Paul_Gyn
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Posts posted by Paul_Gyn
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Hi Marie,
Your builder is wrong... If you have a TV in France (that is, a set of any kind with a tuner in it) and a permanent address (sounds like you have that) then you DO need a licence.
I suspect you could make a case for exemption if you brought a UK set and a Sat box over from the UK, as it wouldn't be able to receive French terrestrial transmissions, but I wouldn't bank on it.
Yes there are plans to roll it into the general taxation system but as far as I'm aware they are still just plans.
Do you live in the back of beyond? Perhaps your builder was just being pragmatic; the likelyhood of your being caught if you live w-a-y out in the country (and you are not already on their database) is pretty remote.
If you buy a TV set in France the retailer is obliged to take your address details and forward them to the authority (see below) if you have done this, then they will eventually send you a bill, you need do no more about it until then. Pay it or they WILL hound you!
Strangely, the retailer isn't required to forward information to the licencing aurthority if you buy a VCR, yet that would be the easiest way for a UK TV to pick up B&W French Pictures. (connected via a scart cable).
the address is:
Service de la Redevance de l'Audiovisuel
Immeuble "Le Turgot"
Le Colombier
35046 RENNES Cedex 9
Although they are part of the Tressor Public, you local office is unlikely to be of any help.
If your French is up to it their phone number is 02 99 85 72 85
Cost : E116.50
cheers,
paul
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As far as I know there are still clear SECAM signals to be had from a satellite at 5 degrees W. You could try finding this which will give you the basic French channels (TF!, F2, FR3, Arte, M6).
Viewed on your TV via the scart socket they will be - as you suspected - in b&w.
However a rooftop aerial and a cheap french VCR connected to the scart socket on your UK TV will give you much the same (the sat service for FR3 won't give you your local news... the aerial will).
Details of the actual frequencies on this site:
http://www.lyngsat.com/ab3.html
regards
paul
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Has anyone else found a problem with their computer after having installed Microsoft's service pack 2?
I have an ISDN connection using an Olitec adaptor which crashes within 30 - 40 seconds of going online. Downloading and installing the latest driver from the Olitec site has had no effect whatsoever and the only cure seems to be to roll back to the pre-installation date, which means of course I'm not 'benefiting' from the service pack improvements like its higher level of hack/virus security. I'm also plagued by update reminders trying to get me to download the service pack.
Anyone else similarly affected? I've tried both a disc and a downloaded version of the service pack and they're both as bad as each other.
paul
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I've just looked at my itineris box and can't find anything on it saying "this box remains the property of FT" or anything. Suspect you might have paid for it (to all intents and purposes) in the original change-to-isdn payment.
So now you are just paying the higher, 2-line abonnement. You just stop paying when you suspend the service when you move. (I'm shortly to do the same thing, so this is more hope than experience!!)
paul
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[quote]I've tried 648, 198, 6195, 9410, 12095, 15485, 17640 and 1296. The 6195 (I think) give a bit of reception at the moment but quality not great. To be honest I can't remember which is best as I normal...[/quote]
I inherited a h-u-g-e old shortwave set a good while back which had the option to choose which of the single side bands (SSB) you listened to, and sometimes on certain sw signals it dramatically improved the s.to n. but on others it did nothing and it always seemed to be one of them (can't remember if it was the upper or the lower side band) which made it better and the other made it worse. I, too have a Sony with SSB capability and - yes - it seems to select the wrong one to be any use!
paul
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[quote]I live in Val du Loir and cannot receive Radio 4 nor BBC World Service (on any of their short wave transmissions). contacted the BBC about this and their response was:"Reception of BBC World Service...[/quote]
I1.,
Have you tried 648 MW in the evenings? you might be far enough away for 1 bounce. Try it on two or three different sorts of weather conditions.
this would give you the World Service European output (as opposed to the Africa service)
paul
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I'm intrigued to read that you assume the devis for the electrics and the fosse will be automatically higher because you're English. We've never got that impression from the artisans we've used on our Loire-Atlantique house: - certainly when we discussed the costs with our french friends there wasn't the raising of eyebrows and sucking of teeth that you might have expected had we been rooked - they certainly wouldn't hold back if they though we'd been taken to the cleaners!
We did feel that our rendering @ E7,500 was expensive, but that was because the builder we used (Hobson's choice as everyone had a 10 month waiting list) was generally recognised to be The Best (and therefore the most expensive) in the area.
Certainly it's more expensive to renovate than to new build but that's a different issue. I'd still rather use a genuine French artisan with suret number and 10-year guarantee than a cheap, imported, English builder who doesn't know the local building styles and customs etc.
I know from experience how TV bends the truth and re-orders things but even so, that couple last night did seem to have bought a very large pig in a poke didn't they? Still if they can get a huge mausoleum like that re-plumbed, drained, and re-wired for only 22,000E there's hope for us all ! Looking forward to next week's episode.
Do any other people feel they paid through the nose (with builders etc, rather than the purchase price) just because they were English ?
Is you 'resident English Chap' (1st posting) Charles Walker by any chance?
paul
ps don't try to spellcheck until you have finished writing; otherwise the damn thing pops up again after every 2 words typed!
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Whilst I agree with Liz that it's just as easy to buy new each year, it's certainly worth half an hour's effort and a few newspapers to save some - certainly if you are fond of the colours. You can always use them as a source of cuttings next year if they do survive.
I remember reading in an old gardening book that in the country houses the gardeners used to de-pot and dry them off for a week or two, then bury them in pits covered with peat.
paul
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We've just signed for a house some 10 kms north of La Souterraine, if all goes well we'll get it at the end of march 05 (current owner wants time to try and find somewhere nearer the coast), so come the spring we may be able to swap notes about the difficulty in finding architects and artisans etc.!
paul & Gyn
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Jon, (et al)
I've just checked my bank and the payment went out last night so I'm safe, hope the same is true for you. So it seems we can pay manually and ignore the forms in future.
paul
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I didn't realise there was a NF for the siting of the boite aux lettres... I just drove the car up to the side of the house and visualised the postman leaning out of his little van and fixed the box at that height..... he seems happy enough with it.
paul
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Hi,
Yes, I've done the same with the Taxe d'habitation, but at least with that we have a few weeks to try and clear up the problem.
Like you, I'll be logging on to CAAV every morning with a deeper and deeper sense of doom!
Anyone know what the penalty for late payment for the Taxe Fonciere is?
Actually, what Jon and I need to know in order to sleep at night is - Is there anyone out there who signed up to pay online AND SENT THE FORMS OFF TO THE BANK. And if so, have you had the money taken out of your bank yet?
paul
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Can only speak of Dept 44 but...
Of the devis for the various trades involved in renovating a house here, the only one to cost " per item" was the electrician.
By that I mean rather than the devis showing a line for the material costs, and then a labour cost, this showed a total (pre-TVA) price per installed socket, cooker point, light fitting etc (or - God 'elp us - a doorbell sited at the gate! - Not my idea I can tell you !).
Was good because you could trim off items to bring the total back into the realms of reality!
paul
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[quote]Exactly the same as what happened to us: for the first time ever, we left power on while we went away in the caravan in summer, leaving a small amount of food in the freezer. We returned to find every...[/quote]
If it is fitted between the EDF disjonceur and the distribution board, it will certainly prevent damage to your installation, but is unlikely to prevent the EDF one tripping out, so you are no better off in terms of maintaining a supply.
paul
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The cheapest way I found to transfer sterling to Euros was using Band of Scotland (now HBOS) who charged £5 for any transaction up to £5,000 to move money across into a pre-registered foreign bank (CAAV in my case). It has worked fine for over 2 years now, moving most of my pension across each month. However this month I tried to set up another receiving french bank account in order to directly pay the 10% deposit on a house purchase, only to be told that they were not accepting new accounts.
A bit of probing revealed that the reason for this is that the receiving banking system 'sees' only the originator bank codes rather than the full account details and - guess what - the American ECC (as in Exchange Controls Commission) doesn't like this, so naturally, the entire British banking system is going to roll over and play dead just because Uncle Sam wags his finger.
Sorry I know this doesn't help you in your original enquiry, but it shows that things are going to get harder, not easier!
paul
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Hi,
I remember reading a thread a few weeks ago from someone who seemed to be in a similar position to me, but - predictably - I now can't find it.
I elected to pay my Taxe Fonciere on line which the system accepted and thanked me for, then sent me not only a confirmation but also the forms to set up a 'forme d'adhérer' which looks -to me - like the neccessary form for the Centre des impots to direct debit the taxe every year. This is NOT what I wanted to do (I have experience of them, and don't trust them to do it right: the friend from whom we bought this house continued to suffer automatic DD's AND receive final demands for non-payment for 4 years after we bought (and took over the taxe payments for) this house) I want to be able to instruct the payment manually on receipt of each year's bill.
So I did nothing with them having read the thread from another concerned poster and here we are now passed the date limite de paiement 16/10/04 with nothing gone out of my account.
What do you think? do I wizz down to the Tressor with a cheque, and run the risk of paying them twice (with fat chance of ever getting it back), or wait and see if the money does actually go out of my CA account?
paul
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Here's an arcane bit of information which might save one or two of you having to go round a particular loop in a France Telecom Agence.
If you have ISDN (Numeris), and go into the agence to enquire about something, often (although - strangely - not always) the FT computer will show your line as being 'suspendu'. What this actually means is that your 'ligne classique' (i.e. your analogue service) is suspended, although because in many places these days the number of client with Numeris is low the assistants may not be familiar with the distinction and think your whole service is suspended. This can cause endless hours of merryment, fun and joy for everyone as I discovered in Challans (85) recently. The confusion for me was because I actually do have another line in an entirely different location which really was suspendu for the season. All sorted in the end, although I still can't get Top Message to work with Numeris: can anyone else?
paul
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[quote]hi we bought a brand new appartement this year and filled in the H2 form by the appropriate time, end of June, however we haven't received our bill for either tax. Do I now need to chase them for it...[/quote]
My understanding is that whomsoever is the owner of the property on the 1st of Jan is responsible for the tax for the whole year (local arrangments between buyer and seller excepted, of course). Since you weren't the owner on that date I wouldn't worry about it. you might get an interim bill some time about next May, then the usual one thereafter.
paul
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[quote]Hi, We have several telephone points around the house and just one telephone at the moment. We'd like to buy a couple more cheap handsets and an answering machine. In the UK this wouldn't be a proble...[/quote]
> An alternative to getting an ansaphone might be to activate the France Telecom message system. Has anyone mastered it?Easy ! it's called 'Top Message' and you can subscribe to it (free) online. There is also somewhere on the FT site where you can order a copy of the top message instruction book. It's in French, of course, but it's easy enough to follow.You can adjust the number of rings before it kicks in, you can record your own message for no answer, a different one for engaged, you can pick up your messages remotely, you never forget to turn it on when you leave the house, It's free, What's not to like ????I've lost it since migrating to ISDN and would have it back in a flash if I could.paul -
You say you still have BBC1... Is it still the region you originally had?
Does the EPG have a listing for ch 103 or is it missing entirely?
paul
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Dick..... am I going mad or have you changed your picture between my reading today's posts and posting a reply ???
paul
(you're none of you strong enough to have to suffer a picture of me)
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"............If your French TV is multistandard, it should be able to decode UK (PAL) composite video, but if you are using RGB it doesn't matter............"
Actually if the TV is multistandard (i.e. SECAM/PAL) - as most French TVs are these days - it will happily display the picture via a scart despite its origin being a UK-sourced machine.
The different sorts of PAL (PAL-B/G, PAL-I) are a factor of the broadcast signal: the difference being the broadcast band (III or V in the case of B or G) and the spacing between the frequency of the sound signal and that of the vision when modulated on a carrier signal : variously 5Mhz, 5.5Mhz, or 6Mhz. The UK's PAL-I is, of course, different to anywhere on the continent, which is why you cannot automatically expect a french multistandard set to work back in the UK just because it says SECAM/PAL on the front.
However, the composite signal ambling down a Scart cable is not a modulated one. so there is only one sort of PAL composite.
Whilst I agree with HEGS that RGB gives a better picture I wouldn't regard it as a deal-breaker until you are talking b-i-g screen sizes. - yes, you can tell the difference when you can switch between RGB and VIDEO and compare-and-contrast (as the exam papers used to say), but if the only picture source you have to compare it with is the off-air signal, then composite video looks mighty fine!
It's rather like agonizing in a hi-fi shop over the different sets of loud-speakers; you very quickly get used to whichever you choose once they are sitting in your living-room.
regards
paul
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Since anyone undertaking the tedious process of importing a UK-plated car into France has to have a Certificat de Conformite, which - apparently - comes from the manufacturer, could I ask those who have gone through the process (and lived to tell the tale) to share the addresses/contact phone numbers for their various marques?
I'm looking for :
Peugeot
Citroen
Renault
Thanks,
paul
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[quote]I would have thought so too but we have had problems with our UK type video recorder playing back via a SCART lead through the French TV. Picture is fine but no sound. I seem to remember somewhere see...[/quote]
Your sound problems with a scart socket probably owe more to the crappy nature of scarts, I suspect, than to a mismatch.
The scart is the truly camel of the video world (the camel, you will remember, is a horse designed by a committee).
Many's the happy hour I've spent grovelling around the back of a set trying to feel my way to insert a scart plug with no real idea whether the plug was the right way up, only to find that I was fumbling either on the wrong side entirely, or three inches too high up the case.
They are the invention of the devil and you really would be hard-pressed to devise a connector with more built-in fault potential : you put it in a little askew and the pins slip back into the body of the plug; you allow a loop of cable to hang down and the plug flexes a bit and off goes either the sound or the picture, or one of the colours. I have cheap ones: I have expensive ones. They all behave as badly as each other. Why manufacturers couldn't use F-connectors and RCAs for the sound (or better yet, BNCs and XLRs) escapes me completely.
paul
More ADSL...
in French Satellite TV, French Internet and Telephone
Posted
Anyone out there (like Mazan perhaps!) know what the max length of line (longueur de ligne) is before ADSL becomes a no-hoper ? Ditto max line loss (Affaiblissement) in db's.
paul