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!
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Early Days
I've just read this today (2 November 2011) - I didn't know it was on here, and had obviously published it without knowing my way around this blog thing. Not to worry - it was obviously my draft of work we had done, things we had done to include in letters, etc - also to remind ourselves of what exactly we have achieved! I'll leave it on here, as a summary of the story so far (well, two weeks ago) . . .
Lots of work, sunshine, meeting the locals, using local commerces, registering car, registering with GP, and CPAM, bells at 12 noon and 7, accordeon festival, repas automnale.
House: spraying floorboards, emptying cellar, arranging own items and furniture, gardening, sanding and painting shutters, etc., cleaning, sweeping, stripping wallpaper.
Daily: open 12 shutters, breakfast, wait for post, boulangerie.
ordering wood for woodburner, moving huge pile of wood into bucher, stripping wallpaper.
Tulle and Uzerche: DIY stores for Xlophene, etc.
Plague of flies, tax demand for £2,500.
Lots of work, sunshine, meeting the locals, using local commerces, registering car, registering with GP, and CPAM, bells at 12 noon and 7, accordeon festival, repas automnale.
House: spraying floorboards, emptying cellar, arranging own items and furniture, gardening, sanding and painting shutters, etc., cleaning, sweeping, stripping wallpaper.
Daily: open 12 shutters, breakfast, wait for post, boulangerie.
ordering wood for woodburner, moving huge pile of wood into bucher, stripping wallpaper.
Tulle and Uzerche: DIY stores for Xlophene, etc.
Plague of flies, tax demand for £2,500.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Toussaint, 1 November 2011
Just as forecast, a grey morning with heavy rain, but we have views of greenery from most windows and it's been interesting watching the autumn colours in the garden and the tall trees behind the house in a neighbour's garden. Not to mention, the fact that this is Limousin and there are trees (lots of pine trees) rising up in the distance through the mist all around.
Our daily trip to the supermarket, which was busier than usual because of half-day closing because of Toussaint, then on to the boulangerie, then we called on a French couple, Roger and Elsa, who actually live in Paris, but have been here for the Toussaint holiday with their grandchildren. This afternoon, more stripping of wallpaper and investigating how to remove the backing from carpet upstairs that was stuck down to the lovely chestnut floorboards about 30 years ago! We were invited back to Roger and Elsa's at l'heure d'apéritif for an apéritif, so have been back there again this evening for a drink (mine was a Muscat and Harry's a Salers - a local apéritif made from gentian flowers - an acquired taste some would say).
We had planned a visit to the cemetery today, to see the tradition of placing flowers (usually crysanthemums in a pot) on your family grave, but didn't make it, so we'll pass by there later in the week to see the cemetery in bloom!
How we met Elsa and Roger was pure serendipity (if that's how you spell it!). The day after we signed for the house in August, there was a vide greniers in the village - 'empty your attics!', the French version of our car boot sales. The regulations here are that you can't do more than two vide greniers a year - most villages have them at least once a year, and you have to fill in a application form, stating that you have not done more than your quota of two. You are then allocated a spot in the middle of the village - if you're lucky, your stall will be right outside your own front door, so you can popping in to fetch forgotten things to sell on your stall. It was a good opportunity to meet people, and a good excuse not to buy things, as we could say we had just bought a house, which was full of furniture, crockery, etc. 'Ah, it's you who've bought Monsieur Salesse's house!, then welcome to Chamberet!' There was some very interesting stuff on some stalls - including some very strange tools and agricultural-type items, as we are in a very rural area here.
At one particular stall we had that conversation, and the woman (Elsa) said that Monsieur Salesse was cousin to her husband. (Roger). He arrived and we had a chat and they invited us round a couple of days later to their house. The house actually belongs to Roger's mother who is now 95 and in a nursing home at Treignac, the next village about 8 miles away. Roger was doing the family history - he's cousin to Madame Salesse who died about 5 years ago. Her maiden name was Serre and it's the Serre family tree that Roger is busy investigating. They invited us back that evening for an apéritif and we took along various family photos and papers we had found here in the attic. Roger was able to tell us a lot about the house here and Monsieur and Madame Salesse and their families. They are a lovely couple - Elsa is Chilean and they have lived all over the world because of Roger's job and Elsa speaks English which is helpful at times. They called here to see us last week to see how we were getting on with the house (and I think were quite shocked and sympathetic to our cause when they saw everything that needed to be done!) and invited us to call round before they went back to Paris, which we did today. The two grandchildren who were staying with them have very un-French names - Ulysses and Darius - two lovely lads, and their mum is called Marisol - a Spanish or Chilean name from Elsa's side. They are off back to Paris tomorrow, but Roger will be here in December and has offerred to give us a hand with jobs where you might need a couple of people. He's also given us information on insulation for the attic and on their new Ikea kitchen.
Unfortunately, our nearest Ikea (or Eekea as it's pronounced here) is at Bordeaux, about 2 hours drive away - but that could be a good excuse for a weekend at the seaside, not to mention sampling the local beverage!
Our daily trip to the supermarket, which was busier than usual because of half-day closing because of Toussaint, then on to the boulangerie, then we called on a French couple, Roger and Elsa, who actually live in Paris, but have been here for the Toussaint holiday with their grandchildren. This afternoon, more stripping of wallpaper and investigating how to remove the backing from carpet upstairs that was stuck down to the lovely chestnut floorboards about 30 years ago! We were invited back to Roger and Elsa's at l'heure d'apéritif for an apéritif, so have been back there again this evening for a drink (mine was a Muscat and Harry's a Salers - a local apéritif made from gentian flowers - an acquired taste some would say).
We had planned a visit to the cemetery today, to see the tradition of placing flowers (usually crysanthemums in a pot) on your family grave, but didn't make it, so we'll pass by there later in the week to see the cemetery in bloom!
How we met Elsa and Roger was pure serendipity (if that's how you spell it!). The day after we signed for the house in August, there was a vide greniers in the village - 'empty your attics!', the French version of our car boot sales. The regulations here are that you can't do more than two vide greniers a year - most villages have them at least once a year, and you have to fill in a application form, stating that you have not done more than your quota of two. You are then allocated a spot in the middle of the village - if you're lucky, your stall will be right outside your own front door, so you can popping in to fetch forgotten things to sell on your stall. It was a good opportunity to meet people, and a good excuse not to buy things, as we could say we had just bought a house, which was full of furniture, crockery, etc. 'Ah, it's you who've bought Monsieur Salesse's house!, then welcome to Chamberet!' There was some very interesting stuff on some stalls - including some very strange tools and agricultural-type items, as we are in a very rural area here.
At one particular stall we had that conversation, and the woman (Elsa) said that Monsieur Salesse was cousin to her husband. (Roger). He arrived and we had a chat and they invited us round a couple of days later to their house. The house actually belongs to Roger's mother who is now 95 and in a nursing home at Treignac, the next village about 8 miles away. Roger was doing the family history - he's cousin to Madame Salesse who died about 5 years ago. Her maiden name was Serre and it's the Serre family tree that Roger is busy investigating. They invited us back that evening for an apéritif and we took along various family photos and papers we had found here in the attic. Roger was able to tell us a lot about the house here and Monsieur and Madame Salesse and their families. They are a lovely couple - Elsa is Chilean and they have lived all over the world because of Roger's job and Elsa speaks English which is helpful at times. They called here to see us last week to see how we were getting on with the house (and I think were quite shocked and sympathetic to our cause when they saw everything that needed to be done!) and invited us to call round before they went back to Paris, which we did today. The two grandchildren who were staying with them have very un-French names - Ulysses and Darius - two lovely lads, and their mum is called Marisol - a Spanish or Chilean name from Elsa's side. They are off back to Paris tomorrow, but Roger will be here in December and has offerred to give us a hand with jobs where you might need a couple of people. He's also given us information on insulation for the attic and on their new Ikea kitchen.
Unfortunately, our nearest Ikea (or Eekea as it's pronounced here) is at Bordeaux, about 2 hours drive away - but that could be a good excuse for a weekend at the seaside, not to mention sampling the local beverage!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)