Jackie

I am glad that I am not the only one to fall into the préservatif/agence de conservation trap. On asking for "larmes artificiel sans preservatif" at the chemist, the reaction of woman behind the counter was amazing to behold. I think she said to her colleagues, "You will never believe what this stupid Englishman has just asked for!" It was only then, as all these females were falling about laughing, that I realised what I had said! I am now greeted with wicked smiles each time I go back there.............John not Jackie

If they are Glis glis then I suggest you take action to get rid of them. They pee, 'orrible smell, on your ceilings and in the wall spaces. They have been reported to nibble wiring and start fires and generally keep you awake with their nocturnal goings on. They are cute looking but they have to go. We trap them in two stage rat traps and we caught 21 the year before last and 11 last year. They love fruit so we use apple halves as bait. Then it is a short trip some kilometres away to the woods where we release them unharmed. I would not use poison as this presents a risk to any domestic pets and to the birds of prey that eat Glis glis or loir. This year, so far, we seem to be free of them! Good luck..........John not Jackie PS See http://www.arkive.org/species/ARK/mammals/Glis_glis/more_info.html and Dormouse Hollow.

My experience, having AS and Crohn's, is that the doc gives me a prescription for Sulfasalazine valid for three visits to the chemist. This means that I only need to see him about three times a year. It is important to note, that with many drugs taken long term, a check-up at intervals by the doctor is advisable as there could be early signs of problems due to taking the drug, which only he would notice. Blood tests may also be required for the same reason and the frequency here in France is greater than in the UK in my experience. In hospital or clinics I have found that the carte vitale and the attestation from the mutual covered most things so that little or no money changed hands and likewise with the chemist. My GP needs paying at the time of the visit but his taking of the carte vitale details in his desktop machine means a quicker response for refunds from the CPAM......................................John not Jackie

I can understand folks buying land so they know no building will go on next door. The down side of this is what the heck do you do with it? We have a small field next to our garden which was included in the purchase price, about 4500 square metres. Now this field takes about 2 hours to mow and ok so I am retired and have the time to do it. If I don't do it the grass gets very high and walking there is a problem not to mention the strange lurking beasties like boar! I mow it with the thought in mind that local farmers might not be too keen to see it growing lots of weeds which spread into their fields. The general advice seems to be don't let the farmers use your field for any purpose as they acquire rights and this could be an issue when selling the property so I have not invited anyone to put lawn mowers (sheep) on it for that reason. So what do we do with it? Suggestions so far have included building a vast solar collector for the pool and house, using it to teach the locals cricket and giving a home to some unwanted farm animal. We already grow veg in a small section of it. Any other ideas?...........John not Jackie in 79

I asked my GP for a medical history and this was duly provided for a fee of about £15. The bog-roll print out was in English of course, so with the aid of a big dictionary I sat down and translated this into French. Most special medical terms are the same or similar. Apart from illness type and date the record gave regular medications, dosage and frequency. This, when presented, has caused no problems other than some mirth at my translation efforts! I have never been asked for proof of my on-going conditions, AS and Crohn's, I suppose the symptoms are all too obvious! Regular blood tests are no problem as are repeat prescriptions, valid for three visits to the chemist......Good luck........John not Jackie 

When in the U.K. we used to have a problem with deer coming into the garden and eating the runner beans. An old barber I used to see gave me a bag of human hair swept off his barber shop floor and told me to tie it in bunches to the beanpoles and along the boundary fence. A bit like Injun's scalps hanging from their teepees.  Seems deer hate the smell of human hair. Well I was a bit sceptical but gave it a try and guess what, it works very well so cat hair may have the same effect on mice! I seem to remember something about lion droppings being used, obtained from a safari park. What would that frighten off I wonder, just about everything I guess, well maybe not mice as we all know that lions are frightened of them! Maybe that should be elephants. I think that I should go and sit down for a bit.....................John not Jackie

We bought one of these here in a French brico store as our house was infested with loir (Glis glis or edible dormouse, cute but can do a lot of damage to a property) in the wall spaces and between the ceilings and floors. After some research on the net and our own experience I have come to the conclusion that they are not that effective. People that sell them make all sorts of claims and say they are wonderful but then they would! Independent folk like Uni research labs tend to agree with me but others may not. It makes a repetitive clicking noise but there is supposed to be an ultrasonic component present as well. We caught 21 loir the year before last and 11 last year and released them into the woods some kilometres away. Prior to being caught in a humane rat trap the noises at night would indicate that they were not too worried by the squeaks emitted by the plug in box. This year, touche du bois, no loir in evidence so far...............John

On the subject of pool heating I would not pump pool water through a copper pipe system as the pool chemicals might well attack the copper and turn the water green. This must be especially true for saline pools but I am not enough of a chemist to know if added chlorine type pool water would have a similar effect. Maybe a stainless steel heat exchanger could be used but the commercial kits all seem to be made of black plastic pipe. Just a thought...........................John not Jackie

http://www.totalfrance.com/france/index.php Je pense c'est gratuit................John  

We use solar for heating the swimming pool. An experimental shallow concrete open trough painted on the inside with resin having had black colouring agent added. Being about 10 square metres, a bit too small for the 5m x 10m pool it serves but having said that gives a three degree (Celsius) rise (in full sun) on each pass at 6 galls/minute. With a small temperature differential it is not worth glazing this type of panel unlike those which you describe for heating water for the house. As you can tell I am a bit of a DIY nut and would like, when I have time, to make up some panels for water heating for the house. In summer a simple batch heater might be all that is needed but in Spring and Autumn the higher technology plastic panel or better still the glass tube half mirror type (expensive) would be better though I prefer simple low tec approaches myself. When I get around to it, it will be the sort of installation where the panel pre-heats the supply to a standard electrically heated tank. Good luck with your project, "free" energy is an exciting concept. ...............................John not Jackie

Thanks for the responses folks and it would appear that it is not just me! I have heard of the honey suggestion before and have tried it in the past with mixed results. Rape, when in flower, does upset Jackie but other than the sickly smell, not me so much. I think from what has been said that the culprit in my case must be tree pollen. We have silver birch, oak and ash in the area as well as a lot of leylandi type and apple and cherry. When in the UK I used to go to The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital for EPD ( Enzyme Potentiated Desensitization)shots. These were very effective but I don't know if they are available in France. They were very safe compared with the type that GPs used to do and which were withdrawn some years ago as they lost too many patients. So to some extent it is vivre avec. Cheers...................................John

La réponse est RIEN - RIEN est plus puissant que Dieu. RIEN est plus méchant que le diable. Le pauvre a RIEN. Le riche a besoin de RIEN. Si vous mangez RIEN vous mourrez.                                                  John not Jackie who cheats unlike 70% of primary school chidren who knew the answer! Voir http://www.naute.com/enigmes/enigme4.phtml

A small matter in comparison to problems that others and I have experienced but very annoying never the less. Being a city boy and not used to the wide open spaces I find that now I live in very rural France hay fever like symptoms, very severe at time, lay me low each Spring. I ask myself if it is all these tree things that one finds sticking up everywhere or maybe the stuff the jolly old farmers spray about. So am I alone and if not what, apart from a lot more wine and  Apaisyl though not at the same time as that could be a permanent cure, have others done about it? Could it be an allergy to the tax-man? Is it a question of vivre avec?.............John (snuffle snuffle) not Jackie   

As has been said a Post Office savings account like Livret A or LEP (Higher rate than L. A) has tax free interest with a limited max investment amount. Off-shore accounts like Nationwide Base Rate Tracker pay more (4.95%) for the first year but need to have interest declared for French taxation or buy a bond off-shore like CMI and sell units over the years, say every 3 months but again any difference between the price you paid and the value when sold is subject to French Income Tax. In LF there are financial advisors advertising their expertise in helping you (and themselves) in buying a helpful product................John

We rang up the centre for Non-residents in the UK and they sorted out the forms we needed. The web site for more information is: http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/cnr/ Tel: 00 44 151 210 2222 Sorry don't know about the treatment of an annuity by the French tax man as I had assumed that it was treated as if it were a private pension but would be interested to hear if this is not so.............................John  

If it is of any help this is what the accountant did last year and previous years. I have no idea if it is right but this is what he did. Form 2047-K Front page: Pensions, Retraites, Rentes Total of any pension and annuity not taxed in the     UK for "Vous" and the same for "conjoint" (If you have already paid UK tax on these you should be able to claim it back from the Inland Revenue in the UK) Third page Col 5 Royaume-Uni Building Soc interest repeated same col at bottom Totaux    and in A below that and in TS. TA for total of any tax paid in the UK on say a Govt pension Fourth page section VII Gross pension (Govt) in col 4 and in Total de chaque colonne below this in col 4. Tax paid (in the UK) col 5. Difference between these ie Net pension in col 4 bottom box.  Form 2042 Pensions, Retraites, Rentes AS and BS same as front page of 2047 for pension/annuity not taxed in UK Just under this section 2 TS Building Society interest (again). Page 4 Autres Imputations etc Box TI Net Govt pension amount (again)  We also had 2042C Last page at bottom Box TA tax paid on Govt pension in the UK (again). Also form 3916 for details of any UK bank account. Just completed section 1 and 2 for Name and address and on the second page wrote Voir annexe jointe and signed at the bottom and clipped a piece of paper to it with the names and addresses of UK banks/Building Societies and account numbers and names of account holders. You can download these forms from http://www.impots.gouv.fr if you can get in, very busy yesterday. No idea if any of this is right but it worked for us over the last three years. Probably won’t this year just because I am doing it myself!…………………………………………………………..John      

Hear hear to that suggestion Les. I also emailed them and got this reply: The official rate is 1 pound = 1,41834 euros  Sorry, It is not possible to send forms or explanatory leaflets in English, they don't exist. Contrôleur des Impôts It would help many I think Les.................John PS They must have been buried in emails requesting info The wires to their computer must have been red-hot!

Just to answer my own question and in case anyone else is in the same boat I received the following response to my query from the following: [email protected]  and who will respond to emails in English and seem to be very helpful. They also have an English version of 2042 which I have asked for. (See posting about 2042)..........John last year box GW = part of saving on endowment life assurance policy this year the conditions of the tax reduction have changed box GY = save as GW but the contracts have to be concluded between the 01.01.1996 and 04.09.1996 in other condition there is no tax reduction I suspect that concluded means started in this case!  

I too calculated a higher rate of 1.4596. Where did you get your lower figure from Les, would be interested to hear................John not Jackie

Sorry but I have not yet been able to find one. The following link might be of some interest though. http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-legal/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=3915...............................John not Jackie

2074 has the heading "Declaration Des Plus ou moins-values Realisees en 2004 Sur: les cessions de valeurs mobilieres" plus a lot of other things. The only reason I have this is because in the previous years we have used an accountant but this year I am having a go myself as it seems daft to spend a pound to save a shilling! When did you last meet a poor accountant? They seem to have a standard charge of about 750 Euros for completing a "Simple" tax return. I doubt that I would be taxed that amount even if I got it all wrong! Last year the guy included this form as an annexe to 2042 to detail units sold each year in an off-shore bond. All I am doing is using the same forms that he did and updating the figures for this year. We have also in the past sent in form 3916 (Declaration of having a bank account in the UK) and some folk also have 2042C for declaration of interest acquired in the UK. The tax office have sent me 2042 and 2047 only this year, I had to download 2074. Maybe they like lots of paper, the detail of everything goes on 2042 and these other forms just seem to repeat the information already given. My concern is not to get it wrong as the spectre of upsetting the tax man is enough to turn your knees to jelly and your bowels to water! ....John     Sadly nobody has yet commented on my earlier post about Life Insurance Tax Reduction and what you use insead of box GW on the 2042 which has gorn on this year's form. I really do hate this time of year!

Anyone living full-time in France had to fill in tax form 2074? In which case where the heck are you supposed to sign it, I assume not the section for those living outside of France......................John not Jackie and proper confused (Nothing new in that!) 

In the past we have been able to claim a tax reduction for life insurance premiums paid. On form 2042 this year the box marked GW (avant le 20.9.95) on page 4, seems to have gone. Does this mean we cannot claim for policies taken out before this date or if we can where do we now put it?...........I hate this time of year!.........John not Jackie

Well thanks for your individual inputs folks. It looks like PVA and dries like PVA but the smell is not like PVA. Despite all that has been said I am still not sure if it would be best to paint the floor with it neat and let it dry or to mix it in with the water when I mix up the tile glue, any further thoughts? The last time I did this the resin stuff I used was more like a green paint which dried green and sadly I did not think to keep a note of what it was or keep the container. Bricomarche no longer sell it what ever it was, but it did a good job as far as I can tell....................John

A chap in Bricomarche recommended that I use a resine accrochage by SB Mercier, produced by Ato Findley, one of the Bostick group, on a concrete floor that I wish to tile. The last time I did this sort of job I used another brand which you painted on and let dry first and then put down the tile adhesive and tiles. This SB Mercier product has instuctions which indicate mixing it with the water for some jobs and painting it on and placing other material on top before it dries for other jobs. No specific instructions for what I want to do however. A web search has proved unproductive so I wonder if anyone has had experience of using this stuff. Do you paint it on and let it dry or do you mix it with the tile adhesive or do you paint it on and slap the tile adhesive on top when still liquid?   ............Help!...........John not Jackie