idun

I realise that the french government insist, well the 'dubious' insee insists that prices did not particularly rise post €. Insee and govt staff were obviously not shopping where I shopped[:-))] and yes, this was discussed by my entourage in France a lot over the following few years and even now, a friend harps on about how things went up post €.

I am with Judith on this, I shall wait. I too, have to have an automatic, bad arthritis in my left foot, and clutching can be very painful if I have a flare up.

thanks Pomme. It was just that UK government bit that I  wondered about and how they calculated using it. The rest, well, the net and brut etc, I did know about, it was always so, in fact I think that there used to be another abattement of 20% too, but maybe not now. We used to get a 10% abattement on french income in the UK, but that stopped about three years ago. Nice whilst it lasted.[:)] Do you still have to have household income declared in France. I thought that I had read that since the prelevement a la source that there was a choice, foyer ou individuel, maybe I didn't pay enough attention to that?

I spoke to a very good french friend yesterday and she had  just had her first jab. They had given her astra zenica and she felt fine. I asked when her second jab was going to be and she said the beginning of June. Must say I was rather surprised at that wait in France, I thought that the french government was getting their knickers in a twist about having the second jab in three weeks.  Whatever, I am so glad that she has had her first jab.

No I didn't do 160 miles a day. But I was one of these people who would suddenly decide to visit friends, or have a run out. When we lived in France we had friends who lived some considerable distance, and I would just go and see them. Same here, friends who are about 50 odd miles away. If I had forgotten to recharge etc, then that would not be possible. I wouldn't dare on a partial charge. WELL, [Www] ofcourse I have not done that in a year, but it was always part of the way I lived.

OK I think I have got it now. The only thing I know is that HMRC when we moved back wanted to know exactly how much tax we had paid in France and duly deducted that amount from our bill. Nothing to do with the government, just a french salary that went through the usual process in such cases and was sent on to the UK.

I keep looking too at the moment. As we are still doing major works here, it will be another berlingo or of the same ilk. It is the inbetween stage with cars. All these cars with say 160 miles limit, well, when I lived in France that would have been no good at all. AND I would never want to be waiting to recharge who knows where. Even here recharging would be very problematic where I now live. I know one day I will have to change, but currently it feels a little too early in the game. Strangely at the top of this page an advert for maserati has just popped up........ very very strange, maybe I have just won the lottery, I haven't checked[Www]

So say someone has a govt pension income  from the UK of 20000€. They will have paid about 1100€ tax on that in the UK, so both these sums gets declared. AND then the french still use that 20k€ to work out the tax on all other incomes, say about 8500€ for a state pension and maybe some other pensions taking that lot up to 30k€. So for an income of 30K€ for a single person would be just over 2k€ impots in France, so there would be another 1000€ or there abouts to pay. Have I got this? So someone is a teacher for 8 or whatever years and has 10k€ in pension. State pension is 9k€ and a private pension of 20700€. What then. That is what I don't understand about the double taxation agreement. On the total of 39700€ with no deduction of UK tax, the impots would be for a single person around 4700€. And if that 10k€ didn't count it would be around 2k€ in impots in France. I am, needless to say, very confused about this.

Someone posted in the recent past about their french tax problems due to their government pension from the UK not being dealt with properly and getting a bill they were not expecting. So I have a question, is a government pension completely ring fenced? One has to declare it and any UK tax paid whether it be O or actual tax paid,  and then the french cannot touch it at all. IF for say, no UK tax had been paid due to the tax free allowance, can the french just say that they are going to tax it. It may seem obvious to those with such pensions, but I did wonder.

Well that 1.54 euro conversion was not far off  how I used to consider the FF to the £. 10ff to a £. During our time, we had far worse and far better than that, but to me, it was a happy and easy conversion.

So the  EU including ofcourse, Germany, doesn't count in the ways this is dealt with by the markets? If that is the way it is, it is. We are worse off when this happens, but when we returned to the UK, I never expected the exchange rates to be what they ended up being. Whatever they are, we will just get on with it.[blink]

I do not understand exchange rates at all and the way the markets are literally are played.  Never have, never will. For some reason beyond my imagination the £ has strengthened over the past week or so. Now, I suppose that the most negative comments I hear about the UK are in general on here, and post brexit, I sort of imagined that the £ would remain rather low. Anyone any ideas? Is it this vaccinations debacle in the EU that has made that difference, or the budget, which is also beyond me, as I had thought that we would be paying a lot more in taxes or in some other way.

Yes, where is NH, has anyone got any alternative means of contacting him?

Sounds like you need to do a list and get the dictionary out and make sure you have the proper french words. Keep it simple, but to the point and do it all by Sunday night, and just go for it all on Monday, for your own sanity. Time flies and in May there are lots of bank holidays and pont, and if you did not realise it is where people take extra time off ie a bank holiday is a Thursday and just about everyone takes the Friday to join up to the weekend, four days off for one days leave. It is hard to get much done in May. No one should ever be afraid in their own home and most certainly not of their other half. Incidentally if it does come to that and he gets violent, I think that you can call 3919 and speak to someone.

What a good idea wooly.

PLEASE CHESSIE, just get on the phone and speak to your husband's GP and the local Assistante Sociale. You will not be the first case they have to deal with it, far from it and they should help YOU and him too, I would hope.

Pleased you have had your first jab Judith. Yes, everyone is different with reactions, or not, to this. Apart from a little soreness at the 'jab site', fatigue for a couple of days seems to be the one that I have heard of most. 

Ah Chessie, I didn't mean that........ I meant the general idea of people moving from the UK to France for retirement, often, the far from the madding crowd idea. Certainly not putting your OH in a maison de retraite. I am obviously not like you, because I would be on that phone to the GP regularly telling them every last thing that is happening and how I was at the end of my tether. And he would be getting it in writing. What is the point in pussyfooting around in circumstances like these. One just has to fight one's corner, because, as in this case, if the GP doesn't know what is happening, then how can they help they are not 'un devin'. So as we keep saying, the assistante sociale via the Mairie and the GP. Do something, or you will end up just getting to the end of your tether. Also until he is diagnosed they cannot do something, and some things do help.

Or, take him back and leave him. Just tell the sister you have to go and sort some stuff out, eg the bank, and then buzz off. We currently have three people quite close to us who have a variety of losing their marbles. It is all very well moving to a french retreat for retirement, but as we are all living longer, this is happening more and more, and the it takes prisoners, both in the patient and the carer. Ofcourse covid has been the sabot in the works as to how Chessie can deal with her situation, but hopefully soon Chessie, you will be able to do what you need to do. What does your french doctor say, surely you have seen them one way or another by now, or spoken to them. It is hardly as if any of us can expect someone who is suffering from this to go and get checked. Denial is the big thing here, usually the patient, but sometimes the carer too.

Judith did you ask what the 'fuss' was about? I do hope that you and everyone else who needs one, gets their vaccination tout de suite and this 'non'sense with which jab they want to give, stops.

How to describe it, on my PC, the reply page took over the full screen. Clear to use, so much space. Everything I needed was there and no adverts popping on and off relentlessly. I don't stop the adverts, sounds like I know how to, and I don't, but it's ok, they are probably paying in some way, for using this site.

It was like that last night, me  being a night owl saw it in a hugely improved format. The other good thing was that I could type immediately, where as EVERY SINGLE TIME, I try to reply, I have to adjust the font and the size of the font again and again, before I get a line saying I can start typing. If I just press which ever letter I am going to start a reply with without doing that, then the page jumps to the bottom. NOW WE ARE BACK TO THE OLD FORMAT, tant pis, nice whilst it lasted.

I am unsure about how agricultural land can be used to build homes for farming families. I do know that one of our local viticulteur/farmer had several houses built on their land for their children. In fact when I think about it, that end of the village was starting to look like it's own little 'village'.[Www] The parents had had that many kids they gave their last one to her sister, who had none, but, once adult, the daughter was back and had her own house built. One thing for sure, I never heard mumblings or complaints about that, so I take it, it was all done properly.

Chessie said:I'm desperate to visit the UK to see family (one of whom is going through worrying time). I must say, it sounded like you wanted to go to the UK as soon as possible.

Is it really not like that where you live Judith? No centuries old feuds?