Val_2

Yes, I suppose along with Idun when she lived here, I am not the normal brit in France and I came with young children,have worked and run a business here and other normal activities pensioners would not do. I speak though from observation of older people moving here and so many are always on the ferry going back and forth many times per year (no wonder they are skint!) because they would not see grandchildren or their own children otherwise and I do wonder why so many come here in the first place if the grandchildren are already in existance,but then each to their own choice. The days of TV programmes enticing people to up sticks and move is now long gone and only the really wealthy can afford to do so and buy a decent property that does not command years and years of work and money that has actually left many here in dire poverty because they were in the beginning, bricks and mortar rich from selling up in the UK to fund the french life but we all know how fast that pot soon disappears unless you are working full time to replace it. My OH always maintained that France was for the wealthy pensioners with no worries each month and a good pension, he was right!

You shouldn't take any notice of newspaper articles for a start, sensationalism sells papers and people like nothing more than to read about the misery of others less fortunate which includes people who moved abroad for a new life and are now having to return home. There is a huge difference between having and wanting and as those of us who have lived in France for many many years know, it all boils down to just a few reasons why people decide to move on - no proper investigation was done prior to moving and hence, many have found what they considered their dream home in France to now be nothing more than a drain on reduced finances and boredom setting in with less to do here for those who do not integrate nor speak the language enough. Many people of a certain age group have found themselves with elderly parents needing care and guilt often forces people to return because they feel they owe it to their parents, pensions have decreased over the past few years meaning less money to spend and ever increasing costs do not match up. The birth of grandchildren is something I have seen people return for but they will probably end up becoming unpaid babysitters eventually! Then the problem of death of a spouse (something I know about) leaving people feeling very vulnerable especially women and yearning for some sort of comfort whether it be parents or children still living in the UK, divorce again is another factor especially for a woman left with children and with no hope of a proper job here to support them and then you have those in deep debt due to running a business here and getting caught up in unpayable cotisations if they have a bad year. I have seen many people leave France over the years and its been a mixture of all of those reasons and as for those who bought huge properties with acres of garden to keep manageable,that is also another factor as they get older and less able to do those things easily. Personally speaking and from just getting back from the UK after several years since the last visit, I know where I prefer to live and its not the UK.

170m² before an architecte is required to intervene.

My son skis in the Pyrenees and many families from our village go there as its much cheaper and closer than the alps with just as good facilities.

Unless the regs have changed, a Permis de Construire would be required because you are creating more habitation space where it did not exist before and therefore you have to submit this paperwork for eventual increases in your taxes. As it was not proper habitation space before you can benefit by the lower rate of TVA from your artisan upto and including the ceiling of the ground floor but for a first floor habitable space the TVA is normally charged at the full rate of 19,6%. This is from when I got the Impôts TVA dept to confirm in writing for a similar project we worked on for clients which was also a previously non-domestic and non inhabited barn but was transormed into a cottage with a first floor having two bedrooms and a bathroom. Make sure your builder gets this right or they will come after you as the owner for the difference unless of course you are doing all the work yourself. Also go and chat at the mairie whether this is feasible from the off to save you time and expense doing plans and photos etc for your submit as the commission d'urbanism will the ones who say if you can go ahead locally.

A cause of death is not put on the certificate de déces at all, if requested by the banks etc, you have to get the doctor who was in charge of the deceased to do an attestation that the death was only either natural or suicide (I had to do this for the bank to cover insurance purposes) I am sure I read that in France, the medical service will take organs unless the family specifically wishes them not to and it maybe that this young man had no one to object at the time of death or the whereabouts or identity of his family and where they lived were not known for some weeks/months later. I am a great believer in organ donation and the good that can come from it because the deceased is well past caring by that time and it does actually help with accepting what has happened I can tell you from recent personal experience and alllowing donation. Perhaps also the deceased had severed all ties with family and why they did not find out he was even dead, who knows. However as the mother of a young man in his 20's it would still be the most horrific shock.

Not quite sure what you mean but we were a general building firm with employees and registered with the local council to carry out home improvements for all householders who gained a council grant payment which in turn kept us in business, kept suppliers and other businesses going and paid taxes etc. We came here when the recession hit in 94 and many of our competitors went under and we just managed to hang on but OH said, why carry on here when we have a home already in France and its cheaper to live there instead which we did in 94 and he never stopped working from the day he arrived to the week before he died.

Sorry but it wouldn't have been news in this region, more likely bigger coverage locally where it happened.

I seem to remember my husband losing a lot of work through her schemes as she stopped all the local Council grant schemes for which we were an approved company back then and it brought in around 75% of our turnover each year. A lot of household benefitted from financial help to improve their living conditions and many many building contractors like ourselves could employ several people and actually make a decent living from it. Apart from that, I never bothered with politics and still don't as being a councillor here in France is not political even if its a socialist council but most of the elus are capitalists with lots of money and property etc.

It can be seen as intimidation if parties contact one another if it should go to tribunal which I doubt for one moment as its not a serious claim. In our case, both parties were taken to hospital and both vehicles written off but the other party told so many lies they eventually forgot what the real truth was and it awarded against them and the fact they kept ringing us at 7am and throughout the day to ask questions and demand meetings etc. Insurance is expensive enough so let them do the legwork etc. The problem is that perhaps the other party don't want their insurance involved as the french seem to have a fear of their premiums going up/bonus affected for claims etc and she would probably have to pay her franchise too which might be excessive compared to the value of the claim so is just forgetting about it conveniently. As for that insurance company "P", I could tell you a story about them and the mother of my son's friend but I could end up being sued if they found out but suffice to say, I would not touch them with a 100m bargepole.

Sorry that shold read you must NOT MAKE ANY CONTACT.

Can I just point out from our experience of a serious accident, you must MAKE ANY CONTACT whatsoever with the other party. Your insurers will tell you this also. Do not accept any calls or contact from them and if you, keep a diary. The other party in our case, kept ringing every day for several days afterwards and tried to get OH to go to their house to sort out the constats which they had refused to sign at all stages and they were the ones who caused the accident from the proof on the road and on the vehicles.

Just heard on the BBC that the intelligence and security forces will be scrutinising the internet for anti-Thatcher stuff after all the unrest of the past couple of days. Be careful what you put on the www, it may come back to haunt you!

Yes that address is for the Credit Agricole in St.Pol who as I said use Pacifica for insurance.

There are huge bargains out there currently compared to prices five years back. However anyone taking on something like a chateau at a knockdown price should have some permanent deep pockets because those places never stop needing money thrown at them whatever state they may be in. In my neck of the woods there are some real good coastal bargains to be had now and in fact some of them are actually cheaper and larger properties than others which are not as close to the sea and smaller for some strange reason other than the taxes are cheaper the further away from the coast you live. A lot of people still believe their properties are worth huge amounts and hence, they are still for sale several years on.

There is no Pacifica agency listed for St.Pol in the local phone book. Did you know that Credit Agricole are agents for Pacifica for their vehicle insurances? I also wonder if the driver is not insured as I think you mentioned it was a young lad???  Looking again in the yellow pages there seems to be no agencies for Pacifica anywhere in the region

This may or may not be significant but my friend, after many years of an upstairs loo not running right and many interventions of different plumbers has discovered the problem. It appears because some of the pipework is running at a straight level from the loo along the back of the house until it goes down the vertical pipe into the drainage,that use over the years has caused a layer of thick waste to build up because there was not enough flush power to wash everything along the horizontal part until it starts to descend. It maybe that the pipes laid for this particular toilet are not installed correctly and giving the waste the descent it needs to evacuate completely and therefore it tends to block very easily nd quickly if people use a lot of paper etc. Water can't run uphill nor horizontal along pipes unless it has power behind it and half flushes on modern water saving loos certainly won't shift a lot. Most plumbers these days have a little camera they can put down troublesome pipes, our one did for my blocked outside drain and found the grease had all but blocked it up.

The r/bout in question is a large modern priority to vehicles already on it with exits off the dual carriageway to Roscoff, the main Citroën/Renault trucks and Centre Commercial sector and onto the N12 to Brest. It is clearly marked with white solid lines but as we all know there are many elderly people who still do not understand the changes made to r/bouts and they continue to drive straight on regardless of stopping plus I have noticed that many locals do not really understand which lane they should get into for their exit off. There is an island in the middle which is not high and grassed over and quite often gendarmes and the douanes park on the exits to stop and do contrôles. I came back from there earlier after doing a bit of shopping but it wasn't busy unlike between 17-19h when it can be bumper to bumper.

When she was about I was not interested in politics,my love life and forthcoming marriage was more important back then.To be honest I thought she had died years back. My FIL, I remember used to moan about her but he was a socialist and union man.

Just read your account again and you might like to tell your insurers from someone who has used that roundabout for the past 23years plus that the chanel coming down from Roscoff upto the r/bout stops at an acute angle in as much as you often don't get cars already on the r/bout and coming towards actually signally until they straighten up and want to turn right.So many times have I come round there and the supposedly waiting traffic has begun to creep out until they suddenly realise I need to exist directly in front of them as the distance from that entry to the next exist is only a matter of metres at the most. Therefore you would have been stationary if there was trafic coming round and the kid behind should have left a good space before creeping up behind you because it sounds like he was a tailgater to me and they are prolific in France. Sorry about the language, my english is getting worse as I don't tend to speak it as much as I do french these days.

Know this roundabout well as I use it frequenty being in the vicinity and you need eyes everywhere because there are cars coming from four directions all at once and very fast usually. The number of accidents there over the years is numerous and it is the last roundabout before going onto the dual carriageway for Roscoff and the ferry. Personally speaking let your insurers deal with it but never declare yourself to blame whatever happens.

Normally your local friendly garage is far better than a main dealer and cheaper. Remember in France most mechs are either Renault or Citroën/peugeot (PSA) trained and most have invested in good gear to keep their clients happy. We have also found that sticking with one garage,provided they do a good job each year, you will become a priority when things go wrong or you need dépannage from a distance etc.

New affluent worker - now what the hell is that cos I don't work full time nor have any money.What a load of old cobras

A friend who worked at our local branch told us this a few years back and had actually seen the meat re-packaged and re-labelled and warned us about it so its nothing new.

You won't find an accountant here for the equivalent of £35/hour I can tell you. More like €135/hour plus