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Ormx

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Everything posted by Ormx

  1. Having a slow moment as I troll through the "find cheapest fare" websites and end up with only 2 stopovers in Paris and amsterdam or whatever...... Can anyone tell me if any company travel from Toulouse/Bordeaux/Biarritz/Pau directly to Edinburgh? Thanks,
  2. Hi, I'm interested in the 2nd part of searcher30's question:    "if they sell their uk house when the mortgage penalty runs out (which is why they would sell after this runs) how does it work for capital gains under the french tax system?"   we are also resident in France for 2 years but are only now selling house in Ireland. we will already be paying Irish CGT, but I've heard there's no doubletaxation agreement in relation to cgt between the 2 countries. does this mean we'll have to pay a French cgt as well and if so  ..... how much????
  3. thanks for that andy that gives me loads to think about.......   meanwhile the vegetable plot was finally started yesterday so now I've tomatoes on my mind
  4. hi all, we're in gers dept and have a big garden that I want to put to better use. at the moment the house and trees/plans are all squashed into one corner of the plot and I want to open it all up. thinking of an orchard, a veg plot, a wildflower meadow and a green area. Not looking for much am I? I know it will all take time but would like to plot out the areas and hopefully plant the orchard next autumn (best time?). At present we have 2 apple trees, several cherry, 1 fig, 2 plum, several walnut trees all around the house. I'd like advice on what I should plant in my add-on orchard (probably about 15 trees?, assuming spacing of about 4m between each).What would you plant? thanks for any advice
  5. No complaints with Free, using for about a year (or over) now, delighted when they brought free calls to Ireland, haven't used other providers but heard a lot of billing problems with Neuf.
  6. [quote user="JulieR"]The person who had the laser surgery on their eyes......how much does it cost in France as I quite fancy having this done myself. [/quote] julieR, Cost was 950 euro per eye, none of which is reimbursed (although some mutuelles do give 100 euro or so towards it I think). Don't know how it would vary region to region or laser type (I had LASEK as opposed to LASIK). There were also about 4 visits beforehand at about 45 euro per visit (I think this part is covered by secu, but still have to send in forms). Overall, the best 2K I ever spent!
  7. saw a report on the news saying that there is a wait of 1 year somewhere in the north of France. I phoned my optholmologist (in Hautes Pyrenees) and got an appointment in less than a week. Two months later he's seen me 4 or 5 times and has done laser surgery, so I can see perfectly again!!! I asked one of the secretaries about the delays in some parts of France and she said that often people come to the clinique while they're on their holidays down south. But that there is an ever-decreasing supply of graduates and the situation is worsening.
  8. [quote user="Adrian Squires"] Am I missing something here? I feel that I am on the end of an argument that has been raging for some time between people who don't really like each other. I thought the forum was there to exchange ideas and experiences for people who like me either hope to or already do live in France, not some sort of club whereby people try to score points off each other with their tremendous use of the English language. This sort of thread really does not reflect well on the people contributing to this infantile name calling. I know this is my first post and it may well be my last as I am not very impressed. The rest of the real site is tremendous, informative, sometimes witty, mostly well written, a shame about this one.   Aidy     [/quote]   Adrian, Agree with you completely. Same users always same type of arguments. Petty.
  9. chrisb, land +3 by 3 bed houses and pool for 300K sounds like a very good deal to me sw of Pau . My immediate question is what kind of condition are the buildings in. You may need another 300K for renovations etc....
  10. Hi, Not sure what prefix based one Deimos was thinking about but I used Telesoldes.com for about 6 months and it's been great, easy to set up, 11c initial charge plus 1c per min to Ireland. However my broadband provider (Free) has just announced free phone calls to Ireland since January, so I don't even have the 7-ish euro bi-monthly bill from telesoldes anymore. Fantastic!
  11. [quote user="SusanAH"]I don't mean to be rude, but I.[/quote]   it came across as rude though.
  12. Michele, Just wanted to say "wow". Unfortunately we're not in the market but it looks fabulous! Bonne chance!
  13. Hi all, For anyone who's interested, we got an email yesterday from our ADSL provider FREE to advise that international calls to 14 countries (including Ireland, yippee!) are now FREE. I had been using a very cheap Telesoldes 1c per minute until now, but this is just great! Enjoy!   1/ TÉLÉPHONIE ILLIMITÉE VERS L'INTERNATIONAL Depuis le 1 janvier FREEBOX, l'offre haut débit de Free, inclut dans son forfait les appels illimités vers les fixes en France métropolitaine et 14 destinations internationales. Tous les freenautes disposant du service de téléphonie Freebox peuvent donc désormais appeler gratuitement et autant qu'ils le souhaitent, en plus de la France, les lignes fixes des pays suivants : - Allemagne, - Australie, - Autriche, - Canada + opérateurs mobiles locaux, - Chine, - Espagne, - Etats-Unis + opérateurs mobiles locaux, - Irlande, - Israël, - Italie, - Pays Bas, - Portugal, - Royaume Uni, - Singapour D'autre part les tarifications d'appels vers de nombreuses destinations internationales baissent jusqu'à 62%. Pour consulter les nouveaux tarifs: <http://adsl.free.fr/tel/tarifs/>
  14. Having a French husband should improve my French but, apart from the daily practice, it doesn't as he never corrects me, and his English is good enough to understand my funny constructions etc. However having a 1/2 French 5-year old is wonderful. She corrects my le and la constantly, esp when I skim over and don't really say one or the other. She loves correcting my pronuciation of "ou" versus "u" as in "vous" and "vu". Oh well
  15. something I've noticed with weather forecasts here is that the symbol they use seems to be the worst possible eg. averses matinales, symbol of big grey cloud with rain: Actually a very nice day with a 10-minute rain shower in the morning.
  16. Ormx

    Halloween

    Not sure about France but in Dublin it went: "ah jayzus, not f***ing fruit n nuts, giz us some money, would ye?!"
  17. Hi Nicki, We've been here over a year and OH works in French company (and is French) and we still haven't received it either However, we are covered. We just have to pay doctor up front and send form back to CPAM for reimbursement. Perhaps this will work for you too? Could you check with CPAM if this is possible for you - easiest way is probably just to send the form on to them and see how they process it? Hope this helps
  18. Thought I'd share this one, someone in Google with a sense of humour!   1.Go to www.google.com 2.Type in Failure 3.Click I'm feeling Lucky option
  19. I've looked around aufeminin a bit and there are often chats between mums from a specific area. Don't know if there are many meet-ups though. Haven't looked in figaro too much but might be worth a browse.   http://www.aufeminin.com/world/communaute/forum/forum0.asp   http://forums.lefigaro.fr/user/non-frames/default.asp?
  20. Well I don't claim to be perfect, but still can't resist... Once standing in the Tuileries in Paris an American lady came up to me (certainly heard me speaking English) and asked "excuse me, could you tell me where the loo is?". So I looked around and pointed her in the direction of the little girls room. Then (as she tottered off ) I realised she'd meant the Louvre.... Oh well I'm sure she figured it out later
  21. Hi, We're in Gers too and considered Auch and Tarbes, but as we didn't have time to browse, 2 small children and I was 6 months pregnant, we just ordered off the internet "maismoinscher" dot com I think and the service and price were excellent - as far as I remember the delivery was free. As for all the big shops on the Pau side of Tarbes, we've shopped there ever since. Conforama and But will both let you "borrow" a van to bring your goods home. I think it was 19 euro for 2 hours. However we did have to wait for a couple of days for the van!
  22. [quote]Well there is certainly a lot to think about re: moving to France, I am more confused than ever. Is there anyone out there who is actually very PLEASED to be living en France. And here I am a 58 yr ol...[/quote] Pleased? We are, very. Despite all the negative comments on these boards (some posters are genuinely trying to warn people to consider all the other factors when living abroad, not just that houses are cheaper) there are probably a lot of people happy with the decision to move here. And just to say it can work: We moved. H is French, I speak it fairly well, 2 kids and one on the way. No major life decision, felt we always wanted to live in the south, if it doesn't work out we can go somewhere else.NO JOBS lined up  One year later, DH has a job, I have a 3rd child to take care of, we have a lower income compared to Dublin (much lower) but very little outgoings. We are better off. And that's without mentioning the weather, the fact that the kids have become fluent in the year, the fact that they don't teach the words of Westlife songs in the maternelle etc. etc. And now that they're all peacefully in bed, think I will take a glass of something out to my sunlounger and bathe in that orange glow of the sun setting over the field of maize.
  23. Seems from reading this and many other in education section that many English people cannot accept French ed system as it is so different from English system. IMO French system is very close to the Irish one, so I don't find many of the things as shocking as some of the posters here. In Ireland we also study as wide a range of subjects (but not in as much detail as A-levels) and have a good rounded education when we leave school. I find the French system excellent. Education is not linked so closely to jobs. Many many people qualified in Ireland in the 80s with a good "bac" and could not get a job. Many got good degrees and could not get a job. Many of us had to emigrate. Now (and the system hasn't changed) anyone in Ireland can get a job easily. IT'S THE JOBS MARKET THAT HAS CHANGED. We know several families that have moved out here with kids. None are considering moving back. And what harm if they do want to go to Ireland to get a job when they qualify? Or maybe the jobs market will have changed by then and you won't be able to work in UK or Irl?
  24. I think it's a case of the children being different rather than the education system here being awful. My daughter (nearly 5) is learning all her curves, boucles and also making up great stories that she tries to write down (so far it's only words but she can read the story therein). My 7 year old niece can't do anything like that, educated in Ireland, and hates writing (loves sports).  
  25. I could take French nationality but that wouldn't make me French either. Interesting Tresco on the generations and how the differ. I think I'm happy to say I never will be French and totally integrated, and am happy to keep my identity. However, many moons ago, while studying languages it was another story. I desperately wanted to be mistaken for French (in France) and Austrian (in Austria) and I was sometimes ....  usually, though, in a drunken state, to another drunk! I did believe I had to adopt French ways, the shrug, the pout, the walk, the slippers.... and thought it was part of speaking the language. Then, I went to Japan, and tried to speak Japanese, but could not for the life of me pull off the bowing and the dropped eyes in conversation and the play-shyness when speaking to a male colleague, so I gave up trying. Just wondering when I hear of people trying to "integrate" her what they mean? Yes it probably does mean wearing the flowery apron...  
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