chessfou

Thanks, yes that works (and should continue to work since it points to an archive page). The trouble with so many newspaper links is that they are set up to point to where the article initially appears (a relative link) rather than a permanent link.

The link goes nowhere useful (just a home page for France Info for today - Sun 20). How about a few more clues as to whereabouts in the site the article might be found. I tried looking under justice/politique/société/France and one or two others with no success.

Yes, thank goodness for the difference between taxe d'habitation and council tax. Comparing our 4bed, 2 recep + garage etc. here and there and accepting the fact that there is a difference between small village (here) and medium size town (there), nonetheless we are paying €301 this year against £2,329 (near enough €3,000 even at today's lowly exchange rate).

L'Hexagone is often used to refer to France. One of our favourite restaurants (1* Michelin) has (or had) hexagonal plates that they were quite proud of (and pleased that we recognised the significance of - a bit like the queen's head on stamps - don't turn your plate the wrong way round/up).

Oddly, all of the vernissages I have ever been to (5 or 6) have been by/for photographers.

[quote]Was curious as the reg has nothing to do with the Irish numbering system.[/quote][Eos] It is the Irish system as in Northern Ireland, which differs from the main uk system as regards availability of letters. Main uk system does not use letters i or z but NI system does (hence "BIF" only possible in NI).

[quote]the UK economy is uncertain, not just because of problems from the so-called credit crunch which is having very much the same effect everywhere else[/quote][jaguar] I beg to disagree. The credit crunch is likely to have a much greater impact on the uk (in general) than the rest of Europe. The best analyses I have seen suggest (at best) a 5% hit to GDP (total uk GDP ca. £1,000bn). That hit to uk GDP is made up of -£30bn (MEW - mortgage equity withdrawal) and -£20bn (result of higher mortgage rates going forward - for those that can get a mortgage rate at all, since funding will be restricted and much more expensive), making £50bn less for discretionary spending. By my reckoning, that makes it about 5x worse for the uk than say France or Germany (which didn't have any MEW to "lose" and had far less mortgage borrowing anyway, so at worst say -£10bn p.a. for their GDP).

[quote]I paid twelve months rent as well as a deposit of three months rent[/quote] Very odd (and, generally speaking, illegal). Are you renting furnished accomodation (I know the rules for that are/can be very different).

[quote]Oh no - please don't mention the E numbers[/quote] You're right: E106 Riboflavin-5-Sodium Phosphate E121 Orcein, Orchil E129 Allura Red AC - yeuch; plenty of French (as well as English) processed foods to avoid containing these little horrors (and lots more besides). [:)]

[quote]I have since found some excellent sites to search for private lettings - would this be a good place to list the sites?[/quote] Yes, it gets done every so often (I did so last about 9 months ago). If you are going to do so, make sure you include, along with any others, all of the "big 5": http://www.seloger.com/ http://www.logic-immo.com/ http://www.pap.fr/ http://www.explorimmo.com/ http://www.agences-immobilieres.com/reseau-immobilier/fnaim.htm  Immo de France - http://www.immodefrance.com/ - is another biggy but they usually put only a very small selection of their properties on the web (I estimate about 15-20 from our local agency out of 100 or more in the shop).

I would be astonished if any French agency even knew of the existence of Equifax although Experian certainly have a presence here: http://www.experian.fr/ Sorry, have forgotten whether the 30% limit is pre or post deductions (if I had to guess, I would go for post*). Borderline should be no problem. Dunno what "very" borderline means (but I suspect would be nudging them towards looking for a guarantee). * You will find out for sure from the agency's conditions.

[quote]I can also supply guarantors in the form of my parents, also living in France, who are retired but have a steady pension income to the value of well over the average wage.[/quote] Probably more than good enough since, if it comes to guarantors, the agents/proprietaires will be looking for a French guarantee. The main thing will be to demonstrate that you earn 3.3x (or better) the rental you will be paying.

[quote]If they are comparing the countryside of one with an inner city of the other, it is a senseless comparison - whichever way round you do it.[/quote][AlanZoff] Not quite. The difference is the distance (and time) between dodgy areas and quiet countryside. In the late 1980s we moved from London to the "country." At the time it was almost crime free, even though only a fast 75 min drive from N. London or a fast 60 min drive from E. London. However, a couple of the local towns suffered from a developing "banlieue" and a veritable crime wave. Here in la France perdue (you know, just that bit more out of the way than la France profonde) we are two and a half hours from the nearest "banlieue" and there aren't any sizeable towns in the region anway. Is it possible to get that far away in England? I don't think so (I used to drive occasionally up to St Andrews and I seem to recall that Newcastle-Edinburgh wasn't much more than 2 hours). I suppose that the crime wave will eventually reach here but at least it will take a while longer (especially as fuel prices will deter thieves from such long journeys).

J.R. Yes, a fairly common problem (I eventually figured that one out for myself) and it caused no end of frustration (all round: customer-me, staff and other customers-waiting) in our local bookshop (although that was not the only place where this has happened - misc. restaurants and supermarchés, inc. Leclerc once or twice). Anyway, bookshop staff now trained which has eliminated about half the problems. What I now find annoying is the occasional random failure (reason unknown) which seem to occur entirely at random, including several shops/supermarchés that we regularly use. All above relates to the Nationwide CC which I use as standard (since almost all our income originates as £, I keep my French CCs in reserve in case of accident or needing fuel on Sunday or whatever).

Try contacting your local ANPE* (and maybe also local GRETA) and find out what child care jobs they have available and what qualifications they require for them (do you have any uk child care qualifications? will they accept any of those? will your experience count for anything much? - they can answer those questions and then you'll have a clear idea of what you need to do). You should also ask them whether you will need a language qualification (TCF or DELF, e.g., to give you an idea: level B2 or C1 of either is usually required for university entrance). *ANPE - www.anpe.fr to find contact details of your local office.

[quote]There was no SPI number on my green form only an FIP number.[/quote] tigerfeet, are you alone in your foyer? That could be an explanation. My form has the following fields (printed in green) at top r-h: Nom Adresses Direction ... ... ... Année de naissance: Numéro FIP: Numéro de rôle: which is immediately followed by (printed in black): No SPI vous: ... ... No SPI conjoint: ... ...

[quote]if no checks are normally carried out, then why does it have to go via your local tax office who stamp it and then send it to Paris, who do what with it exactly?  You cannot send it straight to Paris or the UK,[/quote] Depends. I took ours in and asked them to stamp them and send them on. They stamped them and handed them back (both French and both English). I pointed out they were supposed to keep the French copy of each (so they did). I was about to point out to them also that they were supposed to send the form back to the uk when I remembered a bit of the HMRC covering letter ("If your local tax office returns the claim form to you please send it on to our Nottingham office." So I did that.) So, you certainly can send it directly to the uk.

I never did establish precisely what should be entered on the FD5, despite several phone calls to all the obvious places. Self-evidently, it had to be either the "FPI" (identifies the foyer) or the "SPI" number (identifies the individual - if you have a conjoint then s/he will have a different SPI). Both numbers can be found near the top r-h corner of the first (main) page of your Avis (green form). If I had to choose one, I would choose the SPI (because it goes down to individual level) but, instead, I wrote in both* the FPI and the SPI and the FD5 has gone through and been satisfactorily processed. *the box for the info was not very large, hence my writing was very small and I also attached a sheet with the numbers writ large.

We did not complete a 3916 last year. Under section 8 of the 2042, we ticked box UU (Comptes bancaires à l'étranger) and attached a list of the accounts. That seemed to be perfectly acceptable (and was what was asked for by the local inspector when I ran through the forms with him). Does form 3916 seek greater detail than just basic account info (account name, account number, institution name, institution address and indication if opened/closed during the year), which we put in our list?

Great fun. Walk in and find two piles of voting forms and two neat piles of little blue envelopes (though there is only one list). Help self to form and envelope (more if wished??). Post envelope in Urne (I enjoyed the "ding" as the mechanism dropped the envelope into the container and registered the extra vote). Belatedly proffer Carte Electorale and suggest that someone stamp it - duly done by one of the three (of 11) candidates manning the place (I suppose the other candidates will be sharing the task this afternoon).

How's your French? Can you cope with the tax calculator at www.impots.gouv.fr ? You hardly need to enter anything. A very rough try (guessing your age and other circumstances) and putting in €13,500 of pension income + €400 of interest suggested a total tax bill of less than €350 (obviously taxe d'habitation and taxe fonciere, as relevant, in addition = French version of uk Council Tax but much cheaper). But better you try it for yourself.

Not hard numbers, but useful comparatives from the Total France site. They have 9,700 forum members (this is only a small percentage of the number of UK ressortissants and very heavily skewed to those with time on their hands, primarily due to retirement, to post on a forum - emphasised by the fact that they only have 199 members in Paris & Seine et Marne combined). By region: 2112 Poitou-Charentes 1422 Limousin 1125 Aquitaine (including 685 in Dordogneshire)  874 Bretagne  771 Midi-Pyrénées  603 Loire  547 Languedoc-Roussillon  etc. By département: 818 Charente 719 Haute Vienne 685 Dordogne 512 Creuse 507 Deux-Sèvres

[quote]anyone evr tasted an uber-wine like that?[/quote] 1982 was a good year for me - I remember two wines: 1945 Ch. Latour & a 1945 Nuits St Georges, Les St Georges. Best of all the first cost me just over £50 (but they were Irish £ and at the time the punt was at a discount to Sterling; what's that, about £400 today, by inflation; two bottles I can find on sale at €2843 and €3830 respectively) and the second one was a gift from the owner of The Arbutus Lodge in Cork (where my wife and I had disposed of the Latour) after I mentioned that I didn't really know what all the fuss was about over Pinot Noir. I have been a confirmed PNophile ever since. Other memorable ones which left less of a mark were a 1929 Vouvray consumed in Glasgow and various Ch. d'Yquem (also ca. 1980s).

[quote]How much rented accommodation comes with wine cellars?[/quote][gluestick] Quite a lot in France (even appartments above ground floor level!). The house we rent has a vaulted stone cellar of some 20m2 (ca. 50m3!!) which I have been working at building up since we arrived (now up to about 1200 bottles and still a couple hundred more in professional storage in the uk).

[quote]I did find, at the time, that it is indeed, easier to buy a place in France, than to rent! But as I said, I hope it has changed as it is ludicrous.[/quote] It has clearly eased a great deal. Similar position to you Dec2005/Jan 2006 when we set up our current rental agreement. Yes, we had to jump through hoops (set up one year guarantee with another French bank - Credit Agricole - since our main bank - Caisse d'Epargne - couldn't do such guarantees) and it was annoying to dump some € 11,000 into a non-interest bearing account but our hearts were set on the house and the view. I believe that things are a bit easier still now, especially looking at the IMMO de France (inheritors of our agency) who now advertise special arrangements and insurances for deposits and guarantees (although they may be for French residents only). The main point remains - get started a.s.a.p. with French bank account and making relevant contacts.