Doodle

Just to say thanks to one and all for the information and for keeping us posted as to new offers as very rarely do I bother to look. I have now changed from my old contract to this one. Regards, Chris

This sounds a good offer but does it give me what I already have but for less outlay per month? I am so reluctant to change as I am terrified of having to have a french conversation with Orange if I get it wrong. (yeh I know I'm a complete wuss! been there done it and vowed never to do it again!) At the moment I pay E49,90 per month ie 39,90 internet, 3,00 livebox, and 7 euros so that I can call england via the telephone to speak to friends/relatives for hours on end! I don't do VOIP as I don't understand what it's all about. I've had my existing contract for around 2 1/2 years and quite happy with what I pay having had bills in the past of not far off 100 euros per month. So are you saying I can get with this offer what I already have for 37 euros. Thanks, Chris

Definately The Sun - the men will love page 3! Chris

Eton Mess, or Eton Desordre I called it. Easy and our french friends love it. Buy frozen fruit then you don't have to worry whether you are making enough of the stuff as you can always pull a bit more out of the freezer. If you can't get your hands on double cream then mascapone whipped with creme liquid is almost as good as the real thing! Don't stir in the broken meringue until the last minute to keep it crunchy. Simples! Chris Chris

Hi, I've just had some friends bring over from the UK 4 x BugGun for fruit and Veg it's a spray (£3.95 a bottle) is animal/child friendly and works a treat on the flowers as well. It says on the label spray today eat tomorrow. Very happy with it and shall be stocking up when the next lot of friends arrive! Not sure if you can get it in france but I'm sure someone on the forum will know. Chris

Suein56 You are so right! I have quite a few news ones, years old, given as gifts and too nice to use eg one covered in paisley scottie dogs, brightly coloured chickens, a london routemaster bus, etc etc Sad that I am......Chris

I tried the Jamie Oliver method ie wash you salad, spin it, then wrap it in a tea towel and put in the crisper/salad box. Seems to work and puts to use those faded tea towels. Chris

Just one car, the other sits on the drive and my OH's renovation stuff is in the OH's domain - the porcherie next to the garage! Chris

I'm finding this subject very interesting at the moment as my neighbour has just asked me to look into their EDF bill as they think it rather high at 1017 euros. I agree as it is slightly more than mine and I live here full time. They moved into their new house last June living there mostly full time until December when they went back to the UK permanently. They have been paying 120 euros per month for 10 months and have just received their bill (actual reading done on a yearly basis) giving them a rebate of 133 euros. which according to their contract they will receive within 15 days of receipt of this bill. For this coming year the monthly payments have reduced to 59 euros (why they don't know) for a 10 month period and although they think the last bill high they are now worried that the new payments will leave them short and having to find a few hundred euros next year. Apparently EDF based their usage of electricity on the amount of rooms in the property ie 7. Between us we have been trying to find the source of the guzzler! From December all the heaters were set to minimum except two very hot heated towel rails (in separate bathrooms). They also said their hot water is too hot (300L tank) although that has not been switched on since December. I know through monitoring my own consumption of electricity that my heated towel rad was using an awful lot of electricity until I finally sorted out the settings. I have also reduced the temperature for the hot water and that now uses 3 units overnight compared to 13 previously - not a lot until you work it out over the year. Having switched off their towel rads and monitoring the unit usage for the last few days, I think I can say the culprits are the towel rads. But the biggest surprise I had going through their bill is how much we all pay in tax locale, TVA and 'other'. Basically their electricity usage amounts to 653 euros. The rest is 101 euros standing charge and the other 312 euros being taxes and my french neighbour tells me we are about to have a price rise in August! I think we shall take to living in one room throughout winter!

Why a car of course - what else? Chris

Hi AnOther, yes I have done both of the troubleshooting items you mention above in fact, it was via this route that I thought (ha ha) I had found another way of getting an email to them. Re the MTU - this is where ignorance kicks in, what's that and where do I find it? Re your last para - as the PC is upstairs and the phone downstairs, I'm up and down like a yo-yo so may well be rubbing in the 'deep heat' very shortly. Edit: Thanks AnOther I think I am really going to give myself a headache now as I have just googled how to change the MTU setting on my OSX 10.4, wifi, da di da di da, oooooh la la!

Hello, Just to let you know that I have been onto NW again and am told that many of their customers have got problems accessing internet banking and I was told to send email! So guess what, as I can't sign in, I can't send an email, so I've spent 20 minutes trying to find another way of emailing them which I did only to find when I pressed the submit button I eventually got a message to say the connection had been dropped! Oooooh la la, patience is wearing a little thin now !! Many thanks to all who have emailed with suggestions to get into the NW site. Chris

Hi Judith & Clair, Just to let you know that I did manage to download firefox and shall put it to good use but I still cannot get into NW. So it's back to the phone yet again. Many thanks for your help. Chris

Thanks Clair, only just got round to checking my pc so will try this out in the morning or should I say later in the morning! Chris

Please could someone tell me in very very simple language how i download firefox to my apple pc. Also how to use it? I want to try a different route enabling me to access Nationwide online which I have problems with at the moment. Sorry but I am just not pc. Thanks, Chris

Thanks for that Judith. Today I still cannot access NW so please can someone explain in very very simple terms how to download firefox and how to use it. Thinking about it maybe I should be asking this question in another section! Chris

[quote user="Judith"][quote user="knee gel"]When we told our french neighbours they shook their heads and said never insure through a bank as banks are there to make money. Good advice! Chris[/quote] But so are insurance companies!!!!! [/quote] Agreed, but 500 euros is one hell of saving every year, and we've just moved our health top up from CA - only 10 euros a month saving but much better cover including dentist and optician which we didn't have before. Chris

Hi NickP, You haven't said whether the river is privately owned or publicly owned so hope the info below helps you with what you want to know (particularly the last paragraph) and perhaps more than you want to know! Well you did ask....Chris There are over 250,000 kilometres of privately owned rivers and streams in France. If you have a watercourse going through or at the perimeter of your property, and you are unsure about your water rights and whether it is public or private property, you should contact your Direction departemental de l'equipement (DDE) who will be based in your Prefecture. If you are the owner of a private stretch of river or stream then it is important to remember your water rights; it is ownership of the bed only and not the water itself. Except in the case of spring water which belongs to the owner of the property. This implies that anyone is permitted to navigate down a stretch of river, whether public or private, but they are not entitled to make use of the riverbank itself. Accordingly, if it is necessary to go on private property to gain access to the river, you need the permission of the owner but an owner is not obliged to grant right of access over their land to reach the river. If the river is entirely within the bounds of your property then you own the whole of the bed. If, however, it separates two private properties then each have ownership of half of the riverbed. Unless otherwise specified by agreement, no third party has the right to fish on a private stretch of water that runs through privately owned property. However, where the river or stream is publicly owned then owners are required to permit fishing, to those with a fishing licence, and to leave a space of 3.5 metres wide along the river bank for right of passage and fishing stations. According to French fishing rights, this space can be reduced to 1.5 metres by the local prefecture. So I think you are going to need a fishing permit.

Hi, hope this answers some of your questions although the costs may not be quite up to date, Fishing areas fall into two categories, each of which has different permit requirements and seasons: Category 1 (première catégorie): waters mainly inhabited by trout, and those with fish of the salmonidea group (salmon, trout, freshwater whitefish) requiring protection; Category 2 (seconde catégorie): all other rivers, canals and lakes. Note: It is illegal to fish without a fishing permit (carte de pêche); the local Mairies provides dates for the season. I can buy mine at my local newsagent. Fishing permits: There are a variety of fishing permits available and it's obligatory for any person line-fishing in France to carry a valid carte de pêche on all fishing excursions. Permits are issued to an individual and include an ID photograph. If a permit is lost or destroyed a new one must be purchased. The Carte de Peche de Vacances covers you for 15 consecutive days and costs around 28 euros and can be used between 1st June and 30th November. After 30th November and beore 1st June an annual fishing permit is obligatory. This costs around 60 euros, prices vary from department to department. It can be used for the whole year BUT only in one department. I believe you can add more departments at extra cost. The carte de pêche available are: Carte Personne Majeure: Annual card for adults, category 1 and 2 waters, all types of fishing Carte Personne Mineure: Annual card for 12 to 18 year olds, category 1 and 2 waters, all types of fishing Carte Découverte: Annual card valid from 1 January to 31 December for under 12s, category 1 and 2 waters, all types of fishing Carte Journalière, Day-pass valid for all fishing, available throughout the year Carte Vacances: Valid for all fishing for the holiday period, 1 June to 31 December Carte Découverte Femme: Valid for all fishing, 1 line only Personne Majeure Interdépartementale: Available in some départements Fishing permits can be bought online in some departments but the websites are in french! Fishing seasons: Open seasons vary for the two fishing categories from year to year. They also differ from region to region. The seasons are normally announced at the start of a year and may begin any time from early spring and end in autumn. Details of the season are published in local newspapers and are available from the town hall. The Fédération Nationale de la Pêche also publishes the dates on its website as soon as they become available. Fishing is allowed during the season from half an hour before dawn to half an hour after sunset. Well you did ask !

Thanks for the info Sue, I have read the thread but unfortunately I have Safari not Windows but the bigger problem is my knowledge of PCs is limited to not much more than turning the apple on/off! Nationwide did ask what our version of Safari is and said that there wasn't problem with it. Guess I shall have to wait on their IT dept! Chris

LBP is not open in Lassay les Chateaux on Mondays. If we need a post office on a Monday we have to drive to Ambrieres Les Vallees. Whilst we haven't had any problems with CA on the banking side, we put our car insurance with them. This year we have saved 500 euros on the two cars by moving to another insurer. When we told our french neighbours they shook their heads and said never insure through a bank as banks are there to make money. Good advice! Chris

Hi, According to Nationwide there are 4 other french residents as well as myself who are having problems getting into their website. This has been going on since 1st June and originally I was told our address had dropped off the system. Since then they have tried to blame Orange but then yesterday they admitted they didn't know why it was happening or how long it would take to remedy even though they said 5 days originally. Has anyone else experienced this that might throw some light onto the problem? Thanks, Chris

Maybe the question is 'how may loos' reason being, we have 3 bedrooms unfortunately 1 leads off of another so we are converting the loft space BUT we are doing this because we have 1 loo which is in the 1 and only bathroom and much too our amusement but more often pain, our guests can spend around 45 minutes each in the bathroom! This year we all decided we must shout to each other 'is the bathroom free' so at least we can get to 'go' beforehand and as we can't install another loo anywhere else in the house we decided to convert the loft - I might say a very expensive loo room indeed!! Chris

Hi Near to Lassay Les Chateaux (53), actually wanted to be in the Orne (61) didn't realise the house we chose was in the Mayenne department until we put an offer on it! Chose this area at the time because it was to be a holiday home for a few years before retirement. We lived 40 mins from Portsmouth and wanted not too long a drive from the french ferry port so that we could manage week-end visits. However, as soon as we'd signed the promise de vente and returned to the UK, my husband's employer moved us to Devon which turned our plans upside down as suddenly it was a 2 -3 hour drive to Poole or 30 minutes to Plymouth with a 4 hour drive from Roscoff. After 3 years of Devon living we decided to take early retirement. Chris

Hello You may also be interested in the link below for wooden door knobs which look very nice. Most of the handles I've seen in old houses around our neck of the woods are the wrought iron latch type. Just a thought but would brass contrast enough with the wood what I mean to say (without sounding rude) is do you want your knobs to blend in with the door or to make a feature of the door? Chris http://www.willowandstone.co.uk/search.asp?types=yes&type=Handles+%26+Door+Knobs+%3E+Wood+Door+Knobs Edit: one thing I forgot to say is that our house is a stone house built 1850 ish all the doors had rim locks with bun knobs which is why I went down that route apart from the fact that we like rim locks! (if I can attach a photo I will!!)