Hit, miss or maybe for auto- entreprises? - The Bugle

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FLIGHTS 

TO THE UK 

11,000 copies distributed from over 300 points across Haute-Vienne, Creuse and the surrounding areas. 

November 2010 

Issue #13 

Hit, miss or 

maybe for autoentreprises? 

♦ 524,000 auto-entreprises created in 2 years 

♦ 5,140 of these in the Limousin 

♦ 48% yet to declare any turnover 

In 2008, a new scheme, groundbreaking 

in its simplicity, was 

introduced by Minister of State, 

Hervé Novelli, for individuals 

wishing to start up a business 

but discouraged by the complex 

administrative procedures in France. 

The auto-entrepreneur scheme came 

into effect in 2009 and it soon became 

clear that the move was a success as 

students, expatriates and ordinary 

employees in France started new 

businesses where previous financial 

restrictions had often stood in the way. 

As more and more signed up, the 

success of the scheme surpassed all 

expectations and at last count there have 

been 524,000 new businesses formed as 

auto-entreprises since the beginning of 

2009 - 5,140 of these in the Limousin. 

By joining the scheme, autoentrepreneurs 

pay tax and social 

charges based solely on their annual 

turnover. That means if the business is 

not generating an income then it will not 

incur any tax or social charges. At the 

moment, a service-based business will 

be expected to pay 23% of its annual 

BUGLE EXCLUSIVE 

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See pull-out - pg B6 

turnover, while commercial activities 

should expect to pay 13%. 

With the number of people signed up 

under the simplified system increasing, 

criticism has started to grow and stories 

are emerging of abuses of the status and 

of large numbers of people using it as 

a back door into the health care and 

pension systems without actually doing 

any work. 

As many auto-entreprises are in their 

second year of trading, the URSSAF 

has conducted the first survey of its kind 

into how these businesses are faring and 

the level of income being generated. At 

first glance the results seem to provide 

ammunition for critics of the system. 

But is it too soon to declare it a success 

or failure? 

This summer the URSSAF surveyed 

50 new auto-entreprises from the three 

departments of the Limousin. The most 

striking figure to emerge is that nearly 

half of these businesses (48%) have 

yet to declare any chiffre d’affaires 

(turnover). Individuals registered as 

>> continued on page 3 

Could Brigitte Bardot be 

France's next president? 

>> Page 8 

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It's official - wine 

is good for you 

A glass a day will 

keep the doctor at 

bay 

>> Page 8 

The Limousin goes mad 

for McDonalds! 

Limousin residents chomp 

their way through 3 million 

burgers every 

year! 

>> Page 4 

Gentioux pacifist 

memorial 

The memorial to 

peace will again be 

under the spotlight 

on Nov 11th 

>> Page 15

NOVEMBER 2010 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu 

2 ♦ IN THIS EDITION 

Welcome to 

The Bugle 

What a month it 

has been! The 

g o v e r n m e n t 

did warn us 

back at the beginning of the 

year to prepare for a “summer 

of discontent”, and like 

weather forecasters around 

the world, they got the right 

conditions, but not the right 

date. We are now most 

certainly in the midst of an 

“autumn of anger”, however, 

over the government’s 

reforms - most noticeably of 

course the pension reforms. 

Again, I have not given 

over many column inches to 

such a big story this month. 

We covered the planned 

changes in a fair bit of detail 

in previous editions and 

most of us will already have 

experienced at first hand the 

effects of the strike action that 

has been taking place across 

the country. The international 

media has been ablaze with 

stories of the protests and 

I’m not sure that we 

can add too much 

to it in our little 

paper, preferring 

to concentrate on the 

stories that you may have 

missed or those that are less 

serious and hopefully more 

entertaining to cheer us up a 

bit. 

One effect that the strikes 

may have that I unfortunately 

have no control over is the 

distribution of this paper. 

We put this paper out with 

good old-fashioned legwork 

and if there is no fuel at the 

pumps, then the paper may 

have reached you a few days 

later than hoped. As we go to 

print, we are quietly confident 

that all will be well, but if 

there have been any delays, 

please accept my apologies 

and I hope you understand 

the difficulties involved in 

manually delivering 11,000 

copies of a newspaper on a 

2,000 km paper round… and 

no, I’m not prepared to do it 

on my bike! 

The strikes are a 

Managing Editor: Steve Martindale 

Editor-in-Chief: Steve Martindale 

Registered Address: Les Quatre Chemins 

23150 St Yrieix-Les-Bois 

France 

SIRET: 514 989 748 00017 

Printed by: Rotocentre 

348, rue Marcel Paul 

45770 Saran 

France 

Monthly circulation: 11,000 copies 

All copyright, unless stated otherwise, is reserved 

to The Bugle. Reproduction in whole or part of any 

text without permission is prohibited. 

contentious issue and I find 

it very difficult to take sides 

(I know I say that a lot, but 

I try hard to simply present 

the news in a balanced way 

and not interpret it for you). 

In this column I can have 

a bit more of a personal 

opinion, however. It seems to 

me that reform is inevitable 

in one shape or another. 

There have been pension 

deficits for years in most of 

the major economies and 

the recent financial crisis 

has simply brought that to 

the fore. The fact is: we are 

living longer and there is not 

enough money. Coupled with 

the fact that birth rates are 

falling across Europe, there 

are simply too few paying 

into the pension pot and too 

many living off it. Whether 

raising the pension age is 

the most equitable solution, 

I don’t know, but on the 

face of it, it does seem like 

a sensible, if painful one. To 

reduce the recent events in 

France to simple numbers, 

however, is to misunderstand 

the French psyche. Much is 

written about this ‘work-shy’ 

nation we apparently live in 

by an international media 

that doesn’t understand what 

it is to be French. Certain 

things in this country are 

your right and the people 

will fight to protect them. It 

is not up to the masses to find 

a better solution - that is the 

responsibility of government. 

But neither will the populus 

simply offer a Gallic shrug 

and accept the ‘inevitable’. 

In happier news, The 

Bugle has reached something 

of a minor milestone this 

month as we hit our first 

birthday! I don’t want to 

celebrate too much as I have 

many plans for the paper in 

the future and we are not yet 

anywhere near where I would 

like to eventually take us. 

It is enormously satisfying 

(if a little embarrassing!) to 

look back at last November’s 

inaugural edition of The 

Bugle and to see just how 

much we have changed and 

grown in only one short year. 

Long may it continue and 

thanks to everyone for their 

support… when we hit 10, 

we’ll have a proper party and 

you’re all invited! 

Also, don’t miss out on 

your chance to win a pair 

of return flights to the UK 

courtesy of Jet2. The flights 

available are either from 

Brive to Manchester or 

Bergerac to Leeds and all 

you have to do is send us an 

email with a suggestion of a 

change or improvement that 

you would like to see made 

to The Bugle (and we 

promise not to sell 

your details on 

to unscrupulous 

Russians – you 

can trust us, honestly!) Full 

details are on page B6 of 

the new pull-out section, 

so please do enter. If the 

competition is a success 

then we will be able to run 

more like it in the future and 

everybody wins! 

Until next month! 

Steve Martindale 

Editor 

Directeur: Steve Martindale 

Rédacteur-en-chef: Steve Martindale 

Siège Les Quatre Chemins 


France 

SIRET: 514 989 748 00017 

Imprimé par: Rotocentre 

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France 

Tirage mensuel: 11,000 copies 

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INSIDE this edition 

News >> 

1 & 3>5 Local News: 

Locals give their verdict on Aubusson's new 

high street. 

One of the Limousin's biggest drug dealers has 

been arrested in Limoges carrying €200,000 of 

heroine. 

The Bugle teams up with France Bleu Creuse as 

part of the daily 'Assiette Anglaise' show about 

English expressions. 

The French are the biggest McDonald's 

consumers per capita in the world and Haute- 

Vienne gets through 3 million burgers per year 

alone. 

Saint-Junien awarded its third 'flower' for its 

public spaces. 

Plans have been revealed to bring TGV to 

Guéret as part of a trans-European high-speed 

rail service. 

6>8 National News: 

European politicians have drafted a new law 

that would give all EU mothers the right to 20 

weeks maternity leave on full pay. 

Two new expat radio stations have been announced: 

an English language station in Paris 

and French language station in London. 

Jérôme Kerviel, the 'mastermind' behind the 

fraud that nearly brought SocGen to its knees is 

sentenced. 

Judges in France have been granted the power 

to revoke French citizenship from foreign-born 

nationals. 

It's official - red wine is good for you. Scientists 

reveal a test that can show how good a bottle of 

wine can be for your health. 

Brigitte Bardot reveals that she has been approached 

by the Ecology Alliance to stand as 

their presidential candidate. 

Sport >> 

9> The route of the 2011 Tour de France has 

been unveiled. The Tour will again be visiting 

the Limousin, although overall, this looks like 

another year for the climbers. 

French Life >> 

10>15 

Winter warmth - a look at the benefits of woodpellet 

stoves and cookers, the pros and cons and 

how they actually work. 

Solar Power - regular contributor on environ- 

Tel: 05.55.41.17.76 

General: editor@thebugle.eu 

Advertising: sales@thebugle.eu 

Subscriptions: subscriptions@thebugle.eu 

mental issues, Arthur Smith, examines the 

benefits of solar powered hot water. 

CONTACT us 

Chicken Corner - Paul Lay looks back on a year 

of columns and gets tempted by technology. 

Horse power - towns across France are turning 

to the horse and cart to meet their recycling 

demands. 

Boar go wild - with numbers increasing at 

an alarming rate, what can be done about the 

exploding wild boar population? 

WiMAX - with the free installation offer 

extended to the end of the year, we look at the 

benefits of WiMAX, the alternative to broadband 

down your phone line. 

A tough new law has been introduced to crack 

down on spousal abuse. 

November Cultural Dates: 

1st November - la Toussaint 

11th November - l'Armistice 

18th November - Beaujolais Nouveau 

Games >> 

16 Crossword and our usual easy, medium and 

hard Sudokus. 

Caption competition. 

Letters to the Editor >> 

17 A selection from our post bag from the last 

month. 

Responses to the car insurance conundrum. 

Phone box credit card charges. 

What’s On >> 

18 Market and Foire days. 

Clubs, Charities and Associations. 

19 Community Notice Board. 

19>20 This month's Event listings. 

Directory >> 

B2-B6 The Bugle Business Directory. 

B6 Enter our exclusive competition to win 

FREE FLIGHTS to the UK with Jet2. 

B7 Classifieds. 

B8 Properties for sale and rent. 

Write to: The Bugle 

Les Quatre Chemins 


France

Aubusson's new high street - 

good for pedestrians at least 

After seven months under 

wraps, the facelift performed 

on Aubusson’s rue des 

Déportés-Politiques was 

finally unveiled at the end of June this 

year. Gone are the pavements, replaced 

by walkways partitioned by metal 

posts, larger areas for pedestrians on 

the place Jean-Lurçat, better street 

lighting and terraced areas in front 

of the bars, cafés and bakery. 

The slogan, often repeated by 

business owners and politicians 

during the works, was “Plus belle 

la rue, plus belle la ville” – “the 

more beautiful the street, the more 

beautiful the town”. But after the 

first summer season for the new high 

street, what is the verdict? Several local 

business owners spoke to La Montagne: 

Monique, Café Moderne: “It is 

much more beautiful, more attractive, 

a real success! My terrasse is much 

more appealing and this summer I have 


4 ♦ LOCAL NEWS 

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McDonald's marches on 

According to a 

recent book 

“Sixty million 

Frenchmen can’t 

be wrong”. By 

that token, 2.5 million burgers 

must say something too: this is 

the number of burgers sold by 

the fast food giant McDonald’s 

in the Haute-Vienne every year! 

When the French company 

Quick are taken into the 

equation, the figure exceeds 3 

million. 

The American chain, which 

currently employs 400 people 

in its 6 restaurants in the Haute- 

Vienne, saw a 40% increase 

in sales between 2007 and 

2009. And it is not just the 

Limousin’s largest department 

that has a love affair with fast 

and easy food: France is the 

largest per capita consumer of 

McDonald’s in the world and 

the company’s second biggest 

market outside of the USA. 

The figures for the Haute- 

Vienne are on the increase and 

only headed in one direction. 

The latest addition to the 

franchise – at the newly opened 

Family Village to the north of 

Limoges – estimates sales of 

450,000 ‘meals’ in the coming 

year. We can also add to that 

figure the fact that Santa is due 

to deliver another restaurant 

with the Christmas presents this 

December near Casseaux. 

McDonald’s success has 

been a cultural phenomenon 

in a country that prides itself 

on its haute cuisine and that is 

for the most part vehemently 

anti-American and resistant 

to cultural imperialism. A 

key factor in McDo’s success 

has been its acceptance by 

France’s notoriously protective 

agricultural industry. By 

sourcing 80% of its produce 

locally, it has brought the 

French farmers onside and 

avoided any protests from that 

sector. 

Additionally, besides 

simply being cheap in difficult 

economic times, McDo has 

benefited from a shift in eating 

habits among France’s youth. 

‘Le Snacking’ is a muchreported 

recent phenomenon, 

where the younger generations 

© 2007 - Sergio Calleja (Flickr) 

are choosing to grab a 

sandwich, burger or kebab 

at lunchtime, rather than the 

traditional sit-down meal more 

commonly associated with the 

French. Today, lunch takes just 

over half an hour. In America, 

one in two people take their 

main meal in the form of a 

snack; whilst this figure is only 

one in seven in France, it is on 

the increase. Ten years ago, the 

average length of a French meal 

was 1 hour and 22 minutes. 

The fast food chains are 

working hard to change the 

image of their products being a 

naughty treat. Whilst there is no 

doubt that people want faster 

and faster meals at lunchtime, 

not everyone is willing to 

sacrifice quality for speed. 

There has been an increase 

in what is being called ‘fast 

good’ food, a shift exemplified 

by chains such as Exki which 

specialise in home-cooked, 

hand-made organic snacks. 

“You no longer have to have a 

Coke or a portion of chips with 

your burger,” explains David 

Chatard, one of Limoges’ 

McDonald’s owners. “You can 

also choose water, bio apple 

juice, raw vegetables, salads, 

pineapple….” 

Main meals are the 

mainstay of France’s average 

McDonald’s restaurant, 

with 70% of business being 

conducted between midday 

and 2pm and 7pm and 9pm. 

A further key to their recent 

success has been the McDrive, 

which represents around 50% 

of total sales. Once at the 

head of the queue the average 

customer is served in 20-25 

seconds. “When the lights 

change, our teams move like a 

Formula One pit crew,” smiles 

David Chatard. 

One fast food regular, 

Marie-Yvonne, who takes her 

9-year-old granddaughter to the 

Quick restaurant in the centre 

of Limoges every Wednesday, 

Garden enthusiasts in Saint-Junien 

are celebrating as the Haute- 

Vienne town, more famous for 

its leather gloves than its horticulture, 

has been awarded its 

third ‘flower’, joining an elite 

club of communes in the department 

boasting this honour. 

“You can not underestimate 

the importance for a town such as 

ours to have such a keen interest 

in our public spaces,” said Pierre 

Allard, mayor of Saint-Junien as 

he accepted the award from the 

Comité Régional du Tourisme du 

Limousin. “Residents and tourists 

alike appreciate our efforts. 

The members of the jury have 

seen the work we have put in 

and were particularly impressed 

sums up the attitude of many 

French people towards fast 

food: “I live right next door and 

I look after my granddaughter. 

It’s not a very balanced meal, 

but it is not every day and she 

enjoys it.” 

Flying in the face of the 

image that France is a nation 

who watch what they eat - 

portrayed by books such as 

Mireille Guiliano's best-seller 

French Women Don’t Get 

Fat - 6 of France's 63 million 

inhabitants are now considered 

obese and 20 million are 

overweight. ■ 

Saint-Junien receives 

its third 'flower' 

by our large public areas such as 

those in front of the train station 

and the Collégiale.” 

In the commune’s greenhouses, 

the chief gardener, Philippe 

Coupechoux, was proud of the 

achievements of his 11 employees 

and promised that no effort 

would be spared to maintain 

the town’s three-flower rating. 

He did, however, warn against 

getting carried away: “We are 

not looking towards a fourth 

flower.” 

Saint-Junien has a budget 

of €465,000 for its public areas 

of which it spends €65,000 

on flowers. The 69 hectares 

maintained includes 830 trees, 

40,000 plants and 7,600 bulbs. ■

www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ NOVEMBER 2010 

LOCAL NEWS ♦ 

From Lisbon to Kiev via Guéret on the TGV? 

La Creuse, often 

referred to as “la 

France profonde” 

is not a familiar 

destination even 

among many French, but its capital 

Guéret could soon be rubbing 

shoulders with the likes of Lisbon, 

Milan, Budapest and Kiev as part 

of a new trans-European highspeed 

rail link. 

A major step in completing 

the theoretical continuous highspeed 

line from Lisbon to Kiev is 

the Transline project (otherwise 

known as the Transversale Alpes 

Auvergne Atlantique or T3A), 

which aims to create three new 

TGV lines between Bordeaux, 

Lyon and Nantes. 

Being able to travel from Lisbon 

to Kiev via Guéret without changing 

carriage sounds like a fairytale for 

the Creuse, but could theoretically 

become a reality as soon as 2020. 

Haute-Vienne would not miss out 

either, with Limoges being another 

potential stop on the route. 

“Creuse finds itself on the East- 

West routes from Lyon-Nantes 

and Lyon-Bordeaux,” explained 

Olivier Bertrand, local councillor 

for Saint-Sylvain-Bellegarde, “but 

it still requires all the financial and 

political players to pull together 

to ensure that we are also on the 

Paris-Lyon route via Orléans and 

Clermont-Ferrand”. 

The project, which follows the 

recent environmental Grenelle 

directives to prioritise the 

development of high-speed rail 

links in France, is not simply 

to allow the middle classes of 

Biarritz to easily get to their 

chalets in the Alps. It is a project 

aimed at opening up France’s more 

rural areas and boosting local 

economies. 

Michel Caniaux, spokesperson 

for Altro, the company in charge 

of Transline, said “This project 

deserves to be fully investigated, 

particularly in Creuse where it can 

make a huge difference by bringing 

new people and opportunities to the 

region. And what’s more, it is not 

a project that runs in competition 

with the Limoges-Poitiers LGV 

or the existing Paris-Orléans- 

Limoges-Toulouse line which 

retains its inter-regional focus.” 

The only factor left to overcome 

is the small matter of finance. 

© 2004 - François Proulx (Flickr) 

Here things get more complicated. 

Despite the fact that its supporters 

claim that the costs of running a 

TGV line through Creuse will be 

significantly cheaper than over – 

or through – the Massif Central, in 

reality the line’s future will rely on 

European funding. Campaigners 

will be keen to stress the wider 

benefits to Europe of completing 

5 

a piece of the jigsaw that will 

allow high-speed rail travel from 

Lisbon to Kiev… with maybe a 

quick stop-over in Guéret for some 

authentic Limousin steak? ■


6 ♦ NATIONAL NEWS 

EU votes to increase maternity leave 

entitlement to 20 weeks on full pay 

The European 

Parliament in 

Brussels has 

backed a draft 

law to introduce a minimum 

maternity leave entitlement 

across Europe of 20 weeks 

on full pay. However, even 

though MEPs have approved 

the 20-week plan it cannot 

become law unless the EU 

member governments back it 

too, and both the French and 

the UK coalition governments 

are amongst those lobbying 

against it. 

The plan was adopted in 

a first reading in October, 

but long negotiations are 

expected with the EU member 

governments - known 

collectively as the ‘Council’ - 

before the new rules become 

law. A majority is required 

within the Council for it to 

come into force and it is not 

yet sure what compromises 

will be required to secure its 

future. 

On the question of 

introducing a 20-week 

minimum entitlement, the 

vote was 327 MEPs in favour, 

320 against. On full pay, the 

vote went 354 in favour, 308 

against. 

Currently across Europe, 

women are entitled to a 

minimum of 14 weeks’ 

maternity leave, but the rate 

of maternity pay varies widely 

from country to country. 

Danish MEP Britta 

Thomsen, of the Socialists 

and Democrats (S&D), said 

the measure would encourage 

women to have more children, 

at a time of widespread 

concern about Europe's ageing 

population and low birth rates. 

Nadine Morano, the French 

minister for the family, voiced 

her concern with the new 

proposals, putting the potential 

cost at €1.3 billion per year for 

France. For its part, the British 

government predicts that 

the 20-week proposal could 

cost UK businesses an extra 

€2.8 billion a year. The UK 

Department for Business said 

it was “very disappointed” 

by the vote. “We know other 

member states share our 

concerns about the real costs 

of this directive,” a department 

official said. 

And what of paternity leave? 

The European Parliament also 

wants to force countries to 

offer two weeks' paternity 

leave at full pay. ■ 

© 2007 - Kevin Stanchfield (Flickr) 

How they 

do it across 

Europe... 

France 

France has 16 weeks' paid 

maternity leave at 100% 

of salary (up to a ceiling). 

Mandatory paternity leave 

is 11 days but the employer 

will provide a few extra 

days on top. The take-up 

rate of the benefit amongst 

mothers is 99%. 

UK 

Women get 52 weeks' 

maternity leave. Six weeks 

is paid at 90% of average 

salary. Weeks 7-39 are paid 

at a maximum of £124.88. 

Over the total period, 

women end up with average 

compensation of around 

40% of salary. The takeup 

rate for the 39 weeks is 

84%. There is two weeks' 

mandatory paternity leave 

in the UK, at a statutory 

rate. 

Germany 

Women get 14 weeks' paid 

maternity leave at 100% 

of salary (with no ceiling 

payments - so it could be 

very expensive). Some 2% 

of this is funded by health 

insurance but the rest is paid 

for by the employer. This is 

quite unusual and obviously 

places a heavy burden on 

businesses. The take-up 

rate is almost 100%. There 

is no mandatory paternity 

pay. 

Iceland 

Iceland has one of the 

most interesting systems. 

Couples get nine months' 

paid leave at around 80% 

of salary. Three months is 

reserved for the mother, 

three months must be taken 

by the father and the couple 

can choose to share the 

remaining three. By 2007, 

dads were taking their full 

allocation of 13 weeks; the 

rest was being taken by the 

mother. 

USA 

The USA has 12 weeks' 

maternity leave mandated 

by federal law but there is 

no pay during this period. A 

number of states - including 

California, Rhode Island 

and Hawaii - have disability 

benefits that can be used 

by pregnant women. Only 

42% of mothers in America 

access some form of paid 

maternity cover. This is 

low compared to other 

developed countries. ■

Two new expat radio 

stations launched 

There has been good news on the 

airwaves for French and British 

expats on both sides of the Channel 

with the unveiling of two 

new radio stations: a French language 

station in London and an 

English language station in Paris. 

A date of November 17th has 

been set for the launch of French 

Radio London (FRL)*, which 

will broadcast in French on 

London’s DAB digital radio network. 

FRL will be London's first 

French terrestrial radio station 

and will be aimed at the estimated 

400,000 native French speakers 

living in London as well as 

Francophiles of all nationalities. 

The new station describes itself 

as having “an enticing blend 

of entertaining and informative 

output” including music (80% of 

which will be French), talk programmes 

and interviews. 

The station's CEO Pascal Grierson 

was understandably upbeat: 

“We look forward to broadcasting 

a unique French voice on 

London's airwaves. This is an exciting 

development for listeners 

as well as UK and French based 

commercial partners who will 

benefit from a dedicated platform 

to reach French-speaking 

London residents and the wider 

Francophile community. A bientôt 

sur la DAB!" 

Hot on the heals of the news 

of the launch of FRL came the 

announcement by the American 

University in Paris of plans for 

World Radio Paris. AUP has applied 

for a licence to broadcast 

on 99.9 FM. The station has been 

in operation since 2005 although 

has until now only been available 

online and is run by a team of 

over 50 volunteers and AUP students. 

David Blanc, president of 

WRP, said: “Obtaining the right 

to broadcast on 99.9 FM is not 

going to be easy. We need lots 

of support letters from influential 

organizations, consulates, cultural 

centres and various interest 

groups in Paris”. 

WRP hopes to offer Parisians 

a 24-hour-a-day radio service for 

news and entertainment in English, 

including BBC and NPR 

(National Public Radio) programs. 

■ 

* www.frenchradiolondon.com 

SocGen trader given jail 

term and fined €4.9 billion 

Jérôme Kerviel, the so-called 

“genius of fraud” whose €4.9 

billion loss at France’s second 

largest bank, Société Générale, 

made him a household name in 

January 2008, has been sentenced to 

five years in jail, with two suspended, 

for “breach of trust, computer abuse 

and forgery”. The size of the bank’s 

losses shocked a world that was yet 

to witness the collapse of Lehman 

Brothers or hear of Bernie Madoff, 

but with hindsight, the scandal was 

a harbinger of the financial crisis that 

was just around the corner. 

Mr Kerviel was also ordered to 

repay “four billion, nine hundred and 

fifteen million, six hundred and ten 

thousand, one hundred and fifty four 

euros” in damages to the bank, despite 

the fact that he currently works as a 

computer consultant in Paris earning 

€2,300 a month. Société Générale 

subsequently announced that it would 

not be chasing Mr Kerviel for the 

money and did not expect to recover 

it – it would take him 177,000 years 

to repay it on his current salary. 

The judge, Dominique Pauthe, 

condemned Kerviel as a cool and 

callous criminal who exploited the 

lax internal checks within the bank to 

break the rules and take spectacular 

risks. His defence throughout the trial 

was that his trading practices were 

an open secret and that his superiors 

were well aware of the risky positions 

he was taking; he was simply the one 

to get caught. 

“I would like everyone to shoulder 

their responsibility and, at the 

Jérôme Kerviel will probably never have to pay back the €4.9 billion 

moment, I am the only one paying,” 

the 33-year-old told French radio. “I 

really get the feeling that they wanted 

to make me pay for everyone else, 

that the Générale had to be saved 

and that the soldier Kerviel had to be 

killed.” 

Olivier Metzner, the defendant's 

lawyer, was angry at the ruling: “This 

is a completely unreasonable ruling 

which says that the bank is responsible 

for nothing, not responsible for a 

creature it has made, and that only 

Jérôme Kerviel is responsible for the 

excesses [and] the crises of a banking 

system,” he said, adding that he would 

“quite obviously” be appealing. 

Speaking during his trial, 

Kerviel told the court: “The daily 

encouragements of my superiors 

didn't put the brakes on me, but rather 

encouraged me”, claiming that his 

superiors must have been aware of his 

massive illicit trading positions which 

at one point amounted to €50 billion. 

“On a trading desk, we are all 50 cm 

from one another. Everything is seen, 

everything is heard.” 

Although it was fined €4m by the 

French banking commission in 2008 

for its failure to efficiently control 

its trading floor, SocGen had denied 

any knowledge or involvement in 

what it called Kerviel's “financial 

terrorism” and has largely escaped 

criticism in the lengthy ruling. The 

court seems to have discounted 

completely the argument put 

forward by Kerviel's defence that 

the bank knew of his extravagant 

trades and turned a blind eye as long 

as he was making money. ■ 


NATIONAL NEWS ♦ 

Judges given power 

to revoke citizenship 

A bill 

has been passed by 

France’s Lower House of 

Parliament that will allow 

foreign-born nationals to 

be stripped of their citizenship and 

deported for certain crimes as part of 

President Nicolas Sarkozy's law and 

order crackdown. 

Members of the Lower House of 

Parliament, the National Assembly, 

passed the measure after a first 

reading by 294 votes to 239 in a 

vote made against a backdrop of 

mass strikes and demonstrations 

in opposition to the government's 

pension reforms. 

Under the new law, French 

nationals would have their French 

citizenship revoked if they are 

convicted of violent crimes against 

police and other officials. This 

punishment currently only applies to 

terrorism charges. 

It would also allow police to 

deport foreign nationals, including 

those from other European Union 

countries, for repeated acts of theft, 

aggressive begging or for illegally 

occupying land. 

Although the Roma are not 

specifically mentioned in the 

wording of the new law, critics and 

political opponents say the crime 

crackdown is a vote-grabbing move 

that stigmatises the Roma and other 

foreigners and will be used to further 

persecute that particular minority. 

The bill’s architect, immigration 

minister Eric Besson, hailed the vote 

as “a big first step in the building 

of a European immigration policy”, 

referring to a common approach that 

7 

several countries have called for. 

The bill must be examined by a 

parliamentary commission before it 

can be voted into law. 

Sarkozy announced his law and 

order drive earlier this summer after 

city riots broke out in the wake of 

several high profile violent incidents 

involving foreign communities. In 

July, in a poor suburb of Grenoble, 

southeast France, riots broke out 

following a fatal police shooting. A 

gang had robbed more than 20,000 

euros from a nearby casino and in the 

ensuing police chase the two suspects 

fired shots, wounding an officer. Police 

returned fire, killing one of the men, 

Karim Boudouda. Mr Boudouda, 27, 

was of North African origin and had 

three previous convictions for armed 

robbery. It took police several days to 

restore order after the resulting public 

unrest. 

The same weekend, 22-year-old 

Luigi Duquenet, a French Roma, was 

also shot and killed by a gendarme in 

the small Loire valley town of Saint 

Aignan. The man had, according to 

officials, driven through a police 

checkpoint without stopping and 

knocked over a gendarme in the 

process. Media reports suggested 

he had been involved in a burglary 

earlier that day. A riot erupted and 

dozens of French Roma armed with 

hatchets and iron bars attacked a 

police station, hacked down trees 

and burned cars. Duquenet's family 

dispute the police version of events, 

saying he was scared of being 

stopped because he did not have a 

valid driver's licence. ■


8 ♦ NATIONAL NEWS 

It's official - red wine is 

good for your health! 

Lovers of red wine have 

long held that a glass 

or two a day does you 

no harm and may even 

be good for you. Indeed, a study 

by British scientists published in 

Nature magazine in 2006 said: 

“Regular, moderate consumption 

of red wine is linked to a reduced 

risk of coronary heart disease and 

to lower overall mortality.” 

French bon vivants received 

a further boost to their argument 

this month with the news that, 

sandwiched between guidelines 

on responsible drinking, bottles 

of wine may soon boast a 

surprising new health notice: this 

drink is good for you. 

The French are notoriously 

partial to a glass of red wine 

and a typical meal is often rich 

and fatty; yet when compared 

to other nations, in general, they 

have healthy hearts. The secret 

to this could be down to the 

antioxidants present in red wine, 

specifically polyphenols. These 

antioxidant chemicals have a 

positive effect on the rate at 

which the human body and brain 

age, and also appear to reduce 

the risk of heart disease, obesity, 

cancer and even wrinkles. 

This is all according to Swiss 

and American researchers 

© 2007 - Agne27 (Flickr) 

who have produced a device 

that performs a simple test to 

discover which wines contain the 

highest concentration of these 

polyphenols and therefore the 

most health-giving properties: 

the more antioxidants there are in 

the wine, the better it is for you. 

The researchers at the 

Polytechnic School of Lausanne, 

working with colleagues at 

Stanford University in America, 

claim to have produced a 

machine that can quickly 

measure levels of polyphenols 

in individual bottles. The 

matchbox-sized device has been 

tested on 500 Swiss wines and 

is ready to be marketed to wine 

producers in France at a cost of 

€2,000 per unit. 

“The antioxidant properties 

of wine are well known, but 

this machine means we are able 

to measure the actual chemicals 

in the bottles,” explained Jean- 

Charles Hoda, one of the Swiss 

research team. “We started off 

looking at this from a medical 

point of view, but then we realised 

it had an interesting commercial 

application. I can absolutely see 

people choosing to buy one wine 

over another because they can 

see it is healthier for them.” 

He went on to explain that 

the Swiss pilot test had so far 

revealed Pinot Noir grapes to 

have the greatest health benefits. 

“Let's be honest, it must be better 

to have a glass of wine than 

to take a pill”, he said, before 

adding: “Within moderation, of 

course!” ■ 

An embarrassing slip of the tongue 

** WARNING – This article contains 

some adult content! 

This month has seen a series of highprofile 

gaffes by senior politicians. 

The incidents must have even 

brought a smile to the face of the 

king of the gaffe, George W. Bush and have 

provided a few light-hearted moments in an 

otherwise dour month for news. 

Rachida Dati got the ball rolling during a 

highbrow interview about foreign investment 

funds. The former French justice minister 

and current Euro MP, best known for her runin 

with Carla Bruni and returning to work 

just five days after having a baby, boldly 

announced that France was “at a time when 

fellatio is close to zero”. Of course she meant 

‘inflation’. A Freudian ‘slip of the tongue’ so 

to speak. 

The video of her gaffe quickly became an 

internet sensation, with 2.8 million people 

Brigitte Bardot for President...? 

Sixties sex symbol 

Brigitte Bardot could 

one day be calling the 

Elysée palace home. 

Despite stating that “politics 

disgusts me” in a recent interview 

with FRANCE magazine, she has 

announced that she is considering 

running for president in 2012 

after President Sarkozy “took 

me for an imbecile” over animal 

rights pledges. 

The former screen icon, who 

retired from film making in the 

1970s and is now an animal 

rights campaigner, announced 

that she had been approached 

by the Ecology Alliance party 

to run for president in the next 

elections. The party campaigns 

for animal rights and against the 

Waking the dead! 

A woman in Bordeaux gave her family a shock 

when she woke up in hospital hours after they 

were told that she was “very certainly clinically 

dead”. Lydie Paillard, 60, had passed out whilst 

in hospital as she was being prepared for a 

chemotherapy session, according to Yves Noël, 

director of the Bordeaux Rive Droite private 

hospital where the woman was being treated. 

Doctors managed to successfully resuscitate 

the woman and placed her on a ventilator 

before calling her sons to break the bad news 

to them that she would not be waking up. The 

sons were asked for permission to turn off her 

life support machine, but refused and instead 

Mrs Paillard was transferred to Bordeaux’s 

University Hospital. Subsequent scans revealed 

ritual slaughter of livestock by 

Muslims for halal meat. 

In a recent letter to Mr Sarkozy, 

Miss Bardot told the president 

that “someone’s voice is needed 

to defend animals as neither the 

Right nor the Left give a damn!” 

In a separate interview, she said: 

“Sarkozy took me for an imbecile 

by making promises he didn't 

keep.” 

An issue that the French icon is 

keen to address is the introduction 

of a new law ensuring that 

animals are stunned before their 

throats are slit in keeping with 

Islamic teaching during halal 

slaughter. Miss Bardot claims 

that nothing in Islamic teaching 

forbids animals being stunned 

before slaughter. 

watching the clip on one website alone. Miss 

Dati laughed off her mistake, claiming that 

she had no problem being the butt of the joke 

if it cheered the French public up. 

In the British press, the Daily Mirror could 

not resist and ran the headline: “Minister in 

TV cock-up”. 

Not to be outdone, current interior 

minister Brice Hortefeux had petty 

criminals across the country crossing 

their legs when he extolled the virtues of 

‘genital fingerprinting’. Mr Hortefeux was 

apparently attempting to distinguish between 

police files of suspects’ empreintes digitales 

(fingerprints) and empreintes génétiques 

(genetic fingerprints) - mixing the two 

expressions to form “empreintes génitales”. 

Less rude, but equally revealing was the 

gaffe by education minister Luc Chatel. With 

speculation rife over who President Nicolas 

Sarkozy will choose to lead his government 

in the forthcoming reshuffle, Mr Chatel let 

© 2007 - Simon Kirby (Wikicommons) 

The heads of the Ecology 

Alliance, Antoine Waechter 

and Jean-Marc Governatori, 

apparently wrote a letter to 

Brigitte Bardot in late September 

in which they stated “We think 

you are the best person to 

represent us for the presidency”. 

Mr Waechter has since backtracked, 

however, denying that 

such a move had been made, 

saying “Miss Bardot’s work is 

valuable but not sufficient to head 

a presidential campaign”. 

The former bombshell is also 

currently fighting plans by Kyle 

Newman, a Hollywood director, 

to make a film of her life. “A film 

about me?” she asked Europe 1. 

“Nobody would be able to pull it 

off.” ■ 

that she was not in fact brain dead and 14 hours 

after the ordeal began, Mrs Paillard woke up. 

“All I remember is that I felt unwell after 

receiving an injection to prevent me from 

vomiting,” Paillard told AFP news agency by 

telephone from hospital where she said she felt 

“more tired than usual” after her ordeal. 

“My sons… explained to me that the hospital 

wanted to turn off the life support system 

because it was over and as they refused, I was 

taken to the university hospital. I haven't really 

realised what's happened but I think my three 

sons are the most shocked.” 

For his part, Mr Noël described the 

incident as “a kind of miracle”. The hospital's 

management said it would suggest the family 

meet the medical team responsible for 

Paillard’s case to discuss the "communication 

problem". ■ 

Rachida Dati probably wishes she'd 

kept her mouth shut 

slip that, “The president named me prime 

minister,” before hastily adding, “I mean 

education minister”. ■


SPORT ♦ 

2011 Tour coming to the Limousin 

The Tour de 

France will 

be once again 

passing through 

the Limousin in 

2011 after giving it a wide 

berth on the 2010 route. On 

Saturday 9 th July, the riders 

will be setting off from 

Aigurande before heading 

south through the Creuse for 

a stage finish in SuperBesse 

Sancy in the Puy-de-Dôme. 

The Tour will again 

feature a number of changes 

aimed at improving on what 

was generally considered a 

successful 2010 race. At the 

launch of next year's event in 

Paris, race director Christian 

Prudhomme unveiled a route 

ideal for climbers, with only 

64 kilometres of time trial in 

total, of which 23 are a team 

time trial. 

The race will start in 

the windy Vendée region 

in western France, on the 

Atlantic coastline, but will 

not feature a prologue. The 

stage will start on the island 

of Ile de Noirmoutie and ride 

across the Passage du Gois, 

the causeway that cuts across 

the bay during low tide. A 

repeat of the treacherous 

crossing of the 1999 Tour, 

when Alex Zülle crashed on 

the slippery road and lost 

any chance of challenging 

Lance Armstrong, should be 

avoided, however. In 2011, 

the peloton will parade 

across the Passage du Gois 

before the official start of 

the first stage. 

The 2011 Tour again 

appears to be back loaded, 

with the race director 

looking to ensure that the 

race for the yellow jersey 

is very much still on come 

the final stages. With three 

successive stages in the Alps 

in the final week, including 

Alpe d’Huez just 48 hours 

before Paris, followed by the 

race’s only individual time 

trial on the penultimate day, 

the intention is clearly to 

keep the race - and people’s 

interest - alive until the very 

end. 

The team time trial is back 

after a one-year absence. 

The collective test against 

the clock is a completely 

flat stage and will certainly 

re-shuffle the general 

classification, even if the 

distance of 23 kilometres, 

far shorter than team time 

trials in the past, might not 

open up significant time 

gaps. 

Three days in the Pyrenees 

with two mountain top 

finishes will provide plenty 

of climbing action in the 

second week and will reveal 

who has a real chance of 

victory before the Grande 

Finale in the Alps in the 

third week. 

The Tour de France 

climbed the Alps for the 

first time in 1911, and 

celebrating their centenary 

100 years later, the Alps will 

probably decide the overall 

winner. Stage 16 from Saint- 

Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Gap 

serves as a taste of the pain 

to come as three days in the 

high mountains begin on July 

20th. On the first of these 

days, the peloton departs on 

a 179 km journey from Gap 

to Pinerolo in Italy, the only 

time the tour will venture 

outside of France in the 2011 

Tour. Three categorized 

climbs are on the menu: Col 

de Montgenèvre, Sestrières 

and the Côte de Pramartino. 

Stage 18, without a doubt 

the toughest mountain stage, 

will finish on the prestigious 

Galibier (2,645 m), after 

crossing some of the most 

challenging climbs of the 

Alps: the Col d’Agnel (2,774 

m) and the Izoard (2,360 m). 

The Galibier will be revisited 

on the next day via 

its northern side as the 109 

km-long 19th stage finishes 

with the climb to the famous 

Alpe d’Huez ski resort. 

Although a short stage, this 

could prove just as decisive 

as the 41 km individual time 

trial that will follow on the 

race’s penultimate day in 

Grenoble. 

Although time-trial 

specialists may again be 

wondering what they have 

done to annoy Prudhomme, 

one man that is happy 

with next year’s route 

is Luxembourger Andy 

Schleck, the younger of the 

two Schleck brothers and 

the man who came second to 

Spain’s Alberto Contador in 

the 2010 Tour. 

I’m not afraid of 

the traps of the first 

week. When I go to 

the Tour de France, 

it’s for winning - 

Andy Schleck 

“I like this course,” the 

youngest of the Schlecks 

said soon after the launch 

of the 2011 Tour de France 

in Paris. “The four uphill 

finishes suit me. Well, this 

year’s Tour did suit me as 

well. I can’t say the next 

one has been made for me, 

but it’s a Tour for climbers, 

so it’s good for me. The 

cobblestones made the 2010 

Tour de France special but 

that will be replaced by the 

wind in Vendée and Brittany. 

We have to remember that 

some riders have lost the 

Tour at the team time trial. 

I’m not afraid of the traps of 

the first week though. When 

I go to the Tour de France, 

it’s for winning.” 

This year’s runner-up 

refused to be drawn on the 

possibility that he could 

become the official winner 

of the 2010 Tour following 

Contador’s recent positive 

drugs test that is still under 

appeal. “This Tour is finished 

and I was second on the 

podium in Paris and that’s 

it,” he said. “It’s important 

for cycling to have a quick 

answer on that matter and 

it’s important for him as well 

but not for me. I hope that 

Alberto will be at the start 

next year. I want to compete 

against the best riders in the 

world. However, the Tour 

de France isn’t only about 

Alberto and myself. There 

are about fifteen riders who 

can win it.” 

Britain's Mark Cavendish, 

who currently rides for HTC 

Columbia but is increasingly 

being linked with his British 

colleagues at Team Sky, has 

won 15 stages over three 

Tours de France but may not 

find this year's route as much 

to his liking, with several 

sharp climbs littering the 

traditionally flat stages of the 

first week. More palatable 

for the Manxman is the 

repeat visit to Châteauroux 

for the finish of stage five, 

the town where Cavendish 

first tasted victory at the 

Tour on his way to four stage 

wins in 2008. 

The 2011 Tour will run 

from Saturday 2 nd to Sunday 

24 th July. ■ 

The 2011 Tour de France is scheduled to pass through Creuse 

9


10 ♦ FRENCH LIFE 

Wood burning 

winter warmth 

Following on from the last edition’s discussion about wood burning, Barry 

Creighton from Limousin based stove company Stove-Sellers looks at wood pellet 

stoves this month in the second round of his wood burning winter warmth trilogy... 

Wo o d 

b u r n i n g 

p e l l e t 

stoves are 

becoming 

increasingly popular in France 

at the moment as the prices of 

oil and gas soar. Even the cost 

of wood logs is on the increase 

as everybody turns to wood 

as a source of heating. But 

have you ever considered a 

pellet burning stove as a viable 

alternative to a wood burner or 

central heating system? This 

month we are going to look at 

these heating appliances and 

explain a little bit about what 

they are, how they work and 

how much they cost to buy and 

run, but first let’s explain what 

wood pellet stoves are. 

Pellet stoves use wood 

pellets which are around 

6-8mm in diameter and 

around 25mm in length. They 

are essentially made using 

compressed sawdust and have 

a very high calorific value 

compared to oil & gas. They 

can be bought in bags of 

15 kg or in bulk (Big Bags) 

weighing 1 tonne. You can 

buy a tonne of pellets from 

between €270 and €350 and 

you may need several tonnes 

a year depending 

on whether you 

have just a small 

pellet burning 

room heater 

or a much larger 

stove which can 

run all the central 

heating and domestic 

hot water needs of the 

largest properties. 

The big plus with a 

pellet burning stove is its 

controllability. Once you 

load the pellets into the 

stove you can set the desired 

temperature and the stove will 

do the rest for you. They are 

as controllable as a gas boiler 

but are much cheaper to run. 

Some models have a remote 

control enabling you to turn 

© 2009 - orangebrompton (Flickr) 

the heat up or down from the 

comfort of your armchair. 

They can also be programmed 

to come on several times a day 

and can even be activated from 

anywhere in the world using 

a mobile phone if the stove 

is linked to a GPRS 

module. This is 

great if you are 

a second home 

owner and want 

your heating to 

come on before 

you arrive at 

your property in 

France. You can 

activate your heating 

from the departure lounge of 

an airport and even deactivate 

it if your plane is delayed! 

Pellet stoves are ecofriendly 

too and you can 

benefit from the tax credit 

in France saving up to 40% 

off the cost of the stove if 

you have it professionally 

fitted. Pellet stoves are more 

expensive than wood burning 

stoves (prices start at around 

€1,500) but they can be easier 

and cheaper to fit than a wood 

burner, especially if you don’t 

have a chimney as they can 

be vented straight through an 

outside wall in some cases. If 

you are looking for a central 

heating solution then you can 

buy pellet stoves with boilers 

inside that can run all your 

central heating and domestic 

hot water needs. Prices for 

these are typically €2,500 

- €4,500 for a room heater 

stove with a back boiler fitted, 

although if you have a much 

larger property you may need 

a much larger commercial 

boiler with a large pellet 

storage reserve which will 

cost twice as much. However, 

they can be much easier and 

cheaper to install than a wood 

burning boiler system as all the 

components such as the pump 

etc. are fitted inside the stove 

so they are ready to connect up 

to your existing radiator circuit 

straight out of the box. In many 

cases you can just disconnect 

that old oil boiler and connect 

the pipes to a new modern 

and efficient pellet stove and 

enjoy all the benefits of using 

a renewable energy source for 

all your heating needs. You 

will need somewhere dry to 

store the pellets but for many 

of us this is not a problem 

as the vast majority of rural 

properties have outbuildings 

and barns. 

Compared to wood logs, 

pellets make an excellent 

alternative. They are cleaner, 

easier to store and easier 

to load into the stove than 

traditional logs, and if you 

use approved pellets you will 

find that you always get a 

consistent heat from them, 

unlike wood logs which have 

to be seasoned before you 

use them. You will no longer 

be at the mercy of your local 

woodman or farmer. Perhaps 

you have been tearing your hair 

out trying to get warm because 

you’ve been palmed off with 

wood of a dubious quality and 

we all know just how much 

difference good wood makes 

in a stove compared to damp 

and unseasoned wood. Pellets 

contain less than 10% moisture 

and most pellet burners are 

well over 90% efficient so 

there is very little ash left from 

burning pellets and the residue 

remaining is little more than 

dust. 

On the downside, however, 

there are a few cons to the 

pellet burning pros: 

• Pellet stoves need 

electricity to power their 

hardware, fans, controls and 

pellet feeders so if the power 

fails they cannot be used 

unless you have a back-up 

power source. 

• The fire created within the 

stove is very intense compared 

to a wood burner and not as 

attractive as a wood burner 

either so you would be unlikely 

to become mesmerised by 

watching the pellets burning as 

you can be with wood logs. 

• Pellet stoves do require 

more maintenance and regular 

cleaning than wood burners 

and you really need to have a 

professional fit one and service 

one for you (although this is 

also true with a wood burner). 

• Pellet stoves generate 

more noise than a wood burner 

when in operation as many of 

them have fans which blow hot 

air into the room. Most people 

learn to live with the noise, 

however, and after a while it 

becomes hardly noticeable. 

• A tonne of pellets generates 

as much heat as around 1 ½ 

cords of seasoned firewood and 

2 kilograms of pellets is the 

equivalent of 1 litre of heating 

oil. A 15 kg bag of pellets can 

cost around €4 - €4.80. Heating 

oil is a round €1 a litre and on 

the rise. The VAT in France for 

pellets is 5.5%. Most average 

homes will require 2, 3 or even 

4 tonnes of fuel in pellet form 

each season. It is easy to see 

why pellet stoves are much 

more cost effective to run than 

oil, gas and electric heating 

appliances but they may not 

always be cheaper than wood 

stoves to run, especially if you 

have your own supply of wood. 

If you’d like to know more 

about pellet burning stoves and 

wood pellets as a renewable 

sustainable fuel source why not 

take a look at the Stovesellers. 

com website and find out 

what pellet burning stove and 

boiler products are available 

for heating your property here 

in France. Stove-Sellers also 

supply wood pellets delivered 

to your door throughout the 

Limousin. 

In December’s issue we’ll 

be finishing off our wood 

burning winter warmer series 

by taking a look at the new 

generation of traditional cast 

iron wood burners and super 

boiler stoves just about to 

come onto the market here 

in France. These new stove 

beasts are tipped to take the 

market by storm when they 

are released with some models 

reputedly having outputs of 

up to 40kW! So if you are 

the owner of a larger property 

and need a big wood burner or 

wood central heating system 

but are on a bit of a budget, 

you will not want to miss a

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Hidden France 

Chambres d’hôtes 

Beautiful traditional old French 

farmhouse in the Creuse. 3 guest 

rooms incl a family room. 

Prices from €38/night 

Le Grand Villard 

23150, St-Hilaire-la-Plaine 

05.55.81.30.39 

www.hiddenfrance.co.uk 

SIRET: 479 965 758 00010 

The Linden House 

Self-catering gîte in Creuse 

Sleeps 6-8 

Prices from €250/week 

06.04.17.80.93 

www.thelindenhouse.eu 

info@thelindenhouse.eu 

La Petite Maison 

Beautiful 2-person gîte in 

the heart of Creuse. 

Perfect for house-hunters & 

holidaymakers alike. 

05.55.80.04.31 

www.la-petite-maison.eu 

sue@la-petite-maison.eu 

SIRET: 518 135 009 00018 

Accommodation 

Le Grand Bourg, Creuse 

Pretty village location. 

Rooms from €20 per night. 

45 mins from Limoges airport. 

Ideal for walking, cycling, fishing, 

househunting or simply relaxing 

05 55 81 08 96 

marklawrence@orange.fr 

Auberge Ourdeaux 

Chambres/Tables d’hôtes 

Alleyrat, nr Aubusson 

05.55.66.98.58- pg 13 

Animals & Pets 

Dog Holidays 

at Valhalla Farm 

5 Star Accommodation in 

our Home (Dept 23). 

4 Walks each day & lots of T.L.C. 

Contact Karen & Darren 

Tel: 09.64.37.68.87 

Mob: 06.28.48.68.93 

valhallafarm@hotmail.co.uk 

www.valhallafarm.org 

SIRET: 511 629 610 00011 

05.55.41.17.76 


The Caring Cattery 

Rochechouart 

05 55 03 76 87 / 06 30 02 35 73 

Only 30 mins from Limoges airport. 

A purpose built secure cattery. Large individual/ 

family units, tiled floors, shelving, adjoining outside 

areas. Heated, individual needs catered for. 

NEW - purpose built isolation unit. 

Certificate of Capacity. Contact Barbara: 

bdowning77@wanadoo.fr 

SIRET: 494 125 016 00019 

It couldn’t be easier to place an advert in The Bugle Business 

Directory and reach over 11,000 English speakers across Central 

France every month. Prices start from as little as €15 / month - 

that’s less than 50 cents a day! 

Your advert will also appear in our Online Business Directory 

free of charge: 

www.thebugle.eu/directory.php 

Contact us today and let us help you grow your business 

sales@thebugle.eu - 05.55.41.17.76 

La Petite Maison 

dans la Prairie 

Luxury dog kennels - Training 

Pension pour chien - Dressage 

Heated, insulated wooden chalets 

Supplier of Dog and Cat food 

Aliments pour chien et chats 

www.chenildanslaprairie.fr 

Tue - Sun 9h - 18h 

21 La Bussière, 23450 Fresselines 

TEL: 05 55 89 75 55 

06 68 66 69 84 / 08 75 23 93 20 

SIRET: 477 762 736 00015 

Champlong 

Chatterie 

Caring, quiet accommodation 

just for cats 

JUNCT 22 off A20, Arnac la Poste 

Alison & Ray 

Tel: 05 55 60 27 83 

champlongchatterie@me.com 

www.champlongchatterie.com 

SIRET: 520 896 671 00010 

The Orchard 

Kennels & Cattery 

Certificat de capacité 

Small & friendly, English run. 

Viewings welcome. 

Also available: 

Pet foods, treats & accessories 

Contact Dave Grant for details 

05 55 67 58 87 

www.the-orchard.eu 

siret: 504 584 228 00010 

DOG TRAINING 

Classes 

at Mézières-sur-Issoire (87330) 

Do you have a puppy that 

wants socialising? 

Do you need help with your 

dog's training? 

Ring MAUREEN SHELLEY 

(Kennel-Club Affiliate) 

05 55 60 46 37 

www.dogdomfrance.com 

SIRET: 515 110 823 00017 

This advert 

only 

€15/month 

Auto 

Services 

Mechanic 

Gary Singleton 

06.69.40.92.74 

See Display Ad - Pg 13 

Le Mécanique Anglais 

Based 87/24 - I can come to you 

05.53.62.50.46 


RING BILL! 

Registered Car Mechanic 

05.55.81.31.85 

See Display Ad - pg 8 

Pneumobile 

Mobile tyre 

fitting service 

Car/motorcycle/small commercial/ 

caravan/camping car 

Supply & fit any make/size 

Fitting only service available 

Puncture repairs/wheel balancing 

Laser tracking now available 

Very competitive rates 

Ring for a free quote: 

Tel 05 45 31 99 23 

SIRET: 521 827 618 00013 

Building 

Services 

Architectural 

Services 

Architectural Plans Drawn 

02.48.56.44.69 

See our Display Ad - Pg 3 

05.55.41.17.76 


Architectural 

DRAWING SERVICE 

Renovating your French property? 

New build? 

Dossiers prepared - Permis de Construire 

Déclarations Préalables 

Tel/Fax: 05 53 52 36 05 

lavieilleabbaye@orange.fr 

SIRET: 493 770 358 00015 

Building 

Services 

Carpenters/Joiners 

Le Charme 

De Chêne 

Handmade solid oak 

joinery and furniture 

Our joinery expertise includes barn 

doors, barn door frame openings, staircases, 

kitchens, windows & doors. 

We also make handmade furniture. 

Every item is bespoke and 

made to measure. 

Please visit our website for recent 

installations and references. 

www.lecharmedechene.com 

contactus@lecharmedechene.com 

02 54 25 65 08 

06 16 91 64 67 

SIRET: 510 156 763 00011 

C&C Carpentry 

Carpentry/Joinery/Renovation 

30 years experience 

Fully qualified 

Friendly reliable service 

Free estimates 

Please visit: 

www.limousincarpenter.com 

Tel: 05 55 68 35 79 

SIRET: 511 294 373 00010 

Advertisements in The Bugle Business Directory are available in two sizes: small (50mm x 43mm) and large (50mm x 66.5mm). They are available in black & white or colour. Prices 

are based on an annual contract (no TVA/ VAT applicable) as follows: Small b&w €180 (€15/m), Small colour €270 (€22.50/m), Large b&w €240 (€20/m), Large colour €360 (€30/m). 

A 10% discount is offered for full payment upfront. Alternatively, split payments are possible every 4 or 6 months. Shorter contracts may be available on request. 

For more information about taking out a Directory Advert, please contact us at sales@thebugle.eu or phone us on 05.55.41.17.76. 

Why not spotlight your business with one of our advertorials? 1/3 page, 2/3 page & Full page options available. Contact us for more information.

The Riverside Pub - Aubusson 

The Riverside Pub has 

been established in 

Aubusson for the last 

six years, starting as 

part of ‘Aubusson Riverside 

Holidays’. Overlooking the 

River Creuse, in the medieval 

heart of the town, it has 

always been a favourite spot 

with tourists and locals alike 

and soon became a popular 

watering hole. So when the 

opportunity arose to rent the bar 

and restaurant and start running 

our own business, we decided 

to leave the hustle and bustle 

of life in Saudi Arabia and 

move to France. It was always a 

Building 

Services 

Electricians 

Charles Hodencq 

Electricité Générale 

French Electrician - fluent English 

Speaker. Based in Bellac. For 

all your electrical needs - safety 

checks, re-wires & renovations 

06 24 27 01 86 / 05 55 68 62 26 

charleselec@gmail.com 

www.charleselec.eu 

Siret : 503 121 279 00015 

THE BUGLE 

DIRECTORY 

This colour advert 

costs just €22.50 

per month 

05.55.41.17.76 


ROGER & SON 

in Creuse 

English Speaking, French Artisans 

Qualified Electrician 

Repairs, Full Re-Wires, New Build 

Automated Systems Installation 

Experienced Builder 

All Masonry Works 

Plasterboarding 

Assistance with Architects, other 

trades and Permis de Construire 

English References Available 

05 55 41 43 56 

06 50 27 87 54 

the-poulpe@orange.fr 

No job too small - give us a call 

SIRET: 498 672 708 00019 

Please mention The 

Bugle when responding 

to adverts 

dream of ours to live in France, 

run our own business and live 

as self sufficiently as possible. 

With our permanent move to 

France, our 5 chickens and 

vegetable patch in the garden 

and the opening day at the pub 

on September 18, we realised 

all our dreams in one. 

The Riverside Pub, Bar 

and Restaurant is situated 

within easy walking distance 

of the heart of Aubusson, in 

a mid 19th century tapestry 

mill, charmingly converted 

into a cosy and appealing 

pub offering a relaxed 1950's 

style interior for lunch 

and evening meals. 

Our aim is to introduce a 

variety of different dishes 

for your dining experience, 

incorporating a selection of 

pub favourites including Fish 

and Chips, a healthy option of 

salads and grilled fish, as well as 

a tasty plat du jour and weekend 

specials such as Chicken 

Korma, Spaghetti Bolognaise 

or Steak and Guinness Pie. 

Robert Johnson 

ELECTRICIAN 

SIRET: 493 084 974 00010 

Registered in France since 2007 

AXA Décennale Insurance 

All works to normes NF C15-100 

● Fault finding ● Small Works 

● Complete rewires 

● Consuel certification arranged 

● Temporary EDF supplies arranged 

● Permanent EDF supplies arranged 

● Free quotations 

Mobile No: 06 50 63 65 29 

Email: robrjhnsn@aol.com 

Website: www.robjohnson.biz 

ELECTRICITE GENERALE 

COFFIN Laurent 

Speedy intervention 7/7 

Tous travaux électriques/All work 

undertaken 

Renovations – Installations – Repairs 


Français/Anglais parlé - Basé en Creuse 

05.55.64.04.40 / 06.08.84.29.51 

laurent.coffin@aliceadsl.fr 

SIRET: 485 369 979 00011 

THE BUGLE 

DIRECTORY 



per month 

05.55.41.17.76 


From early November, 

the Riverside Pub will also 

be able to cater for all kinds 

of events in the adjoining 

function room. Decorated with 

a subtle medieval theme, this 

room will soon be available 

at very reasonable rates, 

for private hire for birthday 

ADVERTORIAL 

ADVERTORIAL 

PIERCE 

ÉLECTRICITÉ 

WE COVER ALL TYPES OF ELECTRICAL 

WORK INCLUDING : 

● 3 PHASE ● AGRICULTURAL 

● SOLAR PANELS & GEOTHERMICS 

● ALARM SYSTEMS AND SATELLITES 

SUPPLIED AND FITTED 

WE ALSO SUPPLY SKY BOXES. ALL WORK 

UNDERTAKEN BY QUALIFIED TRADESMEN. 

CALL OUT SERVICE AVAILABLE 

05 55 60 81 67 

06 79 43 03 43 

pierceelectricite@hotmail.fr 

SIRET: 504 253 048 00012 

Building 

Services 

General 

BRC Renovations 

From full renovations to minor 

improvements, we can work in 

partnership with you, to make your 

dream home in France a reality. 

For a free quote please contact Brian 

05 55 76 21 60 / 06 83 72 94 24 

brcrenovations@googlemail.com 

SIRET: 510 742 711 00011 

parties, anniversaries, business 

lunches, seminars, Christmas 

parties etc. Please contact us on 

the telephone number below to 

book the function room for your 

next event. Catering options 

and Christmas menus will soon 

be available upon request. 

We would like to thank all our 

friends and family as well as the 

local businesses for making us 

feel so welcomed in Aubusson. 

It was a daunting prospect to 

start a new life for ourselves 

in France, with limited French 

language skills, so we have 

been very fortunate to have 

such helpful and friendly people 

supporting us throughout our 

journey. A special thank you 

to our wonderful neighbour 

and friend Julia Lockyear who 

accompanied us to several 

business meetings in Guéret, to 

Joelle Lafon from the Chambre 

de Commerce in Guéret for 

assisting us through the process 

of starting a business in Creuse 

and to Claudine from Café du 

Commerce for arranging the 

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 


La Coterie Entreprise 

Approved septic tank installer 

05.55.80.83.30 

www.lce23.com 

See front page of pull-out 

Eco Power 

Next generation Solar Systems 

www.ecopower.eu.com 

05.55.68.67.56 - Pg 11 

THE BUGLE 

DIRECTORY 

This large 

b&w advert 

costs just €20 

per month 

05.55.41.17.76 


Paul Roberts 

Mini-digger hire/driver 

www.digger23.com 

05.55.62.24.52- see pg 3 

Phillip Williamson 

Interior Renovations 

Honest, Reliable Tradesman 

● Plastering. Drylining. Studwork 

● Kitchens, Bathrooms, Doors & 

Windows fitted 

● Painting & Decorating etc. 

Competitive Rates – Call for a free quote 

Tel: 05.55.89.05.81 

philw2005@msn.com 

SIRET: 504 976 689 00019 

Sand and Blast 

Sandblasting & Floor Sander hire 

We provide a fully operated 

sandblasting service for wood, stone 

and metal. Perfect for stripping away 

years of grime or paint. 

Contact us for a free quote or see our 

website. 

www.sandandblast.com 

05.55.78.43.71 / 06.67.81.63.46 

steve@sandandblast.com 

SIRET: 488 522 921 00011 

DIRECTORY ♦ 

beautiful flowers for our open 

evening on October 9. 

We look forward to welcoming 

you to the Riverside Pub. 

Clare and Andy Osborne 

Our opening hours are: 

• Wed: 12h – 15h & 19h – 23h 

• Thur: 12h – 15h & 19h – 23h 

B3 

• Fri: 12h – 15h & 19h – 24h 

• Sat: 12h – 15h & 19h – 24h 

• Sun: 12h – 15h & 19h – 23h 

The Riverside Pub 

5 Rue de l'Abreuvoir, 23200 

Aubusson. 

Tel: 00 33 (0)6 85 89 10 66 

Website: www.riversidepub.eu 

Email: info@riversidepub.eu 

TBS Creuse 

Complete building 

& renovation service 

Taylors Building Services. 

Established in Creuse 

since 2002. 

Over 25 years experience. 

Visit our website to view 

our extensive photo gallery: 

www.tbscreuse.com 

05.55.80.86.34 

06.74.05.22.80 

info@tbscreuse.com 

See our Display Ad - pg 3 

SIRET: 477 556 468 00015 

Damp? 

Condensation? 

Wood Rot / 

Woodworm? 

Call Robert 

05 55 89 69 46 

SIRET: 503 169 237 00016 

Harlequin 

Developments 

05.55.68.67.56 

06.06.60.46.97 

All aspects of renovation and 

refurbishment, big or small, 

undertaken. Harlequin Developments 

are a System Partner for 

Ecopower, an established and 

respected renewable energy company 

based in the Dordogne. 

harlequindevelopments@live.com 

www.harlequindevelopments.com 

SIRET: 494.501.067.00016 

CONTINUED 

NEXT PAGE...



Building 

Services 

General 

BENSON PROPERTY SERVICES 

'Providing BUILDING and 

MAINTENANCE in and 

around the LIMOUSIN' 

● ROOFING ● PLUMBING 

● HEATING ● BUILDING 

● JOINERY ● CONVERSIONS 

● INSURANCE ● CHIMNEYS 

+33 (0) 555683830 

+ 33 (0) 675931954 

ptrtip@msn.com 

benson.vpweb.co.uk 

SIRET: 489 761 114 00011 

Petits Travaux 

Internal and 

External Work 

Small home renovation or repair 

Garden maintenance and 

landscaping 

We ensure fast, neat, quality 

work 

Stephen Toner - 05 55 66 98 58 

Graham Biggs - 05 55 66 98 47 

Email: petits-travaux@hotmail.co.uk 

Please call for a free devis. 

References available on request 

SIRET: 498 849 256 00017 / 512 370 941 00019 

Entreprise 

Hines 

Building & Renovation 

● Roofing - New & Repairs 

● Masonry 

● Plastering 

● Dry Lining 

● Sand Blasting 

● Equestrian Buildings 

● Digger/Scaffold Hire 

● ... and much, much more 

28 years qualified experience 

05.55.89.69.46 

www.entreprisehines.com 

robert.hines@orange.fr 

SIRET: 503 169 237 00016 

SJR 

Property Maintenance 

and Renovation 


● Plaster Boarding ● Dry Lining 

● Partitions ● Tape and Jointing ● Tiling 

● Kitchen/Bathroom Fitting 

● Decking and Patios ● Repointing 

0555638362 / 0626699559 

s_jreadman@hotmail.com 

SIRET: 520 824 392 00010 

RSW Entreprises 

Fosse Septique Specialist 

05.55.80.00.57 


GODSON 

Travaux Publics 

www.pilgrim23.com 

05.55.62.61.12 - pg 20 

Advertise your 

company here. 

This advert only 

costs €15/month 

Need A Pair Of Hands? 

I'm Your Man! 

General Handyman 

● Small building projects ● Patios 

● Velux ● Windows ● Tiling 

● Plasterboarding 

● Plumbing ● Garden Maintenance 

Prices from €15/hour! 

Call Barrie: 

05.55.02.66.58/06.76.09.68.37 

pbwpbw@hotmail.com 

SIRET: 501 338 230 00011 

Limousin Property Care 

Property Maintenance & Building 

05.55.81.19.61 


S.O.S. Brico Creuse 

Building & Garden Services 

05.55.62.16.70/05.55.80.83.49 


This advert 

only 

€15/month 

Chez Vous 

Fosse Septique installation 

and building renovations 

05.55.63.44.43 - Pg 12 

Masonry 

& More 

General building 

Renovation & maintenance 

Reliable, good quality work 

30 years exp 

Based central 23 - will travel 

Martin Sprague 

05 55 61 93 07 

martin_sprague_1@ hotmail.com 

SIRET: en cours 

THE BUGLE 

DIRECTORY 



per month 

05.55.41.17.76 


Building 

Services 

Plasterers 

« LE PLATRIER » 

Chris the Plasterer 

A genuine plasterer 

French and English spoken 

Traditional Plastering 

Rendering, Floor Screeding 

Stud partition dry lining 

Lime mortar stone pointing 

FOR A QUOTATION 

CALL 

05 55 63 53 06 

christopher.willis@orange.fr 

Le Bourg, 23360 Nouzerolles 

SIRET: 504 612 441 00015 

ALAN COOPER 

PLASTERING 

Small jobs no problem! 

Renovations 

Plasterboarding 

All Tiling 

Tel: 05 55 68 59 24 

Mob: 06 37 71 20 57 

cooperalan@hotmail.co.uk 

SIRET: 502 353 675 00015 

05.55.41.17.76 


Plasterer 

Platrier 

- Traditional Plastering 

- Rendering 

- Pointing 

- Stud Partition and dry 

lining 

- All work Insured and 

Guaranteed 

- Covering depts 87,16 and 

North 24 

Call: MARK CLOUGH 

Tel: 09.61.42.55.07 

Mobile: 06.43.17.30.51 

Email: mark-victoria@orange.fr 

SIRET: 512 763 178 00013 

THE BUGLE 

DIRECTORY 

This large 

b&w advert 


per month 

05.55.41.17.76 




to adverts 

Building 

Services 

Plumbers 

SIRET: 519 624 084 00017 

Building 

Services 

Property 

Management 

Limousin Property Care 

Property Maintenance & Building 

05.55.81.19.61 


INSIDE OUTSIDE 

Property & Garden 

Maintenance 

All the help you need maintaining 

your home, Inside and Out! 

Winter Services Include: 

TREE FELLING, LOG CUTTING, 

HEDGE TRIMMING, GROUND 

CLEARANCE & PROPERTY CHECKS 

For a competitive quote contact 

Natascha and Maxim Kay 

inside.outside23@yahoo.com 

05.55.63.84.60 

06.30.16.97.34 

SIRET: 521 171 561 00017 

Computers & 

Satellites 

Steve Pritchard Solutions 

Website design - PC support 

www.steve-pritchard.fr 


This advert 

only 

€15/month 

Creusetec 

Satellite Systems 

TV/Electronic repairs 

0033 (0)5 55 66 60 21 

Satellite Sales, Service, Installations. 

TV Receiver & Electronic Repairs. Dish 

alignments. Sky/Freesat/TNT/FTA Systems. 

Dept 23 & surrounding areas 

martin@creusetec.com 

http://www.creusetec.com 

SIRET: 510 117 328 00011 

Connect-Français 

Computer Problems? 

Limousin & Charente 

PC & Mac Internet Assistance 

WiFi, ADSL, Dial-up 

Helpdesk, Data retrieval 

Call Dave 

05.55.53.37.06 

david.paver@wanadoo.fr 

SIRET: 479 095 705 00014 

www.indre-it.com 

02.54.25.65.08 / 06.16.91.64.67 

NO FIX... then NO FEE !! 

We provide a fast and friendly service either 

at the client's home, via remote software or 

computers can be left with us and collected 

when the work is complete. 

We can manage the ordering and then 

installation of wireless broadband into your 

French home. 

We can assist in rebuilding your computer 

after a virus attack. 

PC healthchecks and optimization service. 

Virus , trojan , worm removal and protection. 

Backup or full disaster recovery installation 

and management. 

Hardware/software upgrades. 

Website and graphic design. 

Printer/scanner assistance. 

www.Comark.fr 

Personalised websites 

06.72.98.04.62 


Education 

English Assist 

Improve Your Child's English 

Grammar, Writing and Comprehension 

Qualified, experienced English teacher/examiner 

offers low-cost English lessons to National 

Curriculum/GCSE standards. Using free software, 

through your internet connection, I teach 

via an interactive on-screen whiteboard. 

Classes also available in Eymoutiers (87) 

05 55 64 53 41 

Email: english.assist@yahoo.co.uk 

Or visit www.englishassist.co.uk 

Gillian Harvey, BA (Hons) English, PGCE Education 






UK QUALIFIED TEACHER 

(Ex Deputy Head – Primary Level) 

As an experienced teacher who has 

worked with primary school children 

of all ages (including those with special 

educational needs) I am offering 

tuition in English and maths, either 

on a 1:1 basis or in small groups. 

To discuss your needs: 

Tel: 05 49 48 18 21 

or email franceswills@live.com 

Based 87/86 border 

Food & Drink 

La Récré 

Restaurant/Bar 

38, Rue de Limoges, 23150 Ahun 

05.55.62.56.44 

5 days a week 10am - 8pm 

Sun 10am -3pm, Wed 8am - 3pm 

Lunch Mon-Fri 12 - 2 

Food served all day incl Sat 

Evening/Sunday meals please reserve 

larecre.ahun@yahoo.co.uk 

www.larecre-ahun.com 

SIRET: 509 171 740 00012 

THE BUGLE 

DIRECTORY 

This large 

b&w advert 


per month 

05.55.41.17.76 


Au Bon Vivre 

Parnac, opposite the church 

Open 10h-22h for food, all day every day! 

4-course lunch menu + wine from ONLY €11 

Only 3 mins from A20 (junct 20) 

● Moules-Frites (1st weekend every month) 

● BBQ nights (every Tue evening) 

● Tête de Veau, 29th (for les Herolles) 

See our website for more details... 

www.aubonvivrerestaurant.com 

Tel: 02 54 24 83 31 

La Petite Fontaine 

15 Grande Rue, Le Dorat 

Café, Bar and Events Venue 

Lunch Menu 

Free WiFi 

Salad Bar 

05.55.60.29.74 

info@lapetitefontaine.com 

www.lapetitefontaine.com 

SIRET: 489 218 636 00012 


Chambres/Tables d’hôtes 

Alleyrat, nr Aubusson 

05.55.66.98.58 - pg 13 

JJ’s Cafe Bar 

Some customer quotes: 

‘...more than just a bar’ 

‘....a bit like Allo Allo and Cheers!’ 

Come and see for yourself! 

Open all week. 

39 Place du Champ de Foire 

36140, Aigurande 

02 54 06 30 77 

cafebarjj@yahoo.co.uk 

SIRET: 508 754 314 00013 

La ferme du Duc noir 

Free range, rare breed pork 

02.54.30.51.95 


Vetriano’s, Bellac 

Salon de Thé & Bistro 

06.42.54.24.26 

Tues - Fri: 09.30 - 17.00, Sun: 11.30 - 15.00 

Menu du jour €10 

served 12.00 - 14.00, Tues - Fri 

Outside catering - Hot and cold buffets 

From €7 per person, min 10 people. 

Please phone to discuss your requirements. 

SIRET: 488 369 224 00016 

The deadline for all 

advertising submissions 

is the 15th of 

the month for the 

following month's 

print edition. 

LES PAPILLONS 

Salon de Thé 

Menu du jour. 

Teas, coffees, cream teas 

and gateaux. 

Tue - Sat 10:00 - 5:30 

Mon & Sun Closed 

Jackie Cawtheray 

1 rue Pierre Chambord, Oradour-sur-Vayres 

Tel: 05 44 00 03 24 

SIRET: 510 986 490 00017 

Au Beau Rivage 

Hotel - Bar - Restaurant 

Busseau-sur-Creuse 

05.55.62.40.27 - pg 13 

Le P’tit 

Marchois 

Bar 

47 Grande Rue 

23260 Crocq 

SIREN: 508 665 692 

The Corner 

Shop 

Large range of British foods. 

Special orders can be catered for. 

Usually cheaper than the supermarkets!! 

5km west of Aubusson 

05.55.67.58.87 

SIRET: 504 584 228 00010 

Le Creusois 

Bar/Restaurant 

High quality British & French 

food at reasonable prices. Menu 

du Jour €12, Traditional Pub 

Food, Vegetarian dishes, childrens 

& snack menus also available 

05.55.63.90.79 

www.lecreusoisbistro.com 

SIREN: 483 988 853 

C’est cheese 

Find us at local markets selling a 

small and tasty selection of excellent 

quality english cheeses. 

Also available online. 

For more information, see our website: 

www.cestcheese.fr 

09.66.87.02.74 

cest.cheese@orange.fr 

SIREN: 409 679 578 

Andy & Clare's 

Riverside Pub 

Bar ~ Restaurant 

5 RUE DE L'ABREUVOIR, 23200 AUBUSSON 

Tel: 06 85 89 10 66 

Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat & Sun 

Lunch & Evening meals 

Plat du jour and events venue 

www.riversidepub.eu 

La Grange - Blond 

Bar/Restaurant 

05.55.60.72.85 


Garden Services 

Nicholson 

Aboriculture Services 

www.arbres24.com -Tree Surgeons 

05.53.56.73.86 - pg 13 

Garden Mowers 

Multi Services for your 

Home and Garden 

Landscaping/Gardens/Lakes. 

All aspects of Garden Creation 

and Maintenance covered. 

Hourly or Daily rates. 

05.55.53.56.68 

www.garden-mowers.com 

info@ garden-mowers.com 

SIREN: 478 984 529 

Atelier d'Art 

du Jardin 

Imaginative quality garden 

artwork made by craftsmen 

Tel: 05 55 81 31 85 

email: artdejardin@gmail.com 

www.atelierdartdujardin.net 


Gifts & Crafts 

The Exchange 

Rochechouart 

SECOND HAND BOOK SHOP. GREAT 

SELECTION OF GIFTS, CARDS, CANDLES 

AND HAND-CRAFTED PRODUCTS 

Tue 2.30pm - 5pm 

Thu, Fri, Sat 9:15-12 & 2:30-5pm 

Sat 9 - 12 

05 55 78 19 24 

www.theexchangerochechouart.com 

9 rue Dr Charles Poitevin 

SIRET 484 479 480 00010 

Soie et Bois 

Depot Vente des Vêtements 

Dress agency and gallery, specialising 

in designer and high quality pre-owned 

clothes for women and children, together 

with accessories, footwear, jewellery, gift 

items, and hand made furniture. 

4 rue Principale, St Mathieu, 87440 

turneramandajane@gmail.com 

www.soiebois.com 

Tel: 05.55 48.28.89 

SIRET: 510 995 681 00010 

Indypindy 

Couture 

Couturière, Styliste, 

Tailleur 

● Couture and design 

● Made to measure service 

● Home furnishings 

● Curtains and loose covers 

● Upholstery service 

Anything from a new zip 

to a wedding gown! 

19 pl. Charles de Gaulle, 87210 Le Dorat 

06.83.15.42.84 

rae.streets@bbox.fr 

SIRET: 498 924 141 00019 

Comme à la 

Maison 

Bric à Brac at Soumans 

Looking for something special for your 

home? Come take a look: 

● Crockery ● Home furnishings 

● Porcelain ● Antiques ● ...much more 

Tue-Fri 10h-12h & 14h-16h30 

Sat-Sun 10h-16h30 

Rue du Champ de Foire, 23600 SOUMANS 

Tel: 06.98.63.43.35 

Handholding 

Services 

Your Link in France 

Handholding Service 

www.your-link-in-france.com 

05.55.82.03.41- pg 14 

DIRECTORY ♦ 

B5 

SERVICES OWEN 

FRENCH TRANSLATION 

AND ADVISORY SERVICE 

● Translation of documents 

● Applications for building permits 

● Driving documents 

● Connection of services 

● Dealing with French authorities 

● Cartes Vitales 

● Advice on buying and selling 

property 

● Computer lessons also available 

in English or French 

Tel: 02 54 24 84 53 

Mob: 06 74 80 66 02 

E-mail: services.owen@orange.fr 

SIRET: 449 827 625 00038 

Health 

& Beauty 

La Petite Place 

Hair salon, Le Dorat 

05.55.60.87.37 


Ladies, fancy having 

a pamper? 

Invite your friends round and 

have a free facial. 

See and sample the beautiful 

products. 

Skincare, make-up, 

jewellery and homewares. 

Vie at home 

05 55 03 79 23 

vanessajwhyte@aol.com 

AVON 

05.87.00.40.65 / 06.33.90.07.58 

Looking for the perfect parttime, 

flexible job? Avon could 

just be the answer. Have fun, 

meet people and earn money. 

Full training and support given. 

Opportunities for promotion. 

pat.rumble@gmail.com 

Santé et Beauté 

Beauty and Holistic 

Therapy Salon 

● UK trained and qualified Sports 

Therapist 

● Well Established Salon. 

● Full Body, Back, Neck & Shoulders, 

Indian Head, Reflexology etc 

● Waxing, Manicure, Beauté des 

Pieds, Tinting, Ear Piercing etc 

● Products and Gift Vouchers available 

● Loyalty Cards 

Tue-Fri 9am-12pm & 2pm-6pm 

Sat 9am-2pm 

www.limousinbeautysalon.com 

05 55 00 92 97 

3, Rue Principale, 87740 St-Mathieu 

winston.clarke@orange.fr 

SIRET: 493 871 826 00019 

CONTINUED 

NEXT PAGE... 








Health 

& Beauty 

Helen Bernard 

Mobile Hairdressing 

& Beauty 

● Ladies and Mens hairdressing 

● Eye lash & Eyebrow Tinting 

● Eyebrow shaping ● Waxing 

● Manicure ● Pedicure 

● Wedding day packages 

Depts 19 & 87 

Tel: 06 19 58 21 19 

Visit my website for a full price list 

www.helencoiffeuse.info 

Siret 510 489 701 00019 



to adverts 

Household 

Services 

Jan Can Clean 

Domestic Cleaning Service 

Fed up with housework and ironing? 

Domestic Goddess available for all 

those chores you hate to do! 

Regular slots available, or just call 

when you need that extra pair of hands. 

Areas covered: Confolens/Bellac/St Junien 

05.45.84.27.30 

jancanclean@hotmail.com 

SIRET: 521 520 411 00013 

Language 

Services 

Jaboton 

French lessons 

Translations 

English to French 

French to English 

Monique DUMASDELAGE 

La Traverse, 87800 La Roche L’Abeille 

(nr St-Yrieix-la-Perche) 

06 79 31 93 98 

SIREN: 523 871 853 

Online 

Shopping 

BLT Shopping 

www.shopping.blt-removals.co.uk 

+44 7900 404 876 


D & S Shopping 

Services 

05.55.50.30.09 


La Maison Shopping 

4 weekly trips to/from UK 

0033 555 414 688 


Transport 

& Removals 

P & S 

Removals Ltd 

(0033) 02 54 47 14 08 

(0044) 01227 713 738 

info@pandsremovals.co.uk 

www.pandsremovals.co.uk 

Friendly, professional company, 

competitive rates. £25,000 Goods in 

Transit Insurance included as standard. 

Containerised storage. Weekly runs to 

France. Free quotation. 

Transit Man 

Man with van for hire 

Collection/deliveries 

Large purchase runs 

Furniture transport 

No object too small 

No distance too great! 

France/UK/Spain 

Based in Dept 23 Creuse 

05 55 83 02 77 / 06 81 33 07 15 

jonathanpiddock@orange.fr 

SIRET: 523 955 151 00015 

General 


All types of English & French furniture 

05.55.83.14.47 


Jewellery 

Making Courses 

Learn how to make stunning 

jewellery and stay at 

our beautiful B&B 

www.hiddenfrance.co.uk 

05.55.81.30.39 

SIRET: 479 965 758 00010 

Stove Sellers 

www.stovesellers.com 

05.55.63.78.72 


Furniture in France 

05.49.83.03.71 

www.famousfurnitureinfrance.com 


Roctroc 

Dress Agency 

for women 

Dépôt-vente 

Vêtements d’occasion 

Specialising in quality secondhand 

& vintage clothing. 

Smart-casual, evening and 

special occasion wear. 

Shoes, bags, hats, jewellery and 

gift items. 

Gift tokens available. 

Catherine Rowland 

Email: roctroc@sfr.fr 

4 rue Vaveix, 23200 Aubusson 

Tue-Thu 2-7pm, Fri-Sat 10-12, 2-6pm 

Tel: 06 34 95 78 47 

Siren: 521 640 623 

Picture framing 

Encadrement d’Art 

1 Rue du 19 Mars 1962 

87150 Oradour sur Vayres 

Framers to La Galerie de Gabriel 

Very reasonable rates 

Attention to detail 

05 55 49 83 86 

nicktesswigg@yahoo.co.uk 

Siret : 493 883 623 00016 

BOXWOOD DESIGNS 

● Soft furnishing (including curtains, 

blinds, headboards and cushions) 

● Upholstery and chair caning. 

● No job too small! 

To discuss your individual needs 

please call Frances Wills on: 

05 49 48 18 21 

or email franceswills@live.com 

Based 87/86 border 

SIRET: 527 481 097 00014 

Jon the Carpet Man 

Carpets & Flooring 

05.55.73.63.16 


Limousin Sales 

Sale room in Haute-Vienne 

www.limousinsales.com 

05.55.60.44.95 - pg 14 

Sparks Portraits 

www.sparksportraitpix.com 


Houses on Internet 

www.housesoninternet.com 

05.55.65.12.19 


www.NearlyHeaven.com 

English-language flying lessons 

05.55.48.17.50 


WIN FREE FLIGHTS TO THE UK 

◊ 1 pair of return flights to be won 

◊ Choose from 2 routes: Brive - Manchester or Bergerac - Leeds 

◊ One item of free checked baggage per person 

To be in with a chance to win this fantastic prize, simply send 

an email to competitions@thebugle.eu. Include the words 

"FREE FLIGHTS" in the subject line and give us your suggestion 

for a change or improvement you would like 

to see made to The Bugle. The winner will 

be drawn at random from all entrants when the 

competition closes on 30th November 2010. 

05.55.41.17.76 


Framptons Frozen Foods 

06.12.15.66.03 

www.framptons-frozen-foods-france.com 


The Bugle has teamed up with Jet2 to offer our readers the chance to win 2 return tickets to the UK 

BUGLE 

EXCLUSIVE!! 

* The Bugle will keep all data private. Email addresses collected will only be used to contact the winner. 

Jet2.com, the leading friendly low fare airline has recently launched flights from Brive Airport to the dynamic city of Manchester. Flights 

are on sale now and will start in May 2011 with fares starting at just 40,99€ (one way inc taxes). Jet2.com also flies from Bergerac to Leeds, 

in the heart of Yorkshire. Flights for both routes will operate twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays. 

Jet2.com offers a number of advantages including allocated seats, a generous luggage allowance of 22kg and the opportunity to earn points 

for free flights with the loyalty scheme – myJet2.com. 

For more information, timetables and to book please visit www.jet2.com 

Terms & Conditions: Flights are subject to availability and may not be taken at peak periods such as Christmas, New Year and Bank/School Holidays. A restricted number of free seats are available per flight, Jet2.com reserve the right 

to offer an alternative date/destination to the one offered if this allocation is met. Flights must be booked by and taken by dates as specified by Jet2.com. Changes to names and travel dates are subject to the standard change fee plus any 

difference in fare as outlined in the airline’s general terms and conditions of carriage, which can be found on www.jet2.com. Flights may be changed or cancelled by the airline for administrative reasons without prior notice. In accordance 

with our terms and conditions Jet2.com’s schedules are not guaranteed. Any changes will be notified via email. One item of checked baggage is included per person. Flights may not be exchanged for cash and may only be taken by the 

competition winner along with one other traveller. Flights must be taken at the same time and are non-transferable. Jet2.com recommends that you take out your own insurance as this is not included in this prize. You must have a valid 

email address to claim this prize. Prize automatically expires two years after issue unless otherwise specified. Up to date competition terms and conditions may be found online at www.jet2.com/promotions.

FOR SALE: Baby Ferrets Born 

May - ready now. €60 each or barter 

for equivalent value of hay or straw. 

Feel free to visit these adorable little 

animals.Contact us for photos or to 

arrange a visit. Based near Dun-le- 

Palestel €60.00 Tel: 05.55.89.98.47 

Email: theoddcouple@gmail.com 

FOR SALE: Dutch Oak Double 

Wardrobe Double Wardrobe with 

two bottom drawers. Has three solid 

oak shelves for use as a storage 

cupboard which are removable 

for use as wardrobe. Very large 

and heavy. Comes in three parts. 

Must collect. Good condition. 

Priced for quick sale. €400.00 Tel: 

05.53.60.31.10 or 

Email: hazelstuart@hotmail.com 

FOR SALE: Double One Piece 

Wardrobe Double one piece 

wardrobe with curved top in 

Dutch Oak. Good condition. Very 

heavy solid wood. Has removable 

shelves. Must collect. €380.00 

Tel: 05.53.60.31.10 or Email: 

hazelstuart11@hotmail.com 

FOR SALE: Assorted TV/Hi-Fi 

Equipment Sky Free View Box: 

€30. Daewoo Hi-Fi Speakers: €10. 

Neon DVD Player (No remote – dog 

ate it!): €5. Logitech R20 Computer 

Speakers: €10. Schaub Lorenz CD 

Digital Audio: €20. Tel: 05 55 62 29 

68 (Benevent L’ Abbaye). 

E Mail: pete.wakefield@orange.fr 

FOR SALE: EPSON PICTURE 

MATE Why not print your Xmas 

photos on your own EPSON 

PICTURE MATE? Excellent 

condition. We are in dept 23. €55 

Tel: 05 55 62 77 41 

FOR SALE: George Foreman 

Grilling Machine 2 positions. As 

new, with instruction book. 

€15.00 Telephone: 05 55 60 22 27 

FOR SALE: Peugeot 406 Diesel 

Estate S-Reg. Tax and MOT. 

Good running order.€850.00 Tel: 

05.55.65.84.95 

WANTED: Teacher wanted 

for English boy. Aged 9. Part- 

time. Retired welcome. Tel: 

05.55.65.84.95 

FOR SALE: WOODTURNING 

EQUIPMENT 

• Large lathe (turns up to 45cm 

diameter easily) complete with 

Supernova Chuck. • Demonstration 

Lathe (less than 2 years old and 

hardly used) complete with Oneway 

chuck. • Full set of accessory chuck 

jaws which fit both chucks. • Large 

collection of different gouges and 

chisels (some new and unused). • 

Number of boxes of turned objects, 

ready to sell. • Dust extracter. • 

Large collection of bowl blanks, 

and other pieces of rare wood, ready 

to turn. • Many new parts ready to 

use in your own projects (e.g. brass 

candlestick inserts). • Collection 

of Woodturning magazines, and 

some woodturning books (first 

editions). • Many other accessories 

and essential tools for turning.All 

equipment is of a high quality, not 

to be confused with cheap lathes & 

tools often available. For sale due to 

health problems. May exchange for 

tractor or old/interesting motor bike. 

€1,500.00 Tel 05.55.78.17.76 or 

email graham.shepherd@orange.fr 

FOR SALE: Ladies Beautiful 

Black "Dennis Basso" 3/4 Length 

Suede Coat Size XXXL. Worn once 

only. Black Furry Lining, collar 

and cuffs. 100% Genuine Leather 

and Lining 100% Modacrylic. Cost 

£120, will accept 60 Euros. 

€60.00 Tel 05 65 31 20 10. 

17 miles north of Cahors. 

FOR SALE: Long black leather 

riding boots Size 7. Length 19" 

49.5cm. Calf 14" 35.5cm. Knee 13" 

35cm. La Souterraine area.€150.00 

Call Judy 05.55.89.12.96(eve) or 

email wildlifegardens@orange.fr 

FOR SALE: Harry Hall 

Herringbone Show Jacket Single 

vent. Would suit tall female. Size 

36" 92cm.La Souterraine area. 

€125.00 Call Judy 05.55.89.12.96 

(eve) or email wildlifegardens@ 

gmail.com or call 07788 900520 

(English mobile) 

FOR SALE: Godin cuisinière 

(similar to Rayburn) Only lit 3 

times. Oven and top unused. White. 

Cost €2000 new. Can deliver to 

Limousin. Will consider offers/ 

swapping for other items 

€1,400.00 ono Tel: 05.55.33.43.46 

Free To Collect... Brother Knitting 

Machine KH 830 (needs a new 

sponge bar) and 2 Ribbers plus table, 

packs of new needles, spares, punch 

cards, books, patterns, transfer 

carriage, wool winder etc. etc. Ideal 

for anyone wanting to have a go at 

knitting, for spares or ebay seller. 17 

miles north of Cahors, Region 46. 

Telephone 05 65 31 20 10 

FOR SALE: Hague Linker 

Machine For sewing up knitted 

garments/fabrics. Excellent 

condition. Buyer collects.€40.00 

Telephone 05 65 31 20 10 

FOR SALE: DOUBLE BED 

(140cm x 190cm) Base, Mattress 

and Legs. Epeda Multispire 

mattress,Epeda Multilatt base 

and 15cm wooden legs. Excellent 

condition, rarely used. €250.00 ono 

Email: peter@haddens.eu or call: 

Peter or Chris on 05 55 66 44 29 

WANTED: Work for Project 

Manager Semi retired English 

Project/Design Manager now living 

in 36 region and actively seeking 

either full or part-time involvement 

in construction projects either 

residential or commercial. Have 

comprehensive C.V. that I can 

forward by e.mail or post. I can take 

on any project from the outset to 

completion, co-ordinating the design 

and trades on site, being responsible 

for obtaining competitive tenders, 

the agreed cost plan/budget, the 

agreed programme and quality of 

the end product. Contact Richard 

Noble 02 54 24 00 38 e.mail 

rejnoble@hotmail.co.uk 

WANTED: Work Work needed 

for English man. 48 years old. Ex 

licenced taxi driver in Sevenoaks, 

Kent, England. Looking for work 

in France in the area of Bonnat 

near Guéret dept 23. Willing to try 

anything. Currently caring for sick 

wife. Call Nigel on 06 04 46 73 92 

WANTED: Male, 40, looking for 

work Lived nr Bellac for 6 years 

so have very good knowledge 

of area. Above average French 

speaking but not fluent. All types 

of work considered. Will accept 

cheque d'emploi or short term 

contracts. Jack of all trades master 

of none. Car available. Clean French 

driving license. Willing to travel 

maximum of 50 kms on a daily 

basis. Tel: 05 55 60 70 12 or Email: 

jamiebuckley_9@msn.com 

FOR SALE: Set of 4 70’s style 

dining chairs In fair to good 

condition, the seats have been 

recovered in brown velor type 

material. The chairs would benefit 

from a quick coat of varnish as one 

of them was always left near the 

central heating radiator. 

€30.00 Tel: 05 55 03 28 18 

FOR SALE: Two Canon Pixma 

ink cartridges 510 Black and 

511 Colour cartridges, suitable 

for Pixma series MP240/MP260/ 

MP480/MX320/MX330. Bought in 

error. €15.00 Tel: 05 55 03 28 18 

FOR SALE: Ronseal Diamond 

Hard Floor Varnish Antique Pine 2 

1/2 litres. 25 euros. Normally costs 

£39.95 in the UK. €25.00 Tel: 05 55 

03 15 82 


DIRECTORY ♦ 

The Bugle CLASSIFIEDS are brought to you in association with 

Classified Adverts 

Classified adverts are currently free for all small 

items (less than €500). 

For other types of classified adverts a small fee 

does apply: 

● Items less than €500 are FREE! 

● Items more than €500 are charged at €5 per 

month, with an extra €2.50 for an accompanying 

photo. 

To place a classified advert 

please phone: 

05.55.41.17.76 

or email 

notices@thebugle.eu 

with the details you would like included in your 

advert, together with a photo if applicable. 

WANTED: A place to exhibit sculpture 

French female sculptor, recently installed 

in La Châtre, is looking for a free place 

to exhibit her work: 25 individual pieces 

sculpted in wood and various stones. 

Size: 20 cm to 1m 50 

All offers considered (restaurant, hotel...) 

For further information contact Anne- 

Sophie on 02.54.31.49.12 

These works can be seen at: 

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnneSophieMenant.sculpture 

WWW.HOUSESONINTERNET.COM 

orange.fr 

FOR SALE: Golfer's Starters 

Pack Components practically as 

new condition. Includes:- Kasco 

Bag, folding trolley, 1 Impala 3 

Wood, 9 Impala Irons, 2 Putters, 

brolly, pair leather shoes (size 7), 

2 doz asst balls, umpteen tees... 

BARGAIN!! €150.00 Tel: 05 55 60 

22 27 or Email: mcdade.thomas@ 

neuf.fr 

FOR SALE: Motorcycle helmet 

'TNT' open face with visor, size 

XL (61-62cm), black and orange, 

hardly worn. 

€30.00 Contact: 05 55 68 58 16 

FOR SALE: Oil-fired central 

heating and hot water system 

Fully equipped, with 'Cuenod' 

burner and 1450 litre oil storage 

tank. 

€300.00 Contact: 05 55 68 58 16 

FOR SALE: Black mesh fire 

screen 120cm wide, with 3 hinged 

sections 30 cm-60 cm-30 cm wide 

x 65cm high. Excellent condition, 

as new. 

€80.00 ono Contact: 05 55 68 58 16 

FOR SALE: TV stand 3 shelf 

black glass TV stand. Size: 110 

cm long, 40 cm wide, 50 cm high. 

€60.00 Tel 05.45.85.97.27 

Free to a good home... Two 

cats (mother and daughter) are 

looking for a new home due to 

relocation to England. Please call 

05.55.64.18.33 

FOR SALE: Ford Focus Estate 

TDCI 1.8LX 2003 RHD, French 

reg, 142,000 miles, black, tow 

bar, new cam belt & rear brakes 

fitted in March 2010, CT'd in 

June 2010. €2,000.00 Please call 

05.55.67.58.87 

FOR SALE: Shower tray 

(porcelaine) 70 x 70 cms, single 

pivoting shower door and basin 

(to be inset or posed). €80.00 

E-mail: 

sermur2002@yahoo.co.uk 

WANTED: Part-time Work 

20-year-old English woman looking 

for part-time work doing cleaning, 

housesitting for people going to 

work or on holidays. I only want 

work in the Centre of France, the 

Indre region.Full driving licence 

and a car. 13 euros per hour.I have 

previous experience in England 

and good recommendations from 

French and English people. 

Tel - 02 54 25 37 69 

FOR SALE: COMPAQ 

PRESARIO DESKTOP 

COMPUTER Four years old, 

AMD Athlon 64 processor, 

70Gb hard disk, 448 Kb RAM. 

Also includes Xerox 17" screen, 

QWERTY keyboard and mouse and 

Epson Stylus Photo RX600 printer. 

All in good working order except 

the small LCD screen on the printer. 

Sale due to upgrade. €175.00 Email 

peter@haddens.eu or call: Peter 

or Chris on 05 55 66 44 29 

FOR SALE: Peugeot 307 Estate 

2005 (RHD) CT Nov 2012. 

Serviced by local mechanic.New 

Turbo, catalytic converter and 

tyres. Comes with CD player, 

electric windows and aircon. 

Very good condition. Priced 

for a quick sale. €4,300.00 ono 

Tel: 05.55.68.39.21 (daytime) 

05.55.68.06.41 (evenings) 

WANTED: Mains-operated 

cassette deck DOES ANYONE 

HAVE a mains-operated cassette 

deck in good working order that 

they would like to sell to me? 

E-mail alessandrabartlett@ 

FOR SALE: Large lot of 

Terracotta Pots Please see www. 

thebugle.eu/classifieds.php for more 

details. €150.00 the lot. Please 

email david.coburn@orange.fr or 

call 06 28 56 90 61 

FOR SALE: Renault Megane 

1.9 turbo Diesel Full CT. Good 

condition. Year 2000. Left hand 

drive. French registered. €3,350.00 

ono Tel 05.55.78.19.24 

FOR SALE: ANTIQUE DOG 

CART Probably for carrying 

children, could be used to display 

flowers. In metal and wood. €85.00 

Please email: 


FOR SALE: DAY BED Single day 

bed with ornate decoration. Mattress 

attached, castors, fold-up style. 

Measures 90 x 195 cms €60.00 

Please email: 


FOR SALE: ROUND WOODEN 

TABLE Wooden table painted white 

- diameter 110cms €45.00 Please 

email: sermur2002@yahoo.co.uk 

FOR SALE: DOG BASKET IN 

WILLOW Large dog basket 1 

metre x 80cms - our dog refuses to 

go anywhere near it! Hence totally 

unused. €45.00 Please email: 


FOR SALE: RATTAN CHAIRS 

AND TABLE Two rattan chairs and 

a rattan table. The chairs are folding, 

have foot-rests and can be reclined. 

Table: 80cms diameter €90.00 

Please email: sermur2002@ 

yahoo.co.uk 

FOR SALE: SHREDDER ALKO 

2400R Only used once€85.00 

Please email: sermur2002@ 

yahoo.co.uk 

FOR SALE: 1993 (L Reg) BMW 

5 Series 2.5 Turbo Diesel Touring 

Estate Driven from UK. For spares, 

as diesel pump is gone in diesel tank. 

Superb gearbox, engine and turbo. 

Many other good parts. Buyer collects 

(36800 Oulches) €300.00 ono Tel: 

+44 (0)7195 866 305 (Keith) 

FOR SALE: Various lamp bases 2 

celadon crackle effect bases. 46c H x 

22c W. 35 euros ea.Green lamp base. 

43c H x 26c W. 20 euros.Blue lamp 

base. 43c H x 23c W. 20 euros.Call 

Mike 09 50 49 33 04 or email for 

more photos walsh515@gmail.com 

FOR SALE: Souffle d’Ocre by 

Siguier dining table and 4 chairs 

110cm round x 75cm high table 

with extra leaf 110cm x 40cm with 

4 chairs. €500.00 ono Call Mike 

09 50 49 33 04 or email for more 

photos: walsh515@gmail.com 

FOR SALE: Driza-Bone Original 

Wax Full Length Coat As new. 75 

euros. Size as label L 110 cm.€75.00 

Call Mike 09 50 49 33 04 or email 

for more photos walsh515@gmail. 

com 

FOR SALE: Breeding pair of 

large pigs The boar is a Pichon. 

The sow is a Great White and has 

just had a litter of 11 earlier on 

in the year.Price €300 to a good 

home.€300.00 Contact Rose or 

Steve on 05.55.41.20.66 

FOR SALE: Various 2 De-Longhi 

2000 watt oil filled radiators with 

thermostat. Unused. 35€ each. 

B7 

General Electric de-humidifier/ 

air cleaner/ionizer. Unused 75€. 2 

mirror finished lamp stands. 25€ 

each.New white ceramic square 

bathroom sink 35€. 2 teak garden 

steamer chairs 25€ each. Invicta 

inset wood burning stove. Used 3 

months only 100€. All in excellent 

condition.Tel 05 55 67 15 08 

FOR SALE: Marks & Spencer 

cherry display cabinet 2 glass 

doors. 4 drawers. Cost over £1000. 

Immaculate condition. Offers 

invited.Tel 05 55 67 15 08 

Three little kittens... ..need a home. 

They are:- beautiful (photos can 

be sent) - 6-7 weeks old - black, 

black with a white bib and paws 

and black & white - friendly, purr 

when handled - just starting to 

eat proper foodFor collection just 

into the Charente, 10 mins from 

Rochechouart.If you know of 

anyone who would like one, two or 

all three, please get in touch with 

Rob or Justine on 05 45 21 61 57 

FOR SALE: Soplair caravan 

awning - Brand new & Complete 

Suits Homecar 43 racer, or Hobby. 

Information or to view, please 

call.€500.00 05.55.67.37.60 

FOR SALE: Bread maker 

French model. Used once.€20.00 

ono05.55.67.37.60 

FOR SALE: Computer Desk 

Work station style. VGC. 78 cm 

x 66 cm, 82 cm high.€20.00 Tel: 

02.54.30.59.78 

FOR SALE: Mahogany Table 

Dining table (antique). Square (90 

cm), 77 cm high, centre pedestal, 

brass feet, casters.€150.00 Tel: 

02.54.30.59.78 

FOR SALE: Mahogany Table 

Round coffee table (traditional). 

Dimensions: 1m diameter, 56 cm 

high, with four legs, brass feet, 

centre pedestal.€150.00 

Tel: 02.54.30.59.78 

FOR SALE: Mobile home - 30ft 

x 10ft Reasonable condition for 

age but boiler not working. Please 

telephone for more info.€500.00 

onoTel: 05 55 57 11 87 

FOR SALE: Building Plot near 

Chenerailles Good level plot, 

planning permision, electric/water 

very close. 1,735 m2. 

€10,500 - Tel: 05 55 62 77 41 

WANTED: Pool Cover 10m x 6m 

minimum Good condition please. 

05 55 00 07 90 

FOR SALE: 50 Limited Edition 

Plates As new, with authenticity 

certificates, including complete sets. 

€5 each or €195 total collection. 05 

55 60 22 27 

FOR SALE: Round Intex pool 

cover 457cm diameter (15') Brand 

new (too small for our pool).€35.00 

05.55.67.58.87 

FOR SALE: 2 x Left Hand Drive 

Renault Megane Headlights From 

a 1999 Megane Hatch. Excellent 

Condition.€80.00 onoTel: 05 55 81 

30 39 

Submissions 

deadline for all 

Classified 

Adverts is the 

15th of the 

month 


05.55.41.17.76



The Bugle CLASSIFIEDS are brought to you in association with 

Bugle Properties 

• Properties for sale 

• Businesses for sale 

• Properties for long-term and 

short-term rent 

Properties or Businesses for rent or sale are charged at 

€12.50 for a (max) 75 word advert, with an extra €5 for an 

accompanying photo. 

05.55.41.17.76 

or email 


with the details you would like included in your 

advert, together with a photo if applicable. 

PROPERTIES TO LET 

Large 2-storey farmhouse 

10 minutes from Felletin 

Lovely view over the valley. Quiet location. 

3 bedrooms upstairs with large modern 

bathroom and separate changing room. Bath 

and separate shower with WC. 

Downstairs is a large open plan living, dining 

and kitchen area. 

Good heating system with extra wood heater 

and cuisinière. 

Available fully furnished or unfurnished. 

€ 390/month (6, 12, or 18+ mths) 

Holiday lets are also available. 

For viewings: Sophie Arsac - 0555891574. 

or email pilihp_9@hotmail.com 

Gite for rent 

(near Aubusson) 

Three bedrooms: two double and one 

with three single beds, two bathrooms, 

kitchen, lounge, dining room & sunroom, 

parking and small garden, Sky TV, 

washing machine & dishwasher. All fully 

furnished for short or long term rent. 

Tel: 05 55 67 58 87 

FLAT TO LET 

ORADOUR-SUR-VAYRES 

Warm furnished modern one bedroom 

flat to rent. 

Includes water, electricity, 

heating and broadband 

with under cover parking. 

Long Stay - €320 per month 

Short Stay - €100 per week 

Contact: Nick or Tessa Wiggins 

05 55 49 83 86 

To Rent 

2 bedroom gite for up to 

7 months. Central heated, 

Godin log burners, fully 

equipped and furnished. 

Superb rural location in 

the Ambazac forests. 

www.grandmontgites.com 

Gite available 

6 months Oct-Mar 

2 bedrooms, open-plan 

kitchen/living/dining area, 

shower-room, small courtyard. 

Bénévent-l'Abbaye 

€320/month excl. utilities 

Photos on www.pilgrim23.com 

Tel: 05.55.62.61.12 

WWW.HOUSESONINTERNET.COM 

BUSINESSES 

FOR SALE 

Successful Bed & 

Breakfast in Chénérailles 

It has three large letting rooms all with ensuite. 

Large family room with two rooms and 

en-suite. Dining room/Breakfast room. Good 

sized utility room. Newly fitted kitchen to a 

high spec. Large apartment on second floor 

for owners. Rooms to renovate. Enclosed 

courtyard garden. Garage availble to rent. 

€160,000 

Tel: 05 55 62 91 97 

Email: grandemaison-chenerailles@orange.fr 

www.grandemaison-chenerailles.com 

Reach 11,000 

potential buyers 

or tenants for 

only €12.50 / 

month 

(+ €5 for an 

optional photo) 

TO LET 

CHARMING 2 BED 

LITTLE HOUSE 

Situated in a quiet and pretty little 

hamlet approximately 5 minutes 

from the historic town of Chalus and 

shops, supermarket, restaurant, and 

other local amenities. 

2 beds, shower/wc, kitchen/lounge 

and a cellar. Additionally, the use of a 

small barn (for storage). 

Unfurnished. 

€380/month excl. bills. 

Long or short term rental. 

Telephone 0044 1642 284 143 

or (mobile) 

0044 7984 188 619. 

PROPERTIES FOR SALE 

Auvergne-style Longère 

with 1.4 hectares of land 

250 m² living space plus 300 m² of 

barns and detached outbuildings. Built 

from granite with a new roof. Peaceful 

location. 10 km from Guéret. 

14,200 m² of land with 3 streams. 

€298,000 (offers accepted) 

For more information call: 

05 55 81 30 15 

Grande Maison 

Large house for sale in the village 

of Peyrabout (10 mins from Guéret). 

Approx 300 m² in total comprising: 

● Main house with 3 bedrooms 

● 1 studio flat ● Garage area 

There is also a small garden 

in front of the house. 

€130,000 

Tel: 0555802140/ 0625513130 

House with lakes 

near Bourganeuf 

Property with 2.5 hectares of land including 

2 lakes (1.22 hectares & 1080 

m2)fed by their own natural source. 

The house has 81 m2 of living space, 

ready to move straight into. 

€240,000 

Tel : 05.55.64.14.56 

Mob: 06.15.34.72.13 

House in a hamlet 

near Aubusson 

New electrics and plumbing required 

but this will be an easy renovation. 

Three bedrooms with the scope for 

more. Semi-detached house with 

garden and garage nearby. 

€70,000 ono 

Please telephone: 

05 55 73 06 61 

or e mail stevhen.blow@orange.fr 

Building Plot 

near Chénérailles 

Good level plot, planning permision, 

electric/water very close. 1,735 m2. 

€10,500 

Tel: 05 55 62 77 41 

Large house with 

barn and stables 

Located in a small hamlet 

in the commune of Crozant. 

Also includes a second small, 

stone house nearby. Large 

garden with trees and 

vegetable plots - 2,400m² 

05 55 89 80 99 

TWO FULLY RENOVATED 

STONE COTTAGES 

Peaceful hamlet. Close to amenities in 

Bussière-Poitevine 

Main cottage: 2 beds/lounge/fully fitted 

kitchen/sun lounge/bathroom/sep. w.c./patio. 

Adjacent cottage: 2 beds en-suite/lounge/ 

fitted kitchen/bathroom/separate w.c./patio. 

Lovely garden with open views 2,600 m². 

For quick sale €155,000 

Full details and photos: 

www.houseseparategitelimousinfrance.com 

email: tomandlaurette@live.co.uk 

click on 2 adjacent cottages 

Tel: +33(0)5 55 60 22 27 

05.55.41.17.76 

notices@thebugle.eu

very hot edition of The Bugle 

next month! ■ 

If you’d like to know more 

about the topics raised here, 

take a look at Stove-Sellers' 

website for more information 

on wood burning stoves and 

cookers, central heating 

systems, chimney installations 

and chimney sweeps at 

www.stovesellers.com or call 

05.55.63.78.72 

Solar hot water 

Following on from 

last month, we’re 

going to take a 

look at hot water 

from solar power. Did you 

know that the Earth receives 

more energy from the sun 

in one month than man 

has consumed throughout 

history?! 

Heating domestic hot 

water is one of the largest 

consumers of energy within 

the household, and most 

common ‘balloons’ are fitted 

with 2-3kW immersion 

heaters. 

For some reason the 

thermostats tend to be preset 

to ‘red hot’ in France 

which further increases an 

already high energy demand. 

So what do we do? We add 

cold water to cool it down 

to a temperature that we can 

stand! 

One method of reducing 

this energy demand to 

virtually zero is to use solar 

energy. 

Solar energy can be 

captured in two ways: as 

solar photovoltaic or solar 

thermal energy. This month 

we will take a look at the 

solar thermal method which 

captures ultraviolet radiation 

(UV) to heat water in solar 

tubes or collectors. 

There are two main types 

of solar thermal system: 

flat plate collectors and 

evacuated tube collectors. 

Flat plate collectors are 

essentially two pieces of 

glass (plates) with water 

pipes sandwiched in between. 

Evacuated tube collectors 

consist of individual vacuumsealed 

Pyrex tubes. 

Both systems perform 

equally well on a hot sunny 

day; however, under all other 

conditions, vacuum tubes are 

significantly more efficient 

than flat plate panels. The 

primary reason for this is 

that evacuated tube systems 

are just that… evacuated. 

Because they are a sealed 

vacuum, ambient temperature 

has virtually no effect upon 

performance, so if the sun 

is shining, it doesn’t matter 

whether it is warm or cold 

outside, leading to efficiency 

levels of up to 93%. 

A common misconception 

is that it needs to be sunny 

for solar thermal systems to 

work. This is not the case 

as solar systems capture UV 

light. Okay, they are not as 

efficient on a cloudy, overcast 

day, but they still perform 

very well year round. 

One small solar panel 

can also reduce your CO2 

emissions by 300 kg every 

year! For the average 

household one 30-tube solar 

panel will produce up to 250 

litres of hot water per day, 

which is about the size of 

your average boiler. 

Facing which way? 

South is good but Southeast 

or Southwest is almost as 


FRENCH LIFE ♦ 

efficient. In fact they can 

even be orientated East/West 

and don’t have to be perfectly 

inclined to your angle of 

latitude; flat on a roof or on 

a wall works pretty well and 

they can also be groundmounted. 

Solar panels also provide 

an efficient means of 

swimming pool heating, so 

if you’d like to take the edge 

off your pool’s temperature 

11 

Environment 

and extend your swimming 

season, you can do so in an 

eco friendly way. 

One question that often 

arises is that of using 

solar thermal systems for 

central heating. Whilst they 

can produce a degree of 

supplementary heat in spring 

and autumn, the contribution 

in winter will be minimal 

which is of course when you 

need your heating the most. 

Heating a house is a whole 

lot different to heating an 

insulated tank of water! 

A typical system for the 

average home is likely to 

cost in the region of €3,500- 

€5,000. The energy savings 

have so many variables it 

makes it difficult to provide 

a general cost versus 

return figure. That said, the 

investment payback is likely 

to be within 5 years, after 

which you can enjoy free hot 

water for life! If your motives 

are purely ‘green’ then do it 

regardless. 

Generally speaking you will 

not need planning permission 

as these systems satisfy the 

‘permitted development’ 

requirements, but as always 

run it by your Marie first if in 

any doubt. 

Arthur Smith 

Harlequin Developments 

www. 

harlequindevelopments.com 

Tel: 05.55.68.67.56 

Mob: 06.06.60.46.97



High-tech chicken coops 

In the most recent edition of his monthly column CHICKEN CORNER, 

Paul Lay looks back on a year of columns and gets tempted by technology. 

You can find all his previous columns at www.thebugle.eu/archive/ 

Several years ago I bought my first few 

chicks for the princely sum of three 

euros each, and have been keeping 

a small flock going ever since. What 

started off as a bit of fun and a way to 

get cheap eggs has turned into a minor 

obsession, and now I couldn’t imagine 

life without ‘my girls’ roaming around 

the back garden. The idea behind my 

column here is just to share with you 

my experiences of raising chickens and 

offer my thoughts on chicken-related 

matters. 

Can you believe that this is 

already the first anniversary 

of my little column?! I’m 

sure my editor will have 

mentioned elsewhere in the paper 

that it is also coincidentally the first 

anniversary of The Bugle, so I will not 

bang on about it, but it has given me 

occasion to return to my piece from this 

time last year to see what I was writing 

about way back then. It appears I made 

a rather bold promise to acquire a 

turkey, bestow upon him the name Noel 

and cook him for this year’s Christmas 

dinner! 

Whilst I still wholeheartedly agree 

with the sentiments of that first column 

– that if we are prepared to eat meat, 

we should be aware of exactly where it 

comes from and get to grips with how 

it ends up on our plates – I am afraid 

I never got round to buying that young 

turkey. Maybe next year…? 

A lot can change in 12 months: 

chickens have come and gone; a 

rabbit has arrived and stayed; I have 

had chicken-based joy and heartbreak 

in equal measure; and if you believe 

what you read in the papers, I have 

eaten in the vicinity of 1,095 of the 

world’s most delicious free range eggs 

(see last month’s column). It has been 

a tough year in the yard, however… I 

believe that only 2 of the chickens I had 

at this time last year are still with me. 

And then there was the disappointment 

of the chicks that never hatched (see 

September’s edition). However, the 

pleasure and enjoyment I get out of 

looking after my chickens has not 

waned in the slightest. 

As the first gentle frosts have started 

to arrive, the logistics of keeping 

chickens over a harsh Limousin winter 

are slowly coming back to me. During 

the summer months, my girls spend the 

vast majority of their days outside and 

their food and water dispensers tend to 

follow them… it’s just easier. But they 

are already spending nearly 12 hours 

of each day in their coop and the first 

thing they do of a morning is run for a 

drink. I have now moved the dispensers 

into the coop, the first of the winter 

tasks. Soon we will face the daily battle 

against frozen water. I have heard of all 

sorts of crazy solutions but the reality 

is that if it is anything like last year, all 

liquids left outside will freeze overnight 

into a brick, often cracking whatever 

receptacle is trying to withhold them. 

The only solution is to bring the water 

in at night and put it back out in the 

morning – not the hardest job in the 

world but surprisingly onerous. 

One other solution that was presented 

to me by a fellow enthusiast a few 

years ago, and one that I am afraid I 

gave serious consideration to, was a 

heated plate onto which a metal water 

dispenser could be placed. The product 

in question could be either battery or 

mains operated and promised to prevent 

a moderate amount of liquid from 

freezing in even the harshest of winter 

conditions. 

Readers’ Contributions 

It was my wife that questioned 

whether it was really worth the money 

(I remember it not being an insignificant 

amount) to not have to carry a small 

bowl of water less than 50 metres once 

every day; after all, I do make the trip at 

least once a day anyway to collect my 

morning eggs! I did have to think about 

it for a while before agreeing with her. 

Like I said, it is a surprisingly onerous 

task. 

Now that I think about it, the same 

person also sent me a link to a website 

where you could buy a sunlight-operated 

automatic chicken door. The theory was 

that you would open the chicken-sized 

‘cat flap’ of a morning and when the 

light dipped below a certain level, it 

Binmen with serious horsepower 

As fuel shortages 

threatened to 

disrupt public 

services across the 

country this month, not every 

town was worried about huge 

piles of uncollected rubbish 

building up in the streets. 

Perpignan is one of 60 French 

towns that have fallen back 

on a cheaper and greener way 

to collect household waste, 

ditching the dustbin lorry in 

favour of the more traditional 

horse and cart. 

In fact, the very first 

dustmen in the country used 

a horse and cart to transport 

public refuse. The concept 

was first introduced in Paris 

by a French prefect by the 

name of Eugène Poubelle 

– the man after whom the 

dustbin would later be 

named. He was a lawyer, 

administrator and diplomat 

and as prefect of the Seine 

region introduced new 

hygiene measures in Paris. 

Poubelle decreed that 

owners of buildings must 

provide those who lived there 

with three covered containers 

of between 40 and 120 litres 

to hold household refuse: 

one for perishable items; one 

for paper and cloth; and the 

third for crockery and shells. 

Parisians began to name their 

boxes after Poubelle, a habit 

encouraged by the newspaper 

Le Monde, which called 

them ‘Boîtes Poubelle’. The 

population of Paris, at the 

time close to two million 

people, needed a system 

to empty the containers 

regularly. The method of 

choice was the humble horse 

and cart. 

Incidentally, Eugène 

Poubelle also campaigned 

successfully for direct 

drainage. A resurgence of 

cholera in 1892 led to a decree 

in 1894 that all buildings were 

to be connected directly to the 

sewers at the expense of the 

building's owner – a process 

that many of us in rural 

France with fosses septiques 

will know is still ongoing! 

Now, over a century later 

a growing number of French 

towns are returning to horsedrawn 

refuse collection as 

a better way to deal with 

recycling. 

The mayor of Peyrestortes, 

near Perpignan says that the 

primary factor in his decision 

to reintroduce horse-drawn 

carts to collect recycling in 

the narrow streets of his town 

was a practical one: “You 

can't turn a waste collection 

vehicle around here. We used 

to block streets to traffic and 

keep waste in open skips.” So 

he sold off a dustbin lorry and 

bought two Breton carthorses 

in their place; but crucially, 

has he saved any money? “It's 

too early to tell. But money 

isn't the only reason. The 

exhaust smells have gone, the 

noise has gone, and instead 

we have the clip-clop of 

horses' hooves!” 

Jean-Pierre Enjalbert, 

mayor of a commune in the 

greater Paris area is certain 

he is saving money, as the 

novelty of the horses has 

increased recycling rates. 

“By using the horses for 

garden waste collection, 

we have raised awareness. 

People are composting more. 

Incineration used to cost us 

€107 a tonne, ridiculous for 

burning wet matter. Now we 

only pay €37 to collect and 

compost the waste.” 

Not everywhere that 

has experimented with 

introducing horse-drawn carts 

has succeeded, with many 

Source: SITA 

reverting to the combustion 

engine in just a few months, 

leading some to claim that the 

move is usually no more than 

a cheap publicity stunt. 

SITA, France's second 

largest waste management 

and recycling company, 

has now integrated the 

“collecte hippomobile” into 

three towns in the Aube 

department in central France. 

Alexandre Champion, who 

instigated the idea at SITA, 

blames other factors for the 

With the first frost come certain logistical issues 

failures: unsuitable horses; 

untrained workers; inadequate 

terrain; and poor equipment. 

According to Mr Champion, 

“housing estates or old town 

centres with flat terrain work 

best, with a circuit of under 20 

km a day”. 

Another place trialing 

animal power is Sicily 

where Mario Cicero, mayor 

of the 14th-century town 

Castelbuono pioneered glass 

and cardboard collection 

using two packsaddle 

would automatically close, shutting the 

ladies in for the night (assuming they 

had already taken themselves to bed). 

I am a sucker for a gadget at the best 

of times and I had already removed 

my credit card from my wallet before 

common sense thankfully prevailed. 

You’ll be happy to know that I 

continue to eschew these modernday 

gimmicks and I am keeping it 

old-school in the yard. The water is 

room temperature and refreshed every 

morning and the door to the coop is still 

operated by nothing more than a touch 

of evening elbow grease. Long may it 

continue! 

Until next time! ■ 

Culture 

donkeys in 2007. Three years 

on, Cicero has done his sums 

and calculated a cost saving 

of 34%, as well as winning 

over a sceptical population 

and putting more donkeys to 

work. 

“Compared with €5,000– 

€7,000 annual running costs 

for a diesel truck, an ass 

costs €1,000–€1,500 and 

can live 25-30 years. A truck 

costs around €25,000, lasts 

around five years and can't 

reproduce!” ■

Rural France facing a boar invasion 

The wild boar 

population is 

soaring at an 

alarming rate 

right across 

Europe, despite the best 

efforts of hunters. The 

problem is becoming serious 

in France, particularly in the 

centre and on the Millevaches 

plateau in southern Creuse, 

the problem is almost out of 

control. 

Despite a nationwide drive 

to check their numbers, 

launched last year by the 

environment minister, Jean- 

Louis Borloo, the boar 

population is still rising 

steadily. Even a tenfold 

increase in the number being 

shot by hunters over the last 

30 years (more than 560,000 

were slaughtered in France 

in 2009) has failed to quell 

their numbers. In Creuse, the 

rise is even more marked: in 

1989, 51 boar were shot in the 

green and blue department; 

last year that number was 

3,600, and still the numbers 

rise. 

The problem is not 

restricted to France, 

however; in Germany, Italy 

and across almost the whole 

of Europe, wild pigs have 

seen a spectacular population 

boom in recent decades. 

Although the most common 

complaint you will hear is 

from farmers with damaged 

crops, wild boar do pose other 

problems. There were 20,800 

collisions between cars and 

boar in France last year, at an 

estimated cost of well over 

€100 million. The health of 

the boar entering the food 

chain can also be a worry. A 

sample of the viscera has to 

be sent to the local veterinary 

laboratory before boar can be 

sold as meat. The principal 

concern is trichinella, a 

type of parasite that is quite 

widespread and can be 

transmitted to humans if they 

eat undercooked or raw pig 

meat. Freezing the meat for 

three weeks and then cooking 

it until the juices run clear 

is an adequate preventive 

measure. 

In Germany the potential 

worries are worse as wild 

boar are still feeding on 

mushrooms, truffles and 

berries contaminated with 

caesium from the Chernobyl 

disaster nearly 25 years ago. 

As a number of specialists 

have now pointed out, 

the wild boar population 

needs to be managed more 

effectively, but what can 

be done? It helps to start 

with what makes wild boar 

so successful. They are 

omnivorous, opportunistic 

and highly mobile, able 

to cover between 2 and 

15 km a day. They will eat 

almost anything they come 

across, including grass, 

nuts, berries, carrion, roots, 

tubers, refuse, insects, small 

reptiles - even young deer 

and lambs. 

Boar are prolific breeders. 

A sow can become fertile at 

as young as eight months 

old if she has access to 

good feeding. Litter size 

varies between two and six 

depending on the weight 

of the animal. They have 

also proved adept at finding 

various ways round the 

hunting strategies that 

have successfully checked 

the proliferation of other 

SIREN: 453 573 388 

mammals such as deer or 

mountain goats. 

“Under favourable 

environmental conditions, the 

sows start reproducing after 

only a year, whereas other 

ungulates [hoofed mammals] 

take twice as long. Every 

year they produce a litter 

of five piglets on average, 

whereas most other species 

only have one at a time,” says 

Eric Baubet, head of the boar 

study programme at France's 

Wildlife and Hunting Agency 

(ONCFS). 

“The females seem to be 

reproducing increasingly 

young and the conventional 

pattern for reproduction, 

with a pause in the summer, 

is often no longer valid,” 

says François Klein, who coordinates 

research into deer 

and wild boar at the agency. 

One local famer near 

Gentioux knows exactly 

why so many crops are 

being damaged: “There is 

a population explosion of 

boar, the likes of which we 

have never seen before. In 

the commune of Gentioux we 

recently identified 15 or so 

herds, with 30 pigs in each 

herd!” 

Jouanny Chatoux, vicepresident 

of the Young 

Farmers association claims 

the situation is becoming 

serious. “The south [of the 

Creuse] is the most severely 



Female boar are carrying larger litters and mating from an earlier age than ever before 

editor@thebugle.eu 

05.55.41.17.76 

affected, but also the east. 

Because of the departmental 

policy from 10 years ago 

of feeding the wild boar, 

mothers are now carrying 

more litters and carrying 

them at a younger age. It is 

the fault of the departmental 

chasse.” By way of proof, 

Mr Chatoux points out 

that of the 6 hectares of 

maize in the commune of 

Gentioux, 4 hectares have 

been completely destroyed. 

This in itself is becoming 

expensive as farmers can 

claim compensation for 

damage to crops caused by 

boar. In 2009, the total paid 

out was €160,000; in 2010, 

13 

Nature 

with the season still under 

way, that figure has already 

topped €500,000. 

“The farmers are at 

their wits end,” continued 

Jouanny Chatoux: “Some 

businesses risk going under. 

People should know that 

every night farmers are 

patrolling with guns to 

self-regulate the problem. 

I have heard that in some 

communes, large ditches 

have been dug to contain the 

bodies of the dead boar. Why 

can the boar not be classified 

as a ‘nuisance’ for a few 

years? We should be able to 

hunt them, with or without a 

permit.” ■



Are you unable to receive broadband? Is your Practical 

connection slow & unreliable? WiMAX may be the answer! 

Following the announcement in August’s edition of The Bugle that WiMAX installation 

would be free for Limousin residents we received a massive response from readers 

wanting to know more. With the news that the deadline for free installation has been 

pushed back to the end of the year, The Bugle asked Steve Pritchard from Steve Pritchard 

Solutions to explain a bit more about WiMAX and how to make the most of this offer. 

Whilst significant 

steps 

f o r w a r d 

have been 

made with 

broadband coverage in France 

over recent years, the unfortunate 

truth for many people living 

in rural areas is that they still find 

themselves in ‘broadband black 

spots’ where coverage is either 

not available at all or connections 

are slow and unreliable. 

The good news for residents 

of the Limousin is that an alternative 

option – WiMAX - is 

available for many people across 

the region. WiMAX provides 

broadband internet and telephone 

services, allowing data to 

be communicated across a series 

of transmitters – very much like 

the mobile phone network. A discrete 

antenna of approximately 

40 cm² mounted on your house 

is all that is required to access the 

SIRET: 493 208 888 00021 

service. 

The Limousin has invested 

heavily in WiMAX as an alternative 

option for people in rural 

areas who cannot receive traditional 

broadband services via a 

phone line and is one of only 4 

departments in France currently 

benefiting from “full” coverage. 

In reality around 90% of people 

are able to connect to the service. 

Axione, the operator in charge 

of developing the region’s 

WiMAX network, announced 

earlier this year that there would 

be no installation charge if you 

signed up before the end of September 

(see August’s edition of 

The Bugle). The offer applies 

to new customers only and the 

installer must be one of the four 

major companies currently offering 

WiMAX in the region (Alsatis, 

Vivéole, Idyle Telecom and 

Numéo). This subsidy has just 

been extended from the end of 

September until the end of 2010. 

There is absolutely nothing to 

lose, therefore, in submitting an 

application to see if you can benefit 

from the service. In the event 

that the technician is unable to 

connect from your property then 

it will have cost you nothing to 

try! There is usually a set-up cost 

of anything from €250–€350 for 

this service. 

In the Limousin, broadband 

speeds of 2 Mbps are currently 

being offered. By way of an example 

this is more than sufficient 

for streaming video & music or 

for making Skype voice & video 

calls. The optional telephone 

package allows unlimited calls to 

be made to landlines in 27 countries. 

Even better, there is no requirement 

to keep a France Telecom 

line with this option, saving 

€16.00 per month for line rental! 

WiMAX is offered at a monthly 

subscription of €29.90 for the 

first 6 months, rising to €34.90 

thereafter. There is a one-off setup 

fee of €49.90 for the optional 

telephone service which offers 

free calls to landlines in 27 countries 

for €9.90 per month. 

If you currently have a package 

with France Telecom, Or- 

ange or one of the other main 

operators but are unhappy with 

their service or feel you may be 

paying too much for calls & internet, 

why not let Steve carry 

out a free review - with no obligation 

- to see if you could save 

money by switching? Steve is 

a partner of Vivéole, one of the 

companies authorised to install 

WiMAX in the Limousin. 

For more information please 

visit Steve Pritchard’s website 

www.steve-pritchard.fr/WiMAX 

or contact Steve by email at 

info@steve-pritchard.fr or on 05 

53 55 16 15. ■ 

www.steve-pritchard.fr 

Tougher laws introduced to deal with spousal abuse 

Local lawyer, Laure CHAVERON, informs us of a tough new law recently introduced to deal with violence within couples. 

In 2009, 149 women died as victims of their partner or husband. 

In an effort to offer more protection to the victims of spousal 

abuse, particularly the ones who dare to report the offence to the 

Police, the French government has brought in new legislation. The 

new Law is dated July 1st 2010, but actually came into force on 

October 1 st this year. 

You can now obtain from French Judges an 'ordonnance de 

protection', or 'protection order'. With this order the violent spouse 

can be forced to leave the matrimonial home. The order can last 

for up to 4 months and can be given by the judge very quickly. It is 

not only the victims who can introduce such a claim, the General 

Prosecutor also has the power, provided he has the victim's consent 

- some victims need to be protected but cannot act themselves due 

to fear. 

. Moreover, prison sentences and fines have been increased for 

offences committed between couples. See December’s edition of 

Got a story 

for 

The Bugle? 

editor@thebugle.eu 

05.55.41.17.76 

The Bugle for a full explanation of the law surrounding spousal 

abuse. ■ 

Laure CHAVERON, Avocat 

5 rue Henri Beaune, 23230 Gouzon 

Téléphone 05 55 80 15 76 

laure.chaveron@wanadoo.fr 

http://avocats.fr/space/laure.chaveron 

Food and Drink 

Quick and Easy Cassoulet 

This recipe is provided by Chef George and compiled by Frances of La Grande Maison 

(Tables et Chambres d’Hôtes), Chénérailles www.grandemaison-chenerailles.com 

Cassoulet is a rich, slow-cooked bean stew or casserole originating in the south of France, 

containing meat (typically pork sausages, pork, goose, duck and sometimes mutton), pork skin 

(couennes) and white haricot beans. 

The word ‘cassoulet’ takes its name from its traditional cooking vessel, the cassole, a deep, round, 

earthenware pot with slanting sides. 

Numerous regional variations exist, the best-known being the cassoulet from Castelnaudary, the 

self-proclaimed "Capital of Cassoulet", Toulouse, and Carcassonne. 

This recipe is a quick and easy version of the dish and makes a tasty treat for those cold winter nights. 

Ingredients (Serves 6): 

6 cooked chicken pieces (roasted in oven) 

200 g smoked lardons 

400 g smoked garlic sausage 

800 g of drained white beans 

1 litre chicken stock 

1 sprig of fresh rosemary 

Salt & pepper to taste 

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas mark 6 and roast the 

chicken pieces. 

2. In a large frying pan, brown the lardons and sausage. Remove and set aside. 

3. Now add the drained white beans (haricots blancs) to the frying pan and stir to soak up all the 

meat juices. 

4. In a large oven proof casserole pot add the chicken, lardons, sausage, beans and chicken stock. 

5. Add a sprig of rosemary (leaves only) and black pepper. Stir to coat meat. Cover and cook for 

30 minutes. 

6. Check seasoning. Add salt if needed and serve with warm crusty bread.

NOVEMBER DATES - Three major annual events in France: November 1st - la Toussaint, a public holiday in France when 

many visit graveyards to pay respects to the dead; November 11th - l'Armistice, another public holiday to remember the dead 

from the Great War; November 18th - Beaujolais Nouveau, the annual celebration of the Beaujolais region's famous red wine. 

La Toussaint (All Saints’ 

Day) falls on the first 

of November and as 

the name suggests it 

is the Catholic Church's day for 

remembering the saints. The 

jour des Morts (All Souls’ Day) 

which follows on November 

2 nd is the day of the dead when 

people pray for the souls of the 

departed. It is an important day 

on which families remember 

those no longer with them and is 

a very spiritual time of year. The 

1 st is a public holiday in France, 

but the 2 nd is not, so you will see 

many people visiting graveyards 

on All Saints’ Day when they are 

actually marking All Souls’ Day. 

Today, Toussaint is marked 

by the lighting of candles in 

cemeteries and the decorating of 

graves with flowers, particularly 

chrysanthemums. Stone lanterns 

of the dead, which are lit during 

the festival, can also be found 

in many cemeteries, especially 

around the Massif Central. 

Chrysanthemums are 

everywhere at this time of year: 

stalls will appear at roadsides; 

large marquees will be erected 

in supermarket car parks to hold 

18th November - Beaujolais Nouveau 

Corks will be popping 

around the world on 

18 th November as 

lovers of Beaujolais 

Nouveau mark the start of a new 

French vintage by enjoying large 

quantities of the popular tipple. 

At one past midnight on 

the third Thursday of every 

November over a million cases 

of Beaujolais Nouveau will begin 

their journey from little villages 

and towns, through a sleeping 

France to Paris for immediate 

shipment to all parts of the world. 

For a few short days, banners 

everywhere proclaim: "Le 

Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!" 

What was once a very local 

tradition has in recent decades 

become an international race 

to bring Beaujolais Nouveau to 

markets around the world. By 

the time it is over, more than 

65 million bottles, representing 

nearly half of the region's total 

annual production, will have 

been distributed and drunk 

around the world. 

To begin with, the wine 

producers of the area created 

a ‘wine of the year’ simply to 

celebrate the end of the harvest. 

The wine was only fermented for 

a few weeks, and was intended 

for immediate consumption, 

certainly not later than a few 

months. It was not until the 

establishment of the Beaujolais 

Nouveau AOC just before the 

Second World War that the 

release date for this wine became 

fixed each year. 

Wine producers began to 

see the marketing potential of 

the vast range of potted varieties; 

sellers will take over the 

pavements outside cemeteries. 

So linked has the 

chrysanthemum become with All 

Souls’ Day that it is considered 

strange - even rude - to give 

them as a gift in France, not even 

in bouquets among other cut 

flowers. A recent advert shown 

on British television features a 

young English man who takes a 

fancy to an Italian girl and leaves 

a bunch of chrysanthemums on 

her door step. Passers-by see 

the flowers placed next to her 

battered moped and burst out 

crying because they assume 

she's dead. You need to know 

the custom to ‘get’ the advert… 

maybe not the ad agency’s finest 

hour! 

Were you to take 

chrysanthemums to a friend 

recuperating in hospital, they 

may well assume that you don’t 

expect them to make it!! 

The cemeteries themselves 

are amazing sights at this time of 

year, the most famous probably 

being the Père-Lachaise 

cemetery in Paris and it is well 

worth a visit during Toussaint, 

Beaujolais Nouveau and by 

the 1970s its release and the 

‘race’ to get the first bottles to 

Paris became a national event 

attracting considerable media 

attention. This race to deliver the 

first bottle soon spread to other 

countries in Europe in the 1980s, 

and North America and Asia in 

the 1990s. In some places, the 

wine was delivered by hot-air 

balloon, elephant, motorcycle, 

helicopter, by relay runners and 

Concorde was even drafted into 

service one year! 

The reason that the date was 

fixed in 1985 as a Thursday (as 

opposed to the 15 th that it had 

always been until that point) 

was to make the most of the 

wine consumption during the 

weekend that followed. 

The man largely credited with 

‘inventing’ this annual drinking 

frenzy is Georges Duboeuf, the 

so-called King of Beaujolais. His 

empire reaches just about every 

corner of the Beaujolais region, 

just north of Lyon, and roughly 

10 percent of the wine flowing 

out of the region comes from 

his cellars. It is Duboeuf who is 

chiefly credited with turning the 

release of Beaujolais Nouveau 

into a global phenomenon – a 

marketing masterstroke for a 

wine mainly borne of the region’s 

worst vineyards, a wine barely 

removed from the fermentation 

vat, a wine that many say is 

nothing more than pleasantly tart 

bar-room swill. 

That said, I’m sure plenty of us 

will still enjoy getting caught up 

in the ritual! ■ 

just to see the flowers on display. 

Another reason that families 

pay so much attention to their 

gravesites at this time of year 

is that the upkeep of the graves 

is a public responsibility in 

France. When they appear no 

longer to be regularly visited, 

or become unstable and begin 

to decay, notices are attached to 

them asking relatives to contact 

the council. If no one claims 

guardianship of the grave the 

council will take over its care and 

possibly move the memorial to a 

council maintained area. ■ 

France honours its war 

dead on l’Armistice 

(Armistice Day) on the 

11 th November. This 

is a day when every commune 

in France will typically hold a 

ceremony at their cenotaph and 

lay wreaths. Thanks to state grants 

handed out in the years after the 

First World War, almost all of the 

36,000 or so communes in France 

have a war memorial to their 

dead, usually with the names of 

each local soldier who was killed. 

War memorials in France 

did not always serve this 

role. Historically, they were 

erected to commemorate great 

victories; remembering the dead 

was a secondary concern. In 

Napoleon's day the dead were 

shovelled into mass, unmarked 

graves. The Arc de Triomphe 

in Paris, and indeed Nelson's 

Column in London, contain 

no names of those killed in the 

victories they commemorate. 

It was not until the great 

losses of the First World War that 

remembrance took centre stage 

and most communities erected a 

war memorial listing those men 

and women who had gone to war 

EASY MEDIUM HARD 



and not returned. In many cases, 

the World War I memorials were 

later extended to also show the 

names of locals who died in the 

Second World War. 

In modern times the main 

purpose of war memorials is 

no longer to glorify war, but to 

honour those who have died, as 

will happen right across France 

on this day, and indeed across 

much of Europe. 

After World War I, some 

towns in France set up pacifist 

war memorials. Instead of 

commemorating the glorious 

dead, these memorials denounced 

war with figures of grieving 

widows and children rather 

15 

Advertise your business here 

for only €34/month 

05.55.41.17.76 


CANCER SUPPORT 

FRANCE 

CREUSE BRANCH 

(LUTTER CONTRE LE CANCER EN FRANCE) 

IF YOU OR ANYONE CLOSE TO YOU 

HAS BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER 

AND WOULD LIKE HELP OR SUPPORT, 

WE ARE HERE FOR YOU. 

IF YOU NEED SOMEONE TO TALK TO 

WE HAVE A HELPLINE AVAILABLE AND 

IF WE ARE NOT THERE WE WILL CALL 

YOU BACK WITHIN 24 HOURS. 

OUR HELPLINE NUMBER IS: 06.06.47.18.60 

We provide a service for all English speakers, whatever 

their country of origin. 

Association No: 02030006004 

Culture 

1st November - la Toussaint 11th November - l'Armistice 

© 2007 - Hajime Nakano (Flickr) © 2009 - Abhishek Mishra (wikiCommons) 

© 2010 - Laure Chaveron 

than soldiers. Understandably, 

such memorials provoked anger 

among veterans and the military 

in general. The most famous is 

at Gentioux-Pigerolles in the 

department of Creuse which 

was built in 1922. Below the 

column, which lists the names of 

the commune’s fallen, stands an 

orphan in bronze pointing to an 

inscription declaring: ‘Maudite 

soit la guerre’ – ‘Cursed be war’. 

Feelings ran so high over the 

Gentioux peace memorial that 

it was not officially inaugurated 

until 1990 and soldiers at the 

nearby army camp of La Courtine 

were under orders to turn their 

heads when they walked past it. ■


16 ♦ GAMES & HOBBIES 

Crossword 

Clues and answers in English 

Across: 

1. Entrust (7) 

5. Small thin biscuit (5) 

8. Dissonance (5) 

9. Projecting upper floor (7) 

10. The sheltered side (7) 

12. Unvarnished (5) 

13. Scheme (6) 

15. Become visible (6) 

18. Flowed back (5) 

19. Athlete (7) 

21. Hinged window blind (7) 

22. Slight push (5) 

23. Two or more contesting 

groups (5) 

24. Striking (7) 

Down: 

1. Tapers (7) 

2. Inexperienced (5) 

3. Frozen water (3) 

4. Personify (6) 

5. Decorative covering (9) 

6. Photographic film (7) 

7. Synthetic silklike fabric (5) 

11. Short accounts of incidents (9) 

14. Quashed (7) 

16. Private place with peace 

and quiet (7) 

17. Marine mammal (6) 

18. Alleviates (5) 

20. Emblem (5) 

22. Nothing (3) 

Please be aware that the deadline for all 

submissions for content and 

advertising is the 15th of the month for the 

following month’s print edition. 

SUDOKU - EASY SUDOKU - MEDIUM SUDOKU - HARD 

The solution to all this month’s puzzles can be found on page 15 

Caption Competition - November 

Send your entries to editor@thebugle.eu and we will print the best ones in 

next month's paper. Winner receives a modicum of kudos. 

Last Month's Winners 

JOINT WINNER: 

"Just as well I charge by the Foot!!" - Jon Martin. 

JOINT WINNER: 

"After asking her husband to pop to the shop to get a large 

cabbage, Edith couldn't believe it when he returned instead 

with a giant shoe." - Trudy Wain. 

HONOURABLE MENTION: 

"I'm so proud to have found a pair that match me shirt" - Jackie Grant 


"Sir Ranulph is delighted with the output of his lilliputian shoe-shine boy." - Beth Cuge. 


"No No No, I said bring me back something nice and big from Bruges (Gironde), 

not bring me back a big pair of Brogues!" - Den Goodger

From October's paper...: 

Dear Ed, 

I 

cannot fail to notice the high number of 

cars, vans etc around this region that have 

UK registration plates but carry no UK road 

tax. 

When you look closer the owner usually has 

a French insurance sticker and MOT. I am 

under the impression that if you live here for 

more than 6 months then the vehicle should be 

re-registered. 

Letters to 

The 

Editor 

Car insurance on UK plates 

Mr M.A. Carrier 

Via email 

With reference to 

Mr Cunningham’s 

letter [see above], 

I also have given thought 

to this subject. I agree 

with all the points that Mr 

Cunningham made (i.e. 

English plates and French 

plates: where are the vehicles 

registered?) For insurance 

purposes in the event of an 

accident, for those living 

here longer than 6 months 

without the correct plates for 

this country - France - then 

theie insurance will be Null 

and Void!! 

Apart from the routes 

nationales and the 

autoroutes, if you are 

What concerns me is where are these 

vehicles actually registered? The UK – no, 

as the UK road fund licence is non-existent. 

France – no, as they do not have French plates. 

What happens if one is involved in an accident? 

Are the French police ignorant as to the UK 

licensing or have these drivers discovered a 

LEGAL loophole? 

Regards, 

David Cunningham 

involved in an accident 

then it is a 50/50 claim 

irrespective of who caused 

the accident. We had an 

accident in our first year here 

which wasn’t our fault!!!! I 

did a lot of research after 

that!! 

Yours Sincerely 

Mr M.A. Carrier 

ED - This issue has provoked a good deal of response in the last month. I must confess, 

I don't know exactly what the law states in this respect, but it certainly seems 

like a 'grey' area that will affect many expats. I am going to do my best to find out 

exactly where you stand when driving around on EU plates in France to run it in a 

future edition of The Bugle. 

Puy de Dôme pie 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ♦ 

Andrea and Bruce from Felletin-based vegetarian B&B, 3 Place des Arbres, have written in to offer us their take on a shepherd’s pie, inspired by the 

famous dormant volcano, the Puy de Dôme. 

We live just over an hour away from the amazing Puy de Dôme. This vegan take on the shepherd's pie, using puy lentils and aduki beans, is our tribute to 

this natural monument. 

Ingredients: 

200 g aduki beans soaked overnight or in boiling water for 3 hours and cooked on a rolling boil for about 45 mins (or 400g of tinned aduki beans) 

200 g puy lentils (rinsed in cold water) cooked for 25 minutes (or 400 g brown or green lentils) 

1 large onion (diced) 1 tbsp tomato puree ½ tsp smoked paprika 

2 large carrots (diced) 1 cube vegetable bouillon 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme 

4 medium mushrooms (diced) 200 ml red wine 1 tsp oregano 

4 plump cloves of garlic (chopped) 2 tsp sweet paprika black pepper 

1 carton of passata ½ tsp hot paprika 

To make the bean mixture, fry the onion and mushrooms in olive oil until the onions are soft. Add 

the garlic and carrots. 

Add wine and herbs (if dried). 

Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and cook until the carrots start to soften (about 5-10 mins). 

Add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer gently, adding water from the potatoes (see below) if 

necessary until it resembles a thick stew (bear in mind that more water will be absorbed during the 

oven cooking process). 

Meanwhile… 

To make the topping, peel and chop 1 ½ kg of potatoes and boil with ¼ tsp salt until soft. 

Drain and reserve the liquid to add to the mixture above, as required. 

Put 50 ml of the liquid back into the potatoes. Add 25 ml of whichever milk you prefer (we like 

oat milk for this recipe), 1 tsp grainy mustard, 1 heaped tsp hot Dijon mustard and 1 tbsp vegan 

margarine. Mash until you can mash no more. The mash should be creamy. (If you prefer you can add cooked finely chopped leaks or onions to the mash). 

Set the oven to 180°C. 

Take 4 -6 cocottes (or if you prefer one rectangular lasagne dish). Distribute the bean mixture between the cocottes. 

Pile the mash on top of the mixture and fashion it into a volcano shape (this is playing with your food – don’t tell your mother!) 

Once your artistic masterpieces are complete sprinkle with some paprika (this together with the leeks – if you have added them to the mash – will give the 

appearance of vegetation growing up the Puy. Kind of…) 

Pop in the oven for 30 minutes, until the mashed potato is browned. 

Serve with green beans, peas or salad. 

17 

Phone box credit card charges 

Tim McCarthy 

Via email 

I 

regularly read your 

newspaper when visiting 

my holiday home in La 

Nouzillle near Rochechouart 

and find your paper a great 

source of knowledge and local 

information. 

I wanted to inform your 

readers of my experience when 

calling home to the UK using a 

public phone box. I hadn't set 

up roaming for my blackberry 

on this particular visit and was 

shocked to receive charges 

on my credit card statement 

for two calls that I made 

from a public phone booth in 

Rochechouart to the United 

Kingdom on the 11th and 13th 

September. 

Both of these short calls 

were for approximately 5/7 

minutes and I was charged 

£37.00 and £51.90. 

I followed the instructions 

in English as written in the 

phone box outlining what to 

do to make an overseas call. 

The instructions stated that the 

operator would inform me of 

the charges. However this was 

not an option because as soon 

as I input my credit card details 

the automated recorded voice 

told me to dial the international 

number I required. I would not 

have made these calls if I had 

known what I was going to be 

charged. 

This is an outrageous cost 

for two short calls and I just 

wanted your readers to be 

aware. 

Yours sincerely, 

Tim McCarthy 

New book by Indre Nature 

Heather Booth 

Via post 

I 

have been a member 

of ‘Indre Nature’ for 

several years so receive 

information from them on a 

regular basis. Not only do they 

organize regular walks within 

the Brenne National Park and 

the northern Creuse but they 

also produce information 

about flora and fauna. 

Their latest excellent 

publication is L'Atlas de 

répartition des orchidées 

de l'Indre. This contains 

excellent photos and 

descriptions of 46 species 

found in the area as well as 

information about where to 

find them. The main text is 

in French but English and 

Dutch names are given for all 

of the orchids included. The 

detailed diagrams and maps 

can all be understood with 

a limited understanding of 

French. 

The book is available 

by post from Indre Nature, 

Maison de l’Environment, 

Parc Balsan, 44 avenue 

F. Mitterand, 36400 

Chateauroux for €20 (postage 

€3.92) or from good book 

shops. 

I am enjoying reading 

about the orchids found in 

the area in preparation for my 

spring walks. 

Please join ‘Indre Nature’ 

if you are interested in the 

environment and like to meet 

others with similar interests. 

The outings are friendly and 

cheerful and a chance to 

practise your French. 

I hope to see some of you 

on future outings. 

Heather Booth 

Importing vehicles to France 

Anonymous 

Via email 

Dear Editor, 

I 

was particularly interested in the comments of Mr 

David Cunningham with respect to the mechanism 

whereby UK permanent residents in France appear 

to flout a law which requires them to register 

imported vehicles within a specified time, usually 

quoted as being six months. A conversation with 

a local gendarme seems to confirm this view 

although clever motorists advance the proposition 

that they are not "permanent" if they have a UK 

address. This may not necessarily be their own 

residence, but that of a compliant member of 

family or friend. 

But can the gendarmerie be bothered to follow 

this up and do they understand the grave legal 

significance of untaxed UK vehicles? 

After eight years in France I am not able to 

advance a legal case for the widespread practice. 

This letter amounts to personal reminiscences 

that may not help solve solve Mr Cunningham's 

dilemma. 

To begin the story: When I arrived in France 

I bought a new Renault car from a local dealer. 

No problems, therefore, with its registration. As 

I had a poor command of the French language 

and customs the car dealer kindly offered to jump 

through the hoops to register a BMW motorcycle I 

had imported: a perfectly straightforward model for 

which I foresaw no problems. It took several months 

to get the certificate of conformity, carte grise, 

insurance and the machine on the road. You will be 

aware, no doubt, that the French "MOT test" is not 

(YET) applicable to motorcycles. I was assured that 

this bureaucratic delay was standard practice. 

Subsequently I attempted to register a more 

powerful model. In France a certificate of 

conformity required expensive modifications to 

reduce the power of the engine. The paperwork 

went on for months despite my best efforts and 

AXA summarily cancelled their cover after six 

months. This seems to be at the whim of the local 

branch manager. 

And so it went on over the years. We have 

always obeyed the letter of the law with respect 

to certificates of conformity etc. but the system 

makes it difficult, time consuming and potentially 

expensive. A thankless task, so you can understand 

why people join the increasing number of those 

who ignore the whole tedious process.


18 ♦ WHAT’S ON 

Evaux-les-Bains 

Mérinchal (1st Mon) 

WEEKLY MARKETS 

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY 

Auzances 

Bénévant-l’Abbaye 


Champagnac-la-Rivière 

Genouillac 

Gouzon 

Laurière 

Limoges (Le Vigenal) 

Peyrat-le-Château 

Rochechouart 

Royère-de-Vassivière 

Saint-Sulpice-les-Feuilles 

All markets are in the morning unless stated otherwise. 

BY DAY 

Aixe-sur-Vienne: 1st Fri 

Ambazac: 1st Wed 

Auzances: 2nd Tue 

Bourganeuf: 1st & 3rd Wed 

Boussac: 1st & 3rd Thu 

Bujaleuf: Last Mona 

Châlus: 2nd Thu 

Châteauneuf-la-Forêt: 2nd Sun 

Cognac-la-Forêt: 1st Tue 

Cussac: 4th Sun 

Ahun 

Bourganeuf 

Chambon-sur-Voueize 

Cognac-la-Forêt 

Clugnat 

Le Dorat 

Isle 

Limoges (pont St Martial) 

Nantiat 

Séreilhac 

Domps: 2nd Tue 

Dun-le-Palestel: 1st Thu 

Evaux-les-Bains: 1st Mon 

Eymoutiers: 1st & 3rd Thu 

Feytiat: 1st Sat 

La Souterraine 2nd & 4th Sat 

Magnac-Bourg: 2nd Sat 

Meuzac: 4th Mon 

Mézières-sur-Issoire: 2nd & 4th Mon 

Nexon: 3rd Fri 

Oradour-sur-Vayres: 3rd Thu 

Peyrat-le-Château: 3rd Mon 

Peyrilhac: 3rd Sun 

Boussac 

Coussac-Bonneval 

Dun-le-Palestel 

Guéret 

Limoges Bastide et Corgnac 

Magnac-Laval 

Oradour-sur-Vayres (except 

3rd Thu) 


Saint-Sulpice-les-Champs 

Saint-Victurnien 

La Souterraine 

Aixe-sur-Vienne 

Ambazac 

Bessines-sur-Gartempe 

Bosmie l’Aiguille (16h - 19h30) 

Bujaleuf 

Châlus (except 2nd Fri) 

Châteauponsac 

Châtelus-Malvaleix 

Couzeix (16h30 - 19h30) 

Le Dorat 

Felletin 

Limoges (place des Bancs et 

Beaubreuil) 

Nexon 

Pierre-Buffière 

Rochechouart 

St-Etienne-de-Fursac 

MONTHLY FOIRES 

Pierre-Buffière: 1st Fri 

Royère-de-Vassivière: 2nd Tue 

Saint-Germain-les-Belles: last Sat 

Saint-Jouvent: 1st Sun 

Saint-Junien: 3rd Sat 

Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat: 1st Mon 

Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche: 2nd & 4th Fri 

Sauviat-sur-Vige: 2nd Mon 

Veyrac: 2nd Sun 

BY DATE 

1 (day before if public holiday): Bellac 

3: Bellegarde-en-Marche 

3: Châteauponsac 

5: Bussière-Poitevine 

5: Chénérailles 

6: Bussière-Boffy 

8: Compreignac 

9: Saint-Sulpice-Laurière 

11 (Sat if 11 is a Sun): Bessines-sur- 

Gartempe 

13 (Sat if 13 is a Sun): Le Dorat 

Aixe-sur-Vienne 

Aubusson 

Bellac 

Bonnat 


Châteauponsac 

Condat-sur-Vienne 

Eymoutiers 

Feytiat 

Flavignac 

Guéret 

La Jonchère-Saint-Maurice 

La Souterraine 

Limoges (place des Bancs et 

place Marceau) 

Le Palais-sur-Vienne 

Nantiat 

Bessines-sur-Gartempe 

Blond 

Crocq (1st and 3rd Sun) 

Panazol 


Saint-Paul 

St-Sulpice-le-Guéretois (3rd Sun) 

Saint-Vaury (2nd Sun) 

Veyrac (2nd Sun) 

(Saturday - cont.....) 


Rochechouart 

Saint-Junien 

St-Léonard-de-Noblat 

Saint-Mathieu 

Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche 

15: Oradour-sur-Glane 

17: Mortemart 

18: La Croisille-sur-Briance; La 

Jonchère-Saint-Maurice 

20: Chénérailles 

21: Ambazac; Saint-Sulpice-les-Feuilles 

22 (Mon if 22 is a Sun): Magnac-Laval 

23: Razès; St Laurent sur Gorre 

24: Nantiat 

25: Blond - St Paul 

26: Nouic; Rochechouart 

28: Cieux 

29: Laurière 

CLUBS, CHARITIES & ASSOCIATIONS 

Charente Limousine Exchange 

CLE is a non-profit organization which helps people to settle into the 

area and integrate with their local communities. CLE organizes regular 

discussions on aspects of living and working in France, together with a 

variety of social activities. Members are sent a regular newsletter keeping 

them up to date with group news and upcoming events. 

Membership costs EUR 15 per family per calendar year. For more 

information visit www.charente-limousine-exchange.com 

Christians together in Limousin La Souterraine Area 

We hold a time of fellowship and Bible study every Tuesday afternoon. 

Barbara and Cedric look forward to welcoming you. 05 55 71 09 04 

Cancer Support France, Creuse branch 

Drop-in service, Maison des Usagers, Guéret hospital 

(For directions call the hospital reception on 05.55.51.70.90 & ask for the 

Maison des Usagers at the Acceuil on arrival) 

The service is manned by two active listeners, there to answer any queries 

or questions. We provide a forum for anyone who wishes to discuss aspects 

of cancer, be it for them or a family member. The service provides a face to 

face opportunity which some people may find more useful than talking on 

the telephone. 

22 November 14h – 15h30 

27 December 14h – 15h30 

Use your free time to help those who are or 

could be touched by Cancer. 

C.S.F. in the Creuse is a young association which is giving a valuable comfort in 

terms of listening, understanding and informing and has the potential to do more 

when called upon to support. 

To do this we need new members who are ready to continue to promote the aims 

of the association by organising and running fundraising events. It is likely that 

you have heard of or even been to a quiz night, garden fete or fair which our 

members have successfully run over the past 4 years. We must do more and time 

constraints on some of the fundraising team mean that we want new members to 

try and continue the successes so far. 

We welcome your involvement on whatever scale you see you could offer. 

Call Mike Walsh on 09 50 49 33 04 to get involved with us and help make a 

difference. 

The St Jean English Library 

The St Jean English Library in La Souterraine continues to grow. New 

shelving has increased its book stock to 3,000 books and many more books 

are still waiting for shelf space. Caxton’s, the Library café has expanded 

its menu and now serves English teacakes and crumpets imported specially 

from England. The Library is also offering French lessons, given by a 

French national, as well as English lessons for French speakers. 

To meet the increased demand the library is now open on Tuesdays as well 

as Thursdays and Saturdays, from 9.30 to 12.30 each day. You can find it in 

La Souterraine just below the Porte St Jean, between the Hotel St Jean and 

the newsagents. For more information contact Rodney on 05.55.63.03.87. 

"The Library" at Dun le Palestel 

Located in the Route des Rateries, just behind the Biblithèque Municipale, 

you will find the Anglophone Library, which offers a wide variety of 

reading material, DVD’s, talking books and videos. This is not a ‘shhhh, 

quiet’ type of library but one where members are encouraged to have a chat 

and a cup of tea and during their visit. 

For more information, go to www.ententecordiale-creuse.org or telephone 

Linda Ward on 05 55 89 69 65. We look forward to seeing you there soon. 

Activities taking place at the English Library 

Opening hours: Thur (Market Day) 10 am – 4 pm, Sat 10 am – 12.30 pm 

Café Club Franglais: First Tue of every month. 10 am to noon (Linda Ward) 

Club de Scrabble: One Mon each month. 2.30-4.30 pm (Mme Charmillon) 

Café Philo: One Saturday each month (Mme Brell) 

Art and Craft Group: Thursdays. 2 pm to 4 pm (Chris Hardy) 

Aide à l’Anglais: Wednesday morning for young children wishing to learn 

English and Thursday evening for adults 

Faceaface is an association founded to facilitate and encourage 

interaction between all members of the local community. As our first 

venture we have created a library. 

Where? In the Mairie of St Priest which is just off the D4 between 

Mainsat and Chenerailles 

When? The first and third Mon afternoon in every month between 2-5pm. 

(Friday - cont.....) 

Saint-Sulpice-Laurière 

Verneuil-sur-Vienne(15h-18h30) 

To join all you have to do is donate six books and pay €5 per person or €8 

per household. If you would like more information please contact us at: 

faceaface23@gmail.com or just come by and see us. Everyone is welcome! 

The Harmonics 

This is our 6th season of singing as a group, previously known as Performing 

Arts Group and this year renamed to 'The Harmonics'. 

A group of 18 and although predominantly English, we have had French, 

Dutch, American and Belgian folk join us. Our concerts are in support of a 

variety of charities including British Legion, L'Oregon at Civray and Retina 

and thus non profit making. 

Our music is varied classical, madrigals, spiritual, songs from the shows etc. 

and we sing in French, English, Swahili, Latin, whatever the music demands. 

We meet Wednesday 14h – 16h in the Salle d'Annexe behind the 

Mairie in Civray. Interested? We'd love to see you so contact: Heather 

Rathbone tel 05 49 971078 or Dolly Ait Boualou email address sylvia. 

murray@wanadoo.fr 

Alcoholics Anonymous 

If you or someone you know has a drinking problem, there is now an 

English-speaking meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous at 2 Avenue Pierre 

Traversat, Limoges. Thursday evenings, 7.30 to 9.00 pm. 

Alcoholics Anonymous is a Fellowship of men and women who share 

their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve 

their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The 

only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are 

no dues or fees for A.A. membership and A.A. is not allied with any sect, 

denomination, politics, organization or institution. Our primary purpose is 

to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety. 

Contact - Roger 05 55 76 22 65 or Nancy 02 54 24 09 74 

Or check our website at www.aafrancesud-ouest.com for details of this and 

other English-speaking meetings in the South West of France. 

Amateur open mic night @ Vautredeix 

(Just outside Gouzon, next to Saint-Sylvain-sous-Toulx). Poets, musicians, 

whatever you may be.... Everyone welcome to perform or just enjoy the 

company. Every Friday night 7pm onwards. Free. Bring a bottle. For more 

info contact stonryop269@hotmail.com 

Tai Chi at Boussac and La Châtre 

Tai Chi classes in Boussac (Tuesdays 18.15 - 19.45) and in La Châtre (Thursdays 

18.15 - 19.45). 

The first two lessons are free, the subscriptions are 36 euros per month, and 

folks can go to both venues having paid this fee. There are two free day-long 

sessions per year. The style is that of Yang, and the teachers are part of a national 

organisation called the FMIPTC (Fédération des mouvements indépendants 

de pédagogie des techniques corporelles). 

All ages and abilities welcome, but folk must bear in mind that they will be 

on their feet, doing the equivalent of what one might classify as light exercise, 

for about an hour and a half. For more information, contact 05 55 65 08 20. 

The Melting Pot 

We are a group of people who regularly meet and share things and try and 

integrate with the French Community. We are an association that has been 

in existence for 4 years since 1st August 2006. We meet every month in the 

Ancienne Ecole in Darnac, on a Wednesday morning from 10 am till 12 pm, 

except for the first Wednesday, when we meet in the evening at 8 pm. We 

have more than 45 members at the moment, some French and British. We 

hold information meetings, plant swaps, some members give talks and we 

regularly have guest speakers on subjects concerning living in France. In the 

evening meetings we hold quizzes, Whist Drives and BBQ's at members’ 

homes, also Boules and BBQ. Evenings and occasional trips around the area. 

We look forward to seeing you! Contact: info@meltingpot-limousin.com 

Learn how to jive at Lussac-les-Eglises in an exciting, fun, 

friendly group that meet every Monday at 8pm, at the Salle Polyvalente, 

Lussac-les-Eglises. Everyone welcome whether you’re on your own or part 

of a couple, young or young at heart. This is a great way to keep fit, have 

some good laughs and meet new people. For more info contact Alwyn on 

O5.55.60.27.05 or Hank on 05.55.68.42.09. See you there! 

Learning Together – Apprenons Ensemble 

‘Learning Together’ currently runs language lessons at the Maison des Associations 

in Rochechouart. There are French lessons at different levels as well as English 

lessons for adults and separate ones for young children. 

The Association has also in place planned social and cultural events for the forthcoming 

winter and spring 2011, including a games evening on the first Thursday 

evening in each month at ‘La Meteorite’ in Rochechouart, a lunch arranged on a 

Thursday each month at different venues, trips to the Cine Bourse in St-Junien, a 

visit to La Mégisserie Theatre in St-Junien on November 21st and a pre-Christmas 

celebration meal with live music on December 11th. 

Membership costs 10 euros per household per annum. French classes cost 30 

euros for a term of six lessons, taster sessions cost 5 euros. There is no charge for 

English lessons at present. Social and other cultural events are charged pro rata. 

For further details please visit our website at www.learningtogether.me or contact 

one of us by email at learningtogether87@gmail.com. 

CSF Charente-Plus Coffee Morning 

A coffee morning was held on 

the 25th September to raise funds 

for CSF National. The event was 

hosted by Kath Shaw who took the 

lead with lots of support from Jane 

Thomas and Rosemarie Steven and 

of course Kath's husband Phil. We 

raised money by charging 3 Euros 

per person for their coffee and a slice 

of cake. There were many stalls selling, jams, chutneys, cakes, plants, books, 

hand-made cards, paintings and bric-a-brac. We also held a raffle and tombola. 

All items had been donated by friends and organizations. Joy gave her time and 

offered nail paintings to the ladies. 

Despite the cold and rain over 60 people attended the coffee morning and although 

most visitors were British, we also had French people who came along to support 

us. The event was a huge success and over 770 Euros was raised for CSF National 

branch. We would like to thank everyone for supporting our event and especially 

those people who gave up their time to help out. A Big Thank You to you ALL. 

Could You Be An Active Listener for 

CSF Charente Plus? 

I represent CSF Charente Plus, the local association that gives free and 

confidential support for those English speakers affected by cancer to 

departments 16, 17, 86 & 87. We have a large area to cover and are in need 

of more Active Listeners (AL’s). There is an initial 2-day training course 

with a follow-up some 6 weeks later. It is at this stage that you make 

your mind up if you still feel you want to become an AL. That done, we 

then take up references. The kind of support you may give varies as each 

client will have differing requirements. You have a wealth of information 

that we provide so you are armed with at least some of the answers to 

questions that could be asked of you. Sometimes all you are required to 

do is point someone in the direction of information, then again you may 

be asked for a home visit. Whatever the support you give, you are not 

abandoned after your training. There is a buddy system in place and our 

AL co-ordinator Viv Milne is always at the end of the phone to assist if 

you need it. If you are interested in becoming an AL, then please email 

Viv on csf.charenteplus@gmail.com and she will answer any questions 

you may have. We are not inundated with clients, we are here for the 

few, and they are so important to us. We exist for them and without our 

Active Listeners to give the support we could not provide the service. We 

hope to reduce some of the worry and pressure that can be associated with 

experiencing a serious illness when you may not speak the language of 

the country. Please don’t forget, our service is free and confidential. Our 

helpline number is 06.45.35.32.30. 

Pat Hyatt, President, CSF Charente Plus. 

Tel: 05.55.48.62.98 (George) or 05.45.89.37.12 (Linda) 

or 05.55.48.13.52 (Le Régence)

Sat 20th to Sun 21st Nov VERNEUIL-SUR-VIENNE 

Marché artisanal de Noël 

Artisanal Christmas Market offering decorative objects for the 

home, candles, mirrors, jewellery, wooden crafts, leather goods etc. 

Salle de Pennevayre. Sat 20th 14h-19h & Sun 21st 9h-19h. Free entry. 

Contact: Dynamisons Verneuil Tel 05.55.48.05.62. 

Wed 24th Nov GUÉRET 

Classical Music Concert: 'Le chant de l’âme russe' 

Concert of music by Russian composers such as Moussorgski and 

Chostakovitch under the direction of Jérôme Kaltenbach by the 

65 musicians of the Orchestre de Limoges et du Limousin and 

Russian baritone Mikhail Kolelishvili. 

Espace André Lejeune. 20h30. Tickets €19 (concessions available). 

Contact: Tel 05.55.52.84.97. 

Fri 26th Nov AIXE-SUR-VIENNE 

Concert 'Opus V' 

Concert by wind quintet 'Opus V': Debussy, Dvorak, Tchaïkowski. 

Centre culturel Jacques Prévert. 20h30. Tickets 7€/4€/2€. Free for 

under 6's & students of the Ecole de musique et d’arts plastiques 

d’Aixe-sur-Vienne. 

Contact: Services Culturels d’Aixe-sur-Vienne 

Tel 05.55.70.77.02. www.mairie-aixesurvienne.fr 

Sat 27th Nov AIXE-SUR-VIENNE 

Marché de Noël 

Christmas Market. All day. Place de l'église. 

Contact: Comité de Jumelage Tel 06.58.47.80.24. 

JJ’s Café 

Aigurande 

Acoustic Music Club 

2nd Saturday of every month, 8.30 pm. All musicians, 

singers, listeners very welcome. Free entry. 

Saturday, 20th November 

SOIREE CHILLI AND JAZZ MANOUCHE 

with the fabulous trio A.M. KETENES 

Chilli con carne available by reservation €8 

Female backing singer (from Les Fabuleuses Tartiflettes) 

is looking for a band to sing with or maybe 

to start a band. If you are interested please contact 

Jacky on 02.54.06.30.77 or email cafebarjj@ 

yahoo.co.uk (mark 'band') 

JJ's Cafe Bar, 39 Place du Champ de Foire, 

36140 Aigurande 

Tel: 02 54 06 30 77 

Email: cafebarjj@yahoo.co.uk 


Alleyrat 

Fish & Chip Night Saturday 6th Nov 

Open from 7pm onwards 

Battered Cod Chips & Mushy Peas 12.50€ pp 

Alternative choice & Vegetarian option available 

Dessert Menu also available 

Call Alison to reserve. 

Afternoon Tea & Card Party Thur 11th Nov 

2pm-5pm. Tea/Coffee and delicious Cakes. 

Cards provided by Phoenix cards: cards for all occasions 

plus Christmas cards & calendars. 

We are open every day for Lunch & Dinner by reservation 

Contact Alison for booking 

Alleyrat, nr Aubusson - 05.55.66.98.58 

Au Beau Rivage 

Pionnat, Busseau-sur-Creuse 

BONFIRE NIGHT PARTY Friday 5th Nov 

Fire to be lit @ 8pm - Fireworks @ 9 - 9.30pm 

Jacket potatoes, sausages, soup and chilli available @ 10€ per 

person (5€ per child) reservation if possible by Wednesday 

3rd November please 05 55 62 40 27 

Fri 12 th Nov Open mic @ 8pm 

Fri 19 th Nov Quiz & Raclette - €2 pp @ 8pm 

Fri 26 th Nov – Déjà vu @ 8pm 

Also available every Sunday throughout winter Traditional 

1 course Sunday roast @ 12€ pp. 24€ à la carte menu also 

available. Reservations preferred but not essential. 

05.55.62.40.27 

Sat 27th to Sun 28th Nov SEREILHAC 

27e Salon Gourmand 

27th Gourmet Fair organised by the Lions Club of Aixe-sur-Vienne. 

Salle polyvalente de Maison Neuve. Entry €1. Free for children. 

Sat & Sun 9h-18h. Proceeds from the fair are used to fund the 

work of the various local, national or international charities that 

the Lions Club of Aixe-sur-Vienne supports. Contact: Lions Club 

Tel 05.55.70.29.68. Email francois-chibois@orange.fr 

Thu 9th to Sat 11th Dec CHABANAIS 

Christmas Pantomime 2010 - “Babes in the Wood” 

Theatre Chabanois is proud to present its next production, the 

pantomime “Babes in the Wood”, which will be staged in the 

Salles des Fêtes, Chabanais (16) on three dates: December 9th 

(7.30pm), 10th (8.15pm) and 11th (4.00pm). It is hoped that the 

different start times will allow a maximum of folk to be able to 

attend. Tickets are 6 Euros for adults, 4 Euros for children aged 

5 to 12 years and free for those 4 years and younger. There is a 

family ticket for 2 adults and up to 3 children at 20 Euros. 

Advance booking is recommended. Tel 05.45.31.88.70. 

The Babes are, as tradition dictates, abandoned in the wood, 

but our wood is Sherwood Forest so Robin Hood and all the 

usual characters are there, as well as the Kids’ Nurse. This is a 

traditional panto, in English, with Robin played by Georgina 

Huish, complete with lots of thigh slapping, the gorgeous Maid 

Marion by Milie Poyser, the evil Sheriff of Nottingham by Ian 

Clare (booo) and the nurse, in suitably outrageous style, is Barry 

Shipman. Come along and enjoy a real British Panto in the heart 

of the Charente Limousine. See you there. Oh no, we won’t! Oh 

yes, we will! 

Bugle 

Notice 

Board 


On the D4 between Auzances & Mainsat 

Would like to announce a NEW line of quality reproduction 

kitchenalia such as aide de memoires, 

kitchen chalkboards, soap dishes, utensil holders, 

allumettes etc which are ideal as Xmas presents. 

We are also offering 25% off any buffet, armoire 

or bed on presentation of the coupon on pg 4. 

05.55.83.14.47 

Au Bon Vivre - Parnac 

Moules frites weekend 6th & 7th Nov 

Please note that we are closed from 

23rd November, reopening on the 29th for 

tête de veau as usual. 

02.54.24.83.31 www.aubonvivrerestaurant.com 

La Récré - Ahun 

Thursdays are ladies coffee mornings at La 

Récré with our Chatterbox Club. Pop in for a 

coffee & a slice of home-made cake. 

On Thu 25th November Claire will be bringing 

in some of the jewellery she makes to sell. We 

have pencilled in a date for a coach trip to 

Limoges on Sun 19th December. 

Book Exchange – open daily, no annual fee. 

Bring one, swap one or buy one for €1. Also 

videos €1, DVDs €2. 

Dean is also your local Avon representative. 

Pop in for a catalogue! 

05.55.62.56.44 - www.larecre-ahun.com 

The Exchange 

Rochechouart 

... will be closed from the 3rd November to 

re-open Tuesday 9th November. 


WHAT’S ON ♦ 

NOTE FOR YOUR DIARY 

Xmas Market - Civray 

After last year's success, Attitude and the Mairie 

of Civray are organising another Xmas market in 

the Salle d'animation next to the Civray Mairie on 

Tuesday 14th December between 10am and 5pm, 

in aid of the Collectif alimentaire de Civray (the 

people who give out food parcels to the needy). 

Anyone wishing to book a stand can do so either by 

emailing for a booking form at attitudecivray@gmail. 

com or phoning 05 49 87 34 02. Stands cost 15 Euros 

for the first table and €10 Euros for each subsequent 

one. Display grills cost €5 and electricity will be 

available. 

Santé et Beauté 

Saint-Mathieu 

... would like to announce the launch of our 

new website: 

www.limousinbeautysalon.com 

where you can find a full list of all our 

Holistic and Beauty therapies, all our prices 

and more information on our salon. 

Tel: 05 55 00 92 97 

19 

A NOTE FOR YOUR DIARIES! 

The AIPB Christmas Carol Service will take place at 

Boussac Church on Friday December 10th 2010 at 

19:30. To be followed by Christmas Refreshments. 

Look out for our adverts & posters nearer the time! 

CALLING ALL SINGERS! 

In order to prepare for the above, we would like to 

invite anyone interested to join us for rehearsals of the 

English and French carols we shall be singing. 

The rehearsals will be very informal and will take place 

at the Maison Paroissiale, opposite Boussac church, at 

8.00pm on Friday 19th and Friday 26th November. 

PIERCE ÉLECTRICITÉ 

UK SATELLITE TELEVISION 

SUPPLIED AND INSTALLED 

FROM €130 

PRICE INCLUDES: DISH, CABLE 

AND SKY BOX WITH REMOTE. 

PLEASE CALL: 05 55 60 81 67 

SIRET REGISTERED. 

Les Papillons 

Oradour-sur-Vayres 

Sat 27th November - Craft Fair, 10am - 5pm 

Please call JACKIE (05 44 00 03 24) 

or DIANA (05 55 78 21 98) 

if you would like to have a table for your craft. 

Sun 28th November - Choral Recital & Buffet 

Please ring for details. 

Tel: 05 44 00 03 24


20 ♦ WHAT’S ON 

November events across Central France 

As usual, The Bugle brings you a small selection of upcoming events across the region. November provides us with seasonal gourmet treats in the form 

of apples, chestnuts & oysters and the chance to enjoy a glass or two of cider & the new Beaujolais. Music is also on the agenda with the end of the Jazz 

à la Sout festival, several classical music concerts and a Battle of the Bands! We have the start of the Christmas markets towards the end of the month and 

bring you some dates for your diary for December – look out for the pantomimes brought to you by Theatre Chabanois and Entente Cordiale. 

Sat 16th Oct to Sat 20th Nov AHUN 

17th Salon des Artistes 

Exhibition of the works of 18 local artists on the theme 'Life'. 

Visitors are asked to vote for their favourites. 

Office de tourisme Ahun. Mon - Sat 9h30-12h & 14h-18h. Free entry. 

Contact: OT Ahun Tel 05.55.62.55.93 or visit www.ahun-creusetourisme.fr 

Fri 5th Nov GOUZON 

Concert Jean-François Prin & Franck Jaccard 

As part of the Jazz à La Sout festival the Espace Beaune 

welcomes Jean-François Prin (accordion) & Franck Jaccard 

(piano). 

20h30. Tickets €11 (Adutlts), €8 (Concessions & Under 

12's) from the Office de tourisme de La Souterraine Tel 

05.55.63.10.06. 

Sun 7th Nov GUÉRET 

Concert Pink Turtle 

For the closing event of the Jazz à la Sout festival, the Espace André 

Lejeune (salle polyvalente) welcomes Pink Turtle. This group of 

seven jazz/swing musicians raise a smile with their inventive jump, 

jive and swing reworkings of rock classics. 

17h. Tickets €19 (adults) from the ticket office of the Espace Fayolle. 

Sun 7th Nov LA GENEYTOUSE 

Chopin Concert 

Concert by Josée CARLOSEMA (piano), Martine 

ALTENBURGER (cello) & Ismaël MARGAIN (piano) 

La Maison du Berger, 87400, La Geneytouse. 18h. 

Contact: Tel 05.55.09.73.79. Email edsp@wanadoo.fr 

Sun 7th Nov SAINT-PRIEST-SOUS-AIXE 

30e Journée de la Châtaigne, du cidre et de 

l'artisanat 

Tickle your tastebuds with a day of delicious delights at 

the 30th Chestnut, Cider and Craft Day in Saint-Priestsous-Aixe. 

The village will play host to 80 artisans (stone 

sculpture, clog making, mosaiques, wood turning to name 

just a few) & food stalls offering treats such as roasted 

chestnuts, crepes made with chestnut flour, black pudding, 

fresh apple juice etc. 

All day. Paid entry after 13h (€2) 

Contact: Association Vivre à Saint-Priest Tel 05.55.70.06.45. 

Sun 7th Nov SAINTE-FEYRE 

Fête de la pomme 

Annual Apple Fair in the town centre. 8h-19h. The apple 

producers of the region invite you to come and taste local 

varieties of apple, discover how cider is made and nibble on such 

delights as boudins and apple crepes. 

There is also a vide-greniers in the town on the same day. Bring 

some wellies if it rains as the vide-greniers (and parking) is in a 

field and can get quite boggy. 

Contact: Tel 05.44.00.05.16. 

Wed 10th to Sat 13th Nov SARDENT 

30ème Foire aux huitres - Oyster Fair 

Sale of oysters and gourmet products. 

Terrain de l'Ouche (old football ground). Free entry. 

Contact: Tel 06.81.83.39.77 www.sardent.com 

Thu 11th Nov GLANE 

Fête du Cidre et de la Châtaigne + vide-greniers 

Cider and chestnut festival. 

Organised by the Comité des fêtes de Glane. 

Contact: Tel 06.98.89.66.97. 

Tue 16th Nov LIMOGES 

CELTIC LEGENDS 

A spectacle of traditional Irish dance brought to you by Celtic 

Legends, celebrating their 10th anniversary. 

Zenith Limoges. 20h30. Tickets on sale via FNAC, Limoges 

€30/€46. 

Fri 19th Nov LES GRANDS-CHÉZEAUX 

GREAT FOOD MARKET & BEAUJOLAIS 

NOUVEAU CELEBRATION 

Starting at 4 pm: Organic produce and Farmers’ market: 

Poultry, veg and fruit, chestnuts, traditional sausages and other 

Panto - Aladdin 

Spectacular costumes, dynamic modern songs, full of 

energy, must not be missed! 

Entente Cordiale is proud to present a bilingual production of Aladdin 

at the Apollo from 2 nd – 5 th December. Following the success of last 

year’s Cinderella there will be an extra performance this year. 

This year the Producer/Director is Bruce Veness, the Stage Manager is 

Geoff Sale and the Technician is Dick Bloxidge. The cast will include 

many familiar faces from last year’s production, plus some newcomers. 

Salle Apollo, Dun-le-Palestel 

Thursday 2 nd - 19:30 

Friday 3 rd - 20:30 

Saturday 4 th (matinee) - 16:30 

Saturday 4 th - 20:30 

Sunday 5 th - 15:00 

Tickets are priced at €8 for 

adults, €5 for children. The first 

performance is available to 

school parties and priced at €5 

for each child (accompanying 

adults free). 

For reservations please call 

Mireille Janvier on 05.55.89.27.30 (French) or Carole Sale 

02.54.47.37.52 (English). Tickets can also be bought at the 

English Library in Dun-le-Palestel. 

delicatessen, goat's milk cheese, local beers. Free glass of mulled 

wine. Official arrival of Beaujolais nouveau and hunting horn 

concert. Free entrance. 

Starting at 7.30 pm (by reservation, participation €10). Country 

Buffet followed by the movie and debate: ''Nos enfants nous 

accuseront.'' This powerful documentary makes the case for 

organic agriculture in terms of an urgent call to action. 

Les Grands-Chezeaux (A20 exit 21) 

Information and Bookings by phone (05 55 76 70 15) or by 

e-mail (cazalibus@orange.fr) 

Fri 19th Nov SAINT-SÉBASTIEN 

Soirée Beaujolais Nouveau 

Relax and try this year's Beaujolais Nouveau (in moderation!) 

with a meal of salade de chou, rôti de porc with gratin dauphinois, 

fromage, and then clafoutis. 

At the Salle des Fêtes, St-Sébastien at 19:30 hrs. 

Reservation for the meal essential (11 euros). 

Contact Annie 05 55 63 08 48. 

(continued on page 19) 

Battle of the Bands - Rules 

The competition is open to 6 bands competing against one another for the 

coveted “AIPB Battle of the Bands” Trophy plus a cash prize of € 300. Each 

band will play a programme of 3 songs lasting about 15 minutes. A panel of 

5 judges will review their performance against the following criteria: 

1) Balance of the programme. 2) How well the Band play and sing together. 

3) Audience Appreciation. 

After all the bands have played the judges will select 2 bands to play off in a 

final. The two selected bands will play 2 songs each, lasting about 10 minutes. 

The winning band will then collect their prize and play out the evening. 

To enter your band, contact the AIPB at: 

amities.internationales.pboussac@gmail.com or Tel: 06 48 57 57 98

Hit, miss or maybe for auto- entreprises? - The Bugle

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