KC

Steve thanks for your response!!! Not taken as a flippant comment at all, to be honest with you when I said considering buying a business it was just that. We havent been over to see it yet, really I don't think we will. Anything we would do comes after considering our children. I have spent a long time searching through these forums - some people say kids fit into school fine - takes about six months - others say don't do it. We have considered this carefully - I do not want to put my family through the stress of moving to a new country - I couldn't bear it if the children were miserable at school and couldnt't understand what was going on. Really think we should have made the move when they were babies - (which is what we did originally consider.) I do however love France, but it will have to stay for now as holidays! However, perhaps you could elaborate a bit further about your comment of the outcome of buying a business in La Gacilly - is it that awful? kc

Hi We are thinking about the possibility of buying a business in La Gacilly in Brittany. We have two children aged 9 and 7. Does anyone know anything about the schools in/around La Gacilly or better still, recommend them? I have read many of the posts on here about french education - good and bad. Many thanks in advance to all who may be able to advise.

Hi - we are due to come on holiday on sunday and are hiring a car. My 9 year old is 141 cm tall. Will I need to bring a booster seat for her as she is under 10 years old - even though she is over the 135 cm requirement here in the UK? Thanks to all in advance!

We have had about 5 cm here in East Anglia - so not as much as other folks! However, I have still managed to have a prang in my car today on the way home from work - on a country lane going at only 5 mph! Car coming towards me in the middle of the lane and would not move over even though I did as much as I could. Other driver said she was frightened of going into the ditch - I swear she had about 2 metres till she reached the ditch. Anyway to cut long story short not much damage to cars and all of us are not hurt. Surely this was the main thing I said to her. This did not pacify her - she still insisted on hurling abuse at me and called me a silly f****** cow! Anyway point is take care everyone out there.

Just wanted to say Happy Christmas and all the best for the new year to everyone on the forum. Don't often post on here but love reading all the messages/threads etc - they really cheer up my day!

I rarely respond on this forum but I do enjoy reading the various debates that go on here. However, I feel that I need to respond to this particular thread. I myself am a parent and I do not smack my children, however, I do ensure that they know the consequences of their actions and they do not get away with bad behaviour. There are other ways to deal with kids apart from smacking. However, I work in a primary school as a teaching assistant and can not begin to describe the kind of behaviour I have been exposed to by naughty undisciplined children. Swearing, fighting, stealing from other children and teachers, threatening behaviour towards teaching staff and other children is just a small example. This kind of thing goes on every day. The school is not a big school its quite small just 60 odd kids ages 5- 9.. Sometimes I leave at the end of the day and feel completely demoralised/upset at how most of these young children behave, howver, it is not them really that I blame - the blame has to lie with the parents not bringing them up properly, setting them the right examples, teaching them good morales etc. We do have some kids which try their best to behave really well and work hard - its them that I feel really sorry for - most time and attention is given to the kids that play up and cause most havoc. I am not saying smacking is good discipline. I would not resort to this myself - however, it is a shame that most parents I see do not seem to even care how their children behave or how they are bringing them up. Please don't get me wrong - I am sure that there are perfectly good parents out there who do a fine job. Parenting isnt easy for anyone. I am just venting off about some of the things I see and that is just in one small village school.

We in the past have visited many gites/villas in France and Spain. On the whole all the places that we have stayed at have been lovely and clean, and the information provided has been excellent also. We always try to ensure that other peoples property is treated with the utmost respect and ensure that our two children (8 and 6) do the same. Yes - believe it or not we are Brits!! We always ensure that we do a full clean prior to leaving, including stripping the beds, whether there is a cleaning charge or not. However, I must also say that on one occassion the person we rented from kept back 35 Euros of the damages deposit and claimed that this was a cleaning charge even though I had cleaned!! Both my husband and I could not believe it - quite frankly I felt quite insulted. Don't get me wrong - I believe that a cleaning charge should be made, but I also believe that this should be made clear up front that it will be charged so that there can be no misunderstanding at the end of the holiday. We left the property feeling that the landlord was making a quick buck - so to speak. What I am trying to say here is that I dont feel it is right to assume that all Brits are the same - we would never for example not buy loo roll or claim that we couldn't use peelers etc - this seems very petty to me. I can understand that problems like that would be very annoying but if you really feel that fed up with Brits dont rent to them.

Hi   We are arriving in Bergerac on holiday on 21 May - we have read that this is a national holiday.  Can someone confirm if the hypermarkets will be open as usual this day?  Thanks very much in advance