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Pangur

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Everything posted by Pangur

  1. A local ramoneur fitted our flue (we had a chimney, but no suitable liner) and we had installed a Godin woodburning oven, supplied and installed by http://www.alpesfourneaux.com/ in Haute Savoie (not too far from Thonon).  In fact the ramoneur even contacted the store to make sure the liner was suitable for what we were buying .  Alpes Fourneaux were really helpful and a good range of woodburners in their show rooms.  We were charged the lower rate of TVA for purchase and installation and are eligible for the tax rebate next year... Worth having a chat with them.
  2. [quote user="mascamps.com"] Makes you wonder about how poor the teaching of geography is in France, doesn't it?[/quote]  And if I had a penny for every time I had to explain the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to a Brit.... (no, we don't use the same currency, no, the laws are different, as are the educational systems, yes you will  have to use an international stamp...). Poor teaching and lack of general knowledge is not just a French trait and kids the world over need to learn what seem like useless facts to pass exams. On the grammar, having been to various language courses over the years with students from all over the world, it is amazing how a lack of basic knowledge of grammar holds people back in learning how to become fluent (and by that I mean in terms of written as well as oral French - there are many who can communicate fluently but not correctly). In every class, it is the anglophones learning their first language who have the most difficulty in understanding how to construct sentences because they often don't even know what a pronoun is and have no idea of the grammar of their own language let allow how to relate it to a foreign language.   
  3. Chris, I don't think any Christian nuns cover their faces.  There is a world of difference between dressing modestly and covering your hair with a veil, as nuns and many muslim women do and covering your face with a veil, so that all people can see are your eyes.  And there is no comparasion between covering your face with make up and covering it with an inpenetrable cloth.  And a women who covers her face with tatoos is well outside the mainstream. I can completely understand the symbolism of a veil but I do find the burqa sinister. I don't think there is any question either of those women being more likely to commit crimes. Nor do I see this issue as being connected with the "war on terror" but unfortunately there has been a backlash against the muslim community as a whole and this will be seen as a continuation of it.  That's not the issue - we live in a society where men and women are meant to be equal and to me, a woman who feels the need to cover her face is not part of that society, nor can she really be.  I would also question the freedom women who wear these garments have - a full burqa is associated with extremist cultures, like the Taliban.  The Nazi analogy is not totally out of kilter - the burqa is associated with opressive regimes that do not believe women should vote, work or drive and when I see one, that is what I think of. I have to say I am deeply saddened when I see a woman in a burqa as I cannot help but pity her and her situation in life.    I do not feel the same way at all when I see a woman with a tightly bound headscarf.  Perhaps there are independent women wearing burqas - I have never heard one speak.  Would we accept women walking around with gags across their mouths?  Having said all that, that is my personal view and I'm with Saligo - it is a very hard decision to make.  I understand the slippery slope of losing rights, but I'm not sure if this is not in the same bracket as something like FMG - just because it is a cultural practice doesn't make it ok.     
  4. We're married, no kids and our notaire has advised to to do a donation entre epouses which should make it easy for the other to remain living in the house and pay a minimal amount of inheritance tax on the other's death.  We own the house 50-50. From my understanding, it also delays any other inheritors claiming their share (as even parents can get a share if there are no kids in the marriage).  We don't have to change our marriage regime: our notare really didn't think it worthwhile.  Obviously once we have kids the whole ball game changes.  Our notaire went through all the maths and it really does seem to reduce the tax burden considerably and would make it feasible for the other to continue living there. I find it interesting that donations never seem to be mentioned on this or on other forums - according to the notaires.fr site it can also help those that have children from previous marriages. 
  5. Have you tried Geneva? There are lots of international schools there, and there is no problem in working there and living across the border in France.  I know of lots of UK trained teachers working here - some recruited from the UK, others locally - and a lot of schools pay for your children's school fees too.  Schools generally seem to follow the A level system, or the International Bac.  Your wife might also be able to find work in one of the many NGOs. The pay in the better schools is much greater than in the UK, although Haute Savoie and Ain are relatively expensive parts of France to live in.  Try the Times Educational website - I believe there are boards there on the best ways of applying for jobs in international schools, if you haven't tried it yet.
  6. We bought straight from a local dealer and paid a little under €7k for a petite chatelaine joined with a bois charbon chatelaine, including installation, delivery, joining together and VAT.   We paid about €400 for delivery and installation. Your quote does sound like a lot for one cooker, but perhaps you've gone for one of the biggest chatelaines.  If you have other dealers in the area, it's probably worth getting some other quotes.  We didn't go for the extractor hood, as we already had a standard one and really didn't think it was worth paying so much for a matching one, and to be honest we weren't that taken with the designs: they're very big.  Did you get a breakdown of prices?  I think the hood is well over €2k so you could economise a lot on that.      
  7. My husband was in a similar situation - his company didn't want him to freelance, so he had to set up a representative company here.  Like you, we tried to get as much info as possible before coming and were terrified of getting the sums wrong.  Walked into the local accountant's office, explained the situation, he took down a large book, consulted it and said, no problem.  They sat down and worked out roughly what he would owe to the different people (after a year, there have been no nasty surprises).  Any strange forms that arrived, he'd bring them down to the accountant and they dealt with it all.   I have other friends with French accountants and it is the same - give us your paperwork, that's what you pay us for.  And what have we paid?  €350 a year, which includes the production of a proper payslip every month with detailed breakdowns and the answering of many, many questions.    Ok, they're not English speaking - but I'm sure if you called a few practices, you might get someone who could do it in English.  Or, find someone who'll translate.  I'm assuming that accountants who specialise in helping migrants charge a petty hefty premium!
  8. We have a Godin, which we are really happy with, and sounds like it might fit your requirements - bottled gas top and electric oven.  We joined it up with a woodburning model, which did add to the cost, but they do have a pretty wide range.  I did feel that the oven sizes on lots of French models were tiny (about 40l I think) but with Godin if you chose a pyrolese rather than a catalyse version, you could increase your oven space. Our local distributer in France was fantastic - came out for a full consultation, they had a showroom with models (not all Godin) and installed it all for us.  I can't see that the price between buying in the UK and France would be that different - especially when you have all the the expense and hassle of carting it over and installing it and not having easy access to after sales. By the way, we only got charged 5.5% TVA on the entire cooker rather than 17.5% as with a woodburning oven, it qualifies for the tax discount...I was very pleasantly surprised with that! http://cuisine.godin.fr/ and also in the UK  www.godin-cookers.co.uk
  9. Kids,  no matter where they are, want to fit it.  The average eight year old will want to speak the same language as his or her friends.  I have relations where their mother speaks Spanish.  From about 8, they refused to speak it, although they understand her perfectly and only started wanting to speak it again when they were 16.  Other friends in "mixed" marriages say the same: once they get a bit older they don't want to be speaking a weird language, they just want to be the same as the others.  I believe the "experts" say you should speak your native language to your kid.  Keep speaking English, regardless of what he replies in and at least his vocab will keep up.
  10. Just to add:  I remember reading somewhere that changing a name was related to English property law and the fact that on marriage a woman's property reverted to her husband.  This custom spread but in other European countries (I think Spain was one) where a woman was allowed to be independently wealthy after marriage, names were kept, or at least for one generation. 
  11. For purely administrative reasons, it is much easier for women to keep their name throughout life - you can trace someone from birth to death without too much hassle.  I imagine this is why a woman's original name is kept by the bureaucrats.  Mother's maiden name is used a lot in the UK to establish identity. However, I've found the default, especially with commercial companies, is the husband's name here though, just as in the UK.  I had to request that my own name be put on our house contract and our joint account bills are sent to M & Mde hisname - although my bank card has my own name.  I keep meaning to get them to put my proper name on the chequebook, but it hasn't caused any problems to date, even when Darty wanted my ID before accepting a cheque (but that might have been just down to incompetence[;-)]).  Our bills are a total mix of names, and always have been as whoever sets up the account puts their name on it. Can't say I've ever encountered a problem with id, even though my RIB has his name and every other piece of ID I have is in my own name.  Actually I lie, Intermarché wouldn't let me cash in my points (all €10 of them) as our loyalty card is in his name. It just washes over me at this stage....no matter what you chose, someone will get it wrong.
  12. What does your son want to do in the future?  If he wants to on to futher or higher education, it's going to put him at a severe disadvantage to switch educational systems now, never mind the language difficulties.    Would it not be worth staying in the UK for another two years and him do his A levels?  At least then he has a basic level  of education behind him, rather than throwing him into a completely different system at one of the key stages of his education.  I'm sure there are happy stories from people who moved their kids at sixteen, but surely its a bit of a gamble, and your kid is the one who might ultimately lose.
  13. Or try Kelkoo for a stockists near you - good way of getting the different brands avaliable http://shopping.kelkoo.fr/ctl/do/search?siteSearchQuery=riz+complet&catId=100164013&fromform=true
  14. I'm nearly certain I got brown rice in Intermarché.  Try the organic / bio / fair trade section rather than the rice and pasta section.  In our local store we have a very impressive range of fair trade and/or organic chocolate, rice, cofee etc, right beside the diet and rice cake section. 
  15. We used it and as Toni said, they contract out the delivery to local firms so you have to chase two sets of people if something goes missing.  It took about a month to get all the items (a crucial part of a table was missing....) but that was over the Christmas period.   Overall, it was  really handy to be able to do it online and much cheaper for us than hiring a van and taking a day off work.  I'd use it again if I had a good few things to get and I wasn't in a huge rush.
  16. I really don't understand all this amazement about people wanting to emigrate to other countries. Shock horror, young people fancy a bit of a change.  As for the article, 4.5 million passport holders, compared to a UK population of c.60million. Try 3million Irish passport holders (1.2m born on the island) living outside Ireland, compared to a total population in the republic of  just under 4 million.  I know lots of Americans and Austrailans who hang onto a UK passport they can claim from parents solely so they can work in the EU - they certainly wouldn't consider themselves British anywhere except in front of HM customs.  The article also points out that between 1966 and 1996, more people emigrated than immigrated to the UK but gives no more recent figures, that I can see.  So in fact, there isn't a new emigration wave, it's not potentially explosive it's just business as usual. I'm sure if you did similar surveys in other countries, you'd find roughly the same responses.  We live in a world that is getting smaller and smaller so you just hear about other people's experiences.  Even 20 years ago, moving to Australia or American meant that you probably expected never to come home unless you "made it".  The only thing different is that we didn't have the internet and cheap flights to allow us to share experiences as much. Of course people are going to want to move for a variety of reasons, whether it's a case of grass being greener or dissatisfaction with where you're currently living, or you just want a bit of a challenge.  It's not necessarily a reflection of how bad things are at home.   As a thirtysomething, I know loads of people who are coming and going from different countries.   It seems that a huge proportion of young Brits want to go to English speaking countries (and ex colonies) like Australia, Canada or South Africa or to places where they can get away without speaking the lingo (perhaps a discusion on neo-colonialism rather than the state of Britain might be more appropriate[:P]). I'm really bemused by the UK press and websites like this and how people try to justify why they moved, and feel special for emigrating.  
  17. We got a survey done by http://www.adia.org/ which we found incredibly useful, and well worth the money (c €500).  We wanted a second opinion from an independent source who knew what they were talking about.  A year after purchasing, we've found the remarks and recommendations he made in the detailed diagnostic report spot on.  The report allowed us calulate pretty accurately what work needed to be done and budget accordingly.
  18. I  have the impression that Michel Thomas is really for people who haven't learnt languages in a formal manner and/or aren't overly concerned with understanding grammar etc.  If you already have a decent training in French, I would try something more academic or  structured.  You might as well build on what you have - it's amazing how much does come back! Radio France International has a language section, where you can listen to news broadcasts, answer questions and then get the acutal transcription.  A great way to improve your french and learn a bit about French current affairs at the same time. http://www.rfi.fr/lffr/statiques/accueil_apprendre.asp If you want books, I found the Cle International series (Grammaire Progressive, Communication Progressive with CD) really well laid out and easily explained,  I've been recommended this by separate sets of native French language teachers.  You can also buy the answer books for the grammar exercises and the Communication Progressive has lots of everyday scenarios in it.  If you've done A level, I'd go for the intermediate level at least.  
  19. The rule of thumb we were taught is that connaitre is generally used with nouns/pronouns while savoir is used with verbs. 'Je le connais par coeur' - connaitre is used as you've just replaced the noun with a pronoun (le).  Je sais nager because nager is a verb.  I think the "to know something by heart" refers to the fact that savoir is used with things you know almost instinctively (like how to walk or read, ie verbs) rather than refering to a literal translation of the phrase.
  20. Where in Switzerland are you working?  As a frontalier working in Geneva, you have to take out private insurance and you are not allowed use your carte vitale in France, even if you are entitled to one via a spouse.  This is apparently because your taxes are deducted at source in Geneva.  Other cantons have different rules and perhaps if you are paying tax directly to France, you can use the CV.  You can take out a special frontalier policy with most French insurers.  Spouses do not have to use the same type of insurance - I have private, my husband has a carte vitale  However, if he was not entitled to have a carte vitale on his own steam, he would have to go private with me.  Perhaps whoever you spoke to assumed your husband was not entitled to his own carte vitale.  Of course, this information that is applicable in our case and could be completely different for you. In my experience, there is not a lot of readily available information on the sometimes complex rules around frontaliers, especially around insurance.  Even employers can give totally misleading advice - it took a few months for a friend to get properly insured, after being totally and continually misdirected by her employers.  From what I've learned, if your husband is entitled to a cv, he should use it.  It is only if you are not paying social insurance in France and therefore not entitled to a cv, that you have to go private, either with an insurer in Switzerland or France.  If you speak any french, www.frontalier.com can be really useful.  They send out quarterly magazines addressing issues specific to frontaliers (40,000 cross the border each day!) and even run special workshops to help you with your tax returns each year.      
  21. We have two shops that stock vegetarian products beside us (74).  I'm afraid I can't remember the name, but they are bio (organic) type shops and stock veggie sausages and burgers, tofu, soya products etc.  A close friend is a vegetarian and although it's a bit of a hassle, he does find meat substitutes available. http://www.vegetarisme.fr/EntreNous/index.php?p=http://vegetannuaire.free.fr/index_av.php?cat_id=5 is a French vegetarian group with listings of friendly shops.  
  22. It sounds like you're putting all your eggs in the recruitment basket.  Have you tried approaching companies you are interested in working for directly? .  Personally, I found recruitment companies, even in the UK, a waste of time.  Unless you fit their profile to a t, they're not going to put any extra legwork. The French companies are probably not going to be familiar with your qualifications or work experience and you're probably being shoved in the too much effort basket. This is not necessarily a French thing - I found UK companies were clueless about any qualifications from outside the country.  The commission is the only thing they are interested in and I would think you are much better off concentrating on getting your CV in front of the company's HR officer or even better, your prospective line manager. Plus, many companies don't want to waste money on recruitment companies and prefer recruiting directly.  Depending on your industry, online jobsites can be a total waste of time.  There are thousands of CVs on most of them and the same companies use them over and over again.  Use any personal contacts you have and if you don't have any, start networking and spread the word by mouth!  Nepotism and pull are standard recruitment measures in Europe.  I got my job from getting my cv on the right desk at the right time - few large companies I've ever worked with have used recruitment agencies and it was always a sign of desparation if you had to use this method.  Lots of luck
  23. There are long term parking deals at Geneva airport - you can get 25% off the long term car park if your car is registered in Haute Savoie.  P51 isn't bad value compared to other carparks in Geneva or other airports  http://www.gva.ch/en/Desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-304/ for reduced tarifs.  At least when you get off the plane, you are right beside the car (no buses to long term parking) and on the motorway home immediately.  Geneva in general is hell for parking, and there isn't really a regular public transport option for anywhere near there from that end of 74.  Free parking is rare around there.  You could try parking in Palexpo, the huge exibition hall beside the aiport.  We were at an exibition there and managed to park and get out without seeing a ticket barrier.  It might have been a once off - most parking loopholes in Geneva seem to be closed as soon as you find them!  Let us know if find anything...      
  24. [quote user="wen"] It seems the French won it all on their own!. albeit with ' a little help' from their friends. Are French kids taught about the Vichy Govt? my Mum attended school in the 30's and 40's and they were taught all about Petain.  Why do the French not acknowledge this part of their history?.[/quote] And in Britain, you'd swear they won both wars on their own, although the Yanks upped moral by providing cigarettes and nylons.[;-)]   Every nation tells its own history in its own way and generally concentrates on the experience of its own citizens to the exclusion of others, which is unhelpful to everyone but there are time constraints in schools too!  I'd be suprised if the Austrailans got much of a mention in UK history books other than as being a penal colony where criminals went.  As for Irish history taught in Britain - I lost count of the amount of English people I met who still think the Republic is part of Britain and are a bit hazy about whether Belfast is a part of the UK or Ireland now, never mind whether or not they were taught about the less savoury aspects of their activies in Ireland over the centuries.  You can't possibly understand anything of what is going on in Northern Ireland today without a rudimentary knowledge of Irish history and yes, understanding Britain's role as an empire builder in Iraq and the Middle East will help people understand what is going on now.   I'm sure my history knowledge has big gaps caused by a bias in our state education (we're certainly weren't taught about the benefits of Empire building other than it made some British people very very rich[;-)] ) We studied two history courses to GCSE equivalents  - Irish and European, and then the same to Bac. I think it's crucial to look at other nations internal politics.   I think it will be really great for kids living over here to get taught French history in school, and then get another perspective at home.  History isn't always about facts, it's as much about perspectives. 
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