Sydney and Huggy

Thank you pomme, that link is very helpful and leads on to other explanations. Just need to remember to lift the habitation invoice.[:D]

We own in the Auvergne and haven't been able to get there since last July and our next trip, whenever it might happen, will be under post-Brexit rules.  We have had the under noted web pages pointed out and appears to apply to 'tourists'. Bit of a catch 22 if it applies to second home owners? Anybody come across this?https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F2191?lang=en

Hmmm, looks like it's going to have to be flash banding, I can live with the look. Many thanks for the help and suggestions.[:)]

Everything is solid, nothing moving at all.  It's what I would roughly describe as haunching (as you would set in a chimney pot) along the length of the roof tiles.  Don't know if the twice it's been done when it's been too warm and dried out too quickly or the mix has been wrong but it needs doing again and just looking for a point in the right direction as to what best to use. 

The joint between the stone wall of the barn and the tiles on the new(ish) lean-to covered patio has zinc flashing and our builder had to replace the fillet of mortar that covers the joint between the tiles and the flashing after about a year. [:(] This has now also cracked and split, starting to break up along the length of it.  Easier to try and fix it ourselves. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what might be best to use to make it a bit more durable - lime based? cement based?[8-)]

[quote user="donkeybee"]........ the estate agent who was very helpful.............. [/quote] Our estate agent was also very helpful.  On site he explained that although the fosse was old we had around 3 years to have it replaced to meet current standards - turns out there was no fosse and never had been.  I suppose the upside was that we didn't have expense of having an old one removed.  He also 'forgot' to mention that our plans to fit velux windows would require not just the consent of the mairie but also Batiment de France (likened to a council planning officer having a bad day coupled with a pedantic historic monuments authority). Yes, immobliers are 'helpful' [6]

Irrespective of any price differences etc, found  benefits by using the Tunnel, having used various ferries and Tunnel quite a lot. Firstly the time saving and maybe more importantly on the train you don't have petulant, grumpy kids throwing the door open and putting dents and scrapes in your bodywork then mummy/daddy getting aggressive because you take them to task, plus no rucksacks, bags etc getting scraped along the length of the car. And what about coming off the ferry to the the exasperation of 30-40 motor cycles driving round everyone to selfishly clog up the passport controls.  Seems the majority are just totally averse to queuing like the rest of us[:@]. No doubt that will upset motor cycling forum members.

We use this place regularly. Takes us just over an hour after we emrge from the tunnel.  Its clean, gates are closed at night and there are plenty places around to eat. Breakfast is also reasonable. http://www.liberty-hotel-bruay.com/

Ryanair announced this with all their usual fanfares (never a mention when they pull a service such as Edinburgh/Limoges) but it was about 3 days before it appeared on their website.  Might give it a try in the Spring, although it's about an hour or so further away than Lyon for us the attraction is using Millau.

Loxam (http://www.loxam-access.com/reseau) have  depots in Perigeux and Limoges.

[quote user="idun"]........., undercooked lamb and cats.       [/quote] We have always had cats but whilst undercooked lamb (just on the pink side of 'done') is delicious, undercooked, nah, don't go there[6] THIS IS SAID TONGUE IN CHEEK LEST ANYONE, PARTICULARLY CAT OWNERS/LOVERS, TAKE EXCEPTION.

Problem resolved - managed to contact the company that installed it.  Engineer arrived, cover off, poke and prod, quick phone call, screwdriver on the end of the shaft of the pump, couple of turns - sorted, hot water.  Best bit - no problem, no charge [:D]

Just had a call from my brother at the house in France. Everything been shut down since mid June and on trying to run the boiler has encountered a problem.  Power and gas are present but although the boiler is running, the hot tap is running cold.  Temperature of the water in the boiler shows 100C and rising. H e shut it off at this point in case some permanent damage occurred. Error code STB shows on the control panel. [8-)] All was working properly when we last left. Has anyone come across this before?   Boiler was installed around 3 years ago and used 2-3 weeks at a time around 4 times a year.

Thanks for the offer Clair, I just kept it simple without going in to any detail other than name, time and place and saying a big 'thank you'.

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Sydney and Huggy"]Our Sapeur-Pompiers at Souvigny appear to be part-timers as most days when we pass their depot there's no cars outside and the place is closed...[/quote] Are these them? If so, I would address the letter to their to their Chef de Centre (Major PARILLAUD Alain) and send it to to the Centre de Secours Pompiers, 03210 Souvigny. [/quote] Yep, that's them.  I see a couple of them that were there for us.  I'll get a note sent off to the Major.  Thank you all for your help.

Thank you for the good wishes for my wife - she's very much better.  Seems to have been an infection or something in the middle ear.  Saw our own GP after we came home and whilst he's not overly concerned, he has referred her to the ENT clinic (no idea of how long we'll have to wait for that though). Our Sapeur-Pompiers at Souvigny appear to be part-timers as most days when we pass their depot there's no cars outside and the place is closed, although they did arrive very quickly and I did confirm they were from the Souvigny base.  Unfortunately we are not due to return to the house until later in the year, it would have been easy to drop a letter through the door.  I might just go down the hand written note (with a Google translation as none of them spoke any English on the day!) and pop it in the post directly to them.  Whilst I was more than happy to bring their prompt response and care to the attention of the mairie, it was a slight concern that maybe the plaudits would not be passed on to the crew who attended.

Whilst we were last out at the house my wife took a really bad dizzy turn in the local supermarket and ended up being carted off to hospital by ambulance.  I want to send a note, probably by email, to acknowledge the help they provided and was considering sending it to the mairie.  Can anyone please tell me if there is usually any official connection with the local sapeur-pompiers and the mairie?

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g196522-d629656-Reviews-Le_Chalet_Montegut-Moulins_Allier_Department_Auvergne.html

Loxam?

Raccord Anti-Bistre Permet de supprimer tous les problèmes de débordement de bistre au niveau de la jonction entre le poële et le tuyau émail. I think its to stop tarry deposits from seeping through joints.

That's definitely the beast.  Haven't heard any activity in the attic or in the walls so how it got to be where it was I don't know. Thanks for your help guys [:)]

Read the onboard magazine, same one as the way out, looked at the pictures in the sales literature, didn't have a newspaper, book was in the case in the overhead and would have had to climb over people, bored  - you'll know the feeling.  So bored that I started looking at the boarding pass, hmmm those numbers are familiar, not the flight number, not the booking number then realised THAT'S MY PASSPORT NUMBER [:'(]. Now I don't know if anyone could use my passport number on its own for nefarious purposes but the boarding passes went through the shredder when we got home. Suggestion - don't abandon your easyJet boarding pass in the seat pocket, rubbish bin etc.

We found this deceased rodent of some sort lying outside the corner of the barn but how it got there or how it died is a bit of a mystery too.  To me its a bit reminiscent of chipmunks we have seen in the wild in Arizona but have never seen them in our area (Allier).  Can anyone positively identify it and should we be concerned about its presence (or more to the point living relatives!)? [IMG]http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/o626/BarrowBob/Dsc_0207.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/o626/BarrowBob/Dsc_0206.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/o626/BarrowBob/Dsc_0205.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/o626/BarrowBob/Dsc_0204.jpg[/IMG]

Take the point about it being fixed to the gable end particularly since it has been suggested that where the high end of the sloping roof may be affixed to timbers bolted through the wall. Need to sit down on Thursday with the cadastral and house plans to do some sums and probably best to see if we can book an appointment with the Mairie.  Little point in going ahead and finding out later that things have not been done right. Off early in the morning, no phone, internet or emails for a whole 2 weeks (and the weather looks reasonable for the first few days[:)]) how good can life get? So in the meantime thanks for all your pointers, thoughts and suggestions.

[quote user="pachapapa"]Some dimensions would be useful; the shed may not be a permanent structure, permanence is a subjective factor bit like fixtures and fittings. If it appears on your cadastral plan it will probably be regarded as a permanent structure. The previous cut off between a Permis de construire and a declaration préalable des travaux used to be 20 metres squared; as of the 1st january 2012 this changed to 40 square metres. One would presume that your proposed building is less than 40 M2. [/quote] Pachapapa  the base is intended be around 7m x 4m (the 7m being the width of the gable end of the barn) and around half of the ground area of the present 'building'.  Going out next week and I'll go through the cadastral - all the ground plans etc are in the house.  As you say 'permanent' is quite subjective, my brother spoke to the builder who suggested that a concrete base is classed as permanent whereas a wooden deck would not be nor a compacted sand and stone base unless it was slabbed or tiled over. . Gardener, thank you for your links, I'm going to sit and go through them, probably resorting to Google translate here and there! Ahhh, I have every faith in the forum,[:D] always seems someone somewhere has tackled a problem/challenge and yet again are prepared to share opinions/thoughts and point folk in the right direction.  Thanks again everyone.