chrisb

Have a great holiday - have to admit we park right near the library when going to market but have never actually been in. Hope you get on well with the French keyboard!   Allez les Bleus!

[:)] Yes the St Lo main library (at Place du Champ de Mars) offers internet access. However unlike UK libraries it looks as if they have a subscription charge for surfers - it's 20 Euros for a year - or you can pay as you go for one Euro per hour. I would advise taking about a dozens proofs of ID with you - librarians are nice people but this is France! There also doesn't seem to be an advance booking system. You can e.mail the library : [email protected]   Additional note - I've just noticed that the library closes for the last week in July and first week in August for staff holidays. Good luck - and how great to spend 2 whole months in the area. We're going over next week but can only manage 12 days.

Many libraries in France will offer internet access - definitely if you're near one of the ones re-christened "Mediatheque" Or for those needing access in GB you can get online at every library. (shameless plug)

"facial hair, which seems more or less obligatory for a certain brand of British person in France" I'm dying for a fuller expounding on this....what constitutes the certain brand - and is it a good thing or bad? As Will knows they have an East coast in Manche - but perhaps that doesn't count. I have been known to cause confusion by telling people I was brought up on the North coast of England.

I think you'll find that because the load adjusting switch only varies the vertical plane of the light beam they will still be considered to be set to shine to the left and consequently not legal. I guess too that the police would in any case only accept a modification that they could see easily. Last June we saw several gendarmes carefully checking every British car at the Baie de Somme services so were glad that we had recently invested in a set of the clip-on covers. Though the main reason for buying them was that I figured they would be cheaper in the long run than getting a set of the stick-on deflectors every visit. I also get irritated at the number of Brits who ignore the signs telling you to switch your lights on to go through some tunnels - presumably through lack of language skills - or perhaps they are taking the signs literally and are busy lighting fires in their vehicles. I think GB is the only (or nearly) country that has headlights pointing to the side - presumably if everyone had them set straight forwards there wouldn't be a problem.

We use a fairly bog-standard Bosch cordless on our privet (around 100 metres long) and have found it fine. The model we got came with two batteries which is useful. That said I must admit that when wanting more than just a normal Summer trim (e.g. when we took a foot off the top) I resorted to the petrol trimmer - even though it takes a week for my arms to stop trembling after using it!

Thanks - that doesn't sound too bad. Last time there was just one person to help everyone. The machines worked fine - but some of the customers were finding it heavy-going. The poor lady in front of us was so worried by the instruction not to remove the hanger from the slot until it had finished printing that she waited for five minutes before daring to pull it out. I work for the library service and we're busy introducing self service kit ourselves - and we find that people like to have their hand held the first time or two but then get to love the technology.

...and at the opposite face of the same thing "from the word go" - much beloved by weather forecasters. I've tried getting up early but haven't heard it yet - even on Radio4 which is surely where anything that official would be uttered. While we're talking about forecasters - here's a few more gems: "Outbreaks of rain in places like Norwich and Leicester" - I don't know anywhere else like that "Frost during the night time hours" - as opposed to the night time oatcakes? "Organised periods of rain" - who by? The one that really makes me wince at work and seems to come out at every meeting is "direction of travel"

Has anyone used Eurotunnel in recent days? We're coming over tomorrow and are wondering whether we need to allow extra time. When we came over in the Winter the self check in had just started and there was a heck of a queue even though it was off-season, as people struggled with the new system. Is it now better or worse? I fear it will be the latter as there'll be lots of people using it for the first time. [Www]    

I've noticed the lack of a beep on some occasions. Also once in a while instead of a nice clean BEEP it seems to issue a strangled sort of quacking sound. Am I not treating it properly? Is it registering disgust at having been joined by one of those nasty new-fangled SatNav thingies?  

Yes Chris is right - these sound like pollen beetles. They seem much more prevalent these days - perhaps there's been a decline in whatever predates them. They do seem to go for yellow flowers by preference.

Can we have a special thread just for people called Chris B? I've got another one here with me. Still - as long as we know who we are it should be OK.[8-)]

As a periodic poster - just returned after a long absence - it does seem that the "general" postbag has been a bit weird of late - but then that's happened before and will no doubt settle down again. I find it more concerning that on this and other forums there always seem to be some people who are too ready to criticise those who disagree with them for being 'lurkers' or 'trolls' or 'sock-puppets' or 'newcomers', as if this somehow means that it absolves the more established members from joining in proper rational debate with them. I visit another Archant forum where this problem got so out of hand that it's ended up with nobody left but a group of grumpy idiots who agree with each other on everything and who immediately round on anyone else who dares to enter their private domain. At least the 'subject' forums are still full of the useful practical advice that's made this site so successful. 

At the moment we're only over for holidays so most evenings are spent recovering from the joint strains of the large meal just consumed and the day's gardening. Come retirement though, the plan is to spend the evenings reading all the books there's never been time for and the shelves are being filled in advance - so far the range includes P G Wodehouse and Proust. Of course there'll still be the eating, drinking and gardening...

One seed company I have found great is Chiltern www.chilternseeds.co.uk . They don't seem to have "Roi des Balcons" but do offer seed of a couple of balcony type pelargoniums - one below.   Of course because pelargoniums are a bit stingy with their seed production (only one seed per flower I believe) seed tends to be quite expensive - especially compared with the cost of vegetively produced plants.   PELARGONIUM PELTATUM, F1 hybrid 'Summer Showers'Mixed

I feel a bit of a fraud making a suggestion on this one as I've never had much luck with melons myself. However - it sounds like the result of having gone without water for a bit then getting loads which resulted in stop and start growth. The rule seems to be "little and often", like so many things. Good luck!

Usually fairly easy to pull/dig up - just keep doing it till all gone. Mind you it's best to get it up before it seeds which will already have happened this year. At least it's a chore that's made pleasant by the lovely scent! If you keep some it also makes a lovely sorbet and you can add leaves to may cold desserts

I don't seem to be able spot an equivalent product locally to the UK "Postfix" - that readymixed concrete formula that you pour dry into the hole around a fencepost then sprinkle water onto. Does anyone know the tradename of a French equivalent? - and yes I agree that I'm lazy not to mix concrete up myself!   Thanks

So if this trend continues we may be faced with a European Condom Mountain - at least there would only be one place to keep it.

Thanks for all the suggestions - certainly think a "Beware" sign is worth a try. We could even suggest that the plants are cursed by a witch - might upset the cure though. I mentioned our loss in the butcher's shop yesterday and he expressed his disappointment - also exchanged a significant look at his wife which could have meant "I bet it's xxxxx up to their old tricks again" or on the other hand "Why is this English fool thinking we are interested in his problems?" We're back to Angleterre on Tuesday so will await developments.

It's certainly worth paying a bit more to have a compartment to  yourselves. When we last went to Brive breakfast on arrival (in the converted engine shed) was included - but that may have changed. Checking in at Calais can seem a bit drawn out - but I suppose that it can't be made much quicker with all the cars to be loaded. You just need to bring your 'overnight essentials' out of the car - though for your peace of mind you might want to keep any expensive stuff with you. The train does sometimes pause in the middle of the night at Orleans and other stations so I suppose a really opportunistic thief might try and hop aboard the car wagons - but I've never heard of it happening.

I wonder if anyone else has had this problem - and what,if anything, you did about it. We're gradually increasing the amount of our garden given over to flower beds and so on most of our visits are busy planting up. However, by the time we next visit a proportion of what we've planted has been carefuuly dug up and removed. This has culminated in us having just discovered the loss of several expensive shrubs we put in at Easter. The thief is obviously picky as the labels of all the newly planted stuff are pulled out of the ground and discarded if the plants aren't wanted. My son has suggested signs saying "Mine Field", or one of those dummy video cameras, but I'm not sure. Our friendly local farmer keeps an eye out on things generally but hasn't spotted this. The garden is fairly hidden from the road so unless the thief was seen leaving nobody would notice. It seems like a waste of time to report it to the gendarmes - I know it's hardly the crime of the century. Any ideas gratefully received - even if zany they might cheer us up!

When possible - in Normandy, halfway between St Lo and Bayeux When not possible - in Essex But an infrequent poster so probably of no interest

"I shut my eyes tight when negotiating the Pont du Normandie (and I'm the driver!!"   I think I may have followed you across the other week! By the way - have you noticed that the temperature displays at "le pont" always show it one degree cooler on the north side of the bridge? Is it really always cooler or just that the two instruments aren't properly calibrated?

Older posters may remember that at one stage of the debate about whether to build a channel crossing the British government favoured a tunnel whilst the French preferred a bridge (or it may have been the other way round). Some wag proposed that each should have their own way for half the distance and somebody could bid for the lucrative contract for the escalator connecting the French bridge to the British tunnel. At the moment planning the comparitively simple lower Thames crossing seems to be an impossible dream - so don't hold your breath.