherresse - as above really, but it ruled out bbq’s, which was a shame but totally understandable given our proximity to a forest. Bees & butterflies - really good news. More than we’ve seen in recent years. Gekos - for some reason, hardly any this year. Normally, we’re overrun with them who insist on invading the house ! It’s not normally a big problem and they exit (with encouragement), but this year no problem. Tourists / holidaymakers - they’ve mostly gone now, but there were more than ever down here. Just wish that when they’re out on their bikes, they’d always wear hi-viz & casquette. Too many don’t. Just my thoughts.

These are always difficult questions and that’s probably why you haven’t been inundated with suggestions ! I’ll take the plunge though and offer 3 suggestions: Bordeaux, Montpellier & Lyon. I know Montpellier best of the 3, but they’d all tick most of your boxes. From whatever kind of ‘short list’ you come up with, most on here would suggest that you do a serious recce (3 days minimum) at each location just to get a ‘feel’ for the place and surrounding area. Hope that helps a bit.

Indeed ! For me, the blokes who deserve a medal (and certainly a stiff drink tonight) are the bearer party of eight guardsmen and two officers. The scope for a dodgy wobble (or worse!) was enormous, with the worst bit at the end having to go up several flights of steps to the Windsor Chapel.

In reality, there is currently no requirement to produce proof of vaccination nor a recent test. However ............ you say that on a previous occasion, you’ve been refused boarding through (presumably) no vaccination. Then you’re asking on here whether .............. !!! However, why on earth don’t you just get yourselves vaccinated? It’s somewhat doubtful that you’ll die or that something will ‘drop off’ as a result. It works, you know. Give me strength.

Do you know, I could have sworn that this was a thread entitled ‘The Queen’. Obviously the forum software is having one of it’s hiccups.

I’m no horse expert nor (even) a vet, but you’d guess that the horse being able to stand would suggest that it’ll be OK. The question is, was it a deliberate act or an accident ? Neither are acceptable, but the latter something ‘explainable’. Hope that the horse comes out OK.

Absolutely superb Norman. Really enjoyed that! It struck me how many people were smoking, although probably nowhere near as many as you’d have seen in the 50’s / 60’s. Walking around the local market yesterday, there was just one person who I spotted who was smoking. I mention it only because I gave up 2 yrs ago (surprisingly easily), but I’m honestly not one of the “why do they do it / can’t bear it near to me brigade’.

Well, I’m no technical wizard, but I’d say that all you need is a new SIM card to be provided by Bouygues for your phone. That should do the trick. Surprised (no, not very surprised, they can be very dopey) that they didn’t organise that.

Down here in the South, it was predominately Le Pen. To my surprise, she ‘edged’ Melenchon in our Commune. I’ll probably be proved miles wrong, but here’s my theory. Macron was as pleased as he could be over the 1st round result. Le Pen only just beat Melenchon (by a percentage point or so), but for Macron defending against Le Pen will be ‘easier’ than against Melenchon + M has told his voters not to vote for Le Pen. Some will take no notice, but many will simply abstain. Macron will come through and I’d be happy with that. Best of an average bunch IMO.