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Liz

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Everything posted by Liz

  1. Missing grandchildren growing up seems to be the thing that causes people to return to the UK, but I cannot speak from experience.
  2. I don't know what an oil burner is either. We have an oil fired central heating boiler which provides hot water and central heating by radiators. There is no storage tank as such but within the boiler a certain amount of hot water is stored and as you run it off the boiler comes on and tops up the temperature according to the thermostat setting. The manufacturer of the boiler is Geminox which happens to be a local firm (29) although they trade nationwide. I have seen lots of similar boilers in shops such as Leroy Merlin (check their web site for 'how to do it' leaflets) and Brico Depot. We have found this a pretty efficient system as we have it on a time switch and only have hot water or heating when we need it. A slight downside is that you have to have a largish storage tank for the oil and I think this has to be indoors. Hope this helps!
  3. If you are as nervous about direct debit as I am you can also use the TIP system but make sure that the various utilities send you the bill first. You just sign and return it to authorise the deduction. This gives you the chance to check that you really do have money in your account I used this sytem successfully when living in UK and had enough time to sign and return the chit without making the payment too late. The choice of automatic direct debit or the 'sign first' version should be apparent on the bill.
  4. Welcome to french beaurocracy. They always take longer than you think! If you still haven't had anything by the time you next get to see a copy of the local phone book/yellow pages look up Service de la Redevance de l'Audiovisuel. I think you will find there is a regional centre. Our comes from Rennes as we are in Brittany so that's no help!
  5. As stated elsewhere your appliances will work. But one potential problem may lie in the provision of an earth to your sockets. If you are taking on a house where the electrics have not recently been upgraded you may find that you only have two- pin sockets. Hopefully the previous owners will have had a washing machine and other kitchen appliliances and there is a 3 pin socket so that you can plug in straight away. We found that we had no earthed sockets upstairs so that we couldn't initially plug in the computer where we wanted to You will probably need the proverbial 'qualified electrician' to run in an earth and you may want to get the whole lot upgraded anyway. Another problem may lie with the installation of that cherished light fitting carefully transported from the UK. Older French houses do not have an earth on the lighting circuit but many light fittings, including a lot you buy in France, require an earth.
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