mmaddock

Hell Joynnyboy - where did you find that bloke?!!  Sounds like a bargain to me! A couple of years ago when we were not here perm, the garden at our holiday home had gone crazy - neighbours complaining, mayor complaining because neighbours complaining, but I never had time to do it as we were only over for a few days at a time, so I asked for a quote from a local guy.  The garden was no more than 100m2 and he quoted 1500euros to bring it down to ground level!  I was waiting for him to convert the figures he was writing down into euros from Francs!  You can guess that I never actually asked him to come back.  In the end I bit the bullet and spend two days getting cut to shreds and did it myself. Matt

Pickup a copy of Aladdin/Chinambule or one of the other listings mags - they tend to list around one month in advance.  My favourite is the A5 sized 'Le Chineur'. You will generally be allowed onto a brocante fair by the organisers, but if the gendarmes come around you'll get stuck when they ask you to produce your SIRET No. and you also need a certificate from the prefecture stating that you are allowed to sell 'non-sedentary' - i.e. on the street.  These things are not like car-boots in the UK where anyone and everyone can openly sell pirate DVD's etc. week-in week-out - the Gendarmes DO come around, and do check. As pointed out before, go for a vide-grenier instead as private individuals (particuliers) are allowed to sell there - although with legal restrictions on frequency, and if the gendarmes see you selling at V-G's too often they will kick you off! Personally I'd wait for the summer fairs as they do tend to be a lot busier. Matt

[:-))]

[IMG]http://www.lefouanglais.co.uk/wbl.JPG[/IMG] Bought in our local Champion.  Do you think the French are trying to tell us something?! Matt

Trying to find out when the Christmas market is on, but we live too far away just to pop over and see - and the last time I drove through I couldn't see any signs. Cheers, Mat

Not sure exactly where you are, but we bought ours in Ruffec (16) from a guy on the weekly market, he said he was there twice a month, but I can't remember the exact dates - I think it was 2nd and 4th week of the months. Matt P.S. Ask him for the laying chickens!

Without wanting to cross post, I'll refer you to my comments on LD on this thread..here I would use LD again, but only if they were significantly cheaper than BF and only if I upgraded to Club/Sleeper class on each journey because otherwise there is nowhere quiet to sit and rest.  As for the food - I've bought myself a small cool bag just in case I ever have to use LD again! Matt

Just to add to this thread a bit late...I used LD Lines last week after defecting from BF for only the second time in 4 years (despite their higher prices, the BF trip works out better on the whole for me)  I used the Eurotunnel last time - superb and at 60 euros return I thought I couldn't go wrong - but the 8 hour drive up to Calais and an extra 1.5 hours on the otherside just works out at too much driving, especially as you can't avoid London! and if you start adding hotels it gets expensive again. My LD Lines outbound (Fr-UK) crossing was hideous - nowhere private to go, kids everywhere you looked and not a space in sight to sit in peace.  The food was so rediculously expensive that I only got a main course and a water (the main course being pretty awful IMHO).  I found a lot (not all) of the crew very off-hand, almost to the point of being rude on occasion.  The return journey was better as I was booked into Club class (and then upgraded to Sleeper) - different world, finally some private space - tho note you do have to pay extra for this! After paying again to upgrade to Sleeper I was horrified to find that you have to pay (at least a deposit - I didn't ask further) for a blanket to sleep under!  In short I would equate LD with Ryanair/Easyjet - cheap crossings* but you pay through the nose for everything else.  Brittany may be a bit more costly on the crossing, but then you get - to continue the anaolgy - 'BA' service, private seating without having to pay, good [reasonably] cheap food, and as many free blankets as you can carry! Plus the huge advantage of three crossings a day - to me a big bonus when I only spend 1 or 2 days max in the UK)  I guess it all depends on what you are after.  EDIT: forgot to mention, the unloading on LD was appauling, took absolutely ages and there was no-one to guide you out if you were near the rear, resulting on one person crashing their horse box straight into the upper level - sheer incompetence on the part of the crew who should a, never have put the vehicle in that place to start with and b, been there to help guide them out. *I was all ready to book LD Lines this week again because of the cost difference, but on checking - LD Lines 280-odd euros, BF 290-odd euros.  Guess who I'm going with!  Tho what I can't understand is that on the BF 'Summer Fares' page it worked out more expensive?! Matt

If anyone is interested in selling, one of my neighbours is looking to buy a small (I guess 2-blade) rotorvator.  He has a 6-blade rotorvator that he is selling and I'm sure he would swap his for a smaller one. (money either way, depending) Matt

[quote user="Will"]Just talk to a rural Frenchman. [/quote] LOL.  Our neighbour gave me some hand-written A4 sheets he'd copied for me that showed me what to plant and when according to the phase of the moon.  I thought he'd gone completely barmy!  but I later found out it seems the normal thing to do.  I have heard they do the same thing in Italy too.  I have to confess I don't really understand it so I've just planted my veggies at the same time he does!!  I'll have a look at the link later and see if I can understand it all better. Matt

The cheapest way to get gravel is to visit a quarry or gravel wholesaler yourself with a trailer - my neighbour took me to one around here (not in your area I'm afraid) when I needed some, and they filled my 750kg trailer for 10€ (cash of course!), given how upset the tyres looked there must have been well over a ton in there as I've had a known 800kg in before now and they were absolutely fine then! Matt

It depends on whether you want compost or manure.  The local decheterrie (at least mine - and others from reading the thread) does a wonderful compost.  They charge me 1.50 € per 'bin' (one of the big black ones).  I usually take the trailer along and get them to fill it, but I've seen others down there filling bin liners and putting it in their boot.  By far the cheapest way to get hold of it that I've found.  If you want manure then, a local stables should be able to help out. Matt

[quote user="Christine Animal"]Tranquille Matt... tranquille.   [:)]   [;-)] [/quote] I know, I know !! [:D]   I'm sure I could have had a good crop already tho! Matt

Been beautiful here in the Viene for the past few days, 17C - everything is budding and growing like mad - I need to cut the grass, but like miszter, the ground is really wet after what seems like weeks of having on/off torrential downpours.  I'm desperate to get the 'new' [bought 2nd hand] rotavator out to extend the veggie plot, but my neighbour insists that I'll just get completely stuck - I'm sure he is right, but it is getting very frustrating waiting for the ground to dry out! Matt

Thanks for the replies, "tranquil" makes the most sense and sounds right too - in particular in relation to what I was talking to my neighbour about yesterday - he was saying that the soil was too wet to do anything with [plant veggies, dig over etc.] at the moment - Christine was unwittingly pretty close to the mark I think! Matt

You may well be right now I think back on my conversation today, perhaps I've been hung up on thinking it was two words and some sort of French 'saying', so that's how my brain has processed it.  I'll wait for it to come up again and see it it makes sense! Cheers, Matt

I've heard this used quite a bit here and there.  Today my neighbour used it, but I couldn't quite make out exactly what he meant even though I understood the rest of what he was on about... ..it sounds like (in English phonetics) "trent kill" or maybe if I was speaking in French it would be like I was asking for thirty kilo's of something! Any help appreciated...I'm determined to find out as I'm finally fed up hearing it and not understanding what it means! Cheers, Matt

Yes, I tend to pick the best (i.e. cheapest!) times to travel as I don't have to tie my trips into anything in particular, and I have the Owners club discount as well. Matt

We're in Civray (about 15Km from Ruffec) I plugged our UK-bought Digital Freeview box into our rooftop aerial and it picked loads of French channels no problem at all, so I would imagine you'd be ok in Ruffec with the same thing. Matt

Can someone summarise their experience with LD Lines.  I've used BF for many years and I really like their ferries, and as long you I avoid the peak times I don't normally pay more than around £140 return (FR-UK-FR).  I've heard some pretty awful things about LD Lines, so I've avoided them, but maybe the people I spoke to were just unlucky - if they are that much cheaper I might consider them as my ferry costs run into the thousands each year...what's the deal?! Cheers, Matt

As I understand it, there has officially been a ban on smoking in France in public (including bars etc. ) for quite a while, tho it has been completely ignored - but now they are going to start enforcing it.  I can't remember where I read the article, I think it might have been on the BBC news site somewhere. Matt

I'm afraid it doesn't work the other way around tho LGal - UK to France service only.  I've already asked them if they do it the other way around and they don't I'm afraid.  There doesn't seem to be an equivalent cheap courier company in France that I can find at least [:(]  Still, for larger [and heavy] items it's a good deal if you buy on eBay UK and the seller will let you have the item collected by Payperdrop. Matt

The prices are amazing, I 've had accounts with couriers myself but could never get anywhere near these prices - presumably they send huge amounts and get very low prices. BTW - they are not at all fussy about the size - there are limits, but the drivers will usually just take whatever is there! Matt

I now use this company as they are the cheapest around.  They only sell and advertise via eBay - no idea why! http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Payperdrop Matt

Often bigger things than that Cassis [:)]! I've sent a few small things through La Poste internationally, but I thought they were a bit pricey - I guess perhaps they don't quite have the developed courier industry that the UK has? Someone arranged for UPS to pick up a large parcel from us the other day.....first they never turned up, then someone calls me and say that the driver was too late to get to me, and could they pick it up in the morning (which I agreed to).. next day they never arrive so the person who arranged it in the UK telephones UPS who did't even have any record of them arranging it in the first place, so they re-arrange.  When the courier (just a white-van woman!) does turn up, I ask her for the paperwork (given the item was worth around 900 euros) and she hasn't got a clue - she was just going to take it away without giving me any sort of receipt.  After insisting, she phones the office and then spends the next 15 minutes trying to figure out how to fill out a collection manifest, insisting throughout that I didn't need to put the value of the item on the manifest (in the end I ignored here and put it on myself as I'd been told by the person who arranged it that it was a requirement to get full insurance cover).  All in all, not too far from my experiences with UK couriers! but then I'd only be paying a UK courier about a fiver for the privilege of wasting my time and not several hundred euros!  I'd just like to find a cheap [good] courier over here, but seems I may be out of luck! I'll queue up in La Poste sometime soon as ask them about their service for large international parcels and see what they say! Cheers, Matt