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Spot the Brit Easter !


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Having recently had a conversation with a the owner of a big bar restaurant who said he was worried about the fall of the pound and the lack of Brits on holiday and his business this year I ckecked out the town car park ... The beach and town main car park at La Tranche here in the Vendee holds ov er a thousand cars i imagine and we always see many GP plated cars .....driving in round the car park today when its prety full being Easter Mondey I spotted 2 UK registered cars ....I normally would see a lot more than that...but when a small beer and a coffee is almost £5 now in most bars ....I think they are going to have a lean year !
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There was nothing like as many in the Mayenne this week but we were there.........rain.....interespersed with rain and occassional rainy spells followed by downpours........Back in Hampshire sun is out and it's glorious! 

Typical.............

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[quote user="Frederick"]but when a small beer and a coffee is almost ( the equivelant of ) £5 now in most bars ....I think they are going to have a lean year ![/quote]

A demi and a white coffee is normally about 5€ so lets say that is £5 now, last year it was £4.50, hardly bank breaking is it?

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For a couple of days trip to the Dordogne, it is much cheaper to fly and hire a car.  Hence fewer GB cars I would guess.  For me living close to Stansted with a place in 79 I worked it out and anything less than 4 days makes it more economical for me to fly and because car hire does not increase dramaticaly its marginal between 4 to 7 days.
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I have a theory that because Brits can't travel as often to France because of the EURO, we will see pretty much all the English in July and August.

One other thought about GB plate cars. Having organised insurance with AXA in France on a UK plated car, the local prefecture then wrote me a letter informing me that I had about 2 weeks to get my carte gris or they would take action! I managed to get about four weeks leeway but the car is now on French plates.

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Plenty of Brits in UK registered cars around Ribérac this last week and plenty more driving hire cars also but it's mostly owners - that's going by observation in town, at the supermarkets and amongst my clients. As for holiday makers - haven't seen many of them about (UK ones that is) and owners say bookings for the summer are not good.

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"One other thought about GB plate cars. Having organised insurance with AXA in France on a UK plated car, the local prefecture then wrote me a letter informing me that I had about 2 weeks to get my carte gris or they would take action! I managed to get about four weeks leeway but the car is now on French plates"

You were unlucky then, but glad to see that you got your car legal in France, there are two people near here who have been here four years and still do not have french plates although one has CT, both are SORNd in the UK and are both "insured" each year by AXA. I wonder how your prefecture got to know?

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Yes and No (if done properly) [:)]

Glad to see the green shoots of a clamp down on matriculation refusenicks [:D]

How did the Prefecture know; it only takes one marginally intelligent Gendarme to inquire into what that out of date round disk in the windscreen actually means.

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I don't know how the prefecture got to know. The only sources that I can think of are the garage that did the CT (unlikely) and AXA themselves. I think it must have been AXA, or at least the AXA franchise in Lectoure, Gers. But it was a good thing. It pushed me to be more proactive in getting the Cert of Conformity completed so I could the tax papers and carte gris. I think all prefectures should adopt the same approach.

Incedently, the car had current CT and AXA insurance. So a gendarme wouldn't have known from any information on the windscreen. AXA told me I was legal, but would need to get a carte gris to enable renewal the following year.

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[quote user="Clair"]Mr Clair mentioned he had noticed many GB plated cars in St Céré (Lot) on Friday...
He was surprised, as he thought the current economic climate would deter many from travelling over to the Eurozone.
[/quote]

Oops, they've all gone [:D]. Did not see any in St C though 2 were spotted in Leclerc car park in St Laurent-les-Tours this a.m. Perhaps the economic climate has deteriorated over the weekend.

John

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[quote user="woolybanana"]Wet on Wednesday as we walked on the beach in the Vendée. No one in sight!![/quote]

I know the weather's bad Oh Wooly One but have you knicked my new 900ml tub of ice cream off the packaging thread 'cos it's disappeared?

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[quote user="Ron Avery"]No I just had a tablespoonful and put it back on page 3.  Its now only got 922,23mls in it as we all know how precise a tablespoon full is[:$][Www][/quote]

Sorry Mr Avery and with all due deference to your Scale manufacturing namesakes but ..was that a metric or an imperial tablespoon?

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