Hereford

Never seen gravy granules but cubes (in section for stock cubes) called "jus de roti" are very good. Mrs H Ps Seedless grapes very rare in France.

Many thanks - will hope to find the bus. Otherwise taxi is only option - metro awful with suitcases.   Hereford  

Has anyone used the bus recently from stations in Paris to CDG?  18 months ago we returned from CDG to Montparnasse on the bus (took a while but was better than struggling with suitcases through the metro). How often do the buses run, does anyone know? We will be arriving lunchtime in Paris and just need to get to an airport hotel during the afternoon - our flight to Montreal goes early morning. Many thanks hereford PS Has anyone sent, large, parcels to Canada from France- if so how did you send them please?  We have our son's train set and enormous lego collecton which we will need to get to him (he is 32, they are for his son!). We also have to contend with explaining to customs that they are his personal belongings, not items being sold to him and therefore attracting sales tax when they arrive.  

Moulin Neuf:   Can you give an actual example of a cheque you paid someone and the resulting additional amount deducted from your bank accout please? We have been given an example of a cheque for 77 euros generating an additional payment of 19.44 euros - this is much lower than the percentage you suggest. Many thanks hereford  

Many thanks on this last post, we did not know that there were 2 versions with different cotisations. Will sort this out when we register. Hereford  

Many thanks.  This thread is also being answered under "Finance".  We now have all the info we need and will get a cheque book. Hereford  

Thanks everyone. We will now go to URSSAF together with said friend, or indeed to our bank to get a special cheque book. Hereford    

Thanks.  As we understand it on the URSSAF website insurance is covered by the "employer" cotisations. Is this correct?  Insurance cover is part of the reason for wanting to work, and employ, legally. Hereford  

Brilliant, thanks everyone.  Musicmonkey:  What "social security number"? Is this our friend's health number with CPAM or something else? If something else (tax number???) where does he get such number please? Very many thanks - he was panicing that he would never be able to work. H.

We posted a query on cheques d'emploi in the Earning a living section but have had no response so thought we would try here! Has anyone used the cheque d'emploi system please?  A friend has been told that he still has to "register" and get a siret number and pay a huge insurance premium to be able to use these cheques. He, and we, thought that the whole purpose of these cheques was to avoid all the formalities when wishing to do a small amount of gardening (in friend's case) or housework./baby minding. Any inmfo would be helpful.  We have looked at the website given in a posting on this forum regarding use of casual labour and this seems to support our idea of the purpose of these cheques.  However when said friend went to URSSAF (sorry if wrong order of letters!) he was told a different story. many thanks Hereford    

An English friend who has recently arrived in France wishes to do a few (6 to 8) hours gardening a week - legally! We would like to employ him and suggested that "cheques d'emploi" may be the answer. This topic was partly discussed under a different thread. Friend has been today to authorites re registering for "cheques" and has been told (so he tells us) that he cannot register until he has a "number" and then he will have to pay insurance of 3000 euros for year one and about 1000 p.a. later.  He clearly does not want to do this as he will not earn enough to pay insurance. We are very confused as our understanding was that the cheques d'emploi system was for people wishing to do "domestic, incl. gardening" work for just a few hours a week and avoided the problem of high charges involved in becoming fully registered and therefore work full time.  If you have to register and pay insurance separately we cannot see the point of the cheques - surely the registered person would just send a bill like the plumber, electrician etc. We also understood that using the cheques generated insurance etc automatically via the bank. Our questions are:  Is anyone using these cheques, either as employer or employee?  Has our friend misunderstood the authorities? Any help greatly appreciated.  We thought we had cracked the problem of using a gardener and it seems we may not have. Hereford

We think you may get more replies to this query if you post under "North Western France", rather than here under good value travel deals. We are in Normandy but not Orne so unfortunately cannot help. Hereford

Certainly cartes de sejour are not being issued to other EU country members any more, but we cannot believe that cartes vitales are not.  Are you sure you have been asking people about a "carte vitale" (it is not called a carte verte/green card). The card is in fact green but that is not its name. H.

"You may find you pay less tax than in the UK"... You may also find that with "social contributions" on all interest income you pay more overall - we do! H.

Brilliant, thank you. Infobel does indeed work without a town/dept. It asks for town but just gives a list of all people with entered name if you ignore town entry. I have now been able to find the info I needed. Hereford  

We think this point has been answerd before but can't find it!  Is it possible to search for a name in the phone book covering all of France rather than have to type in a department. We are trying to find out if someone (with an unusual name) is still living in France but we are thwarted as we seem to be asked always for a department name. many thanks for any help Hereford  

Very many thanks for the urssaf link.  I wish we had known about this a long time ago. Most useful for small time gardeners. H.

Hello "Boiling a frog".  many thanks for rough translation of rules on Cheque d'emploi.  Do you have the French link - I think we may understand it better than the translation! Thanks for the effort though.  We have a neigbour who wants to do gardening work but only part time.  He refuses to work on the black so would be glad to know how this system works. It seems impossible to be fully registered if you only want to work part time. If we can sort this out then we could then change our arrangements and employ him rather than our current gardener. Many thanks H.

How does cheque d'emploi work please? Who do we get in touch with to set this up, or is it the person who wants the job. With this info we will tackle our "cash" gardener. If we cannot sort something out he will be out of a job next summer. many thanks H.

This thread started and continued as regards to building work.  Do all the various rules and regs apply to gardening too please? We are not happy that the chap who cuts our grass occasionally wants cash only......so we think we can guess what the answer is. H.

House rental income is taxable in the UK, but the amount does still have to be shown on a Fench return and it will affect the rate of tax you pay on the rest of your income. That is: it increases it. The form you need for that and your UK interest (taxable in France and the UK will repay tax deducted) is form number 2047.  Interest goes on centre pages, rental goes on the back, section 7. This assumes design of form is as 2003!  If you really do pay tax in the UK on the rents even after personal allowances then you put tax deducted on the form 2047 too.  We found our local accountants useless and the tax office most helpful. Put everything down on paper and they will tell you which box it goes in. Though perhaps you prefer not to ask them because of previous years....   N>B> make sure you are getting tax allowances still in the UK - you are still entitled to them against your rental income. As for previous years, that is up to your conscience.  Unless the French tax authorities go on a fishing expedition they are unlikely to notice. You will also be liable to 10% (? going up this year) social contributions on your UK interest unless it is very small. As the previous answer indicated it is really too complicated to answer this way!  Perhaps some other English person near you who has rental income can show you where to put it on the form? H.

We use the German weather site which seems to be able to give a forecast for all sorts of places not just Germany. Certainly in France. www.wetter.com    Just type in the name of your nearest town or main commune village in a box on the top left of page where is says "wetter-schnellsuche".  You get a forecast for a week, with pictures so that a knowledge of German is not necessary (though you will learn some by default). This site is all free. H.  

It seems to be called  "Brick" in France!! Mrs H

PLease do't anyone tell us the winners name. Some of us are watching in France on TPS satellite (BBC Prime) and we are behind the UK in programmes shown!   H.  

In the hospital waiting room where I was waiting for an x-ray recently there was a poster with pictures of several different drinks asking "Do you know the alcohol content of these, which is highest" (in French and can't remember the actual wording).  The poster said to "ask your doctor". H.