IAN_S

My last post should have shown the € symbol instead of the £ sign.

Just had a look at what the £/€ picture has been for the last year. In spring 2003 the rate was almost exactly what it is today, about £1.4380. In spring 2004 the pound was worth about 1.52 at one point. It has fallen back to £1.43 so nothing much has changed in 2 years except that last year it was worth more for a time. The US dollar of course is different in that it has got steadily weaker and that is a US problem that Bush has to solve, presumably.

We tend to watch it in the early evening when there can be some good programmes and the news at 1800 Paris time, mainly to improve our French but there is the culture aspect as well. As Dick says there are also some boring discussion programmes but quite honestly there are sometimes when I browse the Sky EPG and can't see anything worth watching at all out of 100's of channels! There is some good content on the national channels apart from dire game shows that are not only on French tv, UK as well I think! Incidently, those with a numerique receiver other than a digibox can now get 6 national channels on Atlantic Bird 3 for free although these are said to be satellite feeds for the new TNT service so how long this will last is anyone's guess.  

Yes, good luck to you and don't hesitate to ask for any other info about this area, there aren't many Brits around here really compared to other places so we all tend to help each other when we can. I have skiied this year at Mont D'Olmes near Lavelenet and the conditions were very good due to all the snow we have had! Unfortunately my leg fitness is not what is was and the only way to the top is by button drags and I find I'm knackered before I start! C'est la vie.

Ceejay For an insurance company the definition of "roadworthy" is not just that the wheels don't fall off but that it is legally allowed on a public road with tax, MOT etc in the UK and in France too. The fact that it is not in the small print is not the point, just wait until you or someone else puts in a claim and you will find out the hard way.

If you are going to be resident in France then French inheritance laws apply to all your property in France and all other worldwide movable assets. There are many facts about this in the archives so I suggest you search for them. They will tell you a lot but at the end of the day a Notaire is the person to tell you the correct facts about your personal circumstances.

It's quite simple, if you don't like his posts don't read them.  

Martin I set this up without a problem. As you say, no TF1, why is this not public sector tv and where do they get it then for the analogue channels? Couldn't see 4 but I'll keep looking. On the Lyngsat site they describe this as "Festival", what sort of content is it do you think?   Ian

I don't give a damn who owns a 4x4 in London or any other large city as I never go there anyway. If there were no such vehicle there would be others being used wouldn't there?  I do give a damn about having one here in France in the mountains where it has not stopped snowing since the end of January! If I did not have one we would be snowbound most days and unable to shop. Also we have horses here that need TLC in the fields so all in all I rate them quite highly! What is going to make me cross is if the French government tax them more highly just because of town use, it's city versus country dwellers just like the UK.

Er yes, I can see yours was posted earlier so I don't know why I didn't see it.Oh well, I think I must have been more concerned with how to actually post a photo! This one must be going round the internet like crazy.

Outcast If you are not talking about the state pension, what funds are you talking about, and what has the EU got to do with it?  

May I suggest that the postings from Penny29 in the Health section about E106s are put into the FAQ section as she has worked for the Inland Revenue/Benefits Agency etc and IMHO has succintly described the facts surrounding obtaining an E106. This is a subject that keeps on coming up and all we can do at the moment is relate our own personal experiences, not always correct, and different because of personal circumstances.

Coco I think Penny's reply should be put into the FAQs as it puts it all together in a readable way. However, I can truthfully say that in our case we moved in October 02 with an E106 in our pocket which should have expired in Jan 04 but that we were given another to take us up to Jan 05. I think now that we were lucky and it must have been an error by DWP.

Since when was The Aviator an English film?

AND they are trying to get round the hunting ban....

Coco There is another twist to this! The original letter from DWP dated 15/10/02 addressed to my wife says that the E106 covers us to 03/01/04 but that we might be entitled to another one, why "might" I can't say, surely they would have known! In Dec 04 we went to CPAM to join the French system proper, and they said they needed a letter from DWP specifically saying that we were no longer entitled to an E106. Upon asking for this DWP said oh, you are ok until Jan 2005 here is another one! Took this to CPAM and no problem. Now we have definately run out and are going through the process of declaring income etc although no response yet. In the meantime we are still using our cartes vitales although I don't suppose we will get any rebates until it is all settled. As a matter of interest we do our UK tax returns online and CPAM accepted a printout of these as a proof of UK income! Their only comment was "You live on this?" We obviously get our UK tax in a position to show the minimum payment!            

Our single E106 ran from Oct 2002 to Jan 2005 and included me on it as a dependant as I had not made the required payments in the last two years before leaving, so it seems that everybody should press for what they are entitled to if they think there has been a mistake. The office in Newcastle has been snowed under (bad choice of words in Aude at the moment) so it's not surprising they just want to get rid of you quickly, really.

I'm not in your area but as far as I know heating oil is exactly the same and is even pink! When I had my last delivery it came with a leaflet showing a picture of a boiler, a bulldozer, and a tractor, with a warning not to put it in a road vehicle. Whether you can buy the pink stuff in relatively small quantities I don't know.    

I swear I did not press any button marked "post reply"!

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You can buy them in Quillan market for not a lot, 5 to 8 € I think.

Mazan In our house the thermostat is downstairs at the back of the house where there is a large hall and staircase to upstairs, and a lot of heat goes up so that it can be warmer upstairs for any given temperature setting. We work outside a lot during the day and it feels very warm when we come back inside. We also have a large insert going in the living room at night so we don't feel spartan, if we did I would be the first to up the ante! I think that thermostats should be set for whatever is comfortable rather than a set figure. When we had the heating installed, the plumber advised us to have 19.5 deg during the day and we were too hot.    

I read your detailed reply about this dated 5/11/04 but am not sure all that you said applies to me. I have a photo in my web site and link the posting to it but only get the little graphic with a red cross in the posting form and the preview does not bring it up. I have not actually posted in case the same thing happens. Should I see the photo in the form before it is posted?

We have many buzzards in our area and a chasse based in the village, but I have never known them shoot them as they are more interested in sanglier and why should they anyway? These hunters don't hunt for fun and there would be no point killing a bird that we all like around here.  

We installed a 1200 ltr tank for 12 rads in a fairly badly insulated stone house and I now wish we had put in a 2500 ltr tank as it is very boring watching the gauge go down quickly! A Brit neighbour of ours put in a 2500 ltr tank at the same time and as far as I know did not have to have permission unless they just did it without. It is internal and would not be seen by anybody. With oil prices going up they would have done better than us buying a full tank last year, but only if the price did not go down of course, which it hasn't! We have used about 1500 ltrs from Oct3 to date. Sunny weather during Oct/Dec kept the boiler from kicking in much during the day but we have had a lot of cold, snowy weather since the end of Jan that has it going nearly all the time. We operate it on 17 deg during the day and 16 deg at night. The problem here (11) is that the delivery truck cannot (will not) get here when there is snow on our very small road even when ploughed, which it is every day. Our French neighbours let their supply go right down and had a boiler fire in the house apparently due to muck in the tank.