Tony the Turner

A little bit off post, but does anyone know what is the Taxe Fonciere year?  All the bills seem to come out at the end of August and this year's refers to 2009 but indicates that it covers part of 2010.  The final date for payment is October 2009. The Taxe d'Habitation bills are clearer, they run from January to January. Am I right in thinking that TF runs September to August in each period?

Jon, In June this year.

Square Habitat in Normandy (ex-Remi Serais) sold our house in less than a week! But we may have been lucky.

We have sold our maison secondaire and are due to complete at the end of September.  We have had the house for 16 years and I have completely forgotten what happened when we bought with regard to the utility bills, taxes etc. I presume that we just notify the EDF, Water and France Telecom of the completion date and ask for a meter reading and bill.  The notaire has asked for the Taxe Fonciere bill and I understand will deal with this.  The Taxe d'Habitation seems down to us as we were in occupation on 1 January. Our area has separate billing for rubbish collection.  We pay this each June.  The rate for maisons secondaires is twice that for principal residences and our buyers (French) will be living there permanently.  Can I claim back the difference? Insurance - we took on our sellers and have kept it (inertia is wonderful).  Does the notaire cancel it or do we?

We are going to find out when we visit our residence secondaire later this month (for the last time - the Compromis was signed last month).  According to the website for our favourite restaurant, the Government has asked (but not required) that they reduce the price of 7 items on their extensive food and wine list.  They proudly boast that they will be reducing 22.  But when you look at the reductions, not one is a reduction of the whole percentage (ie 19.6% to 5%) and most are in the region of 5% to 10% but this is only on a very small selection of the total number.  The Government case for the reduction (which they put at length to the EU) was to encourage trade not to put money in the pockets of the trade for no extra effort or sales.  C'est la vie!

Thanks Tom,  I'll look at Cornhill.

Most of the posts relate to bringing money into France.  We are in the process of selling our house in France and will want to repatriate the funds.  Has anyone any experience of this and any advice?

The link confirms that the prices vary considerably depending upon where you buy, ie LeClerc Hypermarché 90c a litre, autoroute service station 1.3€ a litre.  The AA obviously never leave the autoroute!  Using my Nationwide credit card, 90c will equal 81p.  A lot better than 97.8p at Morrisons today.

Many modern paints are water-based, so are not flammable and would not fall foul of the Regulation quoted.  Just read the label.  However, the way that luggage is thrown around at airports (and that is when passengers can see it, God knows what they do when we can't) you may be risking an almighty mess should the container be damaged or just come open!

Got a refund from Nationwide Visa after much confusion.  CapitalOne Mastercard have promised one but it is not yet on my statement.

Clair, thanks for the response.  EDF have now mended the website and the link works having been changed to the one shown in the post following yours.

Prior to this winter, I could access the EDF website to find the EJP days, both current and the historique.  The old link defaults to an invalid link. The website has been given a make-over and most of the useful info has gone.  Has anyone found out the secret of accessing the days?  The site suggests that the info can be got via the Members Section but it can't - or if it can, I can't find it. 

We are thinking of selling our maison secondaire, bought in 1993.  Apparently CGT will not be payable if we have owned the house for 15 years.  Do those years run from the date of signing the contract to buy to the date of sigining the contract to sell or from the date of the final signing to buy to the date of the final signing to sell. Sorry if this is an old topic but searching didn't come up with an answer

Try Nova Car Hire.  They are a broker and seem to do deals at most French airports.  I have always found them competitive. www.novacarhire.com

Is it my imagination/age or are portions getting bigger?  I'm not referring to the Routiers or local workers caff' but good class and well patronised eateries.  Recent forays into these in Paris and several provincial towns have left us feeling over-replete and even passing on a course or even two!  At one time, a 3 or 4 course "menu" provided an adequate but not overfacing meal which left you comfortably satisfied.  Of late the feeling has been of being bloated. Last week in St Quentin, we decided to have just one course at lunchtime.  Wise move!  The tartiflette served to me would have fed two or three navies.  My wife's baked potato (yes they are served in France!) turned out to be two very large potatoes with fillings to suit.  Both dishes were accompanied with a not insubstantial salad plus the usual basket of bread. We were the only non-French diners and although most were tucking in a number did leave food on the plate - not a common sight in our experience. At the same time we have read articles in the French press expressing concern at the levels of obesity amongst the French themselves.  Are the two by any chance related? Any thoughts?

We cut up our Saga cards when a problem arose on an alleged missed payment.  Saga don't do their own cards. They farm them out to Liverpool Victoria and Saga itself was not interested in our difficulty telling us to sort it out with LV.  As a result Saga lost not only our credit card business but also car and house insurance.  Now they have gone in with the AA, expect it to get worse! Nationwide, on the other hand are great.  Excellent rate of exchange on both credit and debit cards and cashback (on purchases in the UK) on their Gold Visa. Back to the main theme, many petrol stations are now taking UK cards on the 24 hour machines but you need to look at them first to see if they are pretty newly installed.  I understand that only when a station needs a new machine will they be updated, so well used sites should get them first.

Look in the "Pages Jaunes" for "Vidange" or ask the neighbours.  Cost to us in rural Normandy last year was €120 for a 1500 litre fosse.

We have back issues of Living France from 1994 to date (minus issue 107 only) plus some odd copies from 1991 to 1993.  In addition, we have 42 copies of France magazine from Autumn 91 to Oct 2004 (1993 to 2002 being complete). Will anyone give them a good home? We are based in West Yorkshire UKwise and the recipient will need to collect them in view of their weight!

There was a thread on this subject earlier but it went off plot.  I am convinced that French "demi-ecreme" milk is much creamier that English semi-skimmed.  If the full cream milk is creamier then it must follow that half the cream is still creamier than its English equivalent - or is this too simplistic?  The stated fat content of  Morrison's semi-skimmed is 1.7g per 100g.  Will someone please have a look at a French bottle and check as our next visit is not due until the New Year.

According to Ouest France on 7 June, Mr Gray got 3 years suspended and was ordered to repay €279439 to CA.  The latter were claiming he had salted away €600k+ but VG admitted only €463229 of which he got only €279439.  The balance of €160k he alleged was paid over to a blackmailer he was afraid to name! He was also forbidden to exercise any banking activity for 3 years!

Don't laugh! Try a Skoda!  We both have dodgy backs and apart from a Citroen XM (brilliant for the back but ruinous for the bank account) have struggled over the years with various makes and models.  Last year, her indoors decided to buy a Skoda Fabia Estate 1.9tdi.  After covering 5000 plus kms in France in just over 3 weeks (and getting 58mpg) I decided to follow suit.  The back loves it as does the bank!

Unlike most UK hot water systems, the French use mains pressure for hot water. The chauffe-eau has a relief valve (known as a groupe de securite).    There is usually a pressure regulator adjacent to the stop-tap to bring the incoming pressure down to that required by the chauffe-eau.  Our pressure regulator went poorly and caused the groupe de securite to evacuate excess water all the time as the incoming pressure was greater than the "blow-off" setting.  In normal use, as the water expands when heated, the groupe de securite will open to release the pressure, hence the flow you mention. 

Think yourself lucky. In the Orne (61), we get charged €104 as a residence secondaire, the permanent residents only pay  two thirds of this!   The collection charges are fixed by the commune so presumably the Maire knows which side to favour - we can't vote!

You could try another ISP.  We have been with Freesbee.fr (now part of Tiscali.fr, which in turn is part of Alice) for several years.  Rarely do I not get an instant connection.  It can be slow but we are in a rural area and the telephone line is noisy. They also offer broadband at an incredibly cheap rate but not in deepest Normandy!

Yes, it is Vincent Gray, although the reports refer to him as "Vincent G". I didn't keep the paper so can't be more helpful.  However, when he is sent down (or, I suspect given a suspended term)  on 30 May, no doubt there will be a further report.  We are going to Normandy on 6 June (quite co-incidental date!) and no doubt the weekly press will have the story.  I'll look out for it.