Motorhead

This is the sort of mince I've been getting from the DVLA Sophie (8:36:29 AM):You’ll need to apply by post using a D1 application form. Remember: - To include your current licence (if you have lost it, please mention this on the form). - To provide relevant ID. - A passport standard sized photograph. - The application will be free of charge. This form can be ordered https://www.gov.uk/dvlaforms. Alternatively, you can get one from selected Post Offices® that offer driving licence transactions. To check what ID to provide and how this is returned, please see https://www.gov.uk/id-for-driving-licencThe address to send it to is on the back of the form. You will also need to provide a certificate of entitlement from the French licensing authority. It’s got to be less than 6 months old and show all categories you can drive and the validity dates. This will need to be accompanied with an official translation if the document is not in English. You (8:38:05 AM):Is a certificate of entitlement the same as my current licence and what constitutes an official translation? Sophie (8:40:35 AM):A certificate of entitlement is a document issued by the licencing authority confirming the status of your licence and is separate from the licence itself.

I passed my bike test in Glasgow and car test in Greenock so still part of the UK for the time being. I went into the sous prefecture in Montlucon, filled in a form and gave them 2 photos and my GB licence (no money asked for). In return I got a receipt that allowed me to drive for a month. The only drama was when the fonctionnaire failed to put my bike category on the receipt, but I got my new licence 2 weeks later through the post from the prefecture in Moulins and everything was in order If there's any logic to the DVLA wanting a certificate from France it's to check that I'm not banned.

Thanks for that idun. I'll get on to them toute suite.

I didn't receive a letter from the DVLA. I do have a transcript of a 1hr 20 min webchat I had with them. I tried to phone over the course of a week but even at the start of daily business all I'd get was a recorded message saying that they were too busy to answer. The transcript tells a very different story from yours. I can send you a copy if you'd like to see it.

Bonjour I've not been on here for a long time but I've got a very new problem. When I moved to France about 17 years ago I got myself a permis de conduire no problem. Now I'm wanting to change back to a GB licence things have changed dramatically. DVLA are wanting a "certificate of entitlement" less than 6 months old in addition to my old permis. Also, it has to be translated into English but they can't tell me how official that has to be or what quals or prof memberships the translator needs to have. These are new rules that came in at the start of the month and they haven't even got new D1 forms that reflect the changes. When I got my permis I dealt with the local prefecture but that seems to have changed now and it's all been centralised. So does anyone know where I should be contacting and what I should ask for? Also, any ideas about whether they would send the said certificate to a UK address? I've still got my French house but the chances of me getting over there anytime soon are rather slim.

Never said it was SD. However, this misinterpretation of the 6 month rule is exactly the same thing as the DVLA have been guilty of eg. http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/pressoffice/pressreleases/archive2006/20060308_24.aspx OK, so it's not exactly recent but it is still available on the internet (and presumably unretracted) and may even have been used by an Oban PF who should have known better.

This article from the Glasgow Herald should be of interest to all those who move about between UK and France (and anywhere else for that matter). "Foreign drivers benefit in residence ruling Lucy Adams Chief Reporter 12 Nov 2011 POLICE have been told to apologise after a landmark ruling which could change the way forces deal with foreign drivers. The Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland, Professor John McNeill, found that Jeremiasz Kosinski, a Polish national, unlawfully had his car seized and was wrongly convicted for driving without insurance. The man was convicted in 2008 of driving without valid insurance. Following an application to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), his conviction was overturned by the High Court in 2010. The SCCRC found that, according to a European Directive, a person’s “normal residence” is the place where he/she “usually lives … for at least 185 days in each calendar year”. Specifically, in terms of the legislation, the period should be calculated over individual calendar years rather than over “any” 12-month period, as had been believed by the police. According to the commission, the police, prosecution, and courts of all instances acted against the law. It also concluded many provisions of Scottish law do not comply with European law and they had to be adapted. The commissioner established that the decision by Strathclyde Police to seize the vehicle had therefore been wrong."

Like Rabbie I too saw that Question Time and what a classic it was. A pannelist was totally stumped when a member of the audience asked if the same excuse should apply for a housing benefit claim. All he could do was to keep repeating "that's a very good question". Dimbleby saved the guy any further embarrassment by saying  that they would come back to it later. However, they didn't seem to go back to it at all. I may have missed it due to a toilet trip but I'm pretty sure they didn't. Did anyone else notice this and if it did come up again what was the response?

Pickles said "I think that this was one of the issues concerned in the arrest and detention of a former forum member the other year" I think missed that one but I can tell you as one who has been both arrested and detained by HMC that one cannot suffer both at the same time.

I know the car parking is all changed now but what about motos, are there: 1) bike places 2) are they secure 3) what's the cost,if any 4) if none of the above apply, what does one do

Have a look at www.envisioneer.net. There's a guy there who did this sort of thing and built a house for 4 grand albeit in Galloway. I suppose that in France it all depends upon finding a maire that is switched on to this sort of thing.

This thread is not getting any more sensible. This last referrence from Gluestick is a complete red herring as it's all about atmospheric acetic acid. This is not surprising as it what's known as a Volatile Fatty Acid, the only places you are likely to get it in an aqueous solution or rather colloid are in the bottle you shake over your chips or in the anterior digestive compartment of a ruminant. Getting back to the origional problem, it's pretty much as Buckdendave says. If the water in the heating system is self contanied then a corrosion inhibitor is a good idea. Treating the water for the showers, taps etc is not so easy but a lot easier than going down the reverse osmosis route which is hideously wasteful of water and bound to cost an arm and a leg when the bill hits the mat. I would suggest running the main supply through a header tank as is done in the UK and lobbing some Tufa rock into it. This is basically magnesian limestone which is dissolved by the acid in the water until it neutralises it (actually because of a time lag in the reaction it can take the water up to about 8.5 but no more). Tufa rock is available from any good aquarium shop as it is used to replicate certain aquatic ecosystems and it is also SERIOUSLY CHEAP!

10 days and no reply. I must apologise for the good folk here. My experience is that they are into more gentle pursuits. Once upon a time I got involved in a thread on puddling clay but when I mentioned that I'd found an old pair of hammer shoes to be the ideal footwear for this I was met with the forum equivalent of blank stares. My days as a field athlete are now over since I switched to powerlifting but I still notice a few things. French athletics seems far more dependant on voluntary coaching especially with  juveniles who don't do any at school. It is also far less cliquey than in the UK. I don't know if you'd need to do any French qualifications but you almost certainly will need to carry some sort of insurance. If you go onto your governing body's website look for a link to the European umbrella organisation and then find one down from there to the French body which shold have a site that tells you all you need to know. That's what I did and I didn't even know that powerliftng was called force athletique in France.

Aye right. "The necessary technical infrastructure is not yet in place" In fact it's not even in place yet for the new national number plate system never mind anything else. The new vehicule de collection regs have been supposed to be coming in every year since 2005 or was it 2006. Nothing's going to happen any time soon. I agree there is a serious problem with the dreadful state of many of the mopeds one sees but a biannual inspection by someone who has only a vague knolwedge of PTWs is not going to achieve anything. Bikes, especially small ones, do go off a lot faster than cars if you don't look after them well. A proper test by an expert every 2 months would be doing things properly but we all know this is never going to happen. It all seems to me to be very much like the dangerous dogs orders in the UK, a hasty and ill thought out sop to public opinion by publicity hungry politicians which achieves nothing that could not have been done with existing legilation if only it had been enforced. If the police and the gendarmes got off there backsides and did their job properly there would be no problem with deathtrap mopeds. The legislation to take unroadworthy vehicles off the road is already in place.

Stoattir, pure ded brilliant by ra wey.