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English Eccentric

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  1. Interesting - the shops I recall seemd very much along the lines of The Works in the UK, properly established etc.  I wonder if it could work legally if the publishers themselves had unsold stocks which they could then legitimately sell to outlets at a price below that at which they had previously been marketed, thus allowing the shops to discount a further 5% on that price if they so wished.  As for the market stalls, however......!
  2. [quote user="Gyn_Paul"][quote user="English Eccentric"][quote user="Gluestick"] For Butane, most cookers work at around 28-29 MBar, thus a standard cooker regulator will be fine, according to the figures on your appliance. The actual inlet pressure (i.e. the supply side of the regulator) will vary according to the size of the jets fitted. However, 28-29 Mbar should provide a good average performance. Interesting that all French fixed regulators are identical! Thus no allowance is made for differing jet sizes. The only options are for either Butane or Propane.   [/quote] Working on a mobile home site in the Charente-Maritime several years ago, we used to test everything concerned with the lpg installations (being an Anglo-French firm, it was decided that we'd follow UK practise, as it was more rigid than the French).  Apart from the usual - smoke-testing the operation of flues, gas-tightness of the installation etc, we'd check the regulators, and the pressure they'd operate at. After all this time, I can't remember exactly how we did it, but what was surprising was how many butane regs we had to ditch when we first started testing them - as I recall, some would be letting the gas through at 40mb or more - not ideal!  I suppose what I'm trying to say is that maybe a regulator should be changed occasionally too, as well as the hose.  They operate with a rubber diaphragm of some sort inside, and particularly those which were exposed to the sun tended to suffer the most. [/quote] With a manometer / water guage perhaps ? p [/quote] Yes, it was with a U-gauge, although I can't now remember the precise method used to verify the operating pressure of the regulators.  I do recall, however, that if all the water in the gauge shot clean out of the open end of the gauge, that tended to indicate that pressure may be a bit higher than normal!
  3. [quote user="Gluestick"] For Butane, most cookers work at around 28-29 MBar, thus a standard cooker regulator will be fine, according to the figures on your appliance. The actual inlet pressure (i.e. the supply side of the regulator) will vary according to the size of the jets fitted. However, 28-29 Mbar should provide a good average performance. Interesting that all French fixed regulators are identical! Thus no allowance is made for differing jet sizes. The only options are for either Butane or Propane.   [/quote] Working on a mobile home site in the Charente-Maritime several years ago, we used to test everything concerned with the lpg installations (being an Anglo-French firm, it was decided that we'd follow UK practise, as it was more rigid than the French).  Apart from the usual - smoke-testing the operation of flues, gas-tightness of the installation etc, we'd check the regulators, and the pressure they'd operate at. After all this time, I can't remember exactly how we did it, but what was surprising was how many butane regs we had to ditch when we first started testing them - as I recall, some would be letting the gas through at 40mb or more - not ideal!  I suppose what I'm trying to say is that maybe a regulator should be changed occasionally too, as well as the hose.  They operate with a rubber diaphragm of some sort inside, and particularly those which were exposed to the sun tended to suffer the most.
  4. [quote user="Cassis"]The books are dear because no-one is allowed to discount the publisher's jacket price, which they are free to do in the UK.  This means the publishers can fix prices high and you never get unsold stock 'remaindered' or sold cheaply by the likes of Sussex Stationers; and the big booksellers can't negotiate big discounts on larger orders.  The high price of new books maintains the value of second-hand market.  This used to be the law in Britain until a few years ago. [/quote] We used to live/work in the Charente-Maritime up til 1998 - at that time there were discount bookshops in (as I recall) La Rochelle and Rochefort at least, but the majority of the discounted books (mostly non-fiction) used to appear regularly at some of the markets; particularly Royan on a Sunday, and the same trader was usually at St Pierre d'Oleron during the summer months too. A return to the area in 2003 found the stall still at Royan market. Now we've just got a place in Manche & have yet to find any, but I'm still looking! Runner beans (change of subject!) - we used to grow them up the back of our mobile home when we worked in 17.  We'd get crowds of French people stopping & staring at them all the time, as if they'd never seen anything like them before!
  5. Thanks very much for your replies, folks, and for taking the time to look up that info for me too, Martin - that link is very useful!  I'm pretty sure that those are the channels we're getting - I shall have to check for certain next time we're back.  It's reassuring to know that it's not something to do with the way the system is set up, and confirmation, Marina, that friends nearby are in the same situation is equally comforting!  Now, as long as TF1 keeps the Formula 1 franchise, I'll be OK!  I have a vague recollection that some years ago one of the other channels used to show the race instead, with that nice Mr Prost commentating....... Thanks again guys!  
  6. I'm wondering whether anyone else in Basse-Normandie (particularly around Sourdeval) has any experience of using a Freeview/TNT box? We recently took our Freeview box over and connected it, and received about 9 TNT channels perfectly OK - not all of those that the TV paper reckons are available on TNT - and crucially not TF1.  In addition, on ordinary terrestrial TV, we can only get TF1/A2/FR3, but all really clear & strong.  I'm wondering whether it's a question of signal strength for certain channels whcich is why we don't get them all on either medium. My major concern is that if I can only get TF1 on terrestrial TV, once they switch to digital then I'll be left without access the the Formula 1 Grand Prix races - or would have to get a satellite - can you get ITV on free-to-air satellites these days? Any help gratefully received! English Eccentric
  7. Possibly that may depend on whether it's inside the house, or in a seperate building outside, as ours is - and possibly on your insurance company, too!  I was told by someone (before we bought our bread oven/house) that they are an endangered species and are protected - apparently you can't demolish them or anything - but I've not checked this with the Mairie as I don't intend to demolish it! As to dating them, that would be fascinating.  We have few clues to go on - our house is post-war as the one that did stand on the land was destroyed during the invasion, but the bread oven (and a little bergerie close by) certainly pre-dates that, and has those little ledges on the chimney stack that used to retain the thatch - does anyone know, for starters, when thatch stopped being used inNormandy on new-builds?
  8. ...but old books are just like old friends, you don't need to keep seeing them all the time, but just knowing that they're there is enough.  If I come out of a charity shop without at least one book, then I reckon I've not been looking hard enough!  I couldn't bear the thought of having to part with most of them.
  9. Thanks for that - I shall give it a go once we've got it cleaned up a bit!  I'd hazard a guess that it hasn't been used properly this side of the war - the vendor said that he'd never used it (and he's owned the house for at least 30 years); although his son did admit that they used to roast chestnuts in it (!) - I don't think Papa knew about that.  I'd certainly not've thought about gradually heating it up like that, but (with hindsight) it strikes me as an eminently sensible suggestion - thanks!
  10. I'd love to know if anyone does find a picture of their house in those photos - as would (I imagine) the poster - I think his goal is to be able to definitively identify with as much detail as possible the locations & contents of as many of those photos as possible.  I spent ages trying (fairly unsuccesfully) trying to find out a little of the history of the house we were buying - then when (last weekend) we finally signed the Acte de Vente, a quick chat to the next-door neighbour and we learnt that the Germans had put an anti-aircraft battery in our hamlet, so the Allied airforce (he blames the US airforce!) tried to knock it out; the house that stood where ours now is (and others) were damaged beyond repair.  He told us that there are some photos in the Church at Sourdeval; we'll be taking a look before very much longer!
  11. I'm new on this forum, so may be posting about something everyone already knows - apologies if that's the case! The photo-sharing website www.flickr.com has a set of truly awesome photos of Normandy from around August 1944, i.e. just after the invasion.  Log onto flickr (you may need a Yahoo password - not sure, as I'm a member), search under flickr members for photosnormandie and you'll get to his page - there are 2750 photos of excellent quality (flickr members can download them for private use) mostly from US Army or Wehrmacht sources.  You could be really lucky and find a photo of your house, or your village - there are some amazing aerial shots of Vire, for example, post-bombing, and a few colour shots too.  (I, typically, was unlucky, and didn't find anything closer than about 10km down the road, but....) Happy Hunting, English Eccentric
  12. Why not think about a half-way measure first,& see how it goes?  We spent 8 years working for an English camping/holiday company in various places in France (Haven Europe, now Siblu) - starting off working seasonally as reps, then 4 years working full-time in the maintenance team in a large site near La Palmyre (17).  My previous experience was in Banking; a qualified sparks shold be snapped up quickly by most of the firms operating!  Pay is low, but accommodation is supplied - when we worked as reps, we worked as a couple (you do need to define which of you is in charge at a VERY early stage!).  I learnt more about the French way of plumbing/gas/electrics & maintenance generally, and of course, the language as it's spoken on the ground (rather than in the classroom) by doing that than I could ever have picked up by moving straight into our own house - now that we have bought here, I'm more than grateful that I did it that way round
  13. When we first came out to France, we invested in a copy of 'Larousse Gastronomique', a weighty volume which seemed ideal for those of us living/cooking in France - just about every cooking method, foodstuff, description that we were unfamiliar with - there it was, in English, with the full description, history (and often a relevant quote from French literature to boot!) and nice colour pictures.  Invaluable!  At the time (1990-ish), it cost about £30 from our local bookshop.  Now, those nice Book People (who bring books to the office for you to buy) have just had the latest edition (rrp £60) up for a tenner - too good to be true, so now we've got a copy each side of the Channel!  Seriously, I'd wholeheartedly recommend a copy to anyone wanting to cook in the French style, especially if you can get it for ten quid!  (at one time, we also used to get a montly magazine called 'Cuisine et Vins de France' which was also very informative, and particularly good for what was in season at the time, and what to do with it - also recommended!)
  14. Hi all, Hope this one hasn't been asked before - my search didn't bring up anything!  The place we've just bought has an old bread-oven on the land (in a dependance), and we thought it might be fun to try and make the thing work; bake up some bread or a pizza or two.  As far as I gather, it's more-or-less a case of setting a fire going inside til it's hot, shifting the fire out of the way & chucking in the food. Has anyone else got one that they've used - any tips or advice that might come in handy/save our burned eyebrows - or are we heading into untried territory?  
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