Quillan

Have you looked through this section? There is loads of interesting and helpfull information here. This section has not been going long so the comments are pretty up to date. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

LAST EDITED ON 04-Jun-04 AT 03:35 PM (BST) All the current C4 stuff has been removed and they have been invited to pay and advertise in our magazine. Chris Moderator

Although Jeans answer is not really informative I may have an idea of where they are coming from. In a way. I am not sure how long you have been living here (France) and if you have had a consumer problem before but it would appear you are tackling the problem from a English point of view with the possible thought that the consumer law in France is the same as the UK. Unfortunately my personal experience is rather different and I can tell you its not. As I sit and think about your problem some other things come to mind that we, the English, might not realise. Firstly it is important in France to get any warranty documents stamped by the store from which you bought it, some do this as a matter of course whilst in others you need to open the box, get it out and ask them to stamp it. Always check a box that has had the seal broken because you might find bits missing and the French attitude is you should have checked it first. Always keep your bill, preferably always ask for a Facture. This is mandatory for any warranty or insurance claim. Never expect to get a refund, they mainly issue credit notes. If you do get a refund they will normally deduct any card fees. The French stick rigidly to warranty period. I have a professional iron that cost nearly 300, it went bang 4 days after the warranty ran out, tough luck for me, there was no leniency. I have been told that its often better to buy from a smaller local shop because they can be more helpful especially if you use them a lot. I actually got a refund from a local shop because I told them if I didnt I would never shop there again and I would tell all my friends how I was treated. The French consumer law in France is way behind that of the UK and in your case the fact that such a document about the glass not being covered by the warranty exists means you will have a big problem getting it fixed FOC. Perhaps they forgot to put a copy of this document in the box or assumed they had and that you had lost it, who knows. If you deal with a big shop they are never too impressed if you mention the law, especially if you are not French, they often do the French shoulder shrug thing and walk away. Have you written to the manufacturer? If not you could try that, be flattering, tell them how pleased and over the moon you are with the product then mention the glass and how surprised you were that it failed so quickly. You should also mention that you followed the user guide to the letter. If this doesnt work then I am afraid you will have to pay but then 51 is not a big sum of money although I do understand your other concerns. Hope this helps. Let us know how you got on (good or bad) as it may help others (including me) in the future. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

I agree with the others, they are virus's or worms. I have never used 'free' AV software so I can't comment on it's quality but as an ex-proffesional IT consultant I would only use a bought product from the point of view that if it's up to date and there is a problem which is down to a bad virus definition file you can sue them, very handy when you have a multi million pound system. I personally use Mcafee mainly because we ran trials against it and it's competitors a couple of years back which resulted in it coming up best because of it's good integration with MS products and the speed in which they 'catch' new virus's/worms and send updates out, often several days before the other vendors. One of the best things is that it 'bolts' in to Outlook so everything is scanned as it is downloaded. I set mine up to return the email automatically with a copy to [email protected] (xxxx being the sending ISP) along with a copy of the header so they can trace it back to the source. So in the end my recomendation is, buy a good AV product that bolts into your email and scans both the email and attachments after all just because it has no file attached it does not mean the email does not contain a virus. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

It makes you wonder. Had a call from a guy from America who didnt sound American at all and withheld his number. Got a room he said, as I am coming tomorrow for one month and havent booked anything yet and have looked at your website, just how far are you from Paris? Well keep in mind we have a French map on our website that shows where we are in France and there are plenty of references to the fact we are down south just 3 hrs from Barcelona I couldnt resist by saying we are about 1 hr away but before I could get the bit about by plane and 8 by car in he said thats no good do you know anybody nearer?. Oh well all the fun of being an International Hotelier, Gentleman Farmer and Land Owner I guess. Have a nice day. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com http://perso.wanadoo.fr/easybook-france/

Dare I say it but message in your inbox. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

You need to look on your PC probably under My Webs in My Documents which is the default location for Frontpage. Frontpage does not work on the live website but on the local copy help on your PC. You could try using a FTP program to download it from your web server but it may not be in the original format due to Frontpage Extensions. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

Hi, You won't be far from me then, only about 20 mins away. The books you mention are OK but some of the stuff about what you need does differ from one region (department) to another and it is a bit out of date now. Most of the information I found (here and other places) indicated that you will really have to go 'all the way' to 5 letting rooms to POSSIBLY make a living. Then it will depend on your advertising and marketing which many people in the business won't help you with for fear you will then take some of their business. Most of the people I know of have a second job or the B&B IS the second job. The other thing you should be aware of is that the area (Aude) is at saturation point. There was an artical recently in a department paper issued by the prefecture in Carcassonne that said there is something like 50 odd beds available to rent in either Gites or Chambres D'Hote per night per person during high season which is only 8 to 10 weeks long. Think of the competition out of season, there must be about 200 beds pp pn then. When you sell a B&B business accountants will normally use a calcualtion of 10 weeks on the mean price of each room as an indication of POSSIBLE income available which as a VERY rough quide is 4000 per room over 10 weeks (this information I got from French commercial property websites). The trick then is to give value added services to get people to come outside the 10 weeks. You then are going to loose 2.5k for cotistations the first year and over 3k the second and taxed on 28% of the total turnover but better explainations of these charges and how they work can be found in this section of the forum. The next thing is all the labour involved, we run 3 rooms at present and on a complete changeover day we are talking one hour per room plus about 1 hr washing and ironing, thats 4 hours of your day gone straight away. Then off to the shops for fresh food, back to do the prep work, lay the tables for dinner and start cooking about 5:30 in the afternoon for dinner at 7. After dinner, we have 2 dishwashers, there is the washing up to do and laying the breakfast tables. The the best bit, 10 minutes on our own with a cup of tea on the terrace at about 11:30 or midnight before we go to bed. Then it's up a six to walk the dog and get fresh bread etc. Look through this part of the forum and you will find some good information (especially Miki's and JP1's stuff) which I have used and it worked fine for me, also look at.. http://www.livingfrance.com/dcforum/DCForumID50/52.html http://www.livingfrance.com/dcforum/DCForumID50/50.html http://www.livingfrance.com/dcforum/DCForumID50/64.html http://www.livingfrance.com/dcforum/DCForumID50/33.html http://www.livingfrance.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=29&forum=DCForumID50&omm=0 There is some good stuff in the last one if you ignore some of what appears to verbal bashing which is down to people not really understanding the business at the time (I was one of them), ignore that bit and look at what Miki says about GDF, it's very useful. The other thing to think on is how much it will cost you to actually set it up, beds, linin, towels, plates, decorating, pots and pans, heated trolly's etc. The cost of advertising (set a budget) look how many copies of books on B&B's in France have been sold on Ebay and who wrote them, look for websites on B&B's in a given area and see who comes top of the list and work out why. There are a lot of people who reallly think it's easy (and make it sound easy) 'put a few signs up and an ad in the paper and wait for the money to roll in', I wish. We know of a couple who did just that, they are broke and are having to sell up and go home. If you are still keen after this lot then the very best of luck to you. Just to say before I go. It's very rewarding, we have met people from all over the world, have had some wonderfull evenings with guests and the pleasure of seeing somebody leave with a big happy smile on their face, totally relaxed, is worth all the money in the world. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com http://perso.wanadoo.fr/easybook-france/

Her in doors was out of doors doing some retail therapy today so I thought lets live dangerously and then started thinking. What about running a course for people who want to come and run a B&B in France, I pondered this for a while, well for nearly 5 minutes, over a G&T (must remember to add some water to the gin bottle else she will know I have been enjoying myself again) and decided it would be rather impractical and I still dont know it all by far so I wont bother. Not only that I doubt you would ever get and people to come anyway. Where is all this going I hear you ask? Well I thought (again, dangerous isnt it) what would people expect from such a course, answers on a post stamp please? I must stop this thinking thing, thats twice now in two days, if she ever finds out, well it doesn't bear thinking about. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

My mate has just got Tiscali ADSL (512kb) with a free modem and I see it's only 20 per month. Is there any catch, is it unlimited use? I have ADSL via Wanadoo and it's not the cheapest but it was all I could get at the time but it's 19 more per month so I am interested in chamnging over. Any comments? Finally if there are no catches how do I cancel my Wanadoo account and is there some notice period once you have gone past one year? Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

I was sitting here thinking, mostly I just sit, being a man my wife tells me its not my job to think (dont let them (men) think its dangerous) so dont let on. I dont know what I really think about windmills and nuclear power but I know both dont let of gass that affect my asthma. I dont think there is much wrong with nuclear power, there has only been one big accident and that was with very old technology. We use to have the trains carrying the waste pass not to far away from us in London and there were no problems. The truth of the matter is we all need electricity for lighting through cooking/heating to using our PCs to talk to each other, the telephone as well. We strive to find clean ways to make it but every way you turn there is an objection of some kind. Are we getting a bit NIMBY in our attitude? I noted the other day that more nuclear power stations are being built in France based on US technology and what with all the wind farms springing up it makes you wonder why we pay so much. I guess, like most, I wouldnt want a wind generator or a nuclear power station at the bottom of (or even in) my garden but given the choice of having to have one or no electricity I would prefer the electricity. Perhaps we could have more hydro plants but this would mean new lakes/reservoirs and great areas of land would go under water so which ever road you take somebody is going to get upset. I also wondered if we are going down the do gooders route, them that want clean/green power at any cost. There is however always a price to pay. Perhaps people could come up with other ideas to create the large quantities of power we need without having to blot the landscape. Anyway I cant help with the mole but we do have very rare tail less salamanders in our garden mind you the three cats might give the game away on that one. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

Hi Rob, Only meeeee, Got back on Saturday, went to Gru Agde, Avignon (nice), then down to Nice. The temp was about 24 to 30C and only a light spot of rain one night. In contrast it rained here the first week, sunny the second but with a massive storm with hail and about 10" of rain in 1 hour (hope your roof is on Jo, haven't had time to look yet) the road through Belvianes was blocked by water for about an hour (says Fabien at the Auberge). Still it's nice and sunny here now so perhaps summer has arrived, best get the BBQ out just in case. Sunday was the Fair at 'Q'. Next weekend is the Fete in Belvianes et Cavirac which lasts for 3 days ending with a sit down meal for the village(s). Threw a blade on the lawnmower decapitating moles, must be those new helmets and body armour they got. Trains not running due to wrong type of grass on track. Gary (in Ginnoles) has the base of his house done and is going back to the UK to see his kids for a couple of weeks. Not bad as he is building it on his own with no help. Somebody sprayed grafetti on a wall in 'Q', the police are setting up a major incident room for this one. Thats about it really. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

LAST EDITED ON 07-May-04 AT 03:27 PM (BST) If you don't want to have to renovate then it may be possible to get a village house in good condition with no garden. With regards to running a B&B you might like to look at the following threads which cover the main areas of doing it legally and how to work out your tax, NI (equiv) and licences. http://www.livingfrance.com/dcforum/DCForumID50/52.html (Licences) http://www.livingfrance.com/dcforum/DCForumID50/50.html (B&B Micro Enterprise) http://www.livingfrance.com/dcforum/DCForumID50/34.html (regulations) There is loads more stuff in this part of the forum. DO YOUR HOMEWORK is all I can say. Good Luck Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

Have a look at http://www.livingfrance.com/dcforum/DCForumID3/3546.html There is a bit in there about cleaning toilets. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

Welcome, This site is the same as France, extremely diverse in both cutlures, religion and background. So provided you have the will and do your homework first you should be OK. Look for Immobilier plus the towns you are interested in on the internet to get ideas. Some of the better agencies give details on the area. Come and visit France perhaps 2 or 3 times before you make your mind up, especially visit in Jan or Feb when it is winter. Once you have started your search ask questions here, it doesn't matter how simple the questions are (make sure you do a search here first so as not to duplicate). Finally, I said France is diverse so don't worry if you get two (or more) different answers to the same question it's just that each area/department approaches things differently, knowbody here tries to pass duff information deliberatly. Good luck with your search and welcome to the forum. Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com

LAST EDITED ON 05-May-04 AT 03:02 PM (BST) LAST EDITED ON 05-May-04 AT 03:01PM (BST) If you have problems with bouncing cheques you might like to use the following letter. Dear Sir: I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have lapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire salary, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years. You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account 30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank. My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person. My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate. Be aware that it is an offense under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative. Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modeled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Let me level the playing field even further. When you call me, press buttons as follows: 1. To make an appointment to see me. 2. To query a missing payment. 3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there. 4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping. 5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature. 6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home. 7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated to you at a later date to the Authorized Contact. 8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7. 9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call. Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement. May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous life? Your humble Client (Place signature here) Chris http://www.chambresdhote.com http://perso.wanadoo.fr/easybook-france/

We used them and were happy. We paid just over the top figure you mentioned and that included storage and then moving the contents of 2 houses to Aude. Apart from the fact they broke one item (cost was under 30) so I was not to unhappy, they did a good job, they even packed each house for us, we just walked away and gave them the keys. One thing I asked about is insurance because you can take a month or so to unpack every item and most insurance is for 14 days. Ask about Marine Transport Insurance with them. It cost 60 but covered us for 3 months so we had plenty of time to unpack. Re animals, I would move them myself via the tunnel. Don't forget to export certificates for them before you leave vuia your local vet. Hope this helps Chris

I have a very good personal friend in the UK who owns a company that develops property there. We are talking about a serious guy who is willing to pay over a million for a property to develop. Sounds a lot but it's not really in the UK. He has spent 6 months seriously investigating the possibility of doing the same in France but has decided not to. The main reasons are tax, social charges (his workers would be here for more than 6 months at a time) and the slow turnover of property (it can take a year to find a buyer and complete the sale)plus the commision fees and notaires fees plus property indemnity insurance. I don't know how you would get on as a small developer but I know of a couple in my area who have come a bit unstuck. Chris

Funny enough we had a conversation today with some English people who know of two English families who are selling up and moving on. This has bought the total to four families we have heard about in the last week and about seven in total. The reasons for moving on are a combination of too many English and not hot enough. The latter I found interesting and did a bit of digging around and discovered that the summers have got less hotter (with the exception of 2003) over the last 25 years and the winters a lot warmer (hence one of the ski stations could only open for two weeks this year). It is true to say that it is accepted that there is a English Quarter now in Quillan, in the Ginoles area I believe, also the English are spreading out from Quillan, we have about 6 English families in Belvianes et Cavirac now. The Belgians do however own more houses than the English but this may be because all the villas in L'Espinet are individually owned by Belgians and there are about 250 villas catering for some 600 people. I have to say I didn't realize it was that big till I visited their website. That combined with the other Belgians living here makes them by far the biggest group of home owners in Quillan. There is no longer any real manufacturing in the area with the main Formica factory and the Huntsman closing making over 3000 unemployed in the last 2 years. There is a small Formica factory left just outside Quillan which will stay for the next 3 years. It was nice of Formica to offer relocation to either Spain or North Wales, went down a treat did that. Without wishing to get into the next statement to deeply the mayor of Quillan in conjunction with the prefecture in Carcassonne has applied to the EU to have the area designated an EU Economical Disaster Zone with the hope it will allow him/them to get EU funding to bring industry into the area. As a result of this it has been said that this will reduce house prices by around 20% (or even more). This has caused a bit of a stir amongst a certain English group who are complaining about this because they see their investment being devalued. Oh dear what a shame, there was me thinking people wanted to move here to improve their quality of life and enjoy the fantastic French culture, way of life and beautiful scenery but then what do I know. At least by devaluing the cost of property French families wont be split up because the younger generation cant afford to live here anymore I hope. I guess some people will be thinking what about him (Quillan) it will affect him as well. Well no it wont, I didnt come here with the idea I was investing to better myself, I came here for a better quality of life and to escape London and not have a mortgage. Sure I have a B&B but I wont be a millionaire running it but I do at least pay my bills, tax, social etc. My house may or may not of doubled in price but who really cares when Im dead, I cant take it with me and we have already told our daughter we are spending her inheritance, she has a very good job so doesnt give a toss. Chris

I have removed a post from here because it could have been deemed by some to be offensive and did not have any relevence to the original thread. I have contacted the originator of the post to inform them of the reasons why I have done this. I have also removed the posts below it because without the original the others would not have made sense. Sorry Chris (Moderator hat on)

I have removed a post from here because it could have been deemed by some to be offensive and did not have any relevence to the original thread. I have contacted the originator of the post to inform them of the reasons why I have done this. I have also removed the posts below it because without the original the others would not have made sense. Sorry Chris (Moderator hat on)

Some time back I visited every tyre place from Quillan to Carcassonne for a price for 5 tyres for Disco. Basically it appeared to me that they price fixed. The small varience in price was down to if they were fitted or not. I did a search on the type of tyre I wanted plus the word 'Pneu' on google.fr. I found many companies and chose the company who was the cheapest and would deliver to my house. When I ordered 5 I got delivery free. They took 2 weeks to arrive (on a pallet) and the price was only 168 each as against 240 quoted by garages. Funny thing was my local garage charged 14.50 to fit each one, got the old ones off OK but couldn't get the new ones on because they were to wide for the machine. They had to take them to a place 20km away for fitting and balancing at no extra cost to me. Now thats what I call good service. They also put the never used spare in the back of the car for me even though I said they could keep it (drink for the boys). So in short, if you know what you want try the internet. Hope this helps. Chris

Sorry but the answer is simple, ask why. Chris

I don't understand this, my daughter has a flight from Heathrow to Toulouse on the 28th May leaving at 20:10 flight number AF3043. She returns on AF3042. Nobody has told her the flight is canceled. Chris

I have not tried any Pocket PC products but you could try searching on Google for Pocket+PC+Software there are over 4 million entries but most of the popular Pocket PC sites come up first. Most of the software is free or shareware so you can download some stuff and try it before you buy. Q