Owens88

Apparently the 'old quarter' of our village has a 'NO white' ruling, while the rest seems to be predominantly white. Sorry, but 'ask the Mairie' seems to be the way to go. What better way to introduce yourself than asking advice on something non critical to your plans? Good luck John

We wanted light rooms (without being too hot/bright) and many 'character places' were far from that. Having an outside space and a view, within our budget, was also important. We were averse to being in a germolene coloured house in an estate of boxes (and we had rented a in suburbia previously, not with the full germolene colour though). In the end our place is 150/100/30/10 years old depending on which bit you look at ! I alos note what Quillan says about renovation. That was never our intent anyway (I can tell a hammer from a screwdriver, but would rather avoid both) .  By and large it must be worth getting ones head around local standards and supplies, particularly if you are in an area where climate is markedly different than 'home'.However I am still mystified by the price of central heating boilers which (as far as I can tell) are sold on a world market anyway . Drifting Off Topic now..

It was in a newsgroup France.langeudoc-roussillon.perpignan The actual posting has dropped off my newsnet server now.

As a user of B&B's I would endorse that thought. When we were property hunting and using B&B's we got more help from B&B's recommending competitors than we did from web directories. Good luck. John

On a more serious note, however, how many of the brits living in France do you think actually have taken the time to study the French driving system rather than "picking it up as they go along"? A good example of this is priority to the right...   I am now both terrified and ashamed. Other than driving on the different side of the road I didn't know that there is a formal/legal different system . In fact I thought 'priorite a droite' had been removed (or is that just on roundabouts?). Another misapprehension. Any links where I can bone up on it? In English would be good. Cheers John

Thanks teamedup. Actually I have been to the hotel d'impot and on their instruction I e-mailed the regional centre at Perpignan. I was probably more timid than you suggest. I merely told the truth and asked a couple of simple questions at a time. I have monitored threads in here and there is indeed a suggestion that 'taxe professionale' may balance out similar to tax d'hab, but with different bells and whistles. I have also asked in here for pointers to any recommended accountant ! Cheers John

Yes there is so much about Toulouse being dropped that it must be a pricing issue ! Shame as it was a useful hub. (When Perpignan failed due to bad weather last Feb, and Ryanair couldn't be bothered flying out of Carcassone instead, it was Gerona and Toulouse that took the strain). Perhaps more flights into Carcassone ?  Or my suggestion for an airport near to the upcoming rail hub near Puigcerda/ Latour ? Even a 'leisure' airport would be good !            

Many thanks. I can understand why 'maison secondaires' would get charged more - largely unoccupied and contributing 'not a lot' to the community etc.. As I recall it the Welsh had a more fiery way of putting it. However tourist accomodation is seen as 'a good thing' and contributes a net inflow to the community, there are even Govt. grants to promote some type of tourist accomodation are there not ? I just wonder if anybody can point to sources of advice (or advisors). Cheers John

Hi I had not heard that 'holiday homes' have a higher tax d'habitacion. Does that mean 'maison secondaires' or places that are up for rent ? Thanks John

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CA Britline can be managed from UK or France but sadly you do not get a local branch. The supposedly national banks are in fact regional entities. We paid a cheque into a CA branch (which they happily accepted) and provided the Britline details. ... long story short we only got the money when Britline 'pulled' it through from the originator (our notaire , luckily) months later. The accepting branch did not accept any responsibility despite us having a receipt from them.  

CA Britline can be managed from UK or France but sadly you do not get a local branch. The supposedly national banks are in fact regional entities. We paid a cheque into a CA branch (which they happily accepted) and provided the Britline details. ... long story short we only got the money when Britline 'pulled' it through from the originator (our notaire , luckily) months later. The accepting branch did not accept any responsibility despite us having a receipt from them.  

EEK, would somebody really get a mattress from a dump ? However,  I would be interested to hear answers to the following: *Is a phone considered essential / desirable in these days of the ubiqitous mobile? *Should that extend to internet connection ? *How many owners get their properties 'safety passed' by somebody who is officially 'somebody who knows what they are doing', every year ? Cheers      

Hi   I have been inspired by various discussion in the LF forums to suspect that my current tax situation is not necessarily optimal. (More acutely people near me have advised that my tax d'hab is b*** high for what we have !).   However its a complex area and one generalist source of advice has said go find a local professional. We are in Pyrenees Orientales (66) and would welcome recommendations toward an English speaking expert. I know that the location doesn't affect the law and would also consider anybody in France (preferably with e-mail).   Thanks  

Hmmm Somebody else was reporting elsewhere that Perpignan airport is 'under scrutiny' at the moment as well. For anybody that knows the area I could see a good argument for an airport in the area of Latour de Carol / Puigcerda which would have a cracking skiing market and still be useful to the area as a whole. Where is the 'new airport ' suggestion box (smile)?    

We use Villarenters. Thye send us bookings and we get the money ok. I am glad somebody corrected the web site. John

My ignorance may be showing here but aren't Zone Alarm and pc-cillin/Norton etc. different ? Here is my simpleton's view waiting to be corrected: 1) Anti-Virus engine, such as Norton, Pc-Cillin, Mc Aphee or F-Secure which I like,, detects and removes/cleans virusses. 2) Firewall  such as Zone Alarm stops intrusions into your pc and also helps control what you send out. 3) Anti Spyware/Malware stuff helps detect and remove the nasties that get placed on your machine which are not viruses but do have a deleterious effect on your pc/Life/Bank Balance. I know that some packages are combining elements of 1) and 2) or 2) and 3) etc. but the free Zone Alarm is only one thing I think.   Cheers all

The only time this has happened to us (touch wood or whatever will bring good luck) was when the booking family had a bereavement. It was a shoulder season booking and the family re-booked with another shoulder season booking when we had a vacancy. We suffered some extra costs (their cancellation was absolutely last minute and the cleaner had even made the beds) but we thought a sympathetic approach was best.   On the other hand we had a French family last year who wanted a peak season week and refused to pay a deposit, as they were not in the practice of doing so. In fact they wanted to pay NO money at all until they turned up and got the key. I explained my problem with that idea. I even offered to route their booking through a credit card handler should they be wary of handing over dosh to me. In the end we agreed to void the reservation - but they still couldn't understand what my fears were.    If your cancellation has no mitigating factors then you have no reason to mitigate their costs yourself. You might make a gesture and return something to recognise the costs you won't have (energy ?), and if you re-sell it then you can be a bit more generous. Otherwise stick to your printed terms. By the way we always advise renters to take out insurance (another reason I offered to take a credit card booking from the French family).

Following on from the isdn exchange idea (which has merit and I currently use it on a smaller scale in the UK). How about Broadband and VOIP ? And no I haven't done this yet but France seems way ahead of UK re: what you can do with Broadband.  

He - He, Thanks for the suggestion that French Customer Service people might be selective in who they respond to ! (smile). As it happens I would happlily e-mail in French (and will telephone in French if I had to). Its just illogical to go through a long winded set up details orally/aurally. The EDF cope with e-mails... Cheers

I am replying via a satellite feed. Well actually a wireless link to my neighbour, then another long wireless link to another neighbour, then up into space to the satellite. I am in Britain and we are using Amariska, which I think is available in France. www.rural-web.org  is our volunteer community and would welcome the referral fee ! If you can also share like we do then satellite could be a way to go. Satellite has long delays (latency) which means bad for 'gamers' (you shoot but die before your bullet/death ray gets to your oppponent). The satellite companies tell you that. What I have also found is that it is occasionally slow for interactive sites (e-bay, car hire, flights etc.). They don't tell you that. It is excellent for big downloads; Microsoft patches, music, film etc. There are weather effects. A storm can kick it out of service for a short while.   If you want speed of download satellite will be good. If you haven't tried ISDN  yet you might also be interested in the 'unlimited' ISDN offerings being promoted in this forum. I had ISDN before satellite and am not a really big downloader, it worked well for me. Good luck

Many thanks all. The English speaking line is supposedly open 9-5.30, not any evenings, according the recorded message which is all I have got out of it so far. One of the reasons for the request for  e-mail is that there are a lot of questions and detail that lend themselves to the written word. Then it becomes doubly galling that they will work with e-mail, but only if you have a current french telephone number for them to reference you with. I might try entering France Telecom's own phone no. in that box and see what happens....  

Hi I am looking for an e-mail address for France telecom. I don't have a telephone yet and their web-based 'send us an email' forms only work if one can complete the mandatory field (telephone no), and yes it must be in France ! Thanks in advance John

If you can get a Metro card (Makro in UK) then do use them. The Metro site will tell you where they are.   Cheers

I would be interested.   By the way I have a problem that somebody might help with. We have a party of 7 or 8 going skiing. Staying at my place (plus overflow) therefore need to drive. 4 adults 2 cars is what we are doing.   For flexibility it would be good if any of the adults could drive any of the cars (we cannot pre-plan when somebody might want to do a non-skiing day or who would be in that party). However we effectively have to pay the extra driver premiums as though there are 8 drivers. I cannot tget the hire companies to accept that the risk is not doubled. Any thoughts ?