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Seems very sensible to use gaine. Those wonderful UK house built with cables running down the walls with, at best, a bent piece of metal over them for protection and, at worse, just buried in the plaster. Major job to rewire

Beware of costs!!!! We recently had two weeks in France house searching and took an Orange Pay as You Go phone from the UK. With making and receiving calls to and from agents it literally cost £100. The reason is that when they call you they dial the country code of where the phone is registered AND you pay the cost of the calls from the country where it is registered to the country you are in. Likewise, you make a foreign call to speak to the person in the country you are visiting (in our case, to phone France from France requires the 0033 before the number). Next time we will buy a French SIM card from somewhere like www.0044.co.uk so that when in France, calls to Frnch numbers are 'local' - you get a French number to go with the SIM - and when people want to call us from the UK they will have to use the 0033 number and pay all the charges. I presume you can also get a UK SIM for use in the UK, probably from the above website or other similar ones. On the other hand, if it is just fo one or two calls the new SIM card will not be worth the expense. Paul

[quote user="nicktrollope"] Yes, if you can get a lead or adaptor to suit. Some may even be legal, too! [/quote] Legal - that spoils all the fun. Thanks Nick Paul

Did try searching for this earlier but did not seem to find anything. Will cordless (not mobile) phones from France work in the UK? Thanks Paul

Stumbled across this topic whilst searching for something else - to do with phones!!!!! I went to my GP in the UK and said 'I want a vasectomy'. 'OK' he said 'I'll get you an appointment with the hospital'. 'Just a minute' I said 'aren't you supposed to argue with me - we do not have any children'. 'No' was the reply 'you are adult enough (some who know me would dispute this) and you will be given some counselling at you outpatients appointment'. So I attended the appointment and the consultant, who was reading some notes and never looked at me pointed at a document and said 'sign that and we will send you an appointment' and that was it. Come the big day and I had to be at the hospital for 2pm. I opted for the local anaesthetic. Into theatre and there was the consultant and the sister. 'Where do you work' I was asked - amazing the banal small talk that you can have whilst 'your life' is in their hands 'For this NHS Trust' 'Where?' 'In the estates department' 'Have you seen the state of the ceiling in this theatre' I could hardly say no - as I was looking at it. The conversation then changed with the sister asking me 'how many children have you got?' 'None' I replied The consultant - yes, the one who was too busy reading at my OPD appointment - suddenly splutered 'none, you should have had some counselling'. It was a bit late now - he had done over half of the job. Back in the ward at 14:55 a nurse came and said to another chap an myself 'You can both go now'. Another chap in the ward said 'why can they go and I can't' 'Ah, they were big boys' he was told (wait for the story don't make your own up) 'they only had a local anaesthetic and not a general'. At home there was just a little ache, virtually nothing at all. So, I decided to go down to the pub in the early evening and had no problems and the ache had gone by next day. I know some people do have reactions but, compared to female sterilisation - or childbirth, then even if a man does have an adverse reaction then it might balance things up a little. Paul

I most sensibl reason for having security measures in place was written a litl hile back by someone else on this forum. It went something like: S*d th kids it's the animals that I worry about

What a wonderful ambassador he is for helping foreigners integrate with the natives, i.e. the French. Wonder what his attitude would be if he still lived in the UK and had a French neigbour who was doing as he is doing? Paul

Jo wrote ‘Potential viewers not seeming interested:’  We have recently spent two weeks viewing 60 properties. Some of these were ones that we requested, having seen them on the Internet. Others were ones that agents ‘thought we would be interested in’.   The viewing process is different to the UK. In the UK we would have driven by the property, decided if it was in the correct location, how did it look condition wise etc and only if we wished to proceed further then make a visit.   The French system is different and the first time that you will see the property is when you actually view. We then found that some of our choices were not what we wanted. Some of the properties that the agents thought we would like to see in no way met with what we were looking for – it seemed they thought they would show us some properties, probably because they could not meet what we wanted, in case we changed our mind – we did not.   If properties were occupied we tried to show some interest for the sake of the occupiers, aware also that we did not want to raise peoples hopes too much as it seemed that there were a number of desperate soles keen to sell.   Towards the end of the two weeks we made an offer on a property that we had seen on the Internet. It was one of the last viewed and until then we thought that we would be returning later in the year to carry on the search. The offer was accepted and we travelled over last week so that we could sign the Compris at the Notaires office at the time and date that the vendor said that they would be available. We turned up but sadly the vendor did not and could not be reached by phone but that is another story.   It seemed to us that there was a lot of property on the market with some seeming very overpriced. Also, having monitored the Internet for the last year it would seem that selling in 3 months would be an extremely fast sale. Whilst Jo says that the house is in good condition etc, unless it is what someone is looking for it will not sell.   Paul  

The normal procedure is: 'if you think it is asbestos then it is until proved otherwise' Paul  

Not sure of the actual requirements and penalties in France, but assume that they will be similar to the UK. If you quietly remove this waste - with the potential to harm your health, and asbestosis is something that can happen years later - and dump it you will be committing an offence. You need to do this correctly and pursue the builder. However, there might be some onus of a 'duty of care' in ensuring that the person you contracted to remove this was suitably qualified. Having said this, I would think that the less disasterous route for you would be to pursue the builder. Paul

Does anyone know if any of the banks in Mirepoix in the Ariege has any English speaking staff? The reason for asking is that w need to open a bank account and rather than opt for Barclays or Britline thought it might be useful to use an ordinay bank, albeit with a little help, so that we try to integrate (and improve our languag skills). Thanks Paul

Thanks for your replies. Been on to DVLA - they have me recorded as having a full bike licence. I then placed the card bit of the licence under a microscope and could make out that indeed the bike bit was on it. Whether I will ever ride another one is another story - last rode one in the early seventies [:-))]

Lola Best of luck with your change - sorry can't help there. What are the tax  credits you mention in changing to double glazing? Paul

Painterman We are just deciding with which bank to open an account - and being able to converse in English is a big plus until we improve our French. We shall be buying a property about an hour from Toulouse but it seems a bi of a way to visit the bank and I cannot ind any local branches. How do you go about drawing money in France? Paul PS forgot - the terms for Barclays Fance include having a minimum 3000 euros in the current account.

I will go along with Les on the back problems - including with the lumbar support. However, it is probably that some it will affect others it will not. Paul

Sunday Driver Yes that was the test, you drive around the block one way, the examiner the other and, when you are least expecting it, leap out in front of you. Seems to be a little bit different these days. Paul

Certainly took my test (must have been 1969) and passed.

Thanks Ian Just wanted some confirmation of what I thought the situation would be. Regards Paul

Just been looking at my driving licence and the DVLA have nicked my motorbike class. It's on the old red one from the 70s. Has anyone got the DVLA to put this back onto their current licence? (Sorry, its a UK licence and not a French one). Paul

What are the implications of buying a house with a pool that does not have any of the required security measures in place. Would we be liable from Day1 or would there be a grace period whilst the correct security items were put in place. Many thanks Paul

Does anyone know of a competent surveyor in the Mirepoix area (property just to the north) Would you recommend using one? Have been recommended the notaire at Chalabre as speaking excellent English - anyone experience of him or would you use a French speaking solicitor in the UK to provide legal advice? Many thanks Paul

Do these exist in France or is it a case of building block garages and individually built conservatories? Thanks Paul

Thanks Steve Certainly looks a nice house and those viws are very impressive. Paul

With the football mtch you could cause problems - cheer on England and you could be completely ostracised by the French. However, say this is now my adopted country and cheer on France and you could have a lot of French friends.

We are off to France very soon to look at property AND to visit some builders so that we can decide whether to go old or brand new. All I ever read is of peoples dissatisfaction with their chosen builder. Obviously, people will complain more than they praise. So are there people out there who are happy with the builders who built their house, that had no problems whose house was delivered on time (or before) and on budget? - or do they not exist? Paul