Me0wp00

Jacques arrived exactly on time, 40 weeks to the day, mind you as hubby was working in UK and I was on a dirty weekend away to see him, I KNOW when I conceived to the very day, its only because france use 41 weeks as gestation that their records say he was early :o)

My husband is diabetic and was diagnosed 5 years ago in the UK, he was 29 at the time and adamant that he didn't want to go onto insulin and he would control it via tablets and diet. In the UK he wasn't treated very well and apart from seeing the doctor for his repeat prescriptions and blood tests every 6 months that was his total care, no offer of any different medication except for insulin. Here he can see the doctor every month and get blood tests every month, usually though its every 2 to 3 depending on his results, his tablets are excellent and he has been put on newer more expensive ones which weren't available when we left the UK. He goes for specialist eye tests every 2 years, has nerve tests with the GP every year and all his treatments, visits, tests are free as long as they are diabetic related. We haven't got top ups and if anything serious happens to us then it may well cost us more than a top up would but for the moment we're happy as we are. HTH Pippa

I gave birth in CHU in Limoges 10 months ago now *how time flies* and everything was done when I was in early labour, the midwifes filled in all the forms, our date and place of birth, occupation and asked had we chosen a name etc etc, we knew the sex so we'd picked his name and then when he was born they just added his time of birth. Then when we checked out of the hospital 5 days later we went to the mairie in limoges with our birth and marriage certificates, I think also our passports, CDS and I remember hubby taking an EDF bill just in case and he came out with Jacques birth certificate paperwork. If your giving birth in a clinic or hospital they do the paperwork for you, if your giving birth at home you must go within 2 days I think it is, unless its a weekend and the doctor/midwife who does the delivery gives you paperwork to take with you HTH Pippa

If your travelling peak season it may be worth booking, my hubby uses the train regularly although from a bit further north at Chateauroux but just after the xmas holidays and bank hols and the end of August it was packed solid, so he was pleased I'd booked him a seat. Hubby always says its the Austerlitz to CDG airport on the metro thats the hardest part. I'm sure you'll be fine take care Pippa

we've got an 8m2 curved collector tubes and this fuels a 350l water tank with dual immersions, a coil for an external boiler, solar controllers, heat exchangers and our underfloor piping and initial insulation, for two 40m floors. We installed the system ourselves, including siting the panels on the roof and all plumbing. We managed to get VERY good transport prices from the UK and also a grant that was available of something like £500, we sourced the system and went direct to all the manufacturers and ours came out at something like £10,000 including the screeding for the downstairs floor and the thick polystyrene insulation. HOWEVER the system does really need a back up and at the moment we're using the electricity immersions for that, we're contemplating an oil boiler but I can't face more hassle atm on the plus side, hubby has had to buy me a 6.5 * 3.9 swimming pool so we can pump the hot water into it in the spring/summer so we haven't got problems with solars exploding. If I was to do it again, honestly at the moment I wouldn't bother with the solars and I'd go straight for underfloor (water fed) with a oil boiler and probably electric immersion for the water. My reasoning is, when it's cold the solars don't collect enough to run hot water and the heating and they will never work at night when you tend to need the heat and in the spring summer ok you've got free hot water and most of the heating which you probably only need for april/may but your also trying to pump it out so that your not wasting the *free* energy. Hubby disagrees totally and thinks the solars will pay for themselves in the long run but I still reckon on a proper back up rather than the leccy immersions. HTH Pippa

I take it congratulations are in order :o) My gynae found out the address of the CAF and gave it to me, even though I was in a different dept to where I had my check ups. I can't quite remember but I think you have to send it to the CPAM as well, not 100% sure as it's just over 9 months since I gave birth, just a word of warning if you haven't got a mutuelle or top up you don't get 100% of your health costs paid until about 5 months, you get your check ups and scans paid but if you need medicines or extra blood tests etc etc you only get the normal reimboursement. Even after 5 months, things like indigestion remedies are only reimboursed as normal, *soft drugs* I think they call them :o) HTH Pippa and btw felicitations !

Your probably best off looking in the local bike shops at the posters and in the bike mags, also if theres a track near you go and pick up the calender of events. Sorry can't help specifically as I don't know your area very well. HTH Pippa

We were the first people to install solar heating in the south of Indre, the DDE were very keen to rubberstamp our permissions for that and various alterations and from start to finish only took a week. We didn't bother with the grants as we installed the system ourselves and it was much cheaper to source from the UK. We use electric back up for our heating/hot water which being underfloor means it's not so bad although on wet cloudy days like today we don't get much solar efficiency. The annoying thing is when its hot and sunny outside you don't need the heating or amount of hot water that you do in the winter so we often have hot water we need to get shot of as the tank heats up very quickly. Our tank is 350l's which was the largest we could get in our loft space. I'd advise anyone to buy the biggest water tank possible and think about using the system to heat a swimming pool, it will easily do this with the excess hot water in spring/summer.

I gave birth just under 8 months ago in Limousin. There after my first visit with the gynae at about 13 weeks I was booked in for the birth, then all my further visits and scans we're made about 3 months in advance, this was quite necessary as I was due to give birth in August and it seems doctors take time off in July ready for the august onslaught and the only appointment I could have in the whole of July was a midwife at 8am in the morning, I was 38 weeks pregnant !!! great eh I didn't have any other appointments made except the last two weeks when my BP rose one day and I had to go back for another check up. Blood tests were taken every single time I had a visit. I only received 100% remboursement for the ante natal checks and scans that are obligatory. The full remboursement kicked in in the april, I'd have been 5.5 months pregnant by then and even then not everything was covered, some of the drugs were only 35% (indigestion remedies etc) As for pain relief I always opted for an epidural and my hospital encouraged them, I doubt if there had been much else, no evidence of it. I didn't bother with birthing classes as it would've taken me 60 minutes to get there and the class was only 60 minutes long. I get PAJE from the CAF which entitled me to a one off payment in my 8th month of about 800E which is supposed to cover buying the cot, clothes, etc etc and I get 150Eish a month until my son is 3 if we still qualify on the income. HTH Pippa

My mum's french neighbour is selling her gite and main house but thats to move nearer to her birth town, she hires her gite out for only 8 weeks in the summer although she has an inground pool and good facilities. We kept telling her that she could rent it out for longer but Gites de France didn't seem to manage it. I honestly can't see people making a decent living from gites or rental properties alone, as previously said if it's to top up a pension and it doesn't really matter if your full or not then fair enough. Problem is I think supply is starting to outweigh demand in the limousin/creuese/indre area as it has done further south.

haha funny eh, my mum had a phonecall from someone from VF today, not ben and not kate, Think he was called James. Everything ok with the site, are you going to pay for your advert now as we cant do pay per enquiry as kate said, etc etc, very pushy and my mum kept telling them to take her off the site as she was only going to pay per enquiry. Also said how we were commenting on here about the site, they said they had read the forum here and it is only a very small number of people complaining !! Ho hum I think not.... Also the stats are rubbish, it appears its the number of clicks it records and that can just be when someone searches for an area, not the particular property. Anyway it ended that he didn't want to lose mum's business but he didnt think they were going to do pay per enquiry but he'd leave the page up until kate had time to see if they could do anything for her. It's weird how we're getting phonecalls all of a sudden. I'd be very dubious about bookings that happen in the next few weeks and yes coco, I'm telling mum to make sure she takes deposits.

My mums had the same problem, she's always had very good regular bookings from LF, this year I think two enquiries of a dubious nature and one booking. We always used to speak with Kate at VF and she arranged a pay per enquiry as we didn't want to pay for the full subscription for the number of bookings, we couldnt put a link to a website and also not a phone number, so kate could arrange invoicing, seemed fair enough for £4.25 a go. Last week the other guy Ben phoned mum to see how things were going *a first* and then proceeded to tell her pay per enquiry wasn't worth the bother to him and so if she didnt pay the subscription they were going to take the ad off. He also told her it was more suited to gites than bnb's which we already know from their negative response to changing the calender to show when only one room is booked, *buy another page*. Mum queried the statistics being so high, something like 1200 people looking at the site in a week with no enquiries, he didnt reply with a valid reason, I think they are more likely to be spiders, automated computer robots that look at sites to maintain positions in the search engines. I think kate has left and ben's getting greedy. He seemed to think mum's 14 bookings from Lf last year was excellent and it was worth her paying the sub costs. We're inclined to think not this year.

Well, As a permie here it does annoy me when I go to england for a long weekend or 5 days that in peak or even winter season someone has to drop me off because its too difficult to get a parking space. Due to the fact that the english have parked cars there, some of them i've seen left in august and were still there when I picked hubby up in December, come on its taking the p***. When the airport were doing their questionnaires I got asked about parking and said they should charge something even a minimal fee and it might help with the problem. They told me then they were worried about security and might have to invest in cameras and more lighting. *they'd had an english car that had had its wheels stolen* this was all year and they were very distressed. I laughed and told them that would happen in the UK if you left your car in an unmanned car park in a few hours. Stansted has apparently told them this doesn't happen to them.... how I chuckled. So for me, being selfish I hope they do start charging because it'd be cheaper for me to park my car for a few days than have to get people to drop and pick me and my son up.

the shield bugs we call smelly bugs, but I don't think they are harmless, infact one has just given me a nasty sting with its antennae while I've been sitting at my pc. Also hate the damn noise of them buzzing. I'd also hope one doesnt bite my baby, not sure he'd appreciate it. The smell when you kill them is gross. When we were in Nice they were almost bright green, think its something to do with the sun because here at the moment they are greyey colour. And what bugs do they eat because they definitely don't eat flies !!! A stingy pippa

congrats, if you have the coc and tax form and then the ct i'd go to the prefecture, if they send you to the drire ask them why exactly, because there is no reason at all for them to do so. Good luck :o)

we're in the same situation and I'm fed up of going to the tax office to get it sorted out and them saying *just say no earnings in france* My hubby is also in uk for more than 183 days, gets paid and pays ni and paye in uk. The tax office here *dept 36* sent me a reminder tax form, I went in with all his wage slips ready to declare everything, I explained I don't earn anything in France, hubby lives in uk and comes back for maybe 3-6 months of a year and pays his tax in the uk. They completed the form saying nil earnings and told me that the year he comes home for more than 183 days I have to declare his earnings as world wide income but not to bother until then. However, I know this isn't strictly correct and so am quite prepared for them to come knocking again asking for back tax but I can only go there and offer to pay tax so many times.

heheh its all those evil thoughts :o)

Battypuss He's still a little angel, well not so little, last weigh in 2 months ago was 9 kilos I think he'll easily be 10 by now if not more, find out a week monday. 7 months old last sunday, time flies He's got 2 teeth (at 5 months) and is busy cutting some more. Very happy and smily most of the time and loves being the centre of attention. The gallery is being updated but in 30 mins will be back up if you go to http://www.pipandphil.com/gallery/ and then click on family and Jacques you can see his new piccies if you want. Take care Pippa

Hi I gave birth here in France 7 months ago, god time flies. I was on an E106 Carte Vitale and everything happened just like it would for any french person, I didn't even have to add my son onto the E106 once he was born, France did it all for me once they had received the paperwork and birth certificate. If your wife is french hasn't she got health care in her own right already ??? I'd suggest finding a gynae and booking in with a hospital as soon as possible to make sure all the paperwork is completed, I know you have to send a form off to CPAM and CAF at 12-14 weeks to prove you are pregnant and then for the free consultations every month and then the free medical care to kick in at 6 months. good luck ! Pippa

I've looked at my paperwork and the garage that issued my COC for my gpl was a Baruteau Sarl, 34 Route minervoise in Carcassonne, but this was back in 2003 but was for the initial installation in 97. I suspect this is probably the guy you've already been to ;o( Bon chance me thinks :o(

Miki RE CT wanting COC here in dept 36 and surrounding areas (23 and 87) many friends and myself have had to have COC for the controle techniques, we have recently found one centre that doesn't need them but that's after 3 years of registering cars, La Souterraine, Grands Chezeaux and one of the Argenton CT's all need COC's. I think this might be because many of the V5s don't have the type and series number on. the makes of cars we've got through vary from toyota's, fords, renaults, peugeots, hyundai's and vauxhalls but we have gone to the manufacturers for the COC rather than go to the DRIRE and get caught up in other problems. You are right I will be a regular to the DRIRE in the future as my husband tends to leave all the paperwork to me !! :o(

Yes they grant your CT on your old reg but on all 4 cars I've put through so far they usually keep the vin number as the main record and as far as I can remember without going out in the cold the CT sticker doesn't have any vehicle reg on it anyway. Some CT centres wont do the test without the certificate of conformity. I'm in Dept 36 and I've never had any problems with any of the cars, although I would say don't go to the mairie deal direct with the prefecture and it'll save alot of time. My prefecture is open all day without closing for lunch and I find I go at midday, dont have to pay parking then and its empty but don't go on mondays as everyone and their mothers seem to be there. They keep all the paperwork, Id advise taking copies if you want but they will keep the originals. The invoice showing your address and the Controle paperwork they give back but they also need to see CDS or passport. Then they keep the tax form,COC, original car invoice and the form you fill in requesting the registration. The Controle expirary date is then transferred onto the new CG. I'm about to start registering some vans and motorbikes in the next few months and I'm sure they will provide a challenge as none of them will confirm to any COC :o( HTH Pippa

Ho hum washy, I'd do exactly what Richard said and try a different gpl garage, I can understand it not being worth it for that amount of money but it's so frustrating. My car was a french installation and I don't think they changed the petrol tank but I did have problems with the computery bit when I first bought the car and had to have the whole of the front part of the system replaced but that was 670E and a newish car so acceptable. Hubby himself has many vehicles and is getting very frustrated by the french garages, all makes too they seem to want to do everything their way and charge through the nose for it, when we first came 3 years ago they were very reasonable and it was easier to put it in the garage than diy whether its the massive influx of brits putting their noses out of joint I don't know. Can you try another DRIRE ? don't give up :o) And Vienne, we have just got a uk renault laguna registered today we went to the tax office, got the tax form and went to the prefecture with that, coc and controle technique, 10 mins later we walked out with the carte grise.

The pastille vert is more for *clean* cars, in certain towns you aren't allowed into the city centre unless you have a pastille, my little clio and my mums hyundai we're issued with a pastille and now my GPL mondeo estate. I haven't been anywhere where the pastille made a difference yet though, also I must look up about driving in Paris, some of the tunnels have no GPL signs on them, whether that means we have to divert or just switch it onto petrol I'm not sure, think it's the safety aspect of if it ignites, bit like the chunnel. I'm busy looking for an adaptor at the moment so I can take mine to the uk, its french fitted so need french to uk, why can't they all be universal *sigh* dont give up and have courage against the nasty man

i bought a LHD LPG car in the UK but it was fairly easy to get through the registering process. Except when it went for a controle technique prior to going to the prefecture I had to supply the GPL paperwork including certificate of conformite for the GPL alone, luckily it had been fitted in france and so wasn't a problem and I had the paperwork, I know other people who didn't have the certificate and had to go to a special GPL garage who checked the installation and issued a certificate. A word of advice, when you get it on to french plates, make sure the carte grise shows essence and GPL otherwise you'll come a cropper when it comes to the controle and also some departments give you 50% reduction of the tax and others 100%. Mine gives 100% but they mucked up with the carte grise and when I took it back they then sorted the problem and refunded my tax. Quite nice :o) Why are you going to the drire if land rover have given you a certificate ??? Just get a controle done on it and go straight to the prefecture.