Casper Slides

Xmas market in Verteuil 16510 (just off the N10, five kms south of Ruffec) this Sunday 4/12 from 14:00 until 19:00.

Is it a wheat intolerance or is it Coeliac? You can certainly buy Gerble GF pasta and bread at LeClerc in Ruffec, it's in the BIO section. Intermarche also sell a range of GF pasta and I buy GF pasta and bread at Geant in Angouleme who do their own brand of pasta which is surprisingly good. Again, it is all in the BIO section of the store. Of course it is five times the price of anything produced with wheat, but that is the price you pay when you have a minority disease!

Froment is also wheat. Both LeClerc and Geant carry a good range of gluten free products including bread and pasta. Gerble is one of the best brands for pasta and Schar for bread.

Thanks, I did know that. Most years we come directly from Spain where the vets will put in any date and time in your passport and you can do the treatment yourself; last year for instance I had the passport stamped up in October with dates in December. This year I stupidly forgot to go and see them before leaving, We have a local vet here in France, but unlike the Spanish the French vets like to go by the book - they are also about five times as expensive. [:(]  

I am travelling back to the UK on New Year's Eve this year from Spain with my dog and our last port of call before the ferry is Lille. All his shots and the stamps in his passport are up to date however I need to go through the laborious flea and tick treatment process that only Britain (yawn) of all the European states requires. Does anybody know of a vet who will perform this duty for a reasonable price and speaks a modicum of English in this area? 

[quote user="Philouis"] I have lived in France for five years and have loved every minute of it! But what do I miss most from my earlier life in England? Compared with even the humblest supermarket in the UK, the standard of the packet ready prepared food bears no comparison! I had the mistaken idea that France, as the gourmet country of the world, would be supreme in this department! Unfortunately this is not the case. Whilst I am on my hobby horse; what would I give to be able to get an nice crusty granary loaf or a delicious bread roll from Marks & Spencr?  In France; other than their white sticks, the rest of the breads are so hard and unappetising when you buy them.  So I have purchased a bread making machine to see if I can remedy the situation! But I don't think I can buy granary flour over here! So I am back to square one! I know that others will say that I should cook my own meals which I do, but it would be nice and very easy to be able to slip a really appetising dish into the microwave when time is at the essence! Does anyone else feel this way? [/quote]   This is surely a joke post. The bread in France is the best in the world. I live in a small medieval village of a hundred houses and we have three boulangeries where the bread is far superior to anything that I would have been able to buy in England. And why would you want ready meals? I would never have considered buying processed microwavable crap in the UK and I certainly wouldn't expect to do that here where the raw ingredients are far superior to anything that you could buy in Britain.    

I don't get it; you live in France where wine is abundant, cheap and excellent - why would you want to be "cured"?

[quote user="Frogslegs"] I met someone earlier this year who knew of a woman in Sauzze Vaussais that had used hemp on her walls with great success, unfortunately I have lost his address. Anyone know of her or know someone that has experience with hemp. A friend suggested visiting the restaurant in St. Vincent le Chapt as they have used it in their farm shop but three times we have attempted a visit and they are either shut for decorating, closed for the day or on holiday. Yes we can visit a website but there is nothing like hands on experience. thanks in advance [/quote] I regularly use hemp for relaxation and I'm always on the lookout for a new supplier. Let me know how you get on.

I've been watching a few French forums for British ex-pats for a while now and I am terribly confused by the expats in France. It seems that you are all queueing up to pay tax in France when you should be doing your utmost not to pay any tax at all - what's the deal? I spend the majority of my year in Spain where not paying tax is the national sport. Nobody there would dream of putting their hands up and saying "look I earned this much last year how do I pay tax on it?" I spend the rest of the year in France where I legally do not have to pay much in the way of tax (certainly nothing on income) so it does not really affect me. However, from all the people that I speak to it seems that the national sport amongst the British ex-pats here is either discovering new taxes to pay or denouncing other ex-pats who they think might not be paying their "fair share".  Is it that British ex-pats in France are overtly honest or that they are incredibly small minded and want to ensure that their neighbours suffer as much as them?

This makes me so homesick. We live in Verteuil but only during the winter. We have a business in Ibiza that keeps us here for the whole summer so we have never seen Verteuil during the summer months. Hope that it goes well, if you have time pop into the Portebleue and say a big hello to Nat for us. Mark & Siobhan

The trouble with Britain is that all the Eastern European immigrants have made a beeline for it as they mostly speak English as a second languauge and because they come from countries where the average monthly wage is less than £150 per month; consequently they see Britain as country where the streets are paved with gold. The British are happy to hire Eastern European workers becasue they will work for below minimum wage. The real cost to Britain as an article in the Times recently highlighted, is that the average migrant family costs the British taxpayer in excess of £60,000 per year. In the meantime there are 2 million British people who are too lazy to work claiming benefits. So car tax, fuel duty, duty on alcohol and tobacco, council tax (the list goes on and on) has to rise every year to pay for it all,  While all this is going on people like you and me who have the money and the ambition to buy houses and set up businesses in other European countries are deserting the country in droves. Eventually all the useful people will be gone and Britain will be left with a nation of hedge fund companies where the employees are non doms, celebrities who are famous only for being famous and dole bludgers. The Roman and Greek Empires in their day ran the world and they both collapsed. Fifty years ago Britain was a major world power and is now on the slippery slope to oblivion. As a nation we are a laughing stock, we have joined Europe but we haven't embraced the currency, weights and measures or even language skills preferring to be dictated to by the USA.  Although I am happy with my life (I split my year between living in France & Spain) I feel that I have been forced out of the country of my birth. I am not bitter about this but it does make me very, very sad. Okay, rant over. 

I think that you should have heard of Daniel Day Lewis, he is after all probably the greatest living British actor. Having appeared in films as diverse as The Bounty, My Left Foot, There Will be Blood, The Unbearable Lighteness of Being, Gangs of New York... the list goes on.

We are looking at moving from Spain to France next year, has anybody ever transferred a car registration from Spanish to French?