Goodman-Troll

Thanks for all your advice. We're going to start by checking whether the meter still rotates when our stopcock is turned off. Looks like it's going to be an opportunity to learn some new French vocabulary!

We have just received a water bill for the last 6 months that is 40 (yes, 40) times greater than normal (we have owned the property since 2004). Unfortunately, I can't get a lot of sense out of Lyonnaise-des-Eaux on the telephone - they keep suggesting that I get a plumber to investigate a leak. We occupy the property for around 7 to 10 weeks a year and the water is turned off at the mains when we are not there. Clearly something is wrong. I wanted to check - LdesE say that the meter was last read in 2006 but from what I understand, it is read annually in the summer and estimated in the winter (sadly, I can't find previous bills to verify this) - the meter is in a public access place. Has anyone else had a similar problem and has anyone got any advice on where to go from here? We have checked the meter reading via a friend out there and it matches their reading, sadly.