Lay My Hat

Thank you both for the helpful replies.

Giuliano, congratulations on your booking rate! It's very good to know that tourism is still strong and helping to support the country.

All the best.

Although our property is in France, we border Piemonte, and have spent quite a bit of time there. Property prices are low, as I do keep looking, but haven't quite found the right one. We viewed one property with 11 rooms, a brand new roof and boiler which is not selling for 47,000€. Why don't you t...

Ciao Guiliano Many thanks for your reply. I'm not a fan of sensational mainstream media, so much of my research was done via social media (Twitter etc) where individuals have written about their own experiences or posted videos and links or via blogs and forums. It does seem to be pretty bad in many...

Hi All We were looking into the possibility of purchasing a property in the Piedmonte area, either in the mountains or the valley. However, we're well aware that Italy is not only struggling economically but is also as badly saturated with refugees as Greece and neither country have the resources to...

Meant to say there is a HUGE amount of free resource online for helping with languages - the BBC website, Coffee Break french podcasts are brilliant and the About website - mentioned above - has a very helpful forum where you can ask all those batty-driving questions that you can't find in any books...

Hi Mouser I can vouch for at least one of the OU French courses. I did the Level 1 course (L120) about 3 years ago (took 10 months), intending to go straight onto Level 2 to gain the recognised certificate, but Life sort of got in the way. However, I will go back to it. The course was all online, bu...

Quite useful:

http://www.ernalowproperty.co.uk/Conten ... -info-news

Ha ha - thanks Roz, I know how hot it's been in Spain as have rellies there. As you say, not many chateaux but certainly other attractions

Thanks Bob - the ferries are a good idea - we'll look into that.

ATB
Beanie

Thank you Bob and La Vache, it's such a difficult one to call this year, isn't it, but you've both confirmed my view that further south is a better bet this year. OH's keen to head somewhere we can drive to in a day from London but I'm keen to have some warmth - doesn't have to be scorching at all (...

Hello Frenchies Am desperate to escape the doom and gloom of this so-called British 'Summer' and we've always fancied a trip to the Loire to do some chateaux-visiting. Given that much of Europe has experienced lower than usual temps this Summer I'm keen to avoid paying out for a holiday and then fin...

Ps - a friend bought a Galaxy tablet as thought the iPad too costly. He was so frustrated with it (apparently, very slow and few apps), that he's since bought an iPad, so it proved a false economy.

OH and I are currently reading on the sofa with our iPads and I have Rumer playing in the background. Appreciate you can do this on laptops, but not so comfortably. Have just finished reading the Sunday Times courtesy of the excellent app, which is worth the £2 p/w for all the week's Times, if for n...

Hi NC I too know nothing about euro mortgages and only post occasionally myself these days as we sold our place last year, but just wanted to say Hi. OH is currently reading 'I Return To Switzerland', thanks to your recommendation yonks ago, and thoroughly enjoying it. I'm next in line :) Take care ...

Thanks for that, Brooke. Looks fabulous.

A really interesting selection, thanks All.

Beanie

I love a bit of quirkiness

BTW - your OD link doesn't appear to be working.