Ian

You're right Nomoss. Sweden is a member of the EU/EC/EEC. I just forgot about it.

OK, I've had a good look at the options. @cajal: This site quotes me €130 for 15Kg via DHL (collected). There is a cheaper option via ParcelMonkey, but since I don't know them, I'd probably stick with DHL @nomoss: Ecoparcel won't quote me for anything outside the EC. @Gardian. Good idea to break it down into smaller parcels. La Poste website is very complicated, but as far as I can tell, I can buy a pre-paid box for up to 7Kg for €69. So, for 15Kg it's about the same price for DHL and La Poste. I guess it depends on what I want so send and how big it is. I must start opening all the cardboard boxes Thanks for all the help. Cheers

Wow! Lots of information there. I'll work on it tomorrow. Thank you

I have a load of family "heirlooms" in my grenier. I'd like to send these to my children - daughter in the US, son in Sweden. The parcels will probably be heavy (15-20Kg?) and big (1M x 0.5M x 0.5M?). First question is, who could ship them economically? I'm guessing that the likes of UPS would be VERY expensive. There's no urgency. Second question is, what to use as containers? I'm thinking along the lines of cardboard boxes, lots of bubblewrap inside, lots of gaffer tape outside. However these, while strong, would not necessarily be rigid. Maybe big plastic storage chests would be better? Any advice will be very welcome. Cheers

@ukhostland, you're right, they're perennials. I've taken the advice - cleaned out all the old growth and blown-in leaves, gave them a good prune followed by a good feed, and they're FLOURISHING! Some in flower already. Thanks, everyone.

Thanks, woolybanana, that's what I'll do. I had a terrible problem last year with insects (mealybugs, I think) and lost a lot of plants. Mainly perennial herbs, funnily enough. Tried every chemical known to man, ans still they fell. Even the replacements. So, I'll be very vigilant. Cheers

Last spring I planted perhaps 30 pots with annuals - begonias, fuschias and pelargoniums. About 2/3 of the plants have have survived (one or two are flowering...). Can I grow them up, and save buying more, or will they be weakened and not give a good show? If I can re-use them, what do I have to do? I'm thinking of cutting off all of last years foliage (like pruning roses - that I CAN do) then giving them a good feed. ?? Thanks

"You are an Englishman, and have subsequently drawn the greatest prize in the lottery of life" - Cecil Rhodes

Hmm, I've lost the first reply to this. Odd. Quand meme.... The recovery dvd for W8 is W8.1, so if I decide to downgrade, I'll be where I want to be. Re "cleaning" W10. I've used something called "TGTC" since W7 to "tune" Windows, plus I defrag regularly, and always install updates, so W10 should be reasonably sleek. However, I'll look around for more advice. If I decide to re-install W10, should I use the Recovery partition on this M/C, or download the (presumably, latest) version from MS? (The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of going back to W8.1. In fact, I've already downloaded the .iso from MS. Is it that simple? Burn it to a thumb drive, and boot from it?) Thanks for all the help - it's appreciated

That thing's perfect, Pomme. And only £3 inc delivery. Just ordered it. Thanks

The reason I dislike W10 is that it has too many features and runs slowly on a fairly beefy laptop (Intel i5, 8GB). But, maybe I have the solution! Looking at the specs of the laptop, it says W10 was installed in April 2018. Since I've had the laptop for longer that that, I must have "upgraded" to W10. So, the W8 recovery DVD must be for this M/C. So, in theory, I could re-install W8. Only two small problems. Is W8 as bad as Kong says? (I can't remember it, as I almost exclusively use Linux, but a retail version of W7 is about £100. Do I dislike W10 that much?) Secondly, I've written down two product keys for W7, and can't remember which it is. Guess I'd have to try both. I've also found the re-installation DVD of W7, complete with key. But again, an OEM version, so non-transferable. Drat. Cheers

My main PC is a desktop running Linux, but beside it I have a laptop which came with W10 - sometimes I need to use Windows. I have finally decided I want to get rid of W10 and install W8. I have a W8 recovery DVD, which I made for an earlier laptop - I used an app called "Media Creater". I had hoped to use this, but someone told me that an OEM copy of any (recent) Windows OS will only run on the original HW - it is not transferable. Can anyone confirm this? If it's true, can I still buy a licence for W8? Thanks

Not a french router, unfortunately - I bought it from Amazon UK. I did have a selection of t-socket cables, but I threw them out years ago. I don't think I have a spare cable, so I guess the simplest thing to do is just buy a t-socket cable. Thanks for all the ideas.

suein56, thank you. I'll go and have a look at the master socket. I suspect it's not a "condensateur" problem, though, as the set-up worked perfectly for ten years - it's only in the last year or so that it's been troublesome. Cheers

If the phone rings while I'm using the internet, the connection sometimes drops. If I answer the phone, it always drops.Research indicates it's a poor connection somewhere, causing a weak signal. My router is connected to a secondary socket, which I installed many years ago. If I were to connect my router to the master socket and establish a connection, I could test it by phoning in with, eg, a mobile. If the ADSL connection drops, it's outside the house - if the ADSL continues, it's my shoddy workmanship inside the house. The problem is, the master socket is an old "T" socket, and I've thrown out any matching cables. To save me buying one, is there another way to discover whether the fault is internal (after the master socket) or external (before the master socket)? Cheers

Something has started eating my Rosemary and Bay. The evidence is what looks like bird droppings all over the plants, plus a lace effect on many leaves. What are they, and what can I do to stop them? My preference is for some form of systemic insecticide, as the infestation is quiet widespread, and I'm too lazy to pick them off by hand (if that is the normal treatment). Thanks

Thank you Kong, that's useful. I'll investigate.Cheers

My friend's house was rewired probably 30 years ago. One of the corridor lights is operated by either of two "push-on, push-off" switches. Recently, she found she couldn't switch it off. Any ideas on what could be causing this? I'm guessing that one of the switches may be broken? Thanks

Panic over. I looked at last year's 2047, and identified the section. Cheers

I'm being stupid, but I need a little help. I need to complete two returns - one for my wife and me, up to her death, and one for me alone. Les Impots know this, and will make me fill two of them in. No problems there, but.... I need to report rental income from our  flat in the UK. In form 2042, I've put the total rental for the two of us in box 8TK. I now need to provide more detail in form 2047, but when I open it, I'm presented with a menu which asks what my declaration concerns and give me a list of about ten choicesHere I'm stuck. Which one for UK rental? Thanks

Thanks to all of you who posted. Without a forum like this, life would be much more difficult. Gardian (and Parsnips) have resolved all the anomolies in my taxes. I now have a clearer picture of what the future holds, impots-wise. (As for the rest, qui sait?) Cheers

Thanks for that, Parships. It's a bit annoying that I've to complete another return, just for 11 days. Would they really mind if I didn't? As far as the tax is concerned, there's UK rental income to be added in. Gardian very kindly did calculations for me, and it seems I'll be in a higher tax bracket and so due to pay more. Again, no choice. However, I think I've won the third point. Apparently, if the estate is less than €50K (and it is), I don't have to make that declaration. One out of three's not bad. Cheers

Interesting, but it doesn't help me in this case. All my wife's estate is coming to me, so either way I have to pay the funeral expenses. Pity.

Gardian, thanks for the reply. I forgot that tax is payable on last year's income, so yes, no change. As for 2019 payments, I've plenty of time to organise things. Cheers

My wife died just before Xmas. We were both resident, as far as tax goes, in France. I'm trying to sort things out, and I've a couple of questions regarding french tax. We were paying tax, based on my occupational pension and two state pensions - hers and mine (not that I saw much of hers......). Now, the household income is reduced by her state pension (about €7500 pa?), but we're now a single person household so I suppose there will be lower allowances? So, can anybody give me an idea of what this will mean in tax terms? I'd like to know in advance, in case I need to save up. Secondly, I read somewhere that I can offset the funeral expenses against tax. Sounds very unlikely, but who knows. Cheers