Framboise

As a woman driver, even I sometimes despair at some other females attempts at parking.   My daughter in law is a dreadful example having written-off two cars in less than a year, classic example of one prang that smashed-up the wheels on one side of the car was                  "A puddle sucked me in and I hit the kerb...................." No we don't quite understand that either, much less my son who has ranted about "Women drivers" ever since.   However, they bought another car last month and guess who kerbed the car yesterday, smashing up two wheels?    It wasn't a female![:P]

We are currently building an Ark here.   Also have discovered the pleasures of wearing wellies on a daily basis.[:D]

I was horrified to read this.  My four all all grown up now so thank heavens I won't have the problem of schools etc when we move, but I feel that you simply must take this further to stop another child sufferring as your son has done.  You are after all in the position to handle it better because your boy has moved up the ladder now.  Obviously this charming person has some sort of issue with your son - don't allow them to get away with it!

Will the French "sell out" though?   I thought that they were too bloody-minded to allow that to happen.  

I would worry about parking my little Clio in there.  He's not Evel Knieval is he?[:D]

Ken livingstone is apparently a keen collector of reptiles.   I believe he has Salamaders and of course Axylotls. I love them, but then I have two of my own, a Bearded Dragon and a Water Dragon that I aim to bring to France when the time comes.

Reckon you are having one of those days Trumpet, but I think you'll find that the good days outnumber the bad ones - hence why you are still there plugging away after six years.

Well said Athene!  Were it the same here as France, why would people bother leaving?

You will probably be castigated for driving an english car and not having a pension, money etc etc., but hey Trumpet  -YOU are happy and nobody can take that away from you!

My grand-daughter is almost three now and I have to say that as she has spent a lot of her life with me because her parents both work, invariably I taught her table manners and using cutlery.  Visiting my children's old junior school a few months ago at lunch time I was appalled at the manners of some of the children supposedly eating their lunches, with elbows akimbo, slapping food around like gum as they covered other kids with their spittings, climbing around the tables during the meal and other such horrors.   Mine would not dream of doing this and yet the Headteacher said that this was how the children thought they were supposed to behave cause they actually know no different, and if the school try to show the children manners, some parents accuse them of "overstepping the mark....". My 2nd son is 22 and a hardworking young father.  Both he and is partner try their best to bring up their litle girl with manners and politeness, to which one of the first things they bought for their home was a dining suite so that they could all eat together at least once a day as he had done here with us.   Again, they run with the policy of "two choices for dinner......." but they are lucky in that their daughter eats almost everything, however they said that a friend of theirs has a nightmare child who will only condescend to eat her meals If she is bribed wth a bagfull of sweets as dessert.  That destroys the whole point of eating a proper meal does it not? Jamie Oliver is to be commended for trying to encouage kids to eat  healthy meal at school, yet for a lot of children they have no idea what most of the stuff is that they are offerred and consequently demand their junk intake as they do at least know what that is.    Personally I have always prepared a decent meal from scratch for my lot but I do understand that its not always feasible for many parents to do this, thus kids have a pizza-in-front-of-the-telly, or a microwave job.   What is wrong is television telling children that grabbing a handful of pizza then ramming it ito your gob whilst behaving like a hooligan is some sort of "Fun", though of course is not "Fun" for those other folk trying to eat whilst a herd of feral herberts run screaming around the trattoria making their own "Fun".   And  I am not quite 50 yet so not ready to have the lid nailed down in the immediate future, yet the social changes in the past 20 years or so really contrast with my own experiences with young children because I would have died with shame had mine behaved as some children do when taken out to eat with their parents.      Nor have I witnessed this behaviour when we have dined out in France - be it at a restaurant or McDo's - it must be a peculiarly British thing.

I did the same with my lot Pierre because with four of 'em its just impossible to cater to all their whims and fancies, ie. one hates liver & three like it, two hate carrots& two like them, or that old chestnut "We ALL hate tomatoes..." but trowel ketchup over everything.   In adopting this system they grew up with quite a cosmopolitan diet and are not afraid to try something new.   A friend's son would only deign to eat roasts / pizza / burgers - a real nuisance as she happened to love to cook so her talents were wasted on this philistine's particularly cranky demands.   Oddly enough now he is grown up and his Mum has departed to the Angels bless her, he has finally realised the joy of eating REAL food instead of the muck he shovelled into his face previously and also insists on dining at the table rather than from his lap in front of the telly.   He is an Old Fart at 24! As a reminder to all of the kids I still have the sign in my kitchen tht states                                                     " There are two choices for dinner.   Take it or leave it." and it will be going to France with me as well! Yes that particular advert drives me mad too with this silly people having "Fun" as they ram leaden lumps of pizza nto their faces.   Mine would much rather have a good 'ol fashioned Bacon Roly-Poly but they are all too bone idle to try to make one of course!

This sounds like the black stuff we used to waterproof our house last year, the stuff I described to Gluestick, and it has worked admirably because the place was riddled with damp due to the earthen floors. Of course we still have a bit of residual damp in the place which is only to be expected as we are not in residence yet, but we no longer have the delightful black spotty effect on our walls and the floors are now flat, even flagstone tiles. .

When our chauffage was being installed the plumber asked hubby to drill the overflow pipe through the outer wall "to save time.....", although we suspect he did not fancy the job himself as he knew what was lurking behind the old plaster.   Nor did he mention that doing so would blunt the drill bits in seconds and furthermore, what should have been a small hole ended up a cavernous one due to the huge boulders that comprise the entire wall.   We could have put another window in!    The job was eventually done with hammers and bolsters due to it being a futile effort with even a hammer drill.  The Sky tv man had just as much trouble drilling the cables through as well, so I guess its safe to say that the house will not blow down in a storm. Actually the infill problem is not confined to France.  My parents bungalow was built by my Grandfather in the early 1930s and whilst it looks all brick this was most definately not the case. At one stage there as a roofing job to be done which exposed the top of the wall, and there in clear view was the top of a brass bedstead, an old bicycle and solid concrete.   Who knows what other horrors lurk beneath, making it just as well there are no plans to add more windows.

And, here you go!   In the Brico Depot catalogue page 286, you have Traitment des Caves - the stuff you referred to that you paint on, as well as another one alongside.   These look a bit expensive to me so is is possible you could buy it here in UK and ship it over?   We buy all this type of stuff here usually 'cos hubby gets trade discounts, hence our vehicles are normally clanking along the well-worn roadways to 61 loaded with paint etc.   Maybe your next visiting relatives could buy it as a "Thankyou" gift??? Bugbear is right though cos the remaining problem is bad drainage, to which the longterm cure is putting ample drainage alongside the building like the caniveaux on page 14 of Bricodepot catalogue, if this is possible.  Its a lot more work as you would probably have to do both tasks, but then Hubby had to construct a large soakaway from our house just to drain the roof water away, and now done we don't have the amount of trouble that we used to.  In the long run it may be worth the extra effort.   Am I turning into a DIY fiend??   This is worrying!  Addendum!     Just read Ron's post.    We have used diluted PVA glue (Unibond) as a sealant under floor tiles and on new plasterboard before painting/papering.  Is his the stuff Ron means?

I will study the Bricodepot catalogue we have here to see if there is anything that might do the trick then post for you.  Hubby says that you can usually find something similar to what he would use here, so we will see!

Another suggestion - what about dry lining the inside of the building? You put a thin membrane of polystyrene on the wall then batten, followed by plasterboard over the top.  Similar technque to lining a roof I guess.  Hubby did this on the workshop here in UK and has no problems with damp.  Otherwise there are some sealants that you paint on that might ease the problem for you. Being on a terrace won't help of course.   Our house is called Le Gue yet theres no sign of a ford nearby which baffled us - until the neighbours metioned that "the stream goes under your house.....".  Still, its been there for more than 100 years and has only been inhabited for a fraction of that time, let alone had central heating installed, so damp was bound to be in situ wasn't it?   We still have a little residual damp popping up in a couple of places, but then its bound to as the chauffage is off more than its on because we are still in UK for most part, moreover our house here in UK has just as much of a problem with damp and its only 60 years old!. Hope you solve your problem!

We used this black tar stuff painted onto the walls throughout our house as it was riddled with damp downstairs.   Plaster was rmoved up to 3 feet, painted with pitch and replastered -  not had problem since.  I assume you could use this technique on your problem area. We bought this stuff in England but I would presume you can get it it France.  Its an old fashioned, tried & tested system to eliminate damp although  it might also be an idea to clear the soil and plants away from the wall itself to allow the air through. 

Not only that but hubby has bought a limited edition CCM (no I don't know what it is), but according to Bennets it "Does not exist......".   This is supposed to be the company that are "The Bike Insurance Experts" according to their numerous adverts. The problem is that because the bike is being built at present we need an insurance certificate before it will be released after testing, so having trawled about he ended up asking the dealer  about someone who might confirm its existence and insure it for him.   Luckily the dealer admitted that Bennets are not exactly the experts they proclaim to be and gave us someone who knows this bike exists, but what a pain!  Next time he can have a bicycle instead. And we agree with you Terry about the UK and we are getting out too.  I have already been into a Forum row with others who think this is still "Great Britain", but if so one wonders why they left it in the first place?

Having read the above, all I can say is thank heavens I have my own very skilled builder on hand for everything that needs to be done because  I think I would drive myself crazy waiting about for "Artisans" to honour me with their presence! Sometimes being married to a Builder has its advantages.

Blimey!   One simple weed with a list of aliases.

Thankyou Kate.   I can still get to the trees as they are in my parent's back garden, and I am now awaiting the harvest time when I shall send off three fruits from each tree to Brogdale who offer this service.  I think its about £9.oo per identification. Brogdale hold the national collections of fruit & veg.  I trawled their website to find my old apples but there was nothing remotely like them, so there is a chance they are some long forgotten subspecies, however I'm not bothered if they are some ordinary apple because its the sentiment  I want to preserve.  They will be a constant reminder to me of my Grandad and a happy childhood - all wrapped up in a couple of English apples in a French orchard!

The sticky burr things you refer to are what I think are called "Cleavers" here in UK.  Nature's very own Velcro.  I don't have a clue what they are in French but in whatever language they do attach themselves to everything.   (I have to untangle them from my redcurrant bushes, then my hair, gardening gloves etc). Bindweed grow on a long flexible stem with pretty pink & white stripey trumpet flowers and dainty heart shaped leaves. Its quite apretty little flower really but it overtakes everything given half a chance. Convulvulus are the bigger and more rampant relative.  These have the same sort of leaves and stem, but the flower is a big white trumpet which, if you open it out, you will find lots of horrid bugs living amongst the stamen.  Yuk.  Of course as its a much bigger plant it romps all over the host, with sturdy vines it will strangle the life out of the victim and although it won't kill, it will certainly inhibit the growth of whatever it has invaded.    Again, you gotta wrench these out too because they seed prolifically.

Pink wellies???   I'm sure that you could sue the Social Services lot for your horror at being forced  to wear such items.  It may have turned your head, much less infringed your basic European Human Rights.  Ring Cherie right now! As to hand-me-downs, I was lucky 'cos I am the eldest of three but imagine how embarrassed my brother would have been inheriting those red hot pants, circa 1970's haha!    We wondered why he turned out so strange................

Don't think bindweed will actually kill the laurel off 'cos its a tough old shrub, but its just unsightly really.   Like its sister plant the convulvulus, bindweed runs amok in no time so again, its a case of ripping it out at the root if you really want rid of the stuff, the more of the roots you get out so much the better. Of course a dousing with Roundup(a systemic weedkiller) will kill off the bindweed above ground quite nicely, but the roots are a major problem so I think its another case of  on your hands'n knees to remove the stuff manually.  Unfortunately.!

We bought a gorgeous steel range cooker in UK that matched our (also UK bought) kitchen and shipped the whole lot out to our place in 61 on our trailer.   We have 2 electric ovens/grills on it with gas hob, altho admittedly I prefer a gas oven, but the gas is from the big tank thingy we had installed out in the garden which also runs our central heating system, so we don't have to find room for one of those bottles.   The range came with a set of different jets so it was not a problem installing it.   (Hubby did the entire kitchen and the cooker/hood in less than 2 days.)    However, I think we caused our neighbour much grief from his wife as she set eyes on the new range and promptly decided that she now wants an English cooker AND kitchen for the new house they are presently building, instead of the Italian or German ones she had previously set her heart on.   Whoever would have thought that English stuff would be so highly thought of in a country that boasts of it's exquisite good taste! I have since bought other items including a microwave, a fridge and a fridge/freezer that we have simply taken out there, changed the plugs and set them to work but the only things we were not to certain about were washing machines and dishwashers due to the different sizes of pipework to those from UK.  We have already bought just a basic washing machine which works just fine and will purchase the dishwasher from good 'ol Intermarche as well when we move out there next year.   Does anyone know if its possible to buy adaptors for white goods that need plumbing-in?   If this is possible then we would probably buy these items here as there are some pretty good deals to be had at present because I did think that some of the electrical goods were rather expensive in France in comparison. Also - I shall miss Argos when we depart.  One stop shopping that even Hubby can cope with occasionally!