Richard T

[quote user="Iceni"]In the meantime have written to James Gordon to apply for the job of "And here is another way to waste taxpayers money" but suspect that I am over qualified.[/quote] You could always lie about your qualifications on your CV, get the job and reduce unemployment by one. Result! Richard

We just had one that was five A4 pages of closely typed text. If only I could be ars'ed to read it I'm sure it would be fascinating stuff! Richard T

[quote user="Georgina"]..but very worried I may ruin my kids' lives by finding out I cannot at the airport...  [/quote]You mean if it's confiscated? I think that may actually enhance your children's lives! [:)] Seriously I can't see any problem in putting it in hand luggage. No different from, for example, a laptop. Richard T

[quote user="Pads"]I liked C'est la folie by Micheal Wright .... funny simple easy read[/quote] A quick thanks for this recommendation. I've just finished reading it and not only is it superbly crafted and, at times, quite poignant it's also set in the same part of France as where I own a house (which also needs complete renovation just as the author's house did) so I was able to identify with many of his descriptions of the locality, not to mention the frequent trips to Castorama. So what should I read next? Richard T

[quote user="Jay"]They are sometimes a bit of a pain those machines. There is a lovely smell of fresh bread in a morning when I get up but then I have to wait till the wife comes downstairs, gets the loaf out of the machine, cuts it, puts the jam on and serves it up with a cup of tea. She then has to clean the thing out and make it ready the next evening with the flour and other stuff. [/quote] Sounds like you've got it sussed! Richard T

[quote user="Patf"]Ah, I see - at least I think I see. So the mixing is done in the actual baking tin? With some sort of paddle -like blade? So what happens to the blade when the loaf comes out? Do you have to chew around it?[:D] [/quote] Yep, sometimes. Theoretically the paddle stays in the tin but not always. It can be a bit of a faff to dig it out of the baked loaf so chewing around it is probably a good idea. Like a few others here I only use the bread maker for mixing dough and then bake the loaf in the oven. I recently bought a perforated loaf tin which enables you to bake baguette shaped bread. The perforations cause a little pattern on the underside of the loaf and one of my kids said recently "it looks just like you get in the Co-op". Richard T

As you might expect there are also a few (but just a few) recipes in the Raymond Blanc book. I can recommend the Tarte aux Pommes de Maman Blanc with the optional custard topping. It's very simple but so good I've made it four times in the last few weeks - and is equally good made with pears. Richard T

As the OP of this thread I'd like to thank you all for the suggestions. I have since bought C'est La Folie by Michael Wright as recommended by Pads and will be starting it very soon. As I mentioned in my first post I was struggling with Two Steps Backward by Susie Kelly which started well enough but degenerated into a series of silly anecdotes about her acquaintances and animals. At the time I was up to page 136 and, to be fair, it got a little better thereafter but only because I was now able to recognise when another animal anecdote was about to start and I found myself skipping huge swathes of text. But eventually I just stopped caring and gave up. Instead I picked up a new book by Raymond Blanc called "A Taste of My Life" which is a mix of reminiscences of his early life in the Franche-Comté region, his life as a French person in England, the ups and downs of his business ventures and a lot of really good stuff about food - especially French food. Sometimes Blanc comes across as a little smug but in the next sentence he can be self-deprecating but mostly he comes across as a gentleman (and quite unlike most celebrity chefs). One minute he's talking about his childhood, the next about how to make a perfect soufflé or the British eating habits (as viewed by a Frenchman) in the 1970s. This is an excellent book, well written, well paced and would appeal to francophiles and foodies alike. Any more reading suggestions would be most welcome. Richard T

[quote user="teapot"]There have been plenty of threads on security at the airports nail clippers, soft cheese etc.  It could be worse, Imagine the laughs and gasps from the security staff if the whole body scanners are introduced.. http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/news/gizmos/story.html?id=23833160-af95-4a8c-a50b-afc6d2d989be Then they will know exactly what your packing so to speak..[:-))] [/quote] Why do you think that security staff will be convulsed with "laughs and gasps" at the sight of a blurry image of a human body? The real issue here is that body scanners are just one more step on the slippery slope of the total abandonment of our civil liberties and should be opposed on that basis and not on the basis that security staff might have a puerile sense of humour. Richard T

Freesat is the free satellite channels which you can receive...free! It includes all the BBC channels as well as ITV and Channel 4. You'll also get a load of dross. All you need is a satellite receiver box, a TV, and a satellite dish and some SCART leads. The difficult bit is aligning the dish as it has to be accurately pointed at the satellite which will be vaguely south of wherever you are. And it must have a clear view, not obstructed by buildings or trees. You can buy all the bits in a brico or, if in the UK, do what I did and go to Maplins who will sell you all the things you need. Richard T

Thanks for this. The Michael Wright book had some good reviews on Amazon so I might give it a try. Richard T

[quote user="TWINKLE"]However - now and again a photo of a frog dancing in a nightclub makes me smile. [/quote] Frog dancing is cruel and demeaning. There should be a law against it! Richard T

[quote user="Russethouse"]My tip is to avoid something that has Piano and Pyrenees in the title ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Piano-Pyrenees-Englishman-French-Mountains/dp/0091903335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224415456&sr=1-1)[/quote] Ah yes, Tony Hawks. I read that book but it didn't reach the standards of Playing the Moldovans at Tennis. [quote]and anything by Carol Drinkwater. [/quote] Don't know anything about Carol Drinkwater so maybe it's just as well! Richard T

... since when there have been many look-a-like books about living in France, renovating old properties, dealing with builders who never turn up and generally mocking the French way of life for not being more British (a bit like these forums I suppose [;-)] ). I generally quite like this genre: it's easy reading and panders to my sense of idyllic French life although I get quite irritated with authors who seem to rely on French eccentricities to create their stories. As the owner of a home in France which is part way through renovation I would like to read more realistic accounts of how people have built their dreams and yet still retain the readability of A Year in Provence. I am currently reading a book called Two Steps Backward by Susie Kelly which starts promisingly enough. The author and her husband were more-or-less bankrupted in the last recession and with their last remaining pounds (converted into francs) bought a leaky property somewhere in the Poitou-Charentes region. She lived there with a menagerie of animals (some illegally imported apparently) whilst her husband went off in a van somewhere to earn enough money to buy food and make improvements to the property. But then it goes downhill because the book then launches into a long string of improbable anecdotes about improbably eccentric neighbours, villagers (mostly ex-pats themselves) and estate agents all of whom seem to think that this new resident is the only person who can solve their problems; and about her growing flock of chickens, geese, horses, cats and a parrot all of which the author endows with human qualities in that peculiar way that "animal lovers" do. And all of this written in a rather clichéd style as if she was too busy to find appropriate adjectives: she describes a "pitch dark night", "unbearably hot" sunshine, a "whacky sense of humour" and so on. At one point she recounts a family visit thus: "Coupled with the horses' arrival was the enormous pleasure of having some of our family here for the first time, and we all managed to to happily survive the primitive living conditions. They left after five days..." and then the narrative returns to some silly story about "madly barking dogs and whinnying horses". So for all the "enormous pleasure" of the family's first visit she dismisses it in one and a half sentences. I would have loved to have known what the family thought, how they reacted to the "primitive conditions" but no, all we get is bloody dogs and horses. Ok, I'm only up to page 136 so perhaps I haven't given it a chance yet but - and here's the purpose of this post - can anyone recommend any similar books which reflect a more realistic view of life in France for the newly arrived? Richard T

Thanks Andy. All I could see when I searched the SNCF site was trains via Paris which seemed a rather long way round. I missed the direct one. Cheers Richard T