Montmorillon Hospital from next week will open a new specimen collection centre for blood & urine. It's not intended as competition of the Laboratory in the town, as it will only be open between 07:30 09:00 Mon - Fri.

You will need a prescription from your GP to use the service and apparently you can just turn up and wait your turn, but it may be best to make an appointment if you don't want to hang around.

The laboratory in town will continue as normal.

If you do use it please post feedback here.

Big vide grenier in Lathus on Sunday September 8.

For those of you interested in buying odd-shaped bits of rusty metal, clothes that would fit a midget, well-thumbed tatty books and other delights, kick-off is at 0700.

Bar, buffet serving up chips and lightly grilled bits of shoe leather cunningly sold as "steak" plus all the usual trimmings one would associate with the thriving metropolis that is Lathus.

If you fancy turfing out any long treasured tat from the garage and selling it to unsuspecting punters, you'll have to set-up early. "Emplacements" are free.

It's a harmless way to spend an hour or two before the Hope & Anchor opens. Oops..sorry....wrong country.

Well that's good news. Despite being a few thousand kilometres away from France I've been able to close my accounts with both Saur (water) and Soregies (electricity).

Both accounts have been cancelled simply by completing their required forms and giving proof of having sold the house.

We sent both sets of documents by way of courier (yes I know could have done it using the online LRAR I previously posted about), but at the time the courier was more suitable.

So it does appear that France is coming into the modern age, neither supplier needed to visit the house to take a final reading, they were happy to take my word for the final reading.

Interestingly enough, Soregies had done an estimated bill for the last period (it was due to be read a couple of days before the sale finalised) and they have happily removed the final invoice without any fuss, which is great because of course they had seriously over-estimated how much electricity an empty house uses .

Saur, we were previously paying monthly and had already accrued more than enough to cover the use this year and have creditted it all straight back into my bank

We all know and love the French distrust of mailing important documents such as account resiliations and the fact that unless you utilise the La Poste registered mail service (a.k.a. LRAR - Lettre Recommendee avec avis de Reception) they'll never acknowledge having even heard of you .

But what to do when you're not present in France and don't want to go to the extreme of sending by courier or international registered letter (where you may never even get proof of receipt).

Well, it's easy - there is an online facility provided by La Poste to do all of this online.


1). Create your document, best is by way of a PDF file (although they do accept other formats, just that PDF preserves your formatting and page layout best).

2). If you don't already have one, open an online account with La Poste HERE...

3). Then follow the reasonably simple instructions at THIS page, uploading your document and filling out all the address fields.

4). Pay the fee, they take credit and debit cards.

Your letter and any attachments you've included will then be printed out by La Poste and delivered directly to your recipient from the nearest sorting office, the receipt for the delivery can then be tracked online as well as being sent back to the sender address you used.

If like me, your French address is no more (just sold) - then use a friend's address to have the 'avis de reception' sent to.

I've used this service a few times now and have to admit that it works very well. Three pages just sent (black and white print) and it only cost me € 6,62 which considering it's only € 1,81 extra for the privilege of having them print out the document is often cheaper than the cost of fuel and time involved in trudging down to your nearest La Poste office (courier from where I currently am would have been € 16 )

We've got these nasty little wasps with long legs keep making nests all over the place, there was even one under the lid of the rubbish bin. They are settling in the patio table brolly and have started building nests under the tiles of the roof.

A good spray of wasp killer does seem to do the job, but it's becoming a bit expensive. Especially the other day when I had to buy those long reaching ones that can squirt 6 Mts to get to three nests on the roof, €14 from Spar in Lathus and as much as I would like to support the smaller shops they are only €8 in Leclerc and I needed two the other day.

Has anyone got any suggestions for stopping the wasps building their nest in the first place? We have the usual Beer Traps but that hasn't stopped them, and at the moment I'm trying Cucumbers! Yes cucumbers, apparently wasps don't like cucumbers. And so far after removing the existing nests and laying slices of cucumber around I haven't seen a wasp.

Any more tips welcome.

Anyone got any knowledge of solar electricity systems?

I'm trying to find out the pro's & con's of going off grid for electricity.

Thanks.

Fred.

Just found this on the BBC. "French police step up watch on British drivers."

Quote:French police say many foreign drivers break the speed limit because they know they can avoid a fine. EU figures show that foreign drivers make up 5% of road traffic but account for 15% of speeding offences in the 28-nation bloc.

But new EU legislation is coming into force this year, aimed at tackling that anomaly. The deadline for implementation across the EU is 7 November.

Member states can now exchange data on motoring offences, to track down guilty drivers. So if a French camera catches a Spanish motorist speeding, that driver will still have to pay a fine in Spain - provided the driver is the owner of the vehicle.

Even before the EU directive came along, France had adopted such cross-border arrangements with Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, which is not in the EU.

However, the UK, Republic of Ireland and Denmark have opted out of the EU directive.

So the only way motorists from those countries can be sanctioned on French roads - and there are many more from Britain than Ireland or Denmark - is if they are caught in the act by the police and made to pay on-the-spot fines.

Lt Benjamin Dupain runs the operation. "They have to pay on the spot. If they don't have any money on them and they are on their own, they will be driven to the nearest cashpoint machine. If they really have no money at all, then an on-duty judge will be called to decide what to do. But that can mean waiting around for up to three days and the car will not be allowed to move," he says.

British motoring association the RAC told the BBC that "finding you are liable for an on-the-spot fine of up to 375 euros (£323) when holidaying in France, with no option to have this transferred back to the UK, can be a very unwelcome surprise".

Anyone seen White Wine Vinegar ?

Auchan Poitiers have it in the Bio section but we forgot to stock up last time, and can't seem to find it anywhere around here.

Hello or should I say Bonjour!

Ok - you have done it. I have been secretly reading the forum for a little while and your welcome guest thread made me join!!

We have owned a place near Lathus for over a year now - holiday home. Coming over in a weeks time and can't wait. Just love it over there and wish we could be there all the time.

Planning a visit to the monkey park this time with the kids. What is the weather like at the mo?

Have managed to secretly get the 'Where am I posts' so far. Love the forum and hope to post more in the future!

Scooby

Hello there Guest thank you for having a look at our all new Around Montmorillon forum.

The idea of the forum is for English speaking people living in, near to, or visiting the Montmorillon area to have a place where they can share information. I hope you enjoyed visiting us and found some useful information about the area, but don't stop there! why not come and join us? Your input could be of use to others.

As a member of Around Montmorillon you will not only be able to start new threads or reply to existing ones, you will also gain access to the members only boards, the search facility, monthly newsletter, private messaging system (after 5 posts), your own personal notepad, and much more. You will also find a friendly bunch of people that will be happy to help you settle in.

Joining us is simple and we are self funded so you won't get asked for donations or plagued by annoying advertising. Click the register button and follow the instructions, if you get stuck use the Contact Us button.

Click To Register

YOYO.

*Existing members please take a moment to say hello to our guests in this thread.

Interesting...

Only a beta site at the moment but it looks like Google intend on launching a new comparison site specifically for auto insurance in the French market

Goodness, what next - maybe France is about to join the internet's 20th (yes I did say 20th) century.

LINK...

Only for cars at the moment, but it does provide pricing from up to seven assurers.

Haven't tried it out, can't as I don't have a vehicle in France any more - but might be something worth watching. Do however note that I expect you'll need to give away contact details which is likely to result in marketing calls from the various assurers listed.

Hello, this forum is a really nice idea... I'm planning a visit to Montmorillon in a couple of weeks to have a look round, am interested in the *possibility* of living there, at least part-time. It'll be a bit of a flying visit... Will anything be open on a Sunday? Thank you and nice to meet you electronically, Catfish

Hi, I'm on the look out for a drinking trough, usually seen in fields, round, plastic or metal, as cheap as possible, as it's for my ducks as a paddling pool. But would consider anything that could be used. Can you keep your eye's and ears open, ask friends etc. Thanks in advance

I have just added two new codes for you to play with.

The Spoiler Code will give you a Spoiler Button a handy little tool if you want to hide something. All you need to do is put your text between the codes below.

Got any good recipes to share?

They don't have to be French, just make a post with a list of ingredients and method of cooking.

I will update this post as new ones are added, if it gets to big we could look at adding a sub board for recipes.

Basic Sausage Recipe - Fred.

BBQ Chicken Satay - Jen.

Versatile tomato sauce - Admiral.

Cheats Passata - Fred.

Basic Flan Recipe - Fred.

Hello Everyone,
Please take a moment to have a look at our website https://www.avriljones.com Tel. 0549830424
If you need any help or advise, with either your permanent or holiday homes please feel free to give us a call. If we can't help, we will know good, reliable tradesmen who can.
Regards
Avril Jones

For some unknown reason I seem to be able to grow veg - and sometimes too much of it.

I say unknown because before we came here myself and the saintly Madam Admiral didn't even grow vegetables. Hey....we lived in London. Nuff said.

Even though this year hasn't been brilliant I seem to have a glut of carrots and beetroot. We love beetroot cubed raw -yup RAW - in salads but there is a limit.

So can I freeze carrots and beetroot? And if so how do it I do it? Some feller told me to wash the carrots and freeze them whole. Surely the enzymes will carry on working and they will rot?

Should I pre-cook them? If so for how long etc etc.

All help greatly recieved.

Hello Everyone,
My other half and I arrived in France in 2007, having sold our house in the UK unexpectedly fast, we were suddenly put in a position of 'Oh Hell now where do we go?' So we quickly packed all our belongings, put them into storage, sold our second car (very begrudgingly)got our two dogs and cat injected and passports stamped, bought a big caravan, stuck it on the back of our car, and headed off to the port. We knew we were heading for France, and that it was going to be middle somewhere............. Arrived in Azat, stayed on a farm there for a while, with two smashing people, began looking around Isle Jourdain area, but as the weeks went on, the houses got worse. The house we eventually bought, we'd passed on numerous occasions, but didn't believe it would be in our price range, and not large enough either. But to our great surprise, it was in budget and two houses for the price of one.
After two months into the renovation, my husband got employment with a French company, a rarity by all accounts, but we now know why!!!!!
But cutting a very long story short, I'd recommend moving to France, but maybe not quite in the way we did..............
Don't know if I'm allowed to do this, but, please take a look at my website, and if we can be of any service, please give us a call or Email
[url=https://www.avriljones.com]