The Bugle Limousin - June 2021

France celebrates Eurovision success Fans of the contest were still celebrating as Barbara Pravi came agonisingly close to the >> Page 10 country's first win since 1977.

Quarantine for British visitors

Fears over the Indian variant have led to a ban on non-essential journeys from the UK >> Page 5

November 2016 - Issue #85

Limousin

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June 2021 - Issue 140 - FREE!

No Brexit forms for visiting Brits

>> continued on page 8

Eurostar investment secures future - pg 5

Major victory for breast implant victims - pg 6

© Conseil départemental du Calvados

T

these requirements. The attestations cost €30 each, can take up to a month to process and also require supporting documents from the host such as proof of address, income and right of residence. Once stamped, the form must then be forwarded to the guest before they travel so they can show it at the border, where officials are entitled to ask for it.

Only one form is required for a family, but groups of friends would need one each.

Spanish expats are even more upset: the equivalent forms in Spain cost €74 each. Further requirements are proof that you can fund your

Bordeaux space wine to auction for €1m - pg 4

Parts of Haute-Vienne road network back to 90 km/h - pg 3

Expats had been facing significant costs and complex forms when hosting friends and family from the UK, but it has now been confirmed a letter of invitation will suffice.

here has been anger and confusion in recent weeks as it emerged that expats living in France would need to pay €30 for an official certificate every time friends or family visit from the UK. According to the government’s website, anyone in France hosting non-EU nationals who do not need a visa, must complete an attestation d’accueil (accommodation certificate) and submit it for approval at their local mairie.

The forms are not new and have existed for many years, but Britain leaving the EU has theoretically placed visiting Brits under

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2 ♦ IN THIS EDITION

Welcome to

The Bugle

S

o near and yet so far.

After mentioning last month the possibility of the in-laws visiting for the first time in a year and a half and so ensuring that this editorial writes itself for at least one month!

- two contradictory headlines have made this both slightly easier and simultaneously impossible. On darker days, it really does feel like this is the pandemic that keeps on taking.

There was a lot of chatter online and in the press about the need for expats to apply for a special attestation at their local mairie every time they had friends or family to stay (see our lead story).

Not only would this have required numerous pieces of documentation and proof of income, it would also cost €30 a pop. Fortunately, it has now been confirmed that an official form is not required and that a simple letter of invitation should be enough for British visitors. Still a minor inconvenience, but one that I personally can live with.

And then, with flights starting up again and the in-laws both fully Microsoft-enabled by the NHS, summer plans slowly began to crystallise. Then came the news

that along with a number of EU countries, France was stopping all non-essential travel from the UK due to the rise of the Indian variant across the Channel (see page 5).

Tourism and visiting a second home both fall under the “nonessential” banner.

Without going into the politics of it all, it really does feel like the UK has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on this one by letting the Indian variant in. I just pray that it does not lead to a new wave of hospitalisations and deaths. The irony now is that the UK, despite having had such a huge head start on vaccinations, may well face greater travel restrictions this summer than the majority of the EU which will be free to holiday across the continent. This is of little compensation to those of us who had been so looking forward to seeing friends or loved ones... or even in-laws... from the UK over the summer.

There is still plenty of reason to be hopeful. As I write this, France has just vaccinated over 725,000 people in a single day and almost 40% of the country has now had at least one jab. By the time the summer holidays begin in a month's time and the final restrictions are

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lifted, a significant proportion of the population will have had their first injection and all the signs suggest the country is well on track to acquire herd immunity by the autumn (see page 8).

It is frustrating not to be able to make plans to see friends and family from the UK, but it does seem the sensible path to take in the short term to ensure we don't relive the mistakes of the past. If the UK can get on top of the Indian variant in the coming weeks, I'm sure that authorities will be desperate to welcome British tourists back into the country over the summer, given their importance to the economy.

The light at the end of the tunnel may not be burning all that brightly, but it is there.

Elsewhere this month, I may have inadvertently made a Eurovision shaped rod for my own back. I've never been the biggest fan of the song contest, but I do always remember it being on every year when I was growing up. I've realised that I remember quite a few of our entries from back in the day and Terry Wogan's arch commentary always made the viewing experience a fun one. As an aside, Graham Norton appears to have picked up that particular baton and run with it!

When the children came along, the 43 minutes of free time I would typically get every week was rarely invested in Eurovision and I can't remember the last time I watched it. This year, for some reason, the kids were still awake and asked if they could stay up a bit. I naively said 'yes', forgetting just how bad some of the songs always are and that the whole camp spectacle lasts

for hours and hours... and then another hour.

But we did have an awful lot of fun and I'd completely forgotten that the voting is the best bit by a mile. In the interval between singing and voting, we decided to print off all the countries, put them in a hat and share them out, with a bar of chocolate the prize.

We did this relatively quickly, without realising that there is a one hour gap at this point. By the time the first set of judges performed their 10 seconds of pre-scripted “banter” with the hosts, it was already nudging midnight and I was nervously waiting for the bad parent alarm to sound.

But there was no school the next day, so what the heck, we'd already invested three hours in this, what was one more! As the results ebbed and flowed, the excitement and despair followed suit. At each mention of Malta, my daughter would leap off the sofa and punch

the air, cheering for a country that she had not known existed earlier that day.

It was a few hours of escapism that the kids loved and I must admit that their excitement was infectious and carried me along for the ride.

The only slight downside is that we may have created a family “ritual” for future years.

I also realised that they are more than happy to pick and choose their nationality when it suits them, abandoning the British “nul points” train early doors and proclaiming themselves citizens of the Republic as France battled for the win.

Until next month...

Steve Martindale, Editor www.thebugle.eu facebook.com/The BugleFrance

CONTACT us Tel: 06 04 17 80 93 General: editor@thebugle.eu Advertising (EN): sales@thebugle.eu Publicité (FR): publicite@thebugle.eu Subscriptions: subscriptions@thebugle.eu

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FRENCH NEWS ♦ 3

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Haute-Vienne to raise Shop reopening success speed limit to 90 km/h

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n January this year, the Haute-Vienne became the latest department to make the move towards a return to 90 km/h when the conseil départemental recommended increasing the speed limit on large sections of the road network. The department is the last of the former Limousin region to make the switch, although unlike Creuse and Corrèze, the speed limit will only be raised on certain stretches, not the entire network.

Authorities in the Creuse were among the most vociferously opposed to the initial reduction and therefore it was no surprise that the green and blue department was also one of the first to reinstate its 90 km/h speed signs. Corrèze joined its neighbour a while later and the two departments are among just four to have completely rolled back the speed limit reduction; 38 departments in total have currently raised the speed limit on part of their networks.

The conseil départemental de la Haute-Vienne pre-

viously recommended returning to 90 km/h on 10% of its roads and this decision has now been ratified by the departmental road safety commission.

The affected roads were chosen based on a number of criteria, most important of which was the historic incidence of road accidents. Unsurprisingly, the proposed changes will affect larger, wider, straighter sections of road, although notably absent are the stretches of the RN145 between Bellac and the A20 as

well as the RN147 between Limoges and Bellac - both among the busiest routes in the department - which will remain at 80 km/h.

The department will now spend €200,000 making the changes, which the council believes is a worthwhile investment. “The move to 80 km/h was seen as a backward step by many,” said councillor Francis Buge.

“Even if the reduction in journey times is only a few minutes, we believe that it is still important for certain areas.” ■

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here was much excitement and anticipation as businesses across the region geared up to welcome back the public on Wednesday 19th May. While the reopening went smoothly and there was clearly a huge demand from the public, bad weather somewhat dampened the celebrations. One of the areas of the Limousin hardest hit by the closure of “non-essential” businesses, was Limoges city centre where the vast majority of shops have been closed, but the initial feedback is on the whole positive.

“Wednesday and Thursday we saw loads of people and plenty of traffic,” said Sabine Cantat, who owns two stores on the popular rue Ferrerie. “But in the centre of town we all rely heavily on the weather and Friday was much quieter because of the rain. It did feel like people were desperate to get back out and return to normal life.”

“Compared to the first deconfinement of 2020 [on 11th May] we are doing far better

this time around, both in terms of sales and customer numbers,” said Jérôme Lacroix, who runs a shop on the busy rue du Clocher.

“People seem generally happier this time, less nervous, but still respecting all our protective measures. We also think that people have spent less money online this time around and have been waiting for the shops to re-open... this gives us confidence.”

A further boost to the city's traders was the news that all shops across the department will be allowed to open on Sundays until the end of June. In other good news, shops also have the summer sale period to look forward to, one of the best periods of the year for retailers. This was due to start on 23rd June, but there have been growing calls from the industry to push the sales back by a month, as was done last summer.

Retailers argue that their stock levels are currently high after months of closures and they need time to make space in their store rooms before the sales start. ■

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Bordeaux space wine to auction for €1 million

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bottle of Bordeaux red wine which spent 14 months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is due to be auctioned and is expected to sell for as much as €1 million.

Auction house Christie's confirmed that it would be putting the Château Pétrus 2000 under the hammer, with the proceeds of the sale going towards funding further space experiments.

“We've had quite a lot of inquiries,” said Tim Triptree, a wine expert at the famous auctioneer, who added that the bottle will appeal to both wine connoisseurs and those with a keen interest in space. “This is just a unique piece of space history. It's a one of a kind opportunity.”

Not only will the lucky winner become the proud owner of extra-terrestrial wine, but they will also be able to house the bottle in a custom-made trunk complete with a decanter, glasses and a corkscrew made from a meteorite. Designed by Les Ateliers Victor, the trunk is the result of more than 900 hours of work and designed to include “a secret vault hidden behind a solar system inspired by Jules Verne”, according to the company’s CEO, Benoît Miniou.

A run-of-the-mill earth-based Pétrus 2000 would usually set you back around €6,000, but the rarity of the space wine accounts for its eye-watering price tag. The bottle was one of just 12 that spent 440 days aboard

the ISS before returning safely in January this year and is the only one that will be sold to a private collector. Three of the bottles were opened for private tasting by experts earlier this year and the remaining 8 will be part of studies in Bordeaux to investigate the effects of zero-gravity on agricultural products.

At the blind tastings held in March, experts were invited to sample the space wine alongside another glass of the same variety that had stayed on terra firma, but were only told which was which after the event. The consensus among the experts was that there was a noticeable difference in the character of the wine after orbiting the Earth in zero gravity for more than a year.

“I found there was a difference in both colour and aromatics and also in taste,” concluded one member of the group, wine writer Jane Anson, who believed that the adventure had added a few years to the wine's maturity. “It just felt a little bit older, a bit more evolved than the wine that had remained on Earth. It's hard for me to say if it was better or worse, but it was definitely different. The aromatics were more floral and more smoky - the things that would happen anyway to Pétrus as it gets older.”

SpaceX launched the bottles of wine into space in November 2019 as part of an experiment run by the start-up Space Cargo Unlimited. The bottles were later joined by

320 Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon vine canes and spent 14 months orbiting the Earth. “Our goal is to tackle the solution of how we're going to have an agriculture tomorrow that is both organic and healthy and able to feed humanity, and we think space has the key,” said Nicolas Gaume, CEO and co-founder of Space Cargo Unlimited.

Château Pétrus is the most famous winery in the Pomerol Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), an area outside Bordeaux known for its production of Merlot-based fine wines. The Château Pétrus estate only produces around 30,000 bottles of wine a year, and is consistently ranked among the most expensive in the world. ■

FRENCH NEWS ♦ 5

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rance has become the latest country to place restrictions on UK travellers due to growing fears over the Indian variant of Covid-19. Clément Beaune, the French Europe minister, announced that from Monday 31st May, travellers arriving from the UK who are not either French nationals or residents will have to demonstrate an essential reason for their journey. Leisure travel and visiting a second home are not currently considered essential.

The government’s official spokesman, Gabriel Attal, had earlier said that there was “a new situation with the progression of the so-called Indian variant in the UK”, adding that Germany had already imposed strict controls on visitors from Britain and that France was taking “similar measures”.

From June, anyone arriving from the UK with a valid reason must provide a negative PCR test taken no more than 48 hours prior to travel and then self-isolate for 7 days on arrival at a pre-declared address. While there is no obligation to go into a hotel, self-isolation will be closely supervised by police and anyone who is not at their registered quarantine location will face a fine starting at €1,000.

There has been anger in the tourist in-

dustry at the move, but the decision to exercise caution has been welcomed by most experts, especially given the impact the UK variant had on the situation on this side of the Channel earlier this year.

The numbers were very low in France, but when the significantly more transmissible UK variant took hold in France, numbers shot up and quickly led to the most recent lockdown.

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned today, it’s that the lessons of the past have not been applied to the present,” a spokesperson for Brittany Ferries said. “The unwelcome move by France to tighten travel restrictions is a direct consequence of the failure of the UK to put India on the red list immediately following the emergence of the terrible and urgent health crisis unfolding in India.”

“There are also indications that this variant spreads a bit more easily than the previous ones. It’s unclear exactly how much, but it looks like it’s a bit more transmissible. So, altogether it seems a bit worse so I can understand why the French authorities want to limit importation of it in order to progress with the vaccination programme,” said Dr Marc Baguelin, an infectious diseases specialist at Impe-

credit: Benoit Tessier

France places restrictions on UK visitors

rial College London. “Things may change once we know more about the variant and once France increases its vaccination coverage sufficiently to take that into account. If cases remain very low in the UK then they would probably revise their position as well. There is an economic element to consider as well – there’s a fine balance between not wanting a resurgence

Eurostar secures future with significant investment

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urostar, the operator which runs passenger trains through the Channel Tunnel, appears to have avoided financial ruin after securing a €290 million investment. The company, which had been on the verge of bankruptcy, said the funds provided by shareholders and banks would “secure Eurostar’s future”.

Eurostar has continued to run a skeleton service between France, London and Belgium during the pandemic, but with severe restrictions on international travel, revenues have plummeted. The train company typically transports 11 million passengers a year, but this dropped by 95% post-pandemic resulting in an annual decrease in revenue from €1.1 billion to just €220 million in 2020.

The London-based company has struggled to access government financial aid due to its ownership structure, with both the British and French governments reluctant to assume sole responsibility for bailing it out. The operator was launched as a joint venture between the French and British governments, but whilst the French state operator SNCF today owns 55% of the company, the British part was sold off to private investors, the largest of which is a Canadian institutional fund manager which has a 30% stake. This has made state-backed aid almost impossible to secure in the UK – the company is British registered, but

“foreign-owned”. At the same time the French government was reluctant to give help to a UK company when Brexit meant that guarantees available under the European Union were no longer valid.

According to the company, the recent injection of capital will help it meet its financial commitments in the “short and medium-term” and there are plans to start running more trains between Paris and London over the summer. The company also said that it will use part of the refinancing package to restart the proposed merger with the Thalys rail network, called Green Speed 3. This would allow single ticket bookings between Eurostar and Thalys trains, which run much further afield between France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. ■

of a bad variant and at the same time it’s not in [France's] interest to block travellers coming indefinitely. It’s really a race between vaccinating and opening up the economy.”

There has so far been no indication of when the restrictions on UK travellers may be lifted, or what conditions would need to be met. ■

Trump supporters want waxwork head

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campaign is under way by supporters of Donald Trump to buy his waxwork head from a Parisian museum. When the Grévin Wax Museum re-opened to the public in May, visitors were greeted by a grinning President Biden and further down the hall could be found a serenely smiling Barrack Obama, with Trump conspicuous by his absence.

As is customary for former American presidents, the wax statue had been removed from display in January when Trump's term in office came to an end and was placed in storage. Since opening in 1882, the museum has featured every US president since James Garfield, but when their term ends, their statue is usually taken down, with the heads and bodies kept in separate crates in the building's cellars. “We have kept Obama, as a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize; the others are in storage,” a spokesperson for the museum said.

The curator of the Musée Grévin, Yves Delhommeau, came to the attention of Trump supporters after a series of tongue-in-cheek comments about the waxwork. After initially joking that the statue had “taken a lot of hair” to create, a subsequent suggestion that the museum may re-use the statue as part of a Hallowe'en display drew anger from pro-Trump followers on Twitter. This led to numerous unsolicited emails and telephone calls from people wanting to buy the statue. “Some even managed to find the telephone number of my home, including one Englishman who was very determined!” the curator said. “The museum does not sell its statues. We do not play politics.”

Among the museum's 250 or so celebrities and historical figures, political leaders are relatively rare. French President Emmanuel Macron is present, as are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping, but British Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not feature. Former French President François Hollande is no longer on display, but his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy is, but only because he appears alongside his model and singer wife Carla Bruni. ■

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PIP implant victims win major legal battle

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housands of victims of the PIP breast implant scandal were celebrating in May following a significant win in their long-running battle for compensation. The case in Paris was brought by 2,700 women who said they had suffered long-term health effects after receiving implants manufactured by a French firm which were filled with cheap, industrial-grade silicone.

While the implants hadn’t been cleared for human use, they had been certified as safe by Germany company, TÜV Rheinland, which was first brought to court a decade ago over its role in the scandal.

The appeal court upheld a previous ruling against the company, which had maintained its innocence, arguing that it was responsible only for monitoring the manufacturing process and not the content or quality of the implants. TÜV Rheinland now faces significant compensation costs against the victims.

The company at the heart of the scandal, Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP), filed for bankruptcy in 2010 when news of the faulty implants first hit the headlines.

PIP's founder Jean-Claude Mas was later given a four-year prison sentence for his role in the fraud. He died in 2019. At the height of its powers, PIP was the world's third largest supplier of silicone breast implants, but cut costs for over a decade by using an illegal concoction of indus-

trial and agricultural silicone not fit for use in humans. At around €5 per litre, it was seven times cheaper than medicalgrade silicone - a cost-cutting measure that saved the company millions of euros per year.

The scandal came to light after surgeons warned authorities there was an abnormally high rupture rate among PIP implants. Gendarmes searching the business in southern France then found cans of industrial silicone in a van. Soon afterwards, the company was closed and its products taken off the market. A subsequent investigation would reveal that the implants had a rupture rate as high as 30%, far higher than the industry average.

The most recent legal victory involved more than 500 British victims, but paves the way for compensation for many more.

As many as 400,000 women in some 65 countries have been affected, including almost 50,000 in the UK. “It’s been a very long journey,” said Jan Spivey, who was given PIP implants after she had a mastectomy following a breast cancer diagnosis. After developing aching joints, pain and fatigue the implants were removed at which point it became clear they had been leaking silicone into her body. “We’ve been in and out of court, and that’s been really difficult for women.

We’ve got health issues and we’ve got

lots of other responsibilities too. PIP has had an impact on the whole of our lives.”

“We are delighted with this outcome which definitively puts an end to the doubts about TÜV’s responsibility,” said Olivier Aumaître, the lawyer who represented the women. “After 10 years of waiting and fierce combat, the German certifier will have to fully compensate the victims.”

Silicone has been found to have even leached into the bodies of women whose

implants had remained intact, with victims reporting cases of auto-immune disease, cancer scares and prolonged anxiety. The PIP Implant World Victims Association (PIPA) has reported that rates of autism among children who were breastfed by mothers with PIP implants were far higher than normal rates. A first ruling on compensation is expected in September, but PIPA has said damages ranging between 20,000 and 70,000 euros were being sought for each victim. ■

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Belgian farmer moves border Black boxes for all EU cars

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credit: David Lavaux (Facebook)

ears of a border dispute between France and Belgium were short lived recently after authorities on both sides of the frontier saw the funny side of a potential diplomatic incident. The border between the two countries was fixed 200 years ago following Napoleon's defeat at the battle of Waterloo, and the 620-kilometre boundary is marked by a series of engraved stones. One of these huge stones was moved recently by a Belgian farmer, increasing the size of his country by several metres and shrinking that of France.

The farmer had apparently grown frustrated at the stone getting in the way of his tractor and had moved it out of the way, along with his own boundary fence. He might have got away with the annexation it if it wasn't for a local amateur historian.

Taking a walk in the forest near the Belgian village of Erquelinnes, the enthusiast noticed that the stone dating back to 1819 had been moved 2.29 metres.

The Belgian farmer could theoretically face criminal charges after making Belgium bigger, but local officials were quick to downplay the land-grab. While amused by the enlargement of his town, David Lavaux, the mayor of Erquelinnes, gently encouraged the farmer to move the border stone back, adding that it would be best

“not to create a diplomatic incident”. “We have no interest in expanding the town, or the country. He made Belgium bigger and France smaller. It’s not a good idea,” Lavaux told the French TV channel TF1. “I was happy, my town was bigger. But the mayor of Bousignies-sur-Roc didn’t agree.

If the farmer shows goodwill, he won’t have a problem, we will settle this issue amicably!”

Although unlikely, should the

farmer decide that he does not want to replace the border stone, the case could end up at the Belgian foreign ministry, which would have to summon a Franco-Belgian border commission. The commission has not convened since 1930, and would need to uphold the conditions of the Treaty of Kortrijk, signed in 1820 after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo five years earlier and which defined a border that has remain unchanged ever since. ■

he European Parliament has voted to make black boxes compulsory in all new vehicles from May 2022 and in all second-hand cars from May 2024. The recorders, which are in reality a small chip inside a crash-proof box, can not be deactivated; they will be installed in an area inaccessible to the car owner and will record a number of measurements for the 30 seconds before and after any crash.

The data recorded includes the speed of the vehicle, the angle of the steering wheel, whether the car was accelerating or braking, if seatbelts were being worn and the GPS coordinates of where the accident occurred. Unlike the black box recorders in airplanes, no audio will be recorded at any point.

Privacy campaigners were quick to denounce the new law, but the European Parliament has specified that only police have the right to access information from the black boxes and that no information can be passed on to third parties, such as insurance providers. Furthermore, the boxes will not have identification numbers that allow them to be linked to a specific vehicle or driver.

The new legislation will save “thousands of lives” according to the Polish MEP Roza Thun who backed the changes: “It's great news and goes further than we had hoped.”

Typically, when both parties contest the facts of an accident, several experts costing many thousands of euros each will have to submit detailed reports, an expensive process that can take years and still not come to a definitive solution. “Following an accident, the new chip will be able to give us evidence and not theories,” argued Philippe Courtois, a lawyer from the National Road Victims Federation. “We will know, in the absence of witnesses, if a driver was going too fast or did not break in time.

This will stop victims being falsely accused and may also lead to drivers lifting their foot a little bit.”

Integrating the black boxes into new vehicles should be relatively cheap and simple, but there are fears that the cost of retrofitting them when selling second-hand vehicles from 2024 will add significantly to the sale price. ■

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Herd immunity by France confirms no forms for visiting Brits the end of summer >> continued from pg 1 trip, a valid return ticket and an insurance certificate covering all medical and hospital expenses you may incur. “Sufficient funds” are defined by the government as €120 per person per day without a hotel booking, €65 with a valid hotel booking covering the whole of the trip, or €32.50 with an attestation d’accueil. How travellers prove these funds is not clear, but it is believed that a valid debit or credit card may well be sufficient in the majority of cases.

Second home owners visiting their property do not need the attestation, but may be asked for proof of ownership, such as a tax form or utility bill.

Many commentators were quick to suggest that while the forms were technically required, border officials were unlikely to ask for the documentation from travelling Brits, given their importance to the tourist industry. While this may or may not be the case – not enough people have travelled yet to build a reliable picture - the law is clear: non-EU nationals without a valid attestation travelling to visit friends or family in France could legitimately be turned away at the border if they do not have the correct documentation.

Following numerous requests for clarification, a senior spokeswoman at the Interior Ministry finally confirmed in late May that a simple “host's invitation” could replace the attestation d’accueil in most cases. The bureaucratic technicalities revolve around Annex 1 of the Schengen Borders Code (SBC), which says a host’s written invitation is sufficient for border checks on non-EU visitors entering the Schengen area to stay with members of the

public.

“The response I’ve had is that a host’s invitation can effectively constitute a document for private travel in the sense of the SBC’s Annex 1,” the spokeswoman confirmed. “Even so, in this case people will have to show proof of having at least €120 per day of their stay. This is why it can be of interest for people with limited means to still ask their host to obtain an attestation d’accueil at the mairie.”

In any event, if you are hosting friends or family, it would be prudent and sensible to at the very least provide them with a short letter of invitation stating your name, address and contact details before they travel.

In better news for visitors this summer, the government has announced that it will be providing free PCR tests to everyone, whatever their reason for visiting France.

PCR tests are often required before returning home and France is one of the only countries in the world to offer them for free: they cost up to €120 in Spain, £100 in the UK and €300 in Sweden.

“We need and we want to continue to be the first tourist destination in Europe and the world, in safe conditions,” announced Europe Minister Clément Beaune, although he did not specify how the free testing would work for non-residents. France already offers some of the cheapest PCR tests in Europe: many testing centres offer tests for free while others, particularly pharmacies, charge customers a fee, which residents of France can fully reclaim via their carte vitale. Testing prices are capped at €54 for PCR tests, €38 for the rapid result antigen tests and €6 for home-testing kits. ■

A

s the recent spike in Covid cases recedes and the country gears up for summer, there is increasing optimism that the beginning of the end of the pandemic is well and truly in sight. Coronavirus will almost certainly never fully disappear and it is likely that the elderly and vulnerable may need annual jabs, but according to leading scientists, France is on track to achieve herd immunity in the next few months.

Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, a leading virologist and president of the comité scientifique sur les vaccins anti-Covid-19, recently said that the country ought to achieve herd immunity “by the end of the summer”. As France set another daily vaccination record of 672,000 in late-May and with vaccinations now opened up to all over 18s, the scientist asserted: “If we continue at this pace, we really are on the right track.”

There is no fixed definition of herd immunity, but the term is used to define when a population is effectively protected from a virus or disease through natural immunity, vaccination, or immunity from prior infection. The medical consensus is that when 80-90% of people have one of these forms of immunity, the virus can not spread through the population, effectively giving everyone immunity.

Key in the next step of the battle is to vaccinate the younger generations. While they may not suffer severe side-effects, young people do catch, carry and transmit the disease, keeping it alive in the wider population. “We need young people to want to be vaccinated because we need 80% of the population to be vaccinated to achieve this herd immunity, which would almost completely prevent the virus from circulating,” Dr Marie-Paule Kieny explained. “For that to happen, it is not just the elderly who need to be vaccinated, it has to be young people. So, if young people understand that to be able to go out, to be able to go back to a more normal life, they have to get vaccinated, I think that's very good.”

There was further good news when the Institut Pasteur research centre revealed that new modelling data suggested that the UK variant – currently the most dominant variant in France – will not result in another spike in infections. The scientists have concluded that, if the vaccination campaign continues at its current pace, there will be an “acceleration of the decline in the epidemic” and that there will likely not be “a significant uptick of the epidemic due to the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant”.

While the mood is increasingly positive as the country heads towards the lifting of all restrictions at the end of June, other factors could still throw the country off track. Potential problems include a reluctance or refusal by the public to be vaccinated, or the emergence of new variants such as the Brazilian or Indian ones – neither is currently established in significant numbers in France, or presents a major threat. ■

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France celebrates rare Cryptic tweet reveals Eurovision success new Lupin episodes

congratulations: “A huge bravo and thank you to Ms Pravi for achieving this crazy dream. This mad dream to make France shine at Eurovision. Tonight, it is also a mad dream to be able to celebrate together again, as Europeans.”

“Barbara was an excellent choice. We were all behind her,” enthused the secretary of the Barbara Pravi fan club. “I was in the arena, there was nothing else to say.

It was magnificent. It was our culture. That was the image of France that we wanted to show when abroad, and we are totally satisfied.”

“To come in first is not something you expect, so obviously, when I was so close, I started to tremble and think: ‘Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s me.’ But to come

in second, I am thrilled,” the singer said after the event.

“In this competition, from the start, I have done what I wanted. I decided on the scenography, the staging... so I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled.”

The contest was being held against a backdrop of Brexit, and while everyone was at pains to distance the competition from politics, it was notable that there were fewer songs in English than has typically been the case – the top three songs from Italy, France and Switzerland were all sung in their respective national languages.

And spare a thought James Newman: the British singer was the only one of the 26 participating countries to receive the dreaded “nul points”! ■

credit: Emmanuel Guimier/NETFLIX

Screenshot (France2)

T

he Eurovision Song Contest has often been a painful experience for the larger European nations in recent decades as “smaller” countries vote politically for their neighbours and the public gets behind novelty acts. Germany did win the competition in 2010, although only for the second time in its history, and the UK has not made the top three since 2002. France has fared even worse, however, with their last win coming all the way back in 1977.

Those “43 years of hurt” almost came to an end this year when Barbara Pravi came agonisingly close, finishing as runner up despite being awarded the highest ever song contest score for a French song. Her Edit Piafinspired ballad, Voilà, earned 499 points in total – 248 from juries and 251 from the public. There was hope for French fans at the halfway stage after the jury voting, with their song in a strong second place, just behind the surprisingly popular Swiss entry. Despite overtaking Switzerland and holding off third-placed Malta in the public vote, the Italian entry jumped all three to take the trophy.

French Eurovision fans were quick to celebrate the achievement, with Emmanuel Macron leading the

I

t is one of the biggest hits of the year so far and now fans of the Netflix series Lupin can finally look forward to the next instalment of the mystery thriller. The show amassed more than 70 million views in its first three weeks when it was released in January, beating records set by other smash hits such as The Queen’s Gambit and Bridgerton.

When the first five episodes dropped, Netflix promised that the remainder of the first season would be made available “in the summer”, leaving fans waiting to see what lay in store for the titular hero as he appeared to face certain arrest. In keeping with the feel of the show, the streaming service announced new episodes online with a typically enigmatic tweet. “If you are wondering 'when', it is because you have seen but not looked”, the tweet read, alongside an image of the lead character on a roof top. Internet sleuths were quick to notice that the tweet was sent at 11:06... the new episodes will be released on 11th June.

The character Lupin, a suave “gentleman thief” who regularly outfoxes the detectives chasing him, was created by writer Maurice Leblanc in 1905 and appears in 17 mystery novels and multiple short stories by the author. The current adaptation has been set in the modern day, but the other significant change made by producers is to cast Omar Sy in the lead role. Not only has a black actor been cast in what has traditionally been seen as a white role, the lead character regularly uses racist bias to his advantage, successfully disguising himself as a janitor, a food delivery driver, and a prison inmate to steal what he needs to settle a debt.

In the contemporary setting, Omar Sy plays Assane Diop, the son of a Senegalese immigrant who was wrongly framed for the theft of a priceless diamond necklace and took his own life in prison. As an adult Assane uses his sharp wits and sleight-of-hand skills to seek revenge, inspired by his childhood hero, Lupin.

The first five episodes are currently available to watch on Netflix in French, with English subtitles, or with an English dub. The show has been so successful internationally that there are already rumours of a second series being planned. ■

TEDDY

WHAT'S ON CLUBS, CHARITIES & ASSOCIATIONS As a result of the current restrictions, many of the meetings and events featured in our What's On and Clubs, Charities & Associations sections have had to be cancelled or postponed.

The situation is changing very quickly, so we have removed many of these listings from the newspaper for the time being.

We will, however, continue to update our website with any new information, so please do check back regularly to keep up to date

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Longterm expats to finally get Votes For Life

I

t has been a pledge in the last three Conservative Party manifestos, but the thorny issue of Votes for Life could soon be finally settled after the British government included the policy change in its recent Queen's Speech. When the current rules are changed, some three million British expats living abroad for more than 15 years will finally have the right to vote in UK elections... and referendums!

The victory is particularly sweet for 99-year-old World War II veteran Harry Shindler, who has fought for expat voting rights for 20 years, taking his case before the High Court in 2016 and the European Court of Justice in 2018. The tireless campaigner revealed he had received a “nice, friendly letter” from Boris Johnson in January telling him he planned to make good on the promise made in three Conservative Party election manifestos. “He said many expats worked very hard for their country

and have retired abroad and decided to finish off their days somewhere else, but that they had made a contribution to their country. He said to me: ‘You, among others, fought for your country and to take away your voting rights is a bit much.’ He was really frank and did say the law would be changed and we could all vote in the next election. My 100th birthday is in July and I’d hope it will be over by then, but we’ve been patient for 20 years and can be patient for another couple of months if necessary.”

Although the change has been included in previous manifestos, the way the parliamentary cycle operates in the UK means that any legislation that has not passed when parliament is prorogued and a new session begins, is dropped and must be put forward again. With the Votes for Life pledge now in the Queen's Speech, and with Chancellor Rishi Sunak setting aside money for the change, it looks very likely

that this time voting rights will indeed be restored for millions of expats. “The government is providing an additional £2.5 million to remove the limit preventing British citizens who live overseas from voting after 15 years,” the chancellor confirmed earlier this year while announcing the budget.

The move has been cautiously welcomed by campaign groups, although some are unhappy that the change is being bundled in with a separate one which will require voter ID at polling stations. Opponents argue that this move is designed to make it harder for already marginalised people to vote and could disenfranchise younger and poorer voters who do not have passports or driving licences. “We fully support modernising the UK voting system, which is a hot mess of contradiction and inconsistency,” said campaign group British in Europe following the news. “In principle,

measures that expand the franchise to include UK citizens or residents of voting age are long overdue and welcome. Restoring our votes for life would be the first step towards recognising the pivotal role that we can play. Furthermore, what happens in the UK affects us. 80% of the 1.2 million British nationals in continental Europe are working age or younger. Many of us pay or have paid taxes and national insurance in the UK, meaning tax and pension changes affect us equally.”

“However, as supporters of expanding the franchise we have huge concerns about the purported content of the Electoral Integrity Bill,” the group continued. “This contains measures that appear to be designed to make it harder for certain groups of the UK population to vote. Getting our vote back matters hugely: but not at the price of other people’s ability to vote at all.” ■

Bear cub triplets Rare eagle-owl released in Creuse born in Pyrenees

Martin Mecnarowski (WikiCommons)

A

nimal rights campaigners were celebrating recently following the news that a bear introduced into the Pyrenees in 2018 has had three cubs. Sorita, a brown bear who was brought to France from Slovenia, was captured by an automatic camera with her three young children, which experts believe will have been born in January or February of this year.

The identity of the bears' father is unknown, but three mature males are known to currently be living in the northwestern Pyrenees: Rodrigue, Néré and Cannellito.

Scientists will now attempt to recover samples of excrement or fur to establish the genetic line of the new cubs.

It is not Sorita's first experience of motherhood; she did give birth to two cubs shortly after her arrival in the Pyrenees, but these were killed by Néré, probably out of jealousy because he was not the father.

Although bear numbers have been steadily increasing in the Pyrenees in recent years – there are currently believed to be 64 on both sides of the border – these are the first bears to be born in the northwest of the mountain range on the French side since 2004. It is also the first time three cubs have been born together in the area since the 1970s.

Although once common in the mountains, by 1995 there were as few as a dozen brown bears remaining in the Pyrenees before concerted efforts began to re-establish the animal in its once native territory. The government initiative has often put it at odds with the local farming community who complain that the animals kill “hundreds” of their sheep each year. It is illegal to shoot bears in France, but there have been three deaths in the last year, at least two of which were found to be from gunshot wounds. ■

L

cal lovers of wildlife in the Creuse have been celebrating the heart-warming story of the rare eagle-owl nursed back to health thanks to a member of the public, a generous local vet and an HauteVienne based charity. The story began on 2nd April when a resident of Cressat found the owl trapped in barbed wire while out walking – the bird would almost certainly have died without the anonymous person's intervention.

With wounds to its wings, the bird was first taken to a veterinary surgery in Guéret, which treated the injured male for free before handing it over to the centre SOS faune sauvage in Verneuil-sur-Vienne just outside Limoges.

Once virtually extinct in the area, eagle-owls are the larg-

est nocturnal birds in Europe, with a wingspan of up to 1.6 metres. “It's a very rare species,” said Jérôme Yvernault, an agent from the national biodiversity office. “Today there are perhaps between 10 and 15 mating pairs in the department. In the 1980s there were only a couple of birds, it was very nearly extinct in the area.”

After a successful recovery at the charity's wildlife centre, the bird was brought back to Cressat before being released back into the wild on 17th May. The location was a good one for eagle-owls, whose ideal habitat are rocky outcrops, or, as is the case with Cressat, open quarries.

The birds have a varied diet, but will feed mainly on small mammals such as voles, rats, mice, rabbits and hares. ■

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Brits go wild about living in the country Joanna Leggett explains why rural France has never been so popular

E

ver since the pandemic reared its ugly head, demand for rural property in France has soared. Nowhere is this more evident than in the four departments of Creuse, Indre, Cher and Haute-Vienne, where property prices represent excellent value for money and the countryside is peaceful and idyllic.

There has been a definite shift in what buyers (both international and domestic) are looking for and demand in these four departments has boomed. The issue that we face now is that of a limited supply of the right type of property.

What buyers are looking for UBS Global Wealth Management recently undertook research into how Covid-19 was changing how people want to live in the future. Three quarters of those polled said that they anticipate permanent lifestyle shifts and, of course, property is central to how this change will be implemented.

Rural France looks set to be a winner.

It has been noticeable this year that, no matter which country an enquiry comes from, an increasing number of clients are looking for properties with plenty of outside space and also with the ability to work from home. This means a separate home office and excellent broadband connection. France has a dedicated broadband plan France Très Haut Débit, where the government has committed to providing fast (minimum 30Mb) broadband for all by 2022 and fibre optic by 2025 (yes, even in the Limousin).

Research from BNP Paribas, undertaken this summer, also confirms that buyers are now placing greater importance on both better digital connection and a dedicated room for work. With homeworking being recommended by many governments this is a trend that is likely to grow.

Where are they looking?

The UBS research also tells us that 46% of respondents may forsake cities for more rural areas. The Creuse, Indre,

W

Cher and Haute-Vienne sit within a ring of cities (including Orléans, Tours, Poitiers, Limoges, Clermont-Ferrand and Dijon) and are perfectly situated to pick up this demand.

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If you are looking to buy property in the area then the only address you need is www.leggettfrance.com. You will find a huge array of property for sale, whilst being reassured that our bilingual agents (and head office support team) will be by your side all of the way. We even have a qualified Notaire within our team to ensure that your purchase will progress smoothly.

If you already own a holiday home locally then it may well be that Leggett Property Management has someone on the ground who will be able to look after your home for you.

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Summer Strawberries

by Julia Watson

e’re in the pink! It’s come around again, strawberry season. The Dordogne may lay claim to strawberries - understandably, given they’re accorded DOC status. But they were first bred in Brittany, in the 1750s. Up till then, wild strawberries were the common fruit.

It’s an ancient one. Roman literature mentions it in reference to medicinal application. What diseases they used it to cure isn’t known, but from the 1600s on, the entire plant was applied in the treatment of depression. It appears in 15th century illuminated manuscripts by European monks. It shows up in works of the same period

by English miniaturists and in paintings by Italian, Flemish and German artists. Charles V, who ruled France from 1364 to 1380, had 12000 strawberry plants in his royal garden.

The gourmet who came up with the heavenly combination of strawberries and cream was an archbishop, Thomas Wolsey, cardinal of the Catholic Church, controller of the affairs of state of the English court of Henry VIII and eventually charged with treason, a regular habit of that monarch. Luckily for Wolsey, he died on his way back to London to answer the charges.

A common garden fruit, strawberries are, uncommonly, both masculine and feminine.

The very first species was the wild woodland strawberry, Fragaria vesca. Originally, these male woodland strawberries were crossed with the male Fragaria virginiana from the state of Virginia in north-east America to cultivate a larger fruit than the wild variety.

F. virginiana is one of the two great New World ancestors without which we wouldn’t have the strawberry of today, and the many varieties found across south-west France.

The other ancestor is the female Fragaria chiloensis, the beach strawberry, brought from Chile in 1714 by Amédée-François Frézier, French military engineer, mathematician, spy, and explorer, whose name is now theirs, albeit

spelled differently. (This is for those of you who enjoy pop quizzes.)

The Mapuche and Huilliche Indians of Chile had been cultivating strawberries with female flowers, which is the plant the Europeans brought back to cross with their own fruit.

They had little success, until the middle of the 18th century when gardeners around northwest France noticed that when woodland strawberries and Virginian strawberries, both male, were planted in between rows of female Chilean strawberries, the latter would produce large and abundant fruits.

These days, though, it’s Fragaria x ananassa with its scent of pineapple which is prime in cultivating species for commercial production - none of which you need to know for a pop quiz. But what might stump your competitors is the fact that the strawberry isn’t a berry at all. It’s what’s called ‘an aggregate accessory fruit’. You may have wondered, biting into one, why a strawberry’s seeds are on the exterior of the fruit, not inside. Each of those tiny seeds is not, in fact, a seed. It is one of the ovaries of the strawberry flower with a seed inside it. The fleshy part of the fruit is simply a receptacle to hold these ovaries.

For your final pop quiz question: which country, in a business where, in 2017, global production of strawberries was 9.2 million tonnes, is the world’s top producer of strawberries? Clue: it is not anywhere in Europe. It is - no surprise, really - China.

Strawberry shortcakes, generally considered an American classic, are originally British, great with a game of cricket and a jug of Pimms. Basically, they’re scones. So use your own recipe if you prefer.

Julia Watson has been a long-time Food Writer for newspapers and magazines in the US and the UK. She writes 'Tabled', a weekly food blog at juliawatson.substack.com

Ingredients 400g strawberries, washed

300g flour hulled

and

¼ teaspoon fine salt 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

30g + 1 tablespoon caster sugar

300ml thick cream for whipping

85g + 3 tablespoons cold butter

1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 220C. Grease a baking sheet. Quarter the strawberries. Put a third into a bowl with 30g sugar and crush roughly with a fork. Fold the cut strawberries into the mush.

Sift flour into a mixing bowl, whisk in remaining sugar, salt and baking powder. Grate in cold butter then rub into the dry ingredients until it turns into coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in 160ml of the cream to form a soft dough, adding more if needed. Knead quickly until just smooth, tip onto a floured surface and roll to 5mm thick. With a 6cm cutter, cut out 8 rounds.

Set half on the baking sheet, melt the 3 tablespoons of butter and brush the tops of the rounds with it then put other halves on top of them. Brush those with beaten egg, bake 20 minutes till risen and gold.

Pull them apart. Brush middles with any remaining butter. Set aside to cool on a rack.

Pour the cream into a large bowl and whip to soft peaks. Put a scoop of cream on four bottoms. Spoon the strawberry mush generously over each, then lay the remaining scone halves on top and serve.

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Walked twice a day in our woods and surrounding fields.

Must be able to socialise with other dogs.

Free introductory trial: morning or afternoon.

Nr. Châteauneuf-La-Foret, Linards.

30 mins from Limoges airport.

20€ / night 10 € / half day Call Jane:

05 55 00 34 79/06 18 58 93 88 or Emily: 06 71 15 15 65

Building Services Architects/Surveyors

Architectural DRAWING SERVICE Renovating your French property?

waggingtails87@hotmail.com

New build?

Siret: 792 142 341 00017

Dossiers prepared Permis de Construire Déclarations Préalables

sales@thebugle.eu 06 04 17 80 93

Tel: 05 53 52 36 05

lavieilleabbaye@orange.fr SIRET: 493 770 358 00015

RING BILL! Registered Car Mechanic

Call Richard:

FR: 0033 (0)6 52 06 22 79 UK: 0044 (0)7448 466 662

Web: www.versineer.com Email: enquiries@versineer.com

At Masterplans.eu we can help guide you through your planning application in France.

From initial feasibility to completed dossiers.

We will compile all the relevant drawings and complete the necessary paperwork to ensure your application proceeds smoothly.

We are equally at home working with clients here in France or those living abroad.

Tel: 05 55 80 72 83 Mob: 06 33 07 29 72 Email: info@masterplans.eu www.masterplans.eu

06 04 17 80 93

Specialist in woodwork, painting, window / door fitting as well as all maintenance, renovation & upkeep of your house and garden.

50km radius of Bénénvent-l'Abbaye (23210).

English spoken.

Call Aymerick (Rick):

07 69 34 75 02

Email: entreprisemaeva@gmail.com Siret: 831 957 691 00023

Carpenter All types Best Rates Available Immediately References available Call Mark:

06 45 82 34 03 Siret 798 692 778 00011

BUILDER

■ ... much more Dept. 23 & surrounding areas

Tel: 05 55 98 24 12 - Mob: 07 82 78 01 31 Email: dave.cardwell@yahoo.co.uk

(contrôle technique)

Siret: 492 869 649 00029

Neuvialle Menuiserie

QUALITY WORKMANSHIP SINCE 1986

Portfolio available to view at

www.jonesentreprise.com Jeff Jones: 05 55 62 46 21 Mob: 06 38 25 74 62 email: jones23entreprise@orange.fr siret: 810 322 123 00011

Building Services Electricians & Plumbers Carlos

Electrician/Plumber 05 55 62 63 82 see main ad opposite

sales@thebugle.eu 06 04 17 80 93

NEUVIALLE MENUISERIE JOINERY

no job too small - very competitive rates 30 Years’ Experience Joiner Kitchens, Bedrooms & Bathrooms Flooring & General 2nd Fix Finishing, Joinery & Decking Emergency Lock Services Mike Christie 05 55 64 35 11 (Home) 07 61 76 97 41 (Mobile) mgchristie2013@gmail.com

Siret: 802 265 728

■ Services ■ Brakes ■ MOT Prep

Home renovations / Ground works Block works / Verandas, Abris & Terraces Barn doors & Shutters Also available: digger & driver Planning permission assistance and design available HNC and ONC qualified, 15 years experience & 7 in France Based near Lubersac (dept 19)

05 55 81 31 85

CALL: 06 80 58 06 08

CARPENTER AND BUILDER

DAVID CARDWELL PROFESSIONAL

•Stairs (can custom build) •Doors •Windows •Fitted Kitchens •Floors (wooden, laminate, etc.)

•Fitted Wardrobes & Cupboards Over 40 years experience

Entreprise Maeva

Siret: 790 016 984 00011

Your advert here

Will Fit For You:

Mike Christie 05 55 64 35 11 / 07 61 76 97 41 see main ad below

Qualified French Artisan / Carpenter

Siret: 498 843 051 00018

SKILLED JOINER

07 54 23 37 01

richardexcel@hotmail.co.uk

Tim Haw B.Eng C.Eng M.I.Struct.E

Registered Car Mechanic

Dog Guest Home

Departartment 23 & Surrounding Areas

CHARTERED STRUCTURAL ENGINEER

Auto & Bike Services

Animals & Pets

SIRET: 494 617 798 00017

Wooden Floors Sanded & Sealed From € 24 / sqm

Tel: 05 55 60 27 83

>> pg 19 >> pg 19 >> pg 19 >> pg 19 >> pg 19 >> pg 19 >> pg 19 >> pg 19

DIRECTORY ♦ 15

JUNE 2021 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu

Maurice Baynes

PLUMBING & HEATING

Domestic and commercial Bathroom design and installation Heating systems Tiling and full fit out Fully Insured All areas covered

Building Services Fosses Septiques

LVL

mauricepbaynes@gmail.com

Les Vidanges Limousines ▪ Emptying septic tanks ▪ Unblocking pipes ▪ Cleaning wells ▪ Group rates available between neighbours Call David - 24/24 7/7

Tel: 07 87 01 70 30

87800 Jourgnac

siret: 887 841 088 00016

06 49 66 44 25 Siret N° 750 725 780 00019

Max Huggett

Experienced and fully registered builder with 10 year Décennale Insurance Offering a broad selection of building services in depts. 87, 19 & 23.

From one off installations to complete renovations, construction, decorating, landscaping and ground works.

E: info@maxhuggett.com

T: 05 55 69 37 64 M: 06 86 62 59 37

www.maxhuggett.com

English & French spoken - Siret: 518 511 340 00011

Masonry & More

General building Renovation , Roofing Reliable, good quality work 30 years exp Scaffold Hire Martin Sprague

05 55 61 93 07

martin_sprague_1@ hotmail.com SIRET: 531 768 182 00010

SALAMANDRE Fosse Septique 23

Harlequin Developments

HANDYMAN/DIY

Fosse Septique Specialists

All aspects of renovation and refurbishment, big or small, undertaken.

• Painting/Decorating • Labouring • Pressure Washing • General DIY No job too small, just give me a call!!

All areas covered - Based nr Aubusson (23)

électricité Keith SLOPER

Tel: 05 55 64 94 20 Mob: 07 86 38 09 61 * Qualified electrician * All types of electrical works carried out * Free estimates * Fault finding * Consuel certification arranged * Temporary and permanent EDF supplies arranged * Departments 23 and 87 No Siret: 494 916 760 00015

Steve. JOHNS. SARL

Planning permission arranged Design and installation Supply and servicing DIY and trade kits Free site visit and devis

05.55.64.11.73 06.70.47.52.96 siret: 824 706 444 00018

Septic Tank Installation Service

Entreprise Electricité Générale All aspects of electrical works undertaken Departments 36, 23, 87 & 86 UK / French Satellite and TV Aerial installations Décennale insured

06 16 91 64 67

contact@reactive-resource.com www.reactive-resource.com Siren: 808 481 170

INSTALLATION23 Qualified & specialising in: • Electricity • Plumbing • Small renovations (bathrooms, kitchens, etc.)

Fully registered & insured English & Dutch spoken Based in the east of Creuse Call or email Rob: E: installation23@gmail.com

M: 06 40 56 96 12 Siret: 753 054 030 00014

Reed Bed Sanitation Systems Sewer Connections Compact Filters www.fossepro.com Tel: 06 33 78 24 23 fossepro@orange.fr

Aquatiris

Ecological Septic Tanks www.aquatiris.fr 06 95 09 13 71 - pg 3

Building Services General A Horrocks & Son Building and restoration work

06 26 97 28 54 see main ad below

The Reclamation Yard Confolens

05 45 30 72 04

semm main ad - pg 8

est. 2007

Kitchens fitted and tiled Replacement doors and windows Parquet flooring Oak framed porches Plasterboard and Insulation

05.55.68.67.56 06.06.60.46.97

harlequindevelopments@live.com www.harlequindevelopments.com SIRET: 494.501.067.00016

STEVE'S PROPERTY MAINTENANCE Roofing, Building, Renovations, Plastering & stud walls, ... and more!

Fully insured. e: lowe.steven@orange.fr

t: 05 55 50 52 02 m: 07 66 52 33 47

Can I help you with those jobs you don't want to do?

05 55 83 02 77 / 06 30 90 58 90 jonathanpiddock@orange.fr Siret: 523 955 151 00015

Dave Cardwell - Builder

05 55 98 24 12

See our Display Ad pg 14

Can your business fill this space?

Give us a call or send us an email: sales24@thebugle.eu

siret: 842 233 108 00013

06 04 17 80 93

SVH CONSTRUCTION

WASTE REMOVAL SERVICES

All building work undertaken No job too small City & Guilds and NVQ Qualified tradesman Over 35 years experience in the construction industry Based in dept. 23

• house/barn clearance (pre sale / post sale) • garden/land clearance • dechetterie runs • rubbish removal Specialist equipment available: • tractor with flail mower, rotavator, etc.

• vehicle with 1.5 tonne crane

stevehow101@googlemail.com

wasteremovalmultiservices@gmail.com www.facebook.com/willwhiting87/

Mob: 07 85 51 42 66 Tel: 05 55 83 04 11 Siret: 848 602 934 00012

05 55 37 45 35 siret 532 981 198 00015

La Noneix

Construction & Property Services

Established, Professional and Personal Building Services. Fully registered with décennale insurance covering all works.

●Renovations ●New builds ●Roofing ●Stonework ●Carpentry ●Ground works

Large or small projects undertaken - please view our website.

Contact: Paul or Joanne Rands

05.55.66.44.06 www.lanoneix.com Paul.rands@orange.fr SIRET: 501 144 596 00019

Entreprise Hines

Building & Renovation ● Roofing - New & Repairs ● Masonry ● Plastering ● Dry Lining ● Sand Blasting ● Scaffold Hire ● ... and much, much more

40 years qualified experience

05.55.89.69.46 www.entreprisehines.com robert.hines@orange.fr SIRET: 503 169 237 00016

Davis & Davis

35 years' Experience in Construction, Renovation & Project Management Quality Workmanship Guaranteed Internal/ External Developments Barn conversions, loft conversions, new-build, drylining, plastering, rendering, spray rendering, tiling, installation of kitchens/ bathrooms, painting, carpentry, replacement doors & windows, velux installation, groundworks, landscaping, decking & much more...

No job too big (or small). Give us a call for a free competitive quote.

05 55 60 29 50 / 06 04 13 30 57 email: davis-davis@sfr.fr

Based near Limoges - Covering depts 87, 23 & 19 Siret: 498 203 652 00017

Richard Jones, B.A. Cert'Ed

Professional Project Management Services Save up to 30% on your Renovation All building and renovations undertaken Man & Digger Department 23 & Surrounding Areas

07 54 23 37 01

richardexcel@hotmail.co.uk

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE...

To advertise in The Bugle Business Directory, call 06 04 17 80 93 ELECTRICIAN/PLUMBER FROM SMALL REPAIRS TO COMPLETE INSTALLATIONS BOILER SERVICING OVER 35 YEARS EXPERIENCE FULLY INSURED - BASED DEPT 23 lorrainemquintana@gmail.com

05 55 62 63 82

siret: 829 638 741 00019

16 ♦ DIRECTORY

www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ JUNE 2021

ADVERTORIAL

British Market Stall - Now open in Le Grand-Bourg

T

he hugely popular British Market Stall, which has been selling favourite British foods since 2016, has moved to a brand new shop just outside Le GrandBourg in central Creuse. If there is anything you miss from home, you can visit the warehouse-style shop in ZA Les Bois Verts and browse the well-stocked shelves, freezers and chilled cabinets. You can also place orders by email and take advantage of the meeting-point delivery service operated by the owners Cris and Andy Bassam throughout Creuse and the eastern part of Haute Vienne. There is no 'minimum order' amount for deliveries, and the delivery charge is just 5€.

The shop is open weekdays 10 am to 4 pm and during the first two weeks of June there are special in-store offers.

The move from their previous premises in Marsat to a larger shop in Le Grand-Bourg was in part prompted by the consequences of Brexit. “The new regulations and restrictions on imports from the UK to France, particularly on meat and

dairy products, meant we had to change suppliers,” explained Cris. “The switch from our UK-based suppliers to major supply companies in the Republic of Ireland has led to us placing much larger orders than we had previously, so we needed more space to house more stock and a bigger range of products. The quality of the food is superb, and by buying in huge quantities we can ensure good prices for our customers.”

The range of foods now available includes well-known and reputable Irish brands such as Clonakilty, a major sausage and bacon processor in Ireland, as well as traditional British brands such as Heinz, McVities, Cadburys and Colmans. There are now more than 300 different products in stock, including catering packs.

The ATP (Approved Transport of Perishable Foodstuffs) rules are strictly observed - the frozen and chilled goods are delivered direct from Ireland, transported in temperature-controlled lorries, and the meeting-point deliveries are made in a van with a temperature-controlled cell.

Furthermore, the Grand-Bourg shop not only caters for individual customers, but is also a wholesaler for hospitality businesses. “Most of our customers are individuals, and about 10% are businesses such as cafes, bars, and restaurants,” said Andy. “We also act as a supplier to a few smaller, similar British foods shops in other parts of France. Some shops were forced to close due to Brexit-related import problems, and because we buy in huge quantities we are now able to supply a few of the

ones that are left.”

For locals of the previous Marsat shop, which closed its doors on May 28th, Cris and Andy plan to run a stall once a month at the nearby Jarnages Sunday market in order to continue to supply customers that are closer to the original shop.

For more information, visit the shop, see the Facebook page or get in touch directly with Cris and Andy: Email: britishmarketstall@gmail.com Phone: 06 79 23 57 09 facebook.com/britishmarketstall ZA Les Bois Verts, Le Grand-Bourg

ADVERTORIAL

Harlequin Satellite TV

A

s some of you may know, after many years, Stuart from The French House Satellite TV has recently moved on to pastures new. For the past few months I have been working alongside him, and I'm happy to say that I am now the installer approved and recommended by The French House to continue looking after clients old, and welcoming clients new.

The range of services remains the same: • • • • • • •

English Free to Air Satellite TV... Freesat French Satellite TV... TNT English Subscription TV Full installation service DIY Kits Dishes realigned or upgraded Trouble shooting

I am based in the north of the Haute-Vienne (dept 87), and will cover dept's 16, 23, north 24, 36, east 86, and 87. Meanwhile, The French House will continue to provide a full service to dept's 17, 44, 49, 79, 85, and west 86.

So if you need help with any satellite TV issues please don't hesitate to get in touch. ■ Arthur Smith - Tel: 06.06.60.46.97 Email: harlequintv1@gmail.com - Website: www.harlequintv.fr Facebook: Harlequin Satellite TV Siret: 494.501.067.00016

To advertise in The Bugle Business Directory, call 06 04 17 80 93 Les petits jardiniers du Limousin

We are a gardening association based in the Mairie at St. Amand le Petit, between Eymoutiers and Peyrat le Château. We hold monthly meetings, normally on the third Thursday of the month, starting at 2:30 pm.

Meetings are held in English, but we can also present topics in French. We have lots of different nationalities amongst our members. Our aim is to provide and promote opportunities for people to develop their interest and knowledge in horticulture and gardening and related topics in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

In-house workshop meetings, external speakers and visits are on our agenda.

During Covid-19, in common with other Associations, we have not been able to have meetings and have kept in touch with members and friends via our Facebook page, Les petites jardiniers du Limousin where people post photos of their garden, ask questions, share information and keep in contact on a casual, friendly basis.

We are looking forward to starting meetings again respecting all Covid-19 regulations and to seeing old friends as well as new faces at our meetings.

Our meeting agenda has had to be cancelled many times and, at present, no set agenda is in place. However, as soon as we can meet again we do hope to arrange: A visit to Custos Apium (booked for June, subject to any Covid-19 regulations and restrictions in place at that time); presentations on plant name origins, grafting, edible plants and mushrooms; a workshop on diverse ways of seed preparation; and the first Sunday in September is the date on which we hold our Annual Show. If it goes ahead it is a definite not-to-be-missed event.

Members and supporters of our Association will receive emails about forthcoming meetings. If you would like to be on our mailing list then please email me with your name and email address. I will add you to the list and you will receive all future notifications. Meanwhile take care, happy gardening and hope to see you soon.

For any further information contact Carolyn at pjlimousin@gmail.com

STAY HOME STAY SAFE

CHARITY SHOP

Do please come in and visit us.

We are located at: 3 rue Nationale, 16150 Chabanais (entrance opposite the mairie, directly behind Petticoat Lane – we are on the first floor upstairs)

OPENING HOURS: Tuesday & Wednesday 10 am – 4 pm Sorry – no books or electrical goods

DIRECTORY ♦ 17

JUNE 2021 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu

Building Services Groundworks Mini-Digger with driver

05.55.53.03.56

john.bonella@gmail.com See Main Ad pg 8

Building Services Plasterers

Able Plastering

French registered plasterer with over 30 years’ experience

S.M.C SERVICES

All internal and external works covered Plastering (English and French plaster) Rendering Concreting Floor Screeding Stud Partitioning Lime Mortar Pointing

0044 (0)7831 121 019

Tel: 05 55 62 12 39 Mobile: 06 06 41 10 30

RSW Entreprises

Fosse Septiques/Micro stations

05.55.80.00.57

See our Display Ad - pg 4

Excavator with Driver see main ad - pg 8

Building Services Lifts & Scaffolding

Cherry Picker Services

14.5 metres on a van lasout@live.com

Tel: 09 66 03 52 89 Call for a quote

Siret: 527 906 614 00013

CHRIS

THE PLASTERER

A genuine plasterer French and English spoken Traditional Plastering, Rendering, Stud partition dry lining, Lime mortar stone pointing, Interior/exterior painting, Plasterboarding taping & joining specialists

CALL FOR A FREE QUOTATION

05 55 63 53 06 06 23 29 48 19 christopher.willis@orange.fr Le Bourg, 23360 Nouzerolles SIRET: 504 612 441 00015

Building ANGLO SCAFFOLDING Services Roofing HIRE UK scaffolding supplied and erected here in France Qualified and fully insured FREE no obligation quotes Call Ian on

06 34 24 64 11

or find us on Facebook: @angloscaffolding

Email: akbrunnstrom@yahoo.co.uk SIRET: 799 067 939 00014

Please mention The Bugle when responding to adverts

Building Services Painters/Decorators Nicholas Collyer All aspects of Interior and Exterior decorating

30+ years' experience Spraying service available for large areas

T: 09 88 19 14 05 M: +44 (0)7885 694 313

MUMFORD TOITURE Roofing & Plastering/ Plasterboarding Service

25+ years roofing experience All aspects of roofing, large or small 15+ years experience plastering/boarding Fully registered and insured Trading in France since 2007 Call Mark for a free quotation

Food & Drink Experienced, Registered & Fully Insured No mess, no fuss Email: cinderssweep@gmail.com

T: 07 68 76 39 99 siret: 484 768 700 00029

Chimney Sweeping • Flue ways cleared • Birds nests, vermin & debris removed • Smoke evacuation & gas tightness tests • Official certificates of cleaning issued (Certificat de Ramonage)

www.stovesellers.com

05 55 63 78 72 Siren: 502 409 949

Your advert here 06 04 17 80 93 Computers, TV & Satellite For all your TV and satellite installations and repairs (Sky TV, Internet etc.)

Call Patrice:

06.79.07.91.56

libre.antenne87@gmail.com Fast dependable service Based Séreilhac (87) siret: 353 613 227 00035

Established since 1986

Brush & Vacuum All types of chimney Fully Insured Call Ruth Langston

02 54 31 48 50

collyer23360@gmail.com

06 25 61 84 95 (SMS only)

siret: 883 596 157 00015

siret 504 218 454 00016

05.55.63.90.79

www.lecreusoisbistro.com SIREN: 483 988 853

Try Something Different

Chez Jacques Marsac (23) • Cosy atmosphere • Speciality Crêpes • Large burger menu • Around 115 single malt whiskies • Selection of bottled British ales • Book corner, pool table • "Mouclade" nights • Curry nights

05 87 40 02 83 closed Wednesdays

British Market Stall

Need some advice?

Too much like hard-work?

30 years of experience

TEL: 06 72 11 62 15 stengrendon1@gmail.com Based in St-Julien-le-Petit (87460), covering St. Léonard, Peyrat, Eymoutiers, Bujaleuf. siret: 839 102 415 00016

Entreprise Maeva

Garden Maintenance

Strimming, hedge cutting, lawn mowing, general upkeep.

Daily rates and/or monthly contracts.

40 km radius - Bénévent-l'Abbaye (23210)

07 69 34 75 02

entreprisemaeva@gmail.com Siret: 831 957 691 00023

Team Jardin www.teamjardin.fr

Reliable, professional and friendly garden services.

Garden Maintenance. Land Clearance.

Garden Construction.

Bespoke long-term maintenance plans.

Tel: 05 55 37 18 03 Mob: 06 33 66 17 45 e-mail: darren@teamjardin.fr Siret No. 752 549 907 00018

facebook.com/britishmarketstall

Purple Solutions Garden Maintenance

+33 (0)6 79 23 57 09 +33 (0)7 69 14 49 73 see main ad - pg 8

see main ad - pg 8

26, Ecurat 23150

Le Restaurant Ecurat

Open Wed, Thu & Fri New fast food menu Lunchtime 'menu ouvrier' 11am-2pm & 7pm-9.30pm Fish & chips and Curry nights, Salon de Thé and Diner le soir * Reservation in advance please *

2km from Chénérailles and the Chateau Villemonteix.

Mandys-curry-2-go

Chimney Sweeps & Firewood

THE LADY SWEEP

High quality British & French food at reasonable prices.

Menu du Jour €12, Traditional Pub Food, Vegetarian dishes, Childrens & Snack menus also available

email: ecurat123@hotmail.com

Siret No. 493 159 412 00011

La Petite Ramoneur

Les Genêts, Azerables

tel: 05 55 81 31 85

mumford.toiture@gmail.com

www.chauffagebois-limousin.com 05 55 63 72 45 - see ad pg 11

Bar/Restaurant

Stephen Grendon

06 72 87 87 14

Your advert here 06 04 17 80 93

For more information:

05 55 44 71 44 / 06 78 60 96 16

Carrefour du Bois Limousin

Le Creusois

Maintenance gardener

Mobile Curry Take Away For menus and venues:

www.mandyscurry2go.com L'homme de l'ecosse Web Design / eCommerce / hosting

06 37 82 56 67 / 05 55 60 62 36 see main ad - pg 3

Follow us on facebook e : mandyscurry2go@gmail.com

m : 07 70 39 12 23

Home delivery possible - see website siret: 498 199 306 00016

Gifts & Crafts

Cards et Cartes

Quality English & French greeting cards from 1.80 € Don't forget to send Dad a card for Father's Day (20 June) www.cardsetcartes.com info@cardsetcartes.com Siret No: 508 062 734 00019

GOODWIN Garden SATELLITE Services

SALES & INSTALLATION OF ALL SATELLITE SYSTEMS & AERIALS. FAULT FINDING. Dept 23 & surrounding areas

Tel: 05 55 62 05 61 Mob: 06 52 38 67 65

Email: garygoodwin121@gmail.com siret: 453 067 910 00019

sales@thebugle.eu 06 04 17 80 93

GARDEN SERVICES Paul Brown

Grass Cutting Strimming General Maintenance Based La Souterraine (23)

Tel: 05 55 89 57 40 brownpaul006@gmail.com Siret: 483 059 242 00030

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE...

18 ♦ DIRECTORY

www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ JUNE 2021

ADVERTORIAL

Vulnerable UK expat clients and their UK advisers left short by lack of Professional Indemnity cover! - Rosemary Sheppard, International Financial Adviser

B

rexit has led to many unintended consequences surrounding financial services for UK expats living abroad. The main one being that most UK financial advisers will not now be able to advise or manage their clients' UK financial products such as pensions and investments whilst their clients are living in the EU. Now the latest hurdle UK financial advisers are facing is Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII)

which will not extend to UK expats resident in the EU. With passporting rights being a thing of the past, PII is not going to cover any of their EU-based clients and means that both clients and their UK financial advisers are effectively in limbo.

This lack of PII also stops cross-border advice; however, this does not apply to global firms with worldwide cover such as Blacktower.

Put simply, this means there should no longer be UK-based advisers with EU-based clients. So where does this leave you and who will service your plans and provide the right kind of protection? This might not be all bad news and could actually be good news, since French compliant products

are better for UK expats living in France as they can offer significant savings with regards to income tax and inheritance tax.

You may currently have a non-French compliant investment contract such as an Investment Bond, for example, or a UK Stocks and Shares ISA. If a fund within these investments needs changing, or you wish to take income from your investment or UK pension plan or make some other change, then you will potentially not be able to receive advice from your existing UK-based adviser. In addition, any changes would not be covered on their PII insurance.

This means now is the time for you to act and have

your UK investments appraised and, where necessary, reinvested into French compliant investments covered by an effective Professional Indemnity Insurance policy. We can provide this to all UK expats resident in France, Spain and across Europe. We offer French compliant investment products and pensions and our clients benefit from good tax and succession planning, amongst other advantages.

You can rest assured that Blacktower is a truly global leader in financial services and carries Professional Indemnity Insurance to cover and protect all of our clients.

Blacktower will be by your side both now and

in the future, we are here to help you. To arrange a professional and impartial consultation please contact me by email: Rosemary. sheppard@blacktowerfm. com, visit our website www. blacktowerfm.com or call me on 06 38 86 99 70.

This article is based on the opinion of the financial adviser and author, and does not reflect the views of Blacktower. The above information is based on current legislation which is subject to change and does not constitute as investment advice, or investment research and you should seek advice from a professional adviser before embarking on any financial planning activity.

Blacktower Insurance

Agents & Advisors Ltd is regulated in Cyprus by the Insurance Companies Control Service and registered with ORIAS in France.

Blacktower Financial Management (Cyprus) Ltd is regulated in Cyprus by the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission and is registered with the AMF in France.

Advertising in The Bugle Business Directory Advertising your business couldn’t be easier. Text only, boxed listings are available in our Business Directory from just €12.50/month.

Alternatively, why not spotlight your business with an Advertorial, available from 1/6 Page (€50 HT) up to Full Page (€300 HT).

Both Directory Adverts and Advertorials represent a cost effective way to put your brand in front of more than 30,000 pairs of eyes each month!!

For more information on any of our advertising options, please feel free to give us a call on 06 04 17 80 93 or send an email to sales@thebugle.eu

6-Month Contract

12-Month Contract

Small b&w Directory Ad

€100

€150

Large b&w Directory Ad

€130

€195

Small Colour Directory Ad

€140

€210

Large Colour Directory Ad

€180

€270

All prices exclude TVA (20%)

Large Directory Ad 46mm x 71mm (Actual Size) 45 words max Small Directory Ad 46mm x 46mm (Actual Size)

30 words max

Directory Advertising is available either in black and white or colour, and in either small (30 words max) or large (45 words max) format.

Directory adverts may only contain text (small logos may be allowed when supplied). The minimum contract length is 6 months.

Advertising is payable on publication. All prices are HT.

CANCER SUPPORT FRANCE Charente Plus Free confidential support for Englishspeaking people touched by cancer Volunteers & Active Listeners needed (full training will be given) If you are interested please email: bloomdenis@outlook.com

CSF 24 HOUR HELPLINE - 0800 24 02 00 email: csfcharenteplus@gmail.com Facebook : Cancer Support France - Charente-Plus

Etee and Elliot Etee 11 ½ (red collar) and Elliot 12 (blue collar) are two of 4 Yorkies that have arrived at the refuge following the sudden death of their owner.

Etee

This really is quite a sad case as whilst all the dogs were very much loved, unfortunately none of them are house trained. Also, due to poor veterinary care and diet there are some health issues (please see the SPA website for full details). This means that any prospective owners will need to think long and hard before committing to an adoption.

On the plus side, however, they are calm, kind and cuddly boys and they can be adopted separately. They are castrated and get on well with cats but not with birds or small animals.

Buying or Selling French Property?

Legal advice from English-speaking lawyers Also the #1 portal for property auctions

www.frenchpropertylawyer.fr

05 55 82 18 99

The SPA know that to adopt these oldies is a big ask, but Etee and Elliot really are adorable and are so deserving of a loving home.

If you think you you can help Etee and Elliot then please contact: SPA de Creuse (Guéret), 21 Le Clocher, 23000 Saint-Sulpice-le Guérétois www.spa-creuse.com - email: spa.gueret@orange.fr

Elliot

DIRECTORY ♦ 19

JUNE 2021 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu

Handholding & Language Services

www.housesoninternet.com

Stove Sellers www.stovesellers.com

See our Display Ad - pg 3

See our Display Ad - pg 6

'Gite and Tidy'

Très Jolie

Houses on Internet

Health & Beauty

+31 (0)6 41 20 73 69

All properties looked after, main residences, holiday homes & gîtes.

Changeovers, cleaning, tidy ups, maintenance, gardening, swimming pools, etc.

Single or regular visits.

Fully insured.

Oradour-sur-Vayres (87150).

References available.

Mobile hairdresser Call Teddy:

06 15 78 18 04- pg 10 Jenny Homer BA Hons, PGCE

Online French Tuition

Qualified Teacher of French, formerly teaching in my classroom, but now online!

Come out of Covid with confident French I offer weekly, small, group lessons online, at levels to suit your needs.

My priority is on speaking and understanding French in daily life.

Get in touch asap to ensure your place in a class suited to your ability.

Stuck for the perfect Christmas gift for you, your friend or family - Gift vouchers now available for online classes (from 15€)

Email: homer.jennifer@gmail.com https://homerjennifer.wixsite.com/website

Chez Boutique

Formerly La Petite Place

tel: 05 55 81 31 85

www.agenceprincenoir.com

05.55.60.08.46

02 54 36 99 50 - see main ad pg 11

SALUBER

Beaux Villages Immobilier

06 61 82 37 79 - see pg 10

All Property Diagnostics for Sales/Rentals

siret: 490 323 243 00025

The Spectrum IFA Group International Financial Adviser

Energy Performance (DPE), Asbestos, Lead, Electricity, Gas, Termites, Risks/Pollution, Measurements

05 55 89 57 94 - see pg 10

Fluent English speaking.

Technical comments and advice possible

Blacktower Financial Managment Group

Contact : 06 28 94 24 00 or philippe.andre@diagamter.com

06 38 86 99 70 - pg 7

www.diagamter.com

Rosemary Sheppard

Pools & Spas Naturalis Pools

www.naturalispools.com

06 31 17 25 60 see main ad - pg 2

Property Sales & Maintenance Cendrillon 06 83 66 83 09

www.marcdeschamps.com

See our references on:

Creuse Property Care

Caring for your home in France when you can’t be there

Garden & Pool Maintenance General Maintenance & Small Renovation work including plasterboarding, tiling, painting, etc.

Changeovers/House Cleaning Ad-hoc Assistance References available Contact Mark or Trudy...

T: 05 55 67 90 47 / P: 06 40 75 74 47 E: marktrudy0506@gmail.com W: www.creusepropertycare.com Siret: 479 965 758 00028

Retail & Commerce

see main ad - pg 10

Cancer Support Haute-Vienne

www.cshautevienne.org

siret: 494 123 847 00019

Buggs Car Hire Bergerac & Limoges Airports

www.buggscarhire.com see main ad - pg 2

sales@thebugle.eu 06 04 17 80 93

Smart Moves

Scrap & Clearance

For a fully insured, careful service

OLD'S HEIGHT

inc. Junque and Disorderly

Antiquités agricoles

FORTNIGHTLY SERVICES TO FRANCE FULL OR PART LOADS WELCOME WE COLLECT FROM ALL AREAS OF THE UK AND DELIVER TO ALL AREAS OF FRANCE Find us on Facebook: @smartmovesukfrance Please CALL or EMAIL Stephen

smartmovers@hotmail.co.uk

I will buy just about anything in your barn: agricultural machinery, cars,motorbikes, lorries, pushbikes, old wrought ironwork, oil cans, signs, timberwork and doors... in fact, anything!! Just think... that rubbish could earn you cash!!

Transition Removals

in rust we trust

www.transitionremovals.net

CALL: 0633 847 699

+44 (0)7966 287 430

www.smartmovesremovals.com

(+33) 05 55 34 19 46 see main ad - pg 7

siret: 511 127 763 00015

Cash paid for scrap

All Limousin covered Anything considered Any quantity

Tel: 05 55 37 45 35 Mob: 06 74 21 47 71 www.facebook.com/willwhiting87/ siret 532 981 198 00015

Man & Van Transport

Genuine/Reliable/Honest Local + Europe + UK runs House/Barn clearances!

15m3 capacity 4m load length English & French Spoken

05 44 20 21 77 06 06 40 81 07

Transport, Removals & Storage

www.frenchvanman.eu

Watson European

Franklins Removals

87150 Oradour-sur-Vayres Siret 530 213 644 00012

International Removals

www.watsoneuropean.co.uk

affiliated to

Managing Editor: Editor-in-Chief: Registered Address:

SIRET: Printed by:

Steve Martindale Steve Martindale 19, route de Champagnac 17500 MEUX 514 989 748 00025 Charente Libre, Z.I. No3 16340, L’Isle d’Espagnac

All copyright, unless stated otherwise, is reserved to The Bugle.

Reproduction in whole or part of any text without permission is prohibited. Dépôt légal à parution.

0044 121 353 7263

www.franklinsremovals.co.uk

see main ad - pg 4

Your local Association supporting English speakers touched by cancer in departments 87, 23, 19 & 36

HELPLINE 0800 240 200

email: ecurat123@hotmail.com

Email: lasout@live.com

see main ad - pg 4

Insurance & Finance Tony Farrell

Freephone: 08 05 69 23 23

Tel: 09 66 03 52 89

2km from Chénérailles and the Chateau Villemonteix

Agence le Prince Noir

www.beauxvillages.com

Atelier d'Art du Jardin

Artisan art for your garden

See our Display Ad - pg 8

Mental & Physical Health Support www.saluber.fr

26, Ecurat 23150

www.centralfrancestorage.com Dry, safe & secure storage Brexit Busting Prices!!

Vehicle storage options We also do internal moves!

14.5m cherry picker available

see main ad pg 7

www.giteandtidy.com 09 82 12 69 73 (Home) 06 06 40 81 07 (Portable)

Covering all of La Creuse!

05.55.63.78.72

Ladies fashion accessories 05 55 53 03 56 / 06 04 08 29 53

Property management

Central France Storage

Directeur: Rédacteur-en-chef: Siège:

SIRET: Imprimé par:

see main ad - pg 3 Steve Martindale Steve Martindale 19, route de Champagnac 17500 MEUX 514 989 748 00025 Charente Libre, Z.I. No3 16340, L’Isle d’Espagnac

Tous droits réservés. Toute reproduction, totale ou partielle, des articles et illustrations du présent numéro est strictement interdite.

Dépôt légal à parution.

Ce mensuel a été imprimé sur des papiers produits en France, Espagne, certifiés PEFC 100% FCBA/18-01705.

Taux de fibres recyclées 100%. Emissions GES : 63 gr CO2 eq/ex (données 2019).

The Bugle cannot accept responsibility for the claims of advertisers or their professionalism. We strongly advise readers to verify that the company you are dealing with is a registered trading company in France or elsewhere in the world.

20 ♦ WHAT’S ON

www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ JUNE 2021

NEW DATE

Saturday, July 3rd 2021

FÊTE DE LA MUSIQUE

place de l'hôtel de ville, Boussac Organised by the association Amitiés Internationales du Pays de Boussac (AIPB).

Saturday 26th June, from around 7 pm.

French songs, piano, rock...

PHOTO EXHIBITION

by Dave Clarke, the Pavageau family and JL Poulingue: "Le Pays de Boussac past and present" Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th June from 10 am to 5 pm at the Maison des Associations, Boussac.

A mixture of old and new photos of the Pays de Boussac, organised by the association Amitiés Internationales du Pays de Boussac (AIPB).

For more information on both events, contact Pascale: 06 25 25 37 02

Peyrat Film Club The CINEMA in Peyrat-le-Château, run by the volunteers of the Association Bande Originale, regularly shows VOST films (original version with French subtitles), especially for all the non-French speakers in our region.

In June we will be showing: Falling – Saturday 12th, 17h The Father – Saturday 19th, 17h30 We will also be screening live Euro 2021 Football... see website for details Tickets from just €3.50!!

See our website for dates & times, etc: http://bandeoriginale.jimdo.com

Find us on Facebook... www.facebook.com/TheBugleFrance