Oboulez

Whilst the answer may lurk deep withing the many blogs on the subject of French education, does anybody know if there is a way of establishing the academic results from individual schools. Our son is not school age yet, however we are contemplating moving from an area where the school is supposedly very good. Is there some meaningful measure published as to the academic results from individual schools? Unlike some posters in this blogs main heading, I do not have my childs academic path already mapped until he attends some prestegious universtiy somewhere, I will currently be happy if he goes to a decent primary school.

On the one occasion we did manage to speak to somebody they were pleasant, however, given the previous and subsequent non responses to our queries re houses we may give up.

Following this question re non response to calls etc. posters suggested that it might be because of the August holidays, it is an english run company, so we do not think this is the case.

We have discovered a clever trick which our local SuperU uses to up their margins. We have caught them out a few times separating 'special offer' multi packs - cartons/packets offering 3 for 2, BOGOF etc. and selling them individually. The latest was we spotted a storeman taking individual bottles of sparkly out of cartons which were specially printed up by the producer indicating "buy 4 bottles - get 2 free", and putting them on the shelves where of course they were individually priced at a higher price. When I suggested that I would like a complete carton, thus getting my 2 'free bottles', he said that he could not do this - indeed that I had not meant to see what he was up to. I was so indignant that I grassed them up to the supplier. I received a stack of vouchers withing days, and funnily enough, the same sparkly was on 'special' last week.

Norman H - how do you reconfigure the files?

We have an account with Orange for internet/phone/TV, however following an automatic software upload of the TV decoder last week, we have lost about 10 channels, including stuff like BFM news channel. We spoke to Orange helpdesk and did the usual switch on/off stuff to no avail. Orange are going to put somebody on to us to give us a quote for a satellite dish which supposidly will give us over 100 channels. Does anybody know how much we can expect to be charged / what the realistic price should be?

Used it for best part of a year with no real probs except the rather annoying pop ups. I posted an article here a couple of weeks ago which received lots of 'witty' responses when I enquired as to whether anybody else had just began to get pop ups with 'live sex' when watching Expat Shield. Also, I do not know whether the BBC has finally managed to outsmart Expat Shield - we have been unable to watch the BBC over the weekend. ITV & Sky okay.

Has anybody had any experience regarding translation of documents for a Notaire? Following a divorce and division of assets - which includes transfer of ownership of a French property, it is necessary for the Notaire to draw up some new documents. We have a copy of a UK court order, however we are struggling to get a response from the Notaire regarding what certification/attestation will be necessary to comply with the French requirements regarding the translation of this document. There are companies advertising their wares on the internet, however we do not want to waste money having documents translated which might not be legally competent, and repeated requests of the Notaire have so far not been answered.

Has anybody else over the past week been getting windows popping up with live sex when connected to Expat Shield If so, does anybody know how I can prevent this? System checks don't appear to show any viruses in my system. The 'morality' aspect does not bother me, more that sex links are normally a sure way of geting your computer hijacked.

Thanks again TB. We both have S1's valid until 2014. Our son was born here, and I can attest what is frequently the case - the great British self delusion that whatever (in this case the health system, but is could be the police or whatever) is somehow "the envy of the world" falls - somewhat short in reality. I have to do some research re what is and what is not covered by the basic cover so that I can decide what if any 'top up' insurance may be desirable.

Thanks TB, you sound like you know what you are talking about. The person at HMRC said that completion of the P85 was not the process per se, rather than the start of the process by which my pension could ultimately should I wish be taxed here. Was she giving me duff gen?? Is there any other way of getting a cotisation other than working etc? I do not actually need to work from a financial point of view.

On 18th Aug I got 1,134 for transferring £5001 to France from HiFX with no charges. The headline rate was something like 1,152 at the time. The reason I mention the sum involved is that if you transfer less you get a worse exchange rate, plus transfer charges.The good thing with HiFx is that you buy the currency at that exact moment. I have been lucky the last couple of transfers as within a day or so the £ had dropped back 2 or 3 cents again. My current benchmark (as I suspect may be also be the desired exchange rate for the UK treasury) for transfers is 1,15, as whenever it gets above this it seems to drop back a few cents very quickly.

As I have mentioned earlier in this post, I am in receipt of a UK Govt service pension which is of course taxed at source. Following a nasty shock from HMRC the other day re their dream that this was to be taxed at 40% (an error funnily enough), on phoning them I discovered that should have completed a Form P85 as I was leaving the UK but receiving income from the UK by way of pension (this also applies for income through property or other means). I have not heard of this, and I am sure many others have not either. Anyway, the conversation led to the discovery that after completing the P85, it is then possible to have your income taxed in France as opposed to the UK. Posters here have mentioned AE as a way of getting into the French system, however presumably if my pension was taxed in France, these contributions would likewise get me into the system. Not only do I have absolutely no desire in continuing to subsidise the shower of s**t in the UK who live off the backs of the law abiding hard working taxpayer, I have a 10 month old son who will be brought up here as a Frenchman, so I would prefer my taxes to contribute to his education etc. Has anybody any knowledge or experience of having a pension taxed in France, and if so how does this compare to the tax rates in the UK? Whilst I do not want to talk figures, it is a reasonable pension as opposed to a handful of grand a year.

We have been on the mailing list for the above and continue to get emails (possibly automated) sent most days with their latest offerings. We are serious buyers, however over the past couple of weeks all personal dialogue from them has stopped. We have left several messages on their answerphone and also sent several emails, however all have been unanswered. There has been no indication that they are on holiday, any idea's ?

As earlier posted, I have just moved pernamently to France and in receipt of a UK goverment pension - which of course is taxed in the UK. I am in the process of opening a french bank account and have received a declaration sur l'honneur justification de la qualite de residence fiscale. For the above purposes, can anybody advise whether I am a resident fiscal in france or non resident fiscal? My intention is to live here pernamently, and asap get into 'the system'. I currently pay the necessary propety taxes etc for what was previously our holiday home but is now our main address.

You are certainly right about the fluctuations in the value of the £. This was always on my radar. My residual monthly pension after all bills etc have been paid has just gone up by 50 Euros in the past few days. The exchange rate is now 1.153. Just transferred some cash to France before it goes back down again to what it was a couple of days ago!!!

Sprogster - in my case I had to 'retire'. I had the offer to stay on for an extra 6 months, however the difference between pay and pension would have meant that I would have been working for £150 per week. A bit of a no brainer really! Some of us really do not have a choice as to when we 'retire' - or call it a change of life. That said, I only have to earn the equivalent of that £150 per week to break even. Not a bad prospect really. I could cut grass for that.

Like several other posters, I am in my 40's (just) and have very recently chosen to come here after also serving my country - in my case since I was 16 years old, and received bo**ox back in return but shed loads of grief. Anyway Alpinemist, getting back to your original post, have you applied for a Residual S1 form? Assuming that you have only just stopped work, this gives you 2 years French health care (3 years if you have earned over £5k since 1st April)? PS - what is AE?

thanks Sweet17. I was having a bit of a senior moment given the salesman saying it was going to be CT'd, however there was no CT documentation plus no vignette in the windscreen.

On the subject of CT's, I recently bought a car from a main dealer with a CT. I have noticed that some cars have a sticker in the windscreen marked 'CT' and a date punched in it. I do not have a sticker. Does anybody know what the significance of not having a sticker is?? My car is 3 years old.

Has Veolia got an English speaking helpline like Orange & EDF etc? We have a problem with our water pressure & our telephone French is not yet up to speed. Thanks

Thanks very much indeed everybody for your contributions. You have assisted me greatly, and will be opening a Britline account. Regards Gary

Thanks Stan. I sent an email to CA Britline last week with some questions regarding how CA in general & CA Britline in particular was structured. I got a call back from somebody from CA Vendee suggesting I sign up with them. It all seemed genuine & fairly straightforward, however being the hard nosed cynic I am I do not want to chuck all my eggs into something which seems 'too good' without doing a bit of homework first, and this forum has proved extremely useful in the past as a knowledge and experience sharing source.

In the next few weeks we will be moving pernamently to what was previously our holiday property. My UK occupational commutation and pension will be paid into a UK bank. My partner has had a CA Morbihan account for a few years in her name (not exactly a trouble free experience), however I need to open one, and I see that CA Normandie have a 'Britline' account which is English speaking. Has anybody any experience of this or other suggestions? My initial thoughts are that it might be prudent to have an English speaking bank given that I intend making some fair sized investments in France in the next year and I would hate anything to be "lost in translation". CA seems to be a regionalised mutual, so as such appears that each departement has it's own mutual quite unconnected with the others. Given I will be living in Morbihan, intending on investing further south, but having an account in Normandie - is CA Britline a sensible option? Also, can anybody give me an early heads up on the tax implications or other such grief re what we are about to embark upon?

If anybody intends staying in La Rochelle for more than an overnighter, then I would suggest that you need to ensure that the hotel has a car park. The centre of town is a nightmare - narrow streets, parking restrictions, and quite expensive by French standards, plus limited to two hour stays. Hotels Ibis & Etaps in the centre do not have car parks, so it would be a nightmare trying to find somewhere to park anywhere near these. Having a baby, luckily we did some research & ended up staying at the Novotel which is about a 15 min walk from the Vieux Port. Free parking, and the place lived up to the rave reviews. More expensive yes - but believe me well worth it.