Sydney and Huggy

Ummm, slightly surprised that, with all the wealth of knowledge and experience amassed in here, particularly by the regular contributors, that there's not even been a hint of opinion one way or another. [:(]

We currently have a large lean to tagged on to the end of the barn, closed on three sides  and it was probably used as a cart/tractor shed, the clapieres were in there and other bits and pieces. Dirt floor, corrugated iron walls and roof and been there a long time.  We are now thinking about removing it, laying a concrete floor, a bit smaller than the current structure, and tying a slated, pitched roof on to the end of the barn and open on the other three sides. The big question is, can we just 'replace' the current structure without looking for consent? [8-)]

Had some good deals in the past from Argus - often getting a second driver for free http://www.arguscarhire.com Then there's also http://www.comparecarhire.co.uk/

We have used this (http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-sealant-remover-100ml/17175) from Screwfix and found its effective, reasonably priced £3.19 and goes quite a long way.  As others have said it may take a couple of applications to get it all off.  Last time we needed it I posted a bottle to a friend out near the house as we can't take it through security when flying, anyone you know in UK that might oblige??

[quote user="Mik from LA"]Just for amusement I have a photo of my neighbour's log splitter. The hydraulic ram is taken from the landing gear of a Caravel jet plane which for some bizarre reason happened to be in the yard of a local scrap merchant. [IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/mikornisey/logsplitter.jpg[/IMG][/quote] Ooops, meant this one.

Now that is a prince among log splitters. [:D]

We were in Le Mont Dore last week and had a good nosey round the station but didn't see posters or anything relating to a steam train. Can imagine though that it would be a spectacular sight to see it puffing up the valley. Everything was closed apart from a couple of restaurants.  We had hoped to go up the hill and walk back down but the gondolas were off their cables, [:(] presumably for maintenance, but there wasn't a soul about other than a couple of joiners refurbishing one of the restaurants.

We got caught out a couple of years ago when Ryanair stopped flights from Edinburgh to Limoges at the 'end of the season'.  All winter Limoges was shown as a destination from Edinburgh yet when the booking opened for the time we wanted to go it had mysteriously disappeared off the schedules[:(].  There's so much acclaim, flag waving and trumpet blowing when a new route is opened but they don't even have the courtesy to let folk know when a route is being dropped [:@] so it may be that the route you are looking for ain't gonna be there.

We have used these people before at Moulins and found them very helpful.  They have a depot at Saintes, about a half hour away. http://www.loxam.fr/reseau/loxam-rental-france/loxam-rental-province/saintes-pg3-27-0.html

How about here  http://www.loxam.fr/reseau/loxam-rental-france/loxam-rental-province/carcassonne-pg3-14-0.html.  We used them in Moulins and they were very helpful - the manager spoke good English and that helped a lot! Decide how powerful you need it and the hire charges are in here http://www.loxam.fr/location/terrassement/location-minipelle-excavation/pg90-0-0.html

Ah ha, seems we north of Hadrian's Wall are unaffected by super-injunctions granted by their Lordships in London Town and I doubt if the mairie in our commune has even heard of the word.  So there [;-)]. But travelling south to catch the ferry or use the tunnel might just expose us to the wrath of the legal paparazzi so, sorry. [:D] PS you can hire diggers at Loxam (branches throughout the country) that would be suitable for digging out moats.[I]

Hmmm, I'm beginning to grasp the scale of the problem and reluctantly concede that, on this occasion, my wife was possibly correct[:'(] .  After all if moats are being filled in with discarded coffee grounds, what chance has our fosse?? Unfortunately there is nowhere immediately convenient near either the front or back door to throw out the remains of the tea or coffee pot.[+o(]

My wife "read somewhere", but cannot remember where, that "it's bad for the fosse to put coffee grounds down the sink". Her reasoning is that they are insoluble and will build up a layer in the bottom of the tank. Given the proportion of coffee grounds to other waste material I have to suggest that such a "layer" would be minimal. Its a pain to be emptying the coffee pot into a sieve in the small sink to drain the grounds through sheets of kitchen paper. Does anyone have a definitive answer[blink] please ?????

We are just home after doing our bedroom floor and delighted with the results, previously the hay loft where all manner of things had been stored/spilled and a dirty greyish colour. After spending days last year with a belt sander and it taking for ever to clean up a couple of square metres we hired a drum sander from Loxam who seem to be pretty well all over France(http://www.loxam.fr/) for around €90 for the weekend including half a dozen belts.  Depending on just how rough the floor is you might need to start with a 60grit to get the heavy stuff off and then work through 80 and 120 and maybe even finer to get the finish you want. There's no easy way to do it with the belt sander other than down on your hands and knees - pretty much essential to use gel knee pads and a decent mask.   The water-based varnish raised the grain a bit and the hour spent on our knees giving it a light sanding with 240grit was worth the effort before the top coat went on.  Maybe someone can give some advice on the best finish for applying wax.

It's just what they do - great fanfares on a new route but never advise of a service withdrawal.  Seems they tend to leave it as a route on the destinations page but never open it up again for bookings. Why do they do it, who knows - every time we used Edinburgh - Limoges the flight was full (and that was a lot of times), stopped it for the winter and it just never restarted [:(].  Can't be because of severing relationships with Limoges as they still go in there from other airports.

[quote user="just john "] I can't understand why no one on the forum is discussing these revolutions of the will of the People, especially the uprisings in North Africa. [/quote] Because its a French forum, not international politics maybe ????

Girl at Le Clerc in Moulins refused to hire a van to my brother - she'd never seen an old style before and hadn't a clue what it was. I suspect the major rental depots will be clued up and OK.

We are around a mile and a half from our exchange and have had problems with the line for a week now following them 'doing some work on the distribution side'.  The speeds were never great before but they are adamant that the problem has been resolved and everything is as it should be. Notwithstanding the horrendous crackles and noise on the line that makes the phone almost unusable, you can see the speeds we are achieving - and that's at a quiet time, and the connection hasn't dropped out - early evening it is worse than dial up.  Paying for an 'up to 8Meg' connection that, according to both their figures and the BT line tester, anything between 4 and 6 Meg is achievable.  The guy at Pipex (now Tiscali/TalkTalk) jumped through hoops yesterday trying to get us to stay with them when I asked for the MAC so that we can return to BT (and £10 a month cheaper). That's moan today over and done with [:@] [URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/1116393851.png[/IMG][/URL]

Nay, 'tis whisky that's the spirit of Britain [;-)]

I tried putting aged 82 in to Holiday Autos and it allowed me to go through the booking procedure right up to credit card details.  Similarly Hertz do not ask for an age at any point though there are specific paragraphs in their terms and conditions for younger drivers.  Can you suggest to your enquirer that he/she really needs to contact a couple of the major rental companies and get written confirmation of their acceptance as it does vary considerably from company to company and country to country. These might help too http://seniorliving.about.com/od/travelsmart/a/rental_cars.htm http://news.carrentals.co.uk/car-hire-firms-implement-max-age-limits-for-renters-34210834.html Question 2 in this one  http://www.thecarhireco.co.uk/faq.php#q2 This one is a bit dated and things may have changed since publication  http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-advice/rental-car-age-limits.html?id=2349978 [geek]

We have put mains ones in the high ceilings in both upstairs bedrooms, on the sloping ceilings on the stairs and in the bathroom.  They are all mains voltage and have had no problems with them.  They have all been fitted with fire hoods, either integral or supplementary and the bathroom ones are rated for zone 2.  They came with a strange small rubber appliance that we were a bit baffled by at first[8-)], then discovered its for putting the [I][I][I] into the fittings[I]!

Eric, there was never any intention to put them on ebay or to sell them on anywhere. We just need them out of the way to use the space.  As they are made of concrete I feel burning them may be a bit difficult, If they were to come apart and nobody wanted them (free) then I would consider bedding them in sand under the lean to to park the car on.

Should this be in here or the 'pets' forum?? We have a row of about 10 double decked clapiere that were in the lean to wagon shed when we bought the house.  They hadn't been used for a couple of years before we arrived and appear to have been there a long time.  We have no intention of breeding rabbits, tasty as they are. We now need the space - suspect they are going to be quite heavy and awkward - but there's no immediately obvious way of taking them to pieces.  Reluctant to smash them up, probably got some form of rebar in them anyway, and would rather dismantle. Anybody got any hints for how to go about it?[8-)] (We are near Souvigny/Moulins area in the Allier, and if anyone can use them then they will go free [:)] to a good home, just PM us.)

We can add the new Terminal 3, built in the classic tented style, at Lyon to the list.  There's insufficient space to get a planeload of passengers inside[8-)] to get any protection from the elements [:(] whilst those in front of you have their passports checked.  Then the cold and wet [:(] gets emphasised as you wait 15 minutes for the bus to the car hire places, but hey you are on your holidays with painting, tiling etc etcc to look forward to.  Why do we do it? - suppose its 'cos we love it. [:D][:D]

How about 'Le Pedalling Pecheur' ????[:D]