Cendrillon

"I'm just looking for your thoughts on the best place to start our search for our retirement home in France. We will have a budget of around 300,00 euros and for this ideally we are looking for a home ( old or new) that does not need renovating, is right out in the countryside and with a minimum of 1 acre of land - we also want to be able to enjoy more sunshine than we have in the UK"   If this is to be a retirement home it may be wise to consider what you will do when you can no longer drive, cut the grass on the 1 acre and live in a rural / isolated location.

Looking at the two photos I agree that they look to be the same place. I also noticed the street signs, there are two of them so this suggests to me that the street is signed in both French and German.

omg powerdesal,  it wasn't a senior moment was it?[:(] [8-)]

Beamer Thanks for posting, what beautiful pictures, makes me feel quite homesick for Saintes.

[quote user="Frederick"]Cassis is not the only one this has happened to.......I suspect some hard drive clean up softwear in use can clean up so well it removes your access ? ...but  hell what do I know.... I am not a techy .....I  just know I have had to do the same as Cassis after a hard drive clean up .[/quote]   Me too! forced to have a name change and e-mail change................ .........how to re-invent yourself in two easy stages!![:)] What fun! I think I am on my 3rd ID now[8-|]

[quote user="Russethouse"] I'm not sure how popular the book is now, it may be a little old fashioned, it was published in 1936 so there is plenty of scope age wise... Anyone see it ? [/quote]   Yes, I did. I remember the book being serialised on Childrens Hour on the BBC Home service (now that will definitely make me a person of a certain age!)

"inmates are allowed to smoke in prison, and submariners are allowed to smoke in submarines, both government establishments"   yes, well they would find it difficult to pop out for a quick ciggy wouldn't they!

I've been to Kayserberg too![:)]

well it really looks like Ribeauville !   You certainly had me fooled there![8-)]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071223/thl-lifestyle-france-health-tobacco-3bf5dbc_1.html

Pretty poor clues -  the photo shows the wine village of Ribeauville in Alsace! To my mind the Alsacian region is one of the most scenic parts of France yet strangely missed by many visitors from the UK Brian (again) Brian Absolutely right, I have stayed there twice![:)]

Thanks Bugbear for the link.   Obviously my computer skills are at an all time low this weekend! [:$]

E-mail on its way

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1114480 3rd try!   maybe third time lucky[8-)]

I tried to post a link to this on another thread but it didn't work[:(]

[quote user="Gemonimo"]You could always have it emptied and use it to collect rainwater for watering your garden. [/quote] Our neighbour did that with an old wine tank, if you do this watch out for the mosquitos in the Summer.[:(]

[quote user="Danglar"] The french consumer association  produces a letter sample for requesting compensation from the SNCF in cases where they fail delivering their service. So why not in case of a coach company ? They failed to update the public information  WHERE it matters, i.e. at their service stops. In my eye this is a serious failure where their service is so infrequent c that the next coach or bus only runs at 4-6 hours intervals.   Thinking to be able to excercise  one's ouwn  rights is not a joke , though some  of those people running public services  may think so.         [/quote] Danglar It's worth a try, the bus company may well not answer or say no to a refund but at least you will have tried. Bon courage  

Thibault Well you have just given an excellent reply IMHO Pubs / restaurants minus smoke = O.K. as far as I am concerned

[quote user="Docstrange"] OK, let see I am a citizen of Mexico but living in the USA. I am thinking of buying chateaus and operating a b&b or hotel. What kind of problems will I be running into? [blink] that is the billion dollar question! What would be the best procedure in this case?   run fast in the opposite direction!!! [:D] LOL Private details edited by a moderator [/quote]

[quote user="Hotspur"]Ryanair have announced Stansted to Angouleme to start this spring.  Finally![/quote] I took a quick look at their schedules and it would seem to be evening flights on Saturday, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1st April to almost the end of October.

Looking forward to that, just hope it works everywhere. I find it hard to imagine that it will happen in our local les Routiers restaurant.

I want to go sometime in May so need to consider weather (ie whether to go north or south france) I am happy to go to any area.   You would be well advised to go south of the Loire especially at that time of year.

We also have the tradition of the " 13 desserts"   ah yes, I had forgotten about that one.

Lovely to read about these traditions, keep them coming. [:)] So much better (IMHO) than all the spend, spend, spend and  tinsel and tat that seems to have become the norm[:(]   Frenchie isn't it also a Provencal custom to not clear the table after the meal and to leave the crumbs.............for the poor ? (.......or the mice!)   Do you have Santons as well?   When my children were small I sometimes took them to a  French church in London to see the crib scene with the Santons.

"If you look here it's one of those words with lots of different compound forms with differing meanings."   Brilliant link! thanks for posting that Lisleoise