briwy

We had this problem at this hotel last year. Credit card I booked with wouldnt work for some reason. Eventually spotted a small intercom button high up on the wall.  This put us through to a guy in Paris who then phoned the hotel. There must be a duty manager asleep in the hotel as he came down, let us in and we paid with another card. So if the card wont work, look for the button.

Kaspersky is excellent. I got mine about 6 months ago, £26 for 3 machines. Look around online for deals. Paid with a credit card and 15 minutes later it was up and running. No problems with it updating, it does it about three times a day on my machine if left on. It will check incoming AND outgoing emails automatically and generally checks files I download. Together with Zone Alarm (free) so far Ive never had a problem and looking in the log files it seems to have been quite busy. I agree about Norton, totally messed a couple of my machines up.

Well, as a VERY temporary measure to get  cars to my mate who has a pump I stuck a footpump in a bowl of water.  Worked OK but I wouldn't recommend it this weather unless you like very hard suspension.

This has actually been a bit of a wake up call for us. We have merrily been using Speedferries for the past couple of years since we bought our place in the Pyrenees and driving down in one go from Boulogne in the summer and staying overnight enroute somewhere in the winter We had booked with SF to go on the 27th Dec and return on Jan 5th.   This debacle obviously meant we had to have a look at alternatives as I suspect, like others, that SF is no more. We eventually ended up booking overnight crossings both ways with Brittany Ferries, Portsmouth to Caen, with a cabin. Now for us living in Derbyshire, Portsmouth is about the same distance as Dover  but a damn site easier journey,  no A14, M25, Dartford holdups. Distance from Caen to our house is just over 500m so easily doable in one day from the ferry docking at 6am.  Boulogne is 730 ish miles so we've saved about 300 miles driving and fuel. But what astonished me is that the toll charge from Caen is  down as 4.5 euros and is about 66 from Boulogne so saving about 120 euros. (I'm going to check my doofah statement carefully on this as it seems odd)  So overall wev'e ended up paying roughly another £60 over the total using SF, hotels, tolls etc. We will arrive at home in France at the same time, eat & sleep on the boat and generally have a much easier journey (both in the UK and avoiding either Paris or Rouen in France.)   Well worth it as far as we are concerned.  Shame I'd just got another six trip voucher.

If you are using Firefox for web browsing there is a magic add on called Foxmarks which will syncronise all your bookmarks between any number of computers. In addition it retains you bookmarks on a secure server so that you can access all your favourites from any computer anywhere in the world. Firefox is a lot better in my opinion the Internet Explorer, is free and more secure so well worth a look.  Lots of other add on as well.

All this of course is assuming you can get a signal. I have a Vodafone 3G card through work and to be honest unless its in a large town here in the UK its useless and I cant get a signal at home in the Peak District either.  I dont know if this is just a Vodafone cockup or if it applies to the other networks as well so I suggest anyone looking at doing this checks very carefully on signal availability (possibly using a 3G enabled mobile) before spending any money. Even when there is a signal its very temperamental, sometimes works in hotel reception and not in the room and vice versa.  Although Vodafone say there is 80% coverage this is by populated areas, not geographic area. I have tried it in France at our place in the Pyrenees and no luck at all.  Now that Ive got a decent battery for the laptop Ill try again in various places on the way down from Boulogne next time I go.

You should be able to set the internet connection on the laptop to share its connection with other users. If hubbys laptop is running Windows XP  go into Network Connections, right click on the internet connection and choose Properties. On the Advanced tab there should be an option to share the connection. Once this is done you then have to get your Mac to connect to the laptop.  If the laptop is relatively new it will almost certainly have wireless incorporated in it.  Make sure its turned on and then use the New Network setup wizard to set up a wireless network. My very limited experience of Macs is that they are far easier to get to see and connect to a wireless network than PCs so the odds are that your Mac will see the network straight away and connect. I suggest you make sure that the wireless network is security enabled otherwise anyone within range will be able to connect. If, as suggested previously hubby is actually connecting through a wireless router then the Mac should see it straight away. Good luck with it

OK,  thanks everyone. Ill remember to take paper and pen then

Could someone please tell me exactly what is the method of getting onto these hotels after reception closes. I am aware that you need the credit card that you booked with but how do you get the room key etc. We will be arriving in Boulogne late at night and I really do not want to be trying to work out how to get in. Thanks for any help.

    Thanks for the replies everyone. Martin, yes you are right about the mountain. Our place is on the east side of the valley so we have the mountain directly behind us obstructing the view of Astra 2d.  Need a hell of a lot of dynamite to get a clear view. I guess we stand a good chance of getting the AB3 satellite so Ill give it go in a few weeks when we are over.  I assume this is the satellite that out French neighbours are using as they seem to be pointing in roughly that direction. I havent asked them as the are both elderly and unlikely to be clued up technically. Other than that, I guess the best bet is buy one of the cheopo analogue jobs and have a play with that. Thanks Brian

    Sorry if this has been asnwered before but I cant find it using the search facility. We have a small house in the Pyrenees and because of its situation we are unable to get a signal from the Astra 2D satellite to get Sky and hence UK TV. Also our French terrestrial TV signal is not good, again because of our location. My question is, are the normal French TV channels available free on digital satellite.  I understand that they are free on analogue satellite but I cant find any reference to digital. If they are, what satellite are they on.  I have a PC here in the UK with a DVB satellite card in which seems to have presets for just about every satellite under the sun and can also be tuned into virtually anything. I would like to try this out in the UK with a 800mm dish to see if I can get it all working OK and then take it to France when we go in a few weeks time. I have seen references on here about buying setups in the bricos for around 70-80 Euros but I am assuming that these are analogue. Any help would be much appreciated..

       We used a different car last year when the original car developed a sudden fault a day before we went. We just turned up and had no problems. No questions asked about the car at all. Ive never seen anyone check registrations when we have booked in.

    We stayed overnight in Limoges last Saturday night and filled up Sunday morning at an unmanned Esso station in the town. I was surprised that the pump took our UK debit card OK and didnt have to use our French bank card.. The machine even had English like the cash machines. So they are getting changed gradually.  Seems its worth trying them.  1.21 a litre for diesel as opposed to 1.35ish on the motorways.

    I used a Travelodge for the first time in ages last night. Had to find somewhere to stay quickly due a change in work plans and Travelodge was the only place available. I paid the extra £1 mistakenly thinking that if I had to cancel at the last minute the I would be covered. As it happened I tried to cancel about 1.30pm and was told in no uncertain terms that 12.00 was the latest.  I mentioned this cancellation insurance and was told that it made no difference. So what it is actually for I still dont know. To add insult to injury when I asked for a receipt (to claim my work expenses) this morning on leaving the receptionist said I have to go through the internet to get it. They cant issue it at the hotel. No doubt all this is in the small print somewhere but if youre in a rush who the hell reads all this stuff. All seems a bit of a performance compared with last time I used them. Ill stick to PremierInn and Holiday Inn Expresses in future.

    Another option may be to buy another even larger drive as they are so cheap now and use a program like Norton Ghost to copy your existing drive onto the new one. This will make an identical copy of the drive so you stand no chance of losing anything or having to reinstall any programs. I have done this a few times without any problems and it also gives you a complete backup of the drive should it ever fail.

    I agree with Plod about the N154. We tried it last week coming back up from the Pyrenees as an alternative route and it was a real pain.  Loads of roundabouts and towns/villages to get through.  They are in the process of  making it dual carriageway but it looks like it will be a long time before its finished.

    Ernie. We had exacyly the same problem with a C4 Picasso last year.  Hired one twice and at all the tolls the other half had to hang out the window to get the doofah working.  It didnt seem to make any difference where it was placed inside. We also had problems last week in our own car when we have always been OK before.  I got the impression that the closer the the doofah is to the side of the car where the barrier is hinged it works better.

       Another map here, seems fairly up to date. http://www.skyscanner.net/route-map

Article in the Telegraph may be of interest http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2008/02/02/mrjon102.xml

    I think the only way is to try them out. We used them last year and the other half was OK with it but I found it terribly uncomfortable and being a light sleeper hardly got a wink. I actually ended up raising the seat slightly into amore reclining position and found it better. Talking to other people using them most seemed happy enough so I reckon its all personal preference.

Anyone looking at this needs to be sure that you can get a 3G signal in the area you want to use it in before paying out. I have a Vodafone 3G card through work which is set up for international use and I have problems getting a signal here in the UK a lot of times let alone in France. I get the impression that large urban areas are generally OK but rural areas area a nono. Perhaps France has better coverage than the UK but the only place I have tried it is in the Pyrenees and it was totally dead. Best bet is buy a house close to  MacDonalds and get free WiFi access.

    Well I ended up updating my card over the net. Not been robbed yet so I assume all is OK and it is either a secure server or no dishonest people in France. Must have worked OK as I received an acknowledgement and the doofah is working OK.

    Thanks ernie. I think Ill probably put a new battery in next year just to be on the safe side. Brian

    ernie. re the battery thing I think it was me asked about battery life as we had a case last year where the doofah didnt work. Must have been a tempory glitch as it worked OK the next time we went. Does it look as if the battery could be renewed by soldering in a new one? I realise that doofahs are exchangable if they dont work but if possible I could do without wasting time one of the toll shops open to exchange it if we go and find it doesnt work. Are the terminals so close to the circuity that it may destroy some of the electronics if resoldered?

    ernie I was refereing to sprogsters post that if the doofah is in the holder it is turned on. As ours is normally in the holder but not being used because we still spend most of out time in the UK if sprogsters post is true then it will run down quickly. Bit misleading I agree, it will run down wherever it is if its turned on