Gardengirl

Well that takes me back to when I was about 7 when in the Brownies, Jon, many, many years ago: Nobody likes me, Everybody hates me, I'm going in the garden to dig worms. Long thin slimy ones, Short fat fuzzy ones, Gooey, gooey, gooey, gooey worms. Now the long thin slimy ones slip down easily, The short fat fuzzy ones stick, The short fat fuzzy ones stick to your teeth And the juice goes slth slth slth slth slth. Bite their heads off, Suck their juice out, Throw their skins away - You'll be surprised how well I thrive On worms three times a day!

I would use 'She has green eyes'. I have green eyes, they have brown shoes, she has ginger hair, we have two children etc. I don't use 'got' in written or spoken English. However, it's acceptable to use 'got'. I wouldn't correct the French teacher who teaches English.

It's not her fault, everybody's always getting at her, Jeremy said so today. Playing the race card? Her? As if............

Jonzjob wrote: > That's very good to hear! ?

Thanks, Norman, knew about some changes but not all. Useful to have the reminder that I will need €25 on Wednesday for the doctor's fee, I'd forgotten that.

That sounds fine, Judith, no crush if going coach by coach, thank you for that info. We're going Standard Premier, so we'll have some sort of meal for dinner, maybe 'tea' after boarding too. Breakfast and lunch on the way down weren't bad at all. We've just been looking at trains for when we return; thought we'd add a few extra days on in England but that then brings us to nearly the end of May, so prices are a lot higher as is the hotel. Back to the drawing board........

Yes, we found the Premier Inn at St Pancras fine apart from the over-warm duvet which made sleeping difficult, even with the aircon on. Staff were all very pleasant and helpful, I even tested their first aid skills, just one of those awful paper cuts that hurts like hades and won't stop bleeding. With the agenda apparently decided upon for the brexit talks, at least on the EU side, it would seem that most EU citizens will be probably be OK in the UK. We decided to do the return trip straight through, so we'll see if the change at Lille is as awful as previously, although Judith gives me hope that it won't be. We'll be staying at the same Premier Inn next Saturday night on our way home, and I'm planning to empty the duvet out of the cover if it's as warm. I did make it known to a member of staff before we left, so it could possibly have been remedied........... If anyone else stays there or nearby on a Sunday night and wants a good meal, we had the splendid 3 course Sunday roast at The Gilbert Scott restaurant just over the road at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, which has the name Marcus Wareing attached to it - don't know how much involvement that ever means. It's served through to the evening, which is when we ate, a huge pleasure to be in such a fabulous room, with a pianist playing beautifully and to enjoy such an excellent meal. Well worth the £35 in such a place in London, with the service charge on top plus £2 to help preserve the building.

Chessie, you obviously missed that the bit about food vans from UK was a direct quote from albf, who seems to think that his posts on such subjects as the food those of us in France buy /cook, where we choose to live etc are amusing.

Mentioned far too many times! Perhaps your main topic on here. Why do you have to go on about Tescos, food vans etc - haven't you gathered that many/most posters on here don't even think about food vans, Tescos etc. Or maybe you secretly yearn for those things yourself - there's probably reams about it in psychology manuals ?

Mint, I love it too! Can't get it locally here, but Waitrose stock it!

I need to look for that, Hereford, it sounds just what I need. I buy unhomogenised milk in England for our grandchildren, usually from the little food-only M&S nearby or Waitrose; I prefer the M&S as the cream doesn't sit at the top after giving it a good shake. I've just started the Comté we bought at our market (in France), I prefer the oldest they have, but usually buy the middle one, matured for 18 months, I think, as my husband doesn't like the more mature Comté. I don't think it's anything like Cheddar, I love the nutty flavour. I also bought another cheese that I had last week too, made from raw brebis milk, wrapped in a ring of spruce; it's delicious, but prefer the brique of brebis they have at other times of the year. I'm told it's best not to put it in the fridge (nor the brique), but our apartment can get quite warm, so don't fancy it ooozing out, so I put it in the fridge and take it out about an hour before I want to eat it. It's called Le Claousou du Causse Méjean and is from the Lozère; really creamy and delicious.

We don't have milk milk, just oat milk, but we buy milk in England as our grandchildren are often round at our house; occasionally one of us will drink some, maybe to finish off a bottle, but it tastes very strange. I love goat and ewe's cheese, buy some a couple of times each week, tastes delicious. A b&b we used to stay at in the Drôme served only goat cheese after dinner, from the goats down the hill, a large plate of it, starting with very fresh through more mature to rolled in cinders to really small and extremely brown. They also served porc from their own pigs, which we had known from our daily wander round their land, a bit of an odd feeling to eat pigs we knew, but we they had had a very good life.

Election in our small town: Fillon 23.54 % Macron 23.46 % Melenchon 21.88 % Le Pen 17.15 % In the Gard: Le Pen: 23.46 % Melenchon 21.61 % Macron 18.78 % Fillon 17.2 %

Mr May is still alive and kicking; whether or not he has a foot fetish I don't know.

? ? ?

We ate fish & chips from these people at a Christmas fair over to the west of the Languedoc, delicious! http://www.ccfishandchips.com/About-Us.html

Not a problem, Idun, my brain lags behind my fingers too at times! Pleased it's been sorted out, Cendrillon, but I don't know how you were meant to have checked it out first before posting.........

I guessed that 1951 was your birth date, although you appear older than that. I'm obviously not more astute though, as the only things I can think of in 1951 are: the Festival of Britain, the Peak District was made UK's first national park and the world's first commercially available general-purpose electronic computer was installed at Manchester University.

I don't live in the Dordogne but have visited the area 4 or 5 times, and thought it a lovely area. I can't understand why albf criticises it so often. There are English people living there, apparently in large numbers in some places, but you could say the same about French people and Kensington. We have a place in a lovely small town in the Gard which has large numbers of tourists, it's a real little town though, but no doubt some would be sniffy about living in our town.

What a very sad story of your and your sons' experiences, Idun. I had read comments you have made over the years, but it was much worse than I had realised. I was one who picked up the pieces in English primary schools and tried to stick them together; some of the children were in a very sorry state even though the system in the UK was less rigid. I wish your sons well, especially the one who suffered, and still suffers, so much.

I remember Chris and his excellent website too, very helpful.

True, Mint, but I think it was Idun who spoke 'Spannish'! So sorry, Jonzjob, I didn't see there was a page 2........maybe I fell asleep......

Cendrillon, that was what we did when we were without a car a few weeks ago, except that we walked to the nearest big supermarket and phoned a taxi to take us and the shopping home. It worked very well. We have lots of friends and neighbours who would be very pleased to take us shopping, but we like being more self-sufficient when possible.

Thank you for that link, Norman, I found it extremely useful. Amongst other things, I was particularly interested to note how often M. Fillon and M. Macron agreed.