Tag Archives: chambre de metiers et de l’Artisanat

Wednesday 5th May 2010 – This is just flaming ridiculous!

snow in may 2010 col des goules puy de dome franceIt’s the 5th of May today (did you all have a good Star Wars Day yesterday?) and we have had a heavy snowfall. It’s unbelievable.

We were out and about on our travels today, as I told you yesterday, and on the way down to Clermont Ferrand we noticed in the rain that at times it was looking like snow. In Clermont Ferrand we saw one or two cars that had a covering of snow, which surprised us greatly.


snow in may 2010 col des goules puy de dome franceBut that was nothing like the surprise that we had as we were coming back over the Col des Goules near Orcival we were greeted by the sight in this photo. This is just absurd.

Mind you, in certain respects I whouldn’t have been surprised. When I woke up this morning, the temperature in my attic had dropped to a mere 12 degrees, just like winter in fact and the driving rain that we had through the night was still falling .

Still, never mind. I set of for chez Liz and Terry through the rain and all in all it was very unpleasant but we managed to accomplish all our tasks.

We obtained the tax certificate for Terry’s van and then doorstepped the lady at the Chambre de Metiers who, despite her surprise, received us and gave us all of the information we needed.

After lunch (thanks, Terry) we went to the URSSAF to enquire about why our applications for this auto-entrepreneur registrations for Liz’s and my business plans had never been processed. It turns out that we had missed out a vital step in the process so the woman there (probably the most helpful and friendly French Civil Servant I have ever met) completed mine on the spot (so now I am a properly registered French businessman), gave Liz the advice she needed to complete hers, and told Terry what he needed to do to make his application.

What was funny about the visit to URSSAF was that we couldn’t quite find the building on this Industrial estate so Terry helpfully suggested “it’s a Government organisation so look for the poshest building”. And he was right!

At the Tribunal de Commerce the reception staff were much less helpful – hurling abuse at us as we tried to find out where to go but one of the administrators who we doorstepped in his little office put us on the right track.

But back here, even though it’s cold and miserable and wet (I have the fire on here right now) there is only a scattering of snow. But we have had TWENTY EIGHT mm of rain today and it is still pouring down. You really cannot believe this weather.

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Tuesday 4th May 2010 – I’ve been working inside today …

bedroom fireplace les guis virlet puy de dome france… and I’ve made an exciting discovery. In the bedroom there was a wooden fire surround with a small coal-fired stove and a metal backplate. So as my insulating of the walls is now about to move around the corner I need to remove the stove and the fireplace.

Once I had done that the backplate came away and a whole pile of dirt dust and rubble fell away with it leaving (after I had cleared it up) a big fireplace.

Including a fire basket too, When I think of all of the time I have wasted looking for a fire basket and there we are with one bricked up in a wall.

So why have I been working inside?
The answer is –
water bucket max temp 11; min temp 9.5. Solar energy in the barn 0.0
Yes, a full and heavy cloud that has stopped any sunlight getting through, and has stopped the heat radiating back into the sky at night.
There’s no need to tell you that rainfall was a whopping TWENTY SIX mm today. You’ve probably worked that out already.

And so there you are.

Tomorrow Liz Terry and I are going to the Chambre des Metiers. I rang them up first thing and the woman explained that she would have someone call me back that morning. Of course they haven’t so it’s doorstepping time

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Monday 3rd May 2010 – Winter has returned.

Yes, blasted weather! Outside 2 hours ago it was just 4.2 degrees and threatening to go even colder. The sky is full of damp and there’s a mist rising from the ground, getting ready (I shouldn’t wonder) to combine with the cloud that is rolling up the hill. I hate this weather!

This morning I had to ring up the British Embassy in Paris and also the Chambre de Metiers in Chamalieres but of course, with them being civil servants they are closed today. So if they are having a bank holiday then so am I, and I stayed in.

I wasn’t idle though. I’d been letting the footy website slip a little just recently so today I edited and uploaded all of the photos, wrote all of the outstanding commentaries that I could find and then uploaded them too. So all you need to do is to follow the links from this page and you will see the history of FC Pionsat St Hilaire this season in technicolour glory.

There are still some reports missing but I reckon that they are on the digital dictaphone, wherever that may be. Whenever I find it, I’ll do them as well.

At the Anglo-French group tonight in Pionsat something happened that has p155ed me off completely and I’m going to have to do something about it before it escalates out of control. After all the work that we put into running it I’m not going to stand by and watch someone wreck it out of sheer bloody-mindedness and behaviour that would be unacceptable in a three-year-old.

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Wednesday 28th April 2010 – Today was busy.

This morning first thing I had to go round to Michael’s. He’d just come back from the UK and bought me 10 kilos of oats. And as he was off again this afternoon I needed to rescue them (and pay him) before he went.

Back home I had time to plant some of the seeds that Clare had given me before leaping aboard Caliburn, my trusty steed, and heading off to St Gervais d’Auvergne to meet Liz and go on to Gerzat to record our radio programme. And of course to meet this photographer guy who wanted not just to photograph us but to interview us too. It seems that in the Combrailles we are becoming major news and our publicity is reaching its height. Yes, we are going to be the feature article in … errrr …. a free advert-type newspaper in the Combrailles with a circulation of about 350.

Not quite Le Monde or Paris Match I know, but we remain confident that one day we will be there. I’m eagerly awaiting the day that we will be asked to open our first brocante or be the guests of honour at a concours de belote.

Back at St Gervais d’Auvergne Liz and I went for a coffee or two and discussed our plans for next week. We are going to hit the Chambre de Metiers et de l’Artisanat in Chamailles and get all our business affairs in order. Neither of us has received our formal inscription of our business registrations despite having had an acknowledgement almost a year ago. High time we did something about it.

Back here I planted all of my early potatoes. And I think I’m going to run out of room for the lates and so I’ll have to invent something about that. And I should have gone to football training this evening but today was the hottest day of the year and it’s still 25 degrees up here even with all of the windows open. That’s not a temperature for someone of my age and my level of fitness to be running around. But the weather is supposed to break tomorrow or Friday morning, with rain (the first since April 9th) and a major drop in temperature. If that holds, then training at the Friday night session is a distinct possibility.

Now where have I put my footy boots????

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