Pickles

[quote user="gardengirl "]Did you have to wait a long time for the sale? Now you have the job of finding what to do with all the extra stuff you weren't planning on keeping.[/quote] It basically took just under 18 months to sell, but we weren't in any hurry. However, I also suspect that the agent had thought that the margin for offers that we would consider was smaller than it actually was. Some of the excess stuff that we brought back is going to go straight to Oxfam. Quite a bit of the rest that remains in our neighbour's cave will end up at Emmaus - we just didn't have time to sort it and organise collection.

[quote user="mint"] So.................you are knackered but relieved and loaded (and no, I don't mean the chattels [:D])?  Not a bad position to be in? [/quote] During the marathon 3-hour signing session at the notaire's office (note to self: you COULD have done that by procuration and SHOULD have), there was some discussion about capital gains tax, social charges on non-residents, forced use of SARF as a fiscal representative (the notaire pointing out that SARF was getting more for "checking the notaire's tax calculation" than he was) until even we were forced to point out that at least there was a capital gain to tax ...!

[quote user="NormanH"]Congratulations on your sale, and many regrets that I wasn't able to  help out with the chattels. Is this the end totally of your involvement with La Belle? [/quote] Thanks, NH - your hospitalisation was unfortunately timed (when is ever a good time?) but these things happen and you have to focus on recovering your health, which is far more important. The last few days were a panic but that was because Plan B was built around a new depot-vente chappie, with a place literally across the road, who mucked around a bit (though he is a very nice chap) and we ended up moving far more stuff than we had expected. Fortunately one of our (now-former) neighbours has lent us his cave to store the excess for a few months so we will return to sort through the remains next year at some point. We still have a parking space in the residence which wasn't sold as part of the apartment sale, so that will be sold next year, and we still have a couple of commercial investment properties that we bought to give a Euro income to pay for the running costs of the flat, so we are still very much in the French tax system for the next few years or until someone decides that they want an investment income! The money that we will not be paying in TF, TdH, charges de copropriété etc will pay for quite a few nights in gites and hotels in France and elsewhere, so we will still be visiting France and seeing a few other regions as well as returning to our favourite restaurants in and around Montpellier from time to time. We view the whole experience very positively: it was the right thing to do at the time, we were able to make good use of it, and now's the time to move on.

Well, it has finally happened. Our sale has completed, we have removed our chattels from the flat - and there were a damn sight more of them than we ever realised - and we have left our flat in Montpellier for the last time. Set off the next day ... into a snowstorm on the A750/75 ... and ambled back up to the UK with trailer in tow, the dining table on the roof rack and the car packed up to the roof. Arriving at the Chunnel, the Border Agency person checking our passports queried what we had on board and we ended up saying "personal effects that in hindsight should probably have stayed behind in France - basically junk!" So ends twelve and a half years of French second home ownership. We are absolutely, totally knackered.

[quote user="NormanH"]Many people see the need for changes in France, such as simplifying administration and streamlining the unwieldy local government millefeuille so that there are fewer levels doing the same thing. This wasn't done in Sarkozy's last period in office and is slowly and timidly been done by Hollande. Sarkozy represents a big business grab of French assets, coupled with a smothering of an independent judiciary and a blanket ownership of the press. Very sinister, and reminiscent of Berlusconi [/quote] I find it difficult to remember what Sarko actually achieved. He did (at the end) reduce some taxes (some of which were immediately reversed and indeed increased retroactively by Hollande). He introduced the autoentrepreneur scheme. He totally failed to reform pensions or social security. He completely failed to address the overly-large and top-heavy civil service. He failed to reduce state spending. He failed to reform the accumulation of very-well-remunerated jobs by politicians (of all parties). He reduced the amount of advertising that the state TV channels could carry, in favour of his chums who own the privately-owned channels. He introduced the requirement for a breathalyser, again strangely in favour of another chum.

[quote user="nomoss"][quote user="powerdesal"]'' For the last 8 months I have been using Unotelly a dns service via my puter a brilliant co '' What is a ''puter'' ??????[/quote] It translates in French to "Ordi" [:D] [/quote] Or perhaps "nateur" to be pedanic, but I accept that I have heard "'puter" rather than "comp" used as a VERY colloquial abbreviation for "computer" in the UK and of course "ordi" in France.

[quote user="Thibault"]By the way, how do you do those neat little quote bits? If I try to quote from the previous message, it all comes out all mixed up with machine code. If I cut and paste, I don't get the nice little shaded box.[/quote] I think it comes down to which browser you use. I'm using Firefox (OK, to be pedantic, it's IceWeasel, but it is effectively Firefox) on a Linux operating system and it seems to be compatible with the site software. If you can find the options on your browser for running in "compatibility mode", then you may get nice quote boxes instead of gobbledygook. 

[quote user="Théière"] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2853251/US-tycoon-refuses-rescue-doomed-French-tyre-factory-country-stupid-labour-laws-communist.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490 [/quote] Hell's bells, is that factory STILL going? I thought that they knocked it on the head last year. It's like "Groundhog day" (the film) sometimes.

[quote user="Thibault"]I would take issue with your use of the phrase 'appalling behaviour' - it was rude and he should have known better, but no-one died; no-one was physically attacked.[/quote] OK. Accepted. I meant in relative terms in relation to his status rather than in absolute terms, but certainly in absolute terms "appalling" is over the top.   [quote user="Thibault"]This is the problem today and it is down to tabloid headlines where everything is 'horrific' or a 'tragedy' - people rush to use the strongest term possible for relatively minor events, with the consequence that when something really horrific happens, there are no words to describe it properly, because we have used them all on lesser issues. As to why he took it further, do you remember the onslaught of media hype around this incident? Do you remember the police tee shirts ' PC Pleb and proud'? Do you remember the false account made from a supposed witness? Do you remember the leaks to the Sun newspaper which printed alleged extracts from police notebooks? Do you remember the Police Federation Reps in his constituency who mislead the media about what had been said? Given all that, if he was sure he did not say the P word (and he denied it right from the start and never wavered in that, leading to the recent libel case) what should he have done? I don't particularly like the man and I think he should have had better control over his temper, but on the other hand the frenzy surrounding the whole thing, helped by the police themselves it has to be said, was not edifying either. The media and others were out for his blood and nothing could have stopped them.[/quote] This is where we differ: I think that in the early stages the situation was entirely within his control and his actions and inactions at an early stage created a situation where it then got beyond his control. Anything less than a fulsome apology was never going to work. Qualifying the apology begged a response and just put the whole thing into a new news cycle with a different focus and from which he rapidly came out in a poor light. Poor show for a politician.

[quote user="WJT"]Does anyone not think there is a chance Alain Juppé may be the next UMP leader?[/quote] The man who was banned from public office initially for ten years? The potential leaders of the centre-right have been so focussed on fighting amongst themselves that they have created the conditions for Sarko's return. Brilliant work there, lads.

[quote user="Thibault"]If you remember, he did apologise for swearing at the police. He disputed the accusation that he used the word pleb. [/quote] I seem to recall that his apology was rather less than fulsome. Be that as it may, however, he demonstrated an appalling lack of judgement by trying to make a pedantic point about the word "pleb" when he could have kept his mouth shut and kept his job. This was schoolyard stuff and not worthy of someone in his position, other than to admit the transgression, apologise properly and move on without adding fuel to the fire. Come on, this guy is supposed to be a POLITICIAN! If he hasn't got the nouse to avoid an eminently avoidable problem, then he is in the wrong job. [quote user="Thibault"]In the end, it was his word against the policeman and the judge said it was on the balance of probabilities that he did use it, because the policeman lacked the wit to use the word himself. Not a terribly satisfactory way to arrive at a decision, but I guess the judge had no choice when the other policeman (not the one in the action) couldn't be bothered to complete his notebook. If we are searching for the perfect person to trust with power, then it will be a long wait. Another useful saying - 'Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.'[/quote] I can't accept that we should not condemn appalling behaviour and lapses of judgement by our elected politicians. He may have been having a bad day and did something stupid. Fine. I can accept that that can happen to anybody. What happened next was entirely within his control and he completely fouled it up. If we have sunk so low that we can't criticise stupid childish behaviour by one of our elected politicians, then there really is no hope. Are our expectations of our politicians so low that we should consider this behaviour "normal" and "acceptable"?

[quote user="NormanH"]Thanks still pretty shaky but invited out for a light lunch today[:D] [/quote] Don't go far: otherwise you'll need water wings - some of the roads are still flooded, apparently.

[quote user="Thibault"]Whatever happened to the notion of '...sticks and stones...'? When I was at school, and the playground bullies started, that was the riposte which shut them up.[/quote] A senior member of the government should not be behaving like a bully in public. If senior members of the government show this attitude to the police force, what signal does that send to the rest of the population? Or is it "one rule for you, a different one for me because I'm better than you"? If he had simply apologised for the bad language, shut up and moved on, he wouldn't now be on the way to being (allegedly) £3 million poorer, out of government and this incident would have been the tiny footnote that it deserves to be. Everyone can have a bad day. But no, even given overnight to calm down and reflect upon the situation, he had to try to make a pedantic point whilst trivialising his unacceptable swearing at a police officer. Are these the actions of someone who should be trusted with power?

We drove into the tail end of one of the storms as we drove back from Marseille Airport on Friday evening. Impressive concentration of lightning flashes but no rain until we were just short of Montpellier, but lots of warnings from Autoroute FM about problems on the secondary roads. Palavas seemed to have been hit mainly because the high tide and high winds prevented the Lez from flowing into the sea. Damage seems to be far worse elsewhere.

I'm late on parade again, but glad to know that you are on the mend, NH.

I don't think that you are really saying that it is acceptable for a senior politician to behave like a bolshie 19-year-old. Note however, that the person mentioned in the article was in fact arrested and convicted at the time for his behaviour and only got off on appeal.

When this originally came up, Mitchell was said to have sworn at the police officer and called him a "pleb". Mitchell then focused on the word "pleb", saying that he didn't use that word, BUT ADMITTED SWEARING AT A POLICE OFFICER. He evidently did not and does not consider it to be reprehensible to swear at a police officer. In the ensuing story in the papers, the focus was on the word "pleb". I do not understand why Mitchell did not immediately and unreservedly apologise for the swearing. When did this behaviour become acceptable from our politicians? If you or I swore at a police officer, we would run the risk of arrest, probably on public order grounds. Why wasn't he arrested?

[quote user="EuroTrash"]This is the first year I've had to pay cotisations foncière d'entreprise, I've received the paper avis that says it has to be paid electronically and I've been waiting for the avis to appear in my espace client, but it still hasn't. It's not due yet but I am surprised that it is not there already, usually these things seem to show online before the paper avis arrives. So am wondering if there is something different about this tax that I should know, and sitting back waiting for it to pop up online so that I can pay it is not the right strategy.[/quote] Just a guess, but are you currently using the espace client under the particulier tab, or the professionnel tab?

Just a couple of additional details: 1) I bought the Huawei 5372 because it can receive 4G signals where they are available - this results in a faster data connection than using 3G. 2) Some of the "um ... errrr" comments from 3 UK staff might have arisen because if you are away for complete months in "Feel at home" destinations more than twice per year, 3 UK will consider this to be a breach of the contract. As it says in the small print, it is intended for occasional visits abroad, not for use abroad for a significant part of the year. This was why we investigated Joemobile for use in France in the first place. Of course our plan was overtaken by events in that we subsequently accepted an offer on our apartment and thus our needs are about to change again, but that's life.

There is a certain element of "chicken and egg" going on here. Although I agree with Derrida that (assuming that I have understood him) "old-style" politicians can find that modern media are baulking and undermining them at every turn, I think that we are now well past the point at which many (most?) politicians are deliberately the product of their media campaigns rather than being the committed people of conviction that we might wish to see. And I put Farridge (I've written it as it should be pronounced if he's so much of an ordinary honest-to-goodness man of he people) firmly in this camp. In the UK we seem to have a generation of "career politicians" (to avoid labelling them as professionals, with the accompanying inference of competence), who have never really worked in "proper jobs" (however you may wish to define such jobs!). Many of them have no real connection with the places that they have been elected to represent, having been imposed on the local constituency party. To add insult to injury, it seems quite evident that when they arrive in Westminster, many of them "go native" to the extent that they seem to identify more with their fellow politicians than with their electorate. As an example of the culture that pervades Westminster, one need look no further than the expenses scandal, where the overall tenor of the defence was outraged entitlement to declaring things as "expenses" which the taxman would not allow for mere members of the public. Similarly, the quite cynical system in which MPs could make capital gains on properties bought with taxpayer's money could never have been justified, yet when it was revealed, the number of times that the phrase "But everything I did was within the rules" was sickening. The media is certainly a problem: the focus on the "sound-bite"; the need to feed the 24-hour news machine; to fill columns with cheap and rapidly-obtained uninformed speculation rather than considered analysis; the need to fill "dead air" all militate against the need for considered decision-making on the part of our politicians (and course by the general public). Remember: for every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, glaringly obvious, easy ... and dead wrong. The level of knee-jerk reactions which are served up by the more stupid politicians makes me want to grab them by the throat (in a caring and philanthropic way, naturally), shake them gently and say "Don't just DO something, SIT there and think a bit" Western societies have seen enormous increases in the speed of communication and the proliferation of sources of data and information, and we haven't adapted to this. Society in general (at all levels) does not seem to understand the difference between data and information - and the media doesn't help in this respect. So what's the answer?

[quote user="Deepdale"] Thank you for this info. I don't want to appear thick but have a problem fully grasping this type of technology. I'd like to be able to temporarily connect to the internet when (often and regularly) staying at internet-deprived in-laws in rural France, but where nonetheless, a mobile signal is operative. Perhaps you can help me to understand better the principle: you say you bought a UK 3 PAYG example. Does this mean that you "connect" to the UK 3 network whilst using this item when in France? Is the Huawei 5372 "locked" to the 3 network? Or is it unlocked and  you just put in a French sim card when in France? Are there special sim cards for this type of set-up....a Joemobile one for example? Does this company have shops where you can buy them? (and how much are they?) I'd appreciate any advice you can give. [/quote] There are two things going on here. 1: Joemobile is a SIM-only provider. They are effectively a virtual mobile phone and internet service provider, using SFR's network. To keep things simple: I bought in the UK a "Mi-Fi" device, which takes a SIM and connects to the mobile phone network and gives a Wi-Fi signal that you can connect to with your tablets or whatever. All equipment sold by 3 in the UK is unlocked (hence the Huawei 5372 was unlocked), so you can just put the SIM of any other provider into it.  In this case I put the SIM from Joemobile into it, it connects to the mobile network and gives me internet access. The Joemobile SIM is really intended for smartphones and allows you to use VOIP (eg Skype) and to use the smartphone to provide a wi-fi hotspot to connect other devices by wi-fi (eg tablets etc). This is called "Tethering". It was just convenient for me to use it in a Mi-Fi device - I could have just put it into my smartphone instead.  Joemobile does not have shops: you can order one via the internet for delivery to a French address - but you do not have to provide proof of address. It arrives VERY quickly when ordered. Have a look at their two offerings at www.joemobile.fr The main advantage of the 20€/month offering is that you can use it for one month, suspend the service (by logging into the website) and thus saving the monthly fee, and then, as long as you restart it again within 6 months, your account will remain active. 2: The 3 network in the UK does good voice and data roaming deals: pay-monthly contracts can use their mobile voice and data in France and 15 other countries as if they were still in the UK, with calls and data usage being counted towards their normal UK allowance. There is a slightly more complicated system for PAYG users like me. The one thing that they do not allow is tethering whilst roaming. When you roam in France with say a UK 3 SIM, you connect to the French partner mobile network and are effectively accessing the internet from there. My understanding is that the date for abolishing mobile voice and data roaming charges in the EU is December 2015.

I saw the forecast that night. There was no advance warning for the very heavy rain or floods to the west of the Rhone. The only warning was to the East. Apparently 8 inches of rain fell in a couple of hours after dark. Current death toll is 5, three of whom were in the same car washed off a submersible bridge whose deck the next day was about 4 metres above the water level. The only survivor was the father, who managed to get out and raise the alarm. His wife and two very young children drowned: the body of one of the children was found 7 km downstream late the next day.

Don't hold your breath. The European Court ruling is only the start. The imposition of social charges on French income of non-residents was ruled illegal the other year by the European Court and the French Govt has ignored this and will challenge the ruling ... eventually. And the French will probably lose ... eventually. I think that there are several more years to go on this one as with social charges on income tax. And even then you may not get your money back. "Soaking" the "rich" foreign second-home owners is not unpopular in France ...

[quote user="josie"]Hi everyone Not sure if this has been asked before, but here goes and apologies if it has! Is it possible to buy vehicle in the UK and leave it registered to a UK address whilst insuring and using it in France (resident) or, if not, is it possible to leave it registered in UK whilst trying to sort import papers? I only ask as I have heard many horror stories about importing motorhomes, especially hgv ones and don't want to get stung!. Any advice/experience or links much appreciated[/quote] Have a look at this thread - though it is an old one. http://services.completefrance.com/forums/completefrance/cs/forums/1/1864483/ShowPost.aspx#1864483 I don't know if the situation has changed but you used to have a 4-month period of grace to get a vehicle re-registered if it needed to go via the "Titre Isolé" route AND you have opened a dossier with DRIRE or whatever replaces it now. You need to do some research especially regarding HGV motorhomes. I can't remember if there is an issue that you need to be aware of re your licence.

[quote user="vivienz"]Thanks, Sue and Norman.  I think I will sit tight for now and wait to hear from the notaire.  The compromis has been signed by the sellers; it was signed by them before it was sent to us, so the documents should all be in order. [/quote] Believe me; if the notaire wants some money from you, he/she will let you know very quickly!