La chasse

A reader writes: It's maybe not fair to the chasseurs' dogs to petition to remove at a stroke one whole day's hunting per week. 

The poor things get only three outings a week as it is. Imagine only walking your own large, energetic dogs on alternate days... 

Much better, if the hunters' reputed use of alcohol is to be believed, would be to ban hunting on Saturday and Sunday after 13h.

Anon

comments to taglines82@gmail.com

Christmas in France

In France, Christmas is a time for family and for generosity, marked by family reunions, gifts and candy for children, gifts for the poor, Midnight Mass, and le Réveillon.
The celebration of Christmas in France varies by region. Most provinces celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December, which is a bank holiday. However, in eastern and northern France, the Christmas season begins on 6 December, la fête de Saint Nicolas, and in some provinces la fête des Rois* is one the most important holidays of the Christmas season. 
*Epiphany (la fête des Rois) is usually celebrated the 6th of January, but in some places in France it is celebrated the first Sunday after January 1st.
 In Lyon, 8 December is la Fête de lumières, when Lyonnais pay hommage to the virgin Mary by putting candles in their windows to light up the city.
Le Réveillon
Although fewer and fewer French attend la Messe de Minuit on Christmas Eve, it is still an important part of Christmas for many families. It is followed by a huge feast, called le Réveillon(from the verb réveiller, to wake up or to revive). Le Réveillon is a symbolic awakening to the meaning of Christ's birth and is the culinary high point of the season, which may be enjoyed at home or in a restaurant or café that is open all night. Each region in France has its own traditional Christmas menu, with dishes like goose, chicken, capon, turkey stuffed with chestnuts, oysters, and boudin blanc (similar to white pudding).
Comments to taglines82@gmail.com

What we like about Christmas in France

A family Christmas is the ideal and the one we had last year back at our daughters in Henley was lovely. This year finding a pet sitter has proven more difficult so we are spending the season surrounded as usually by our pet menagerie and good friends.
We look forward to a round of carol services, Christmas markets, visiting  and entertaining friends and  best of all giving the dogs leisurely walks around the lanes and spending time with the  "famous four"  the donkeys. Malc will have his camera out to catch local scenes and I will be saying " oh, take that picture for TAG"  it would be lovely to share with you your  Christmas scenes and pictures, if you would like to send some make sure they are attached jpgs.
Comments to taglines82@gmail.com

French Christmas jokes for the children

Question:- Comment s'appelle le gâteau le plus dur du monde?

Réponse :- La bûche de Noël.Un chat p

Question:-  Quelle voiture conduit le Père Noël?

Réponse:-  Une Rennault.

Can anyone explain the second joke?    C says   Un renne is a reindeer in French.  

 chat pN

Time to explain how to read TAG again

If someone sends me something to go on TAG I usually try to get it on the same day depending on my commitments that day. So if you have sent something to be posted and do not look for a few days or a week even, then you need to find the days posting around the time you actually sent it. Now how you do this seem to have some of you foxed. You scroll to the bottom of the page and look at older posts and because TAG is so prolific that post may be 3or 4 pages back in a week. The front page like a real newspaper only lasts for a couple of days and then the news moves on.
Twice in writing and editing TAG I have had steam from the ears when someone has asked " why have you not posted my information" followed by !!!!!!!!!! or being asked three times and even when I emailed and explained it has been on, being told, no that was a different time in the summer grrr.
Not everyone reads TAG, not everyone wants to, and I appreciate that but I think everyone realises it has an audience which if you are having an event  that audience is useful to reach but please, please check if your piece has been listed so I do not have to rush to my donkeys for calming moments.
Also did you realise there was a search for facility on TAG. At the very top of the page, left handside is a search box, so you could type in for example cakes or donkeys and all posts with that word comes up.
Comments to taglines82@gmail.com

French film director died Friday

Georges Lautner, the director of a host of hugely popular comedies and crime movies during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, died at 87 in Paris on Friday November 22.
To his fans, his name evokes elegant French gangsters in black and white wielding silencer guns and trading chiselled dialogue to comic background music.
Lautner’s 'Les Tontons Flingueurs' ('Crooks in Clover'), starring Bernard Blier and Lino Ventura, was an instant box-office hit in 1963.
comments to taglines82@gmail.com

We should be able to have a walk with out worrying.

Dear Val
The hunting here is a little scary as they fly around the roads in their white vans.
You cannot just go out for a walk , I would not even trust wearing a high vis jacket.
J
Val says Two problems being indicated here, the speed the hunters dash around the lanes and then the worry about an accidental shooting. If they do not knock you, your child or your dog down, they could shoot you!
comments to taglines82@gmail.com

Please, please read TAG

I have been contacted three times by someone in the last few days to ask me to put on information which I have already displayed 4 times, please, please check the pages of TAG before reasking me, otherwise I feel I am wasting my time here and that frustrates me, a touch of " donkey therapy needed" to calm me.
comments to taglines82@gmail.com

Christmas presents for all

Hi Val

My countdown to Christmas has started as you can see

There will be more to chose from as the days go on
Cakes vary in price from 8 to 15 euros

Glynis x

Glynis can be contacted at   vin.rouge@live.co.uk

Another reminder for Le Bouton Rouge

www.globalgiving.org/dy/v2/content/search.html?q=*&fq=themeName:Women%20and%20Girls

We would like to raise even more money to support these amazing women and so we are holding one last exhibition of a selection of the 12x12 pieces hosted by the Mediatheque de Parisot from the 23rd November until the 29th November. We will be selling the remaining cards and original pieces and we would like to invite everyone to come along and see the work. The exhibition will be open during the Mediatheque hours which are as follows:

Saturday:    10h00 - 12h00
Monday:       14h00 - 17h00
Tuesday;      9h00 - 12h and 13h30 - 16h30
Wednesday: 14h00 - 17h00
Thursday;    9h00 - 12h00 and 13h00 - 16h30
Friday;         9h30 - 12h00

It would be great to see any of you who are able to come along.

Kath and Ankie
Le Bouton Rouge

Telethon time is coming up again

http://www.afm-telethon.com/the-telethon.html
Look at the link to find out about the Telethon
Malc says - good, we can get the car washed again!
comments to taglines82@gmail.com

Concert at Arnac

Next Sunday, 1st December, the Ecole de Piano at Arnac will give an organ concert to inaugurate the new organ. M. Carrere promises a programme of festive music. Free (dans la limite de places disponibles) at 15h00
See Music label for details.
comments to taglines82@gmail.com

Good Christmas present for someone DIAL sold, column still for sale

FOR SALE;     ARMILLARY SUNDIAL. 150 euros.(arrow measures 87cm) STONE COLUMN ( 55cm  high)) 80 euros. 200 euros for both. Buyer collects. THE sundial is sold, just the column still for sale

please contact:  e-mail:   clegg@dalmatian.tv or  tel: 0563539762 lunchtime only.

Comments to taglines82@gmail.com

Local artists/artisans Christmas marché

Bonjour,
Pour bien commencer le mois de décembre,
nous vous invitons à venir découvrir ou re-découvrir des artisans-créateurs locaux.
Cette année, nous serons à La P'tite Charrette à Milhars (81 170)
où nous vous accueillerons de 10h à 18h le dimanche 1er décembre.
N'hésitez pas à diffuser l'info.
A bientôt.
Maïlis

Christiane Taubira is Elle Magazine's Woman of the Year.

Christiane Taubira is on the front page of Elle Magazine  as  Woman of the Year.  Christiane who has faced many racist threats recently was the first black woman to run in France's presidential elections in 2002,Christiane Taubira, is an unstoppable force. France's current justice minister is also the heroine of French gay people for having fought tooth and nail in parliament in favour of same-sex marriage, and the nemesis of its fierce opponents who still demonstrate against a law they consider "legal but not legitimate".

French Guiana-born Taubira is not your average politician. She can be histrionic like Boris Johnson, and certainly shares his taste for verve and his skill for faultless speeches without notes. During the marathon debates that took place day and night at the French national assembly over same-sex marriage, she quoted poets René Char and Paul Ricoeur but alsonégritude writers such as Aimé Césaire and Léon Gontran Damas.

Comments to taglines82@gmail.com

Anti virus and a dog clip

Hi Val

I read your piece on this topic.

We have 3 computers:  one on Windows XP with Norton Antivirus, one Windows 7 with McAfee and one Windows 8 with Windows Defender.

Since we stopped using AVG Free a few years ago we never had a problem with viruses but I have come across a few people with various free products who have had problems.

This may be down to the need to always be cautious and suspicious whatever system you have of course.

The two bits of advice “Do not open links from unknown sources” and “Take note of warnings that a site may be unsafe” need to be taken together.

For example this is a quite common pop-up on various websites at the moment:

 

It is a complete fake and if you click on the clean computer link you are in all sorts of trouble.

Unfortunately the overriding advice seems to be “be suspicious”.

On a lighter note, dog lovers may enjoy this YouTube clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=EVwlMVYqMu4&amp%3bvq=medium#t=125

Best regards.

John

Another chasse death

"Accident mortel de chasse" on Wednesday  at Lisle sur Tarn. Christian Embialet age 56 was shot in the chest and killed whilst out hunting for sangliers. If you live in a town or village in SW France and not deep in the country and chasse / hunting territory like us you may think I sound alarmist. You may even say but do the chasseurs only go out on Wednesday or Sunday. Well I can dispel those rumours, anytime  through the week we can expect hunters zooming up the roads having heard on their walky talkies of a nearby kill. Malc last week tried to slow a white van down with a wave and the hunter did stop to ask what was the matter. When Malc said " slow down" he huffed and puffed and drove off at speed.
Can I just say if I am out in our own fields and get shot I will not be " A happy bunny"
comments to taglines82@gmail.com

DIY takes on a whole new aspect!

Dear Val,

Re- travelling nurses-  I think you are right to be concerned at  the waste of resources but there is nothing to stop you from collecting the jab from the  pharmacy and administering the vaccine  to yourself or to each other. . Deep sub-cutaneous  injections are not dangerous if given in the upper out quarter of the buttock or the fleshy part of the thigh. It isn’t rocket science. Just remember to put the date and the batch number on the paper and keep it in your records. That’s the hard part!

Sally C.

Val says I would rather waste a few resources than let Malc near me with a needle, and I know he would look at me in horror if I suggested jabbing him.

Fortunately the nurse came this morning and she pooh poohed the idea of us going into Varen to her, she can pass anyway coming from St. Martial every day. Malc thinks she gets paid for coming out so it is worth  it for her. 

Malc and I were just looking at the bigger picture of nurses driving all over rural France when not really needed to. When we are at the stage of not being able to drive ourselves you can bet your life the Secu will have decided they cannot afford these rural services.
Malc says  we are totally untrained! if we were diabetics and had to do it we would get some training.

Comments to taglines82@gmail.com

TEN donkeys !!

Hi Val

There is an excellent hairdresser in Le Ségur called Marie-Paule who used to have her own salon in Albi.

She has a proper salon in her garden and it is perfect for a more private hairdo.

I love it as I get a French lesson while having my hair done.

She is getting lots of clients all recommended by satisfied customers.   tel 0563380049

In Lagarde Viaur, there is a Dutch lady, who has many donkeys. She is finding it difficult to cope with them all and would like to rehome 10 of them I believe.

Could you mention it on TAG please?
alanandcarole@yahoo.co.uk
Val says A donkey is not just for Christmas. I think TAG would need more information about the herd to get anyone interested and rightly so. I did so much research before I got my girls and  a prospective carer needs to know genders and social history and costs of keeping two donkeys, you cannot just have one. I get  a lot pleasure from mine but you do need to do some planning and research. So Carol I would suggest you ask your friend for more information. There is a good donkey community here so help and tips are always on hand
Two donkeys need about one acre.
Comments to taglines82@gmail.com

My Norton has expired

No, not an old motorbike gone kaput, but the pre-installed anti-virus on our new laptop. We asked a few in-the-know people for the best alternatives (especially free ones). As we are using Windows 8 the most popular answer was Windows Defender then Avast. I have used Avast before without problem and Bitdefender is also good. But free versions of paid for AV continually ask you to upgrade or add things on or include adverts - so annoying.
So I don’t like paid for anti-virus software because it is usually intrusive and slows things down and a Google search confirmed these choices and also the idea that paying for AV is generally not worth it.
But I came across a useful list of does and don’ts for protecting yourself from viruses etc (called malware).
1.       Install a good anti-virus suite
2.       Up-date software when it calls for it
3.       Do not open links from unknown sources
4.       Take note of warnings that a site may be unsafe * but ensure the warning is from a safe source.
5.       Vary your passwords
6.       On Facebook and Twitter etc beware of “short links” which conceal the true destination
7.       Uninstall old versions of software you have up-dated
8.       Get rid of Windows XP – “it’s a sieve” (we have XP on our desk top and I am worried about migrating to 7, but perhaps it should be done?).

There are other more technical things that most of us would never do and of course the Mac and Linux brigades say use these operating systems. But for now Norton has reluctantly chugged off and Windows Defender is quietly looking after us. Do readers have other experiences or ideas?

Malcolm
Alan says

I have used AVG for many years. There is a free version or you can pay for various levels of protection. I have had Norton on several computers but found it tended to 7nteract badly with other programmes and finished up getting rid of it. AVG updates frequently so hopefully is au fait with the latest threats.

Regards,

comments to taglines82@gmail.com