[Best Match of the Weekend]

Yes, but you got pushed off your own ball in the scrum - by Australia!!!

[Best Match of the Weekend]

I think Ireland were a tad fortunate though I give them credit for keeping going right to the end. I haven't had the misfortune to see any of England's games but hardly anybody has a kind word to say. Despite the injuries I don't think Jonno picks the right players or else asks people (eg Monye) to play out of position. What do you expect from a team which has Steve Borthwick and Louis Deacon as the second row?

France were good value against SA and it was extraordinary to see a South African scrum under pressure. Early on in his appointment I thought Lievremont was barking but there was method in his madness. He has now beaten NZ and SA in quick succession.

[Re: Clarkson on Mandelson]

For me this is the old Argentina or Germany question.

[Remembrance day wreaths]

We had a letter inviting us to the "celebrations" of a nearby village. They found us (and other Brits) by going through the telephone directory. The local children had made poppies for us. The ceremony remembered the dead from all wars and I had a hard job preventing a water leak from my eyes.

[Espresso machine]

La Pavoni - to paraphrase a line from Midnight Cowboy "it's the only one".

[Nice, congenial small town recommendation, please]

I don't really know it well but what about Marmande? Station, Bordeaux near, very pretty flowers all year etc

[Its October, damp, and grey.]

Get your thermometers out of the sun! It was very cold by air temperature in the Tarn - barely into double figures on Saturday and Sunday, however the sun is still very warm. I would be very surprised if the temperature was mid 20s in the Lot.

Change yesterday as the "vent d'autan" blew a gale but the thermometer showed 16 at 8 am this morning.

[Rural violence]

I'm in the Tarn near Albi. "Pensioner robs pensioner" - now that would be a story!

[Rural violence]

Aggravated burglary seems to be becoming quite popular in the south-west. I assume it's the rather grander dwellings that get hit - not much point coming here, I've got about 8 euros in my wallet.

[Prelevements sociaux]

Have pmd "parsnips". Thanks for your help.

[Prelevements sociaux]

I've just been stung for 0,5 per cent of my 2008 (all taxed in the UK as they are pensions) earnings. First time this has happened to me in nearly four years in France. Anybody else suffered - how often will this happen?

[Greenhouse]

Greenhouses are thin on the ground in France; we brought ours with us. What about a "tunnel"?

[Ryanair on Panarama Monday evening]

Unless you've never travelled on RA then you wouldn't have been very surprised or shocked by the programme. There are lots of "extras" when you buy a flight. The food on board is very expensive, and I might have heard their suggesting that the Pope is a catholic and that bears do things in the woods....

[Ryanair on Panarama Monday evening]

Apparently there is now a London Airport at Oxford.

I've never been "pressurised" to buy anything on a RA flight.

[France is getting a bit pricey?]

You obviously don't know Streatham very well.

[Are anti-British incidents on the increase?]

No.

[identify this please?]

It's that time of the year when everything wants to come indoors for the winter.

[Loire Tour help]

I'd never heard of it but may look it up.

[How do you fix the UK]

Are you suggesting the UK is better off without us?

I agree with your other sentiments.

[Loire Tour help]

Not many people live in the Central area!

[Loire Tour help]

Thanks - have seen site and will be bearing you in mind.

[How do you fix the UK]

I have to admit that I do not know what the answer is but I am convinced that thrashing people is not the way to improve society. You still seem to suggest that it doesn't really matter if the odd innocent person here or there is hanged. The risk of your way is that we end up with a very repressive system, so much so that somebody, jokingly or not, said we would end up with a form of Sharia law.

[Loire Tour help]

Any advice as to an itinerary of three to four days for an oenophile and a garden-lover. (We'll be coming by car from the South-West in early December). We have seen Saumur and therefore the eastern end will be of more interest I think.

[How do you fix the UK]

In what way is corporal punishment effective? It was always the same kids who got caned at school and I knew a family whose parents used a towel as the preferred instrument of pain - I mean discipline. Of course, they were changed from thugs into charming members of society.

As for capital punishment - a bit of collateral damage is acceptable. "We're going to hang you, even though you might be innocent, just think of the good of society will you?"

[How do you fix the UK]

I'm surprised nobody wants to bring back the birch. Those of you who favour the death penalty what do you say to family of people like Timothy Evans, and the most recent case, whose name escapes me, released after being shown to be innocent. A Pythonesque "Sorry!"?