Colandhelinfrance

Assured by our notaire. Do you think that notaires make a habit of being economical with the truth? I take it your comments come from experience of such a situation?

This farmer is not friendly, and he did not sign anything on our contract of sale.

We were notified, and was assured that upon our purchase, any contracts would end. We actually want to use part of our field for a garden, as we have no attached land. When we offered to pay him to cut was was left, he declined!

I am assured that because the land is less than a hectare, he has no claim. The other strange thing is that he said that If we go to see him & sign a piece of paper, he will end the contract! He was also asked by the notaire to come to a meeting with us at the notaire's office, he declined.

Any idea where the best place (near to Ruffec) to purchase simple fencing, for the purpose of fencing off our boundary, maybe simple wire type will do. Thanks

Our local farmer has caused a situation where we might have to take him to justice. He had previously cut the grass in the field which we have now purchased with our house. When we purchased the house we were told that the farmer had no contract. He insists that he has a contract. We offered to pay him to cut our grass, but he refused and in fact carried on cutting the grass without our permission, then offered us a payment. We understand that this is so that he can carry on getting his subsidy from the government. We started to cut our own grass (a big effort in a two acre field) he told us that we could not cut the grass at this time of year, when we told our notaire, he said that the farmer was laughing at us. So we have now sent him a registered letter telling him not to come onto our land and not to cut - bale and take the hay. If he ignores this, I fear that we will have to take him to justice (which is what the notaire wanted us to do immediately) Can anyone give us some sensible advice please. We went to our notaire, who reiterated that there was no contract in place

:rolleyesn out last visit to out Peussec home, I decided to move our foss vent pipe & dropped a plastic pipe on the dish.! Anyway, I'm not sure if it was coincidental but, I now can not pick up BBC2 or ITV1, BBC1 - channel 4 & 5 are fine. I think that it could be that I've lost either the vertical or horizontal channels. I've tried the allingment & seem to have a pretty good signal strength & quality. The strange thing is that the lost channels come back in the late afternoon & then go again. This has never happened before. IS MY LMB FAULTY? 

We took some out to start with,

The question was, does it matter, not whether or not I want to!!!!! 

Here's another for you! Does anybody know where I can get a whirly thing to go on the top of the foss vent pipe, this is probably similar to the types that go on top of chimneys.

Can anybody tell me if it is a fact that you can only use French toilet paper with a foss? Something to do with the English type being too thick and not breaking down quickly. Thanks.

Thanks for those couple of pieces of info, especially the one regarding the hot water tank, this confirms what a friend told me, his suggestion was to put an in-line trap on that very pipe. 

Yes, It is the Fosse, thats not the problem, the problem is how and where is it comming from in the house

Hi, We've had our fosse installed for a couple of years now, its only used occasionally (holiday home at the mo) After a day or two of us being at our house, a horrible smell occurs. The renovation was completed about six months ago, but we have a problem. It seems to be originating from our kitchen downstairs. we have a utility room with a waste for a washing machine, some of the smell was coming from there, until we filled the trap up with water. We just cant locate exactly where the smell is coming from. Our vent pipe is not too far from the middle floors balcony, and we actually smelt the same type of smell coming from it one day. the strange thing is that the smell is downstairs & the vent pipe is upstairs. we have been recommended to fit a  whirly thing that goes on top of the vent pipe, to help suck the smell away, has any good person any ideas please.  

We were wondering if were allowed to register to vote in our commune! Or do you have to be a resident? We were thinking of contacting our wonderful maire, to ask inform him that we would like to vote in the next election for Maire. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Thank you weedon, we do have a vent pipe. I have a trap on the washing machine waste & no smell comes from there. But as far as the sink waste is concerned, there is no trap on it yet, but the pipe is taped up.

Hi, A brief story. I've unfortunately been tucked up by a fellow Brit. I had ordered and paid for a fully renovated pool table, when it arrived, low and behold it had not had a sniff of reconditioning. Anyway, I would like to know if there are any pool table re-conditioners in the Ruffec region please. I've checked up with the cost in the UK and it is around £150.00 for new cloth and cushions. I have been quoted 400 euros by a chap called Claude in Verteuil.    

Thanks Dave, We are using the foss, but the smell is only downstairs in what will be the kitchen, we have a vent pipe outside, this is about three feet above out guttering. The kitchen is completely plasterboarded except the hold where the waste and water pipes for the sink come in. This is quite a large hole, and if you put your hand there you can feel a draft, but I can not smell anything at this hole, or indeed around the taped up sink waste pipe. Regards     Colin

Hi, we have just had part of our house near Ruffec renovated, including putting work right, done by the French plumber who installed our foss. The renovation included re-laying the soil pipe from the loo's under a concrete floor and into our field where the foss is situated. The work looks first class, but with one problem. A horrible smell from the foss,which comes and goes. We managed to trace one source of the smell to a waste pipe, which was installed for our washing machine (in a separate utility room) we filled the waste pipe up with water (creating a water seal in the u bend) and this stopped the pong from there. There is still a smell coming and going, the only other place I can see it could come from is the sink waste pipe (yet to have a sink attached) the builder has told us that this is where it IS coming from. He then taped it up until we have the sink fitted, but the smell is still there. He insists that once the u bend is fitted and filled with water the smell will go. I am not convinced at all, as there should now not be any smell with the pipe taped up. Any suggestions please.

Can anybody fill me in on the details of an Restaurant we visited in Nanteuil en Vallee, in the Ruffec area. I know there are a couple their. If anyone can give me their names I would be extremely grateful. Only we are off to France tomorrow and it is our wedding anniversary and would like to eat at this particular restaurant. Thanks.

I've been told differing stories regarding the use of UK electrical equipment in France. We want to take our UK Dimplex storage heaters and use them in France, they are nearly new, does anybody know if there will be any problems in doing this. We have dedicated electrical heater points in the French property. 

Does anyone have any experience of cooking by electric or at least an electric oven & gas hob. The reason I ask is that, as usual we have cost ourselves money. I took a nearly new Canon Stratford gas cooker to our house in the Charente, & emailed Canon to see whether or not they could supply me with an lpg  jet conversion kit. They told me "no problem, just to let them know which model it was", so I told them that it was a Stratford & was promptly told that they did not supply any jets for that model. So we have now got to bring this cooker back to England & purchase something else. We have just been offered an electric oven, our kitchen has just been renovated, but it only has normal plug points and a heating socket. Does anyone know if I still require a dedicated cooker point as in the UK. And of course, we only have 9kw at our meter, and we plan to run storage heaters as well, but these should only draw power at night. What a nuisance, any guidance please????:  

Hi, I wonder if anybody has had any problems concerning the water pressure in France. I am talking about taking a washing machine or dishwasher from the UK and using it in France. I understand that the pressure is greater than in the UK, but is the equipment for sale in the UK able to cope with this extra pressure? If we were buying new equipment, we would buy it in France, but we have both a nearly new dishwasher & washing machine.    

Thanks for that, I'm sure you will get your pool table eventually. Mind you I thought I'd blown it when, I'd arranged with the builder to have 5 lights over and around the table & for only one in the new kitchen ooops!!! 

HELLO GOOD PEOPLE. HAVING JUST RENOVATED OUR PROPERTY IN PEUSSEC NEAR RUFFEC. WE FOUND OURSELVES WITH AN OPPERTUNITY TO HAVE A ROOM LARGE ENOUGH TO HAVE A POOL TABLE THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY GET ALL AROUND WITHOUT HAVING YOUR QUE UP THE WALL. WE HAVE PURCHASED A SECOND HAND SLATE BED TABLE 6 x 3' THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THAT IN NEEDS RECOVERING, DOES ANYBODY KNOW OF ANY POOL TABLE RENOVATORS IN THE CHARENTE AREA.