Eslier

You only need to backwash and clean your filter when it needs cleaning. You should be able to tell from the pressure when this needs to be done. With mine, I clean it when it gets to about 1.6/1.7 Bars. Under normal use it is usually around 0.9 to 1.2 Bars.  How often it needs doing is going to depend on how much use the pool gets. In the middle of summer when we have up to 24 people here all swimming with sun cream on (sun cream and lotions are your pools biggest enemy), it needs cleaning about every two weeks but at other times it will last for weeks.  About half way through the season, I also take the filter apart and hose off the "leaves" inside as they still get quite clogged even after backwashing. After backwashing you will need to add more diatomite. Make sure it goes into the skimmer and not into the pool or you will have a big mess to clear up. Make sure you calculate properly the amount needed. If you use too much it will make your filter clog up quickly and difficult to dismantle for cleaning (I know that from my own experience in our first year !).

I think you are right to buy your linen in the UK as much of the French linen is really difficult to iron. UK duvets etc. will be fine on French beds but you might have a problem with fitted sheets as the French beds are slightly different in size. If you stick with flat sheets you won't have a problem. As far as beds are concerned, we have bought several from one of our local market traders. He has a good choice and his prices are competitive. What's even better is that he delivers to the house for free, carries the bed upstairs, puts the legs on and will take away an old bed to dispose of if there is one.

Metro has quite a good range of café style outdoor furniture. You will need a card to shop there which they will give you if you on the spot if you present your business registration papers and siret number. Alternatively, you can use a UK Makro card if you have one.  There are stores in St.Malo, St.Brieuc, Rennes, and many other large places. The St.Malo store currently has a display of these products just inside the entrance. See their website for more info http://www.metro.fr/

Well, in this instance Dick, your money is worthless. It may be inconvenient to have to log in again to all your frequently visited "member" sites but it can be a small price to pay for improved performance and security. It is a well documented good practice to regularly delete all cookies on a pc.  I seem to recall that you are using a Mac so you don't have to put up with many of the security issues that we humble pc users have to deal with on a daily basis.  Please don't simply write things off as "daft" when you clearly haven't got a clue what you are talking about as it can send out the wrong advice to people with a genuine problem.

It' almost certainly a "cookie" problem.  The best thing to do is  find your "cookie" folder - which you should be able to get to from your browser options - and delete all your cookies. Deleting them all will mean that you need to login with your details and password etc. again to all the sites or forums you use that require this, but if you select the "remember" option when doing so your computer will remember the details again for the future. Do this and you should find you will be able to log back in without any problem. In general, it is good practice to delete all your cookies on a regular basis. Many people do this once a week but I certainly would recommend every two or three weeks at least. You will be surprised how many cookies your computer will accept from various sources, some of which are quite likely to be spyware or adware or simply collecting information about your web browsing. Sometimes the cookies which are used to provide automatic login to sites such as this can become corrupt which is why you can get problems logging in. Deleting them and starting again usually solves the problem and can generally help speed up your computer when browsing. If you don't want to delete all your cookies (even though there is no good reason not to) then go to your cookie folder and delete the "Archant" cookie(s). This then should solve the problem with this site at least.

You are correct that the price of a return ticket varies according to the length of your stay in France but the most expensive return will be equivalent to twice the single fare. Therefore, you aren't necessarily going to save money with two singles but it does give you the flexibility to shop around for each leg of the journey and you may make a small saving.

As it was explained to me by my accountant, the minute you start advertising your business it should be registered. Once you have registered your business, your E106 cover will cease and you will require the cover provided by the cotisations you will be paying. The key thing here is that you will be resident in France and therefore subject to the French system 100%.  You really need an accountant to guide you through all this to ensure that everything you do is done to your best advantage. Accountants fees in France are much lower than what you would expect to pay in the UK. If you post details of where you are located then I'm sure you will receive some recommendations of good English speaking French accountants.

It is the norm even if you are there to sign yourself.  The "Acte de Vente" will be more or less the same document as the Compromis de Vente that you already have a copy of.   It can take quite a long while (9 months to a year is not uncommon) to receive the stamped copy of the AdeV which is what you get as "the deeds". In France you don't, sadly, get a bundle full of historic documents. Congratulations upon finalising your purchase.

[quote user="jehe"] . . . but rather they have set up English business's to operate their French fisheries.[/quote] As Nick said, in all liklihood operating illegally ! If your business is in France and you are resident in France then you must register in France one way or another - even if it is only as a branch company of a British company and this will still attract the usual cotisations etc.

Hope this helps: 2006 Sun 4 Jun                           Pentecost Mon 5 Jun                           Pentecost  Fri 14 Jul                           Bastille Day Tue 15 Aug                           Assumption Wed 1 Nov                           All Saints Sat 11 Nov                           Armistice Day Mon 25 Dec                           Christmas   2007 Mon 1 Jan                           New Year’s Day Sun 8 April                           Easter Day Mon 9 April                           Easter Monday Tue 1 May                           Labour Day Tue 8 May                           VE Day Thu 17 May                           Ascension Day Sun 27 May                           Pentecost Mon 28 May                           Pentescost       Sat 14 Jul                           Bastille Day Wed 15 Aug                           Assumption Thu 1 Nov                           All Saints Sun 11 Nov                           Armistice Day Tue 25 Dec                           Christmas  

You have a bit of a problem here I am afraid.  You don't have a Carte Grise so your car isn't registered in France. You've sent the export declaration back to the DVLA (informing them that the car HAS BEEN exported) and you are no longer in posession of a V5C. Therefore, technically your car is not registered anywhere at present and is therefore illegal to drive in any country - including France. Having recently been watching the BBC "traffic cops" program which is following the Hampshire police (which incidentally covers Portsmouth and the ferryport), they are now using (as I am sure most other constabularies are) mobile automatic number plate recognition cameras.  What this means is that if you are caught by their camera in a UK plated vehicle, the camera and onboard computer immediately links to the DVLA computer and comes back with an indication of the car's registration status, whether it is taxed and if it is insured. The camera can check many many cars each minute. As soon as it finds an illegal car it flags an alarm to Mr Plod who then chases after you. In the cases shown on TV, the owner of the vehicle is no longer permitted to drive the vehicle and it is removed. If the necessary registration / tax documents are not produced within a fairly short time (14 days from memory) then the car is crushed. I suppose my point is, unless you are prepared to risk this happening then it probably isn't a good idea to take the car back to the UK until you have it fully registered in France. For the benefit of others reading this wishing to avoid falling into no-registration territory, it's far better to visit your prefecture or sous-prefecture in person with you documents. If everything is in order then there is no reason why your new Carte Grise shouldn't be issued on the spot - and don't send the export notification back until after this has been done. You can also send back your unexpired UK road tax at the same time for refund of any outstanding months.

The procedure probably varies depending on the route you are taking but, as I see you live in Cornwall, I'm guessing that you will be travelling with Brittany Ferries fom Plymouth. At Plymouth they usually just give you the scanner at the car check-in to scan your dogs yourself so no need to take them out of the car.  On the return journey however it is a different matter. You will be required to take your dogs into the BF desk in the terminal building where they will scan them and check all the paperwork. Don't forget to make sure you have the tick/flea/worm treatment not less than 24hrs and not more than 48hrs before the scheduled departure time of your return ferry. If the timings are difficult for you then speak nicely to the vet and you may well find he/she is happy to be a little flexible about the time or date put in the passport ! You are extremely unlikely to be stopped by customs in either country in either direction.

I would be inclined to avoid getting any of it anywhere near a fosse septique. If they're only going to give the loo occassional use (i.e. at night) then it's only going to need emptying every five or six days - maybe longer. Why not put the cassette in the back of the car and drive off to the nearest Camping Municipal and empty it there in the facilies provided. The chances are the campsite won't even be manned and they can juse empty it. Worst case is that they have to pay for a one night stop which is only going to be a minimal amount anyway - but my guess is that a nice smile to the attendant and maybe a 5€ note ("un boisson") stuffed into his hand and they will be welcomed back on the next occassion.

I'm sorry I can't answer your question but I am delighted to hear that there is a requirement to submit goods for NF certification.  From past experience, I know that many eastern low cost manufacturers simply mark their products with a CE symbol when in fact they dont even come close to the required standard. That's the big problem with the CE self certification system. It's all too easy to simply put a CE mark on items just as it is to put a nike logo on a pair of trainers or foorball shirt. If the UK processes for BS certification are anything to go by - and in general the French seem to be even more stringent - it's not that simple, can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money. I hope, for your sake, that it isn't that difficult in France and that you find your products do in fact conform to the required standard. Good luck with it and please report back to let us know how you get on.

A report from todays Plymouth Evening Herald can be read HERE.

Wow, it's a bit hard to be thinking about Christmas already !! Dinard is a small airport so passage through it is usually swift.  The only thing at that time of year is the weather can cause problems. The airport did close on a couple of occassion last year when it snowed. When this happened, incoming flights already en route were diverted to Nantes and others just cancelled (always a small risk with Ryanair). Car hire pick-up is easy at the airport although if you book with someone other than the company Ryanair use (Hertz I think) you will get your car much quicker. All shops will be open Friday, Saturday and all day Monday.  Only Christmas Day itself is a holiday in France and everything opens up again on the 26th. You are likely to find some Christmas markets open on Saturday 22nd.

I'm not quite sure how they stand regarding the legal situation.  The parent company that owns and maintains the website is a UK Ltd. company and the servers are based in Florida, USA.  Presumably the franchisees, who I assume are based in France, must be registered as a seperate entreprise in France however there is no mention of this on the websites so presumably the "franchise" must be restricted solely to the rights to sell advertising. If their websites are operated and maintained by a UK company then is it reasonable to assume that UK law would apply?  If so, why are they so worried about complying with every last detail of French law ?   

A lot of cars now have self levelling xenon headlamps. These can usually be adjusted (a small lever on the back of the headlamp unit) to dip either to the right or the left. You often won't find the instructions how to do this in the car manual but a trip to the main dealer should show you how. The advantage for the manufacturers is that they only have to make one type of headlamp so keeps their costs down. Having said that, there are a lot of people who don't bother to adjust their headlamps. It was reported one day last summer that the police at Cherbourg were checking all UK cars coming out of the ferry port that didn't have visible beam converters. There were a lot of fixed penalty fines handed out that day !!

I saw your post on the "other forum" and thought it asked a very good question without being worded in any way which could cause offence to anyone. I think the problem is, that being run as a franchise operation, the franchisees have invested a considerable sum of their own money in the forum. The only way they have to get their money back is through advertising and, lets face it, we all know how hard it is to make money in France!  It is understandable that the franchisee will take money off anyone who wants to advertise. This is all very well, if only they could be up front about it and maybe issue a disclaimer pointing out that it is the duty of people responding to ads to ascertain the legal status of advertiser.   The problem here is that the forum in question seems to set itself on a moral high ground platform using "legality" as an excuse for censoring other posts within the forum - often with very spurious justification.   It certainly seems that double standards apply.

Assuming you have found the correct sat signal, you then need to rotate the lnb to around the 1-o-clock position or maybe a lttle further.  As you rotate it you will see the signal quality increase. You should be able to get it to around 75%.

Makes sense I suppose - they're all owned by FT anyway. Concentrating on the "Orange" brand is probably a good marketing plan.  It will be a bit tough on the UK people though as they've only recently got used to being Wanadoo instead of Freeserve !!

UK doctors can give a prescription for two months supply (or two precriptions at the same time for one month if they wany to be difficult). You just have to tell them you will be away on an extended holiday and not take "no" for an answer.  Hopefully next time your mum can get the doctor to give her more for her trip.

There's not, as you might have guessed, a simple answer to this question and you'll probably need to consult an accountant to get the best advice. In fact, there are several questions here: Firstly, the old favourite: do you need to register at all. In theory the answer to this will only be yes if the B&B is your main source of income in France but, if you read through other threads on this subject you will see that different people have been given different advice about this by officials in different areas. Just look up the posts by "gastines" to see how complicated this question can become. Next, if you end up registering, the choice of regime is quite complex.  If you've had a lot of start up costs, including renovation, then with the reel regime you can write these capital costs off over a period of three years offsetting it against income which can be a big advantage. Your accountant might be able to show a zero or very low profit on your accounts which will mean you don't pay any tax and get other benefits. On the other hand the micro is very simple to operate and you don't have to worry about keeping every receipt. If you don't have a lot of start up costs to write off then you may find you pay less tax with the micro. Get an accountant to look at your accounts so far, your personal situation and your cashflow projections for the coming year and see what advice he or she can give you. Finally, the question of TVA.  You aren't required to register for TVA until your turnover reaches 72000€.  It seems unlikely that a B&B restricted to 5 bedrooms will generate that sort of income so it's not something you should need to worry about. If you were to choose to register anyway then don't forget that as well as being able to claim back the TVA paid on purchases relating to the running of the business, you would also have to charge TVA to guests for bookings which might make your rates uncompetitive. Good luck with your venture. I hope this helps and I'm sure you will get lots more advice.

I'm very pleased to hear the news Dotty.  We do worry so much about our pets don't we ?   I'm sure they will be back to normal in a few days.

As far as I can gather from my sister who breeds posh cats and is a bit of an expert,  once a cat has had cat flu once, it can recurr following a traumatic experience of some kind.  One of our kittens had a relapse after returning from the vets one day and promptly passed it on to our older cat who had never been ill  before in his life. He has always been up to date with vaccinations but still had it quite bad.    I  understand that cat flu is quite common in young kittens and is easily passed on at rescue centres etc. As to symptoms,  when our kittens both had it, it was only the eyes that seemed to suffer - just as dotty has described - until one eye almost closed up altogether. With the older cat, he was sneezing quite a bit but his eyes weren't too bad.  So, hard to tell I suppose but I guess the best thing is a trip to the vet if you are worried.