EuroTrash

or manage it better. It has made the forum unusable. Will pop back in a few weeks and see if it's gone.

Fair point Théière. But I was assuming that rebuilding, and identifying the underlying (excuse the pun) cause so that the problem can be stopped, is the way forward. Sorry to be blunt but if bowing of the wall has been observed over 10 years or so and no steps were taken in all that time to find out the cause and remedy it, I think it would be difficult to convince an insurance company that lack of maintenance wasn't a contributing factor in the wall's collapse.

Could you give a few details about the type of construction? Approximate age? You say 'historical cracks' so presumably it is a traditional construction style? Stone, brick, timber? Foundations? For instance I have a 16th century columbage house that doesn't have a single right-angled corner left in it, just about every element has shifted / settled / started leaning / gone banana-shaped, I suppose just from very gradual natural subsidence because the house sits directly on top of the soil. Around 8 years ago I had timber cladding to shore up the back wall that gets the worst of the weather because It was leaning out so alarmingly that I felt it was starting to defy gravity. The maçon who did the job assured me cheerfully that the house would easily see me out. He said it's normal for columbage houses to "breathe" and expand and contract and move, and you should never try to stop them doing what they naturally want to do. But, you can't have walls collapsing. Your best bet is to get a local artisan out because he will know all the ins and outs of the local building style, and he should hopefully be able to tell you why this has happened and what can be done about it.

Hunt has tweeted a message to the Chinese government. Twitter is blocked in China. The message is about the need for countries to respect their international commitments if they want respect. His tweet has hundreds of replies pointing him to the GFA, the UK's exit payment to Brussels and its whole disrespectful attitude to the EU. Politician? Diplomat? Bonkers plus.

You may be right but he did post the identical question on another forum. I said I didn't understand what he meant by "permanently if temporarily" because how can it be both, and the reply was "I would have thought it was quite possible to be a temporarily permanently resident - say for a year's contract. ??" Which to me suggested travailleur détaché on a one year posting using "permanently" in the sense of, he could work here Monday to Friday and go back to the UK at weekends but he doesn't, he stays in France. The fact that he says he is UK tax resident also points to a temporary posting from the UK. And I don't see anything in his post that contradicts the travailleur détaché theory apart from the word "permanently" which is then qualified by "if temporarily" But in any case, he apparently doesn't want to disclose any more details and he seems to have lost interest.

In an equivalent thread posted on a different forum, it seems likely although not confirmed that the OP has been posted by a UK employer as a travailleur détaché in France. Under the EU posted workers directive, posted workers must be resident in the country from which they are posted, since the basis of the posted worker agreement is that they continue paying tax and social security deductions in their home country whilst working abroad temporarily, and they are expected to return home at the end of the posting. If that's the situation here, the OP cannot apply for a carte de séjour as a posted worker. Non EU posted workers have a cds to confirm their right to work in France but as an EU citizen he automatically has this right, and this type of cds doesn't give any residence rights after the posting ends. After Brexit, should it occur and if his posting is ongoing, he may need to apply for a cds as a temporary worker in France, for the duration of his posting.

Have you asked the owner for a copy of the CG so that you can sort the insurance out? It would be surprising if they refused to give you a copy. I have only ever bought 2 cars in France, one privately and one from a dealer, and in both cases they were perfectly willing to give me a photocopy of the carte grise so that I could get insurance. The dealer photocopied it and the private seller scanned and emailed it. Anyone who is familiar with how things work will understand because they have will have had to do the same thing themselves.

Actually it just occurred to me that my insurers now have a notice in their window saying that they will do the carte grise changeover, and I believe it says they don't make a charge for this service to their customers. Probably a lot of insurers do that these days. I haven't changed cars recently so never used it, but it sounds like a good service to take advantage of.

As Mint says, it's not a problem. Every time a car changes hands, the new owner has to insure it before they buy it/drive it. So it's something insurers deal with all the time. The usual procedure is: they will want a copy of the carte grise with the seller's name on it along with your own details, they will then give you an insurance sticker valid probably for one month, then in order to give you a sticker for the rest of the year they will want a copy of the cg in your name after you have done the change of ownership. You definitely need the insurance in place before the sale takes place, because (a) it's illegal to own an uninsured car, even for one day, and (b) if you try to insure a car that you already own that currently has no insurance on it, they can refuse.

Am I missing a trick, or has this thread got a bit at cross purposes. There are wifi signals, and there are mobile phone signals. As I understand it, Minnie wants to be sure of getting codes sent by her bank by SMS. SMS come via mobile phone signals. They don't come via wifi signals. Having a smartphone isn't necessarily going to make any difference to the ease of receiving SMS, is it? You can have full on wifi but if there is no coverage from your mobile operator, you can't make or receive calls or send or receive SMS. Or has my brain gone soft?

A smartphone can do things that a non-smartphone can't, but in terms of being a phone, ie receiving and sending SMS and making and receiving calls, it is exactly the same. If it doesn't get a mobile signal then it won't do any of those things. In some people's houses where there is next to no signal, I have discovered certain places I can put my phone and it will find one. Usually these tend to be leaning up against a certain window that has a clear view with no trees etc obstructing it. FWIW a friend of mine has a prehistoric, absolutely hideous Motorola phone, horrible ringtones, held together with sellotape, it is an abomination. I'm not a poser but I would die of embarrassment if it was mine. And it's a constant source of amusement to him that his phone will pick up a signal where my nice new smartphone can't. I do wonder whether phones that are nothing but phones, are actually better at being phones than the ones that multitask.

I am also confused how the driver was overtaking a tractor on the right, in France. A confusing story altogether.

No I don't think you do. If they want to see the invoice they will ask you for it so make sure you keep it.

^^ *LIKE* ^^ Velvet jackets used to be compulsory for male wannabee poets and writers and long skirts for females, or at least they did in the north of England. I used to go to creative writing classes and it was practically de rigeur, I actually felt obliged to buy a long skirt just to fit in ;-) What you wear does make a statement, I don't think you can odds it.

"is that just another example of the class system in France and there are places where the plebs do not know of????" I guess the international movers and shakers and jet-setters and their hangers on and wannabees keep these shops going. Obviously there are different strata of society from one extreme to the other, some spend thousands of euros at designer stores on a whim and some save up for months to afford something from Primark, some buy Bentleys and some buy Nissans, and ne'er the twain shall meet on an equal footing. Not many of us ever go to events where we're likely to rub shoulders with the likes of the Prince of Monaco, diplomats, Sarko and his mates etc but no doubt there is very a full calendar of such events where you can show off your latest fashion creation or diamond tiara if those are the circles you move in.

Yep I totally agree that conventions evolve constantly, just like language, and so they should. They're a reflection of cultural changes and changing attitudes. As for the apocryphal scruffy lottery winner who goes to a flashy car showroom looking like a tramp, all I can say is, Well what did he expect. For every nouveau riche millionaire that the salesman cold shoulders, he has probably made a correct assessment of similar scruffs as time-wasters many times over. Historically, dress code and other status symbols had greater significance than they have now; everyone knew their place and the notion of social mobility worried people. We like to think we're OK with social mobility these days and we're too sophisticated to be "taken in" by superficialities. But we don't question police uniforms, military uniforms and decorations, nurses' uniforms, judges' robes, wearing evening dress to black tie events, etc etc etc. So yes, if you go to a formal dinner in jeans,then those who have done the "done thing" i.e. the more formally dressed people will make a judgment about someone who is less so. I don't see observing the accepted dress code for a given situation as deference to a particular person, because you can dress correctly and still speak and behave as insolently as you like to someone you don't respect. I see it more as a sign that you're willing to conform to the expectations of society in general, which most people do because they want society in general to accept them. When I was young I used to like dressing for work as informally as I thought I could get away with; I liked to think it showed I was a free spirit and an independent thinker. So although I didn't see it at the time, it was just a different kind of dress code.

I think it's just that people tend to feel uncomfortable when custom and convention is broken. We like our conventions, they oil the wheels of social interaction. When everyone follows social conventions we feel we're all "on the same page" and things run smoothly. So when a person chooses to break the convention we wonder why they did it. Is it to draw attention to themselves, to make a point of showing disrespect in a non verbal way, or perhaps the person is having some kind of temporary personal crisis. And according to what message we pick up from their unconventional behaviour, we might react with disapproval, or sympathy, or embarrassment, or indulgence. For instance if the person is known to be individualistic / non conformist / unconventional, maybe a geek or mad professor type or a natural eccentric - or even just a newly arrived foreigner who isn't familiar with French customs and conventions - we don't take offence. If it's a young thug who hasn't bothered to put a tie on for his court appearance, or a sulky teenage son or daughter who turns up at their parents' posh family "do" dressed totally inappropriately, that would give out a different signal. I take Einstein's comment as referring to people who can't afford smart clothes or good furniture, which is a completely different issue.

Just now I was checking the circumstances in which a person can have their residence card withdrawn - there aren't many, and it's quite surprising what is and what isn't included on the list. I thought of this thread when I read that one of the things you can lose your tds for is if "Vous avez employé illégalement un travailleur étranger."

I wear specs and it took me a long time to get the knack of faire-ing la bise with other speccy-four-eyeses without clashing spectacle frames. I still don't always get it right.

"once derobed, they would probably be rather 'casual' to say the least." Depends how far the derobing goes I suppose... down to their Calvin Kleins? Further still? [insert boggle-eyed eeking smiley here]

Best of luck with your plans, but as you say yourself, earning a living looks like being the challenge. I'm not sure exactly what a shop floor retail manager does, but smooth communication skills are usually part of being a manager. Ask yourself would it be possible for eg a French person recently arrived in England, not speaking much English and not familiar with English retail policy and legislation, products, customer expectations, local customs etc, to come straight in and do that job? Would that person be likely to be chosen above the other candidates for the job? IT could be easier to get a foot in the door, depending on what role you are looking for, but I'm not sure how transferable expertise in the education sector would be if that means schools. If you haven't already, why not start job searching on one of the online platforms eg indeed.fr to get an idea of what is available in your chosen area. As regards Brexit, it seems you've been following it closely yourselves so your guess is as good as anyone else's. At present it looks unlikely that freedom of movement will survive, and that being the case Brits will lose their automatic right to look for work in France after Brexit. Likewise if Brexit happens then if you aim to be exercising your FoM as workers at whatever cut-off point is decided on, word seems to be that you would need to have been established in France as a worker, ie with a job, for at least 3 months at that cut-off point.

Three months is significant because technically that is the longest you are allowed to stay in France as a visitor. To play strictly by the rules, after 3 months you either start doing the things that residents are required to do, or you leave. Another thing that will likely be more rigorously enforced on Brits after Brexit, but BinB doesn't want Brexit mentioned.

Maybe we're looking at different threads but I can only see one reference to Brexit in this thread, and that was me flagging up that Brexit will trigger keener scrutiny of how Brits are exercising FoM. The relevance being that moving to France with zero actual income is potentially a grey area as far as France's interpretation of FoM is concerned, hence it could cause problems being recognised as legally resident and by the same token could cause problems getting accepted onto PUMA. I don't know where the red herrings came from.

I didn't think we were suggesting what might happen after Brexit were we? We were discussing the current rules for joining PUMA. Which aren't going to change because of Brexit.

As an EU citizen, as long as you meet the criteria for legal residence you can affiliate to PUMA after 3 months. That is then your compulsory insurance sorted. For evidence of health coverage during the first three months, in practice many CPAM seems to accept an EHIC or not ask at all, although it is a grey area. As a non EU citizen applying for a visa you would have no option but to provide proof of adequate health insurance as part of the visa application process. Once you're here and past the first 3 months, well the U in PUMA is for Universelle. PUMA provides healthcare to everyone living in France 'in a stable and regular manner", so nobody who is here legally needs to take out private health insurance. In fact you are more or less obliged to join PUMA these days. PUMA cotisations for inactifs and retirees are billed automatically by URSSAF based on the figures on your tax return, even if you have never registered for PUMA. When the first PUMA bills were sent out at the beginning of last year, there were Brits trying to contest their bills on the basis that they shouldn't have to pay cotisations when they'd never had a carte vitale. I don't know what the outcome was but I suspect they had to pay up as a solidarity thing.