weliveinhope

That was a really useful link Chas, thanks for that. Seems to be a definite air of disbelief among some seriously hardened 'motorhomers' in there!

Thanks guys.

Thanks Richard - we'll be staying in a mobile home in a campsite. We stayed there last year and had no problems but the piece she saw is making my wife nervous.

My wife was telling me about a report she saw about a spate of attacks and robberies on mobile homes and parked camper vans in the coastal region of South Eastern France. The attackers - gangs of Albanian kids apparently - spray ether in through the vents of the mobile home/camper van knocking out the occupants before proceeding to break in an empty the place while the occupants sleep on, unaware of what's going on in the same room. She saw the report on Richard and Judy the other day and it's totally freaked her out in advance of our planned trip to the area in a month's time. I've been scouring the various online news media and the websites of the Foreign Office, etc looking for articles or warnings and can find nothing. Does anyone in Languedoc-Rousillon know anything more about it or is it a mountain emerging from a molehill in sensationalist TV style? Thanks in advance.

Fair enough and wasn't meaning to suggest you weren't au fait with the situation, I was making a general point about the inclusion of a 'we accept no responsibility for, etc.' in terms and conditions or on signs around the place which some may feel insulates them from compensation claims across the board. The point being that they don't.

[quote user="Blanche Neige"] Our Ts and Cs say that we are in no way responsible for accidents that they may have when using our house / property. (can't remember the exact wording) [/quote] Not sure what the legalities are in France but if negligence can be proven by the claimant this type of clause has little effectiveness against being successfully sued. So if your bikes were a bit rickety or ill-maintained (which I'm sure they're not[:D]) and a guest had an accident then they could probably win a compensation claim.

Jeez the suspense is killing me![:D]   Mind you, even moving house withing your own locality or country is fraught with unexpected developments so presumably ali@ards is fighting her way through the settling in process before arriving back online!

[quote user="Tony F Dordogne"] Viv, what significance is him being a team mate of Armstrong?  Are you suggesting that Armstrong was also on drugs? [/quote]   Viv wouldn't be the first. Would you be so surprised if he had been? David Walsh spent a few years investigating Lance Armstrong and came up with some fairly convincing arguments to suggest that he was doping. The general belief seems to be that they're all at it, they couldn't endure the physical hammering if the weren't, but some are better at it than others.

[quote user="KathyC"] If you're skint you buy bread, cheese  and water and have a picnic! [/quote] True. In fact on another occasion we survived a couple of days in Galway on a packet of custard creams and a pint of milk.[:D]

[quote user="KathyC"]  I also think that you would be given pretty short shrift if you were to ask for tap water (and no other drink) in most UK restaurants or pubs. If everyone were to do that, many businesses would not be viable. [/quote] I think if you went into a pub and asked for a glass of water you would be given short shrift but I think that's a different issue. In general drink is the stock in trade of a pub. If you go into a restaurant in the UK and have a full meal I think it's perfectly acceptable to drink water and I'd be amazed if I was was questioned on that choice by a restauranteur. The behaviour of the couple in Venice is lousy alright but it's difficult to know the circumstances. They may have been skint. I remember hitchhiking in Ireland once and my friend and I pooled our money and figured out that we could afford a bowl of soup and a cup of tea in the only place still open at the time of night we arrived there. We were kicked out.[:)] We were broke and starving. Sometimes there are extenuating circumstances.[blink]

Hmmm. That's all a bit holier than thou. I've lived and worked for extended periods in several countries around the world since the mid 1980s and I think it's imperative to try and live the life as it's lived there, I hate the image of the Brit communities on the Costas reading the Mail and never having a word of the language after a decade of living there. However, in none of these countries (at least one of them with an inflation rate in the hundreds of percent and a hell of a lot poorer and a hell of a lot more difficult to do business than France appears to be) was it considered unusual to receive a glass of water in a restaurant. Again, is it really too much to ask for a glass of water? 

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks a glass of water isn't too much to ask for in a restaurant. I know they'd prefer you to boost their income by buying the product with the biggest profit margin but if all you want's a glass of water why should you bow under to the pressure of the proprietor (real or imagined) or convention by buying something else. In the various parts of France I've been to I've never once felt a whiff of displeasure or unwillingness when asking for water. Incidentally, I like the practice of getting water in chilled wine bottles[:)]

[quote user="Owens88"] Why is it cheeky? Seems reasonable to me that if you're ordering and paying for a meal that you shouldn't feel under any obligation to buy a drink if all you want is some water. Well, do you want a clean glass and a clean carafe ?  Would a tin mug do the job ? Nothing's free anyway.   [/quote]   What an odd response.

[quote user="Liz"]I have also noticed that some people have the carafe of water only, no paying.drinks, which does strike me as a bit cheeky.  . Liz [/quote] Why is it cheeky? Seems reasonable to me that if you're ordering and paying for a meal that you shouldn't feel under any obligation to buy a drink if all you want is some water.

It's called a 'pineapple cutter'.[Www]