Scooby

Nope - just a Brit ghetto!

[quote user="Compo"] As for dairy products, my elderly French neighbour would not forgive me if I didn't arrive with a supply of Extra Strong Cheddar... [/quote] Ditto Compo!!

Though I love the Dordogne, Eymet is one place we avoid like the plague!  Eymet is not like other parts of the Dordogne...  Measuring a whole region by reference to one town is silly...its like saying the Lake District is a terrible place because you went to Whitehaven and hated it.

We're changing to wood for our primary heating.  It cost us 1,000 euros for half a tank full of oil this summer.  When compared to 150 euros for 4 cubic metres of wood its a no brainer!

We bought in the Dordogne just because we love the area.  We have travelled all over France in the last 25 years and the Dordogne is somewhere we love and where we feel 'at home'.  The only other place we would have considered buying is Burgundy.  We don't look at either of our houses as 'investments' but as our homes.  Both were bought because we loved the houses and their settings - and both were bought for the long term.  Our house in the UK was bought 23 years ago for the grand sum of £48k - its now worth over ten times that - but its value is irrelevant - its simply our home.  Likewise, our home in the Dordogne - the vagaries of the market and its impact on a possible selling price are of no consequence - because we aren't planning to sell.

We have had a couple of bad experiences - both with large organisations.  Local people / small businesses have been fine.  The first was with Europcar at Limoges airport.  We had filled our hire vehicle up with petrol (before returning it) only half a mile from the airport but got a 30 euro petrol charge for a partially empty tank.  Whether or not the tank was full (which we believe it was) I asked the Europcar receptionist if she could check it (when we were back at the airport 4 weeks later picking up another car - from a different hire company!!).  Her attitude was that it was nothing to do with her - this was the responsibility of the man who filled up the returned cars.  We asked if she could follow it up and she refused.  When we pointed out that, whether or not she filled the tanks, she was the representative of the company her comment that no she wasn't she just worked for them! The second incident was with FT who completely screwed up our broadband account.  The person we had seen initially had written out the details (completely incorrectly) of our package directly onto the FT publicity blurb.  When we went back to the store (because the connection wasn't working) and he explained the package we should have been on - we showed him his colleagues summary of the completely different package.  His response - that we must have written that ourselves because that wasn't right...  This is the same outlet and the two staff members were sitting next to each other (and we pointed out the author of the comments) so you'd think they'd know each other's handwriting!  The whole FT saga was much more long winded but won't bore you with details - suffice to say that the customer is always wrong!

[quote user="Panda"]I had quite the opposite experience and with VEF too.  I was shown all manner of cr*p and dragged miles out of my way.  So perhaps the VEF rep in Dordogne knows his/her stuff.  The one I used most certainly did not.    [/quote] Ditto for us - the Neuvic office were c%*p

It's ironic, Speedy, that the group of individuals you are defending - those with limited resources who stretched themselves beyond their means because they felt they had a right to own a property - contributed to the current position.  Its also interesting that no-one has mentioned the role that IAS39 has played in the current fiasco.

Ditto to JR and Panda's posts from here - and with regard to crime, we experienced our first forced entry / burglary.....here in rural France.  We also get our share of boy racers etc.  Whereever you get humans living together you will get the 'bad' elements - nothing to do with the country just human nature.   Never make a choice for negative reasons but for positive ones.

[quote user="Logan"]The French property market is already heavily regulated. Much more so than the UK although that may change as a result of recent events. In many EU countries such as France and Germany property ownership is not such an individual aspiration as the UK. Renting property is more the norm. In order to have a healthy private rental market investors need incentives. If you choke off that incentive such as capital appreciation investors will go elsewhere. That will create housing shortages which will need to be met by taxation. Property needs to rise in value on an annual basis. Not the crazy values seen recently in UK but greater than simply investing in a bank and more than the inflation percentage.[/quote] I agree completely with all that you have said Logan.  The UK is not the norm in Europe with most other EU countries having a far greater rental sector.  I think increased regulation in the UK must follow the recent events - the FSA and the rating agencies have been far too lax in their approach to assessing the quality of mortgage assets and regulating the capital requirements of financial institutions and that has to change..and is changing. We have noticed a far greater scrutiny by S&P's Moody's, Fitch etc in the last few months - and about time.  

[quote user="BJSLIV"]so its not surprising that the French property market is as badly affected as markets elsewhere. The general opinion is that it would be surprising if the French market were to be as badly affected as places such as Spain or the UK. Because of the strict rules applied to French lending there was far less upwards pressure on prices than elsewhere. The properties that are more likely to suffer are ones that are part of the UK property market, but just happen to be located in France. Particularly at risk  are the ones that have been over-improved relative to prevailing French  price levels and taste. [/quote] The shortage of funds for wholesale interbank lending and the ownership of ABS's is not a problem peculiar to UK and US banks - it's a worldwide issue and has nothing whatsoever to do with individual restoration projects.

In defence of the comment about our friends house -  it is lovely and they have done a beautiful job renovating which I'm sure has helped in getting a sale.  With regard to the wider market in our area I have no idea - not being in the market (to buy or sell) we haven't really paid much attention.  However, the ramifications of the credit crunch have spread worldwide so its not surprising that the French property market is as badly affected as markets elsewhere.

When I said in the process of selling I meant that they have accepted an offer but not signed contracts yet.

I think its depends on the property - we have friends who bought their house the same time as us (two years ago) and are in the process of seling it for significantly more.  Ok they have renovated but nevertheless the increase in price in substantial.  As an aside, we bought our house with a french mortgage - fixed at 3.8% for the term of 15 years (and we were also lucky enough to transfer our deposit and pay for (French) renovation work when the exchange rate was 1.5 euros to the £1) so if we had to downsize anything it would be our UK house not our french home.  Fortunately we both have very good, secure jobs so don't envisage a downsize until we choose to. As an aside we are not really interested in the selling price of our homes as we are not planning to sell.  Our UK house increased in 'value' by over £0.25m over the last few years but it's just a paper increase and means nothing until we want to sell..and downsize.  Likewise any fall is, again, a paper fall. As we have no intention to sell either home their current 'market value' is irrelevant.

That's awesome Chris - really beautiful!

So glad to hear Deb is moving out of intensive care - but such a shame MIL is being such an insensitive prat.  We're thinking about you and sending our very best to you both. Kathie & family

We just had our house rewired (by French electrician) and we asked about the safety of the existing sockets in the bathroom (being a big no no in the UK).  He said no problem.  However, our sockets are positioned to one side of the sink...but sufficiently near that we can plug a hairdryer etc in to use the mirror above the sink.  He also said that there was a law in France that said individuals could not profit from their own stupidity - so if they are daft enough to put a connected hairdryer in a stupid place (i.e. in the basin) then it was their own fault if they got electrocuted!  Obviously, a socket positioned where water could run into the socket through no fault of the home owner is a different matter.  

I think the French seem to have issues generally with using languages other than French for business / international affairs etc.  I once worked on the audit of a very big multi-national.  The edict from the main Board was that all business documents / board papers were to be submitted in English.  All areas of the business complied - Portugese, Spanish, German, etc etc - except for the French who resolutely refused.  In fact they had one Board paper rejected three times because they insisted in writing it in French.  Before anyone says - typical English / Americans expecting everyone to speak their language it was a German multi national and the main board comprised predominantly native Germans. (As an aside - a subsidiary board meeting was arranged in Paris for the same above mentioned MN...with main board members, lawyers, accountants etc flying in specifically for the meeting.  An hour after the meeting started - with still no sign of the French someone managed to get hold of them.....they were still having lunch!  In the end they arrived so late the meeting was cancelled because the other participants at the meeting had flights to catch etc!)

Sent you a pm. Kathie

IMHO religion has absolutely no place in schools.  It is divisive.  If parents want to bring their child up with a particular set of beliefs then they should be taught in the home / their chosen place of worship.  We deliberately chose not to have our children baptised because, for us, it meant imposing our choice on our children.  In our view, the choice is theirs to make when they are old enough to understand and make that choice of their own free will.

I have only just read this thread and I am shocked.  Please send Deb our very best wishes.  Thinking of you both.  Kathie and family xx

TBH we have noticed more price increases in France than in the UK.  France is definitely more expensive for us for food shopping etc - and it's not just the impact of the exchange rate.

Courgettes work really well in muffins (which can be frozen).  The courgettes have the same effect ascarrot in carrot cake - make them really moist.  I googled 'chocolate courgette muffins' and 'cocoa courgette muffins' and got quite a few recipes but can post mine if you want.

You should definitely find someone who can do a méchoui.  We have been to two in the last twelve months (both fetes) and we are only half an hour from you.  If you have no luck with the butcher pm me and I'll find out who the ones we went to.

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Scooby"]The frustrating thing is that our hamlet is going to mains drainage - but our house is just a few yards too far away from the other houses in the hamlet for them to take the drains as far as our house.  I think it will be quite some months before our main drainage is installed. The next village have already had their new drains installed - so things seem to be progressing at different speeds according to where you live.  I believe some of the cost of the drains has to be borne by the commune - and it is the level of these costs (and available funds in the commune) that seem to determine the decision as to who gets mains and who has to stay on a fosse (albeit upgraded).[/quote] If it's only a few yards, would it be worth your while sharing or carrying the costs of extending the pipes to your house? [/quote] We asked when they were doing the visit and they refused.  Apparently the cost to bring it to us they said would be too much and they wouldn't consider us sharing the cost with our neighbour (who is building a new place further up the road) because they said we couldn't have a shared drain in case anything went wrong - so we're stuck with a fosse.