Just got back from a trip to Belgium. Bought beer, wine, fags, tobacco.
Gordon Brown forces me to DIY and circumvent his system.

I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK supermarket
prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5 hour round trip door to
door.

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France &
Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so months
this could be interesting!


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Just got back from a trip to Belgium. Bought beer, wine, fags, tobacco.
Gordon Brown forces me to DIY and circumvent his system.

I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK supermarket
prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5 hour round trip door to
door.

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France &
Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so months
this could be interesting!

French tools will work fine here, their system is 220v real 230v
nominal, ours is 240v real 230 nominal, and all new EU tools are
required to be able to operate on either. Both countries are 50Hz.
Belgium I dont know, but most probably the same arrangement. The only
things that dont travel well across the 220/240 divide are filament
bulbs.


NT

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
.uk...
Just got back from a trip to Belgium. Bought beer, wine, fags, tobacco.
Gordon Brown forces me to DIY and circumvent his system.

I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK supermarket
prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5 hour round trip door
to door.

You could have saved over twice that if you gave up drinking and smoking.

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France &
Belgium.

I've not noticed any significant difference.

Do they work on UK voltage?

They work on harmonised EU voltage and so do we. However, they don't use the
same plugs as us.

Colin Bignell

On 2006-09-19 01:00:43 +0100, "The Medway Handyman"
said:

Just got back from a trip to Belgium. Bought beer, wine, fags,
tobacco. Gordon Brown forces me to DIY and circumvent his system.

I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK supermarket
prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5 hour round trip
door to door.

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France &
Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so
months this could be interesting!

You can use tools sourced in any of these countries in the UK. All
have a Schuko plug which you can remove or alternatively buy an
extension and put a 13A plug on that.

I have not found large differences on the prices of power tools vs. the
UK in general, although there are always offers. One thing to watch
is the differing rates of VAT. If you are paying but not reclaiming
VAT then you will pay the rate of the selling country and nothing on
import to the UK.
If you are VAT registered, you can (theoretically) go with a copy of
your VAT certificate and ask for the transaction to be done net of VAT.
I say "theoretically" because somewhere like Leroy Merlin or
Castorama is not really set up to do that. A tool store might be, but
then you would probably pay more anyway.

Standard VAT rates are 21% in Belgium, 19.6% in France, 19% in
Netherlands and 16% in Germany.

I have noticed that tools are a little cheaper in Germany which is
probably partly due to VAT rate, and in Netherlands which is a much
more price sensitive market.

You may also notice that prices in France are less if you are willing
to travel 30 -50km from the channel ports. There does appear to be a
tourist markup.

The message om
from contains these words:

French tools will work fine here,

With a plug change, of course.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Just got back from a trip to Belgium. Bought beer, wine, fags, tobacco.
Gordon Brown forces me to DIY and circumvent his system.

I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK supermarket
prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5 hour round trip door to
door.

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France &
Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so months
this could be interesting!

Whenever I go to mainland Europe (most recently France, The Netherlands
and Germany) I have a scout around the shops and compare prices of
things I know in the UK and I've never found a significant difference.


Admittedly I don't smoke and can well believe that there is a huge
difference between tobacco products. But when it comes to consumer
electronics, whisky, kids clothes etc. I really havn't found any huge
gulf in prices making it worth lugging the stuff back on the plane.
Booze and fags are on obvious exception if you are driving. (Even then
I just think you consume the stuff quicker if it's there rather than
getting better value out of it, but that's another issue).

Some relatives of ours used to sing the benefits of Spain because of
the cheap booze and fags even the cheapness of pepper corns for christs
sake, completely forgetting to mention that the water and electricity
are hideously expensive where they are.

Even petrol on our recent trip to France was within 1p or 2p of UK
prices. Then you had to add peage. Over our 1700 mile round trip the
running costs (petrol and tolls) per mile were within fractions of
pence of some of the long trips we've done over here recently.

--
Steve F

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Just got back from a trip to Belgium. Bought beer, wine, fags, tobacco.
Gordon Brown forces me to DIY and circumvent his system.

I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK supermarket
prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5 hour round trip door to
door.

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France &
Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so months
this could be interesting!


That's because of the higher tax we have on Tobacco and alcohol.
I very much doubt power tools will be any cheaper.

The Medway Handyman wrote:

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France &
Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so
months this could be interesting!

So why didn't visit a DIY shed and jot down a few prices whilst over there?
then compare with the average UK pricing.


--
Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

nightjar nightjar@ wrote:

You could have saved over twice that if you gave up drinking and smoking.

:¬)

--
http://gymratz.co.uk - Best Gym Equipment & Bodybuilding Supplements UK.
http://trade-price-supplements.co.uk - TRADE PRICED SUPPLEMENTS for ALL!
http://fitness-equipment-uk.com - UK's No.1 Fitness Equipment Suppliers.
http://Water-Rower.co.uk - Worlds best prices on the Worlds best Rower.

Colin Bignell wrote;
I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK
supermarket prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5
hour round trip door to door.

You could have saved over twice that if you gave up drinking and
smoking.

And spent it on making all my own dresses .........................


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

"Fitz" wrote in message
oups.com...

[snip]

Even petrol on our recent trip to France was within 1p or 2p of UK
prices. Then you had to add peage. Over our 1700 mile round trip the
running costs (petrol and tolls) per mile were within fractions of
pence of some of the long trips we've done over here recently.


Petrol in my local Tesco's last night was 86.9p for unleaded, less 5p for
spending over £50 in the store. Can't remember the last time I paid 81.9ppl.

On 2006-09-19 10:34:13 +0100, "The3rd Earl Of Derby" said:

The Medway Handyman wrote:

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France &
Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so
months this could be interesting!

So why didn't visit a DIY shed and jot down a few prices whilst over there?
then compare with the average UK pricing.

You can look at the sites-web for that.....

The3rd Earl Of Derby wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France
& Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so
months this could be interesting!

So why didn't visit a DIY shed and jot down a few prices whilst over
there? then compare with the average UK pricing.

Because I went at night......................


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
.uk...
Just got back from a trip to Belgium. Bought beer, wine, fags, tobacco.
Gordon Brown forces me to DIY and circumvent his system.

I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK supermarket
prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5 hour round trip door
to door.

I heard quite a long time ago that the quality and taste of imported food
products was higher in France (no doubt in other countries too) than in the
UK. Two products mentioned were Nescafe instant cofee and Knorr soups.
So, if you drink coffee; buy it for the better price _and_ taste.

Sylvain.

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France &
Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so months
this could be interesting!


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

"nightjar .uk.com" nightjar@insert my surname here wrote in message
news

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
.uk...
Just got back from a trip to Belgium. Bought beer, wine, fags, tobacco.
Gordon Brown forces me to DIY and circumvent his system.

I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK supermarket
prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5 hour round trip door
to door.

You could have saved over twice that if you gave up drinking and smoking.

:-)

Mary

Sylvain VAN DER WALDE wrote:

I heard quite a long time ago that the quality and taste of imported food
products was higher in France (no doubt in other countries too) than in the
UK. Two products mentioned were Nescafe instant cofee and Knorr soups.

Yes, but what about _food_ products?

I don't particularly like eating either boiled babies or MSG+salt

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
.uk...
Colin Bignell wrote;
I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK
supermarket prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5
hour round trip door to door.

You could have saved over twice that if you gave up drinking and
smoking.

And spent it on making all my own dresses .........................

I would take that activity as a given in a DIY group. At 6'1" and 17 stone,
I would find it very difficult to buy dresses off the peg.

Colin Bignell

wrote:
Sylvain VAN DER WALDE wrote:

I heard quite a long time ago that the quality and taste of imported food
products was higher in France (no doubt in other countries too) than in the
UK. Two products mentioned were Nescafe instant cofee and Knorr soups.

Yes, but what about _food_ products?

I don't particularly like eating either boiled babies or MSG+salt

fussy eater eh

NT

In message , The
Medway Handyman writes
Just got back from a trip to Belgium. Bought beer, wine, fags, tobacco.
Gordon Brown forces me to DIY and circumvent his system.

I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK supermarket
prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5 hour round trip door to
door.

Just don't get me started on that one


--
geoff

In message , The
Medway Handyman writes
Just got back from a trip to Belgium. Bought beer, wine, fags, tobacco.
Gordon Brown forces me to DIY and circumvent his system.

Packet of fags in Luxembourg - £1.70 IIRC

even cheaper

(12 months without a cigarette now)


I spent just under £600. Compared it like for like with UK supermarket
prices and realised I just saved myself £500 for a 5 hour round trip door to
door.

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France &
Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so months
this could be interesting!

Don't forget, different moulded plugs

remove them and you prolly invalidate the warranty

--
geoff

On 2006-09-19 13:16:14 +0100, "The Medway Handyman"
said:

The3rd Earl Of Derby wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

I'm starting to wonder how much brand name power tools are in France
& Belgium. Do they work on UK voltage? Since I go every two or so
months this could be interesting!

So why didn't visit a DIY shed and jot down a few prices whilst over
there? then compare with the average UK pricing.

Because I went at night......................

Like the Irish space mission to the sun....

You can look on the web sites of the main players like

- Castorama (Kingfisher group)
- Leroy Merlin
- Mr Bricolage
- Bricorama
- Brico Depot
- Brico (Belgium)

If you want to venture a bit further, there is Bauhaus (Germany and a
few in Holland) which is pretty good.

For an all-time bricofix, there is nothing to beat BHV. This is
actually an enormous department store and their store in Paris (Rivoli
- near Hotel de Ville) is an Aladdin's cave. Even the coffee shop
leaves anything B&Q can muster in tatters.

Cliquez ici:

http://www.bhv.fr/index.php?id=290

There are a few stores away from Paris, but none in the north
unfortunately, apart from Caen.

wrote:
Sylvain VAN DER WALDE wrote:

I heard quite a long time ago that the quality and taste of imported
food products was higher in France (no doubt in other countries too)
than in the UK. Two products mentioned were Nescafe instant cofee
and Knorr soups.

Yes, but what about _food_ products?

I don't particularly like eating either boiled babies

Boiled babies?

or MSG+salt

Why, don't you like tomatoes, Parmesan cheese or walnuts?


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

In article ,
Andy Hall writes:

For an all-time bricofix, there is nothing to beat BHV. This is
actually an enormous department store and their store in Paris (Rivoli
- near Hotel de Ville) is an Aladdin's cave. Even the coffee shop
leaves anything B&Q can muster in tatters.

BHV really is a must-see if you are anywhere near Paris. You can
spend hours in the basement going through loads of really handy
DIY things you never would have known where to buy otherwise,
whilst the other half browses through household and other
departments.

As I've mentioned a few times, I sometimes find myself making light
fittings, and it's the only place I know where you can go and
find all the bits of brass tubing, etc for making light fittings.
Good job my dad lives in Paris:-)

--
Andrew Gabriel

"Sylvain VAN DER WALDE" wrote in message
...
....
I heard quite a long time ago that the quality and taste of imported food
products was higher in France (no doubt in other countries too) than in
the UK...

It is different, as it is made to suit local tastes. If you are a local, you
will probably consider it better. A Briton may not.

Colin Bignell

In message , Owain
writes
nightjar nightjar@ wrote:
I would take that activity as a given in a DIY group. At 6'1" and 17
stone, I would find it very difficult to buy dresses off the peg.

That's almost mainstream sizing for chavettes nowadays.

Admittedly with your height you might show a bit more leg than they do ;-)

Try 17 st @5' 8"


Owain


--
geoff

On 2006-09-19 23:21:31 +0100, (Andrew
Gabriel) said:

In article ,
Andy Hall writes:

For an all-time bricofix, there is nothing to beat BHV. This is
actually an enormous department store and their store in Paris (Rivoli
- near Hotel de Ville) is an Aladdin's cave. Even the coffee shop
leaves anything B&Q can muster in tatters.

BHV really is a must-see if you are anywhere near Paris. You can
spend hours in the basement going through loads of really handy
DIY things you never would have known where to buy otherwise,
whilst the other half browses through household and other
departments.
As I've mentioned a few times, I sometimes find myself making light
fittings, and it's the only place I know where you can go and
find all the bits of brass tubing, etc for making light fittings.
Good job my dad lives in Paris:-)

Conveniently, there is an entrance directly from the Metro into the
department. They couldn't make it much easier.

What has always amused me is that they carry a comprehensive stock of
large items such as 2440x1220 sheet materials. Certainly one
wouldn''t want to attempt to take one of those on the Metro and from
the road location perspective is not somewhere that one would normally
show up with a Landrover and roof bars.

If anybody ever took a trip to Hamleys at an age of under 5 and more
than 30 years ago when it was a proper toy shop and not just a
dispenser of packaged cr@p, the impression is comparable.

On 2006-09-19 23:31:33 +0100, "nightjar" nightjar@insert my surname
here.uk.com said:


"Sylvain VAN DER WALDE" wrote in
message ...
...
I heard quite a long time ago that the quality and taste of imported
food products was higher in France (no doubt in other countries too)
than in the UK...

It is different, as it is made to suit local tastes. If you are a
local, you will probably consider it better. A Briton may not.

Colin Bignell

I do.

The presentation is usually impecable as well.

I recently visited a Carrefour in a not particularly up market part of
Paris and went to the meat and fish departments. There were proper
butchers who would consult and cut what the customer required. The
fish department had running seawater and fresh water from tanks with
live produce, ice properly used so as not to mar the skin of the fish
and so on.

Fresh produce was something again. High quality and superb presentation.

None of this was more expensive than the UK.

When I compare with the meat dispensing operatives in any UK
supermarket I really despair.
We get what we deserve because we accept this rubbish.

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On 2006-09-19 23:31:33 +0100, "nightjar" nightjar@insert my surname
here.uk.com said:


"Sylvain VAN DER WALDE" wrote in message
...
...
I heard quite a long time ago that the quality and taste of imported
food products was higher in France (no doubt in other countries too)
than in the UK...

It is different, as it is made to suit local tastes. If you are a local,
you will probably consider it better. A Briton may not.

Colin Bignell

I do.

The presentation is usually impecable as well.

I recently visited a Carrefour in a not particularly up market part of
Paris and went to the meat and fish departments. There were proper
butchers who would consult and cut what the customer required. The fish
department had running seawater and fresh water from tanks with live
produce, ice properly used so as not to mar the skin of the fish and so
on.

However, none of that falls into the realm of imported brand name products.

Colin Bignell

"Owain" wrote in message
...
nightjar nightjar@ wrote:
I would take that activity as a given in a DIY group. At 6'1" and 17
stone, I would find it very difficult to buy dresses off the peg.

That's almost mainstream sizing for chavettes nowadays.

Admittedly with your height you might show a bit more leg than they do ;-)

So long as it's only leg.

Colin Bignell

On 2006-09-20 08:13:47 +0100, "nightjar" nightjar@insert my surname
here.uk.com said:


"Owain" wrote in message
...
nightjar nightjar@ wrote:
I would take that activity as a given in a DIY group. At 6'1" and 17
stone, I would find it very difficult to buy dresses off the peg.

That's almost mainstream sizing for chavettes nowadays.

Admittedly with your height you might show a bit more leg than they do ;-)

So long as it's only leg.

Colin Bignell

Please. I'm eating my breakfast.....

"nightjar .uk.com" nightjar@insert my surname here wrote in message
...

"Sylvain VAN DER WALDE" wrote in message
...
...
I heard quite a long time ago that the quality and taste of imported food
products was higher in France (no doubt in other countries too) than in
the UK...

It is different, as it is made to suit local tastes. If you are a local,
you will probably consider it better. A Briton may not.


I think (but am not sure) that this was reported in the Which? consumer
magazine. The findings were made by _British_ people. Therefore, in this
case, Britons would find that the 2 products mentioned were better tasting.
In answer to another message, these were the only products mentioned as
examples; so, no food products, I'm afraid.

Sylvain.

Colin Bignell

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On 2006-09-19 23:31:33 +0100, "nightjar" nightjar@insert my surname
here.uk.com said:


"Sylvain VAN DER WALDE" wrote in message
...
...
I heard quite a long time ago that the quality and taste of imported
food products was higher in France (no doubt in other countries too)
than in the UK...

It is different, as it is made to suit local tastes. If you are a local,
you will probably consider it better. A Briton may not.

Colin Bignell

I do.

The presentation is usually impecable as well.

I recently visited a Carrefour in a not particularly up market part of
Paris and went to the meat and fish departments. There were proper
butchers who would consult and cut what the customer required. The fish
department had running seawater and fresh water from tanks with live
produce, ice properly used so as not to mar the skin of the fish and so
on.

Fresh produce was something again. High quality and superb presentation.

None of this was more expensive than the UK.

When I compare with the meat dispensing operatives in any UK supermarket I
really despair.


We get what we deserve because we accept this rubbish.

Exactly. There's no doubt about it.
For example: Only after _very strong_ protests, were the prices of new cars
sold in this country, eventually reduced to bring them more in line with
those of other countries.

Sylvain.

On 2006-09-20 10:21:09 +0100, "Sylvain VAN DER WALDE"
said:


Exactly. There's no doubt about it.
For example: Only after _very strong_ protests, were the prices of new
cars sold in this country, eventually reduced to bring them more in
line with those of other countries.

Sylvain.

There are another load of games there. In some EU countries (I
believe Finland and Denmark are notable), taxes on car sales are so
high that manufacturers have been forced into low net pricing in order
to sell....

On Tue, 19 Sep 2006 19:38:34 GMT, raden wrote:

Don't forget, different moulded plugs

remove them and you prolly invalidate the warranty

I can't see any manufacturer with a european wide presence trying to
get away with that scam. But then again "three year" warranties that
mysteriously transform to one year if you fail to send of a bit of
paper in time (Bosch) is borderline Del Boy and deemed acceptable
business practice. After being stung by this scam over a year ago I
more recently put my business the way of those filthy Japs - so Bosch
lost out.




--