Marc

Thanks everyone. I'll spend it on a holiday in France and keep quiet!

I sold a property in Brittany back in 2007 for 12 000€ (it wasn't very big!) Today a cheque arrived for 900€ as they are 'purging the account'. Excellent news but why did they have it and why would they hang on to it for so long? Should have said  - it was from the Notaire

I brought my LHD citroen back and used is for a couple of months before selling it on ebay.  I had an excellent response from people wanting to take it back to France.   It sold for more than I bought it for 5 years ago!  Similar cars here are dirt cheap. As for the speedo, I put my Japanese grey import through several MOTs with a km speedo - no problems.

Thanks SD - I hoped you would say that

I have just sold my car on the internet to a buyer who I assume intends to use it outside France.  Is it ok just to fill in a Spanish or English address on the CERTIFICAT DE CESSION or is there something else I should do?

If you search rightmove for international properties you may find a French agent in your area who advertises in the UK as well. However, with the exchange rate as it is you may have a better chance of selling in France.

Had both - inflatable lasted longer despite a couple of punctures from a low flying rose! (It's still up after 5 years - 175 euros well spent).  Take plenty of time to get the base as level as possible.   It's fine for what it is - older people find the steps tricky.

While being wheeled into the operating theatre this week I commented that I had a name tag on each arm.  The nurse helpfully told me that it was in case they had to cut one off!

Old versions of office usually work without a problem.  You might run into problems when trying to open attachments written on newer versions.  Sometimes the compatability pack for microsoft will help.  For a free solution, you could choose star office available from sun or with other goodies from pack.google.com.

Thanks to both of you for your replies. Apparently we can send a 'covenance' signed by her teacher and head in the UK directly to the head asking for a 'stage' with a cv & letter.  I think this is well worth doing but my daughter might, of course, change her mind!

My daughter would like to mimprove her French after A-levels and was considering taking a year out and giving voluntary help in a primary school for a few months.  We thought this would be straightforward but there appears to be the usual red-tape and an exam(?) so the Maire informs us.  Has anybody heard of or sat this exam? Any information or other ideas are welcome.

Have you thought about boarding school in England?  If you require more information regarding dyslexia or dyscalculia I would be happy to help (although my knowledge of help in France is zero, we do have 3 French/Swiss students).  Send me a pm. Marc

It looks like they have given up trying to stop you saving clips and you can now select to download straight to Real player rather than mess around with hypercam etc

This is quite easy as long as you have access to your site.  If you paid somebody to do it in the first place, they may expect you to go back to them for updating, so may not be keen to tell you the access code. There are plenty of free web site publishing programs to download (unless you have MS FrontPage already) if you want to experiment with different schemes. 

I'm considering having my timing belt changed when I'm in France.  The car is a 607 and has the 2.2 HDi engine the same as the C5. Does anybody know what this will cost?  Marc The tyre pressure sensors in the wheels also need replacing because according to the computer they had disappeared - technology is a wonderful thing but expensive.