PETER HELOIR

Hi  Try Villeneuve sur Lot.(47) On a river with a rowing club. 1hr from Bordeaux, 1 Hr from Toulouse. Good schools and great country side. Three hours from Sister in Law! Regards

Hiya How about Agen area (South West) Loads of Rugby (Lots of antipodeans as well) and plenty of Bars. Our local bar has been taken over by an Aussie, terrible during last years cricket but great during the World Cup!!!!!! Failing that theres Pau ,Toulouse, Montauban all great areas.   Best of Luck

OOOOOOOOOOOOpppps I just tried the link and NOW it works!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Thanks anyway all

Thank you Quillan andSweet. I received the following in my gmail: (This is the whole thing) fromFrance Forum - Automated Email <[email protected]> topeterheloir@xxxxx   Email address edited by a moderator dateNov 15, 2007 6:58 PM subject(France Forum) Private Message: Moving mailed-bycompletefrance.com hide details 6:58 PM (16 hours ago) Reply You have received a new Private Message from ColinE Subject: Moving Hi Peter Read your post, can you tell me who they were, we are hoping the move to France early next year, we are trying to get as much info as possible, I have had one quote of £3900. Regards  Colin Click on the link below to reply to the private message. http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1081798/ShowPost.aspx I tried the link but Zip!! I also tried replying to the email but it sent me to a dead end.   No matter I still prefer the Quill and Parchment!!

Hi again A general question from me! I received in my inbox at home a message from Colin on this site. He wanted to know the name of the company we used to move down. I was about to reply to him (presumably on his home email) but the link was dead. Is this a security thing or is it to prevent the publication of names of companies? If it is the latter I can understand to some extent but if there are good companies out there why cant we say so! (I can appreciate the potential legal issues if a site is used to openly rubbish someone!!). Dont mean to be awkward, I just want to know so as not to get moderated!! (Happend to me first time I used the BBC food boards and took ages to get back on!!!!)    

Hi Sweet As I said this is one of my pet hates!!! The reason we moved ourselves (the first half) was just because I wanted to avoid the sort of problem you encountered. In the end when we used ET we were happy with the small company they found us and also somewhat relieved that they were there to assist us as well. From what you say it seems that ET actually rescued the situation for you. What would have happened if you had contracted the same company directly. Here I am not asking for the name of the company because I believe that given half a chance they will all behave in a similar fashion. First they hook you with promises then let you down and there is nothing you can do about it!! The companies know you will not use them again (highly unlikely if you are in France) and so the phrase "Customer Service" vanishes from the lexicon!! In our case ET found us a very small french family firm (I think theyt only have one lorry !) Remi and  the guys were great and everythging went exactly to plan. I think that the smaller the firm the better the service, which is exactly what the Broker told us. ( A very nice lady as I recall!!). Yes we did have a glass top of a coffee table broken, but aside from that it was a great experience! Perhaps the bigger companies should remember their roots!!!! The do it yourself option is always available but after my last time (and with advancing years) I will leave that to my children! Best regards   ps I just found the faces!!!!!  

Hi there. My first post but this is a topic that really gets me going, though it may be too late for you! We moved down over two years and for the first part I hired a van.........never again! Last year when we finally moved out (Just South of Agen) we got a whole range of quotes and just could not believe the diference sin price! Some companies wanted a fortune. Eventually we asked around like you (we did not know about forums then!) and were told of a company called ET.  They are not removers but brokers and they found us a really nice French chap who was operating from the UK. Sure we had to pay but it actually worked out cheaper than the year before when I had moved the first half of our load down!! The problem seems to be that all the removal companies tell lies just to get your business and as you never see them again they get away with it. We found that this company were good because they had so many companies on the books that they knew the real story!! Mind you i still think that they all charge too much for waht should be a cheap exercise but I suppose the ferries and fuel charges (not to mention wages and VAT ect) all do add up!! All the best Peter