Framboise

No at the end of the day it doesn't matter who wins, because whoever does gets lumbered with staging the debacle next year as well as being associated with having the dubious "honour" of having actually gone out of their way to win it!   I guess it does make for some cringeworthy viewing though.

Eurovision Song Contest???    I cannot abide it and certainly do not watch it which I'm sure is a sentiment shared by millions worldwide! Auntie Beeb should spend our money on decent programming rather than this old tosh, moreover churning out indescribable pap that in the Real Music Business would not stand a hope in hell of making one single Euro in profit makes a total nonsense of real musicians who indeed have talent.   Where do they find these contestants anyway?    Does someone trawl the streets looking for barmpots who imagine they are gifted with a Voice, or are they all Simon Cowell rejects as I suspect?   (Apologies to Sir Cliff & ABBA for that reference!). I say let the former  Eastern Bloch have it as a special gift then we won't have the likes of the peculiar Serbian lot, last years weird heavy metallers or indeed Scooch assailing our ears again.   PLEASE Auntie -  don't buy Eurovision again!!!!

Funny, but I was sure this was the receptionist at the doctor's surgery, you know, the one you have to get past to see the doctor!

Two weeks ago out in the Orne at our house I noticed the tiny green fruits already "set" on the peach tree and the redcurrants.  It was lovely to see the wild violets and cowslips flourishing beside the stream in the lane, although of course they were nearing the end of their season when I was there, but the poppies and daisies in our "jungly" meadow were just beginning to peep through as we left.   Personally I am keeping my "jungly" meadow as it is, except for a bit of essential trimming after seeding  because we are going for authentic after 18 years of establishing our suburban paradise in UK.  One thing I don't enjoy is mowing having got rid of the lawns here - it takes 4 hours with the power driven mower to hack down the patch in front of the house, however it will be bliss when our tractor is ready to be shipped out next month and I won't have to crucify myself with the Briggs & Stratton ordeal again!   Hurrah!!!

Thankyou Clair.  I shall study that carefully.

What is this Lunar Planting Time?   Do you plant stuff at different moon phases or something? I have always been blessed with Green Fingers yet I have never heard of this system,  and anyway as far as I'm concerned if the plants need watering then I will give it to them.   Did Alan Titchmarsh not say something along the lines of "If it needs watering, water it"?  Anyway, regardless of whether its noon or midnight,  if my precious little ones were going to keel over to die then I would water them undoubtedly.   (That is not an issue here today in UK!!   Rain yet again of course) And I agree with the other correspondent who said the neighbour's success was probably more to do with the fact his land has been untouched for so long.  This works alongside the crop rotation system whereby you will get a visible improvement on yields after the land has rested for a year, lain fallow as they say, particularly when you plant a "green manure" crop which gets dug back in to the soil.   Also you can expect bumper crops if your land floods, like water meadows, as this event brings all the lovely mineral-rich silty stuff in which plants simply love. There,  I knew my Rural Science lessons at school would come in useful one day!  

Sounds like a farce worthy of "Allo 'allo" just to transport your cats.   Monsieur Jobsworth is alive and well in Montpelier! For me, well I am wondering about what will happen when we leave because I have two lizards that I really want to take when we depart these shores.   I've had them years and don't really want to leave them here with the kids because they know only me - oh and the kids are useless!   Anyway, I don't somehow think M. Jobsworth will want to go rummaging about in their carriers very much, even though Oscar and Becks are actually softies!

Yes Mel, the only thing that sustains us through life here here is knowing that we will be off to our new beginning  in France next year when the house should hopefully be near completion.  I have taken friends out to visit, people who are adamant that they would never leave England much less this area, and without exception they all return to England saying "I now understand what you mean...".    Even my sons (two of the three have been there so far) fell under the spell of the place, the peace and quiet, the uncramped lifestyle, the sense of freedom and the people, so it looks like our idea of skipping off into the sunset to grow old may be under threat of Kid Invasion!    And theres us thinking we would leave home and grow old disgracefully.  Hmmm.   The only thing that I regret is not having been able to make this move when the children were young, (all four are late teens to mid-twenties now), because I am positive they would have had a far better start in life than this country can offer them, but hindsight is a fine thing isn't it?    My husband and are lucky that we have Our Exit Route already waiting there for us as you do too, we just love that inner glow when we open the gates to drive into our yard thinking "This is all ours", then the neighbours pop up with a cheery "Bonjour!" and a wave.   Here you daren't look at some of the oiks that loiter on the streets for fear of what they might do which is a sad indictment of society nowadays - one we certainly will not miss at all.  

I think that living with what you have in the UK is discouragement enough to contemplate going ahead with the barn.  Out of the frying pan and into the fire as they say.  However, as soon as we clamped eyes on our place we fell in love with it, warts and all, so it did not matter who lived nearby really because it simply was destined to be ours.   Perhaps you feel the same way about your barn?  Anyway, you get awful neighbours everywhere because the lot we finally got rid of here 18 months ago were the bane of our lives and they weren't do-as-yer-likeys! Basically you have to weigh up the pros & cons as to whether you can live with the "what ifs?........" or just turn and walk away because there is sure to be something out there waiting for you to come along and fall in love with it.   Ultimately only you can decide on this issue.

I quite understand.  After all, theres good and bad in all communities, in fact there are some children local to me here in leafy Surrey who are allegedly "posh" yet behave like alleycats as soon as Mummy & Daddy are out of sight. Believe me, here in my neck of the woods we have illuminii from Chelsea Football Club abounding, we also have huge problems with the do-as-yer-likey variety and it makes ME angry!   I wouldn't trust them as far as I could chuck 'em with a pitchfork to be honest, (or the CFC bunch from previous experience!) but that saying there are equally sleazy types wherever you go or in whatever community.   Speaking personally,  my hubby and I are happy with our escape route from wonderful Surrey and have some lovely new neighbours who keep watch over our house for us whilst we are away.    We have no worries on that score but perhaps we are the lucky ones?

In a previous incarnation (many moons ago) I had a pub here in UK, a similar service industry to the B&B market. Let me put it this way dear friend.   Having run the pub as single mother when the ex couldn't hack it any more, I gave it a motto.   "Being nice to people you hate...."    If you can't face the idea of this then don't get involved. Another fact is that my hubby and I have friends out there in France who run a successful upmarket B&B already, but after three years they are physically and mentally drained by it and are contemplating making this their last year.   The place is currently on the market. It may seem to be a good way of earning a crust but it is a very intense experience which can rip you to bits in the process. 1. you are always at someone's beck & call    and     2. your place is no longer your own private haven. Think very long and hard before you go ahead and make sure you check out there is a market to support it locally.

My Grand-daughter always asks when she visits "Nana have you cleared the land-mines yet?"   !!! With my two large mutts these things are substantial so you could probably lose a leg in one easily haha

Our place has a small encampment opposite owned by another neighbour whose extended family live on site.   We have had no problems, indeed they have all, without exception, been courteous and kind to we "incomers", ie the daft b*****s who bought that wreck over the road!.  We don't anticipate any future worries on that score either.   There were originally about 5 caravans on site (growing to about ten over Christmas when more family visit of course), but over the past year two vans have gone to be replaced by the wooden chalets with enormous wooden front doors on them which is the natural progression of the  Romany way of life. The caravan-to chalet-to-bungalow is traditional, the latter being effectively caravans without wheels! I guess the difference is that you have the Romany people and yer actual "do-as-yer-likeys", the former being the neighbours we have and the latter being the ASBO nightmares other correspondents have found.   You can usually tell what you have got by the state of the site itself because the Romany way keeps everything impeccably clean and tidy, fastidious to the point of fanaticism actually, and the others well you can but recoil in disgust at the thought.   Romany children are rarely the monsters described because family takes precedence and respect is something that has to be shown as done, otherwise Dad goes on the warpath Big Time!   Take it from me because I am a little more able to cast opinion on this subject..   My Grandad was a Romany of French descent.  He  bought the piece of land then started with the wooden chalet thing and built the bungalow my parents live in to this day, but even with his heritage he absolutely loathed what he called "That Lot" who gave the travelling community a bad name.   You will find no love lost between the two communities either. Last week when driving through Caen up to the port we noticed several encampments that have suddenly sprung up, one group of perhaps five vans on the front yard of a bungalow beside the patisserie on the main road into Caen, and another massive site close to Intermarche.  Going by my own criteria on a fleeting glance as we passed I'd say these were Romany, chiefly because they were clean and set out in regimented rows, the kids playing happily outside on the grass.   I just wondered if there was a reason for the sudden influx into Caen, a big wedding perhaps or a festival?     

must be something about the 206s.  My sister has an 03 edition which has spent a large part of its life back at the dealership being fixed.   For some reason - known only to itself - the air con suddenly decides to spray the passengers with water rather like a mobile shower, the sunroof opens for no apparent reason as well as several trips back because the paint job on the bonnet is so ropey that it looked a different shade to the rest of the car.   Likewise, every time she gets the car back the garage insists its fixed and the problems won't happen again but then weeks later..................... Put a computer brain into the thing and this is what happens!

Passionflowers grown here in deepest Surrey can be eaten, although they will never achieve the succulence and sweetness of those from South Europe and beyond.   A word of warning though.....................  passionflowers are very easy to grow, in fact they can run away with themselves because any fruit that hits dirt will sprout, then you will be over-run with them.  Kept in control they are delightful.

How about Passionflowers?   They absolutely adore being blasted by full sun, they don't mind a bit of water shortage either and stay leafy throughout the year here in Surrey,  so you just plant 'em and let them go!   The flower heads are really exotic, big wispy dishes of purple,  but you can find several different hybrids amongst the species so you are sure to find something you fancy.   Also you get those delightful creamy orange fruits that you can eat - all in all fantastic!     Ask for latin name Passiflora.

One of the same so I understand, but I don't particularly want Loir Chasseur on my menu thanks!   However, were it not for the fact our Monsieur Loir is such a hooligan I wouldn't mind his presence up in the loft, but we would rather he found alternative accomodation whether he likes it or not.   Moreover I don't want my lovely longere vandalised by Him in our absence!

Thankyou Chris, We will give that a try when we next visit the house because we don't want to hurt Monsieur Loir, preferring him to find other accomodation instead.    There are plenty of barns nearby that are purely for hay storage so we will relocate him to one of those and hope he likes his change of address. I don't think we have anything else in residence, ie. rats or mice,  because we have no evidence as such in the way of droppings etc.,  but then the house is old so I guess we should expect lodgers in what was previously a grain loft.   Our worry is that once we install the electrics that M. Loir might munch his way through them and incinerate the place for us - not a pleasing thought when we are only halfway through the conversion - although once the upstairs work begins we can also trace where He is getting in and  block it off once and for all.  I cannot get over the cheek of Him though, right up in the apex of the gables, swishing his tail at us as if to say "Ha!   You can't get ME..."  Anyway, our friend who was attacked by M. Loir has lived on the story of the giant mouse that bit him for a year now, but M. Loir is of course the size of a domestic cat this far along the line.   It was only the fact that we had new ceilings put in downstairs that Mr. Loir's presence became known because the nest was between the ceiling/floor and he dropped out onto our friend's head, along with a ton of old grain husks and gnawed pine cones.   No wonder M. Loir was angry as his home dropped from underneath him! Many thanks.   

Last year I for asked help to identify the wee beastie in our grain loft that attacked our friend!    Well Monsieur Loir is back! Sadly it was only through the fact we found a poor dead hirondelle up in the loft the other day that we discovered this little devil was back in residence, indeed it looked as though he had made a meal of the poor little bird which made us more determined to oust him from our loft.  (That and the fact we do not want him chomping his way through the electrics when we start work on the conversion upstairs!) So how do we deter him from raking out the insulation to make himself a cosy nest in the roof apex as he has done now?   Do we need to set rat traps or something?  Personally I would rather catch the blighter and chuck him out to find another home although we have no desire to handle him because we know what vicious fiend he is already.  Any suggestions??

We bought a semi derelict longere - basically an empty shell with a roof actually - so we put what we want where we want it.   My hubby has built a fab contemporary shower room/loo as the house's first ever facility where we could have put the washer as it is big enough, but said machine is in our utility/dog's bedroom (the little room where the new stairs are).   There,  its convenient but out of the way.  Not sure about having it in the garage / barn though - would it not freeze solid during winter, especially in the more Northerly parts of France?  Personally we love our Olde Worlde country farmhouse and would not entertain a new build, specifically as having had a brand new house here in UK proved just as much a pain as doing up a really old one, what with drying plasterwork cracking, "You can't paint for a year...." etc.    Maybe its me, but new houses have neither the character nor substance to them, with flimsy plaster stud walls and puny breeze blockwork.  Give me those substantial 18 inch thick walls in France any day!    

We have got a Turtle Dove that does a brilliant impression of a Cuckoo.     Also a Spotted Woodpecker who demolished a chunk of rotten tree over Christmas, bashing away at it for hours to leave a pile of shavings on the ground.   There are loads of finches of all types, a sweet little Robin who sits on our roof singing, Blue Tits squabbling over the cast iron baguette I chucked out on  the grass and several Wrens, who despite their size are the noisiest of all.  Sadly I have yet to see a Blackbird or a Thrush in our garden but I live in hope.    We frequently get a pair of Buzzards circling over the fields too and were fortunate enough to get a fleeting visit from a Red Kite last year, but  my favourite are the Swallows whom I hope will be back in residence when I go back to our house next week.    We had to seal offf their access to our loft over the winter beginning our renovation upstairs, but my husband installed some shelves made from oak off-cuts high up in the barn-end of the house so I am rather hoping they will adapt to their new deluxe nesting sites and raise some more babies this year.   We spent hours watching them dropping from the sky straight through the narrow gap over the barn door last summer - lovely! Anyway, I hope we will get even more birds when we move out to France permanently because our dogs will deter the feral cats who prey on them - that and a chunk of cast-iron baguette aimed at their backsides should do the trick!       

Are there any differences between motor biking laws in UK and in France - apart from the "driving on the other side" one of course!  Got a full bike licence in UK (Himself has licence - you won't catch me on the things!)    

On the same topic, what's the availability in 61, particularly around Gace/L'Aigle areas?   Got a bike mad son, he's done some of the green-laning stuff over there but we would like to find a track/course he could have a go at, especially as we are trying to persuade him to come with us when we move to our house.   This could be the extra leverage we need!  Thanks 

Hello, I too had Danes and yes they are gentle giants, great companions and very tolerant of children despite their size.  I was broken hearted when they went off to doggy heaven within months of each other, however, one was 13 years old but her companion just gave up when she went I think. After this the house was so empty without the whacking of doggy tails on furniture and demolition of children so we took a rescue dog, our Ed.   He'd had a very sad start in life being abused and dragged alongside a kids buggy around some grotty estate in south London,  he was rescued by a kind lady who alas could not keep him, so she took him to the dog's home where they decided it would be best to advertise for a more special home for him who were used to Big Dogs.  Ed you see is a chocolate lab cross bull mastiff - mastiff head and body on lab legs, daft as a brush but devoted and loving except to cats!   He is a giant fat labrador.   The home was concerned that the word "mastiff" would attract the wrong sort of potential owner for him, so we got the equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition before he was brought for a visit and he never left us again.  As we plan to move to France next year it has always been our plan to get him a companion from a rescue organisation, thus we now also have Harley, a Dogue de Bordeaux - or the Ginger Nutter as she is known now!  She is only 11 months old of course and a bit crazy, but Ed has got a new lease of life as a geriatric sex-pest who gets his nose nipped regularly for his efforts.   She has the makings of a fine pet. Giving a home to a rescue dog is a noble thing, but don't dismiss the idea of taking an older dog because after all, the worst bit of toilet training etc is usually already done and you will know you have made a difference to a creature when needed to be loved.   (Harley is on my Avatar by the way) 

Will is right.  I heard that these LD ships were originally built for the short hops across from Dover to Calais so they did not need any frills and fripperies, but when you are doing the trip to Caen a bit of comfort is certainly welcome!    My husband did try the LD once but said it was "Diabolical....." apart from the burger bar on board!, consequently we have used Brittany since.