Shane

That is brilliant advice thank you so much. Mum in law is 73 and father in law 66. And reading through the DWP web site about Attendance Allowance we think they should be on that anyway. They have both been on DLA for a long time so I suppose (not knowing the UK system anymore) a transfer should be relatively easy!! They are going to investigate. Thanks again.

Just found this thread and it may be of help to us. My mother and father in law would like to join us here in France and are both over retirement age and in receipt of their pension in the UK and both receive full DLA (ie care and mobiliy component). Am I correct in reading that the mobility component of the DLA is NOT transferrable to France? If this is so they would not be able to manage on their other income. So if it is NOT transferrable could they apply for the equivalent of the French Disability Benefit, they would be well below the threshold and are both well over 80% disabled. Father in law has had numerous heart attacks and suffers with angine and struggles to walk and mother in law too has had heart attacks and can hardly walk at all. Any advice appreciated, we would love them to be here but cannot afford unfortunately to support them financially.

We have used Sterling too for the 25th April delivery and was so impressed immediately did another order for 9th May. Their service is excellant.

Talking of Staffies, just had a panic phone call from some friends who live here in France and they have 3 non pedigree staffies (staffordshire bull terriers) . Today they had a fosse inspection and the french lady saw the dogs and told them that they are dangerous dogs, should be muzzled, registered at the mairie and could be put down if seen by a gendarme. Well to say the least they are very alarmed. As it is they never take the dogs out in public, they live on a remote farm and have another two dogs, five in total, so it is not practical to take them out anywhere, plus the fact they walk them on their own land and they are all getting on a bit in years too. They do go to the vet regularly for medication or vaccinations and the vet has never commented. Is this all correct? They thought it was only pedigree staffordshire terriers which were on the category 2 lists.

We were told about this by a friend and have applied. We were told it would take a couple of months as there was a huge backlog so we are waiting to hear, but the very nice lady said there should be not problem. We thought we had to cancel our top up policy but Groupama said no, we continue and when we receive confirmation from CPAM to take the letter to them and they then stop our top up payments immediately. It was all very easy to sort out, just fingers crossed we get a yes.

Sorry Quillan had a look at your link but I cannot see anywhere that it says you do not pay the FT line rental.

I have to say we have been very very impressed with SFR and many people we know have changed to them in order to make savings on their communications. They handle the telephone termination with FT and you have to terminate your internet connection by letter once everything is up and running which again was easy. Our Neuf box arrived and we were without internet for 30 minutes while we set it up and voila away it went. We never had any problems with Orange/FT it was purely a money thing and we have saved approx 20 euro a month - 240 euro a year. Ofcourse we only have the one phone now plugged into the router and if the power went off we would be without land line but keep a mobile with a little money on just in case there is an emergency.

We were on this deal with Orange and FT apart from the extra 7 euro for calls to the UK and mobiles but we still had to pay the line rental of 16 euro per month on top of the 32.90 (including livebox rental). Having been with Orange/FT for over 6 years and regularly checking their offers I have never seen where you did not pay the line rental.

We have just moved from Orange/France telecom with whom we paid 16 euro a month line rental, plus 32.90 a month adsl including free calls in France plus call charges to the uk - on average 55 euro a month total. We are now with SFR and pay 34.90 a month total cost including line rental, free calls in France and to the Uk on land lines and other countries and including adsl/broadband 8 meg. See www.sfr.fr web site. The change over was easy and we were only off line 30 minutes and everything was sorted within 10 days.

We have found that the eye test we get here in France is far better than we ever had in the UK. Usually takes an hour or more and we have had tests we never had in the UK. Yes the cost is very expensive but for example my husband used to have lens which were like milk bottle bottoms in the uk and was never offered anything different but here they have given him far better lens, so thin and lighter in weight. Neither of us could buy off the internet as our prescriptions are difficult and the measurements need to be taken for my glasses as they are varifocals. When I had to choose my varifocals for the first time I was given three prices and chose the cheapest but the optician said he was not happy with my choice and ordered the most expensive ones for me but for the price of the cheapest so I was really happy with that, plus I had a month to try them or I could change to two pairs of glasses and have a refund.

I recently had some new lens for my glasses, cost 475 euro and received 17 euro back from the cpam.    

There is a problem at the moment with SP3 coming down on to a laptop. We have two computers, desktops, via a livebox and downloaded SP3 no problem but when I downloaded it on to the lap top I cannot get it to connect, tried button one etc but the only way to connect is to delete SP3 and run with SP2. There are quite a few people with problems outlined on other forums. We are just leaving SP2 on and keeping fingers crossed.

Can anyone recommend a cattery in the Dordogne please.

Do not assume anything! Yes watched the channel 4 programme too and I was not amazed that their plans had turned to nothing. You must make sure all the i's are dotted and t's crossed before proceeding any further.

try www.frenchcottage.org