Eleanor REleanor R<br>www.chicfinance.com<br>06 15 16 10 04

Conforama is also a good place with ok quality and not too expensive. Have you though about putting a clic-clac (sofa-bed) in the spare room as opposed to a bed? They very comfortable and a lot cheaper than a bed.

Just to cheer you all up. We signed a compromis on 2nd November and are completing on 17th December !!! However, last time it took from early Feb to August !!!

Hi! The Regime CU means that anything that either spouse had before the marriage or anything that they will have after the marriage belongs to both of you fully. This includes obviously all the positive nice things, but also any debts hidden or otherwise. It also means that any inheritance from Great Aunt Maud, any redundancy money, any alimony or divorce settlement income belongs to both of you. Divorcing can then be a very interesting battle. If you reduce the CU to French property, then everything else that you have would be treated outside of the CU as per your pervious regime and the French property neatly passes from one to the other. Please note that I am not a legal advisor or a solicitor but come across this from many different angles (property purchase, divorce, probate battles, etc) on a daily basis. You should really take good and proper legal advice from either an English speaking notary who is accustomed to foreign marriage regimes or one of the very few decent, honest and capable French Law solicitors in the UK.

Hello, You can change the regime at any time. It is a little more costly if you do it after the purchase. If the notary feels that you are changing in order to disinherit your reserved hiers then it may have to go before a judge which can take longer. Given the implications of a CU regime, it would perhaps be an idea to have it limited to property in France (reduit aux biens acquit en France).

I use www.fromages.com to regularly send real French cheese to the UK and also to the USA. The cheese turns up in perfect condition with an icepack to keep it cool. It's delivered by express delivery so it arrives on the day you choose and you can track the cheese on its journey with their online system! Bon appetit

On the French CPAM website (the equivalence of the NHS) it says that there may be a payment depending on the country in which the medical care is required. Each country will work according to their usual procedure. Happy travelling

You should be very careful with both the En Tontine and the regime CU. If you split up the En Tontine clause can make things very messy but the property is passed to the surviving spouse upon death as thought the deceased had not existed. The Regime CU means that all that you have ever had or will ever have belongs to both of you whether it be positive or negative. An SCI does not resolve your problem either if you are intending to be French resident or if France can decide that you are French resident. The shares of an SCI have to respect the usual reserved hiers inheritance if you are French resident (by rhe by it is the same if your probate is treated un Scottish law). The Donation en Epoux only works for a certain value over a given time span and if you die during that time, then it is considered as disguised inheritance, with 60% inheritance if you can be considered to be married into Seperation de biens. Perhaps a solution could be to look at doing a regime CU 'reduit aux biens acquit en France' ie the regime would only apply to property purchased in France. This neatly protects you other half and your joint children if you die first. Unfortunately, if she dies first then all of the children will inherit from you.

Hello! Your best bet is to go directly tot he Assedic with all your paperwork and ask them. If you can't face the queue and speak French then you can avoid going in by using their on line service : www.assedic.fr Good luck

Hello! According to the 'Service Public' web site any shed, whether it has foundations or not and can or can not be dismantled, larger than 20m2 requires planning permission unless it is replacing an exisiting building/shed! Good luck

I got married to a French man on 30th April/1st May of this year. Both of our families contributed equally, there was no question as to who would pay and for what. As previously mentioned, you have to get married at the mairie and then it is personal choice as to whether you wish to have a religious ceremony or not. We had several 'weddings' in the end : Friday at the Mairie followed by a 'vin d'honneur'. Sat at church followed by an 'appertif' and then the long traditional French evening meal/entertainment. Durng the night, we avoided the visit from the family to make us eat from a chamber pot filled with various food such as chocolate mousse, champagne etc. Sunday was a BBQ eating all of the left overs and openning wedding presents. 2 months later, we had a blessing in England followed by a garden party!!!!! It was great mixing the 2 cultures, if not a little stressful at the time. The French familly insisted on bridesmaids being little girls and having a boy to carry the rings. Hope that this helps for your homework!