Hereford

We were watching the France v Germany match on TF1 and heard the explosions (in the first half).  Hollande got whipped out fairly quickly but there was no panic and the match continued.,

Result!  We are loathe to be pleased about anything today but: we have had a letter from Les Impots accepting our claim for repayment of the Social Charges taken for the three years 2012/13/14.  They are keeping back a small amount for 2012 and 2013 which is a 2% charge for solidarite which in 2014 was merged into the rest so we get all of that year's charge back. We have two months to appeal against this result...  The document does not yet appear on our online account so we don't know when the actual cash will arrive Mrs H.

We agree that in English we would say "shell" - but that may just be because we always lived in Sothern England.

Re typing accents: My son got me a French Canadian keyboard for my laptop. Wonderful as it is qwerty but has accents too. The French in Canada are adamant that theirs is correct French and that in France they have got sloppy.

Indeed we did find that the accent in Québec was hard to understand! Our daughter-in-law's mother was French so her accent is fine but in shops etc it was hard. Wonderful city of Québec though -we loved it. Everyone was so friendly. Our son is usually assumed to be French, not English. The Canadian English accent is different from the Britsh too.  Grandson is bi-lingual with a lovely southern Uk accent in English!

Not going to happen in France but our son said that I had mis-spelt the phrase "à jeun" and that it should be "à jeûn" ... I queried this with a French friend and it turns out that France used to have the cicumflex and in Québec (where son lives) they still do. 

We telephone and make an appointment (at Specsavers) for the first full day of our UK visit. We usually only stay 4 or 5 days (that is quite enough!) hence posting of specs. We had them within a week of getting home.

A few years ago in France I not only could see no better with the new specs but actually worse! I went back to the dispensing shop, they said "no problem - the Opthalmo says no actual problem with eyes so we will re-do the lenses so that they are correct"! Thy tried (with a machine) several strengths of lens and we agreed the right "correction". Problem solved. I am astigmatic and long sighted. I read a lot and do patchwork so need to be able to see properly. Since this experience, which though settled Ok was annoying, we have used Specsavers when in the UK for our yearly short trip and they post the specs to us. Perfect.  We just pay the (small) eye test fee. Mrs H

The English speaking helpline for CPAM is (or was so if it has changed I am sure someone will be along to correct me): 0811 36 36 36 You should telephone them ASAP!

Are you replying to my post Quillan, or the next one!! We are tax resident in France but are forced to do a UK tax return just for our rental income. To make sure there is no misunderstanding by HMRC we always note on our UK return that everything else is taxed in France and on all our pension income we have NT codes. We have done this for the last 12 years and occasionally spoken to HMRC and they are happy. All other income is taxed in France and, of course, the rental income is also taken into account to get at the tax rate.

We are in the same position as powerdesal - claim sent in and then three letters (one for each year) saying claim has been forwarded  "higher up".

Thank you Quillan.   I shall speak to HMRC once I have completed the forms for the insurance company.   I shall make sure I don't get it before 1st January. We still do a UK tax return because of property income (commercial but below our combined tax threshold in UK).  As the pension money is taxable in France it will not mess this up but could possibly mean that we could re-claim the tax via the online tax form. As I say I shall phone HMRC in advance. Thanks again, most helpful.

Hi Quillan Sorry to drag this subject up again but: I have just asked for the paperwork to cash two very small pension pots that I have.  Am I right in saying that if I make sure I do not get the money until after 1st January it will be quite a long time before I have to pay the 7½% tax!! Whereas if I get it in this calendar year I will pay the French tax in 2016. I shall have it paid into my UK bank account but have no intention of not telling the French authorities so it is just a matter of timing. Thanks in advance. Mrs H.

But Conty is not in the area Wooly wants to live...

It is also showing on the main BBC news website - it comes up on the first page.  Truly terrible, there was a fire so a lot of oldies would not have had a chance.

You should be able to "save" it yourself as a .doc file.  Just say "save" (English or French if that is what you have) and then choose from the list below the name (open the list showing the current file) what you want to save the file as.  I certainly do it all the time! Docx is usually/often "read only" and as I am often being told to circulate a document (as Secretary) and lots of people can't spell I have to save them as .doc to correct! Sorry - not well explained. Below the section that shows the current file name is a box that can be opened and there will be a choice of file extensions. I choose Word 2003 or suchlike - you can see the extension. I use Windows 7 and will not move up to 10 until later when there has been time to fix any bugs! Edit: my post crossed with halfblind.  Yes - Libre office is what I use.

Just what we got as we posted earlier.

We think you are right Chancer! Your comment on torches reminded us that when 5 or so years ago we had to have a "fire safety survey" on a small office building in the Uk which we let, the report said that the people working upstairs should all have torches available in case of fire so that they could see their way downstairs. As there was a perfectly adeqate fire escape from a very large window at the back upstairs, and also street lighting shining into a window on the stairs we just ignored that bit. Apart from anything else would the torch batteries work even if the staff could find them. The other silly comment on our report was that the letter box should have a basket on it so that the post was kept in it and did not fall to the floor where is could be set alight by something pushed through the letter box.  Fine, except the letter box was at the bottom of a glass fronted door and about 4 inches from the floor... Anyway our friends  go home today from the hotel and we have not heard that there was a fire! Mrs H

They were part of a group of 28 so probably did not know which floor their room would be on, but the hotel had been informed of a disabled person being with the group. I assume that our friends thought they would be on the ground floor!  The descision was made that the fire escape it would be - in the admittedly unlikely event of a fire. I was more interested to know whether French hotels usually have such a cavalier attitude to fire regulations.  I wish that I had looked more carefully at the instructions on the room door, we are ablebodied so were less concerned. 

We stayed on Monday night in a 3* hotel belonging to one of the big hotel groups. We were joining, just for the one night, a group from the UK.  One of the UK group is in a wheelchair and can walk effectively not at all. The room he and his wife were allocated was on the second floor - no problem with access to shower etc so clearly a "disabled" access room. His wife asked at reception whether in the event of a fire she should just wheel her husband to the fire escape and leave him at the top to be rescued. Bemused receptionist said (translated from French): "No, just bring him down in the lift." Wife asked to speak to the manager who commented: "I have been here 30 years and we have never had a fire and I am not expecting one today". Comments please! We were speechless. Mrs H.

We sent in the letter of "appeal" a couple of weeks ago and today have had three letters (one for each year) saying that our letter has been passed up the chain to the department that deals with contentious appeals - in fact to the department capital! Will post again once we have a reply.

Helene If the comments haven't driven you away then could I just say, as a gentle piece of advice, that it is not a good idea to have put your full name and email address as your log-in name. You will have seen that very few of us even use our names! You are leaving yourself very vulnerable to lots of emails from strangers.  If we want to ask you anything, or indeed ask anyone we just "post" in the relevant section and answers will be equally posted back. If anyone wants to email you they should do so through the site not direct. Mrs h,

Usually the doctor has to renew it. Probably best to check very soon with your GP or speak to Specialists office.

I see that (according to the US part of the BBC news website) Walmart are to stop selling military type weapons and semi-automatic guns. They say it is because of poor sales. It takes a lot to make my mind boggle but that did...

Agree Pierre.  Have you seen the photo of Hollande with the men after giving them their medals? Someone should tell him that to keep your jacket done up when you have your arms around men a lot taller makes you look silly. His tailor must weep.