JandM

Not a roof terrace, but the tiled roof attached to the house that extends from just under the eaves outside a door or window. Fixed to the wall on the house side and held up often by oak uprights on the other. What's it called in French? You eat under it on warm days and balmy evenings. Over the summer we decided that we need one (see above) and now I'm back in London I want to start researching costs, planning etc. But I've no idea what it's called in French, which makes internet searching a bit tricky. Actually I can't even think of a succinct term for it in English, which is absurd, because nearly all houses have one, except ours. They're so common it's like not knowing the word for a garden shed. Can someone help?

Thalys isn't Eurostar, so I don't think that their trains are subject to the security checks that you get when you're leaving or entering the UK. If that's the case, it wouldn't have made a jot of difference whether the terrorist had got on the train at Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris or anywhere else within the Schengen area.

Thanks. That's a very good point. I think I'll look around for some deep rooted, but shorter, alternative shrubs to plant in their place.

Anyone know the best way of getting rid of some unwanted hazel? I've got three or four of them growing on a steep bank and they completely block what should be a great view. I cut them back hard each year but that's just stimulating them into stronger growth, so we've decided to bite the bullet and attempt to get rid of them altogether. I suppose it's either grubbing them up or poison. Stump killer might work, but each plant has about forty stumps of 2 to 8 centimetres across. Any suggestions?

Although we know that mindsets like this still exist, it still comes as a shock to me when I see it expressed so openly and unashamedly. I wouldn't delete the post. It's someone's opinion, no matter how ugly it looks.

I hadn't realised that there was anybody left who took the Daily Express seriously.

As a liberal, I don't believe in banning things just because I don't like them. While I'd support the right of people to walk around with a sack over their head if they want to, I would also support the right of others not to engage with them. A few months ago in London a 'burkahed' woman with a small child asked me if I knew where a certain shop was and, once I'd recovered from the surprise of being approached by a lone Muslim woman, I told her that I didn't want to speak to someone who hid her face from me. As I see it, she had the right to wear what she wanted, and I had the right to ignore her. The obvious exception to this is in situations where there's a security question - airports etc.

Thanks all for the suggestions. Having looked up purslane, that's definitely what it is. Having now read up on it a bit, I do wonder if I should be poisoning it, rather than eating it - seems it's some kind of superfood. Lucky me. I'm so glad it's not Japanese knotweed, which I'm well familiar with that from a previous garden. That plant will survive the nuclear holocaust along with cockroaches

I'm looking for help with identifying something that's new to me. Over the last couple of years I've been clearing our part gravel, part tarmac, part mud driveway of weeds with three-monthly doses of glyphosate. It's mainly worked - all the perennial stuff has gone, including the couch grass - and I can see the ground now. However, a new weed has appeared that I've never seen before that has spread like wildfire across all the drive, the terracing and has even appeared in cracks in the walls. Because I didn't have the wit to take a photo when I was there (I'm back in the UK now), I'll have to describe it: it's a succulent or semi-succulent, more or less prostrate, with pinkish-red stems about the thickness of a pencil that grow out like the spokes of a wheel. It has small rounded leaves and tiny yellow flowers. In all, it forms a low mound with a diameter of about 40 cms. It has a taproot about 15 cms long. Anyone else got this, and any idea what it is, and why it has appeared so suddenly? James

I've been away and only just seen these responses. Thanks. Going direct to a quarry is a great idea - there are some gravel pits fairly nearby as it happens, so I suppose I should have thought of that myself. I think I'm going to buy a couple of tonnes and see how far it goes. I've been trimming the lavender with shears in November, which seems to do the trick. I lose on average about six each winter, which I've been putting down to the claggy wet clay.

We have a 30 metre hedge of lavendar munstead dwarf that edges the raised concrete terrace. It's the only thing we grow, apart from grass and weeds, as it completely looks after itself. But it's ten years old and needs to be replaced. The soil is dense, heavy clay that's infested with couch, bindweed and what I think is ground elder. I keep them down by pulling them out whuch usually just snaps them off at ground level. When I clear for replanting, I'm planning to deep dig and then hand weed it all, and dig in a lot of grit which I hope will make the soil more friable and so easier to get the weeds out. Question: what sort of grit should I buy, how much per metre should I use (the border is two feet wide) and where should I get it? And what would you pay? Places like Jardiland are a bit pricey, but what are the alternatives? Any advice, suggestions, comments much appreciated James

On comparative prices, and in the other direction, besides houses and wine... ..in the UK I've been running my own personal boycott of coffee filter papers, which cost £2.00 plus for 80. For the last several years I've been using kitchen paper instead. The other week in Intermarche I found that they cost €0.65. Bought four boxes and brought them back to London, and they didn't take up much space or weight in my bag. Should last me a while.

Good advice Mint. Our tank is checked annually at €170 a pop. I've never actually been present when the check has taken place, but as the tank is buried underground the procedure can only be through using an electronic gauge of some sort. I imagine it takes about 45 seconds, if that. That's France for you..

Thanks for the response, Patf. You've said what I've suspected. We're really locked in with Totalgaz - as the idea of installing a new tank is a non starter. We've always known that the costs of LPG are high, but it's useful for a second home as you can get the heating on immediately on arriving which is pretty useful in winter. I think that we'll look into an efficient log burner for general heating, so that the we use gas only for initially getting warm. That might make one tankful last years. Which would be nice.

We have a 1000kg propane gas tank buried in the garden which supplies the CH boiler. It was installed for 'free' some eight years ago, but with very hefty annual maintenance charges. We've just ordered a tankful of gas (about €1000 worth) on a tariff that we think is pretty high owing to the terms of the original installation. We'd like to see if next time we can shop around and get a better deal from a different supplier. The original paperwork isn't clear on whether or not we can use another supplier after the initial tie-in period while Totalgaz got its return on the supposedly free installation. Does anyone have any information or experience in this area? What is the usual practice in France? Cheers James

We got our kitchen chairs from Troc de L'Ile for €20 each if I remember rightly. They're not particularly comfy but they look good and seem well put together. According to their website there's a branch at Sete.

This reminds me of something that has baffled me at junctions with traffic lights. You sometimes see an illuminated cross on the other side of a junction, that might be red or green, but never seems to relate directly to the colour of the main lights. A few weeks ago I stopped at a red light and there was a cross shaped light opposite that was also red. When the main lights turned green the other light remained red, which made me feel I was jumping a red light. The only possible explanation I could think of that it was aimed at pedestrians, but that didn't really seem to make sense as the light was definitely orientated towards the traffic. Anyone know what this is?

Good question. I've not noticed any big changes here in the southern end of Lot et Garonne where, beside the plum and walnut orchards, it's still the usual mix of maize, sunflowers, wheat and sorghum. Few vines round here. Tobacco seems to have disappeared completely, but that's more to do with markets than climate I imagine. Kiwis are dotted around these days - I don't know if that's new or if I just hadn't noticed them in the past. The crop I loath is oilseed rape and that seems to be increasing. It gives some people terrible hay fever and stinks of rotten cabbages when it's damp. If we must have global warming, let's hope it deters the planting of rape. James

The station buffet in Agen, of Rick Stein fame, is going to reopen under new management in May, after going bust and being closed down a couple of years ago. Great news for all its fans. Let's hope it carries on in the same spirit; informal and great value and service. James

I'm English, and strongly pro Union, but I've often wondered how I'd feel about the UK if I were a Scot: probably with quite a lot of ambivalence. One small example: I've always been struck by the way that so many of we English casually exclude the other UK countries from the national narrative by routinely referring to 'England' when we mean Britain or the UK. And we've allowed the rest of the world to use England, never bothering to correct people. I can't think of any other decent country with this divisive habit. If, as I hope, Scotland votes to stay in the Union I'd like to see a serious rebalancing of our multi layered identity and have our children taught the difference between the home nations and the wider state. Alex Salmond is a very clever operator who knows how to provoke the Kelvin Mackenzies among the English (a few on this site maybe..) into the kind of snarling reactions that perfectly suit his agenda. Final thought - the referendum will follow the World Cup this year - an event that leaves even Sassenachs despairing about England. That'll probably add one or two percentage points to the yes vote. James

Thanks Craig, This is really helpful. A lot to digest, but the main point is pretty clear: the commune isn't required to do anything. Knowing that is a big help in tailoring my approach. This info has also made it clear that the road is a chemin rural and not a voie communale. Once it gets past the turnoff to our house, the chemin plunges into a wood, and has huge trees growing up through it - retaining side walls still in situ. Thanks again. James

Haven't I read somewhere that, unlike in Britain, French railway closures have always required the preservation of the route? I don't know about Okehampton-Plymouth, but there was a massive Sainsbury's plonked across the track as soon as my local line in Kent closed in the mid '80s.

I totally agree with the point about estate agents' photography. It's often appalling. There's a hilarious property ad in my local London paper at the moment where the picture of the front of the house is half filled by a passing lorry. To think that someone's paid for that!

I got the spelling wrong. It's pine marten.

Could it be a pine martin? It's a larger member of the weasel family. We had one in our roof a few years back - sounded a bit like a sheep with clogs on. We returned from a lengthy absence once to find that it had got through the ceiling into the house, jumped all over the beds and left poo on our duvet. We never saw it but identified it by the poo, which was full of bits of acorn and other nuts, squirrel fur and feathers, and had a sort of spiral quality to it. Very distinctive. In the end it disappeared as mysteriously as it had arrived. This is not une blague, by the way!