dragonrouge

Hi we have been here for years and all our income be in pension or rental income from our house has been at NT.  We have sent to these guys the nice forms which go to Paris and indeed have hand delivered a set as well.  Then a month ago we had a response to an email placed on their site and said that neither my wife or I were entitled to NT and unless we sorted ourselves out then we would 'suffer' I started a complaints procedure against a really nasty lady who basically was lecturing me.  I do not mind being lectured providing that the lecture is balance neutal and of value.  This did not comply on any of the stages.  Then I phoned the office manager and whose name I have and played hell.  In the meantime I sent and scanned every conceivable document I had from them (80) and so their system then bombed them because of the file content.  So I had to send 80 separate emails. Next day a rather nice lady telephoned me and I too have her name and some four days later everything was agreed and I have a very official letter saying that all my UK income does not attract tax and I am resident in France.  But if I come back please tell them! We pay all of our taxes in France. Please note the guys in Nottingham are working week ends to catch up with emails and letters and which go back three months and in some cases six months.

What a lovely way in part to start the day. I have been a basset hound owner for over 40 years and the last in the line Jean Claude is at my feet snoring away whilst I put this together.  Last evening we had a difficult time with him for he is elderly and struggling a bit.  This has lightened up my day.

Dear Babcock now you have worried me.  I am just using it for planting some new trees and thought at one euro it would do the job. The stuff you know has a reputation?   regards

Surely we have a member who is very close to this place and equally is it not possible we can contribute a cheque to make sure these animals do not suffer.  At the same time perhaps the original contributor could email me with their details and I am going back to the UK soon and I will change my direction to make a call but only first having made sure the cats are safe. Please let us put our heads together and make sure no more harm becomes innocent animals.

This morning I went to Super U and saw a special offer for 40 L bags of compost for 1 euro.  The offer started today and for one week.  I presume its also at Hyper U.  Looking at the contents there cannot be much in it for that but there is certainly no peat so I think its very good if not great value for money.  I am going back tomorrow for some more.  It was flying out of the store today.

Sorry I forgot to mention that it is a combination of  looks and cost that way around.  However we may not be here for ever and may indeed be now leaving for the UK where I have just been awarded a contract legal wise and thus its going to be an aid in the future whenever that will be to sell the house.

Thanks J.R we are now going around various brico's plus the local quarry and collecting plastic coffee cups with samples and prices.  Tout venant I have seen that sign in the dechetterie, what does it mean please   kind regards and thanks for your help

Dear Pachapapa Sorry I did not make myself clear and do apologize.  Of course the hard standing will support my car having supported lots of buses over the years.  Not a problem but I am informed that calcaire will crumble under the weight of my car not the hardstanding.  Indeed I can make it disintergrate by just the weight of a shoe. As you can see it is a relatively large area and the prices vary enormously and thus I would wish to get it right.  The rest of the area is simply for leisure so that is not the problem its the continuing use of the car .

Scooby you and I have severe differences of opinion.  Lobsters are better taken care of in a different way.  You will not win the battle with me neither will I with you so let it go. Live in France Scooby every day of your life and understand the approach. But in Buxton to make a judgment (spelt in the legal way) is without balance.

Odile I agree but on this forum things do sometimes turn and it becomes a battle ground.  It was not my intention so to do.  Sunday Driver I have the photograph in front of me shall I post it then all the parcipants then decide for themselves.  That might be the better way. In the autumn how many of us have been to say to Lecrec and seen the promotion of carcases of ducks and their livers displayed elsewhere and the French picking over them.  I would not wish or attempt to question the French for I live in their country.  But equally please do not question our approaches in the UK. Things will never change and last week I witnessed our French neighbours seeing that the chickens had stopped laying and thus feed every day was just throwing money away and what happened some 20 chickens were to be seen on the washing line and new ones will take their place in the spring. That is their approach and obviously some sense comes into being but to see ducks in cages of very limited space and what follows is unacceptable.  But my views and of no consequence. However I do not eat veal will never eat veal will never eat foie gras nor St Jacques that have not been taken by hand as against trawled.  But there again my views and not important. I will not spray poison on the potager blight or no blight but my views and my views only and as I say we are all entitled to our own views and I support those alternative views without question.

ErnieY on a totally differing subject I have sent you a pm. But to this question. Before I went to the law and thank goodness I did it then as against today.  I spent a lot of time in banking and then Cable and Wireless Plc.  In the latter I bought every year AVC then 1/40ths 1/45ths and 1/50ths dependent upon the financial postion from a personal standpoint at the time.  The AVC went into Equitable and when C and W gave me the opportunity to leave on enhanced grounds I took it for the company was going nowhere.  Then to Equitable and just by days I was lucky to get out without too much damage. In the private sector companies obviously have to keep the pot going as best they can and every so many years the actuaries get together to see what the shortfall is.  No doubt Gordon Brown dealt a death blow to such schemes. However in the private sector say local government or Police if there is a shortfall in the pot then the way forward is to increase the Council Tax to fill up the pot.  In the private sector the proceeds come from profits. C and W some time ago took out an insurance policy with Prudential as against stocks and shares and the only way that pensioners can be affected is if Prudential on High Holborn go down.  What chance that within realisation I say its possible.

Believe it not Sunday Driver it was intended as such.  There is no need to respond just simply see the photograph and make up one own's mind.  That was my intention but obviously I go tit so very wrong.  It is and has always been a genuine belief that this is not right but I continue to respect those and there are thousands who do eat foie gras and so their beliefs are theirs. We could expand this argument into Halal foods and the like but it would get us no further and I have seen how other religions treat animals. I truly am now sorry I brough this up but seeing the photograph in its brutal format just made me think................. Naturally I now regret doing so.

Scooby please a simple question have you seen the photograph.  Yes or now.  Simple really even from afar in the National Park

Scooby as I say not a dialogue or argument.  I have visited an abbatoir and for a while whilst I was a young PC before I went into the law my Wednesday detail was to issue licences to move pigs around and then I was in the place all of the shift.  I am not a veggie but respect those who are absolutely respect their views.  I love meat and know the process. I also know the process of sudden death and that does not put me off trying to live as best a life as I can and respecting other peoples view.   I respect yours but throwing asides in such as an abbatoir adds nothing. Have you see the photograph?

Thanks I am so grateful to you   best wishes

Please here it is not my intention to enter into dialogues on this or to create arguments. There are those who love foie gras and their rights to eat the product are to be respected at all costs.  There are those who do not and their views too should be respected. Here I just would point you to page 5 of todays Ouest France showing the damage caused by the storm and depiciting a foie gras farm and where the roof was taken off and it then shows the conditions in which the ducks or geese are kept. I hope I have been balanced in this posting and as I say I post it not for arguments not for confrontation simply for information.

I have searched the archives and I know this has been covered before but before I make a huge mistake both financially and otherwise please can someone help on this question. We have demolished a large hangar at the rear of the house and which the old proprietor used to use for his coach and taxi business.  Thus there is some 24m x 18m of absolute hard standing.  Around the edge of the area have been placed treated boards so to prevent slippage. Basically part is going to be used for the car and the rest with hard landscaping gardening and leisure areas only in the summer. If I went to a depth that Cassis suggests of 4/5cm how much in metric tonnes do I need please. We have seen some is it calcaire which looks good but I am told it will not take the usage of our car.  Again the area covered in grey gravel would make it look pretty dull do you not think? Would really appreciate help before I commit to ordering.

Well done you will enjoy France but as in most things what you put in you will get out. As to devis (quotations) for the work on this forum there will lots of recommendations both in respect of English and French artisans and my only suggestion is that you should ask for three quotes and compare both the bottom line and perhaps the individual lines.  As to roofing and the like you could also (nicely) ask to see examples of their work and here I have even had an artisan give we a slide show on a PC that is how proud he was of his work. The same goes for plumbing. Finally just my personal views and simply that.  I lived in Normandie in the countryside and here in the Vendee in a village.  When I compared quotes and let us say there was little in it I supported the local village artisan in that a) it becomes known that you are a supporter of village life and b) in the depths of a Normandie winter and say you are faced with either an electrical or plumbing problem and the artisan(who was given the business) is quite a way away you may or may not get the local artisan in to fix the problem Here we have a lotissement nearby and with a bespoked service being put together by a company who are some 150kms away.  The local artisan will not go out for a breakdown under any circumstances for yes I know there is the guarantee side but even then and outside the guarantee they will not go out. For balance there are good English and French artisans all registered but there are some who are not.

Reasonable as in the English Law and as in the man on the top of the Clapham Omnibus are far removed from the French Legal System and thank goodness for that.  Trying something on is another concept and which is prevalent both here in the Uk and probably in most other countries.

Of course Powerdesal the rates in Percy Le Chefresne are something else.  Best wishes.

Are we really saying that if we say have water plus other stuff overflowing back into the kitchen or in the case of the OP a problem with let us say CH that we ask for a written devis.  Surely until these guys or at least in our case the guy opened up the floor and did the work there was no way he would have been able even to take out the crystal ball to work out a price. In such matters common sense must apply and the relationship between you and the artisan (such as we have always paid him on the day the invoice arrived) comes into play. I do not think that 37 euros an hour is excessive when taken in the round and when you think what artisans in France have to pay before they live.

Just a quick posting to see that everyone is safe and well.  We live in the Vendee and yesterday one or two trees down and some neighbours lost electricity but not too bad and quite a a bit of sunshine. Frenchie my map reading skills are not brilliant but in your posting you say that Niort is or was above the orange alert.  We live but 30km from Niort surely Niort was inside the orange allert?

Hi we have just had a problem with an overflow back into the kitchen from the dishwasher and sink unit that sort of thing.  Lets forget the cost of the camera up the drains that sort of thing and just concentrate upon the leak side. Our local plumber literally 500 yards away put in all the electrics and plumbing in our house and was (is) French. He had to dig up (newly placed) tiled kitchen floor and dig out about a metre run to a depth of about half a metre! to locate the problem. I have his bill to hand and ok I helped to cart away the rubbish that sort of thing but he was here for six hours working his backside off and charged us 37 euros an euro plus tva. Hope that helps

There are slates and there are slates.  Being Welsh I somewhat grew up with the concept.  Todays slate as in natural comes from normally Spain and should be differentiated from the fibrous slate which does not quite look the same.  Your neighbour is referring to the stainless steel hooks which hold all the slates together.  Also for that run of slate roof I suggest it could look like a jail unless the roofer puts some form of design in it.  We had in Normandie a huge gable end and the roofer really did a good job by incorporating some designs into the overall work.

They are still around and are a common site in Wales.  Now they seemingly are on the outskirts of markets resplendent in their striped jerseys and with the cycle and of course onions and l'echalote over the handlebars.  But what you do no know is that they rent huge warehouses on the outskirts say of Cardiff and large lorries from Brittany come over and stock it up.  The the various sellers have smaller vehicles which collect them with a cycle then go and park up in the larger or smaller towns.  When they run out back to the car park restock and it goes like this all day.  Did we call them Shonny Onion men or something like that.