EuroTrash

Not sure what you mean by 'authentic'? If you read the label you'll find that most of the calvados on sale in supermarkets in Normandy is produced on farms, albeit ones that operate on a reasonably large scale. If it says 'producteur récoltant' on the label, you know it's not made in a factory. For instance this is produced on a family-owned farm and is available in a lot of supermarkets and tourist shops: http://www.madeinpaysdauge.com/fr/f-didier-gautard.html The Pays d'Auge is the main region for calvados, not so much around Caen. In Pays d'Auge you can't go far without seeing signs for a farm that makes its own cider/pommeau/calvados. Obviouslly those that advertise are commercial producers on a larger or smaller scale and are making a refined product for the mainstream market. The smaller ones will have their products on sale at the farm and in local shops. To find the very small producers who make the 'real' stuff for home consumption and a few bottles to sell on the side, which certainly is an acquired taste (which Leo apparently hasn't acquired yet!), you need the benefit of local knowledge. But presumably that's not what your friend wants.

No insult intended but the fact is that if she's on benefits, and had had 10 children, she wasn't exactly at the front of the queue when brains were given out, was she. Possibly what is needed is not more money but more education on how to budget, how to plan meals, live economically and not waste money/get ripped off (and how to not have children in the first place) - but she probably doesn't even realise that, so she says 'give me more money' and is happy to let the media exploit her. Personallly I think Jonathan Swift's 'Modest Proposal' had a lot to recommend it. Ten tasty children ...

Has Jan decided how she will register? I ask that because as I understand it - which is only what I've gathered from other people, not being an artist myself - a lot of the 'arty' exhibitions insist on exhibitors being registered with the Maison des Artistes. Which seems a somewhat complex regime. On the other hand, you can register under the auto entrepreneur regime which is very simple and would allow you to sell items, up to a specified annual income ceiling. Sorry I realise that doesn't answer your question - I'm sure there are loads but two places that immediately spring to mind round here for art/craft type events are Lisieux and Saint Pierre sur Dives, and a bit further afield Conches en Ouche, so maybe start by checking out their municipal websites if you haven't already?

Hi Mozman, how much tuition are you looking for?

All I can add is whilst we all wait for SD is that I believe the gas installation also has to conform to French norms.

I'd be inclined to agree with Norman. When a caller rings your landline and the call is forwarded to another number, the forwarded call is billed to your landline, so from your exchange onwards it would presumably be in the care of One Tel. So I'm imagining that the call would come in via FT and try to continue its journey via One Tel, and maybe that doesn't work. Do you know someone with FT in and FT out who could temporarily divert calls to your mobile, to establish whether the mobile works with that set-up?

Will, I take your point and it's good to hear different experiences. In just over 5 years in Normandy I have had a few tins of paint and some car seat covers go missing from my garage, my own fault because the lock doesn't work. In the 3 years prior to moving, my house was burgled twice, my partner's house was burgled once, I had my car broken into 3 times and a road wheel stolen and replaced by bricks (don't ask - when you have to walk round your car and count the wheels before you set off, something ain't quite right!) and my partner had one motorbike stolen and one set on fire, just for the fun of it I suppose. And both our houses were in supposedly 'nice' areas ... I also take your point about resentment over incomers, which includes Parisians of course, but I think this is more directed at the 'phenomenon' than the individuals. Once the locals get to know a person, they forget the stereotype and make their minds up based on what the person is like. I was immensely amused when the local stonemason who was doing a job on my house spent a good quarter of an hour over coffee telling me how bizarre the English are, they come and buy a nice house and spend money on it, then you never see them again for years, and then suddenly they reappear and sell up. When he'd finished his coffee I gently reminded him that I was English too. He looked at me as if I'd said something really stupid and said "Oh yes but you're not like 'the English', you're one of us now." One of the nicest compliments I ever had.

Oh right, so if it's been 2 weeks it's less likely that the toys will turn up - but was confused about the timescale because in your first post made yesterday you did say 'last week'.

Well it's not exactly crystal clear is it? Does he not know exactly how many he had/has? And personally, when it comes to small items that I keep in the house, I don't tend to immediately something 'stolen'. I notice first, that it's not where I expected it to be, second, that I can't find it, and third, that it appears to have gone missing altogether. I then begin to wonder whether it could have been stolen - but it usually takes me more than a week to come to that conclusion, and I still keep my mind open to other possibilities, like that it got misplaced. You may of course be right but I have to say that the way your posts come across, they suggest a distinct lack of goodwill and an of over-eagerness to believe the worst of these nasty working-class French with chips on their shoulders, getting more materialistic by the day. Sorry if this sounds unkind, but it is as well to be aware of the impression you may be giving to outsiders - whether you choose to take any notice of it or not. Just a simple question: supposing that the Lego figures were to turn up, would you be pleased to have found them and relieved to learn that your neighbour's lad is not a thief after all, or would you feel that you'd had the wind taken out of your sails?

Two points - firstly, of course there are thieves and vandals in Normandy, always have been and always will be, you haven't exactly discovered a new phenomenon there. It would be naive to believe otherwise. The difference is, there aren't that many here compared to some other places. I have had stuff nicked out of my garage in Normandy over the years, and the first time it happened, yes it saddened me. But that kind of thing doesn't happen to me nearly as much as it used to in West Yorkshire. Secondly, from an objective point of view, your explanation for the crack in the windscreen sounds highly implausible. Why on earth would a child go to the trouble of trying to stick a penknife under your windscreen? Are you saying he knew it would crack? If he wanted to damage your car there are many ways of doing it that are far easier, far more likely to achieve the desired result, and far more satisfying - like taking his penknife to the paintwork. If he wanted to break into the car, he wouldn't do it through the windscreen! I just don't see a kid doing that. You say you have only just bought the car, are you sure it hadn't had a new screen fitted, maybe for the CT? If so it may simply not have been fitted correctly. Often when I've bought a car not knowing its history, it's thrown up a few surprises in the first few months. I'm glad you have such a beautiful house and I do hope you're not going to let your life in France be spoit by getting stressed out about neighbours, unrealistic expectations etc. Don't go inventing conspiracy theories just because life isn't perfect. I've found that French people judge you as they find you. If they see you as nice friendly people, they will be glad you've come to live there. If for whatever reason they see you as being stand-offish, they won't want anything to do with you whether you have more than them or less than them. Why would the neighbours be jealous - that house has always been there, it's part of the scenery to them, they can't or don't want to live there or they would have bought it when it was up for sale, so why get upset because somebody else does? 99 times out of 100 French families are busy getting on with their lives - family, work, school etc. There is no 'keeping up with the Jones' culture here that I've ever become aware of, and neighbours, whether English or not, are neither here nor there to most French families. They greet you politely and unless you happen to hit it off for some reason, that's as far as it goes.

But from what you read, the Ivory Coast gentlemen's scam is not that they take money out of your bank. You do. They put money into your bank (not), and persuade you to give them some of it back. Unfortunately you end up with none of the money they 'sent' you, whereas they do get the money you send them, and that's the last you see of it.

face2face - Re reporting them to the Mairie - if it's French workers you are talking about, the maire will (if he's up to the mark) already know perfectly well, and far better than you, exacly which people in his commune are working legally, working illegally, doing a bit of both, good at their jobs, cxxp at their jobs, or have no jobs at all. It's his job to know these things and to step in when things are being taken a step too far. You 'reporting' someone won't make much difference. If however it is an English person that he doesn't know about, it might interesting to see how he reacts. Also - no offence meant - it does seem a trifle bizarre that you have such a strong social conscience about this, yet haven't bothered to learn the language ...

As long as you make several scratches across the playing surface, e.g. with pointed scissors, they won't be playable any more. That's what banks do with floppies that they are sending away for destruction.

How soon you can sign the compromis depends entirely on how quickly the notaire can be persuaded to prepare the documentation. When I bought, the paperwork was ready in about a fortnight but that was with the seller pushing hard. You don't need to pay the deposit at the same time as the compromis is signed but it has to be received by the notaire withn a short period (2 weeks??) otherwise in theory the compromise is void.

I still think you're making it hard for yourself by trying to do things in the wrong order. Surely you aren't going to wait until you get off the ferry the other side to find somewhere to live? So, sell your French car as late as possible, by which time you will hopefully have a UK address, then bob's your uncle, you can pop back and buy a UK car and insure it no hassle. You'll even have somewhere in the UK to stay while you do it

Had you thought that it might far far simpler to wait until you get back to the UK, and then buy one?

OK well its not about pixmania and it's not about paying with a UK credit card, but here's what happened after I got the email from FIA asking for proofs of identity. I emailed them back explaining I couldn't provide same. Got a holding email saying they would deal with my message as soon as. Two days later, a repeat email asking for justificatifs etc. So no hope there then. Sunday, wrote a long email to the supplier (in this case 101innovations, not pixmania) explaining the circumstances, why I couldn't provide the documentation and suggesting they look at my website for confirmation of my contact phone number, and ring me on it to check that I am me. First thing this morning, got a phone call on my mobile from a very pleasant girl at 101innovations. Oh great, you got my email, says I. No, says she, I'm phoning to say that unfortunately we've had to put your delivery on hold because we need proof of your identity, because you've asked us to deliver to a campsite. So I assured her I understood perfectly why they needed to check, and went through it all about my bank still having my UK address on file because I kept trying to change it but they kept not doing it and I gave up, and me having a house in France but working away from home for the summer and wanting the item delivered to my workplace, and how the heck could I produce proof of any of that, and I suggested she look at my professional website which is in my name and then ring me on the contact number given on website. She perked up at that and said yes OK that might do the trick, I'll have a look and ring you back on the landline number (as luck would have it I've popped back home for a couple of days). And a quarter of an hour she did indeed ring back, to say that she thought she could send my order through out on the basis of me answering the landline that tied up with name and my website that tied up with my SIRET. Et voila, a confirmation email followed shortly after to say that my new phone is on its way. So talking to a real person can have results, they can be surprisingly flexible.

Your tax return is the best proof you can have. When you fill your first return in you will put on it the date that you arrived in France. As long as you keep making your déclaration each year after that, there shouldn't be any dispute about when you arrived. Have you also done everything the other end and told the UK tax office etc you are no longer resident there?

This email you got, it couldn't be a scam could it? I had the exact same email, relating to a purchase from a different retailer, that I'd paid for with a French bank card. Admittedly, in my case too I asked for delivery address different to the address that my bank has. But I have done this many times. And like Chancer, the payment has been taken and I've heard nothing from the retailer, just this email from a third party. It seems slightly odd that no-one has mentioned these emails before (that I've seen) and suddenly they are popping up all over. That said, it looks genuine enough ...

In my experience URSSAF have always been extremely pleasant and helpful. I've had to go and see them several times for advice, and once when the prelevement for cotisations was bounced. They've always listened, got the details up on screen, explained things, and I've gone away with the problem solved. Yes their computer churns out all kinds of garbage but if you go and speak to a real person, they do try to help.

If you register and pay online it is dead simple. You just add up your total income between the specified dates, type the figure into the online déclaration form, and the amount that will be debited to your account immediately pops up onscreen. Your account is all set up for you so it automaticcally calculates it at the correct percentage. You can print the form off, but you also get an email confirmation, and the direct debit is taken on the due date. Works for me. I also get an email prompting me when it is time to submit the quarterly déclaration (had one a couple of weeks back). If you don't do it on line, yes you can get a form to fill in - of course if you do that you have to do the maths yourself. I'm not sure you would need to pay just yet though, when I registered it seemed ages before my first declaration was due. I have a feeling that if you start mid-quarter, you don't make your first déclaration until the end of your first COMPLETE quarter, i.e. you would have been going for a quarter and a bit. But I could be wrong on that.

Somebody mentioned Fransat and getting your little lad to watch French TV. I think this would still be very helpful for 2 reasons. One, learning the language will be taken care of by his tutor, but from TV he would start picking up the semi-verbal part ot communicating that will also help to make him feel at ease, the gestures and all the 'euh ouais' and the 'bon, ben's' and the 'o y'aie y'aie's' that he will hear around him all the time. Two, even if he doesn't follow all the dialogue he will get the gist of the TV programmes and the names of people on TV that his classmates are likely to talk about, and if he has a smattering of popular culture to give him a bit of common ground at the outset he won't feel so much like an alien.

Not sure but I thought that your cotisations covered accidents at work? so if you are employed and your employer is paying cotisations for you, you would be insured and could claim from CPAM?

When I purchased, the compromis had a detailed description of the property as it had been when the previous owners bought it. At the time of the sale to me he updated this to include the changes made by the people I bought it from. Presumably the details on the compromis are recorded somewhere when each successive sale goes through? So if the description of the house as per your compromis is correct, you can assume that the records are up to date? Or maybe not ...

I don't see how a 'letter' will achieve anything apart from possibly arouse suspicions - she could have written it herself. Anyone can write a letter (with a little help from a forum) and sign with someone else's name. Unless it is rubberstamped by somebody like your maire or a notaire, who would probably find it a strange request. I would be very surprised if any 21st century fonctionnaire would question a woman travelling with her own children. What if the mother was a widow, or divorced, or not married, she could never go anywhere!