emma5

Hi, I have pm'd you.   Emma

oops, look like we were posting at the same time, sorry for the dulpicate info.   Emma

I've just renewed my 5 year old daughters, and you can no longer send a personal cheque, they stopped accepting them on the 31st August 2007, it now has to  be the equivalent of a postal order, I for one will be doing my husbands in the uk, as my daughters would have been £45.00 in England but cost £100.00 over here and that was just a childs fee.   Emma

I flew on the 30th August, it took less than 10 mins, plenty of scanners open, and was called across to a smaller queue when one was going quicker than the other, guess I was lucky.   Emma

I've pm'd you Emma

Hi Jon, I've pm'd you let me know if you dont receive it and i will send details again.   Emma

I also have no gripe with Ryanair, I regurlarly fly La Rochelle to stn and vice versa, with my 4 year old and have been doing this since she was 2.5 years old. I have been dealt with differently on each occasion.  It never fails to amaze me at La Rochelle the amount of pushing and shoving everyone manages to achieve, but the staff always seem to make sure children are priority boarded after the people who have paid for pb. Last time at stn, there was a huge scrum at the door, mainly of french mothers and children as it didn't appear any of them realised about priority boarding, it was soon explained to them and they all very quietly joined the non pb queue. Apart from one 21ish year old who appeared to think she was "special" and had a very loud argument as to why she should get on 1st, much to the amusement of all the other people waiting she made it on almost last, also on that flight a mother with 2 young children boarded last, very late and very harassed, but the cabin crew asked other people to move so the family could sit together. As for me, well I was priority boarded about 3rd one, not because i'd paid for it, but more by luck.   When I booked the flights, I paid for my luggage in the hold, but i didn't need a suitcase for  my daughter, I didn't realise at the timeof booking how to take the pb out of the field so paid for her to pb, not thinking she would as I hadn't paid, however when we got to stn, they gave her a pb sticker on her boarding card, and gave me one as well, as obviously she couldn't pb on her own.  Not something I did on purpose, but would maybe try my luck next time with this as well.  Emma

Hi, thanks very much for your reply, I dread this form. last year I  attempted to complete this online for my husband, somehow his password was locked and we had to wait for system support to reset this, this took several difficult technical phone calls and we had to go through it all twice as when they reset it there was still a problem.  Finally it was decided, it would be better if we sent it by post, no probs we said, we sent two and both were subsequently not received, which we didn't realise until we received the letter telling us we would be fined, we finally sent the third one about october as it took this long for them to realise they hadn't received the other two.   Have to say they were very helpful and understanding as form should have been filed by May,  at one point i did think I was never destined to see the back of this form. So when i reveived two (one each) this year and then read this thread the same day, I was a little more relieved to see I was not alone.   Thanks again.   Emma  

Does anyone happen to know off the top of their heads, which box it is for a micro, but if you are a commercant, rather than a service.   Thanks   Emma

TU, sorry had forgotten I had replied to this thread so hadn't checked it. It was suggested to me by a french lady before Ella started school, that I should encourage her to answer to her middle name as it would be very confusing for her and her maitresse, but it has never appeared to be a problem as yet!!!   Emma

Hi pp, don't think you're alone in those thoughts, im sure most of us who have put children of any age in to school over here have had those thoughts.   My 4 1/2 year old is in her second year now, she loves it and is chattering away fairly fluently now, since Septembeer she has come on leaps and bounds, but I think a lot of that is to do with the fact that the french children are now a year older as well and they are speaking with clearer diction than at 3 1/2 so Ella can understand better what is being said to her.   It was a bit hard the first day, box of tissues (mansize was needed for me) at the ready is a good idea, however I think generally most children of a younger age seem to settle in quicker than the older children, also i've found a few mums have been keen for their little angels to play with "the english child"  as I think they think this will help their children out learning English!!!!  I am obviously offering my point of view, but I would say within two weeks Ella had identified who she wanted to play with as she is quite a quiet child and some of the children were a little bit too much for her.  She loves it and has loads of friends now who we regularly see at the park and around the town and they always do the little kisses to each other.   If I was to start another child in school here, with hindsight i would make sure they knew how to ask to "faire le pee pee" and also to ask for a drink, other than that everything else seemed to be picked up quite quickly.   Good luck.   Emma

Bud, have recieved your pm, just spent ages typing a reply and somehow lost the lot before sending, I will hopefully get time tomorrow now, as am off out for the rest of the day, didnt want you to think I hadnt got it thats all.   Emma    

Just to update you all, RSI organic have just phoned today, they are going to send me another form to fill in, and have said once they have received my response, they will be writing to me again with a lower payment plan.  Think you must be right as to who opens the letter, as they had even bothered to get the lady who speaks a little english to speak to me, just to make sure i fully understood they were going to help me this time.   Emma

Charlotte, I hope you are right, as I have written to organic with exactly those details two weeks ago, and have reveived a letter back saying they cannot lower my payments for the interim, I have just received the bill again today saying i must pay 993.00 euros before the 17.3.07.   I have again written today to say I cannot afford that and could they lower it, so i will wait to see what they say for the second time.   I was fully aware of how the system worked when i set up my business, but it does feel as if they expect a lot of new businesses to be turning over some profit quite quickly when they ask for there payment.   Fingers crossed all goes well for me.   Emma    

Hi Sandra, If you've read my reply to your other posting, you'll get my background, in answer to your question, yes she would have the rest of this school year and all of next year in maternelle, it will depend on what school she goes to as a friends child goes to school nearby you, he is 3 years old and will go to one school this year and then transfer once he finishes in petite section, to another school actually in the village he lives in when he goes up to moyenne section, which is what your daughter would be in now, i cant remember if he will move again for the grande section 5-6 years old.  It just depends which school your daughter goes to.  My daughter will do all her maternelle in one school, 2.5 years to 6 years, just move in to different classes as she gets older.   As for the language, in september 2005 my little one was speaking it ok, but it was quite difficult to understand her as she was only just 3 herself, since this september 2006, she has moved up a\ class and there is literally no stoping her, I cant believe in 3 months the difference in language skills.  Im sure she will pick it up and if you yourself can speak french, at least you can play in french with her, this week we've had another library book and i must admit its the 1st one i've struggled with, better start practicing a bit more.   I've just reread your post and my little girl is 5 in june as well!!!!!  We normally spend it on the beach.   Good luck with the move   Emma and Ella

Hi Sandra, I have a four year old daughter as well and we live in Pons about 25 mins away, there's a few of us that live near Pons with children four and under, we meet at the park quite a bit and you're welcome to join us.  There are quite a few families around st tomas de conac, st dizant and a few in Lorignac, there is also an english bar in lorignac which im sure they would know of any young families in the area.  I know there were a few english children at the school in lorignac about your daughters age.   If I can be of any help or you want a chat just pm and i can give you my email address or tel no.     Emma  

Pete Have pm'd you. Emma Pons

Just to refer back to Micks original posting, c/a in the charente maritime have now stopped accepting payments to be made to britline at a local branch as they were getting too many requests and can't make any money from it themselves, this is what a friend was told in the Pons branch.   However she was told Charente havn't stopped, so she had to drive to Cognac and had no problems there.   Hope this helps   Emma

Hi Gail, no I don't seem to have one waiting. Emma

Hi Gail, I've pm'd you, with one in Pons that we use. Emma

Hi, mc i've pm'd you.   Emma Pons

Doormouse, I opened a shop in April selling english produce, as far as the actual official side went, I couldn't believe the ease of it. I went to the Chambre De Commerce with the relevant docs required, Passport, Birth Certificate,Marriage Certificate,proof of either ownership of the property to be used or the rental agreement.  I then had to wait about two weeks for the Siret no.  You can trade from the day you tell them you want to open without your kbis.  (piece of paper with siret no. on).   If you are going to sell alcohol you need to see the Douanes for a license, this was also very easy, no poilce checks etc just took 10 mins to issue and 30 mins to discuss with the civil servants what we are going to sell etc   The French in our local town are very supportive and although we live in Poitou Charente with a large ex-pat community I would say 60% of my clientel are french and 40% are english.   The best sellers for me for the french customers are without a doubt English Marmalade, Shortbread biscuits (boxes with tartan on them are preferred!!!!!), tea loose and sachet and finally Mildish indian produce ie. Tikka Masala, Korma etc. The best sellers for the english customers are of course Baked Beans, Tea, Marmalade, Sausages,Bacon,Cheese,Indian Produce and last but not least Fairy Snow and Zoflora. It will be trial and error with what won't and will sell well, the best thing to do is try and make sure you get your stock with the longest shelf life possible.  I don't know how you will get your stock over but one thing to be wary of, is if you order it from a cash and carry and then have it shipped over via haulage, the cash and carry will as a rule pick the shortest date stuff from there shelves and then you are stuck trying to sell a lot of one item very quickly, by far for me the best way is to try and pick it up yourself.    The cotistations are not a nice surpise when they are arrive, but the companies will lower payments for you at the beginning if you can show them your income etc that you are or aren't earning.  Please pm me with any other questions, I'm sure there was something else I was going to say but inbetween customers i've forgotten.   Emma

Hi Kimberley, i've pm'd you.   Emma Pons 17

Hi, i'd already contacted them as well.  Thanks again,   Emma

Hi, thanks for the reply Christine, I have already contacted Nina and she is fully booked.  I think the Dordogne is too far from me, but I have contacted the person who replied to the thread you posted.   Fingers crossed.   Emma