KathyF

I'm with Hoddy and Norman on this. a brilliant speech and IDS deserved everything she had to say about him. The mess this government is making of basic services has to be seen to be believed.

One purely practical point, given that the family would be living in a very rural department, is that broadband internet isn't cheap here and in some places the speeds are very low. Since Mr F works in IT, a good broadband service would seem to me to be essential and something to be researched before departure.

Pat F wrote: Idun - we had that heatwave of 2003 in the Gers too, it never rained from mid April until early Sept. I think it affected most of southern France. Pat, the heatwave that year affected just about all of France. It was the year we signed for our cottage and when we arrived in late August, the temperature was still in the mid to upper 30s. Our new neighbours said the temperature in southern Normandy had been in the 40s that summer and of course it was the year so many elderly people died from the heat in Paris.

Having just logged on for the first time today, there are four spam messages timed from 17.15 to 17.42 at the top of the list of active topics. Sorry, Hoddy. [:(]

[quote user="Judith"] But I agree the broader vowel sounds do help with French and definitely with German .. mother, said in a broad Yorkshire accent is hardly distinguishable from "mutter" in German.  Just a shame we never had the French  "u" sound in English which seems to be what separates the English from the rest of the world! [/quote] That's exactly what my German teacher used to tell us. I'm from Darwen (just over the moor from Betty in Bolton [:)]) and she was a Geordie. She had fun showing us how much some words in the Geordie dialect resemble German  (particularly Low German) and said that when she went to Hamburg, where the local dialect is Low German, people could understand something of what she said when she talked Geordie. As for the French "u" sound, I found that learning German helped here too, as the German "ü" sound gave us double the practice. [:D]

Gosh! If I promise you tea and cake with your capsules, would you do the same for me, Betty? [:D]  

I found the need for compatibility view very annoying , since my preferred browser is Chrome and I don't like adding plug-ins unless I really must. Without compatibility view nothing works properly - formatting options, quotes, links and smilies are all unusable. This is the only forum I use which has these problems, so I really do think it is up to the IT staff to ensure their software works properly with modern browsers.

Sprogster, the rainfall total quoted in your link is much the same as that recorded so far in the southern half of the UK this winter - about half a metre!

How could you do this to me, Betty? There was I , implicitly trusting every word of the DM and now you tell me their reporters have wellies of clay! I shan't sleep a wink tonight.....

I assume you're advocating a sand filter, Hoddy, which sounds like an excellent idea.

Bother, missed it. I'll have to watch it online.

Another change that may well affect people moving abroad is the reduction next year from 3 years to 18 months for the period during which your previous home can remain your principle private residence for tax purposes, so avoiding CGT on its sale. In what is still a slow market in many places, that could well hit quite a lot of people who have had to move before being able to sell.

Until the market for medicines is opened up to competition, nothing will change. There's still a wide variation in pricing between some pharmacies and supermarkets in the UK, as I noticed recently when buying microporous tape, first in the local pharmacy (£1.65) and then at Tesco - 55p for the same amount of tape.

"It's just me, then. Can't stand tepid "hot" drinks." No, it's not just you, Betty. Tea needs boiling water. PS Can't use the quote facility or the smilies when in Chrome, as for some reason, they only work properly in Internet Explorer. Sigh....

Nail on the head as usual, Betty. If they now means test child benefit via the tax system, I don't see the WFA as a universal benefit surviving indefinitely.

In the UK we always drink full-fat milk as we find semi-skimmed so watery and tasteless and skimmed even worse. In France we drink semi-skimmed UHT as it tastes much creamier then UK semi-skimmed and the full-fat UHT is just too creamy. The fat in milk is also a good source of fat-soluble vitamins and the Vit D is easily assimilated because of the calcium in the milk.

I freeze fresh (pasteurised) milk at home in the UK and it's always been fine when defrosted. Just make sure there's enough headroom in the bottle for expansion when frozen.

Debra, for some reason the forum's software doesn't work properly in Chrome, which is now my default browser. I can either open IE9 and comment using that, or use the Chrome plug-in which I downloaded  and which gives me an IE-based tab, which allows the forum to display properly. In both cases I can get the quotes function to work as it should. I had hoped that the forum upgrade would remove this need to use an IE display with Chrome, but it hasn't happened. Since Chrome is now one of the most widely-used browsers and has almost overtaken IE in popularity, it does seem short-sighted for the forum to use software which won't display or work properly in Chrome.

I'm with you, idun. I enjoy baking and eating what I bake, which is why I daren't do it too often. Sigh...

It's not just Betty who's been having login problems. After a complete scan and clearout of cookies on my laptop yesterday, I tried and failed to log in this morning. The forum login button didn't work at all and the main website login kept telling me there was a problem with my email address or password. [:(] Only then did I notice the option to log in using other accounts (FB/Google etc) Not being on FB, I used the Google account associated with my blog and got in straight away. When I went to the forum and tried commenting on a thread, I got the same login request form as Betty and was able to log in without any problem. I can't get my head around software which can't/won't recognise my login details on its main login page, yet will accept them here on the forum when I've logged in using a different account. [8-)]   PS Not the same problem but still indicative of dodgy software: my preferred browser is Chrome, but I have to use IE9 or an IE add-on in Chrome if I want access to the smilies and formatting options on this forum. Weird or what?

I would imagine that as Quebec isn't part of France, anything The Academie might say won't be of much importance to the Quebecois, Idun. I think you're right about Canadian French being an older form of French, just as there are usages in American English which have died out in British English e.g. gotten.

Precisely, Clair. I gather the road from which the photos were taken was at least a kilometre from the chateau. My guess is that at that distance people would be nothing more than indistinguishable specks without the use of a very powerful telephoto lens. Hardly a case of displaying yourself carelessly to the public gaze as the editor of the magazine in question has claimed. The use of such a lens would breach almost anyone's privacy anywhere.

But they take this risk every time they appear in public. Of course what you say is true, but it still doesn't excuse the gross invasion of privacy or the prurient "public interest" which makes it worth the photographer's while to do so.

I have a deeply satisfying life, thanks, Eric, during which I have been giving regularly to charities working in developing countries (Christian Aid, Save the Children, etc) for the past 50 years or so. That doesn't stop me being concerned, not only at this particular invasion of privacy (and you didn't answer my second question about that, did you?) but about a whole lot of other social problems too. In my book individuals and their feelings and dignity count, even if they do happen to be royalty.

Where the food is better and you know the bed is comfortable, Betty. [:)] Hope your OH makes a rapid recovery.