idun

 You have taxis out in the country![:D] We had to call one from a proper town if we needed one, and we never did[Www] Very expensive.

I am pleased to hear that all is well with this. I couldn't see why it wouldn't be, but one never knows what will happen. Thanks for the replies.

The postal services, not good. I sent important documents to France recorded delivery and signed for, and as soon as the tracking left the UK Royal Mail did not consider that what the french postal service did with my letter was any of their concern. I re-sent the lot, just sent it like a normal letter and it got there OK. And I have had problems in England recently, Royal Mail being very slow, with things. But heyho, got used to such rubbish service in France! I don't know what the OP should do, but this sounds off, even in these times. There could be medical letters and all sorts of important things that have not arrived. Here is a live link: https://reclamations.laposte.fr/ There is a phone number on there and email link so that you can ask what is happening with 'la tournee de votre facture'.

GG said :Actually, another food where there’s more left after eating than on serving is mussels - or maybe it’s because they are left less tidily when finished eating! I was just mentioning how my neighbours mother didn't have a huge plate full of empty mussel shells as she put them as they have at the top of that photo all neat and tidy, and 'I' was told off several times for not being so disciplined[Www] And in the NE now we can get fresh mussels, and we have been able to get fresh cray fish from Hartlepool, at least until the lockdowns we could[:(] and fresh lobsters too.

Lori, I gave a quote from Coluche....... he was such a formidable and important figure for my first years in France, that I hadn't realised that he died so long ago, in 1986.  He started the Restos du Coeur. He said he was going to stand in the Presidential elections and then he was dead, in a motor cycle accident, but there has always been much debate about whether that had been an accident or not!

Ha but Garden girl, I have been told off more than once for not stacking my empty mussels. Neighbours from the north of France and his Mother from Dunkirk, would not be happy when I left the bowl of 'empties' full to bursting when hers looked less than when she started. This photo shows how she does it, and I never did. Just felt like too much of a faff. So eat with a mussel acting as a pinch, and then stack.... [Www]

I don't think that Jersey accounts will be affected just mainland UK. It was mentioned on here a few times in the past and some had received letters about it, so I wondered if it did. I know that Barclays in France, simply closed our account after we had been with them for some time, sent us a cheque to cover the balances.......... and had done some very iffy things prior to that, that was when we first moved to France. Once they transferred money from our current account to savings account without advising us and then, stopped a cheque because there was not enough money in the current account.....now why did we leave it there............ because we had a big bill to pay........... french banks eh, the bad language I could use about them!

With artichokes do you leaf nibble, dipping the leaf in vinaigrette first? And you end up as Coluche says[:D]:

 I realise that France has been slow out of the starting blocks with vaccinations, but hopefully things will improve very quickly. So, should these vaccinations be compulsory? I realise that not everyone would be able medically to have one, so if everyone else who could had them does, surely we would all be protecting those who cannot? I personally would make them compulsory for everyone who can have it, but that is my view point. Those that can and won't well, this isn't something like  say being a drug addict or alcoholic those things affect that person. Covid 19 kills and has no respect for race or position in society. No idea what should happen to those that would refuse and get ill, they certainly should not be putting anyone else at risk by their own negligence. And I reckon that the herd should be protected......... there you see, that is how France rubbed off on me, as the french like their herd protection.

 Tartiflette is an alpine dish that I make, or husband makes. We can buy reblochon here, or at least could pre brexit, and if I could get to the wonderful store I buy it from, would check to see if they have it.............. and we make this very quickly, as the reblochon is really smelly. When making galette bretons, do you ever put a coating of cheese, compte or emmantael then an egg in the middle of the galette breton? And andouille, well, literally makes me wretch like a cat, whole body rejection........ husband loves it, just shows how differe

Miam miam, I love all that food.   My friend's husband used to make the most wonderful foie gras mi-cuite, absolutely delicious. I think that all this constant blathering about vegan stuff in the UK  has made me almost a carnivore, I am usually an omnivore, but frankly I do not 'get' vegans or how they live, because it isn't just about food.

When we were in France our diet was eclectic, but over the years included many french dishes especially local alpine french dishes. Those of you in the Dordogne, with the wonderful Perigord foods, is your cooking all goose fat, etc........ remember it is a very very good fat, goose fat is.

 I was wondering if this has happened and how you dealt with it, ie getting another bank to take your custom.

Do you have any bornes at the front as your boundary? They may have been grown over, but worth it trying to see if they are there. Also, in future if something happens along these lines, I would consider contacting your home insurance immediately. If they say it is nothing to do with them, they will soon let you know. And contacting the DDE is a very good idea, they should have very clear plans too.

I voted no in the 1975 referendum and I met my husband that xmas, and he had voted no too. And then in 81 we moved to France and neither of us had any appreciation for the EEC or EU or whatever it likes to be called. Then these things happened, in no particular order, Maastricht, Schengen, all the eastern european countries joining and talk of Turkey too and we were not happy about any of those things mentioned. We had lived with borders etc, and being able to live in France as long as we could prove income etc, and found it normal as etrangers to have to do these things. We weren't french, would never feel french ( even though a few things rubbed off ) and would never have taken citizenship as if we had it would simply have been a flag of convenience, and just not felt 'right'.

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]I reckon...bare with me here (well not literally) lol. The UK creates a European 'union' with other European countries that allows free trade and free movement across Europe except for Germany and France. There is no headquarters and everyone can have their own currency. There are no MEP's. No expenses. No idiots running the show and everyone can fish where they like. Germany and France can have their own union where they can argue between themselves about wonky bannas. I reckon it would catch on personally.[/quote] Well it is a very good idea. But it did make me smile, Germany and France........ Since we moved to France we always heard the following..... and often from french people. The french mock the belgians, show respect to the swiss and are afraid of Germany. No idea how those two would get on, alone[Www]

It is fine ALBF, we all change our minds, it is what human beings do.  I cannot help but wonder who is constantly content with everything. I have no idea how my french friends feel about the EU, never asked. I know when I was on the phone to a friend the other day she was surprised when I made a derogatory comment about Macron, but she didn't defend him either, just said 'ah bon' in a tone which indicated more than a little dismay and changed the subject.[blink] ps I have not changed my view of EEA to EU since the early 70's. Because things always seemed to get worse instead of better as far as I was concerned.  AND I could have changed my mind if I thought it was gradually on track to becoming excellent.[:-))]

Alliterative it might be, but how awful to have variole doing the rounds, now I have to look up who is suffering. Just looked it up, and as I hadn't seen Sue's post was relieved to see that it was in the mid 1950's. That's all we need now, an outbreak of something else.[blink]

ALBF, life is different in the UK. Not everywhere is expensive either. You say you wouldn't have what you have now. Well, that is the thing isn't it, in a great big country like France there is the space for bigger properties and more land per property. With some exceptions ofcourse. ie when we moved to the Alpes we could not afford to live close to work, so ended up 40kms away, but not too far from a motorway and it was ok. Lots of staff ended up doing the same. In fact our house in the UK is bigger than the one in France, but we have a little garden, no kids who need the space.......... and I hate gardening and didn't need 1100sq metres of land again, or at all, ever. We had always planned to retire in the UK. I have no regrets at all. I didn't fancy juggling with two languages in my dotage although we still have to sometimes. And yet with brexit, we may have to move back, if our lives get too complicated. I would rather not, but we would just slide back into french life, because we can. I could write pages about french education, if one is 'normal' it is fine and can be good, deviate from that and I just hope that it has changed a lot, but do not know, not when I see some vile vile profs who are still teaching and I would not trust them to sweep the roads, never mind with young minds. From what I can gather, UK schools are OK, my youngest ended up in one for some time and he was welcomed and it went quite well, his previous five in those four years of secondaire had not. AS I said, I hope that french schools have improved for those who do not 'conform' and are not the ideal student.

 Yes, one's frame is important too. My frame is bigger, which I was made well  aware of as my mother complained that I was built like a cart horse. I wasn't, but that was how she was, and as she was petite, she found my bigger frame unacceptable....... !

Wooly, Fat and obese, well, I suppose it is how the weight goes on someone. And you don't have to be very heavy to get that obese figure with the BMI test. It tells me I should be a certain weight, and I was that top weight and lower in my teens and part of my twenties, I was in my early teens when I was the lowest figure and still growing. HOWEVER, if I dropped that weight, I would look AWFUL and my face would look emaciated and that is just going down to the top of the range they suggest. Frankly then that becomes a nonsense. My weight yoyo's, I put it on I lose it, and there you go. But I never look in the mirror and think I look 'ill' and I know that the NHS's suggestion would leave me quite demoralised and looking very poorly indeed.

 I have read recently that a politician wants to impeach Macron for not doing his job. I have no idea if his giving both sides of an argument is helpful and as  you pointed out, we are still at the point that 'no one knows' even scientists do not, hence they will disagree. I do so hope that in the future when they do the autopsy on Covid19 and how the authorities dealt with it, that they remember that 'no one knew how to deal with it'. It will be so easy for those chosen for such a task, to likely take others to task. Because there is nothing so sure as mistakes have been made. And the next time we have an 'outbreak' things will go wrong again. nb yet another fonte[Www]

The only way I can post is if I keep clicking on the font size and the font itself. Otherwise I simply cannot post at all. So sometimes my posts are tiny, sometimes huge and it feels like I have no choice. This looks normal after about four attempts with the sizing and trying all the different fonts.

Sorry but you have made me smile with that post. It suddenly came to me something that was constantly said years and years ago to you men.......... don't fall in love with a  slender italian beauty, look at her mother to see how big she will get. So what was that about, italian mama's were all too often larger ladies, and what was their diet..........mediterranean? I have to say that a fish and chip shop I go to from time to time, if I ask for a baby chips to go with a fish, the portion is huge, enough for two even three adults IMO. When I was a child, they would serve a child's portion in a small cone and we were delighted to get such a treat and it was enough. (same chip shop, but I am sure, different owners)

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]Things seem to have gone quiet with the GlaxoSmithKline-Sanofi vaccine. You know, the one that just happens to have its UK research HQ in the village where Cummings went for his against the rules sight-testing drive. And where the government's chief scientific adviser had a £600,000 personal investment stake (but no conflict of interest, of course). And where immediately after Cummings's visit, the government ordered 60 million doses of GSK vaccine. And now they have had to start again because their stuff didn't work and might not be available before the end of the year.[/quote] Just because Cummings came to the NE of England does NOT mean that there is not excellent research done 'up here', because there is. It is not all flat caps and pidgeons and speaking pitmatic, far from it, historically we have had plenty of world changing innovation up here, and it continues. And frankly when this news of the new vaccine has been on local news, Cummings has not had a mention, we are not interested unless he gets some sort of comeuppence for his various behaviours. I will say that Barnard Castle is  lovely, like many places in the NE of England, well worth a visit.