Loiseau

Gosh, that's a tricky one... You would have to tell a notaire so that the value of the house can be assessed and included in your mother's estate for probate and so that the French inheritance rules could be applied and any due inheritance tax collected in France. And for ownership eventually to be transferred or the house sold. BUT, once the French BANK knows the person is dead I assume that freezes the bank account, and any regular payments going out of it for utilities etc will stop. I have no idea what happens then. Was the account in her sole name? If it was a joint account with someone else, then the surviving person could still run the account as long as the names on the account were "Madame X OU [or] Madame Y". Angela

Sailingsally, this answer is only offered from a position of experience, not from any legal expertise: When my husband died, we were joint owners of our house, so I was deemed to already own 50%, then was accorded half of HIS half, giving me 75%. He had four children, so the remaining 25% was divided into FIVE parts (one more than the number of children); thus leaving one 5% fragment that could have been left to any other person my husband might have wished. (In the event, that was either me or equally between the children - I can't remember.) In the case you mention, if it is the case that the husband owns the property outright, I would imagine the widow would receive 50%, and the remaining 50% would be divided into FOUR, so the three children would each be due 12.5%, and maybe the widow would get that "spare" 12.5%. But a notaire will tell you for sure. He/she will need to see the deeds though, to know how the property was originally purchased by the man; en tontine, as an SCI, etc. Also whether or not the couple had made a "donation entre époux" is relevant; if so, the widow can continue to enjoy the property for her lifetime if she wishes, and the children only get their inheritance on her death I think; or if she sells the place. Angela

Yes, at least the French have the sense to have their Fête des Mères at a time when flowers are a bit cheaper... Though I have noticed this year that this coming Sunday has been declared the Fête des Mamies, and have seen some fairly hideous planted-up bowls that include a model of a little white-haired old lady among the flowers. Even saw one that had a mini-pot of "Bonne Maman" jam (geddit?) dangling among the mini-blooms. Angela

I travelled via the a tunnel today from Calais. I turned up a bit early for my 16h50 booking, in case I was going to meet the security delays that followed the Bataclan attacks last time I travelled that way, in November. No queue at check-in, and I was offered the 16h20 crossing. No sign of any rioting migrants (I had approached the Tunnel from the south, so did not have to pass the "Jungle" area). I did make a point of booking a crossing before nightfall, just in case there were still problems after dark, but honestly there was no sign of anything untoward. Angela

I can't remember exactly how I set this up with my gardener, but it was either URSSAF site, or That of CESU. Your employee has to give you their reference details, which you enter on the website, and then every month you get a reminder from CESU asking if you have paid the person this month. If so, you log in to the CESU site and enter the amount you paid your employee. The CESU then take a chunk more from you to cover his/her social payments. In my case, I think it's about 70% of the amount I have paid the gardener... If you are a French taxpayer, I believe this can be set against your tax. I am not in the French tax system, so it comes out of my pocket. :-( On the plus side, I know he is covered by insurance if he has an accident while using my equipment. Sorry thus is a bit vague. Angela

[quote user="Loiseau"]Dogs are about to be sandwiched in the car for 8+ hours. :-( This is what they thought of the weather yesterday [URL=http://s328.photobucket.com/user/Anjbird/media/image.jpg1_zpsverbivkk.jpg.html][IMG]http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l336/Anjbird/image.jpg1_zpsverbivkk.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/quote] SIGH I guess you will never know... I followed Clair's instructions to the letter; opened a Photobucket account. When I should have been packing the car, and what happens??? Rien. Grrrr. (That's me saying that! not the dogs!) Angela

Dogs are about to be sandwiched in the car for 8+ hours. :-( This is what they thought of the weather yesterday [URL=http://s328.photobucket.com/user/Anjbird/media/image.jpg1_zpsverbivkk.jpg.html][IMG]http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l336/Anjbird/image.jpg1_zpsverbivkk.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Might it mean they are already dead? Or possibly that they are members of some religious order? Angela

So glad, RH! :-))

+1, idun!

Oh dear, duff gen in my earlier post - or wishful thinking... Reading this article from Nov 2015, about Engrenages winning an Emmy in the US, it sounds as if series 6 was still being written at that point, so presumably will not even be on Canal+ until late 2016. Good news that there is already a 7th series in the planning! --------- "Engrenages" décrit avec réalisme et précision le quotidien de policiers, avocats et magistrats. La saison 5 a été diffusée début 2015, l'écriture de la saison 6 est sur le point de s'achever. Canal+ a d'ores et déjà signé pour une 7e saison. --------- Angela

Another BIG thumbs-up for Engrenages! I think series 6 was being transmitted on Canal+ a few months back, so I am eagerly anticipating its release on DVD. I don't remember that much bonking, Betty. Angela

Yes, but how would that help a dog that strayed after moving home to be reunited with its owner at the new abode? What info does the puce contain? The owner's address, or - presumably more likely - a reference number that is held in a database somewhere and enables the police etc to check the details of ownership? So how is the puce itself updated? Angela

QUOTE Your new avatar is super Angela. UNQUOTE Glad you like it, Sue! Cheep, cheep, cheep... Angela

MDR, Betty!!!

Er, would that not be IGN, oh wooly one ? They are the map specialists, so my guess it'd be them.

I agree, Norman; I am wary of that sort of thing, too. I haven't uploaded a tree to Ancestry for that reason. I keep it all on my computer using Family Tree Maker. Recently, however, I did notice during a googling spree that somebody many generations back featured on a site called www.geni.com and I was invited to extend that online tree. I checked with the person organising that branch of the tree, and she assured me that I, my parents and my grandparents would not be visible to others online. I am not sure if it will be useful to be on it, but I have put stuff on back to the 17th century that links up. (I will send you a link by PM so you can see what it looks like). In fact some were living in France in the 1850s, and I have recently discovered French censuses and local birth/marriage/death info are online! They are not searchable by index, so you do need to have a good idea of time and place before you begin searching, as you must needs skim through every entry, but I was amazed what I found there. I have an Ancestry subscription, if you need anything looking up! Angela

I insured a little French car to leave at my holiday home a few years back, and the insurance agent took my UK full no-claims record into consideration. I did need to show him a UK renewal document that stated it, of course. French car insurance seems to come with breakdown service included. However, you might want to check within what radius it covers you. I broke down in a local big town - which luckily turned out to be just far enough from my house (c 20km) for the insurance co to arrange a tow truck, and then a taxi home to the sticks, and another to collect me from the sticks when the car was ready for collection. Since then, I have upped that side of the cover to be zero km from home, in case I break down say 10km away. Angela

The site must be swamped! I just followed your link, Judith, and then the one on it towards the comparison page, only to see a blank screen with the message "Safari cannot open the page because too many redirects occurred" ! Angela

Nénufar - yukkkkk! http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2016/02/04/01016-20160204ARTFIG00080-la-reforme-de-l-orthographe-de-1990-fait-son-entree-dans-les-manuels-de8230-2016.php Angela

Oh yes, Cendrillon, I caught quite a bit of that! I remember as a teenager wearing a tweed skirt and twinset - how cool was that!? (To veer back towards the topic, I will say that the twinset was an unflattering ORANGE colour!) Angela

Well, that's as may be, dear mint, but I am stuck in the dark ages with no pressure cooker. And I somehow can't entertain doing them in the microwave - it's so, well, UNtraditional! Actually, what part of the process were you hoping to speed up? The 1hr for the initial boiling soon passes, by the time you have delved into all your cupboards to find enough jam jars, lids, rubber bands, waxed circles, stick-on labels etc! ???

Arrrrghh! Sorry, I wrote this hours ago, and must have forgotten to press Send... ???

Ah well, it's a Katie Stewart recipe from the 1960s, that requires you to precook the oranges. I lost the original, and am now going by the method and quantities that I could recall, so it's fairly flexible these days. I think KS used more sugar than this, but I have cut it back over the years. And of course it's all in old-fashioned imperial measurements, sorry... 3 lb Seville oranges 2 pt water, plus 1 pt water 3.5 lb sugar, approx 2 lemons Alcohol, if required Wash oranges and put them in a saucepan with 2 pt of water. Simmer for an hour to soften them. Reserve the water. Remove oranges, cut each in half and - using a spoon - scrape out all the pith and pips into another saucepan. When you have done all of them, add the other 1 pt water to pith and pips and simmer that for 15 mins or so. Drain, reserving the water. Slice the softened skins as finely as you like/can. Put them in a big saucepan with the two batches of reserved liquid. Add sugar. Grate the lemons into the mix, and also add their juice. (I rather like their tang, so I also throw the squoze lemon halves into the brew, and only remove them just before bottling.) Then bring slowly to the boil and simmer for about 20 mins till a set is obtained; if you have a sugar thermometer, this will be at about 222 degreesF but you should still test a bit on a cold plate to see if it wrinkles satisfactorily. Remove from heat and allow to cool 20 mins or so before stirring in a slug of rum, whisky, orange liqueur or anything else you fancy. (Katie Stewart did say that you can boil jam for tooooooo long, and then it will never set, so don't be tempted to go on and on and on cooking it.) Mmmmm, I think I shall have to nip down to the greengrocer's to see if they still have any and make a bit more now!

??? (See, Jonz, I am on my tablet now...no probs. Only on my iMac, as I was earlier, can I not manage emoticons.)