[Affairs]

Best advice I ever heard to couples planning to marry:

"Love's not just an emotion, it's a decision".

Easy to say if you've got a loving, considerate partner of course, on the other hand we all all know people with one of these but who still think the grass is greener...

[Do I need to fall in love?]

Re Sweet 17's comments about the homeless I often read the poem 'Old woman of the roads' by Padraic Colum. Google it if you don't already know it, it never fails to move me. And yes, I am in love with our French house, my heart still gives a little lurch whenever we visit it, it means so much to me.

[Montpellier]

Thank you Sue.

Just been on another little white train, the one which takes you to Maguelone Cathedral. Wonderful day out.

No, nothing would put me off Montpellier, best city in France (including Paris!)

[Montpellier]

CHU? Been trying to work out what that is but it's quicker to ask

[Montpellier]

Shame. Felt someone feeling inside my shoulder bag on the Ramblas in Barcelona last year - they'd only have found an old lipstick and comb if they'd been lucky, I don't keep my money in there. But you expect it on the Ramblas.

Went to Beziers last night to the feria and felt perfectly safe wandering up and down the Paul Ricquet Allee (which I call Beziers Ramblas) Maybe I was just lucky but nobody tried to put their sticky fingers in my bag and it was a great atmosphere. Shame that Montpellier's going the way of Barcelona. Just got to be careful at all times, and that includes not leaving your handbag on a chair in a restaurant as a friend of mine was relieved of hers this way.

[Montpellier]

Thank you Gardengirl. What a wonderful city, can't wait to go back. Someone was telling us that the beggars are getting quite aggressive though.

[Book about the Resistance]

Love and War in the Pyrenees by Rosemary Bailey would be my recommendation. This charts the efforts of a few brave people who organised escapes. The efforts of the Quakers are highlighted and it also relates the harrowing tale of the hundreds of Spanish refugees fleeing Franco who perished on the beaches of Argeles sur Mer, (now a popular tourist spot).

[Montpellier]

Does anyone know if the little white tourist train is still operating in September?

[Child abuse]

Thank you Clair and Thunderhorse. Very grateful for your prompt responses

[Child abuse]

This is rather urgent so would be grateful for help. Is there an equivalent of N.S.P.C.C. in France? I've just heard of a case of serious abuse and would like to contact them anonymously as in England. Is this possible?