Markgalliott

Thanks very much ANOther, Cooperlola and Will for your help and comments, you have certainly given us plenty to think about. This year I only did 5 weeks work as a nature tour guide here in France (bringing in much needed revenue to the area) and my wife 11 weeks working for an agency in the UK providing health care for the aged, both of us with no contracts. The companies concerned specifically state that it is up to us to declare the income ourselves to the tax authorities, which we have done since we became resident in France. There is no way, of course that they would want to be involved in any contribution to our health care. The strange thing is that both the impots and the CPAM advised us to go down this route and which forms to fill in etc when we first arrived. It seemed such a simple and logical system to pay a % of our revenue for our health cover! Still, obviously if they are interpreting things differently now, then we have no option but to take a different path. Of the two suggestions mentioned, the portage company is totally out of the question as it seems they take 50% of any salary. In reference to the AE option, is this easy and much less expensive to implement, bearing in mind the minimal amount of work at stake? As I am never likely to get more than about 6 weeks work, would it be worthwhile for me to subscribe alone, or could we do it jointly? As I mentioned in the original post, we were really pleased to find work again this year after being on CMU-C for a year, but now it almost seems that perhaps it might be easier for us to stop working and go back to ‘sponging off the state’ to coin a phrase often used in some UK papers, whilst waiting for our UK state pensions to start in 5 years time.. Mark Ps. Cooperlola, I actually pre-empted things by downloading the CMU-C forms and sending them completed to the CPAM. There does seem to be an anomaly though, whereby CMU-B is based on the previous year’s tax revenue form, while CMU-C is based on the previous 12 months revenue!

I have tried searching the CMU website and other sites for information with no success, so I wonder if anyone could shed some light on the following problem? We would appreciate any suggestions or comments. Since we arrived here in France in Dec 2002, we have been paying for our health care via CMU-B by declaring all of our annual revenue (consisting of some interest, a private company pension and a few weeks freelance work for a couple of UK companies) to the impots. Last year though, this work totally dried up, leaving only the interest and the pension for us to live on. We then applied and successfully obtained CMU-C status. Fortunately this year we have again managed to find some more temporary work, which could if we wish perhaps increase in the coming years. In September, I naturally informed the local CPAM that we could once again rejoin CMU-B as our revenue had now increased again through finding more freelance work. The response from the lady there though was rather worrying, in that she told us that we would have to contact URSSAF at Strasbourg to set in motion the procedure to get an S form for our health cover from the companies in the UK. I am not sure that, even if one worked full time for a UK company as a French resident whether this is correct, but surely a few weeks freelance work here and there does not warrant us doing anything different than when we first arrived. We were accepted into the system under CMU-B then, so what has changed? Has there been a new law passed, or is this another example of a functionnaire being less than helpful to UK French residents? I must add that we are at the moment in the ‘tiers payant’ period until October 2011, which is granted the next year after CMU-C, so thankfully we do have some time to sort this out! Thanking you in advance Mark

Hoddy The article you highlight actually refers to the Wild Service Tree-Sorbus torminalis (not S. domestica). This is a similar but much more common species in the UK (& France) and grows mainly in ancient woodland. It has smaller harder brownish berries while the leaves have only 3-5 paired lobes. Mark G  

This sounds very much like a True Service Tree-Sorbus domestica which has small pear shaped reddish fruits which are edible. The  leaves are very similar to the Rowan-Sorbus acuparia.  Rowan only grows on acid soils, whilst S. domestica prefers limestone or other base rich rocks. It is a very rare native in the UK (identified for the first time in 1993), but in France is not uncommon in the right habitat. I hope this helps. Mark G   

Thanks very much to Will the Conqueror for actaully giving an answer to my query. We will try Leclerc or failing that one of the French catering firms that have been mentioned. For the rest of the responses to my post (not that it really matters to us!), we like to give our guests the opportunity to have a cup of tea or coffee in their room before they come down to breakfast with lashings of fresh milk. In particular response to Miki, we have lived in France now for 18 months, and in that time have mercifully only found it necessary to return to the UK once. Admittedly we did use the ferry, but I'm afraid we are not in the habit of appropriating anything just for the fun of it, even if we had thought it might be useful! MG

I have searched the archives, but to no joy. Can any kind person on this forum tell me where we can buy the little individual milks ( I think they are UHT )for tea and coffee? We have not seen them as yet in the supermarkets, so are there specialist catering firms in France that supply them? Thanking you in advance. MG.