Fil
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Posts posted by Fil
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Flies on Dog
in Pets
Hi Emma,
weird or what? We are in the Morbihan and have EXACTLY the same problem with our live outside in a kennel rescure dog! She has had flies round her ears nibbling at them and my husband has put horse fly repellent on them that seems to work quite well. They are a bit bald on the tips, but not sore now.
She is an old dog, and we have been living here nearly five years and it has never happened before, and has not happened to the others. No idea why. It didn't happen in the summer, but just in the last month or two. She does not seem too bothered.
Could it be to do with global warming?
Try the horse fly repellent as it is meant for animals. You can get all sorts.
Fil
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Hi,
I think €15 a load is a bit steep, unless you have an absolutely enormous barrow! We charge just €5 a load, and that is quite reasonable I think. After all, a cord is alot of wood, probably more than 12 barrow loads (the €15 a load sort) but maybe less than 36 (€5 sort). We heap ours right up for our guests, and then let them help themselves after that and rely on them being honest. But yes, last night, load of logs, windows all open! We giggled as we are still in shorts and feeling very hot!
Fil
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Hi,
thanks everyone. I had just spent ages writing the first one on verbal contracts, as my friend was round at our place and we did not have alot of time. So was quick on the second one. She has never used the forum, so was amazed you could get so much info on it. We did have a browse through on the search, but didn't find anything for her. Especially not on the verbal contracts. I've just updated that one too, as I don't like it when someone posts an enquiry and then that is the last input they make on a subject. I think when someone answers, the poster owes it to them to reply at least and say thanks.
So thanks again!
Fil
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Hi,
thanks everyone for your input. No, they are not that young (younger than me though!) and it was definitely said at the time that the house was being 'given' to them. ie, rent has never every been mentioned, the husband's name is on the planning applications, when they went to get the fosse sorted at the Mairie the step father said that the house was theirs (ie my friend's, and not his) and my friends have paid for ALL the materials except for the front doors (in place of garage doors that were there) and the fosse.
My friend says they would absolutely NEVER have come if they had thought it could be taken away from them for any reason. No way. And now they are really not sure what is going on. They have been doing some looking up, and think that they certainly have rights, but how they would stand as now apparently not being owners, but being 'rent free' tennants, they are not sure.
Fil
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Hi,
my son James came here when he was 13, for six weeks at the end of Cinquieme. He was immediately given extra french tuition by his french teacher which went on for a whole year until the end of Quatrieme. However, he then redoubled, but this really helped him. This was at a very small country town College, not a big city one. There were about six or so English speaking children in the school at any one time, some with more experience than him, some with less, and all benefitted to some degree from extra help.
He then went onto Lycée in Pontivy and all the english kids got FLE along with a few mexicans and other nationalities. He had a great time - they even went and did wine tasting! I guess this was seen as not just learning the language, but the culture too! However, despite all this he has chosen to go back to the UK where he is now doing A levels in French (easy as he is fluent), Art (one of the main reasons as the art education here is so poor and he wants to work in film animation), Maths (easy too, he says, especially after having done it in french for so long) and Physics (ecstatic on this one - as he came third in the class and they are all boffins according to him). He has adapted well both ways, but his heart is in the UK and as he is 17 and living with his brother, I am not worried about letting him do it. He had alot of help over here, as he was also diagnosed as suffering from Aspergers Syndrome here, which explained his behaviour and shyness problems. I was fairly well impressed with the help he got in french (although the french teacher could not understand why he did not know the grammatical terms she was trying to teach him in their english form), but all in all, it was a difficult move for him. I feel it was only his very high intelligence level that kept him going.
I don't know unfortunately what a child's entitlement is. Good luck.
Fil
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Hi,
fingers crossed! We have just let one of our gites to a young single french man for six months. We took the trouble (once we had found a tenant) to go to an immobilier who deals with letting and get them to make us up a contract with a special clause in it for six months and this cost us €90 each (us and the tenant) so was not expensive. They also for this did all the checking required on banks, income, job etc that this young man had. Ask me again in six months when he has to be out! We are a furnished let, by the way. Our immo assured us we were quite safe. Like I said, fingers crossed.
Fil
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Hi,
yes, I've been a member for ages, but this is really a 'could anyone be so mad as to want to do it, truly, when living in the company of two enormous stinky dogs' question. See my posting for my friend on the legal issues, titled 'verbal contracts'. This is to do with that one - as my friend's mum and stepdad are 'claiming' that they want to do the B and B business to make ends meet as they are so 'poor' even though he has a very well paid job. We (my friend and I and our two husbands) all think it is just an excuse that will never materialise (especially as the mum will be running it on her own mostly and we do not think she will evict the dogs) and we just put on the posting in a hurry yesterday to see what reaction we got!
And the reaction was what we thought! Anyone wanting to do B and B must do thorough research (I obviously have not bothered as it is not for me, but we strongly suspect the people in question have not done it either, as it is a/ a ruse and b/ not true at all.). Anyone who has done the research would realise that it is not a cure all for lack of money and is also very hard work!
So don't jump on my back all of you, saying 'do your own research' as I have NO intentions of getting into B and B, and neither has my friend, and neither, we think, does her mum. But if she does, we are sure it will be completely without the research.
Fil
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Hi,
Is B and B really a viable option to increase your income?
What are the minimum number of rooms required to make a substantial amount?
How many weeks could one expect to fill the rooms in a year near Josselin do you think?
Do you need a private sitting room for the rooms? Well, shared between the rooms?
Would it need to be a Micro bic if it involved 3 bedrooms? If the husband was working that is, elsewhere (abroad) and the wife was running the business in France.
What standards does a B and B need to meet, kitchen wise, what is in the bedrooms, standards of furnishings etc?
What can one charge for a double bedded room?
Can one keep large smelly dogs at the same time as having a B and B?
This is not for me, I hasten to add! My dogs are not smelly anyway - well not very!
Fil
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Hi,
my friend came over to France nearly four years ago on the invitation of her mother and stepfather (in their late fifties) with her husband and child. They were verbally 'gifted' a small annexe to the main house, which was then just a garage, which they have worked hard to renovate over the last four years. Her mother and step father are now short of cash (supposedly) and she has had the cheek to get pregnant and the parents have decided that they need to reclaim part of the house originally gifted so that they can do 'bed and breakfast' to 'make ends meet'. The stepfather has a well paid job, and the difference between the sale price in the UK and the purchase price over here is considerable, so my friend knows this is just an 'excuse' to get them out, due to the arrival of the new baby in six months time.
There is however, no written contract confirming the original gift - my friend viewed her mother as trustworthy!
They are not being directly nasty, or directly asking them to leave, but are 'constructively' and 'subtlely' trying to edge them out by making the situation extremely difficult for them to continue next door.
What I would like to find out, for my friend, who is under far too much stress now for a pregnant lady (eight years of trying for a much wanted baby) is - is the verbal contract binding, and what rights do they have in the property?
Can they be evicted if the mother and stepfather want to sell up? Can they actually get the verbal gift ratified and made legal even if the stepfather (the problem) is now going back on his word?
Over the last four years my friend and her husband have put a great deal of work into both their portion of the property (it is now a house not a garage) and also the surrounding land and fields (twenty acres). At the very least is this reimbursable?
Can they force the mother and stepfather to make the house over to them so that they can sell up themselves and move somewhere else (they probably do not wish to continue next door to people who obviously do not care for them).
Please, this is urgent.
Fil
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Hi,
my friend does several gite changeovers through the summer. One she does she gets paid €45 for (€15 per hour which is all above board as she had it added on to her husbands siret number at the chamber of commerce at no extra charge as nettoyage de loco) and one day she arrived to find the family saying they had 'already cleaned' because they didn't want to pay the owner the charge of £60! Hang on, she thought, he is getting about €90 and paying me half of it? The other half of course was going straight in the owners pocket! She was more than a little miffed! Incidentally, the gite was NOT clean, and she still cleaned it after they had left. She's had people with dogs who have not picked a pooh up at all, and even one gite that was full of dead cockroaches that she had to hoover up! Another gite she does there is no mop and the owners quibbled buying one, saying why did she need it, as they only swept round! Yuck, I would not want to stay in a gite like that! My friend is VERY concientious and cleans really well, but really, no mop, and one time no electrics downstairs either! She got down on her knees and washed the floor with a cloth that time!
The problem there is holiday houses we both think. Badly equipped, no owners on site etc. Obviously all holiday houses are not like that, but some are. She also has a ghost! One house (sleeps about 12 or 14 I think) has a big room at the very top of the house with about six beds in it (one double, five singles all jammed in) and she has found theses changed round. To begin with she thought guests were moving the furniture, but as it happens every time, she has concluded it must be a ghost. Especially with the beds, as they were too heavy for her to move back on her own! And would have taken a great deal of effort to move - and lets face it, why would anyone want to move them? Or even sleep in a room with six beds in it?
Odd, eh?
Fil
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Hi,
I wonder if anyone can give any advice. My husband and I are fascinated by history, but can we find out any local information? No way! It is as though France did not exist before the revolution. Okay, there are museums etc, but all round where we live there are interesting little mentions on maps - ancien fort romaine, fortifications romaines, etc. But we can't find out a thing about them! Added to this, when looked at, they don't always even look Roman at all! There are some round forts supposedly roman, and a huge line of double banks with ditches (and I mean huge) with a gap between them wide enough to drive a car down. Locals call this the Voie Cesar, but I am sure it is not a road. We think we have found one of them at a friend's house! While my husband was helping her husband put in some fence posts they found what mine thinks is the stone work of the road. But nothing on maps.
Anyone got any advice at all? Where to look? I have searched the net. What books to get? Where to get them even? Anyone with any knowledge in fact?
Thanks,
Fil (and Patrick)
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Hi,
my husband has a degree in ecology and used to work in that field in the UK. He doesn't of course over here! (ecology - c'est quoi?). But the other day when we were out walking (looking for a roman fort in the forest) he heard a nightjar calling. This is a very rare bird in the UK, but is it just as rare here please? We keep seeing things he says are rare in the UK, but we are not sure if they are as unusual over here. I suppose what we need is a french book, or books, but he would prefer one in english, even though his french is excellent. Any recommendations?
He is interested in most things - birds, insects, plants, trees - you name it, he is fascinated by it. Or any useful websites too.
Thanks
Fil
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Hi,
we live in the Morbihan and have four horses, two of whom are driving horses. I mostly drive Penny, the welsh mountain in her little two wheeled cart, but have not had the time this year.
Two bits of advice. NEVER drive alone - always take a 'groom'. Just in case of a problem.
ALWAYS wear a hard hat. And make your passengers do it too. Carts are more dangerous than horses as they can easily tip over.
Unfortunately, the deep ditches either side of most roads and the fact that our local drivers show no consideration at all to horses put me off slightly.
However, it is a great passtime.
Have a go as soon as you can.
Fil
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Hi Tricia,
We came over here just over four years ago with our boys aged 16, 13 and 1. The 16 year old is very bright indeed, had a B grade GCSE in french (along with 9 other good grade GCSE's) but he just could not hack it here. He did one year here at a so called bilingual school (no pastoral care, no consideration for english pupils etc) then went back to the UK but did not like it there either. He IS a difficult boy, and is now back in the UK looking for work because there is NO work here for him. Total disaster all round.
Second son stuck it out, redoubled 4eme, and went on to Lycée. He has just done seconde, can go on to Premiere, but has decided not to, as he really does not want to do all the subjects. He has gone back to the UK to live with his brother and do his A levels. Not a disaster on his part, but just not suited to him. He wants to go on to Film School afterwards which requires three grade B A levels in an art subject, a science or maths subject and one other. So he is doing Art, French in a year, Maths and Physics. He just would not have got the art here that he needs and is very excited to be starting school in the UK next week. Fingers crossed for him.
The little one is just going into CP but because he knows his brothers have gone back to the UK, guess what? He keeps saying he wants to go! When he gets to sixth form age I may well consider letting him do it if he can stay with one of his brothers or his sister. They are much older than him and that may well work. It depends on what he turns out like.
I like the french system as I think it does teach well, but it is very very rigid, and if you don't conform to the norm, you can get severly disadvantaged by it. They like to tell you what subjects to do, unlike in the UK where you get to choose. A bit more choice and it would improve greatly and leave the UK standing. I know the bac is supposed to be so desirable, but a huge number of french kids fail it every year, and my friend's son (french and very bright) is only just starting terminale now after redoubling both seconde and premiere! How dispiriting can this be? FIVE years in Lycée and he is not the exception. His english, for example is brilliant, but he gets bad marks because it is written as he speaks, and not absolutely the way they want. My own son actually got marked down in english for not replying exactly as the teacher wanted, which was by no means always right!
My advice for your son is let him stay in the UK. Okay, it will be a wrench for you, but you will RUIN his chances by taking him to France. There are few opportunities except in factories doing yucky jobs like gutting turkeys and rabbits for unqualified kids, and they will not consider GCSE's as qualifications at all. And basically, a french GCSE nowadays is not worth the paper it is written on. It in NO way prepares a kid for french school! He might just as well have learnt mandarin for all the good it will do him.
I can tell you that my daughter who is 22 did french A level as well, and then a french degree and NONE of that is anything like daily life in France! She can talk about ecology, pollution and the environment etc (A level subjects), and medieval french literature (all the essays written in english by the way!) but how would that help her chatting to the locals?
Don't do it to him. I speak from experience.
Sorry to sound so morose about it. I do like it here, really!
Fil
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Hi,
my friend told me you had all replied. She says thankyou very much. It does appear that you are all in agreement in not refunding. She says she has made her final offer to these people and having received no reply is considering it a refusal! She has heard nothing more since she said this and is wondering if they are either plotting something more bizarre, or have given up since she mentioned libel and slander.
It is very interesting to know that other people with gites have dealt with similar situations. I myself had a correspondence with a semi literate person who claimed to want to book three months for his family this summer. I guessed straight away he was a scammer, but played him along a bit to see what he would do. It all seemed to hinge around being able to put a plastic card printer in the gite - seriously weird! What was he? A card cloner? Anyway, it was easy to spot him as he was so illiterate. I felt like giving him a bit of advice - if you want to do a successful scam, learn grammatical english and how to spell! He gave up.
However, my friend said this customer seemed literate and was definitely a native english speaker. You just can't tell can you?
Thanks for all the feedback.
Fil and friend (we are all now frantically making sure there is no fluff on any of our brooms in all the local gites)
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Hi,
I run gites very successfully (I think) and have a number of friends who do too. One particular friend who shall remain nameless took a late booking for which she was paid by electronic transfer. The booking was initiated on a Monday for the following Sunday and the transfer was not done until the Saturday, prompting a little disquiet in my friend as to whether the guests just might arrive without actually having paid.
However, they had paid, but did not arrive until late on the Sunday, when my friend was getting ready for bed. She is very friendly and open, and happily showed them to their gite, to which they immediately turned up their noses. There were a few very nit picking complaints made, including the fact that the gite was not french, and neither was my friend. Why the guests should have thought this, when they had corresponded in english and transferred sterling to a UK bank account, I am not sure, but they claimed they did.
My friend was as placatory as she possibly could be as the tirade continued, the wife claiming the gite (my friend's best one) was substandard and dirty and that there was fluff (only a weeney bit, she showed me)on the broom (you should see my house broom - I have five dogs who should be bald the amount of hair I sweep and hoover up each day). That was the general level of complaint. My friend said that if the guests did not like the gite, then she was unable to do a refund as it was clearly stated in her booking conditions (the same ones I use) that unless she can relet, she is not obliged to refund and guests should take out cancellation insurance. However, as a gesture of goodwill she did offer the second week back, even though she was doubtful of reletting it at such short notice. That, she pointed out, would enable the disgruntled guests time to look for somewhere else. It wxs after 11pm by this time, and there were young children.
However at about 1pm the guests started very laboriously and long windedly to reload their car. My friend could not imagine what they were thinking of, until several days later it occurred to us all that maybe the guests had done this sort of thing before, and they were calling her bluff, waiting for her to rush out and beg them to stay and offer them lots of money off if they did! She had already given them a substantial discount as it was such a late booking, and they were calling the wrong bluff. She is made of stern stuff.
Off they went into the night! We were amazed at the story. However, the next day she got an email from them claiming that her gite was infested with bats or mice! Which of course it is not! She was horrified, and immediately invited all the other guests in her gite to have a look and tell her if her nicest one was a dump or not. They all agreed it was very nice. I think it is lovely myself. Nearly as nice as ours!
Now, her and my question (we have discussed this in depth) is - has anyone else had this sort of thing done to them? Is it a scam? What on earth else could it be? Any ideas?
Fil (and fed up friend with dumpy gite infested with bats and mice!!!!! and fluff on the broom!!!)
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Hi,
we bought ours in the UK via a firm there. We looked in the local papers and they were about €12 - 15000 over here, so we looked on line and found one in the UK for £3000, went back as foot passengers and brought it back. Ours was a long wheel base ford transit 15 seater. We took out 9 seats (left lots of luggage space) and have just spent about €500 immatriculating it. It is a lovely vehicle, very useful and we love it. Would never buy one in France - too expensive! They think the value of a vehicle second hand is nearly as much as when it was new, if not higher!
PM me for more details if you like. I will interrogate the other half for more info for you.
Fil
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Hi,
I have to say that I have worked with horses all my life, in racing, riding schools, studs etc and owned my own for 35 years. When I worked in racing for the trainer Paul Cole in Lambourn (85 skittish racehorses) the stable lads used to do all sorts of things on the horses! I well remember going out for just a walk or trot instead of galloping, and being behind a lad who was doing round the world on his skittish (not) racehorse. They get handled far more than some kid's ponies. They are not always wild and fast and skittish, I can tell you from experience.
I also read in Horse and Hound a funny letter from the daughter of an elderly racehorse trainer who had decided in his advancing years, to ride a connemara pony instead of an ex racehorse on the gallops - it was wild as a deer and took off at every opportunity. He went back to the ex racehorse!
Any horse can be badly handled and schooled. Just being an ex racehorse does not mean they will be unrideable. Lots of kids ponies are like that because people have made them like it. I admire the work this organisation is doing and wish them luck. Unfortunately my four are more than enough for me!
Fil
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Hi,
I read your question and thought I would tell you about my boys. We moved in May 2002 with two boys aged 13 and 16. Charlie had just done his GCSE's and got ten good grades, including french, and tried french school. French GCSE is NO preparation for french school, even one claiming to teach partly in english, which his did. The french was taught at top speed and the english very slowly for the french kids! The teachers hated repeating things and he rapidly became depressed and disillusioned. We took him away after two terms and he went back to the UK the following year.
James was 13 and a half, at the end of his second year in school in the UK, and went into 5eme here, then moved up to 4eme with his new friends. He had to redouble 4eme, then did 3eme, his Brevet, and has just finished his first year at Lycée Generale. However, he is a very bright boy (genius level IQ of 145, measured here in France) and he is well aware of his options both here and in the UK. He wants to be a Computer Animator and work in films, has set his sights on several UK universities and film schools, and knows he needs a good art education to follow the courses he wants. The art education here is appalling and seems almost impossible to do combined with a Science Bac which is what he also would need. The A levels required for his career are one scientific one, one art one and one other by the way. So, even though he has passed Seconde and is going up to Première (something not all french pupils do) he is going back to live in the UK with his brother and do A levels at my old school (a very good one). He is doing Maths, Physics, Art and French.
In my experience the french education system is rigorous, old fashioned (not a bad thing sometimes at all), a bit narrow minded, dictatorial, and could do with a spot of updating. I am not disillusioned by it, and I am sure it suits alot of people, but if you have a child who is a bit out of the ordinary, in any way at all (dyslexic for example) it cannot cope well. We have a five year old too, just about to go into CP, and I will decide when the time comes whether he should continue into College, or Lycée, depending on how he turns out. He too is extremely intelligent, but will have had the benefit of a complete french education behind him. James has always found the french grammar quite hard, and german too (not a linguist, but fluent in french nevertheless), and whereas in the UK you can drop subjects you are not so good at, here you just have to soldier on.
I would suggest that your son is probably on the verge of too old to move. James was right there on the edge, but his brains, his determination (he has Aspergers syndrome which makes him both super intelligent and fixed on what he wants to do) and his personality have helped him through. If we had waited for Charlie to finish in the UK school, James would have been too old, if we had waited for James, we would still be in the UK now. So we took the plunge and I will never know if we have done Charlie a big wrong.
Think very hard indeed before you do the same thing to your son. I feel (sexist thing here) that girls transfer better, due to their gossipy natures, need to communicate etc. I certainly have had less opportunity than the boys, but have transferred very well. I had done O level french, a bit with a native french lady in Wales, and then I just set to and talked! After nearly four years I did six months formation with AFPA (paid - wonderful!) and ended up on the courses just for french speakers, for which I got mostly 15 - 18 out of 20. I think I must have been their star pupil. But I am a natural gossip, and now my french is very good indeed. And all learnt as an oldie. But I was very very motivated indeed.
Think hard. If you want to PM me for any further advice, please do.
Fil
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Hi Cathy, and everyone else,
firstly, the relevant information was NOT in the paperwork they gave us. It SHOULD have said "the distance between the back door and the load barrier must be TWICE the distance between the back door and the back axle" which it did NOT say. Then all would have been crystal clear.
Secondly, it was the DRIRE in Lanester, in the Morbihan. I think you are in Bordeaux.
Thirdly, he came out, took a quick look, passed it, and we have the new number! HOORAY! Is all I can say. What a rigmarole that was!
We are not stupid, we speak excellent french, and we did everything they said, but they kept changing the goal posts. We even did the very complicated maths on the forms. Forms which they did not let on to us existed. You expect when you contact someone to be given all the relevant information, or to be told, download it on the website, but they did NOT let on about anything.
Hohum, water under the bridge.
Fil
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Hi,
when we moved over here four years ago we had a long wheel base landrover defender, which we sold for a more useful, but distinctly lacking in street cred according to our children, ford transit minibus. We bought it in the UK (much cheaper) and took out 6 of the 15 seats to make it legal over here. We managed to drive it here for quite a while, but now are re-registering it here. But wow, what a long story that is!
The main problem is that when it left the factory it was a van (underwent almost immediately a Red Kite conversion) and that it is a long wheel base version. Apparently these do not exist in France - odd this, as we keep seeing them now we are looking for them. So we had to get a Certificate of Partial Conformity from Ford France. €118 for that. Then we got our tax certificate from the Hotel des Impots, no problems. We got the CT no problems either. All fairly straight forward, we thought, apart from the partial conformity. Off we went to the Prefecture, but oh, no, we had to still go by DRIRE, which on reading the forms we had thought we did not need to do.
Sent off the forms to DRIRE and rang them up a couple of days later. Yes, they wanted to see it. They also wanted the empty weight of it. I was going on the school trip, so off went my husband armed with weighbridge ticket they had told us to get.
It failed. Guess why? Because since we had taken the six seats out, and were left with a space, and presumably because once it was a van, we needed a load barrier. Home came seething husband, armed with six or seven pages that they could have sent us in the post weeks earlier (we had waited about two and a half weeks for this appointment) and then he could have done this before he went. Also, we had started with five rows of seats, making the 15 and had taken out all three in the back, then two, then one. This left 3,3,2 and 1 and the bureaucrat at DRIRE told us the back one was too close to the back doors, despite the fact that we had started off with a row even nearer to them. So husband took it out, put in the single one in front of it again, and we were back to 3,3 and 3, although in my opinion it is probably easier to fall out of the side door than the back one!
He made (himself) a fantastic metal grill and fitted it. The information given said it had to make a load space no smaller than 1 metre, so he made one of 1.30. There was a page and a half of maths as well, which we did, including working out the centre of gravity for the load space (Yc) and a puzzling bit that said if Yc had a negative value we had a problem. No way to tell how it was to get a negative value though, just this dire warning. What they should have said was that the load space should be equal to or greater than the distance between the back axle and the doors at the rear, because, as we found out this week, Yc got a negative value if the centre of gravity was behind the back axle, and guess where ours was? Yes, you've guessed it, we failed AGAIN! I could see my husband controlling his impulse to use all the useful french swearwords we had looked up in the dictionary over lunch before going.
However, determined not to antagonise the bureaucrat before we had got our nice new number, we forebore from hitting him hard on the nose. Wondering to ourselves just why this information is not given to you before you start, as he could so easily have done so the week before. A simple sentence such as 'and make sure your load space is big enough because it has to be at least twice the distance from the back axle to the doors' would have done nicely.
Looking at the paperwork he had given us, I spotted that the distance from the rear seats to the doors in the diagram given was obviously too short, but guess how they get round that? They measure at a height of 40 centimetres, and you are allowed to measure the space under the back row of seats as well! This, in my opinion, does not constitute a proper load space, but there it was, marked clearly on the diagram. Typical.
I am waiting until all our papers are done and dusted, and our lovely non PC ENGLISH minibus is sporting new french plates, then I feel a long vitriolic letter in french coming on. Fortunately I am fluent nowadays and jolly good at complaining.
My husband and I are of the opinion that this is designed specifically for two reasons.
1 To create jobs.
2 To make you give up and buy a french car.
Well it won't work.
Anyone else had this kind of problem?
Incidentally, we now keep spotting french minibuses with load spaces and NO grill! We are counting them! We have french friends with a converted gendarme's bus that is now a horse lorry. Believe me, if they break hard their horses will be driving!
It seems so odd that all the authorities are not working to the same regulations! If DRIRE are correct in making us install the barrier (we are not so cross about that as it is useful for the dogs - just their inefficiency in communicating the rules for it) why are there so many vehicles without them? Very odd. And if this is the correct regulation, are all the barrierless vehicles illegal, and as such not properly insured?
Why cannot the french work to a single set of rules to simplify things?
Frustration!
There, got that off my chest now!
Fil
The said bureaucrat is actually coming to our house on Wednesday to inspect our work! Fingers crossed he will be satisfied.
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Hi making a website is easy and fun, it will take about 2 days to get the basics of writing html, which you can find various tutor pages on the web. www.virtuallyignorant.com is the one i used. It took me an evening to make a website for my mum, check it out at www.brittanygites.0catch.com, you can use notepad to write html or wordpad etc but notepad is easier. Once you have done your page you simply upload it to a server, most already have FTP enabled so there's no need to have a seperate FTP program. great bonus as some programs may be confusing for beginners. You can create a website for free or shop around and pay for your own domain name, but i used 0catch.com and it works just as well. Or you can use microsoft frontpage or similar programs to make a website really easily, it takes just an evening to master it. I don't know what the standard rate for creating a page is but its not worth it as its so simple to DIY, if you've got any questions you can email me at [email protected]. Happy web creating.
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Hi,
would you like a goat? Very friendly, needs the shelter but would live outside if he had the shelter to go into.
Fil
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Hi,
thanks for the advice, but you do not seem to appreciate just what asperger's is. It is NOT a handicap and there is no way I would consider him handicapped. All symptoms an asperger's child displays are quite normal when found individually in anyone else - it is the fact that they all occur in one person that distinguishes them as symptoms of Asperger's.
And although he does have a medical diagnosis I think it would probably have no bearing on his school transport situation. He copes incredibly well with his little problem and does not need any treatment for it. Incidentally, it was diagnosed over here and not in the UK which is interesting, I feel, as he was seen by a child psychologist in the UK when at Prep school and it was totally missed as a possibility. I have been very impressed with the way it has been dealt with here, and will be dealt with at his new Lycée.
I have been to see the Mairie this morning and spoken with the Maire, who, after all, must be remembered to be an elected official. Having spoken yesterday by telephone to the Ministry of Education here, who told me it is an individual thing between bus company and Conseil Generale, and having phoned the bus company on their advice, I was then told by the Maire that it had nothing to do with the bus company and that I must write to the Conseil Generale! So who is telling the truth, if anyone, in this case? I told you that everyone says no if they actually just don't know, didn't I? Well it is SO true.
So armed with a map of the bus route given to me by the Maire, who was very nice to me but obviously did not really know - or was it the Ministry of Education that did not know? - I shall now write to the Conseil Generale and see what happens. Though no doubt the relevant person is on his annual summer holiday!!!!!
Fil
Competition pony for loan to a good home
in Pets
Posted
Hi,
I have a 14.1 anglo arab cross welsh cob gelding that I would like to find a good loan home for. He is now twelve years old and was jumped lightly when my daughter was 16 and under and the right age for his height, but since coming to France five years ago has done next to nothing rather sadly. I have four horses altogether and not enough time for this one, although as I bred him from my lovely anglo arab mare I don't want to part with him for good.
What he needs is an experienced child who can keep him with other horses and ponies and who already competes or who is about to start. He would do any child up to age 16 (if the height and age limits are the same here as the UK) and is a very good jumper. When my daughter schooled him in the UK her teacher said he had a very big jump indeed (he sees a stride perfectly) and my daughter said jumping 4' on him was like 2' on her old pony , a 14hh welsh cob. He had enormous potential which I consider has up to now been wasted, but the good thing about him is he has never been hammered, over jumped or anything bad like that. He was not broken until he was 5 and he has good legs, has never been lame in his life, loads in a box well, and is easy to catch, shoe etc.
He is finely built and good looking, being chestnut. The sort of home is most important to me. I want to be able to rest easy knowing he is being well looked after and loved and that he is not bored. I do NOT want to put him in a french riding school - I have seen the sort of standard in them and was NOT impressed. However, he could be at livery in one, for a single child's riding. Not for public use though. No way. He is a good doer, never coughs, is forward going, long striding (rides like a little horse) and sweet natured. He has done small show jumping classes, a little bit of dressage and some cross country in the uk.
I have plenty of land, he can go on being here, but I think he is wasted. He has had his shoes taken off at the moment.
If you have a child you think he would suit, or know a child, english or french, you think would be able to cope with him, email me. I would be prepared to let him go on a trial basis if the right child wanted him, trial on both sides. No charges involved - just a good home. You pay the insurance, vets bills, shoeing, livery etc, and your child gets a very good pony to ride. No-one thinking of keeping him in a field on his own need apply.
We are in the Morbihan, near to Josselin.
Thanks for reading this,
Fil