Steveandmarie

Is anyone aware of French MOT standards relating to engine noise levels? I ask this as a fellow Land Rover diesel owner has raised concerns. This question relates to older land rovers which have very little or zero soundproofing fitted; do we need to buy soundproofing kits before moving over?? Cheers Steve.

Well, I can't stand flying, flew from Nottingham with BMI baby t'other week and was delayed 4 hours; landed 2.am after a horrendous flight (aren't they all??!) and had to get a taxi home to Manchester (108). TAKE THE BOAT!! Regards, Coward, Manchester.

Crikey, I should have checked this forum a long time ago (nothing new there though). My partner and I are moving to the castres/mazamet area next month and our main priority is to escape the rat race. We've come up with a couple of highly original small business ideas: can you guess what they are? Yes, property finders and property maintenance..... However, after reading some of the posts on this forum my head is spinning; prohibitive taxes; endless red tape; everyone else offering the same services...all I'm looking to do is earn a few quid shovelling soil or mowing a lawn! Our property finding idea makes things a bit more complicated, because we think we've come up with a few twists on the theme and are considering advertising in LF or simmilar to get the message accross. I guess this means investing our savings into the business-- with a paucity of business nous and confusion as to whether there's a big enough market to cover costs,no matter how decent our service is. We're relocating mainly because my partner is French, and that's probably not the reason most Brits are moving over, so we don't actually 'know' our target market!! Anyone out there willing to pass on their experiences when searching for property in France and what help they might have found useful-for instance from our super new buisiness- please let us know! Yes I suppose I've sneaked in a request for market research there. Cheers folks. Steve and Marie.

Hi Ray, I'm in a simmilar position currently. You used to be able to pick up lhd cars in the uk for peanuts, but -now that we Brits are moving to Europe in our droves- some dealers are selling lhd cars exclusively: at a premium. The cheapest route would be to check ebay: search for both 'left hand drive' and 'lhd'. There are bargains to be found if you have some mechanical knowledge or can take somebody to view the vehicle who knows what to look out for, also ebayers tend to value their seller ratings highly and thus describe their vehicles accurately. Try Auto trader on the net, you wil need to register (it's free) to open up search options i.e. 'lhd'-- don't forget to search 'national' sales. Sometimes you find dealers (who don't deal exclusively with lhd vehicles) advertising the odd lhd part ex' and so they tend to be cheaper. New cars in France are cheaper than new cars in the UK, but for some reason their older used cars are quite expensive even with whopping mileages , however cars around two years old in France are supposedly good value. A french manufactured diesel is meant to be the smart choice as you'll always find a mechanic and the fuel is cheap. If you leave your vehicle requirements in my inbox I'll keep my eye out for you -- as I'm searching for a lhd myself twice a day on the net! Cheers, Steve.

I need help. Please help. HELP ME PLEASE. Idealy you might wish to help by offering my family a free house; don't worry if you only own one property: give us that one and you'll be in exactly the same position as us--except you'll probably be looking to move back to blighty. Exciting... Or, you might choose to vacate your property (sharpish though-we're due over there in august) for a period of, say, six months while we get settled: that way we can house-hunt at our leisure! Thing is, we had a vague idea of where we would like to move-- probably near Toulouse-- now, at the last second, my (frrrench) partner has decided to change 'our' mind, for reasons obvious to her alone, thus the state of play at the moment is: 1, I (still) speak little french. 2, We have a 5 year old boy WHO DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WE ARE GOING YET. 3, We think we have sold our house--which should leave us with a piffling few grand to emigrate with. 4, We have a one year old dogue de bordeaux WHO DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WE ARE GOING YET. 5, My partner has not managed to secure a job-- despite e-mithering half the employers in SW France-- she's a logistics professional so you'd think some temp' work (at least) won't be out of the question once we land. But how should we know? 6, We are flying over in early July for a week, and get this, we are going to drive around the south of France, choose a place to live, secure a cheapish rental and bob's your uncle: COULD I BE ANY MORE HAPPY ABOUT THE SITUATION? So there we have it; notice has been forwarded to our employers; house almost sold; pet passport about to be sorted; left hand drive car nearly bought...But can anybody on this forum TELL me where to move and GIVE my partner a job? I doubt it....I bet you can't even offer me a house to rent- can you? Eh? Love, Steve.

Hello there, Our family (lola the dog, Kieran the boy, Marie the French-woman and myself) are moving to the South West (Toulouse/Carcasonne/Perpignon) around July/August and are in desperate need of a place to stay. Initialy we had planned on finding somewhere near Toulouse as it seemed the best bet for Marie to gain employment in the logistics field. We have since decided to broaden our horizons and use our savings to rent whilst searching for the perfect house/job. If anybody out there has a property to let for short/medium term or would like reliable 'house sitters' (our dog is very well behaved and we would be very happy to leave a cash deposit) then please let us know-- anything considered! Finaly, if you have knowledge of the area and could advise us on the job market in the regions mentioned we would be grateful to hear your opinions. Left Hand Drive vehicle (cheapish) also required! Thanks in advance, Steve and Marie.