http://www.francethisway.com/wp Living in France and daily life for a UK expat in the French blog! Tue, 22 May 2012 06:28:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/how-not-to-do-plumbing/2012/04/ http://www.francethisway.com/wp/how-not-to-do-plumbing/2012/04/#comments Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:12:41 +0000 Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=3481 Since the big freeze a couple of months ago we have had various plumbing problems (mostly leaks) come to light – partly because I’m an idiot and partly because of poor plumbing. I’ll share their causes in the hope that someone else can avoid some of the same problems… As a little background, the house [...]]]> http://www.francethisway.com/wp/how-not-to-do-plumbing/2012/04/feed/ 0 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/replacing-a-rather-horrible-wall/2012/03/ http://www.francethisway.com/wp/replacing-a-rather-horrible-wall/2012/03/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:31:26 +0000 Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=3433 When we first arrived in France our house was lacking pretty much everything, including bathrooms, so you won’t be surprised to know that getting a sink and toilet fitted was something of a priority. We quickly got various plumbers around and discussed our grand plans for en-suites here and power showers there – typically to [...]]]> http://www.francethisway.com/wp/replacing-a-rather-horrible-wall/2012/03/feed/ 5 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/quality-control-in-france/2011/11/ http://www.francethisway.com/wp/quality-control-in-france/2011/11/#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:03:12 +0000 Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=3222 Sometimes we have to ignore the ‘big picture’ (global catastrophes and so on) and worry about the little problems instead. For example, how is it possible that every week I need to change lightbulbs when each one comes with a ‘two year guarantee’ and cost many times what an ‘old-fashioned’ lightbulb cost? Certainly electrical and [...]]]> http://www.francethisway.com/wp/quality-control-in-france/2011/11/feed/ 10 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/shutter-colours-france/2011/04/ http://www.francethisway.com/wp/shutter-colours-france/2011/04/#comments Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:44:11 +0000 Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=2767 April is a good month. Mrs B’s garden springs into bloom, we tidy away all the rubbish, and generally get things looking beautiful after a winter of neglect. This is usually a good plan. February and March are often a bit cold or wet to be doing much outside, and by May things are getting [...]]]> http://www.francethisway.com/wp/shutter-colours-france/2011/04/feed/ 5 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/getting-the-porch-mended/2011/03/ http://www.francethisway.com/wp/getting-the-porch-mended/2011/03/#comments Thu, 03 Mar 2011 12:16:25 +0000 Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=2696 It’s a bit difficult working on the computer this week – we are getting some work done on the house which involves a great deal of noise and disruption and lumps of wood falling on my head, but I thought I’d shake the dust off the keyboard and tell you what’s going on here while [...]]]> http://www.francethisway.com/wp/getting-the-porch-mended/2011/03/feed/ 7 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/speaking-to-the-french-water-board/2010/10/ http://www.francethisway.com/wp/speaking-to-the-french-water-board/2010/10/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 05:20:30 +0000 Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=2334 Over the last few years we have had various problems with water leaks and other issues with the water authorities digging up our garden, so I thought I’d tell the story…using some rather whizzy technology!]]> http://www.francethisway.com/wp/speaking-to-the-french-water-board/2010/10/feed/ 4 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/efficient-energy/2010/09/ http://www.francethisway.com/wp/efficient-energy/2010/09/#comments Sat, 18 Sep 2010 10:20:02 +0000 Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=2302 Autumn  is just around the corner and thoughts turn to heating – and even better heating that doesn’t cost much. A couple of years ago I wrote about the trend towards using heat pumps (pompe a chaleur) as an alternative to ‘conventional’ heating – in principle a great idea since it extracts heat from the [...]]]> http://www.francethisway.com/wp/efficient-energy/2010/09/feed/ 21 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/grand-designs-france-style/2010/09/ http://www.francethisway.com/wp/grand-designs-france-style/2010/09/#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:26:41 +0000 Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=2246 One downside of getting English TV, apart from the difficulty of choosing what to watch from 100 channels of unwatchable rubbish,  is that I have discovered that one channel seems to show a lot of re-runs of Grand Designs. I always was a ‘Grand Designs addict’ and now it seems I have nine years of [...]]]> http://www.francethisway.com/wp/grand-designs-france-style/2010/09/feed/ 8 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/autumn-is-here/2010/05/ http://www.francethisway.com/wp/autumn-is-here/2010/05/#comments Mon, 03 May 2010 18:50:56 +0000 Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=1918 Oooh errr is that summer come and gone already?! Last week it was about 30 degrees, today it’s more like 15 and there is a gale force wind to go with it. Unfortunately I wasn’t paying attention to the forecast and hadn’t realised the weather was about to change so I’ve been outside doing lots [...]]]> http://www.francethisway.com/wp/autumn-is-here/2010/05/feed/ 4 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/french-central-heating-systems/2010/02/ http://www.francethisway.com/wp/french-central-heating-systems/2010/02/#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:40:00 +0000 Boris http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=1673 February is always the least exciting month in our year. If it’s going to be cold, or wet, or both, at some point in the year it is usually in February. As if to prove the point, this week has been too cold for cycling, which means I’ve been stomping around the house looking grumpy, while Mrs B has [...]]]> http://www.francethisway.com/wp/french-central-heating-systems/2010/02/feed/ 15