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JandM

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Everything posted by JandM

  1. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were related! At any rate it's a small commune and as an employer of half a dozen people the workshop owner is a local big cheese. I wouldn't win any kind of fight with him unless the law was completely and clearly on my side, and even then the aggro wouldn't be worth it. I hadn't realised that a chemin rural could be private, unless it had been bought up, but wouldn't it then cease to be one? It is clearly marked as a chemin rural on maps. Good point to check though. I think I'll take the approach you suggest and see if the commune will act as a matter of goodwill, and hope there's some money. All it might take is the digging of a small drainage ditch. Thanks for your response.
  2. Anyone know anything about chemins rurals? Our house in 47 is reached via 70 metres or so of chemin rural. It is on quite a steep slope and has a fairly basic finish - a mix of tarmac and gravel. The commune resurfaced the chemin with gravel shortly after we bought the house in 2002. Since then it has become fairly weedy, to the point that we mow it, but it hasn't been a problem until now. However, the large machine workshop at the top of the chemin has recently been extended and the altered groundwork now means that quite a lot of rainwater is being diverted onto the chemin which runs down the slope, washing mud over the surface and generally making it more and more difficult to use. Last time we were there in the New Year it was completely sodden and difficult to drive up the slope I've talked to the owner of the workshop, but he denies that anything has changed, and I don't have any photographic evidence of the situation before. I don't think I'm going to get any further with him on a neighbour to neighbour basis. What all this is leading to is the question of whether the commune generally has any responsibility of maintaining a chemin. Is it something they're obliged or committed to do, or could it be that our chemin was resurfaced last time as just a welcoming gesture, or because there was a bit of spare gravel left over. I'm going to contact the mairie anyway, but it would be useful to hear a few opinions on what sort of response I'm likely to get if I ask about the chances of them sorting out the problem James
  3. Interesting. I always used to use two laptops when searching for flights - three or four if there were more to hand. It always turned out that when I used the same computer to check prices across a number of sites the quoted fare had increased when I returned (even if it was just a couple of minutes later). This didn't happen when returning to a site from a different computer - of course allowing for the point that prices might be rising because seats are selling. Recently, however, I've discovered that just opening up multiple browsers on the same laptop does the same job, as long as the sites don't time out on you. By the way, I'm probably way behind the curve on this, but I've just been looking for the first time at the new Ryanair site, following the recently announced love in with its passengers. Wow! What a difference. I might even start to use them again.
  4. A few weeks ago we bought a 25kg bag of Joker from Castorama for some internal wall filling. The bag said the stuff sets in 30 minutes, so we were ready to work quickly. Well, we barely had time to run the ten yards from where we mixed to the wall! It was setting - literally - in seconds. In fact, one batch had to be thrown away because it had gone off before any had been applied. We followed the mixing instructions to the letter, it wasn't particularly warm,  and it was well within its sell by date, so what on earth was going on?! Unless it was a duff batch, this product seems to be unusable. Anyone else had experience with Joker? James
  5. Given the caning this service has received recently I was expecting the worst when I turned up at Dover last month for the Calais crossing. In fact it was OK. The boat was more than half full, and the food, service and general feel of the ship were fine - or at least as fine as the others. The one oddity was disembarking at Dover after the return trip. I got down to the car decks and found that the crew were already waving drivers off the boat. I was by no means one of the dawdlers at the back, and there were still a lot of people from the second half of the queue dodging the traffic trying to get to their cars - several children, at least one woman walking painfully slowly with sticks. Perhaps the lads wanted to knock off early, but it felt dangerous, and a tad cowboyish.
  6. Thanks for this Brian. I'd sort of been hoping on the 'a watched pot never boils' principle, that the whole project had got the go-ahead while I wasn't looking and that the tracks were being laid apace. 
  7. I've been out of the news loop for some time and have lost track of the Bordeaux-Toulouse LGV scheme. Does anyone know if it has been approved yet, or been rejected?  I was following the story quite closely at one time but have completely taken my eye off it and have no idea where it all stands at the moment, if anywhere. If anyone can give a quick update, or point me to a good website that summarises where the plans have got to I'd be really grateful. Cheers
  8. I suspect we've had a bit of a misunderstanding here. Regular and very regular posters (10,000 plus posts - wow!) probably always enter the various debates through the 'active' button, while the lesser 'occasional' types like me go straight to the subject areas that they're interested in. It's not obvious where each post comes from if you use the active route, whereas it's very clear when you go in via the subjects themselves. We've probably been looking at different things, or at least the same thing from very different angles.   Anyway, I would be sorry to lose the regional threads as Sweet 17 suggests, even though they're a bit thin at times. They do provide a place that other topically organised threads don't.   To me, it seems like a simple forum management matter. Can the animal rescue posts be placed into one thread? The posts would still be very prominent and, given the lack of other posts at the moment, would sit at the top nearly all the time. It would make the South West part of the forum look a lot less offputting, and might even encourage some new participation,
  9. I tried to make it clear that  I was referring to one part of the forum, ie the part for the South West. Click on this - hope the link works..  http://services.completefrance.com/forums/completefrance/cs/forums/305/ShowForum.aspx The word 'swamped may be unwarranted. I don't mind which word is used, but around three quarters of all posts within one thread over the last eight months or so all from the same source and on the same subject is quite a lot. To me it makes  the thread look like a one person show,  which I reckon is likely to put  a lot of  people off. The book sale item was interesting, but I wonder how many people missed it because they've given up on that thread.
  10. I suppose it depends on how one uses this forum. I for one am an occasional visitor and log in every couple of months or so to see what's going on, and if I have something to say, or ask, I make the odd post. Rather than use the active button, I generally look at two or three particular topics - including the South West section - that interest me. I've no idea if doing things that way is unusual.  Anyway, I have noticed that since the animal rescue posts began on the South West  part of the forum last June, the number of posts on other subjects has fallen off sharply, and the numbers reading all posts in that section has dropped as well, to the point that there is now very little activity there. This suggests to me that many people have not just stopped posting here, but have actually stopped reading the South West section altogether. I shouldn't have suggested that the animal rescue posts be stopped, but I do wonder if it might be better if they were placed within a single thread. That might leave a bit of visual space and eventually encourage other users to come back.  
  11. I've never used the 'active' tool - didn't know about it, but will give it a go. Up to now I've just been scanning through the sections and seeing what's coming up. But I don't think that this has anything to do with there not being enough other posts. If you look back to the first post from Phoenix PR, about last June, there was previously a fairly regular and well read succession of posts that attracted a good few replies. The animal rescuers may deserve to be saluted, but their efforts on here might be counterproductive, as these posts seem to have smothered the life out of this part of the forum. It looks like many people have given up on it. Pity.  
  12. I hesitate to ask this, but am I the only one irritated by this section being swamped by animal rescue posts? Since they began last summer the number of people looking at the South West part of the forum seems to have collapsed. Are these posts coming from an organisation, a spammer, or a well meaning individual? Anyway, they have wrecked this part of the forum, which I used to find very useful. Can they be stopped, or perhaps they can all be put within a single post? 
  13. Thanks for these replies. Looks like it's going to be fine. James
  14. I am taking my dog to France for the first time later this month. The passport is all organised, so all I have to do is choose a French vet for the tape worm check before returning to the UK. A slight concern is that I won't be able to find a vet in my area (Agen and southern Lot et Garonne) who is familiar with the passport scheme. I'd be interested to hear others' experiences. Is the UK pet passport system widely known about in France outside the main ports. If not, how best can I make clear what I want? Thanks James 
  15. Something in the back of my mind, probably from school, is telling me that  temperatures drop by 0.5 dgrs C for every 100 metres above sea level. So saying that  the OP's 1800 feet   is something under 600 metres, he should expect to have temperatures roughly around 3 C below what they'd be at sea level. Mmm. Is that right? It doesn't sound much.  Could be a combination of false memory syndrome and bad maths.
  16. Thanks for the replies. There's been no change to the floor area so, if number of bedrooms is not a factor,  I'm not going to get a rebate.  At least I know now.
  17. Another local tax query for those who knows about these things, from someone who should have researched this a long time ago... We bought our house some years back as a three bedroom property - two in the roof and one on the ground floor next to the kitchen. As there was just a chipboard cupboard built into the doorway between the kitchen and downstairs bedroom, we quickly decided to turn it back into a dining room, so now the house has just two, quite small, bedrooms in the roof. It's recently occurred to me that the number of bedrooms might be a criterion for calculating local taxes, so I might have been paying out for a three bedroom house all these years (about eight) when I should have been paying for a two bedder. I know amounts vary hugely from area to area, and it's more expensive in France, but the commune and canton are very rural, yet the combined taxes come to about EURO 1300 a year, which is actually more than I pay in Council Tax for a three bed terrace in Lewisham.  I bet it's not as simple as I think, but I'd be grateful for any comments or ideas. Thanks
  18. Thanks one and all -  really useful stuff. I'd been thinking of getting one that's low to the ground, because it's less effort to lift the log onto them, but hadn't thought of the bending down aspect. As for the health and fitness benefits of using an axe and wedges, perhaps I'll still use these when the weather's OK! The cheapest new model I've seen is from Castorama's 1er Prix range, at EUR 159.00 I think. It's cheap, but the specifications and metal castings etc look identical to the ones sitting next to it with a different brand badge, that cost EUR 100.00 more - makes me think they're made in the same Chinese factory only painted a different colour.  
  19. I'm thinking about buying an electric log splitter,  and am wondering where to start. It's for domestic use only, mainly for the oak branches I take  from trees on my own land - maximum thickness probably about 30 cms, usually less than that. I don't know anybody who uses one, so am a bit stuck for comment or advice. Has anyone on this forum got any experience of buying a log splitter, to help get me started? Comments appreciated.
  20. I read this terrible news a few days ago in an online version of Sud Ouest. Shocking. Is it really true?  Eating there is one of the staples of my visits to this much underrated town. Agen has had its wonderful station buffet since 1858. Someone tell me I've got it all wrong and it's still there! 
  21. Likewise Calais? I need to find somewhere near the ferry port, or even within it, to leave a car for a fortnight. Was hoping it might be free! Anyone left a car in the big carpark outside the foot passenger/bus building? I think that that is free, but wonder if it would be ok to leave a car there for such a long time.
  22. Thanks Val. There are gravel pits fairly nearby but I'm embarrassed to say I had never thought of trying there! Perhaps I'll see if I can track down some spent mushroom compost as well. James
  23. I'm not sure about that, Woolybanana. Why should Flanders implode? It seems to be doing rather well. A big part of the problem over there is that Flanders is bigger, richer and much more economically dynamic than Wallonia, where unemployment - and the social security bill - is a lot higher. I have never heard of a company relocation having anything to do with the political situation. The reverse if anything - the Flemish have a reputation for being hard workers and many of them speak three or more languages, so foreign firms like being based there. As for Flemish being an artificial creation, that really is complete tosh, WB. You seem really to have swallowed the francophone narrative of Belgium. I'm no language expert, but I do know that in Flanders they speak Dutch. While the rest of the world calls it Flemish, they themselves call the language Nederlandse and it is written like standard Dutch. The range of accents and dialects is certainly somewhat startling to a foreigner, but they seem to understand each other pretty well. All that said, the real trouble with Flanders is that it doesn't know its own strength. It is numerically and economically the dominant part of Belgium, but it retains an inferiority complex after a long period of French domination. If they were to stop being defensive, relax a bit, and get on with appreciating what all the Belgians have in common, they could play much more nicely.
  24. I need to get some drainage into my claggy clay soil, and am looking for horticultural grit or something similar in the Lot et Garonne area. Terre de Sud and the likes of Castorama do it, but it only seems to come in smallish bags and costs a fortune. Anyone know where I could get a bulk load - about a tonne - and what it might cost? In Kent I can buy it for £60 a tonne, but I suspect I'm going to end up paying a bit more than that in France. Ideas and suggestions welcome. James
  25. It's irritation rather than hate, Woolybabana. The vast majority on both sides of the Belgian dispute remain civilised about it, and idiotic firebrands like Van Aelst remain firmly in the minority. Idun is right about the importance of the young. But one of the things that worries the francophone establishment in Belgium is that young people within the Dutch (or Flemish) speaking majority are not learning French like they used to. As the French speakers have no real tradition of learning the Dutch language, that spells even more trouble for the future. However, I do hope that Belgium hangs together. There are after all several factors suggesting that it will remain a single country for quite a while yet. Anyway, there's no sign that this dispute will lead to violence, so the country has a real lesson to teach the world in living with and dealing with disputes peacefully.
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