Etoile

Husband seeking a lift from St. Jean D'Angely to Bordeaux, Friday 19th November, to be in Bordeaux by lunch time for flight. Many thanks.

Good question, they phoned on the night when we were busy and arrived ten minutes later.

I don't know if anyone can help but we need to contact a Mr & Mrs Brett who stayed in our B&B in St. Jean D'Angely from the 14th to the 17th of October. They were house-hunting, I believe in the area towards Confolens. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

This is certainly how I would wire it. We also do not always know what is in the future - you might suddenly find yourself back in the UK with the appliance wired via an adaptor. Again, better to stick to the polarity. I say this as someone who is normally very suspicious of so-called experts. I do not hesitate to do my own electricity, and gas, connections. Of course there are pitfalls, but there are also so many people, and even more in France than in the UK, who are determined to convince you that you really should pay them £300 an hour to check for a leaky pipe with Fairy Liquid.

Surely one thing we would all agree on is that when it comes to French electrics one cannot assume anything in terms of existing wiring and fault protection. Thus I made the comment about observing the poles even in France! There is no harm in being double safe.

As in the UK, the RH pin, viewed from BEHIND the plug, is the live. Ie. When the plug is in the wall. I think it is important to get this right even in France. If, for instance, a lamp is plugged into a socket that is wired opposite to the above a single pole switch in the cord could end up switching the neutral instead of the live. In this situation someone might touch the contacts in the lamp assuming it will be dead and have a bit of a surprise. Sure the trip should protect them, but that is not guaranteed.

The earlier advice is good: do not be bullied. Many French motorists tear around the place irrespective of the conditions and one only has to examine the state of the cars in the local supermarket car park to see that on the whole they take little pride in them. Of course what you do from here depends on whether you want to make a claim or not. Whether to can depends initially on having the other driver's details. If you do not then I would leave the whole thing alone and not admit to anything. I love living here but the French urgently need to sort out this whole thing of rights of way. I frequently drive to a friend's house some 20km away. There are two routes: One is sensible with give way markings for minor roads onto the main road, while the other is a mix of this and 'give way to the right' nonsense. One could argue all night about UK vs. France in this, but anyone with half a brain would agree that consistency is essential. There is none in France.

I thought the programme was excellent, told an unpleasant truth with some easy to follow illustrations. The situation is depressing, but until we have a government who has the courage to empower ordinary people and reduce the dependency culture we will sink ever more into debt. Certainly the government should not run anything: It is only in the last ten years that one has heard members of the public openly criticise the National Health Service.

Personally I would love to see Eurostar lose their monopoly. I have been pro tunnel from the start, unlike most of the UK, but Eurostar seem to despise their customers, not to mention that dreadful 'Rail Europe' booking site. The sooner they get a hiding the better.

Only a fool would not buy fuel as and when they can if on a long journey. It reminds me of how people go on about 'panic' buying just because people go out and fill up when they are able to. No extra miles will be driven in times of shortage, if anything quite the opposite. The man who fills up on a Monday when his tank is already nearly full will simply not fill up a few days later when he would have otherwise. I don't know what all the fuss is about. There may be a finite amount of fuel but there is also a finite demand for fuel.

Agreed. The poll tax was a far fairer system than the old rating system in that everyone would pay for their own use of services rather than the home-owners taking the entire hit. Not surprising that the majority of the protesters against it were young people who thought society owed them a living.

There is so much rubbish spoken about petrol in diesel engines. Last winter I filled up my diesel Citroen with petrol. Did not realise, drove some two miles, then cranked it and cranked it. Next day, took along a booster battery and cranked it and cranked it again, as I thought I had just got VERY low on fuel and drawn in sludge. Called the AA who said, yes, petrol in there. Could not believe it. Drained 90% of it out and filled up with diesel, 20,000km later has not missed a beat. Modern HDI engine and every forum I read told me my pump, injectors etc. would all be shot. The guys in my local pub just looked at the floor. The world seems to be full of people who give the wrong advice because either they have a vested interest or they are just incapable of saying 'I don't know', so that just pass on what they have heard without any qualification.

[quote user="crossy67"]Yes so back to the topic.  I admire the French for their willingness to demonstrate to influence their government.  It will be an inconvenience I am sure but what's a week or so's inconvenience when compared to another 2 years working life if you want to retire.  What will be next?  Another 2 years, then another? We all here the slur, cheese eating surrender monkeys.  Well what's worse?  Cheese eating surrender monkeys of one that eats egg and chips?  We don't even stand up to the people we appoint to carry out our bidding.  Good on them for having more spine than us. [/quote] If they had spine they would perhaps be willing to work properly like the rest of Europe. Every Euro we earn in France has to support this massive raft of public 'servants' who are only interested in lunch, their rights, going home, and going on strike. Trying to deal with them in our town is a nightmare, they are surly and rude. It is time for these people to be dragged into the modern world. Edited to remove html 'Q'

I think it is possible to make this complicated. Were I going off-grid, and I will one day, I would look at going all low-voltage. Lighting can be straight into 12v halogen downlighters, (with none of those unreliable transformers.) TV's and computers are all available for low voltage nowadays anyway; just walk into your local motorhome/caravan store and see what is available. Cooking would be by bottles gas as stated, with water heated probably by a combination of gas and the sun. I have even considered installing a 12v lighting system in our present house run from a wind generator supporting a couple of lead-acid batteries. The whole setup could run alongside the mains system using seperate cables. When it was flat we would simply revert to the mains.

Wishing you all the best, but we've been running a very successful B&B in the Charente for three years. Corporate contract and the income is good, but we give it all away in tax. I never thought I would be saying this but we are considering returning to the UK to go into ...... farming. The culture here cripples enterprise, but I hope you succeed.

What a shame. Perhaps though we could persuade filling stations to have webcams so we can monitor their queues. That would also spread the demand for them.

[quote user="Jay"]I would monitor the fuel queues with Google mapping[/quote] What actual website are you referring to? I am interested in this but cannot find it.

Sorry I cannot help as I rarely use Ebay these days. Ten years ago it was a brilliant idea and a joy to use. Now it is like a bank: Totally commercial, greedy, arrogant and impossible to talk to.

France reminds me of England in the sixties - A beautiful and pleasant land but supported by a totally unsustainable financial regime. If you don't like the terms of your employment then resign, simple as that. France needs to grow up here. We pay so much tax and it is nice having the bins emptied twice a week, but every Euro we earn is keeping us plus a dole scrounger and a civil servant; I don't know who is a greater waste of space, probably the latter.

Spoil-sport

Has anyone heard about a possible Dover/Folkestone - La Rochelle car only overnight Seacat? I would love to have this confirmed.

'Panic Buying' is an often used term, but in reality if you stock up on extra something in the light of a possible shortage you are not panicking - you are simply being cautious. Unless drivers take empty jerry cans with them they can only fill their car's tank - not really an opportunity to panic.

Well once again this year they have sent our bill to our old address in the UK which we sold three years ago. Incredible incompetence - let them all go on strike and bolt the door behind them I say.

I would love to go to bed, and stay in it for a few hours. But I decided to become a dad at 47 so that is out of the question!

Well Bob Geldof got criticised for actually trying to do something about world poverty while JL continues to be praised for writing songs, taking drugs, staying in bed and changing nothing. Never was dying such a brilliant career move.