chrisb

This weekend there will be several ceremonies in remembrance of the Typhoon pilots and ground crew who served in the Battle of Normandy. Culminates at Noyers Bocage on Sunday morning with ceremony at the Typhoon memorial (http://www.panoramio.com/photo_explorer#view=photo&position=40&with_photo_id=49131017&order=date_desc&user=5007491) at 11.15 with a flypast by a Spitfire at 11.40.

There are plenty of producers west of Caen as well. Would recommend Clos d'Orval at Amaye-sur-Seulles - a few miles from Caumont l'Evente. They do apple juice, cider, Calvados and pommeau as well as some preserves. It says on the site that they're open all day but don't expect any quick service if you turn up just after lunch time! You will of course be offered degustation! http://www.calvados-tourisme.com/en/343/0/0/PCUNOR014FS000FH/sit/detail/heritage/industrial-tourism/Clos-d-Orval/AMAYE-SUR-SEULLES/

Now you've got me worried - ours has sounded as if it has bronchitis for several years now. Hope it's not terminal.

They have them in stock at our local garden centre (near Bayeux) but I thought it looked very expensive and quite flimsy. A good review site is www.fredshed.co.uk but they don't seem to have covered this yet.

Can't believe our luck - real Summer temperatures here in 14. Might even get the barbecue out. Last year we hit bad weather on every trip so doubly pleased!

As an alternative you can try http://www.meteo-normandie.fr/# Often seems to differ from the official meteo site so we tend to look at both and choose the better forecast. Not, of course, that this makes better weather any more likely.

[quote user="Jay"]There are about 200,000 Google refs. about how to prune roses. THIS is a good one although I prefer to watch NATASHA as she is very easy on the eye [;-)] [/quote] She was talking about pruning roses? My attention seemed to desert me once she put the rubber gloves on.

The map doesn't seem to be kept up to date. Travelling back to Calais today we passed 6 motorway services. 5 of them had the full choice of fuels available and the 6th had everything except 98. This could be a temporary improvement in supplies I suppose with the blockades of the depots having been lifted - but presumably if the refineries are still not working then there won't be anything to replace what's being sold now. On the plus side the traffic was extremely light on the autoroutes!

[quote user="WendyG"]Hi May be a stupid suggestion, but why not travel back from Caen to Portsmouth, at least you can then guarantee getting back for work. Good luck WendyG [/quote] That was the plan of last resort - believe me you do not want to know just how bad a sailor I am! Luckily though was surprised to be able to fill up with 98 at leClerc in Bayeux this morning - there wasn't even the usual queue. So unless any blockades on the road (not on a Sunday I'm guessing) it's back to plan A. Not going to tell my boss yet though - let her think I really struggled!

[quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"]That's what I thought. So why are the government not stressed about it then?[/quote] C'est normal, hein? I'm keeping everything crossed for Sunday as have already had my boss email me threatening dire consequences if not back at work on Monday morning. Have enough to get to the BP on the motorway near Caen (and back here if they don't have any) but not enough to get to Calais. Dilemma is whether to use more of what I have looking for somewhere to top up before then? By the way - shouldn't BP be reserved for Brits in these circumstances????

Reading the explanation in the various articles I have to say that it doesn't make sense. They're saying that the passengers were in a carriage behind one left empty because of an earlier food spill and that staff forgot to empty it on arrival. But when the shuttle arrives ALL the interconnecting doors open at the same time so how could they get forgotten? And what would have happened when they started loading the cars for the return trip? How could anyone not notice they were there - and come to that how could the stranded passengers not notice what was happening? I suspect there is some other explanation that's being kept quiet. edit...please read "fuel" where I've put "food" - shows what's on my mind!

[quote user="JandM"]Goats.[/quote] or Eeyore

[quote user="Stan Streason"]We are with Seolis and it looks like I can submit readings on their site.  I still think it will be a battle.[/quote] We've found with EDF that sending the correct reading through works fine in getting the account corrected. What has proved impossible is getting them to actually amend their estimates so that future bills reflect the fact that the house is only occupied for 12 weeks per year. Their estimate is also based on the fact that a previous owner had electric space heating as the only form of heat and however often we tell them that this is no longer the case the estimated use rate never changes.

[quote user="bixy"]Arriving at St Pancras it was obvious that something was wrong - huge crowds of people waiting to check in, and no-one doing so. An announcement soon told us the problem - a false fire alarm caused by a lorry shuttle in the tunnel. [/quote] Those waiting for the shuttle service at Folkestone weren't lucky enough to get any sort of proper explanation - just announcements referring to an "incident train". We were checked in for the 07.50 and got called round to the waiting area after an hour or so. Once there it was announced that we wouldn't be departing until after midday! No such luck - in the event we were on the first passenger shuttle to leave - just after 14.30. What I really can't understand is how it can take over six hours to recover a train from the tunnel when the only thing wrong was a malfunctioning smoke alarm. Either the operation is totally inefficient or there was more to it than we were told. I notice that there was a Press Association report at 09.30 that said there had been a false alarm and that the service was back to normal - probably just as well that we were unaware of that at the time.

Probably it's largely a matter of taste - I think a bit of gameyness (?) is great but others like their meat absolutely fresh. It'll also vary according to the weather and where you have to hang it (I'm assuming that none of us has a proper game larder). Best guess - assuming weather cold and dry - would be 3 to 4 days with the giblets still in. It'll then be fine refrigerated for a few more days.

[quote user="Clarkkent"]Who. I wonder, remembers the great days of  Around the Horne, and Dame Celia Molestrangler?[/quote] Ohhhh Charles Belinda! Charles! Be-lindaaaa! "We had something once, Charles. Something good and wonderful. What happened to that Charles?" "You spent it Belinda" See what you've done Clarkkent - sent me orff on one....

Ours certainly works at various LeClercs - also at our local EcoMarche 24/7 pump - which even recognises the card nationality and switches over to instructions in English!

Some of you may have come across this character from the Cap du Hague area who has chronicled the disappearing way of life of the French peasant. He's written several books and a film about his life has been made and is to be screened at the Cannes festival this year. Anyway - he will be making a public appearance on Sunday (18th) at the (recently opened) Bibliotheque Leon Prunier in Cormolain (14) between the hours of 3.00 and 6.00 pm. There will be a verre de l'amitie and a promised warm welcome for anyone interested in meeting him - you can also puchase copies of the books. In the dozen years that we've been holidaying in Normandy there have been many changes - when we arrived there were still people hand-milking their cow in the middle of the field with a stool and bucket. And communal gleaning for corn husks left behind by the harvester was a yearly event. But that's disappeared as the elderly locals who indulged have moved on.

If you haven't seen any visual evidence of the mice - i.e. droppings - it may be that what you're hearing in the roof space are bats? Not that that helps you I know.

Addage? Wasn't that what we used before electronic calculators were invented? As for "When in Rome....." we can adopt that as a rallying cry the day that all ex-pat Brits start adopting French customs. A better general motto to live by is "never trust anyone who wants to ban anything".

Can Chris'nJulie or one of the others who deny global warming actually present a reasoned argument for their case that the governments of the world (not known for seeing eye to eye) are deliberately making this all up? And that's not the one about it being an "opportunity to put up taxes". In case you hadn't noticed governments don't need excuses to do that. Also - can we take it that when the water gets up tp your necks that you will gladly refuse all offers of assistance on the basis that it's just a myth?

Kompass directory gives the UK distributor as Gilberts Food Equipment Ltd Gilbert House 1 Warwick Place Borehamwood, Hertfordshire WD6 1UA United Kingdom Phone : +44 845 2300681 ‎ Fax : +44 845 2300682 ‎

Game's so widely available in the U.K. these days that it always seems strange to see so little of it on open sale in France. We have one person near us in France who has pheasants for sale - but they are farmed and no match for the free flying ones we're used to in England. The one honourable exception is rabbit - though I think some of what the supermarkets have is actually imported.

That's a shame Pickles - I was hoping that the RFID tags in my library books might work - way cheaper if they did. SANEF now have a useful video on line to explain how to drive through at 30 kph. http://www.lepeagesimple.fr/index_tsa.php#

On a more negative note I've noticed a gradual tendency at some of the smaller peages for what was the dedicated doofer lane to be redefined for doofers, cartes and (in some cases) coins. Again this has taken away some of that special doofer magic of sailing through. Yesterday we got stuck behind someone who could not get the machine to accept his payment card so we all ended up having to do the backing out thing.