Nick Trollope

Nah, cars is all 19.6%. 5.5% is reserved for contstruction (and food etc).  

Don't know about Limoges specifically, but there is a huge demand for plumbers in most of France, provided they can work with French methods, designs and materials (which are very different from UK ones).  

Coupla points; For one reason or another, I know a number of practitioners (GPs and hospital), all of whom speak good English - it is a trait of well-educated French people. All of them want to work in the NHS..... English-speakers probably account for 1% of the population. Given that the French are a bunch of hypocondriacs, they (Brits) probably account for rather less than 1% of patients..... It appears that a French GP earns about a half of a GP in a similar post in the UK. There is a huge shortage of GPs here - that said, a doctor without perfect French would be hard pushed to get any job (as a doctor), leave alone an easy one - French doctors work much harder than any UK doctor I know (I know a few of them, too!) Come to France to retire, or move to Pas de Calais and do a bit of locum work in Kent. If it is your intention to destroy your family, blow all your savings and spend the rest of your (shortened) life trying to persuade old French drunks to give up Pastis, move to France to work....  

[quote user="BIG MAC"]I was wondering whether Photovoltaic cells could power electric underfloor or whether the demand would make it impractical[/quote] No. You would need to be NASA (and with their budget) to get enough power out of PV cells, I'm afraid to say.  

[quote user="Frederick"] France is just going to have to get used to it as the UK has . [/quote] For *ucks sake why? We (legal Artisans) pay protectionist rates of social charges, so is it not reasonable to expect protectionist levels of support?. Fat chance! I, for one, am pissed off (to put it mildly) of losing work to illegals (of any nationality) and getting no support from the authorities.  

It is not unknown for meters to fail and EDF always replace them FOC (it is their meter). They will estimate your usage since the last reading.  

You can connect it however you want. However, the regs say that it must have a seperate feed (with a 2A breaker) from the fusebox. I've never seen a fused spur here.  

Where are you? Here in France, I have used miles of plumbing of all sorts of makes and all of them fit together perfectly..... Can't imagine what your problem is.  

I have an (unused) copy of "Construire son escalier en bois, en béton, en métal", which has the regs in it. PM me if interested.

[quote user="Polremy"]If you want the Jimmy's you will have to marry a plumber - or an electrician.[/quote] Hah! Tina is (has to be) happy with Gemo...

Do you have a town (natural) gas supply? If so, then go for that (fixed price, if available in your area). If not, electric. Forget LPG (or oil). In a word, or few.

And the legislation has yet to be finalised. Plus, it does not take an accountant to work out just how little difference this scheme will make. Until France adopts the UK (+ ROW) system of post-earning taxation at sensible rates there will be no opportuities for legal part-time self-employed people in this country.

[quote user="Just Katie"]I want to be a train driver.[/quote] I have a friend in the village who is a train driver. His wife is a trucker (and she looks the part...)

[quote user="Polremy"]That demi-sec c******** doesnt happen to be PolRemy does it? If so, you have been overcharged. I can get it for around 79cents (leClerc)[/quote] Hell no! Not enough useful information forthcoming to allow me to share this particular gem. So, getting back to my OP, I have been playing with Visual Studio.NET (2008 V cheap from Amazon). Comes on 2 DVDs - the first commercial software I wrote (in Clipper Summer '87) had to run on a single 360K floppy... Were was I? Oh yes; C# is very different to Quick C and VB bears no resemblance to QB. So I try Python - I can't trust a language that doesn't have a compiler - everyone can see just how inefficient my coding is. I bought a new computer. Acer. Dual wotsits. 3Gb memory (see above!). Very nice. Vista. In French. French keyboard. Man, am I buggered.

[quote user="jondeau"]Well........it's called democracy, and this is an example of democracy in action where the populace debate the laws passed by the legislature in order to understand their reasoning and their validity. There is nothing more fataly wounding to democracy than complacency and blind adherence to the law. [/quote] Rubbish. Nothing is more wounding to democracy that trying to circumvent democratically-created legislation. Besides which, that isn't what (others) were doing. They were boasting/trying to prove a point/showing their ignorance of the law etc etc. Surely, debate without resolution (there can be no resolutions here) is meaningless and consequently counter-democratic?

[quote user="sid"]Please correct me but isn't VMC simply mechanical ventilation (for condensation and smells) and nothing to do with gas? [/quote] As a matter of fact, it is a legal requirement for all properties with a natural gas supply to be fitted with a continuously-running extraction system. Ergo, if one isn't fitted, someone is breaking the law. I don't know if you can be arrested for not having one (I've never been/put any of my clients in this situation), but a gas installer will be fined and could lose his certification, if caught. Properties with gas must also have ventilation (98Sq cm, IIRC). This is democracy - someone votes for a politician, who makes the laws that we (or they) want and are reasonably expected to adhere to. However, "people" don't want democracy, which usually just interferes with their "getting on with life". People want anarchy - even if they don't realise it.

Don't bother, there is no way you will cover your costs working part time. Either work illegally, on CESU or get a job. Don't be self-employed!

Actually, I don't want to be an electrician (my only transferable skill). What I really want to be is a computer programmer. Many moons ago, I programmed in Clipper, Quick C, C+ and QB, but then some stupid b*****d invented Windoze so I gave up. I've even got a degree in the subject (from the days when they called it "computer science" when we wrote programs on punch cards and got the results on paper tape, or was it vice-versa). What would the panel recommend? My SILtb is a lumberjack. Calls hisself a "tree surgeon", but I can't help thinking of Michael Palin (Edit: OK, so it was Eric Idle Edit 2: Or was it?)... In return for some good leads, I will reveal the source of an excellent demi-sec champagne (note the small "c"), for 1€09 a bottle....

[quote user="jondeau"] all I can say is there must be some pretty inept gas fitters in France if you need to have an extractor running 24/7 in order to ensure safety.  [/quote] It is not a matter of competence, it is a matter of regulation. The other side to this coin is; If you don't want to conform to/can't be bothered check up on/don't care a f*** about the normes, why bother to tell us? It wasn't the OPs question, so how is it relevant?

I guess so, but can't you put them in the dwarf wall?

Small aside; John's link to fleetnews says that 17% of crashes in the UK are caused by Poles... Does this mean that the number of Polish drivers in the UK has reached such a level that this statistic is true (work it out!)? Or does this (once again) prove that there are "lies, damn lies and statistics"?

Just one answer then; No, J/bs must be accessible. And a comment; Compact flourescent lights are not as compact as they would have you believe!

As le P predicted, there is always someone who thinks they know better, but they can only express themselves with sarcasm. VMCs are a mandatory part of French life, rather like wine and poor driving. If you don't want to integrate to this extent, do you think rest of us want to learn about it? I don't.

Rather than a chopped-up quote, herewith your answers, in order.... True, although Promolec say 5. 8 max refers to 8 "loads" - so your 9 fittings would be 1 circuit (or however many you wanted). They would all need to feed to a junction box (along with the power and switch feeds, ideally). I believe that the maximum number fittings per circuit is 8, however. Each transformer would be 1 "fitting" - you wouldn't use 1 tfmr/light, more like 3/4 per tfmr. Transformers go up to  150W +. 230V downlights must be fed via a j/b. Only DCLs can be "looped" - I have never seen a DCL downlighter. Personally, I would never use LED lamps in a living room. The light is far too harsh. Also consider adding more switches (say switching in 3 banks...)

This is a modern, Western, first-world country, you know! Here (in France), electricity is cheaper than in the UK, and available just about everywhere! I don't know where people get the idea that French supplies are unreliable from; my supply here in rural Brittany is miles more reliable than the supply in Urban Worcestershire ever was... EDF don't have a monopoly any more... Sorry, but I doubt if you would have as big a market here as you have in the UK, plus, there are several French suppliers of such equipment (mostly for backup and site supplies, too).