DZ

I completely forgot how much I liked his music - I am just going to tell my 14-year-old to download some Cat Stevens to check it out (he might even like it!). 

[quote user="Clarkkent"]Not only are vaginas masculine but breasts are too![/quote] Indeed!  The same with "le féminisme"!

Wow, what a useful site!  Off I go to search for my friend.

Thank you, Liz, for this idea!

Here is a short story for you: About a year ago I started considering moving to France.  While doing the usual internet research on the topic, I came across a posting from a long-lost friend of mine.  Our children had been looked after by the same childminder and had formed a very special bond.  About 3 years ago, however, the family won a contract to renovate a French farmhouse and , according to the posting I saw, decided to settle down in France.  And this is how we lost contact with Janet. I tried to track her down through the website on which she posted but to no avail.  The website administrator suggested that I should try to look for her on the Complete France Forum - and this is how I have found all you lot!  I immediately got hooked on this website and put my search for Janet on the back burner.  But now that I have been visiting this Forum for a while, I think it's the right time to resume my search.  I can't be certain that she visits the Forum but, on the other hand, for all I know she might be hiding under one of the many weird and wonderful names and avatars here.  So, if: - you name is Janet -your children were looked after by Wendy -you want to reestablish contact with me please send me a PM! Anna

A day well spent then, Chris.  You lucky chap.

[quote user="Ian Horn"] Was very pissed off to read that the Gard came just 28th, with 'flat-as-a-pancake' Herault as high as 2nd ! [/quote] Flat-as-a-pancake Herault?!  Try climbing my street! Exciting survey, anyway.

It's wonderful that you are back where you want to be and loving it so much!  I am back in the cold and rainy London, wishing and wishing to be back in our little village.  It is quite wonderful how quickly one becomes part of the community.  On the second day after our arrival last month we found ourselves helping to look after our 100-year-old neighbour.  This became a daily task.  How I would love to hear her life story (but she is sadly, beyond telling it)!  Not a day passes now without me thinking about her, wondering if I will see her again next time I come?!  The only thing stopping me moving to France permanently RIGHT NOW is the wrong age of our children (teenage and non-French speaking).  I guess I will have to wait...

[quote user="KatieKopyKat"] Why dont you post more often and also KATHY and DAVIESZAK [/quote] I only post when I have a question or something concrete to say, but I do enjoy other people's wit!  It is also quite difficult to post when the time I have at the computer is limited by my working hours and teenage children crazy about posting on MSN.  I haven't dared post from work yet just in case there is a Big Brother out there, checking all my internet moves!  I find it's easier to dip into the forum to "lurk" for 5 minutes here and there (like now) than to actually post, when I have to think what I want to say (in English, which is not my native tongue).  I find a glass of wine helps with the latter, but I can't have it now (unfortunately) because I am off to a meeting...

I will drink to this big announcement too, Ali!  I hope you will be very happy in France.

[quote user="TWINKLE"] Oh! Where am I?  What's going on? I must have been dreaming[:-))] [/quote] Was it a sweet dream or a nightmare? My dream was very positive, which got me thinking.  If members of this forum were to meet in real life, would we like or hate one another?  I am absolutely not suggesting anything here, just curious - do members of this forum meet up from time to time in real life (I guess, on a regional basis)?  Or is it purely a virtual world?

Hi I don't post often but you can bet I am out there, lurking most of the time!  The atrraction for me is the sheer variety of topics on offer (and I quite enjoy reading the banter and the arguments that arise from time to time).  I must be hooked as last night I even DREAMT about meeting some more vocal members of this forum... This must be getting serious... Anna

[quote user="wen"] Am remaining tightlipped until the 28th when there should be no excuses. With FIVE garcons I well and truly deserve a Fete de Meres!!.[/quote] I wouldn't worry, Wen.  If you live in France, your five garcons are bound to celebrate 28 May.  I live in the UK and have had to get used to my lot giving me presents on Mothering Sunday (and nothing on 26 May, which is Mother's Day in my country).  But I always try to remember to get a suitable card when they are around in the shops around March/April to send to my Mum in May! I hope you'll have a great day on 28 May!

I have just finished reading a most "un-putdownable" book - "The Crimson Petal and The White" by Michel Faber.  It is a story of an exceptional Victorian prostitute and it is incredibly descriptive (but never ever gets sordid).  It is a long read, at 835 pages of small print, but worth every minute of your time.  This is a kind of book that I would just love to turn into a film if I was a director... I keep finding myself scouring people's faces in the crowd, wondering if I could cast them as the characters of this astounding book!

Got back from work to find quite a healthy discussion on the subject on the forum!  So it is as I thought, ie. pretty hopeless.  Poland will have to start exporting more of their priests.  For some reason (that I do not understand myself), priesthood still seems a very popular option for young men over there! Mind you, there are some lively centres in France as well, in places like Lourdes.  My teenage son went with his (Catholic) school and loved it so much he decided to go back as a helper next year as well.  He even started going to church after that experience - which is weird after years of not attending (there is no way I would force my children to go). [quote user="Tresco"] Edit: I'm surpised to hear that you think they are doing better in UK. [/quote] I can only speak from my experience .  All the churches in the UK I used to attend/still go to have been, for the most part,  lively, with a fair number of teenagers and young adults attending.   But I am pretty sure it's not like that everywhere.

I've got a sociological question:  I have been wondering since Easter about the state of the Catholic church in France.  This being predominantly a Catholic country, I expected to see a big congregation on Easter Sunday but was surprised to see that only old people and a handful of children went to church and virtually no young or middle-aged people.  The Church in the UK seems positively vibrant in comparison.  Is the Church dying out in France?  Or maybe it depends on the village/town you are in? 

A general forum topic under the heading of Beliefs and Philosophy would be a solution then but I am not convinced that there would be many takers!  Having said that, I have a sociological question on the state of the Catholic church in France and don't know where to post it - I think I'll go to the French Culture section.

I got a statement from CA Britline a couple of weeks ago and wasn't pleased to see that they  introduced a charge for accepting money transfers - the relay transfers from a British bank used to be free.  Maybe it is to help cover the losses from that extensive fraud mentioned in the original posting...

You can check out this website - it covers the whole country, I think. www.vide-greniers.org/agendaRegion  

The situation seems quite worrisome.  As I understand, the French government is taking steps to remedy this by re-marketing the local wines and creating bigger vineyards.  What worries me is that it might mean ripping out a lot of the wonderful small family vinyards that are so important to the region.  And I don't dare think how it will transform the locals' life, let alone the property prices... Hopefully, the outstanding beauty of the area will still be attracting tourists, come what may. You might be interested in reading the article which was recommended on the Languedoc forum : http://www.beveragedaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=66757-french-wine-winemakers-wine If anyone out there has any news on the trends in property prices in the region, I would love to know. Anna

I would love to visit the court of Louis XIV and see for myself Le Roi Soleil - it is under his reign, after all, that the French language (which I am trying so hard to learn...) has become the international language of diplomacy.

I do wish I could use my compatriots (ie Poles) to do the building work on my French house and, indeed, I have been offered some good names, but, heeding the warnings from this Forum about the need for proper registration of workers in France, I have chosen to employ a registered French firm.  I do wonder how they will compare price-wise! Anna

Thanks, everyone, for your very helpful suggestions.  The culprit could have been any of the plants or insects you mention, so I will do a google on all of them.

On a recent visit to the South of France our daughter experienced a rather spectacular-looking skin reaction to an insect bite.  What started as a 5cm red and painful patch (a graze, I thought at first), turned to a swallen and very tender area covered with bubbles.  The doctor we saw was convinced it was a reaction to a sting, but none of the possible insects he mentioned were familiar to me.  Five days later, she is getting better, but the discoloured area on her skin has doubled in size.  One of our neighbours thought that the culprit might have been some sort of centipede, another one mentioned "abeille de terre".  Has anyone experienced anything similar or can advise me what little beast it might have been, so that we could try to avoid in the future?

This is certainly not an expert advice - just from our recent experience.  I am sure that in most cases the deposit you need is quite high (I seem to remember there were posts about it under the "Buying property" section a while ago), but this is to let you know that we managed to get away with paying just over 1% deposit!  I presume it was the combination of luck and trust on the part of the vendor, but no one quibbled when we said that it was all we could afford to pay at the time we signed the Compromise de Vente.  We went for a French mortgage (through UCB) because time was of essence and getting a "local" mortgage was much easier (all done through the internet).   I hope your purchase will work as smoothly!