Pickles

Hi Martin It was buried in this other thread: "Parsnips" posted about it. http://services.completefrance.com/forums/completefrance/cs/forums/6/3197175/ShowPost.aspx#3197175 But it IS true.

[quote user="AnOther"]Very noble and altruistic but just taking the damn medical will be solve the immediate problem, you can complain to SOLVIT afterwards [;-)] [/quote] Particularly since (so I have been led to believe) the "medical" is a simple visit to your GP and consists mainly of a count of limbs and a check that you are actually still breathing.

According to the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31737635 the individual European governments have defied the European Commission and the European Parliament and prevented the abolition of roaming charges which was due to take place later this year. Lobbying from vested interests, anyone?

Yep, me too.

Oi! I'm going to sue them for use of my image without permission. How much do you think it's worth?

[quote user="gardengirl "][quote user="woolybanana"]Is the 1st April significant? Why wait to impose them? Hmmmm[/quote] The date does sound a bit suspect, but you don't usually issue warnings about April fool activities! It sounds as though they might at long last be planning to keep a closer eye on exits from UK, rather than just on leaving France - at Eurotunnel in our case. Thinking about it, they no longer ask us anything about our trips to France when exiting; they used to ask where we had been, a little about what we had done. Maybe we're just too predictable nowadays.[/quote] Given the date referred to in the email, I double-checked before I posted. On the last couple of returns, we have drawn attention to ourselves - once with a pile of winter tyres on a platform on the towhook (and car packed up to the gunnels), and last time with little trailer packed to the gunnels, car packed to the gunnels, and more stuff on the roof-rack. Admittedly we looked more like one of the cars that we have seen at the Mediterannean ports heading off to North Africa with overloaded trailer and overloaded roofrack, but our explanations were accepted. If the Border Force staff do a "look at these lunatics" video for their Christmas party, I'm quite sure that our car will feature ... several times!

I've just had an email from Eurotunnel which says that exit checks are being imposed at all UK ports and airports w.e.f 1st April, and asking for ID information on all passengers which will then be passed to UKBF. Those travelling by ferry may receive similar requests.

Also be aware of the climate class of the fridge: no, not the energy rating, but the climate class - this is basically the range of ambient temperature over which the fridge is designed to operate. As we discovered during the hottest summer since ... ever (?), 2003, many fridges and freezers sold in the UK and France are rated as "N" - which means a room temp of +16 C to +32 C. These don't like being put into outbuildings for example. And in a canicule, if the room temp rises above +32 C (which it did in our place in 2003) ... they don't have the capacity to cool, and turn your ice-cream into soup and your milk into cheese. Available ratings are : SN - operating range of +10 C to +32 C N - operating range of +16 C to +32 C ST - operating range of +18 C to +38 C T - operating range of +18 C to +43 C You can also find ones which can straddle the ranges: eg SN/ST which will go from +10C to +38C, and SN/T which will go from +10 to +43C.

The problem is quite simple. 1: in most of England, we really don't get much snow (at least in the last few years) - hence the number of times per year when you are going to be seriously inconvenienced by snow is VERY low. In areas of the UK where they get snow more frequently, the locals tend to use winter tyres. 2: if you have winter tyres, then most of the rest of the people on the road don't, and THEIR crashes and failure to get grip will mean that you end up in the same traffic jam as they are. The fact that you have grip and they don't doesn't help. 3: The lorries don't have winter tyres, and the authorities in the UK do not prevent them from going on the roads and motorways when snow is forecast (this tends to happen in France - I have seen the Gendarmes closing off one lane of an autoroute to park up lorries entering the departement). One jacknifed lorry and it is game over, thanks for playing. I am an avid supporter of the use of snow tyres in winter, but the reality is that outside of Austria and Germany, where they are basically obligatory from November through to April, if you are on a major route and it snows heavily, the other vehicles are going to cause you to come to a halt. The jams that have happened today on the routes to the Alps will contain some cars that have winter tyres and others that don't - and whose drivers think that their chains are just for use in-resort (if at all)

[quote user="AnOther"]Under EU money laundering rules sums in excess of €10,000 are reportable to the tax authorities, below that it's individual bank policy. [/quote] What about that bloke who was stopped having just crossed over from Spain with €1 million in notes in his car the other day (IIRC). I think he's got a lot of 'splaining to do ...

[quote user="EM"][quote user="Foxie"]Hope this makes you feel better.[/quote] It does a bit - thank you. I wasn't really singling out my local branch, I meant that I feel cheated by the bank as a whole, because they didn't tell me in advance "hey, if you want to transfer in more than X then be prepared to do Y". Now that they have my money they can basically hold it to ransom until I do whatever they want. Perhaps to them (and to everyone here) it's so obvious that it didn't need to be said, but it was not obvious to me. Your explanation is somewhat reassuring, though. I can only hope you're right and this just gets filed away somewhere and that's the end of it.[/quote] At least once if not twice a year SocGen tries to find a new hoop to make us - as non-residents - jump through. For example, the fact that the French Fisc sends all of its paperwork through to us in a different country is not enough evidence. They want paperwork from HMRC. And it has to be dated within the last x months. So we lodge meaningless documents from HMRC bearing our details and SocGen are suddenly happy. Until the next time. They aren't picking on you. They are ticking boxes. SocGen now ticks more boxes than previously thanks to the failure of its internal systems in the Kerviel case (for example) and other things for which it has been warned! Whenever SocGen makes a mistake, the customers get punished ...

[quote user="EM"][quote user="Hereford"]If you have done nothing wrong and can prove the source of the money then you really should not worry.[/quote] OK, and what if I've done nothing wrong, but cannot prove the source of the money? Then I suppose I should worry - and I do! Yes, my course is entirely in English. And yes, the transfers were from outside the EU. I did ask about this at my university, actually, but they couldn't tell me anything useful. The well-meaning staff agreed with me that this shouldn't be any of the bank's business. They said they'd never heard of this happening before. If I had a euro for every time I heard that... Perhaps I'm alone in this, but I really feel that the bank is totally abusing its power and the trust I've placed in it. Had they told me about this up-front I would never have done so! The worst thing about it is that their threat is implicit and I don't actually know what it is I'm being threatened with. It IS a threat, though - there is an implication of negative consequence for not giving them what they want. (Otherwise why would anyone answer?) Of course, even asking them to explain themselves can be seen as "uncooperative" - and they're still unlikely to give me a meaningful answer. Anyway, I suppose I'll have to send them the statement they're after and just HOPE that satisfies them.[/quote] If the originating account is in your name, then perhaps just a copy of an account statement for the originating account may suffice. If not, then a note signed by the owner of the originating account confirming the payment and the reason for the payment - eg covering living expenses. Of course, SocGen would be in no position to check the signature ...

[quote user="Hereford"]I am confused as to how you can study in France without apparently speaking the language [/quote] Easy: some French universities teach some courses in English. My god-daughter did an Erasmus year in France and IIRC all the courses she attended were in English ... (well, a version of English, anyway ...)

Just in case anyone thought that the jealousy and emnity described in Pagnol's Jean de Florette belongs to a different century, here is an edifying story from today's Midi Libre: http://www.midilibre.fr/2015/02/19/trois-cents-chenes-truffiers-detruits-a-la-tronconneuse,1126210.php

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]Whilst I understand what you are implying, Gardian, how is it that in the 1960's only about 5% of students went on from school to tertiary education, versus an approximate 50% today?[/quote] I'm sure that you are well aware that there simply weren't the student places provided by the universities, and thus many people who would today be readily accepted into university did not get the opportunity in the 50s and 60s. Many took professional or vocational exams on a part-time basis whilst working. People did real apprenticeships. However, many quite capable people, by today's standards and by the standards of the time, were excluded. The expansion of UK tertiary education really took place in two spurts: one in the 60s that took participation up to around 13-15%, and then the second starting in the late 80s and into the 90s etc, which has brought us to where we are. I feel that there is a difference between the two expansions however: the first was driven by perceived needs of the country and utterly cynically I feel that the second was driven by the need to reduce youth unemployment rates. I think that most universities really don't know what the heck they are supposed to be doing, and we have seen grade inflation first in the incoming students' grades, and secondly in the degrees awarded. I sat in several final exam boards where our external examiners told us that we were not awarding enough firsts compared with other universities, and they felt that we should award more even if we though that they didn't deserve it!

[quote user="Rabbie"][...] newspapers are bought either in depth analysis or just plain entertainment.[...][/quote] I think that the Torygraph and Times in particular have failed spectacularly regarding in-depth analysis. Even the Sundays are now full of poorly-written sensationalist pieces that demonstrate a worrying lack of knowledge of all fields. On the TV side, having recently had the choice between all the German/Austrian channels, France 24, TV5 Monde, CNN, BBC World, NHK World, RAI, Russia Today and Al-Jazeera, I was pleasantly surprised by the general standards of Al-Jazeera amongst the English-language broadcasters. CNN would drive a goldfish insane within half an hour, BBC World might take slightly longer. NHK World is very interesting if you have even the least interest in Japan ... TV5 Monde was good in terms of the range of sources of news programmes (Quebec, Belgium, France, Switzerland), with all showing their own partialities. The news on the German channels was generally fairly seriously approached (as far as my German goes). RT was just a travesty in any language. RAI's military-uniformed met man presenting the weather was always good for a bit of unintentional retro humour.

Why not try one of the on-line banks - Fortuneo or Boursorama? If you keep some savings with them, the account fees can be avoided.

[quote user="NormanH"]I agree with dismay about the descent of the Telegraph and it seems to have happened quite recently. As you can imagine I often used to disagree with the opinions but I found it excellent for news and reviews. In the latter area it avoided the trendiness I abhor in the Guardian. Unfortunately your summary is accurate; to which can be added a terrible decline in the style of written English. [/quote] Try the Economist - worth the subscription even if you disagree with the underlying premise.

Ah, but who is going to mark it?

[quote user="NormanH"]I am referring to this story http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/peter-oborne-resignation-senior-writer-dramatically-quits-telegraph-over-hsbc-allegations-10052314.html [/quote] I think that there are two answers: 1) they sincerely wish that they could ... but those pesky other papers put paid to that ... 2) the management seems to have made it perfectly clear that:     a) they will interfere in editorial decisions (unlike squeaky-clean Murdoch ......) (where's the sarcasm emoticon?)     b) advertisers are to be allowed an undue influence on editorial policy Whatever, the Getelarph just saw its remaining credibility publicly and ritually slaughtered.

[quote user="EM"]OK, so they can ask, but what can they do if I tell them "ca ne vous concerne pas", which I have a good mind to do? Can they freeze my account, for example, just because I refuse to discuss my financial situation with them?[/quote] We found SG to have always been somewhat inclined towards officiousness. They think that they are fulfilling the demands placed upon them by the French Govt, and seem to love any excuse to pry into the account-holders affairs and add another note to your "dossier". We paid in the €5K proceeds of a car sale and they wanted to see a copy of the bill of sale. Didn't bother us so we gave them a copy. Just give them a reasonable explanation (eg bursary or scholarship payment from UK, gift from parents etc). They may indeed have a right to ask for an explanation of the source of the money and if you choose to be uncooperative, they could in extremis retaliate whilst hiding (possibly erroneously) behind the excuse of "the Fisc requires to know" or some such. Read very carefully the terms and conditions of your account: you may find some surprising ones. Personally, I would save the snottiness for when they make a mistake. Incidentally, I note from their latest tariff sheet that they intend to charge a 2€/month fee for just having a current account from January 2016 onwards.

I presume that when they say "kit mains libres" they don't mean the built-in bluetooth systems in cars? Looking at the actual press release: http://www.youscribe.com/catalogue/tous/actualite-et-debat-de-societe/actualite-evenements/securite-routiere-26-mesures-pour-une-nouvelle-mobilisation-2538816 it only seems to mention banning the wearing of earpiece systems or headphones, presumably in relation to both phones and MP3 players ...

[quote user="Patf"]I know that in the UK, if the property is rented out, it's an obligation to have an annual check, not sure about full service though. And I don't know about penalties. [/quote] For UK rented property, there is an obligation to have an annual safety check on all gas appliances, but NOT an obligation to "service" them, though the appliances should be in good working order, so if the safety check reveals any issues, you must then go on to fix them. What one gas fitter said to me was "Basically, if it ain't broke, don't fix it" - taking things apart unnecessarily is quite likely to cause problems rather than prevent them. Having said that, maintenance tasks such as use of rust inhibitor in susceptible systems and consequent system flushes should be considered WHERE NECESSARY.

[quote user="Loiseau"]In fact, make a point of turning off the water at the meter every time you go home. That way, any loo-trickling or burst pipe during your absence will not cause any headaches - until you return. Angela[/quote] And especially in hard water areas, it helps to prevent the stop-cock (male hen!) or valve from seizing up.

I am making the assumption that the property is jointly owned and that one party wishes to buy out the other (because otherwise they should just put it on the market). In this case just get a (free) verbal estimate from a local estate agent. Providing that both parties agree the valuation, there shouldn't be any need to incur valuation fees. Bear in mind that there would be a difference between a "price to sell ... eventually ... maybe" and a "price to sell, NOW" and a realistic view is necessary from both parties. I stand to be corrected but, since a legal transfer of the property will subsequently take place, at that point the value will be crystallised and if it is too low, the party being bought out will be getting a poor deal, but also then when the property is eventually sold, there will be a significant capital gain on which tax will have to be paid by the party which buys out the other (and of course there is the risk of the commune preempting the transfer by buying the property at the unreasonably low agreed value). If the agreed value is too high, then the party doing the buying-out is getting a poor deal. Basically the onus on the parties is to agree a valuation amicably.