unobtainable?

[giles]

Having spent our first season starting to sort out our newly purchased house, we discovered several gaps in our shopping list, which did not seem to be available in our corner of France, near Perigueux.

J-cloths for washing down walls - only substitutes seem to be washing up sponges or anti-bacteria wipes.

Bristle paint brushes - only synthetic bristles seem to be sold

Temporary tooth filler. A kind of mastic gum for emergency replacement of a missing filling is available at our home chemist, but requests in France were met with blank incomprehension.

Milton sterilising fluid (is this fosse septique friendly, by the way? I suspect not)

As few if any of our local filling stations had a working tyre pump I had to buy a foot pump with a gauge which turned out to be a bit cheap and nasty, so an investment in a good one before leaving the UK might be a good idea.

Anyone else got any hard-to-get items to add to the list?

Giles

[Anton Redman]

UK style fuses, not a problem if you are switching to french plugs but a real pain when you blow the fuse on anything you are taking back and forth.

For foot pump I switched to a battery via cigarette lighter socket powered one some years ago and would hate to go back to a foot pump.

[Mazan]

>J-cloths for washing down walls -
>only substitutes seem to be
>washing up sponges or anti-bacteria
>wipes.

My local supermarket has plenty of all-purpose synthetic cloths like these.

>Bristle paint brushes - only synthetic
>bristles seem to be sold

All the big DIY superstores near me have several kinds of brushes.

>Temporary tooth filler. A kind of
>mastic gum for emergency replacement
>of a missing filling is
>available at our home chemist,
>but requests in France were
>met with blank incomprehension.

I'm not surprised! Who in his right mind would fool about with DIY tooth repair when there is always a local Dentiste de garde who will do the job day or night, 365 days a year, with the social security footing 70% of the (small by UK standards) bill?

The area you are in seems to be very backwards. Have they installed electricity there yet? Are they aware that the war is over? Perhaps someone should bring them up to date?