Ron Avery

Thanks Will but I know it well, used to go there regularly in my sporting days, it used to be the home of Youmgman's ladders and one or two other companies that provided good sporting facilities for their workforces. Still haven't worked out how you can have a UK postcode and postman in Picardie though[Www]  No wonder the post gets lost if the rounds are that big[:D]

[quote user="chessie"] I'm confused by some of the replies here. Certainly in towns and cities there are more likely to be house numbers rather than names. But in rural France ? Where we live, EVERY house has a name - no number at all...and they are owned mostly, or until recently, by generations, by French people - not English !!! As for 'JR's gone native' post about 'post code' shared with 100,000 communes - uhmmmm - not certain that is strictly correct.[:-))] I had always thought that the 'code' as such is split - the first 2 numbers are the Department number, and the remaining 3 numbers are the number of a particular village....which makes it easy for La Poste. Or have I got that wrong ? Chessie [/quote] The remaining three numbers are certainly not the identifier of a hamlet.  For example, round here we are near Villefranche de Rouergue which is 12200, but that post code takes in the town itself and 50 communes all around the town, obviously the village or hamlet name is also a key part of the address.  Put a French post code into Michelin to see the variety of communes that one post code can have.

[quote user="J.Rs gone native"]I shall keep out of this one Cat and continue to remain bemused, perhaps putting Picardie and Sussex as my location is confusing.[/quote]   Not at all confusing its just your contradictory posts that are confusing[Www]

JRwho has gone native said  "I live in France Ron, I last lived in Crawley over 23 years ago". Do you?  You sure?  Are there two of you???  A JR who claims to have gone native and never speak English ever, ever, ever[blink] just wrote this on this thread [:-))][8-)]  "In the UK my postcode is only shared with 10 neighbours, the postmen are incapable of delivering the letters to the correct house number, and as for a name?"   

[quote user="J.Rs gone native"]   Ron, I am as ever confused and bemused by your references to Crawley [8-)] [/quote] Its where you live........ remember?  Where you take your toxic waste??  Try and keep up JR[blink]  

To answer the OP's question, you should ask at the Mairie, they are responsible for providing the place names that you see in the countryside.  Someone on this thread needs to read his own posts before making out he was right all along, rural France is really not like Crawlry!!

Norman, Najac is not exactly en route from Cordes to Figeac, and Le Belle Rive is further still off route being right down by the station, although its a nice setting and good place to eat, if you want to go to Najac there is also Oustal del barry http://www.oustaldelbarry.com/ in the main village by the parking area. If you want to stay on the main road and not do a 3 km detour there is the place Cerise mentioned in another post its well worth a look and right on the D922, its at St Andre de Najac on the right , you cannot miss it its on the corner of the triangle of fake grass.  There are lots of places in Villefrance, some good, some not so, but Dalis off the main square by the cathedral where you can also park, is good as is Le Relais de Farrou, which is 2kms past Villefranche on the D922 Figeac road, don't be fooled its not a transport cafe, its a good place to eat and highly recommended, but you might have to book. http://www.linternaute.com/restaurant/restaurant/23864/le-relais-de-farou.shtml

If anyone in the area sees a local or regional paper with pictures of either the Rememberance service held at the Australian Memorial Park at Fromelles for the British killed on 9/10 May 1915 during the battle of Aubers Ridge or of the exhibition held in Fromelles Village hall,  could they let me know by PM. Thanks in Advance

I think the difference now is that HSBC are looking to get every penny in that they can, and I'm glad to see its not just me who had had this problem.  I have transferred money before although doing it yourself is quite new, before it had to be done via a phone call however no other charges were raised until now........  and it took them 3 months to do it!! up to £10k HSBC charge £20 for the transfer which includes any inter bank charges and it seems where they can they are now passing those inter bank charges on as an extra.  As I said earlier do not agree to pay the recipient charges and that way HSBC cannot charge any more than the initial fixed fee.  With the poster who uses CA Normandie, get on to your HSBC branch, you might have to do this via Calcutta or Mumbai, talk too your branch and either get them to refund the charge or make it a head office complaint for further investigation.

[quote user="Sunday Driver"] It's quite normal for a UK bank to give you the option of paying the foreign receiving bank's processing charge so that the payee receives the full value of the transfer.  It sounds like you agreed to this and HSBC have applied the standard CA charge to your transfer.   Once CA have checked your account, they'll find the 15€ paid to them by HSBC and give you a refund. [/quote] Not at all what happened.  CA denied point blank making any charges to HSBC and demanded paper proof.  All HSBC could produce was the charge to me with the CA N M P branch reference on it.   CA were adamant that the receipt into my account with them was free and their Paris international section confirmed that no charges had been passed to HSBC Despite this HSBC still insisted the charges were passed to them,  all I got was " you agreed to pay all the charges" and as I had,  I ended up paying £33.  In the end and after calls to India to people who had no authority to make decisions and kept going away to talk to a "supervisor" and trips to town to CA costing more than the amount in dispute, I finally spoke to somebody in my UK branch, who then spent 30 minutes on the phone to their call centre and stiil could not get an answer, so she made it a "head office"  complaint and finally HSBC refunded the charges, but still claimed that they were fairly charged to me. So if you do a transfer from your HSBC bank to a French bank that says such transfers are free, do not agree to pay the charges of the recipient, that way if your French bank do make any charges you can aim your sights at them and not be caught in the middle of an international ping pong game.

Andy, its not CA that have charged me, HSBC have charged me twice, once their standard transfer fee, and now "passing on the charges we received  from CA"[8-)]

I have just had a charge of 15€ debited to my HSBC account for a cash transfer via the internet from my HSBC account to my CA account.  This is in addition to the standard transfer fee already charged by HSBC .  HSBC say that this is for a charge they say, was made by Crédit Agricole Nord Midi-Pyrénées for accepting a euro cash transfer from HSBC in the UK. CA's terms say that such euro transfers are free but HSBC say that as I agreed to pay all charges I must pay the additional charge and HSBC refuse to refund it.  CA are investigating it but agreed that there should not be a charge as they don't charge.  Is this HSBC playing silly buggars or a new belated policy to look after the pennies? Anyone else had a charge made recently for a credit to CA N M-P or not if that was the case?  This is the first time in over 6 years that I have received such a charge.

Should that be "his dad WAS not happy" as its over two years ago  (May 2006) that this yarn was actually published in the guess what..........  Daily Wail.[:-))][:-))] Apologies Frederick, not aimed at you at all, but can we have just one poster who refers the Forum to all the stories in the Daily "1m Assylum seekers arrived yesterday" Mail, its getting difficult to know which poster's offerings to ignore. On a serious note why do people think that all the other members who live in France are the slightest bit interested in looking at articles in the Daily Mail, BBC  or Times on line?  If they were they would read them for themselves wouldn't they?.  Funny how so few French related articles get referenced.[:P]

But if it had been a Tory Council the article would have read  "Working class scum steal devices meant to save pensioners money"  York Council having invested £40k of council money in an effort to improve refuse collection services in the City and save thousands of £s of tax payer's money in order to reduce pensioners' council tax bills have been frustrated in their efforts to install these spy-in-the-cab machines.  The devices were to be installed to detect when dustmen were slacking and sloping off home during their rounds, but before the money saving equipment could be implemented many of the machines have been stolen by skiving dustman no doubt inspired by their union bosses and sold at boot fairs.   These scandalous actions have left the Tory controlled council's efforts to save money and follow David Cameron's edict of improving public services whilst slashing council tax bills in tatters.[:P][:D]

The Daily "another million assylum seekers arrived at Dover yesterday" Mail does not exaggerate or make up stories[:'(]  The story was half true (tracking device or navigational device) or 20% true (only 8 have been stolen not 40) and anyway its not a Tory Council, so in the Daily Mail offices that's good enough for them.  Surprised the sat navs being nicked was not blamed on Gordon Brown after all he is responsible for the dishonesty and actions of every other half wit in local government and the Civil Service[blink].