Kitty

I want to travel across the English Channel on Thursday night (Portsmouth-St Malo) but have a daughter who is hospitalised if she gets sea sick. (Last bad crossing, she was in St Malo hopital for 10 days.) There is a major storm on its way (www.bbc.co.uk/weather) over the Channel. How else can I travel?  Do I hold tight until better conditions arrive?  Do I go via the Channel Tunnel?  The car will be loaded up and so I can't stay overnight in a hotel without secure-ish parking. I am going from Bristol to Bordeaux by the way. Help!

I have met Keith Martin of HSH Property Maintenance & Management, who is in 33.  He is English and married to a French lady.  He does project organisation and overseeing as well as urgent repairs, maintenance, key holding etc.  He didn't do anything directly for me - he was brought in by a local builder as an interpreter for some building works that I needed.  However, he gave me a quotation for something and seemed very efficient. I suggested him to another English couple who needed building advice for a house purchase and they found him very good. Address: Dartrat, 33340 St Germain D'Esteuil (hopefully not too far away?) Tel: 05 56 73 09 49 [email protected] Let him know that I gave you his name.  I have a house in 33930 Vendays-Montalivet.

Valdo I am a chartered surveyor and you try not to miss things - in fact, you tend to err on the side of caution and mention more things.  However, termites are easy to miss as other postings have said. All the surveys on the two French houses that I was involved with were comprehensive as far as asbestos, termites etc were concerned.  The current house that I bought had two surveys on it (done more or less at the same time) - one finding more termites than the other so I am a little suspicious of their quality. If you have been given a clean bill of health, fine, but don't be complacent and keep an eye out for signs of the 'little blighters'.  The Bordeaux termite company that I dealt with will come out free of charge so perhaps others will do so as well.  The company did a fair bit of 'damage' to both houses that I was involved with - lifting slates, digging penknifes into wood etc so be aware that could happen. A few termites were uncovered when the treatment was being done and they look like very small white wood lice.  However, it is unusual to see them. So make doubly sure that you have no wood in contact with the ground and then sleep easy...

Where exactly is Marciac?

Quillan - where are you?  I want to know now whether you are male or female.  I am confused (as usual).  I am off to France soon, where I shall be minus my computer, and I can't spend 3 weeks not knowing.  I won't sleep at night...

We bought a house knowing that it had termites.  The reduction in sale price was considerable - about 50,000 euros.  The treatment has been fine and cost about 3,000 euros plus the building works needed after the treatment, some of which we decided to do as a precaution.  All the wooden floors were pulled up and replaced with concrete, which I thought was a good idea anyway (see below).  The termites hadn't got into the door frames or window frames so we didn't have to replace those, even though we thought that we have to.  Obviously if they had got into the roof space, we wouldn't have bought the house. One of the most important things that you can do is to make sure that there is a membrane between the ground and any wood.  So door frames, for example, must have a barrier at ground level.  We arranged for a builder to cut off the bottom 6 inches of all the wooden pillars of an unaffected lean-to to be replaced with a metal base pad (available in all DIY stores). I think that termites are so serious a problem that I would advise against a DIY chemical job.  We had the advantage of having an empty property.  The chemicals that they used were very fierce and it was recommended that we didn't go into the house for 2 weeks. Termites do not like hard wood and so another idea is to replace any soft wood that has contact with the ground with hard wood.  You should also be very careful with wooden floors - the French build them directly onto the soil and not dwarf walls like the British system, so termites can enter your property very easily.

Can you buy these letter boxes?  I have to change ours because it is leaking and I am fed up of arriving home to find wet and mouldy letters.

OK I know, I know, that I have a geography degree but remind where Newhaven is and Dieppe too...  I usually do Portsmouth-Caen so how far are they away?

Quillan It's funny how an image can be created than is totally different from reality.  A bit like the first time you see someone that you have heard on the radio (a DJ, an Archers character) and they are nothing like you imagined.  I have seen your messages popping in and out of threads and just assumed that you were bloke!  Presumably if you are a lesbian, you must be a lady?  I wonder what gave me that impression?  Maybe your picture is "masculine"?  Anyway, I shall read your messages in a new and positive light now (note - I'm always sceptical of what men say...) !

I'm new to this forum and I don't mind if it's a club - as long as I can join! So far, I've had some brilliant indispensable advice.  Long may the forum (or club) continue.

Can anyone answer Sam's question?  I would like to know as well as I have been unable to pay one of the taxes, despite chasing the Tresor Public.

Thank you folks for all the info on this thread.  I am just going to have to bite the bullet and pay nearly £500 for the three dogs.  I suppose that I should be grateful that pet passports do now exist and that I can bring them back with me.

I do think that the open weekends in April that I posted are really a good way of wine tasting.  You have so many chateaux to chose from and you can guarantee that, that weekend, they are all open.  When I have tried to visit chateaux outside these weekends, it can be really disappointing as they have erratic opening and closing times.  When in France, I live in the Medoc and so I drive around to try out new wines.  You turn up to find no one there or someone there but who is not prepared to sell you anything.  One thing that I do is to keep some plastic (ex water or lemonade) bottles in my car for filling up when a chateau is unexpectedly open. For those who didn't see the original posting: Any wine connoisseurs amongst you may be pleased to learn that the Medoc chateaux are open this year for two weekends -  8th & 9th April and from 15th to 17th April. Leaflets are available from Carole Vidal at [email protected] . Just send her your address so that she can post one to you. Last year, we started at the tourist office at Pauillac (a large building on the south end of the water front) who helped us with a route. A lovely day out for you...

As a mother of 4, including 3 teenagers, I have never had any violence in any of my children's French or English schools - but I have been out of the sytem for 2 years, home educating, so perhaps things have changed? I have never experienced anything more than locked doors and gates once all the children are in school. I hope that I am not tempting luck by writing this...  

I have to say a BIG THANK YOU to the website for helping me with advice about taking my car (permanently) to France.  It is in the (British) garage today, having a once-over and headlamps fitted. So thanks to 'P' (Paul) for putting me onto a website where you could buy LHD headlamps cheaply (£86) and quickly (next day delivery). And thanks to Sunday Driver for his point-by-point procedure of what to do and when. Indispensible.  One good turn leads to another and I have been giving out advice that I know about to others on the website.

...that they actually eat frogs legs - I haven't seen them on a menu yet (and I've been around France since President Pompidou died).

What happens if you are not living in your house when the census is due (and not there to get the forms)?

Any wine connoisseurs amongst you may be pleased to learn that the Medoc chateaux are open this year for two weekends -  8th & 9th April and from 15th to 17th April. Leaflets are available from Carole Vidal at [email protected] . Just send her your address so that she can post one to you. Last year, we started at the tourist office at Pauillac (a large building on the south end of the water front) who helped us with a route. A lovely day out for you...

Any wine connoisseurs amongst you may be pleased to learn that the Medoc chateaux are open this year for two weekends -  8th & 9th April and from 15th to 17th April. Leaflets are available from Carole Vidal at [email protected] . Just send her your address so that she can post one to you. Last year, we started at the tourist office at Pauillac (a large building on the south end of the water front) who helped us with a route. A lovely day out for you...

Have spent a lovely Sunday afternoon reading this forum thread. Great fun to read. Me (together with my four children and, de temps en temps, my husband)? In the Medoc (33) part time.  Don't seem to be many of us Brits hanging out in the Medoc, home of fine wine etc.  Is that why I can't pick up a Daily Telegraph in the area?!

There is lots to do in and around Vendays-Montalivet.  Cycling (very good network of paths) and walking are the obvious activities.  But visiting the famous Chateaux of the Medoc is also essential, together with buying their famous wines 'vrac' (have a plastic bottle or two in your car ready).  The well known names never seem to be open at normal times so I tend to take 'pot luck' and just turn up at where ever the car takes me.  www.medoc-bordeaux.com is a website worth a visit. Walking along the ocean beaches is a must - 150 miles of golden sand.  Jumping through the surf is fun.  In summer, there are supervised areas.  Out of season, I only venture out into the ocean when there are other people on the beach as the waves can be dangerous. There is a good quality restaurant in Vendays itself, which is gourmet standard.  My husband and I dined there last autumn.  Restaurant Chez Gilles et Marika, Hotel de France, 1 route de Lesparre, 33930 Vendays Montalivet 05 56 41 70 34.  It is geared to the 'French' and not tourist-orientated. The markets are good - Montalivet (on the coast - Vendays is inland) in high season is vast. There are inland lakes near Hourtin and, although I haven't visited them yet, I'm told they are pretty.  If you are into naturism, Euronat is the largest in Europe with excellent facilities (I am told!).  You don't have to go naked to visit.

We bought a house last year and have been stocking it with furniture for the last few months.  Second hand Unlike Brittany, there don't seem to be many second hand furniture stores in SW France but Emmaus is the best bet (e-mail link posted by someone else earlier this week).  They are not the best organised stores - they use a confusing ticket system and don't help you load up etc - but the goods are relatively cheap.  You just have to take pot luck what donations they have had in that day.  I have picked up some real bargains (an outside table and 4 outside chairs for 5 euros) but only when I have been prepared to restore the stuff at home myself. New Obviously there is Ikea in Bordeaux if you are brave enough to visit.  But most new furniture, even in Le Clerc, seems to be more expensive than in the UK.  I haven't bought much new as a result.  It's worth looking out in Lidl - they have deals on flat pack stuff most months (I bought 2 very good pine beds for 29 euros each, for example). Bringing large stuff from the UK Last year, I enthusiastically bought some furniture bargains off Ebay in the UK, only to find that the cost of hiring a van to France knocks out the discounts you gain.  On this website, people do put postings about sharing vans but I don't know how effective that is. It's probably best to go minimalist!

My local vet has quoted me £165 per dog to get a passport (chips, vaccinations, blood tests etc).  Is this a fair price?  (I have 3 dogs and so I need to know!...) [&]

Thank you everyone for helping me on this question.  I have been debating whether to fly, drive/sail or take the train to my French house near Bordeaux and this has helped me.  The problem with flying is the cost of parking the car.  Even though I use a B&B place to store the car near Bristol airport, the cost still mounts up.  I ask friends sometimes to take/collect me but how often can you do that? Another question: does anyone know the rough cost of a taxi from Gare de Nord to Gare Montparnesse (if that is the station that goes to Bordeaux)?

1. I need to know a website for finding out details of catching a train from a British station e.g. Bristol to a French station e.g. Bordeaux - all on one ticket. 2. Do the ticket prices vary throughout the year? 3. Can tickets be bought at the last minute? 4. Are tickets transferable? e.g. if you buy a return and then decide to extand your stay, can you change for another day? With thanks in advance for your advice, Cathy