The Canary Dave

Thanks, yorkshire. Perhaps I haven’t said it much, but please don’t take my recent absence as anything other than forced. All you rabble are very important to me. Been posting for about 12 years, now, BBC and here.

 

Wow - the weather man brings you pastries! I'm impressed...

 

A good idea - but to what, I don't know. Dave's Bar/Nest - all Hornets and Canaries welcome?

 

A request to you our dear french correspondent.
We have just received (here in UK )2 letters from the Direction Generale es Finances Publique. One for taxe d' habitation' and one for 'taxe fonciere'. otherwise identical. They want us to confirm our bank details (Credit Agricole) so they can take our taxes directly. All ok by us. However, we have to fill in our address on the form to be returne , as well as sign and date the form and send it back to Marseille. My question is , is the address they want that of our cottage in France ? It seems obvious that it would be that address,and not our UK address, which they know. I assume it is just part of confirming the bank details.
We are thinking of travelling to the cottage for a couple of weeks in August/Sept - using the tunnel. Don't fancy ferries at all. What diffeences would we notice on the journey from Calais to Charente ?

 

We do these remotely and the letters come to our Uk address..... it is basically a notification as you will have set up the Direct debit /RIB

From Calais... you need to get round the peripherique... unless you do a wider orbit east or west of paris..... so a lot depends on the date too.... dont go on a french holiday or travel round the peroherique during the busiest times... our sat nav is quite good when we do paris so it helps us prep for the many lane changes etc...
We are trusting Brittany ferries though...... there hygiene etc seems very good. There is a vid explaining whatt they are doing on their website.... we will do an overnight so no on ship activity... just on, sleep , off.....

 

I might do a poll and see what people think.....

 

Yes, I agree with Yorkie. They are setting up a DD, which will show up on your bank account as a Prélèvement. I did have a Credit Agricole account at one time that had my English address on it that caused a few raised eyebrows, but once I changed it to my French address everything was simple.

I travel between Dieppe and Newhaven these days for several reasons. Dieppe is about three hours nearer than the tunnel from here and the autoroute tolls to Calais are three times as much. I have used the ferries and tunnel in the past and actually quite enjoy the périphérique around Paris, but find it a long haul up there these days, and Dover is not the best place for me to get to Bucks or Glos. Ferry timings also come into it. I can potter up to Dieppe in five hours, catch a ferry at 6.00 pm, arrive in Newhaven at 9.00 pm and fall into a hotel without anymore driving. Just suits me quite well.

 

Been thinking about this during the day, and feel that something new and different would be best. As I said in my tribute to him he had a very wide knowledge and taste in music along with football trivia. I don't quite know if there would be enough material to loosely create a separate bar, or what it might be called. I wouldn't want to set up something that turned out to be a flop as I feel that would be disrespectful to his memory

 

He was in here as much as anyone else..........so in my view a renaming of the Nest is my preference......

 

Morning - I won't preface that with good as it's bucketing down outside. The Met Office tells me it's cloudy and 12C - they must think I can't see the rain. The thermometer in my car reads 7C - I tend to believe it over the Met Office.
Time for a hot coffee and a good book methinks.

 

Morning all. Overcast with a light shower possible this morning, but sun and 26°C this afternoon. I have to clear away the first rows of peas and mange tout that have finished, and use the ground for some winter crops. The gardener who looks after the property for the Parisians is here hard at work. He cut all the grass there 7 days ago, but looking at it now you wouldn't believe he had been there for months. A cup of coffee seems like a good idea while I wait to see if that shower arrives. Have a good day whatever you have planned.

 

good day all.....

Cant wait to get to the vineyard.... luckily the grass is being cut but i hate to think of the beds and the wisteria on the house..
Some planting out leeks and fennel just now..... then a little look at the book I am writing and then back to the lap by lap drone of F1.... followed by our weeklt take out from our local italian

 

Thanks for the responses. We've used Brittany ferries very happily for years - shame that our one to santander last year caught fire ar 0200 ! e were opposite St Nazaire, but for some bizarre reason the ship went all the way back to Brest. Anyway, we are probably spurning ferries for a while - although the Newhaven Dieppe route might be a possibility - last used it with our bicycle (tandem). Thanks again.

 

I wonder if the drinks break mid-way in each half could become the normal. I am sure that Sky would love to have another slot to get some adverts in.

 

Morning all. Blue sky, a gentle breeze and no rain in sight for the whole of this week. At least it should slow the grass from growing quite so quickly. A fortnight ago the ground was damp enough to make weeding easy, but yesterday it was bone dry and instead of crumbling nicely it was coming up in lumps that have to be broken down. The gardener for the Parisians is back again today. Being a Sunday he only worked the morning so has returned today to finish off. His strimmer was on the go at 8.00 am which seems to be a regular time for most workmen around here. Little wonder that the bars would open at 7.00 am so that a strong coffee or small glass of wine was available to fortify them on their way to work. Have a good day whatever you must do.

 

Good day all

Enjoyed the Ingleton waterfalls walk today....A 4.5 mile walk steeply up alongside many waterfalls, along a moor top, and then down another high sided valley with more cascades.. the rain had stopped and the sun was shining.... the waterfalls very high and strong..... quite a few people had the same idea though......

 

I have been away too long and missed news of Canary Dave. Reading the comments I have renamed the page in his memory.

 

Good to hear from you AK... people have suggested several names that still keep the Nest or Hornet somewhere in the title.... perhas you could take a look...cheers

 

Morning all, a lovely Summers day in rural France. Doors and windows open, but there is little breeze to catch. The washing machine started to play up a couple of weeks ago, stopped spinning. Called helpline for service, held on for half an hour before I spoke to someone, then got cut off. Went to the store where we bought it where they tried to phone the helpline, and after half an hour gave up. Gave me a different number to try and spoke to them after ten minutes. They would send an engineer this Wednesday between 8.00 am and 10.00 am, but would call this evening to be more precise about time. Yesterday morning engineer phoned to see if he could come today instead of tomorrow. Having agreed he said he would phone yesterday evening to say what time. He didn't! So thought I had better get the tea earlier than normal in case he phones or just turns up. So now having had the tea, some breakfast and about to get some coffee, we will wait and see what happens. Have a good day whatever you might be doing.

 

Can you please stop telling us how lovely the weather is in France ! We are supposed to be there, but enduring wet and windy NW England. Bah ! And it's given me time to Watch WFC - oops that hasn't gone well either.
What is this mysterious idea that an engineer comes to visit (visit ?) you. Are you living in a 3rd world country ? Why don't you just press reset, or throw it away? The idea that someone might visit died out here years ago. (It's called capitalism).