A_Redman

Sorry if this is old news but you can now obtain copy Birth, Marriage and Death certificates for the United Kingdom on line. Service is currently limited to UK despatch addresses and current waiting time about 3 weeks. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/registration/certificates.asp They also have an order form which you can fax in.

Sorry if this is old news but you can now obtain copy Birth, Marriage and Death certificates for the United Kingdom on line. Service is currently limited to UK despatch addresses and current waiting time about 3 weeks. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/registration/certificates.asp They also have an order form which you can fax in.

Why not just open a Euro deposit account with your UK bank which you can do in less than half an hour.

No problem at all with self service. I would expect at least : Orange or other fruit juice The makings of tea, coffee and drinking chocolat Milk (possibly hot and cold) One Croissant and/or some brioche other patisserie Some ordinary French bread Some toast Butter and other spread Marmalade and Jam If catering for Northern Europeans I would add Boiled Egg, Ham, Some fresh seasonal fruit Moot point if continental or not but would consider adding Choice of say three breakfast cereals and Fresh Fruit Salad

Capacity needed depends on how many people, bath to shower ratio and how much spread there is on when people bathe and finally how big,the heating source is. Depending on how many beds, how many in the staff quarters etc 400 sounds tight rather than generous to me. We have 100 in our maison secondaire which has showers raher than baths and will never sleep more than five. You do not say how the much if any extra plumbing is involved, is there any water used for central heating ? In general the cheaper the source of fuel, wood oil gas electricity then the dearer the water heater. You could easily spend more on heating fuelin the first year than you save. Do you know what make and model of water heater are proposed ?

OK - They are big in Germany and have seen loads of vans from them on the autoroutes.

Please can we have either the French text or a link to the website with an application form.

Post Budget it is 1.487 Euros. I bet the parity by Christmas advice came from an Estate Agent anxious to close a sale.

LAST EDITED ON 10-Mar-04 AT 04:28 PM (GMT) The link below scrapes in at 46 Euros. If nobody else turns anything up suggest buying 'Paupers Paris' - Miles Turner then doing a search on the web to update prices. Hotel is just North of Place D'Italie and is under 15 minutes from the centre by Metro. Last stayed in about 8 years ago. Tends to be used by people working in Paris during the week plus some tours.Means it is easier to book Friday to Sunday than Monday to Thursday. http://fr.federal-hotel.com/hotel_hotel-manet-paris_2172.htm

The various parts of France have a ratio which is the maximum amount of square metres of floor space which is allowed for a new building. When the permis durbanisation of permis de construire is granted for new builds the areas will be declared and any extensions or conversion of existing space must remain within that limit. This is not too different to the idea of permitted developments rights in UK and stops high rise blocks springing up in for instance Juan les Pines. I believe the ratios vary down to below commune level and parts of Paris are designated at well over 2 times land area. If the house is an established dwelling which predates the law I do not think there is a problem in its current state. How did the Acte or compris de vente, as opposed to the estate agents blurb, describe the properties ?. If it simply describes them as two houses you probably do not have a problem I could not find the date when P d U were introduced in France but think it is post 1945. If on the other hand you are bringing into use an area that could never have been used as accommodation and the total area after conversion exceeds (750 sq metres ? ?) then you should be applying for a Permis de Construire. This will require architects drawings. If you are opening new windows or doors, as opposed to replacing existing doors then you will need a second less expensive form of permission for building works not involving a permis de construire. This does involve a forming French and illustration of before and after. The rules about windows opening onto agricultural land and neighbours rights to privacy are different to UK but if you over look 3 metres of your own land or the road there is not normally a problem. If it were me I would have a walk round the neighbourhood and decide whether or not the change would stick out like a sore thumb. I all you are doing is tidying up an existing building I would go ahead. If you are clearly making major changes I would at least check out the rules in more detail or casually ask the mayor. Three links below should take you to the forms you need which should help you decide what you want. http://www.ville-taverny.fr/Urbanism/urba3.htm http://www.cerfa.gouv.fr/ http://www.equipement.gouv.fr/formulaires/formfiche.asp?IdFormulaire=43&NumFormulaire=10073 Not sure where exactly you are versus Presignac / Chez Babadus but when I was down at New Year neither the French registered but English builder or the guy who owns the Builders yard in Varyes said that anything about the rules being more tightly applied. They did mention that Barn Conversion permission is getting harder to obtain with things that went through on a few photos with windows and doors drawn on now needing real architects plans.

>Also Baudelaire, Local ( Surbiton Surrey ) Library had "Les Fleurs Du Mal" in the gardening section about five years ago.

I think UK passports still have a Right of Abode notice for those of us who can legally live in the UK and I believe if you have that you a free to work anywhere in the EEC. Even if she does not have this for France there is a cheap option for France. Have a look at the French Embassy in Canada site. There is a 12 month visa option which you can apply for before leaving Canada. As you would expect the French language section works perfectly but the English falls over all the time http://www.ambafrance-ca.org/ Normally local student Unions or equivalent of Trailfinders have better information on the loopholes than you can find in the UK. There were some special rights for Australians into Greece and Italy for instance.

Ball Trap is Clay Pigeon shooting and seems popular in most parts of France. Links to French clubs below http://www.ball-trap.info/ http://www.ball-trap.info/stand.asp?dep=11 Balls were originally glass and contained feathers. Trap because like the Spanish the French used to release birds from baskets for sport.

> But what direction do you face? I've tried every position I can think of, and they're all uncomfortable. > They are uncomfortable, which way round you sit or kneel on them depends on which part of you anatomy you are planning to wash or rinse. They are far less common than they used to be. In the 60s when en suite or any bathrooms in hotels were much scarcer they were fairly common. The really fun ones had a second toilet bowl with flexible plumbing which hinged down instead of the toilet seat

I believe that retirment funds which have been used to buy an annuity ( an investment which pays a higher rate of interest for your life time in return for having all rights to the capital when you die ) do not form part of your assets under French wealth tax rules.

If the link below works it should take you to the main menu which includes some rules and definitions. Have you tried Amazon.fr ? http://www.tourisme.gouv.fr/fr/navh/plan/

Spend Ten Euros on the cheapest French phone you can find or borrow a neighbours phone. See if that works OK. If it works OK then BT phone not compatible with French system. Check manual for phone to see if there are any dipswitches you can set. If UK phone very complex check to see that there is no command to turn ringing off which could have been accidently switched on. If it does not work with just the French phone in check with FT about their line. Some UK phones working France some do not. French ringing tones engaged tones definitely different.

Try the following : 1. Unplug the box, count to 30, plug back in and check the signal strength and quality. It may be they have locked on a high value and you have moved the dish. If you now have no signal strenth start aligning the dish again. 2. If it comes back at both values high, remove the card and use the sky remote to go input 501 select and see if SKY news arrives. If so leave for 4 hours and see what channels arrive. 3. Check the bearing on the dish, if you have any body French local with Sat TV then your dish should point roughly 10 degrees further East. - 'Search' on 'Bearing' in this forum for the standard notes on where to aim the dish. ( probabbly worth doing anyway )

I will probably build next time but it was not an option for this house (we did not have the capital and needed to spread the work over a number of years) The advantages are you can chose the site and euro for euro even if you buy very cheaply it is almost always less efficient to rebuild and that very quickly swallows the apperent savings. At its simplest it is a lot easier to leave the hole to instal the windows than it is to open the hole out and make good. I am not sure about the satisfaction argument. I would have a lot of fun building to an appropriate modern design. I lot of the design on our house was compromissed by the need to maintain structural integrity and not spend more than the house would be worth.

LAST EDITED ON 04-Feb-04 AT 05:08 PM (GMT) > would i be right in thinking about 160 from north. Many Thanks >Richard( Aude) Presume you meant 152 degress ( 180- 28) ? The Azimuth you need is about 145 degrees ( 35 degrees east of South ) and the inclination is 33 degrees. The satellite has a notional position over the equator betwen Kinshassa and Nairobi. The inclination and bearing varies as you move South( or North) and East or West. Mazan posted a good link on this about a month ago.

For as long as I have been posting on the forum I have recommended that people who want to research gites. Stay close to but outside the area they are thinking of working in. Try booking the year before in high season in the areas they are looking at. If the market is as tough as you say I do not think there is any harm in letting people know the booking situation and how much worse it is this year. I know of two established gite / chamber de hote business close to our house in the Haute Vienne where the husband has gone back to real work this year because bookings/income were so much down last year.

I posted a long note of my experiences in sourcing dual standard TVs in the "Television and DVD in France" thread. Which I have just moved back up the forum. If you buy in France be very careful to check that the set will receive PAL I (as opposed to B/G). If you buy in the UK check the manual thoroughly yourself.

I believe, though Mazan who I defer to on all things technical, will correct me that you must be connected via a SCART/ PERITEL. Therefore the sound comes through crudely via four wires in the SCART rather than being tuned in by the therefore the difference in sound transmission frequency is not an issue. Before we all break out the Limoux, remember that cable coverage is not very wide spread in France http://www.noos.fr/prospect/index.php has a post code check

Use ViaMichelin as below, take the maps option. Leave the street bit blank, but St Agnant as the town and France in the next box It is the third option on the next page and has the post code 23260 Almost in straight line from Limoges to Clermont Ferrand. Take the N144 west out of Aubusson and after about 16 kilometres the D9 south into Crocg itself continue south to St Agnant-pres-crocq. Colder in winter than the Haute Vienne but looks interesting on the map. 209 Inhabitants so pretty small http://ville.ville.ws/limousin/creuse/st_agnant_pres_crocq/ http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/gbr/dyn/controller/HomePage;jsessionid=2C15GNXGBUD24LRX0GOE4SQ

LAST EDITED ON 23-Jan-04 AT 09:39 AM (GMT) The wealth tax applies to people who the French view as "Having there centre of economic interest in France" . They tend to attack people who own business or huge houses in France but live say 184 days a year in for instance the Antilles . If own property ,work and live in the UK then you do not fall in the net. Page 62 of the English Language guide to tax that you can download from the French Tax site has a table of the rates which start at 0.55 per centon the excess over Euro 720,000 and peak at 1.8 per cent on the excessover Euro 15 million. Sorry at least one error in the original posting even if you are resident outside France if your property in France is valued at in excess of Euro 720,000 then the property value does fall into tax but not your entire wealth.