I1

Try http://www.counsellinginfrance.com. Its an English language web site and I believe that it lists only English speaking councellors. Hope it helps.

It is beginning to look like I may have a similar decision, so I have found the above comments are very helpful as well.

My vets (I live permemantly in France) are really good and "one-the-case" with regard to going to/from the UK with your pet. My first trip home (with dog) was really easy - they had all the correct paperwork, knew timescales for "tick and tap", etc. they even told me last Christmas that it "was all changing". I now have a 2nd dog, microchipped, vaccinated and blood tested but they cannot get any of the paperwork to issue a passport. DEFRA's web site stated starting X, then a few days after X it changed to "now delayed", then a few days later it chnaged back to X with a comment about not really being sure. I cannot at present get a passport for my 2nd dog. The new passport is a much better scheme than the previous one as it is pretty well across europe. No 2ndry forms for "tick & tape", all in the one sensible sized "passport. I often reflect that a busines managed in the same "style" as a government department would go "out-of-business" very quickly.

When you get your E106, check everything very carefully. I went to register with mine and CPAM declined it as Newcastle had made a typo stating that cover STARTED on 1/Jan/2005. Thus, as I cannot register with CPAM, I cannot get a Social Security number and thus cannot take out top-up insurance (as I have nothing to top-up). CPAM were very helpful, saying I should use my E111 in the meantime whilst Newcastle get things sorted. Also, I requested my E106 whilst still in the UK (before moving). Thus the E106 came through with my old/previous UK address (as it took quite some time to come through). CPAM were not too happy about the wrong address (as the form states that it should be the address in the foreign country you are resident in (i.e. France), though I think it was the start date next year that caused the problem and that the address alone would not have been too much of an issue. It also now looks like, as I cannot get top-up insurance, my "financial exposure" is possibly going to cost me quite a lot of money. Good luck.

Don't know about limits of animals in a vehicle, but Brittany Ferries do have a limit on the number of animals that they will allow on any one ferry (even though they will all be in the owners cars). Comming back to France after Christmas I could not get on the ferry I wanted as, whilst there were places for people and cars, the ferry already had its quota of animals booked in. My experience it limited to Brittany Ferries and my (slight) problem was last Christmas. I could get on the next ferry so it was a minor inconvenience and I don't know what their limit on animals aboard actually was/is. Thus with 4 animals you might find it slightly harder to get aboard at busier times. Sorry I don't know the answer to teh question you were actually asking.

Not a pet but, I have a small stream (1m wide by 10-20cm deep) and earlier today saw what looked like a small snake moving upstream on the bottom. It was about 15-20 cm long, beige with some dark red markings. It was definately moving like a snake (i.e. no legs) and had a very snake like head. I live close to Le Loir. Does anybody know what it might have been. With regard to wildlife, are there any poisonous snakes or other wildlife in France to avoid ? Many thanks

When I looked into dog insurance in France I could only find AGF. Their offering was for vet fees only and was quite limited in the amount payable for a claim. My main concern was 3rd party but I was told my house insurance covered this in that it included my personal liability and I was responsible for the dogs. Don't know if this is actually the case but I was less concerned about vet bills and more about e.g. if my dogs accidentally got only the road and caused an accident (hence my desire for 3rd party insurance). Also, my experience of French insurance is that if I didn't have to have it then I wouldn't - I pay them but getting them to pay a claim is impossible. I have a claim for house damage that happened in Jan. he "expert" has visited once and now wont agree the claim until he visits again (in September)!

I am no expert and would recommend you check my comments with people who really know (e.g. vets) before acting on anything I say. I (or rather my dogs) also have had problems with ticks. My vet told there have been loads of ticks this year. In my area (72) as well as many others, ticks can infect dogs with "Maladie de Lyme" and "Piroplasmose". Your dog can be vaccinated against both, though I am unsure about how good the vaccinations are (I don't know - I'm not casing doubt on the vaccinations). In the first year, each vaccination is needed twice (i.e. a vaccination for each disease, repated again shortly after 1st vaccination). The cost (1st year) I have been quoted is 144 euro per dog (i.e. both diseases, initial and second). At the moment I'm using Frontline every month (which I believe protects against ticks but not for as long as it protects against fleas). I really don't want my dogs to get ill but the 100 per dog is quite expensive (for me) and the Frontline seems to be keeping the ticks off at the moment (or there are now fewer ticks around).

I had to repair putty on several of windows recently (with my own very limited capabilities). To begin with it was a bit of a mess (fingers covered in putty, etc.) but after my efforts improved and became respectable. I guess the mistake I made was not to experiment before starting. I think it is not as difficult as I first thought so might be worth trying.

The previously pretty good regional meteo.fr weather forcasts are now being charged for if you want to look at more than 24 hr in the future. Previously they had averts that paid them money. However, in this day and age the principle of life seems to be "why have money when you can have more money ?". Greed is the name of the game. They still have adverts, so now get paid twice (most people move to an ad free service when they start charging). Basically they are "making it a both ends" - advertisers pay them to show their ads and you pay them to see the ads ! My own opinions is that the principles of the Internet are that it should be loads of freely available infomation (clearly online stores are a bit of an exception). I find it disappointing that so many people are now starting to charge. Trouble is that if you need to start paying bit here, bit there for everything, the euros add up and the admin for so many small transactions becomes a nightmare (and costly). However, if meteo.fr want to charge there are alternatives: http://www.wunderground.com is a good free service. Has adds but is not quite so pessimistic as meteo.fr and also runs to full 7 day forecasts (rather than meteo.fr 4 day). Comments ?