Bluebell

I did much the same thing in Carrefour yesterday as OH tore the little cardboard bit off the box of beer and said give that to the lady on the desk. So I just put it in my pocket!

Many thanks for that. So we were expecting a neat solution in a deathbed confession, and then the truth written in the letter. The empty envelope suggests that nobody was ever to know if she was innocent or guilty.

Many thanks pagnol81. What did you make of the blank letter? Did you think she was guilty?

Can anyone tell me what happened at the end? We had to turn it over for the final of the dancing and I was dying to know whether she was found guilty or not guilty. All I know is that the girl journalist began to have her doubts about Mme's innocence and that caused trouble between her and her defence lawyer boyfriend.

It was absolutely riveting. I thought I would miss the end when Mr B. turned it over for the dancing and I was so pleased to see it was in two parts. I'm very glad it's not like that in our village!

Last summer they laid mains drains in the village. We have to be connected within two years. Whether or not we are connected we have had to pay the first of two installments for the work (600 euros) and we are now charged for sewage even though we are still using our fosse septique.

Théière, with your imagination and my experience we might be good together. Writing a book I mean.

Me too. I would air all the graphic details of my private life if I could think of any.

Sorry Théière, I'm being too judgemental as usual. Just in a bad mood as people messing me about re next weekend's booking. Accepted a booking for the minimum three days, but then it got whittled down to two than one day.  Now I've just got an email saying they are only coming if it's nice weather!

Ignorant is the word that sprang to mind and that is in the Yorkshire sense which means rather more than unknowing. You would have thought these people would know that international removal firms can be engaged to take you back to the UK; they don't just fall off the planet when they get to Deepest France. They remind me of the time I was staying on a lighthouse on a remote island in the Hebrides. A fellow guest arrived off a boat in high heels and a skirt, unaware that there was a long  trek across a peat bog with suitcase to get there. Like with this woman in the account, no idea what life was like out of the city. I certainly wouldn't want to read a whole book of that rubbish.

I too am amazed that people buying campsites and gîtes only seem to advertise to the British market. We started our gîte business late this year for various reasons; we had trouble with phone lines and accessing the internet, visits from family, too busy with our own house, etc. So we only started in July but because we advertised on French and German sites we have been fairly well booked since then. Also many French people book the week before whereas British people have more to arrange and tend to book months in advance and don't just want long weekends. I felt sorry for the heart attack couple. The trouble with moving to the South of France you usually have no relatives or long term friends who can step into the breach and help out if something happens. You can't manage a Chambres d'Hôte single handed, far less gîtes as well. And if you have to start paying people that's the profit out of the window. My advice to people is not to overreach themselves, both in buying a property that takes a lot of money and effort to maintain, or a holiday business that cannot be run short handed. Most people moving to France are of retirement age and should be winding down rather than taking on stressful challenges.  

Thanks, Clarkkent. I think my machine must be quite old as the instructions do not mention the all-in-one tablets. But that article was a great help.

I knew I shouldn't have cheered so loudly as I lost the internet again this lunchtime!

I've just added two new memories and I've been so delerious with happiness that the computer actually responds in a nanosecond that I was unaware that I hadn't got to reset the modem several times a day. Alleluja!!!

I'm a bit confused (it doesn't take much!). I took over a dishwasher with the house this year, the first time I have used one. I put salt in the little resevoir with the screw top on the floor of the machine  and I use a Finish tablet which I just chuck in to lie at the bottom. A couple of times I've used the little bottle of cleaner which you hang upsidedown in the machine while you run it empty. The water here is very hard. Am I right to put in the salt if I'm using the all-in-one tablet? Some of my cheap glasses are getting a bit murky.