Mark

Hi - just fixed a price with Moneycorps for moving money from my CA account to my Nationwide one.  I'll presumably need to fax CA a letter to confirm my intention, and also phone them.  Should I just say 'Je voudrais faire un virement de ma compte a une banque anglaise', or something like that, and then give the account numbers and Moneycorps ref no, or will they need something more?  If anyone could post a form of words they've used in the past I'd be grateful. Thanks. 

Hi all, just to say all went well - Henry, 3.25 kilos, was born at 5.20ish Sunday afternoon, all well.  Squidge's hippy credentials took something of a battering though, as she ended up filled with more drugs than a Rolling Stone, after stating in bold on her birth plan that she in no way wanted any artificial painkilling assistance.  Perhaps I just put the TENS machine pads in the wrong places on her back - not sure. need sleep now zzzzzz..... [:)]

Typical - just found what I was looking for.  Will paste it here for info: Where do I register my baby’s birth ? The baby’s birth has to be registered at the mairie of the commune or arondissement (for Lyon, Paris, Marseille) he was born in. You have three working days from the day after the birth to register him.  (weekends don’t count).   A lot of state hospitals deal with the registration process themselves. You give them the necessary paperwork and they send everything to the mairie. All you need to do is collect the updated livret de famille and the déclaration de naissance once they’re ready.     Who registers the birth? The registration can to be done by the father, the mother or any person who was present at the birth     What paperwork do I need? You need a medical certificate from the doctor or midwife who was present at the birth and the livret de famille (if you have one, otherwise proof of identity).   The “déclaration de naisance” includes the following information: ðDate and place of birth ðSex ðName (first names and surnames) ðParents’ full names (this will be the mother’s maiden name) ðParents’ birth dates ðFamily address ðParents’ profession So you will probably need papers to prove all this.  (Most of it is in the livret de famille if you have one.)   “My first birth was in a private clinique and they filled out the official birth form but dh had to to to the mairie to register the birth.”   “We filled out everything at the hospital and then DH just had to go and collect the livret de famille from the mairie a few days later - easy!!”   “I gave birth in a public hospital and it was all done by the hospital. We just filled in the form, handed over the livret de famille, and they did the rest. The livret came back in the post about a week or so later.”   "Our hospital filled in the livret de famille with new ds's details, and gave us a form to fill in which dh just had to take to the local mairie (not the town where we live, the town where the hospital is)."   What names can I use? French law used to control the names you could give a baby, but now whatever name you  choose has to be accepted by the registrar. If he considers that the name is detrimental to the child (eg a rude word or the name of a well-known politician) he can then contact the Procureur de la Republique who will get a Juge aux Affaires Familiales to make the final decision.   If the parents are married, the baby will have his father’s surname. If they aren’t married,  then he will have the surname of the first parent to acknowledge him. (This can be done before birth.)   What about registering  with the British Embassy? (for British nationals)   Registering a birth with the Embassy, isn’t compulsory but it is considered proof of citizenship and means that the birth will be registered with the UK General Register Office. A consular birth certificate isn’t necessary to get a British passport, you will still need the French birth certificate. At the time of writing (summer 2004) registering a birth costs 88 Euros and each copy of the registration (i.e the birth certificate) costs 56 euros.   http://www.britishembassy.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1064572336696   “We registered both children's births with the consulate, the reasoning being that we may or may not end up staying in France permanently (at the moment no plans to go back to the UK, but you never know). I felt it was an important part of my children's British heritage. Mind you it is an expensive luxury"   “I haven't bothered doing it, but maybe I would if there was a possibility of us ever going to live in the UK, that way they would have documents in English. Having a passport should be all that's needed to prove nationality.”  

I'd be really grateful if someone could provide a list of the paperwork needed to take to the Mairie when registering a birth in France.  Presumably the birth certificates of the parents feature somewhere, proof of residence?, utility bills?, carte vitale?, can't seem to find anything definitive. Thanks.

Could someone tell me the French for "My partner's waters have broken, shall we come to the hospital", please?!  Actually, should be ok with the second bit, but I don't remember my GCSE covering broken waters. This is just prep, you understand, not an emergency. Thanks.

Is there a French equivalent of that Parker's Guide thingy they have in England?  I'm selling a car and haven't a clue what the price should be, so some sort of guide would be very useful. Failing that, anyone want to buy a lovely little 206?  I've looked after it very, very well. Thanks [:)]

We're popping up to see the bridge next month.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a nice homely logis/auberge with a good restaurant within easy reach of it? Thanks [:D]  

Good afternoon. My partner and I shall be watching the TdeF in the rarified atmosphere of the Col de Tourmalet in July.  Does anyone know if there's a campsite nearer than Bareges?  I know the area reasonably well but haven't noticed any camping on the higher slopes.  Normally, we'd just doss down under a tent on the slopes of the col somewhere, but Mrs Me will be heavily pregnant by then and is therefore insisting on some degree of luxury, like water and stuff.  A campsite - HA - I ask you!  She'll be wanting a namby-pamby hospital to have the baby in next. Ahem, anyway, are we to camp at Bareges and join the traffic jam next morning, or is there a cunning place higher? Could just buy a motor home I suppose. Thanks all.     

Great, thanks both, that should be sufficient advice to take things forward with a bit of confidence.

Did you know that nothing rhymes with 'orange'?  Poets know that sort of stuff. Uh-oh, already getting a bit off-topic.  Um... What's a good name for a baby? .......you're going to do the 'nothing doesn't actually rhyme with orange' joke now aren't you Zoggy.   

I put some 'A vendre' signs up on the roadside the other day, outside a house we're selling.  To my astonishment, I've already had two phone calls from interested parties, one of whom is coming for a viewing tomorrow.  I will tell them that the price is nett so that I get that price and the buyer pays that price plus the notaire's fees.  I was merely copying what seems to be the standard practice of the immos on that front - is it reasonable to assume that the prospective buyer will expect the price quoted to be exclusive of notaire's fees?  Do we split the fees 50/50? Also, I assume it's my responsibility to contact the notaire and set the wheels in motion with regard to him drawing up the compromis and, ultimately, the acte?  Does anyone know if there's a template letter on-line somewhere for sending to the notaire in the first instance? Is there anything more to do?  Thanks everyone [:)]

[quote user="cassis"]We knew it was you, Squidge.  If it had been Mark he would have been complaining about the lack of teddy bears, frills and bows.  We know his tastes. [Www] [/quote] Lack of tack is cack. I wonder if Mark of the other Mark and Squidge in England is a poet like wot I am - now that WOULD be a coincidence.

thanks for all the info everyone! before i forget, in response to the question, i'm in the ariege (did have it in info bit but it seems to have fallen off!) after spending lots of hours searching the web..... the latest thinking is to buy one online from john lewis and get a lovely friend to bring it over from england with them when they visit us in a couple of weeks time. there's one just like we're looking for (plain and simple - no teddy bears/frills/bows) and it's only £30. couldn't find any cheaper than about 100 euros in france..... and they're not half as nice!! next post: nappies!    

[quote user="Me0wp00"]Hi theres alot more fun and interesting baby things to spend your money on :O) [/quote] I wonder if in one of Squidge's more hazy hormonal moments I could persuade her that gin is a 'baby thing'? Mr Squidge[:)]

Brill, thanks both.  Clair, your set up looks like what I've got in our house now, so I'll just replicate it in the other one.