Devon
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Posts posted by Devon
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Things have moved on since May and not for the better. Italy seems to be in trouble now and Germany seems to be going off the idea of giving their money to southern European countries.
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So what was unthinkable only a couple of months back is now being openly discussed: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/09/08/uk-eurozone-greece-exit-idUKTRE78754420110908
My gut feeling is if the Euro zone does start fallng apart it will happen very quickly and be very messy. I expect Greece already has vaults full of 'New Drachma' just in case.
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I got a letter from the Marie and the French electrician put a line from a EDF meterbox on the pole, to the house.
When the work was complete EDF put a cable under the road to a meterbox in the boundary wall.
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A group of us from Devon and Cornwall are on the Plymouth ferry to Santander tomorrow (Sunday) we intend to do a couple of days exploring the mountains before travelling up through France to Roscoff. There are 7 bikes, mostly BMW GSes but I am on my ST1100 and a mate is on his 1600GT. Hope the weather is good [:)]
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Things are not looking good for Greece. The next couple of months will be interesting when Greece starts defaulting on its debts.
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If the slates are easy to break with your hands or very dusty then renew them. Battens are so cheap it would be unwise not to renew them rather then de-nail and re use. Good luck overcoming your vertigo [:)]
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If you fancy a classic bike go for a BMW airhead: easy to work on and reliable. I have 3, I did have 4 including the 100RS that I sold on ebay today. Great bikes for bimbling on [:)]
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[quote user="Pickles"][quote user="Devon"]A tax of 20% on rental value is going to be a lot of tax. How would any rental value be worked out? I would guess my place would be 200 euros a week to rent (but in truth I haven't got a clue) which would present me with a tax bill of around 2000 euros a year. That sort of money is enough to deter a lot of people owning a second home in France and I do not believe even politicians are so stupid as to implement a tax that would drive a huge amount of investmnent from their country. I think I will wait and see what happens before I get my knickers in a twist.[/quote]
If you look at your existing TF and TdH bills, you will find that the TdH is a percentage of a notional "valeur locative brut" which is stated on your form, and the TF is a (higher!) percentage of a base figure exactly half of the notional "valeur locative". My understanding is that the new tax will be 20% of the base figure as shown in the TdH (and hence 40% of the base figure for TF).
Regards
Pickles
[/quote]Thanks Pickles. I am just finishing rebuilding a total ruin (3 walls were all I started with) at the moment and it will be completed by the summer. I guess I will get all the information when I notify the appropriate authority of completion. Maybe I should refrain from informing them for a while [:D]
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A tax of 20% on rental value is going to be a lot of tax. How would any rental value be worked out? I would guess my place would be 200 euros a week to rent (but in truth I haven't got a clue) which would present me with a tax bill of around 2000 euros a year. That sort of money is enough to deter a lot of people owning a second home in France and I do not believe even politicians are so stupid as to implement a tax that would drive a huge amount of investment from their country. I think I will wait and see what happens before I get my knickers in a twist.
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[quote user="just john "]
Whether Greece leaves the euro, or approaches civil war through swinging cutbacks the truth is unknown and is of little importance compared to its effect in stopping the downward spiral of the pound against the euro last week.[:)]
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15058930,00.html
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No doubt someone will be along soon and say Hans-Werner Sinn is a sneaky American or Brit pretending to be German trying to undermine the Euro [:D]
"If Greece were to exit the euro, it would be able to devalue its currency and thus become competitive once again," Hans-Werner Sinn, head of the Munich-based Institute for Economic Research, said in the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.
Which is why we will not see a strong pound for a very long time unfortunately [:(] Britain is doing what Greece needs to do and has devalued the pound by printing money and constantly pointing out how far up the creek without a paddle Britain is.
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[quote user="Hoddy"]It looks seriously old to me too. Could you say how big it is please. Hoddy[/quote]
The slabs in the first picture Cooperlola kindly posted for me are 40cm square so the stone is about 120cm by 70cm by about 60cm high. I estimate the weight to be around 500kg so its a big old lump.
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[quote user="Loiseau"]
Wow Devon! Those look seriously old!
I have visited a few working windmills, and the stones I have seen are much more regular, with top and bottom stones of equal size. But I suppose the basic technique would be the same. The off-centre hole in the top stone would presumably be for pouring the grain through while the top stone is turning on the other one, and the little channel in the bottom stone would be to evacuate the resulting flour.
Angela
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I think the centre and off centre hole would have been for a wooden handle to rotate the running stone. I found the stone under a bank when I removed some trees from the ruin. It looks to be carved from the local stone. From the little I have found on google, the stone could be from Roman times but I wonder how the iron pin in the top of the bed stone has lasted so well if it is that ancient? I am near Crazanne which used to be famous all over Europe for the stone quarried there: it might be a local stone mason carved this as a present for his family a couple of hundred years back [:D] The large size of the thing would mean it was made for grinding large amounts of grain. I am guessing a family house would manage with a much smaller set up.
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[quote user="breizh"]
[quote user="Jako"]
The USA and the UK control the media and are still using smoke and mirrors to hide their own huge problems behind the relatively small eurozone flaws.
[/quote]Have you tried reading, watching or listening to the German or French media? (Genuine question, no sarcasm intended). I'd recommend Die Siegel, they have an English addition, or Le Parisen. It helps with getting a more balanced view. It also will bring to your attention problems the US/UK media will not. The bankrupt regional banks in Germany, the unaccounted debt in the commercial banks, SNCF paying more in interest on it's debts than it's entire revenue, their pension bill being more than their entire renvue, EdF making no provision whatsoever for the EUR trillion needed for their nuclear decommissioning, all the bankrupt Cajas/Caixas in Spain, the unaccounted bad property loans, little things that may help question other things.
I doubt the German, and French media would appreciate the suggestion they are controlled by UK/US.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/
http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/actualites-informations-videos-faits-divers
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It appears to be dawning on the Greeks and Irish that drastic actions are required to find a way out of the trouble they are in. Here are two very informative articles, this one on Greece planning to leave the euro: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,761201,00.html
and this article from the Irish Times pushes back the present smoke and mirrors approach of the politicians and financial sector who will not welcome such clarity on their incompetence : http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0507/1224296372123.html
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Many Thank's Cooprlola, I have emailed you 3 pictures: the stone and top, a picture of the top which shows some fossils in the stone (Ammonites I think) and a picture of the stones as a feature on my terrace which I put down on Wednesday [:)]
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I uncovered what appears to be a very old millstone during the renovation on my house in the Charente Maritime. The bedstone weighs over half a ton and the round top stone is about 60cm in diameter and weighs about 50kg. I believe these are called Quern stones but I can't seem to find much on the internet regarding this old atefact. I have a picture but do not know how to post it on the forum. I could email the picture to anyone kind enough to load it to this thread. Is anyone knowledgeable on these stones or has anyone else found one on their property?
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Oh My........................ Portugal is in fine health and isn't up the swanney without a paddle http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/uk-portugal-debt-idUKTRE7355FH20110406 I expect the politicians will tell us tomorrow, so it must be true................ Who is next I wonder?
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[quote user="Quillan"]Just been reading Le Figaro, French manufacturing up by 0.7% in the first quarter, Euro hitting $1.40 and ECB to increase interest rates by 0.25% on the 1st April. Then there is the UK, Interest rate the same, manufacturing down 0.3%, Stirling (v Euro) £1.13, inflation up. Its a bit difficult to tell people in the UK not to worry as others are worse off when, apart from a few exceptions, everyone else is doing better. The only thing they have left is to knock the Euro but then that's normal, they have been doing it for several years now. Anyone remember when Stirling first started to go south a couple of years ago and 'the experts' on the forum said it would be 1.25 by Christmas (2009) and would be back to 1.40 (ish) by the summer. I wonder if they still have their jobs? The Euro won't crash and burn, there is too much invested in it and if it did it would take the UK and US economy with it.[/quote]
I used the wrong heading when I started this thread: I should have written: Will there be a 2 tier euro by the end of 2011, not: Will the Euro crash in 2011.
From post no 1:
I know there have been doom mongers since its birth but it is looking like 2011 will be the real test for the euro. What are the chances of a 2 tier euro by the end of 2011 with poorer/bankrupt countries like Ireland and Greece being expelled by the stronger countries like Germany?
Like you Quillan, I expect the stronger European countries like Germany and France to prosper but I do not see them handing over their hard earnt to keep bankrupts likes Ireland, Greece and Portugal afloat forever.
I think the British have plenty left to knock without worrying about the euro but this thread isn't about sterling: its about a 2 tier euro which might come one step closer in the next couple of months.
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Things are getting interesting in Portugal. I wonder, will Portugal be the first country within the euro to follow Iceland's lead and refuse to spend the next 20 or 30 years as serfs paying for the folly of their government and the West's financial sector?
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I would not dispute that the UK is between a rock and a hard place. Over reliance on a bent financial sector, a small manufacturing base, the biggest banking bust in the history of banking: the lowest interest rate in the history of the BoE and printing money shows just how desperate things are. Likewise, America is living on debt and is in decline. But it does not follow that Countries tied to the Euro are safe from what is presently happening in the world and are on the path to a Utopia. And Europe is not doing very well at all: only one of its members has what it takes to compete with the emerging powerhouse economy that is China and that is Germany. Europes answer to the problems of bankrupt nations like Ireland, Greece, Portugal etc is more debt to pay debt they cannot repay already: only politicians and economists could dream up such a solution. It looks certain big changes are coming regardless of what new laws and regulations politicians create. Certainly interesting times.
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I require quite a lot of materials to hard landscape parts of my garden in the Charente. It works out considerably cheaper for me to buy the materials in the UK but transport is a problem. I have access to a friend's 18 tonne flatbed lorry which is large enough to deliver all the materials from the UK in one go.
Would it be legal for me to use my friend's lorry to drive my materials across France? I have a class 1 and 2 HGV licence and I would get a letter of authorisation to use the lorry from the owner. Has anyone used a large HGV to deliver their own materials or furniture from the UK and if so, were there any problems crossing France?
I have used a 7.5 tonne tipper (I used to own previously) to transport kit: this caused a lot of head scratching at French customs but I was allowed to carry on my journey but I have no idea if an 18 tonne lorry would attract a different set of laws for private use.
Thank's for any useful informed information in advance [:)]
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Crikey, it would be quicker to run up and down the roof with a couple of buckets of cement and fix the problem then read this thread from start to finish [:D]
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Where I am, the roofers in the Charente Maritime rarely seem to use felt under the tiles but they do lay thin planks completely over the whole roof to carry the battens. I am guessing the builder did not cement under the tile where it is cut over the valley? If this is so, I would recommend cementing under the tiles up both sides of the valley. If the gap is big enough it would pay to strenghthen the cement by sliding a wire mesh in with the cement. Can't really say much else without seeing the work other than as the builder is reputable, I would imigine he would rectify the work for free. Hope that helps
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And the storm clouds gather:
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I know there have been doom mongers since its birth but it is looking like 2011 will be the real test for the euro. What are the chances of a 2 tier euro by the end of 2011 with poorer/bankrupt countries like Ireland and Greece being expelled by the stronger countries like Germany?
Another good reason for the collapse of the euro is I have nearly finished my house in France. Sod's law is now, I do not need to change much more money, the £ will be back up to 1.5 French euros by December [:D]
Will the euro crash in 2011
in French Finance
Posted
This is really all smoke and mirrors to deflect people away from what is happening in the US. People seem to forget that so far only the US has come to within hours of defaulting on it's debts.
The EU predominantly trades within it's self, yes of course it exports to countries outside the EU but there is enough trade within it to survive. A US campaign has been carried out for sometime now to 'nibble' away at the weaker EU countries with the sole intent of undermining the EU economy and predominantly the Euro as a currency. The US would not like, in fact it does not like, the fact that some countries already see the Euros as a world trading currency (if you do a bit of research it's interesting just how many there are especially in the Middle East). If these people succeed in undermining the Euro and causing its downfall we will all be at the mercy of the dollar. Competition is good but greed is so much better, the US prefers greed to competition.
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The phrase 'none so blind as those who will not see' springs to mind. [:)]