idun

As I have said before, most of the notaires I came across were as much use as a chocolate fireguard. I did say most! So that is not all. The problem, and I think everywhere these days is that people qualify and then, and it is my firm belief that, especially in France, that means that they start doing the job they supposedly trained for and very little can be done about it if they are useless. It means that they can do a terrible amount of damage, emotionally and financially to families after a death. My DIL's mother died last summer. My DIL is french. It took her almost 9 months to try and sort out a simple estate without property involved. AND they would not release money for the funeral............. we helped with those costs, for many complicated reasons, but really the money was in the banque and everyone refused to release the money to pay the bill. Also the Notaire insisted on being paid about three months in. My DIL has been very very distressed about this, bad enough loosing her mother, but the rest was an absolute disgrace, by the notaire and the banque. As I said, most are chocolate fireguards, and they expect to be called 'Maitre'!

And look at all the names with an 's' on the end. Charles, Jacques, etc etc

https://droit-finances.commentcamarche.com/faq/14630-testament-olographe-comment-le-rediger As it says, it can be registered on the fichier de testaments, but you have to pay for that to be done. That was all we did and that was all quite a lot of people we knew did. Hand written and signed and dated. No ID, nothing like that. However, it would have to found and adhered to after a death, and not simply destroyed by someone who wasn't suited, so I suppose that that would be why people have these registered. To the OP. I do hope that your father has done all this to maximise the benefit to your mother, otherwise you and your brother will own 49% of his half. So your brother would own his 50 percent and another 24.5%. You can use which so ever notaire you want. Does not have to be local and for the sale at least there should be no charge, usually the buyer pays. However, the fees after a death can be costly.

We never had a notaire witness ours. We just copied the 'will' friends gave us and signed and dated it. And that is fine. It could be registered with a notaire and then a copy sent, I think to Aix en Provence at the time. But one was not obliged to do so. There would have been a fee for that. Maybe things have changed?

Glad to see you back. Yes, deposit is arrhes, and isn't it always good to learn a new word. Mint, you should have simply given all those jobs 'much thought' and consideration and not done them. Snuggled down with a good book etc and had a feeling of being a little wicked by not doing them. I like feeling a little naughty doing things other than what I should be.[Www]

Meek Megan, it feels to me like the Police are protecting us from idiots who are ignoring the current shutdown. IF I lived in Devon, I would not want second home owners showing up for a 'break' or to stay at this time. As they have already broken these rules, but IMO they obviously feel as if nothing applies to them, and are putting residents at risk. And as it would seem like they feel like 'they' can do anything, would they adhere to any rules. Also, surely places like Devon and Cornwall, with relatively small populations, will have hospitals that are there to deal with the local population and at some point those extra things that summer time brings, which will likely be 'minor' in the grand scheme of things like, broken bones, sprains and cuts, rather than people needing lots of ICU beds if there is a major hot spot there. So, please don't be furious with the police. I think that they are doing a great job and trying to protect and serve the general population in these very difficult times. And this 'herd' member appreciates them.

Million dollar question isn't it, because when will we be post corvid? How will people live when things are relaxed or 'safe'........not a clue. People will adapt and life will go on, but I truly cannot imagine things ever being the same again. For things to be safe, they have to find a vaccine that works, and have not as yet. I know that they are working at it, but then I hear that it has mutated, so they are chasing something that is changing. And it could be soon, or maybe quite a long time. Nobody knows, just hopes. How people will decide to live in the new world if there is no risk of catching this particular one again, then I cannot see why they would move away from centres where there is work.  Let us face facts, not everyone can work from home. If governments start relaxing things soon and without a vaccine, then what, unless we have had it, then we are still not 'safe' from it. And the scientists are still not sure that it cannot be caught for a second time either.

I have not been following this, but weeks ago it was bad, tv reports and things in the press about it. And as in the UK, the death figures were not being included.I actually do not think that that matters, as anyone with good sense would realise that the most vunerable will be most vunerable to this, especially living in close proximity to others. Meaning that there will be more deaths. I am pretty sure that it has been the same in many other countries.

Even I am sometimes a reluctant cook. Everyday cooking can be boring. Saying that I would never try and do something new every day, I am probably far too lazy for that. A good friend gave up smoking after 40 odd years and started cooking in a more adventurous way, she gets her recipe books out and most days matches what she has in, to new recipes.  As I said, I think I am too lazy to do that, but they are happy with their new regime. I like inventing when in the mood. I jot down what I do as I do it and then if it is awful, leave the recipe in my book, with a big note on it, to NEVER do it again, I do the same with bought recipe books as some should never have been put on the printed page[Www]. Pity you cannot go down to the sea, we are within walking distance and do that nearly every day. There is hardly anyone around when we go.

I have to say that  three weeks into lockdown, and it feels like it has whizzed by. We are in a funny lazy old rhythm and are feeling fine. We do little jobs, nothing exerting, take our own sweet time about every thing and the days gently pass, and quite pleasantly at that. We don't have much of a garden here, a handkerchief, but it is ok. we have a Boris Walk and we sit in the sunshine too. So far I haven't felt any great urge to go anywhere but be in this mini world I now live in. And the 'icing' on the cake today was that I managed to buy a bag of plain flour. It felt like something special.......who would have thought.[blink]  There was dried yeast, two different types, but I cannot use it, but it is good that it is there.

I have made a lot of things that I don't like, but Marmite, would be a step too far for me. Husband loves it, I hate it. We can agree about home made bread, toasted with  butter, scrumptious, home made beer, not with toast, although I don't mind the odd half every few months[:D]

It was on euronews yesterday that ebola had started again. edit: restarted........... had it really gone away[:'(]

Big slab little cubes, fresh yeast, lovely fresh yeast is crumbly. If it is older it feels more like plasterscene and I have found that bread was not  good with it. I don't think it is just my imagination, as I am my own worst critic. https://www.doesitgobad.com/does-yeast-go-bad/ this link should be live, there are some lovely photos of fresh yeast how it should be. It simply does not pull apart like that when it is well past it's best and I think rubbery describes it fairly well. IF you can find something, as I cannot, and it works, I would still be interested. Incidentally, my husband makes sour dough bread, it is good bread, just not to my taste. I am not keen on many things that have that acidity/sourness to them.

That is where I usually get my yeast from, but last time I asked, which, I admit was a few weeks ago, they had no spare at all. I have never managed to revive that last bit of yeast. As I find that when it has gone rubbery rather than crumbly, the bread is not that good. Unless you could try  making a sour dough base, I cannot think of a good way to do it and get good bread. Let us know if you manage, I would be interested to hear.

I am clueless as to why they do it, especially Biden. But there you go. I dread Trump getting in again. It is a wonder that most of the journalists at the press briefing yesterday 13th April, (political rally for Trump) did not give him a one armed salute to him.

Yes, I had looked at that other link, but I would not have gone chasing such information after looking at the Service Public web site, I always 'depended' on that being correct. And the Service Public site is the one I would state when in touch with officialdom.

https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F21138 That link should be live and it is the site I use for most french official information. So have I misread this link? Because I cannot see where it tells you to inform the prefecture? Incidentally, don't you keep copies of all your paperwork that is in the car at home? That was always one of my fears that the car would be taken and I had no paperwork. And that 'code', I would suppose that many lose it and it is perhaps far too easy to get a new one.

Isn't the problem with masks that people don't use them properly ? That they touch them etc and believe that they are some sort of ultimate protection? That old folks living in close proximity are dying is no surprise, why would it be. I don't know about the rest of you, but I know I am in general decline. I am in my late 60's and fully aware that the young thing I was is long gone. Gravity and cell generation is having the effects that it has, and it won't only be the external signs that are happening to me. I and I will say, we all simply end up 'wearing out'. And the consequence is that if we catch stuff, it can finish us off far more quickly as we get older. Nature at work. If you find me sounding morbid, well, I am not trying to be,  as I don't find this sad or morbid, it just is life.  I don't know who celebrates death as a good life lived, but that is how I would rather look at it. With a very good forever sleep at the end of it.

Yes, maybe, along with me being a fussy article[blink].

 So does ours[:D]

They said we may get an overnight frost here. I am not a gardener, so am hoping that the flowers we have that have to care for themselves, which is far better than any intervention from me, will be fine as they are flowering nicely. Love to see a lovely garden, just wouldn't know where to start, and have not the inclination to start now.

I was just wondering about yeast consumption, but you are restricted with the bread baking machine as to how much you do. Me, I am restricted with my bowl size and years ago bought one that would take half a stone of flour and also big enough for it to prove in it............ heavy thing it is. That was when de dietrich did a wonderful cooker,  and I could bake my loaves all at once. Bread lasting five days. Well in that I can but say, not for me. I HATE day old home made bread, and always cut up the loaves and freeze in quantities that we would use each time. And will get out 'fresh' for every meal. It is a bug bear of mine and when I give bread away, I always say freeze and people never do and assure me that it is still great the next day or day after, to which my thought is mon oeil, because I know what it tastes like when left. And IMO it suffers from keeping. I do have an exception though, if making a fondue savoyarde, I will leave it to harden, as soft bread just a no no and flops off the skewer and into the cheese. Everyone to their own, and as I can only use fresh yeast because of OH, a bread maker is probably not for me.

 I loved Crossing Lines too. Giving programs a chance, my friend loved Downton Abbey, and her husband would not watch it, until he ended up watching it one day and was hooked. I used to be on a food board years ago, with quite a lot of american ladies on it, and they loved the likes of Foyle's War.

Another question is also, if you double the dough, what do you do about the dried yeast. Just increase a little as you would with fresh, I cannot remember how it worked. Last time I used it was in 1979 and it made my husband very very  seriously ill. No wonder I cannot remember how I used it, that was over FORTY years ago![:-))]

Of the things that I have not watched and everyone I know raves about, are: Peaky Blinders, Outlander and Breaking Bad. I am sure that there are more things that I should watch and haven't. Strangley three weeks into the lock down and I still haven't got around to watching,  Breaking Bad, which we have set up to go on tv.