idun

I hope your cat is now well. It is so distressing when family pet's are ill. Fortunately our dog was only ill once. The cat however, has been very poorly twice now. Not poisoned either. Thought we were going to lose him on both occasions.

Yes, I realise that, but, for me to lose 5 french female friends and four fairly recently on a regular basis, a lot, out of the few that are close to me, feels very strange and slightly disturbing. IF I was in my eighties, 90's, even late seventies, maybe I would feel differently about it,but I am only in my late 60's. And in general people have been living longer.

I lived in my french village for 25 years. I was good friends with about 12 french ladies, some very very close friends, others a little less so, but still good friends never the less. Of these 12, I have recently lost yet another one. Of the 12, five are now dead. All younger than me, and one was  in her forties when cancer took her. In fact, all died of cancers. All were locals, and we lived in a village that didn't suffer pollution, in fact on the face of it it would appear to a healthy place to live. I know that in the region there are health problems, ie Chamonix and Ugine, but not one would imagine, chez moi. The friend who died in her forties often used to taquine me about my eating habits, tell me I shouldn't eat this or that or the other, unhealthy etc. And yet she died getting on for 20 years ago, and I am still here. In fact there were two of them who used to make these little remarks and this other friend has recently died. And it is not just these 'friends', I was on good terms with a few other ladies, not close enough to eat together, but to chat, and quite a few of them have passed too.  I have friends in England, but thus far, have only lost one close one. It has all made me reflect on this. What with the renowned french health service, apparently, and french people eating healthily etc, apparently and some of these ladies were fit, skiing and walking and running. And all my french friends are much thinner than me, Idun who loves cooking and more importantly, eating it too. I haven't been on my computer for a while now. As I said, a time for reflection. edit: forgot to mention that these ladies were in their late fifties to mid sixties........ as my Dad would have said, it is 'no age'.

We have had two days of cloud and some fine drizzle and some light rain too last week. In spite of the time of year and the trees should be starting slowly to change, they seem to have, cannot think of the word........ been resuscitated? And are glorious. Funny old weather, and I am pleased that it is cooler, as it has been hot here too and I just do not like it, although not at all as hot as further south.

We are doing OK. Things are opening up, we have been out for a few meals and bit by bit things are around getting to the new normal. We are due a heatwave next week, but my, it is cool today and I have even put the heating on a little and that is just fine with me. We have had rain too, today included, but this year, certainly not as much as we should have had. Big event yesterday, I filled the car up! Second time since mid March, £70's worth in getting on for five months..... no wonder we have some spare cash in the bank[Www]. I hadn't realised how often I actually fill the car, and I do use the bus quite a lot. Funny how little things have become 'events' in our lives. And I hope that I start to appreciate all the little things as much as life moves on. So what has happened on here? Was there the terrible heatwave in France and everyone melted away? I do wonder. I hope everyone has stayed safe and well, and please start posting.

[quote user="Gardian"]Surely none of this is surprising for those of us who live down here ? Yes, a bit on the warm side, but ...........[/quote] In our part of the Alpes in summer, we too often had some of the highest temperatures in France  and I NEVER ever said, 'bit on the warm side'. I hated those very hot summers. In truth, it always amazes me as to how people can or cannot adapt to extreme heat. I never did adapt, I did the best I could to cope, but that was all I ever did. I find the cold far easier to deal with. Loved my winters in the Alpes even the spring and autumns were fine. As ALBF posted this as a warning, I have done just the same, calling friends,  who were going to France when I knew that a canicule was forecast.  Seemed fair to warn them.

The only thing I was annoyed about was them not taking it back, we most certainly owed it, we really did. In the end I just put it down to the orgueil of the fonctionnaires not wanting to admit they were at fault. It was, for us at least, a substantial sum, about 650€'s.

And you did right NH.......... who wants to live in a slow cooker[Www]

 How odd, the last time we had a lump paid to us by les impots, just after we had left France, they insisted that they owed us. THEY DID NOT! I called on numerous occasions and sometimes they got a bit 'off' with me, insisting that they owed us, and  I wrote too....... I still do not understand it, but there you go. I kept that money in the account for several years and then spent it. 

I hate it when it gets too hot and do not cope with it at all. A friend of mine keeps saying, bring it on, I can cope with anything at all, but she has never lived in a hot climate, and holidays are quite different to living in it. And when she is somewhere very hot, there is aircon in the hotels and she is not cooking and cleaning, or dealing with kids who are not coping either. Hopefully it will only last a few days, and I wish one and all luck with it. It has been hot for England this year, and this week end we are due to about 24 or 25 which will be just as much as I want to live with.

We bought a ceiling fan for our last few years in France. It helped that is for sure. I bought one of those fans that you put water in for my son. He cannot use it, says it stinks the place out and I cannot work out how or why, but it has been a big waste of money. Just the thought of  a heatwave fills me with dread. I remember all too well, a few we had but the worst was 2003, absolutely horrific for me. Since we moved to cooler climes, my husband has suggested we holiday somewhere 'warmer', but I simply look at holidays in even cooler places, which would always  suit me much better.

I have quite a few friends or their family members who have had testing for various reasons. A friend's mother in her 90's is tested regularly as part of a study group, five tests so far, she is well and all negative results. All the others are to do with testing programs too, rather than ill health. And my husband has been asked to take part in a test too,which he will do. I would take part if asked, no idea why he was and I have not been. I have no idea if I could pay for a test. I know that they were being sold, but I never looked into it, what with seeing, false negatives AND false positives being mentioned on the news, felt like it would have been a waste of money.

Well I almost wet myself laughing at this one. Husband is wanting a porte frais de defonceuse pour arbre de toupie 30mm. Can find them in France, but we needed one in the UK so I typed that in, and said 'in english'. And this is what came up:- Tools spinning top and combined with wood  - Probois machinoutils Here is a device that allows you to easily adapt your strawberries defonceuses on your tree spinner 30mm. Funnier even that 'ground chilli'  which was piment de terre in french........ only ofcourse it wasn't. Love these things. More please![:D]

I agree, but I think that bbq's are even worse in England. People, well, men, because I have yet to see a woman actually deal with a bbq here. They say that they know what they are doing and will put meat on when the fire is far from ready. I just won't eat what they scorch and undercook. Never really have been a bbq fan. OH now hot smokes and I love the meats and fishes he does.

 I too am curious as to how much  they are after.

https://www.energiefutee.fr/blog/conseils-pratiques/cuve-a-fioul/ https://www.pagesjaunes.fr/annuaire/chambery-73/nettoyage-de-cuves Two live links there. The first mentions ' l’article 28 de l’Arrêté du 24 juillet 2004'as you cannot just get it out and cut it up.  The second is a list of places that clean the things and probably will be able to help you find where you can make sure it is inert and dispose of it.  Many are quite local to you. I have good friends in the Bauges, would be awful to hear of an explosion, and I would suppose that that is the reason there are laws about getting rid of them.

Sadly does not surprise me. And as I said, we all put up with appalling behaviour far too long, because 'we' are reasonable and hopeful that what ever it is, is momentary, but these people don't care.  Hope you have a quiet Dimanche, they have from 10-12 to work and that is it!

I pleased to hear it. Trouble is that this person knows the rules, and yet they made the decision to ignore them, embette'ing folk,  who, well, knows and who cares.What is the expression, 'trying it on'. When I first moved to France, I sort of thought that those that did this sort of thing didn't realise what they were doing, until I was no longer naive and understood their arrogance. This is what they do, and will continue doing, and dealing with whatever situation occurs if someone complains. Do they not realise that no one complains instantly, that they wait and wait, until that moment of realisation arrives when  unless they complain, this person won't stop. Almost as if the complainant is somehow becomes guilty and unreasonable  for complaining. At least your are sorted Sue.

And that is good, what a faff on eh![blink]

We had many friends who were artisans and I know that they always had their proper lunch break and stopped at appropriate hours. As they said, if they were were working hard, from the start of permissable hours, then they were ready for their lunch, and ready to stop at the end of day too. So this is what they service public says for the professionelles. I would have been at least contacting the mairie and asking them exactly what they had authorised. En cas de gêne, vous devez contacter la mairie ou la préfecture pour connaître les conditions de réalisation du chantier et les horaires autorisés.

Did you get through to Newcastle and get this sorted out?

Surely all the noise is at appropriate hours, the Bruits de Voisinage. We both seem to have 'french' noise times imprinted on us now, as we take very badly to people making a noise at lunch time, or after a certain time on an evening and then at night, and most certainly on a Sunday afternoon. And the noise, well, I know someone who escaped a village that they considered too noisy, to go and live out in the wilds, but in fact the farms who were now their neighbours, out in the middle of nowhere had some very very noisy critters, which they found even worse, as the critters didn't adhere to french noise restrictions.

Well that is not quite right, birth rate in Africa is expected to go up three fold, as if that is what Africa needs? What, will we get even more adverts trying to get us to send money for water, medical care, blah blah blah etc etc. What did happen to all those contributions I made years ago, that sometimes I could ill afford? I watch CNN quite often, lots on there about thriving Africa and I wonder what sort of adverts the wealthy Africans see and how much they sponsor the poor on their Continent. I am DELIGHTED that the birth rate is going down in general. And the sooner we have less people on this planet the better. Re getting old, well, if we have lost our marbles, which is a state that horrifies me, or are that old that we need constant nursing that we cannot clean our selves, then that idea also appals me, and I would hope that the rules change and that my parting, at least, would be on my terms. I have seen first hand how ill a person can get, cared for them, and I would not have left my dog or cat in that state, but apparently it is OK for humans to be, which to me is simply plain wrong and cruel. Thanks ALBF, I am now well on my high horse and no argument will change my point of view on this.

Thanks for that, I should have looked it up, but 6 months always sounded reasonable to me. A month is quick. But it is even quicker in the UK. There is a grey area ofcourse isn't there. I didn't find that car insurance was cheaper in France, although a while now since I lived there.

Re cars, well legally we have 6 months to reregister in France. When we moved back to England, I could be bothered with reregistering, so we drove it back to France and sold it. For us, easier and far less hassle to buy one in England.