Yes, I know, but it just seems so sad that she is hung up over it, given our shared history over many years.
My answer to her yesterday was to shrug and say I won’t be here long so I don’t care and won’t be taking on any more major works in this lifetime and I certainly won’t be stopping using my only entrance and exit.
I might drop into the notaire next time I am passing and ask for an update.
Not checked the Notaire yet but did see the Maire in passing this morning and he has heard nothing from him.
I think I’d talk to the neighbour over a cake or some glass of something and ask why such a change now after…. X years of friendliness etc and helping them out and is there some other difficulty she has or anything else she needs.
Perhaps it’s not the French way to go about it but it soinds like there is some other underlying need or irritation that has arisen.
No, she has mentioned it in the past and she knows my reply, that it is a common access between the 2 of us. It is getting me down, I am already having difficulty in sleeping, and eating, losing a lot of weight, I will simply ignore the situation until the notaire has his say. They can’t make me scale a 2 metre high almost vertical bank to get into my garden and I, at my time of life, simply don’t intend to try.
What is the worst they can do? Block the access? I’ll simply park in the lane, if outside when they do it, or on the inside if not. If I am obviously waiting for the way to clear, it isn’t me blockading is it? That surely must be illegal. Doubt that they are going to cart an 83 year old with a heart condition off to pokey, do you?
Hi David, just wondering whether a chat with your MT might be an idea. It can take time for things to settle down and your doctor might need to review the potency of the tablets you are taking. I’ve had mine changed a couple of times over the years as other symptoms appeared.
Yes, might be a good idea, at the moment my dentist has told me to halt taking one medicine for 4 days before my next visit, when he is going to pull a broken tooth. Apparently what happened was I had 2 teeth ‘tied’ to a real one 25 years ago and the real one snapped a week or so ago allowing all 3 to drop out.
So if nothing else I should get the all clear for that, but this trouble with Marie-Paule is really upsetting, not least because she was the mainstay of alert if anything happened to me. I’ll have to make other arrangements now, and that does not include changing my access after 32 years at the cost of multi thousands of euros.
So sorry to hear that someone you have been good friends with over the years has become “difficult” - how old is she? I wonder if there is something else going on with her mental health which is making her anxious? Perhaps when the work is finished she may calm down?
Please do take care of yourself. Not sleeping properly, not eating properly can increase your own anxiety and make it more difficult for you to cope with what’s going on with your neighbour.
There is also the question of access for emergency vehicles to consider. When I was a conseilleur municipale, many times we had to refuse people building new houses on land they had banked for years because it was so cheap back then simply for the reason there was no access for emercency vehicles and no servitudes over any adjoining land which was mostly agricultural to reach the landlocked parcelles they had bought. Those parcelles are still in the same situation today and will be as long as the plan d’urbanisation does not change. On the bright side, our oldest french friend has a holiday home with a servitude to get to his back garden that has been in existance for over 100years or more and has been refused to be blocked by the adjoining property every single application.
I really don’t think there will be a problem. Although the stress of uncertainty while things get clarified is not doing you any good.
After we bought, it turned out that our neighbour has the right to access his barn across our land. We had an avocat investigate but he informed us that, as there is no other viable option .. the neighbour can cross our land. He is not allowed to park, merely to drive and/or walk the shortest route from the road to his barn door.
Your council own the land/chemin which you’ve used for years and they will sort things similarly, but it does take time.
I’m wondering what has caused your neighbour to become so nasty. (illness, reaction to medication.. who knows) all you can do is be polite (no matter what) and try to not let her get under your skin.
Please take care of yourself.
I think she must be in her 60s now, but this has popped up in a passing comment over the years but it was the work to set up the posts for the new gates that seems to have triggered this episode.
Servitude aside, she and Mario came to live there about 2 or 3 years after we bought the place as a 2nd home, so we weren’t in permanent residence at that time but they must have seen when moving in that there was absolutely no other possible acccess to our house so hardly a recent surprise. She seems to clothe her comments, not as objections but as a warning to me that if they move out, a succeeding renter or buyer (all these ‘council houses’ are available for Thatcherite type purchases) may take a different view. But it doesn’t feel like that to me, feels more threatening now which is why I spoke to the Maire yesterday. He’s very laid back about it so obviously not against a legal right of access being granted so I’ll have to chase the notaire again to see what is happening. The fact that I can’t see what, if any, force could be used against me doesn’t make the worry go away and, of course, not helped by the health issues. One seems to feed on the other and vice versa.
I have little taste, no appetite and very little to eat. What I do eat, unless I force myself, is usually salt based and arrives as an extreme urge which, if given into, does not solve the problem in that it is not pleasurable and leaves me with the feeling ‘why ever did I eat that?’
A meal down the bar this evening with friends, the latter the only reason for going, I have deliberately chosen the cheapest, thus smallest, menu offering and will take a bag to bring most of it back for the dogs. The main thing is the craic, as they say. 
Do try and eat as properly as you can, David, we don’t want you fading away…
Which is such a shame, as you used to enjoy your cooking - making a point of preparing for yourself a “proper” meal. This is why I feel you do need to talk to your doctor - this is not “you”. If you’ve had covid (or it’s your medicaments) you may need supplements to make sure at least you are getting the necessary trace elements, minerals, vitamins etc that in time will help you feel better, even if you are not eating very much.
Says he, fading away to … 
But point taken and thank you, to be more cheerful, if this murky weather will allow I want to take a photo of my 2 best friends that share my life. Jules, the birthday boy at 11 today with his best mate Hades.
Routine in meals counts for a lot David and will get you through a lot. It sounds like your gaps between meals are too long. And so low blood sugar is forcing you to eat something less ideal then the cycle begins again.
I think see your doc as some medications can do stuff like this with consequent changes in feelings etc and views of life. It might be even a change of timing of medication or slight switch in dose could be all that’s needed. I’ve also noticed docs may not say “take with / without food” that you might find on the paper in the pack and this can make a massive difference.
Would it work for you to eat whenever the dogs eat ? Do you batch cook when you get the chance, or freeze and microwave so it’s not that much effort ?
Would you consider accepting the meals on wheels offer ISTR they made you? Costs are likely fairly moderate.
Oops wrong thread. Deleted
Well I can’t face breakfast, water with my pills first, then a glass of coffee, I might have another coffee along with a small chocolate biscuit. Nothing else ‘till about 1 or 2pm. Just had a small piece of toast with 2 thick pieces of cantal melted on top in the air fryer. A favourite normally, it was ok, but not enthusiastic about it. I’ll have another coffee in a minute.
This evening I would normally have a main course at around 6.30pm straight after the dogs’ only meal of the day, but rarely a cheese course and maybe a pear or something similar for dessert. That is obviously not enough of a daily intake so I have been having one of my precious Shredded Wheats with warm milk and honey later. The SW will soon run out, it was brought specially from England by a friend of Christine, and there is no more on the horizon.
I have been trying to have a bowl of soup midday but, same old story, nothing I can buy has enough flavour to satisfy. 3 days ago I slow cooked a Bouef Bourgignon, but I won’t buy from that butcher again, it was mainly gristle, fortunately I did put plenty of different veg in it. Had a bowl of it twice now and will probably finish it tomorrow night because this evening it is the meal at the bar. I chose Camembert roti as the cheapest (€8), and therefore I assume, smallest option. Goodness know what roast camembert tastes like, don’t like soft cheese anyway, as I said elsewhere I will have a bag with me for the dogs.
The last ‘do’ at the bar was choucroute. A massive plateful consisting of 2 sausages, one rash of bacon, an enormous piece of ham on the bone and of course the sour cabbage. I ate 1 sausage, with difficulty, 2 forkfuls of cabbage and took the rest home for the ‘family.’
I realise that this thread has diverted but it is all connected I feel, bizarrely connected with one thing following on, and leading to, another. I’ll get onto ClicDoc for a rdv and check out the notaire on Monday, maybe one or both might improve matters.
Oh, sorry, forgot about the meals on wheels. Well I did think of this while Fran was alive because I glimpsed some and was impressed by the size of the meals, but that very thing puts me off now, no way would I get through now what they provide.
Sorry, you posted while I was composing, and I don’t know to what you are alluding. 
This is why you need to discuss this with your doctor. Tell him what you’ve told Karen about the amount you are eating per day - as you appreciate, it’s not enough, but just putting more food in front of you is not the answer. You need condensed supplements - did they give something like that to Fran? It may not be the way you want to go, but for the moment you need it. You talked about falling over when you walked a different overgrown path. If you are not eating well, your bones will become brittle and a fall will result in a breakage and slow healing and you will lose your independence. Sorry to be gloomy, but I sense you are “putting up with” your health issues and that’s not wise. Men are nearly always bad at this. And you don’t have Fran to nag you - well perhaps you do - but there are those of us on here who want to help, and nagging is what you need right now. 
Répas au domicile. That brought a memory back to me of the farm across from my driveway whereby the old maman in her mid 90’s would cook a big meal for her son every day but she would have her repas delivered each morning in the little van from the local geriatric hospital in the next commune. I often wondered if she couldn’t stomach her own cooking! The meals were good though as the brother of my other neighbour was the chef in the kitchen over there unlike the horrible stuff you get in hospitals here.
OK, all taken on board and appreciated because I know things aren’t right. Been on clicdoc but the first rdv out of all of them, not my normal one but the last one I saw, is the 25th of November so I have booked it but the last time I used this they shortly emailed me with an earlier one so that might happen this time especially as I did a brief description of why, appetite, weight etc., and mention of the crise cardiac.
Now you mention it I do remember I collected cases of special food for Fran which she readily consumed which of course, after she died, I returned to the pharmacie so they could be used for others. Might be an idea to see if a small quantity can be bought while waiting for the rdv. I’ll ask on Monday before I go into the supermarket. I’ll call on Christine tomorrow when I go to the market, she of course was one of Fran’s aids and thus knows all about this stuff. 
@Shiba Oddly enough, I have always been one who appreciated hospital food when I have been there and was mildly surprised the last time I was in (May) they seemed to be giving me the stuff they were telling me to avoid.