Crossley

I am not sure whether this will help, but at the risk of telling you something you know already I will proceed. The problem with registering older cars which do not have a VIN in the modern format is that they do not conform to the modern description format. For any vehicle you wish to register in France, you have to obtain an "Attestation d'Identification d'un Vehicule import conforme a un type National" from the Department of Mines, now known as the DRIRE - Direction Rgionale de l'Industrie, de la Recherche et de l'Environnement. In effect this document defines the car under the French system, giving details such as CV (horsepower, usually a small number which I personally have not discovered how to calculate, but the DRIRE does it for you), body type, engine and chassis numbers, gross weights and maximum towing weight etc. Such details are of course available for your Minor, but you may have to obtain a certficate of conformity from the original manufacturer, or have the vehicle inspected by the French authorities to ascertain all the details they need. Depending on the Department, this can be a straightforward or lengthy process. For a more modern car this is normally very easy if it was originally manufactured in Europe. I have registered both a 1996 Honda and 1986 Saab here and there were no problems; both types were already known to the French system and I did not need any certificates of conformity. By telephoning your local DRIRE office you can obtain a form from them, which you fill in as best you can, pay about 70 Euros, and hopefully they will return the "attestation". If there are problems, and they need more information, they will contact you. That is the major hurdle. The vehicle will then have to go through the Controle Technique. The local centre near me was very helpful, in this respect; they test vehicles with some regard for their age and the regulations in force at that time (see later), finally providing you with a certficate. There is of course a problem with the headlamps on English cars - they dip the wrong way - and sometimes this is enough for them to fail. However, the local station near me noted this as a fault but passed the vehicle nevertheless. I have heard that not all CT stations are as lenient. Finally, you need a certificate from your local Hotel des Impots, or tax office, to say that no VAT is owed on the vehicle. This is form 1993, and, at least when I asked, was readily obtainable and easily filled in, at no charge. Armed with the above three bits of paper, and your British V5, you can then have the vehicle registered at the Prefecture. For cars more than 10 years old the fee, which depends on the CV rating, is halved, and I guess for the Minor would be in the region of 100 Euros. I believe this varies from Department to Department. If you wish, instead of the V5 you can apply to the DVLA in Swansea for a Certficate of Permanent Export. This removes your car from the British system and stops them pestering you to renew the tax. You then give this certificate to the prefecture with the other documents. However, some friends of mine just handed in their V5 to the Prefecture when registering their car, and that worked fine - they never heard any more from the DVLA, so the two systems appear to communicate. Right now I am in the throes of registering a vintage vehicle here, and intend to obtain a Carte Grise Collection for it; you obviously know about this. The first stage was to obtain the attestation, which you can do via the FFVE - Fdration Franaise des Vhicles dpoque. You go to their web site - www.ffve.org and download the form from there. This is much easier than going to the DRIRE, since the vehicle is not expected to fit in with the modern format. You still need form 1993, and, much to my surprise, it must undergo the Controle Technique, but this was no problem. My car has no indicators, no windscreen washers, and the brakes are nowhere near modern standards, but the rules permit allowances to be made for all that. Under present regulations this would be the last time the car would be subjected to the CT, and as you know it is limited to travelling in your own department and the neighbouring ones. You can of course travel further than that if you wish, using the Dclaration de Circulation forms which the FFVE includes when it sends back the attestation. However, all this is about to change on January 1st 2007. From then onwards it will have to undergo the CT every 5 years, there will be no restriction on travel, and vehicles that were originally French registered will be able to keep their original number plates in their original style, rather than the modern Euro style. I am not very happy about changing the plates on my vintage car, but as far as I can see there is no way of avoiding it. People do drive on English plates over here, and some French insurance companies will tolerate this, but mine wil

I can answer the digibox part: I paid 95 inc postage and VAT from a company in Cambridge for an Amstrad DRX100, complete with remote control. It seemed in almost new condition; I'll supply further details if you are interested. As for satellite dish and LNB costs, a colleague locally (Hautes Pyrnes) has just had one installed. If no-one else comes up with the required information let me know and I'll ask him how much it cost.

I am now investigating surge protectors for my computer, TV etc. At the moment the computer is the main concern, and I have bought a simple one for about 14 euros from Super-U. There was a more expensive one (30 euros) with 5 outlet sockets and a pair of RJ-11 sockets (in/out) for the modem; I have heard of several people suffering from fried modems as a result of storms, and presumably this offers some protection from that. However, I have not bought the more expensive one because I am not sure whether it will slow down my telephone connection to the modem. At the moment it runs at the standard 56kps, although hardly ever seems to achieve that. Does anyone have any experience of using surge protectors with modem protection, and if so what is the best one to buy?