Richard51

Air France have gone on record as being behind it.  They have been complaining about the competition from the cheap air lines for sometime. 

It's curious that there have been two problems with arrests involving Romanians in the last couple of weeks - reported in different newspapers.   Re the comment on drunken, loutish, Brit behaviour.   I would think the behaviour described by Swissie is a pretty accurate description...and that it would be reasonable to tar at leasts 60% of the UK's younger population with that brush (speaking as someone who has regular contact with that age group).  Given that the British stereotype is actually pretty darn accurate - why not the Roma / Romanian one? Mrs R51

So much for French cuisine!

IB = Incapacity Benefit DLA = Disability Living Allowance CA = Carers Allowance ESA = Employment and Support Allowance (replacing IB and Income Support)

[quote user="Will"] I am sure such people are in the minority, but here is a recent topic from another forum - though they seem to have at least tried. Also, not long ago on one of the AngloInfo forums a young English mother was exhorting other pregnant girls to come and give birth in France because of the range of benefits available. So 'benefit scroungers' do exist among the British-in-France communities. I regret to say that I've come across several myself. And very few, if any, are of retirement age. It may be significant that posters about UK benefit fraud are on prominent display in many English airports, though my suspicion is that these are primarily aimed at expats in countries other than France. So it's definitely not a non-existent problem. As always, it's the few that give the majority a bad name. [/quote] Reading that thread I agree.  If they had emigrated to Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc they would be expected to be self sufficient (and would not be entitled to any benefits) for the first five years.  To say that, between the two of you, you can only work 17.5 hours because you have children is (IHMO) obscene.  They should have been given a major kick up the ass.  As for the couple where he reckoned he couldn't work because he was renovating the house(!) - I'd have treated him as operating a property trade and taxed him accordingly on the notional profit. 

[quote user="Will"]Forums like this are often full of praise for the French health system and comments about how much better it is than the NHS. I regard this as 'benefiting'. Many French see (obviously wrongly, according to this forum) the benefit as being financial as well as health-wise. [/quote] Our experience was the exact opposite.  We got very poor health care in France which necessitated emergency salvage surgery on our return to the UK.  This is one of the reasons we decided to keep one foot in both countries instead of move to France permanently (as had been our initial plan).

On a slight tangent - another interesting conversation we had was with a lovely (French) lady from Poiters who had moved to the Périgord 20+ years ago.  In her view the Périgordians are very insular and won't mix with outsiders (French or otherwise).  She added that we probably wouldn't have noticed this as they will always be nice to the English to their faces because the English have money... (This was another French guest who hated France and was desperate to leave - but this particular lady wanted to move to the States!)

I appreciate what you are saying but young French families can place a drain on UK resources via healthcare in childbirth, child benefit and the cost of schooling.  Maybe not as much as a retired person using the French healthcare system - but I'm also guessing that much of the cost of healthcare for UK retirees will be met by the UK via the E121?

We are part of a hospitality network (and so open our homes to visitors to the UK of all nationalities) and what has surprised us is the number of French people that we have hosted who want to move to the UK.  They see the UK as having an open culture, good lifestyle and income levels with low levels of unemployment.  The younger French also preferred our education system.  As Sarkozy himself pointed out, his biggest constituency outside Paris is London.  The flow of people (and hence benefits) goes in both directions.....

Fair comment if what he said held no water - but from personal experience (borne out by the 'on the spot interviews') it was a pretty astute observation.

[quote user="Dog"]Russethouse has a short memory/history as at one time only home owners could vote - not a bad idea really. My eldest stepson suggested today that there should be an IQ test before people can vote. [/quote] What was it Churchill said: The greatest argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.  So very true!

[quote user="AnOther"]Whenever I see threads of this nature I can't help wondering how many readers are sitting quietly afraid to voice their honest opinion for fear of being ripped to shreds by the zealots, an anonymous poll might be a better way of gauging the consensus. Would people react in the same way I wonder if the story were about a Jew being turned away from a Muslim owned B&B for instance, discrimination is discrimination is it not ? [/quote] I wondered that - or whether a non Jew / Muslim would be turned away from a Jewish owned self catering business.  I'm thinking that the use of the kitchen for non Kosher foods / pork or mixing meat and milk etc...  Or even whether a orthodox Jew would want to stay in a place where the kitchen had not been blessed by a rabbi and where pork products may have been prepared?

That's why my Mrs will never do roast beef in France.  She tells me that the beef is too c**p!

No definitely not.  

Many thanks for starting this thread Sweet.  We were looking at trying to 'restore' our quarry tiled floors to their former glory and all the advice says strip all the old stuff off them then use a steam cleaner to ensure it's properly clean and dry.  Finally seal - circa 8-10 coats.  The instructions were quite adament about using a steam cleaner to clean after stripping.  Apparently the cleaning / stripping agents react with the sealing chemicals if not properly removed. We originally tried the linseed oil / white spirit mix as recommended by Agenais (not sure if anyone remembers them...going back a few years).  The tiles looked fine for a while then deteriorated.  I (or should I say the wife) am obviously not as dedicated as them in reapplying the stuff to keep the tiles looking good.

I thought it felt a little too 'Baldrick' AnOther.  We have used the sterling CaxtonFX card with Ryanair without any problems - we just have the standard £1.50 charge per transaction.

What about good old stew and dumplings followed by treacle sponge pudding or spotted dick with custard...they won't be going anywhere fast after that.  I'm sure it was a school tactic - to make sure you didn't move in chemistry class.  Fall asleep maybe - but a board rubber would soon fix that.

For those with a UK address we got the CaxtonFX card and it works fine.  If you have a sterling card and pay in sterling there is a £1.50 charge for each transaction.  There are no monthly fees and the set up cost of £10 is added to your available account balance.  The only irritation is that you have to top up a minimum of £100 at a time so you end up having funds (in varying amounts) left sitting on your card after your flights are paid for.  You can have amounts of  >£10 returned to your bank account for the £1.50 transaction fee. The euro version of the card has no charges if you use the card in the euro zone (i.e. outside the UK).  We wondered if you could top one of these up from a French account and pay for Ryanair flights in euros via the french bit of Ryanair (so, in theory, no FX and no usage charge)?  Or is this a Baldrick style cunning plan that is doomed to failure....

Lancashire hotpot and lemon meringue pie went down well with our neighbours.

We didn't see the programme but have watched other programmes on the railway to Shimla (and also to Darjeeling).  Once I retire (next September) we plan to travel around Northern India and the toy train is on our list of 'must do's'.  We are also hoping we can spend some time helping out at a school for the 'untouchables' in Jaipur.  (It will have been nearly 40 years since I was last in a classroom - so it will be a strange feeling!)

This might be useful: http://www.waytorussia.net/RussianVisa/HowToApply.html You can apply on line and there is a 24 hour service for emergency visas.

We have a lovely old cupboard in France (I'm sure it must have a more sophisticated name!) that has the same Huguenot cross carved on the door, drawer and sides.

[quote user="Russethouse"]One of my husbands Huguenot descendents....[/quote] Your husband must be very old RH!

My wife's maternal grandfather was descended from the (weaver) Huguenots that settled in the east end of London.  They migrated from La Rochelle so maybe choosing France to buy a holiday home was appropriate? (Though we are not in the Charente Maritime.)  Then again her maternal grandmother was Irish (an aristocrat!) so we could equally have ended up in Galway! (Edit - you can guess who wears the trousers [;-)])

We're in the same boat as you AnOther - very straightforward, one marriage and all three kids are ours...though we would sell a couple if there are any takers...?  They're at that delightful 'Kevin' age - which in our case seems to have lasted well into their twenties.  Nevertheless we are still aiming for plan B - spend as much of it as we can before they put the final nails in the little wooden boxes.  We reckon we deserve it!! [:D]