No - this isn't a campaign to close the local pub down - this is what you put on your French letter box to stop receiving junk mail.
The recommended French letter box, is actually that - a metal box which you attach to the railings or wall on your fence, or gate post, or outside your house. Most people's fences have been cut specially to install the postbox near their gate. This information should be of interest particularly to Stuart! - none of that walking up people's drives, in and out of backyards, waiting for a dog to attack you. Our postwoman usually drives up in her yellow van and parks outside our house, or one of the neighbours to deliver the post.
The postbox recommended by La Poste is like a large, oversized shoe box, in metal, which opens at the front, with a letterbox complete with flap, a keyhole, and a little plastic covered bit for you to write your surname. You can buy them also with an opening door complete with keyhole at the back, so that you can remove your mail without going out into the street - handy if you're still in pyjamas, or there's a big snowdrift blocking your exit.
Our current mail box looks like a home made affair - it's some kind of metal, with flap, like a big metal A4 envelope, about 3 inches deep, with an opening door and key on the back. It also has a home-made wire attached to the fence so that you can open the door without being scratched by the hedge (some kind of pine). The problem is that this box is now buried in the hedge and difficult to get to. I also discovered that if you don't hook it up properly, you find your post, wet and faded lurking deep at the bottom of the hedge days or even weeks after it was delivered. This is exactly what happened with our bill from the water company and the demand for £2,500 that I recently received from HM Tax Office. (They now notify me that they owe me a little bit of money from 5 years ago, also 4 years ago, which they'd never bothered returning, but now they find I owe them about £2,450 for the past two years! I have of course disputed it and await a response.)
Back to the mail box - our slight dilemma is where to put the mailbox. Also do we go for a one-door (approx. £20) or a two-door (approx. £45)? Harry thinks he may have found a different place to put it - on a post which will be bolted into the ground at the other side of the gate, and hopefully won't be too high for the postwoman. For that, of course, there'll be the extra cost of the post and fixing bolts, so we'll see.
Back to the pub (if only!). This is also the word that comes up on television to let you know there's an ad break coming up - these are often quite lengthy, so it's good to have the warning. We thought we got a lot of junk mail in England, but have revised that since we came here. There are a lot of supermarket chains around - SuperU, Intermarche, LeClerc, Carrefour and our own little G20 (which seems to have influenced world economic talks!). Every two weeks there seems to be a special offer period, and new leaflets with all the latest offers. Recently at G20 it was the 'Foire au Porc' - the pork festival, when all things and sizes of pork were on offer. All the publicity seems to arrive in one go, and even though we have an old 'Stop Pub' on our box, we still seem to receive the bundle of colourful leaflets. We don't mind as it gives you chance to see what's on offer and compare prices, and see what's out there. And there is a lot out there - but generally much further away than the two-mile trip to the Arnison centre!
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