all who go there . be aware.

It is at times like this that I am glad I have an excitable and rebellious angle of quick, farm yard French and was able to fight my way out of situations of aggression and disbelief of which  we have experienced these past two days..

Our mobile homes are due to be collected by a vigorous transport company who will not stand for any delay or squabble on pick up day. Yesterday, however, we got a call from Camping Du Midi to say that our “cheque de banque” that they had deposited in their bank nine days earlier had not cleared and they were not able to release the vans for dispatch.  I explained that we sent a bank guaranteed cheque and all their bank had to do was present it to our bank and the transaction was done, no waiting for payment because the we had already released the funds into our bank’s guaranteed-cheque account. Simple you would you say, but no. Camping Du Midi’s bank did not believe the cheque to be genuine, for reasons I have not yet had time to establish, and would not release the funds  for  fifteen days to ensure the cheque would not bounce. OK, so Mike and I are now in a state of disbelief, and shock.  Is it inconceivable that the banks of France do not trust each other?  And, why do they not talk to one another?  At nine o’clock this morning, 24 hours before monsieur le aggressive transport manager dispatches his lorry to Camping Du Midi, we are at our bank in Carentan demanding that as their best and most trouble free clients we now have a huge problem and we need their help. The initial response to our tale of woe was to treat us like a couple of imbeciles and we were explained the process of the bankers cheque and what happens to the funds, I explained that we knew all of this and the customer services gentleman said that I should let him speak as he knew the business better than me and then started to explain the process of bankers cheques again at which point I had to get squeaky and angry again and said that he must call the bank at the other end of this dilemma and resolve the issue. He quite rightly went in search  of the facts that he might need to confront the other bank and with the cheque stub in hand and the online proof that the money had been withdrawn a week ago he dialled the number and the fun began.  I must confess that at that moment I began to feel like a scam victim and shared that feeling with Mike who also thought the worse.  The pleasantries  and good mannered discussions commenced and the wheels of logic and business acumen began to role…., I am joking with you, sorry…. It transpires that Bank CIC in Challan, where the vans are, did not trust the Credit Agricol banker’s cheque and would not release the funds until fifteen days was up. The only way this could be resolved was to send them proof that the cheque is genuine and that the funds had really left our account.  I felt a time scale issue coming on and I demanded that this bickering between banks needed  to be done now and in front of me. An hour later the caravans were released and the transport put back on schedule. Do I believe this delivery is actually going to happen, well, no I don’t, but I will not share this with Mike just yet as he is not off the ceiling and we are about to go out to lunch with Ann from Appleville to coo and marvel at her new cuisiniere of which I know I am going to be green with envy.

Before I sign off today I must just remind you all that if you live in Europe the legislation provided for us all is there to protect us and our futures. Mike and I had a sheet of asbestos in the garden which was mentioned as a danger in the report when we bought the house and yesterday we plucked up the courage to carefully pack it into a plastic bag so as to not contaminate any one else’s life and we drove it to the main decheterie in Carentan. When we arrived the chappy habitually takes a look at what you are chucking out and that you have carefully triaged everything and I asked where we could dispose of the asbestos. We boldly asked us to unwrap it break it up into smaller pieces and put it in sand bag in the corner. Mike was flabbergasted, in his previous life working with buildings any contact with asbestos called in a battery of rules regulations and paperwork so that it is disposed of securely and under no circumstances should asbestos be broken up or handled without proper protective clothing. So we just dumped our cargo on the bag and drove away wondering why on earth Europe spends so much  money and time to protect us and then allows the rules to be broken and ignored. This is a council run tip and is now classified as a hazardous area and in our opinion,  all who go there . be aware.