Not only that, but the man whoās doing walking tāai chi to lose weight: what happened to his shirt in that month?
Haha, stupid autocarrot 
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Off to the dentist today and definitely NOT rushing. Why in the cheerful thread? Because I finally get my tooo fwont teeth back so I can whistle HAPPY NEW YEAR. 
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For me, one of the nicest things arising from the heavy snow here in Seine Maritime is that itās brought neighbours whoāve been hibernating in their houses all winter, out and about walking in the lanes and tracks around our little hamlet by the forest. Iāve met near neighbours I never knew existed! I even plucked up the courage to ask one (@20 years younger than me) Iāve been chatting to on and off for several months if we could tutoie now, and he smilingly agreed. Iāve always waited for the (invariably much older) locals to initiate the tutoiement beforehand.
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Such a difficult bridge to cross! Younger people tutoie much more, so more easily accepted. There is one woman I know quite well who is probably in her 40s and I asked similarly, and she agreed. But continues to resolutely vousvoie me and when I finally asked about this she said it would be disrespectful to do otherwise. Made me feel about 210 years old! So we are back to vous.
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I am determined to Vous newcomersā¦ being very respectful and polite at all timesā¦ but IF we āhit it offā the rot sets in the conversation rocks and rolls, Tu slips in and I catch my breath and apologiseā¦ without exception, I am told that itās quite alrightā¦ continueā¦
I do explain that for me (a Brit) thereās only the one word (you) and itās the tone of voice and demeanour which differentiates 
I made that mistake a couple of times, with the same effect, and then started to do it tactically when I wanted to be a bit closer to my French contacts.
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That is exactly my experience with Chrystelle, who came to clean the house while Fran was ill. Even though her work only took an hour, she insisted to her boss that she needed two. Granted, and thus started our 1 hour French (she speaks no English) conversations in the extra hour each week. Excellant for my language but mainly because our chats were so much fun as we had many shared interests, the most important of which is dogs.
But, although she agreed on tu very early on, she steadfastly insisted on vous for herself. 30 years younger than me, the same comment, respect. We even had a big laugh one time when, by mistake, I used vous and she sternly protested and mock offended, said āwhatever happened to tu?ā
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I couldnāt see where to start a new post, but you may be interested in this Davidā¦.I went to see a notaire today, ref a piece of woodland that I was/am hoping to buy. It has been dragging on for a daft amount of time. My French isnāt very good, so although I can manage to just about get by, the nuances are missed to say the least. I thought that I had agreed with the vendor to go off and see if the Maire or any relevant neighbours wanted to buy the plot or had rights of first refusal, but time has passed and nothing said. I felt like a nuisance if I went to see him again if he had changed his mind. I was able to explain the situation to the notaire as he had some English skills although it was all quite rushed for a small case. He seemed efficient though and at least I will soon know if it is a yes or no to proceed.
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Many of these people, notaires etc. have a well deserved reputation for foot dragging and if you really want to proceed the only way is to go back again and again.
In my own case, I first approached the owner of the parcelle of land, no reply, then a couple of months later he turned up unanounced at the gate and we did the deal there and then. I went to the notaire, he said he knew the man and would set the ball rolling. All was done and dusted within a couple of months, in spite of the geomet experts letting me down, but I donāt need them because I put my fence in one metre inside what I know to be the boundary, remains of ancient wall etc and the fact that the Maire, a friend and neighbour, agrees with me.
Other things have involved more foot dragging but now seem to have been agreed, my access to my house and garden for instance. Best of luck.
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We survived the onslaught of Storm Goretti (in Seine Maritime) overnight, thankfully with only superficial damage to one outbuilding. Iāve lived through severe tropical storms before eg in Central America, but have never heard anything like the disturbing, quite unsettling loud roaring noise made by this awful storm (110kph winds) most of the night. Iām sure our SF members in Manche have had it even worse and very much hope theyāre all ok
.
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Indeed. I have experienced hurricanes in Turks & Caicos (including a category 2 and a category 4 which arrived in sequence over a period of 8 days, in 2008) but the houses were built to withstand them so it was more of a nuisance than a serious worry.
Glad you are OK Mr. George!
Yes the noise was quite horrific at times but as far as I know weāre undamaged. Havenāt taken a look at the roof yet though, been busy getting the generator connected - i knew it would be useful one day
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I think one of those is on our shopping list as part of our contingency planning. We have a little granny flat and we reckon we can run that from a gennie, while isolating it from the rest of the house and, therefore, the grid.
Regular rumble down here when Le Mistral blows. The open chimney seems to echo and whine.
It was indeed a rather disturbing noise but we got through with very little damage and the power came back quite early on. We were in the house for the huge storm of December 1999 and were expecting something similar but nothing like, mercifully. I think we got off more lightly that a lot of others.
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Electricity back on after nearly 15 hours
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That was the Boxing Day storm. We had it really bad in FinistĆØre, power out for four days in the commune but luckily had a petrol generator to see us and two neighbours not lose our freezer contents. Its blowing a hooley down here at this moment, 100kph forecast until evening and my DIL has taken her class skiing today where its turned treacherous and they canāt leave until later as the coach driver has to have his hours off
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Yes we even got it here in our little protected part of the country. It uprooted an oak tree just outside the house which happily fell away from it. We had already shut the shutters and gone to bed and heard nothing of it at all.
Just stacked away a couple of cubic meters of firewood, with it filling the space available pretty much exactly. My poor wife is exhausted tonight, having barrowed it up for me to stack. That should be heating supplement sorted for the next 18 months.
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