[Gruissan?]

Just returned from a long weekend in the Carcassonne area - very taken with Gruissan - thinking of selling up our holiday home in the Charente and heading south! However, would appreciate any info' from folk who already have homes in Gruissan. How busy does it get in July / August? What's it like off season? What sort of property would you get for 100 - 150 euros? Any comments gratefully received - thanks.  

[Newcastle to Limoges]

At last a route from the NE of England to somewhere other than Paris. Very limited Saturday only summer service from Flybe but it's a start! 

[Chinese supermarket]

Can't really help with the Chinese supermarket (although I think I recall seeing one in Cognac last year)! Is this area a refuge for folk from North Yorkshire. We live near Bedale and have a house near Champagne Mouton![:)]

[Fly Leeds / Bradford to Poitiers or Limoges?]

Flybe are seeking views about where people would like to fly to in France from Leeds Bradford airport. If you do the journey from "up north" and would like to suggest LB to Poitiers or Limoges log on now:

 http://www.lbia.co.uk/france.php

[Domestic Taxes in 16]

Could anyone give us the benefit of their experience on rates bills. We have a house near Champagne Mouton, (Turgon Commune), currently used just (unfortunately!) as a second home. We’ve just received our bill for “taxe foncière”. It’s not too bad at all but we understand that there might be some discount on account of the more limited services used by second home owners. Is that the case – or is it much the same as in England where those discounts are pretty much a thing of the past? It’s not a problem but if we could save a few bob here we could buy some more stuff for the jobs we want to do sooner rather than later.

And can we ask about the “taxe d’habitation”? We understand that this bill usually follows the other one but that there’s an element of means–testing. It’s not that we’re likely to qualify for any reduction in the bill, it’s just that we wouldn’t want a form sitting in our post box in France holding things up!. And is it correct that the “taxe d’habitation” is usually about half the “taxe foncière?

Sorry about all the questions but these taxes are new to us as we didn’t pay either of them last year as we only took possession in March.

Thanks in anticipation of any help.

[Why no Ryanair routes from Northern airports?]

I've had to put aside some very tasty black pudding (with tripe of course) and cancel a shift down t' pit in order to reply but I do agree that it's all about demonstrating a demand from the north! I'm encouraged by the Poitiers survey but presumably Ryanair (and any other airline) would have to take into account the business they'd lose from Stansted in putting on new northern routes. Having said that, every flight that I've been on recently from Stansted to Poitiers, Tours or Limoges has been full so presumably there's scope for further flights.

What about a writing campaign to that nice Mr O'Leary to demonstrate demand - the worst he can do, as he did to the EU recently, is to tell us to "#### off"!