Abrivado

GONE is the directeur who refused to have my son in the school when we first arrived, because my son wasn't fluent in French. Yippeeeee!!!!! GONE is last year's maitresse who, when she wasn't yelling at them like a demented grizzly bear, was ripping pages out of their cahiers and giving them masses of homework. No time for sport or anything else fun last year in her curriculum. Yippeeeee!!!!!! New maitresse this year for CM2, who seems normal, intelligent, motivated, and imaginative. They have lanceurs d'criture, they have sport, they do a bit of theatre, a bit of music, a bit of arts plastiques. She's even managed to produce a timetable. Still only 4 old computers for 100 children, and no English lessons, and no big excitement like ski-ing trips, but things are definitely looking up. Long may it continue!

No, I don't think they do learn religion. In my son's primaire, at the beginning of the year, they were told that, as a state school, the school is a lay school, completely non-religious. It's about the only thing that my son told me about that first day, so the message must have been very clear! They do learn civisme though, which covers all sorts of things to do with citizenship, the state, society, rights and responsibilities, local govt, maybe a visit to the mairie, or whatever. No doubt the right to a secular education gets mentioned somewhere along the line. I think the separation of religion and education is an excellent idea. Look at the creation/evolution argument that goes on in the States, yuck.

My latest cultural find. Dead, of course, but I'm getting used to that. Introduced Cubism to the world, friends included Picasso and Matisse, big influence on Surrealism, fought in WW1, died in the great flu epidemic 1918. There are many websites about him. Here's one in English: http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0tmc/apo/aponotes.htm I'm currently undergoing dramatic vocabulary expansion with Les Onze Mille Verges. Not sure I'll have much opportunity to use it, but I'm a firm believer that no knowledge is ever wasted. Well, that's my excuse Have to say it's a damn sight more interesting than Molire.

The school dates are all on this site here: http://www.education.gouv.fr/prat/calendrier/calendrier.php?intAnneeID=21

This was covered in another thread very recently. I think you only pay to register at the beginning of the year, but be prepared to cough up yourself for everything else, accommodation, books, food, travel. All the French students I know also do whatever work they can to help make ends meet, and it's considered absolutely normal, the two things go together. No sympathy for having to study and work at the same time! Here's a list of the universities with their details and links, they're probably the best people to ask: http://www.education.gouv.fr/sup/univ.htm

I've just discussed this with my neighbour, whose 2 children have just been through the system, and here's what I think happens: >Do parents have to pay for >higher education? No, the education itself is free. But as a student you do have to pay to register each year, in this case just over 300 euros. Mais c'est beaucoup, said my neighbour!! >Do students get living expenses as >they used to in Britain? Well, there is a system of bourses. It has 6 means-tested levels. Their daughter got about 70 a month. Their son got a bit more than that because he was the oldest, and because he was more than 50km away from home. Other than that, you (or your parents) pay for books, accommodation, food, transport, photocopying card, everything. ALL the French students I know work, at anything - childminding, restaurants, obesity clinics (yes really!), any way they can to get money. C'est normal, it just goes with the territory - if you want to study, you have to work as well. Point. >Is it a loan system? No, you don't have to pay the bourse back. Does that help at all? It's pretty much from the horse's mouth. Strange expression, must look it up in Brewer's.....

Hi Paula, According to this it's annul: http://www.concertnco.com/vconcert.php?lx=647

Should I have a list for going into CM2? Should I worry if I haven't?

Why did you cancel the Vibrational Healing? I would have gone on that - sitting on the washing machine waiting for a fast spin is losing its novelty.

Peter, As you're in Languedoc, do you have any information on the Petit Travesty and the Grand Travesty, the stretch of beach between Carnon and Grande Motte? After the rains last year, people were saying to avoid swimming near Grande Motte, because sewage had been washed down into that area. As we've seen the raw sewage that bobs merrily into the Vidourle at Sommieres, this wasn't a great surprise! I'd just be interested to know how it's rated. It's a huge stretch of beach, extremely busy in the summer, but no toilets anywhere, no lifeguards, nothing. In some parts the dunes are fenced off, but I know parents who absolutely refuse to let their children near the dunes, because they're the only place people can go to the toilet. Big plus though - you don't have to pay for parking!

Hi, Somebody in the ITCCA might be able to help you: http://corpsetmouvement.free.fr/itcca.htm This is the link for Tai Chi Chuan in Montpellier. Just to show you that there's quite a lot of it about if you know where to look..... http://www.chez.com/taichichuan/ Good luck

>We are moving to France later >this year and I would >like to see if there >are any quilters out there >in the community. Yes, they let them out to mingle with ordinary folk, it does them good from time to time! Lots of local expositions to go and see (and get demoralised by sometimes!). Availability of fabrics, not as good as the US of course, but dja pas mal, and miles better than where I was in the south of England. You'll find that most shops here import from the US anyway, with a smaller selection from the UK. There are even a few patchwork and quilting magazines in French, and websites with traditional French fabrics. Let me know if you'd like some links to them.....

Hi, We're resident in France, working full-time for UK employer. The latest problem we've thought of (and there have been many!) is what happens if we're sick? If you live and work in the UK, you give your sick note to your employer, and through the national insurance system they claim back the money they've paid you for being sick. BUT if we're resident in France, we pay our taxes and social security in France, so where would our UK employer reclaim their money from? More to the point, what would WE have to do in that situation? Zut, maybe I'm just learning why (apparently) so few people do this thing of working in one country while resident in another. Mince! Any help would be much appreciated, Ab.

Coco, Have you seen this site yet: http://www.canam.fr/index_canam.html Under "Objectif Entreprise" there's a link to "Calcul cotisations et IR". If you can get a friendly French person to help you through it, it tells you how much you should expect to pay in each year. Each year is very different - for us, in year 1 we'd keep 95% of our income, year 2 it's down to 69%, and year 3 it's down to 52%. You wonder how French people survive on the salaries they get! Good luck, Ab.

Can anyone who's been here full-time for more than 2 years tell me how much of your income actually goes on social security? We've been told that it's about 50euros a month for the first 2 years, and after that it's calculated according to your income, but in spite of many phone calls to many agencies, we still can't find out how much it'll be. As life in France is proving to be just as expensive as life in the south of England (I've even got friends in London and Hampshire to compare shopping prices for me), we don't want to commit to living here permanently and find ourselves having to consider every single euro-cent because we're crippled by social security payments. Hoping someone can help Ab.

Here's an odd one - why are all the children's toothpastes bubble-gum flavoured? Minty toothpaste is one of the few things we get sent over from the UK, for these lovely new teeth that are coming through, because he cannot stand bubblegum (and I can't say I blame him). I regularly scan the shelves in LeClerc, Intermarch, Gant, Carrefour. Only bubblegum for the bubbleyoung. C'est une autre culture

In France, do expectant over-35s automatically get tested for Down's Syndrome? And if it tested positive, would a termination be possible? (I've read about women from Catholic countries going to the UK for abortions, I don't know how strongly Catholic France is in these matters.) Thanks, Ab. p.s. please don't let this degenerate into a pro-life versus pro-choice bagarre, it's only a question, ok!

Hi all, I may have misunderstood, but I think I've been told that I can't claim back psy bills. Does anyone know if this is right? I don't want to be bankrupted in my attempt to toilet-train my daughter! Ab.

Zut, I just went to donner du sang, and they refused because I'm British If you've lived in les iles Britanniques between 1980 and 1996, even for a short time, you're perceived as being at risk of carrying CJD. How disappointing, I'll have to have a bar of Milka to make up for it 8-pint Ab. "I don't see what your problem is, Ab. In the part of France where I live, there's so much milk and honey we wear waders".

Hello everybody, My 4-yr-old daughter is on Depakine, the French brand of Sodium Valproate. UK friends have said that she should have had her blood tested by now for SV levels, because it's a drug that can accumulate and cause learning difficulties (and she already has enough of them!). St Eloi hospital here haven't done this, does anyone have any experience of this subject? And is up-the-bum Valium the usual treatment after a fit? Poor Rosie reacted really badly to that, it acted as an I'm-off-into-hyperspace-bouncing-off-the-ceiling wonderdrug on her, and could not have been further from a tranquillizer. I don't want them to do that to her again - she didn't sleep for about 36 hours!! Merci for any information, Ab. "I don't see what your problem is, Ab. In the part of France where I live, there's so much milk and honey we wear waders".