Ronan

[quote user="Val_2"]Bretons can be very racist especially towards non-white skin races and you have to remember LePenn is a Breton and quite popular here.[/quote] Mmmh... I am not sure this is true... In fact I encourage you to have a look at: http://francepolitique.free.fr/PR02.htm to see Brittany was actually one of the regions where the Le Pen did his lowest scores! Being Breton, I'm actually rather proud of that! :-) I also believe it is in Brittany (St Coulitz, Finistère) that Kofi Yamgnane became one of the first (THE first?) black maire and that he is the current conseiller général in that départment... I think the Breton would probably tend to be more tolerant than many...

Not that I know anything about this subject but from experience: bar/cafe will always have a "menu"fo drinks served inside. This is usually a pre-printed menu where the café has just added prices in-front of each items. It's never very precise and, in my youth, was the source of my puzzlement as to what "adjuvants" were :-) No idea if it's a legal requirement but it's certainly usually/always there... -------------------- ah ah... after some googling: from http://www.finances.gouv.fr/DGCCRF/04_dossiers/concurrence/fichespro/24hotel.htm?ru=04 towards the bottom, reglementation for cafés: Affichage des prix Arrêté du 27 mars 1987 modifié par l'arrêté du 29 juin 1990. À l'extérieur Liste des boissons et denrées à afficher : - tasse de café noir - un demi de bière à la pression - un flacon de bière (contenance servie) - un jus de fruit (contenance servie) - un soda (contenance servie) - une eau minérale (contenance servie) - un apéritif anisé (contenance servie) - un plat du jour - un sandwich Il s'agit des boissons et denrées couramment servies, nommément désignées. L'affichage doit être visible et lisible de l'extérieur, et sur les emplacements extérieurs réservés à la clientèle . Hauteur des lettres : 1,5 cm Indiquer : "prix service compris (taux entre parenthèses)". À l'intérieur Document exposé à la vue du public et directement lisible par la clientèle. Ce document comporte la liste, par rubrique, de toutes les boissons et denrées offertes à la vente avec le prix de chaque prestation while for Restaurants: Arrêté du 27 mars 1987 modifié par l'arrêté du 29 juin 1990. À l'extérieur Affichage visible et lisible de l'extérieur, pendant la durée du service, et au minimum à partir de 11h.30 pour le déjeuner, 18h. pour le dîner. Indiquer : "prix service compris (taux entre parenthèses)". Liste des prestations à afficher : menus et cartes du jour (si certains menus ne sont servis qu'à certaines heures de la journée, cela doit être clairement indiqué sur le document affiché) Mention "boisson comprise" ou "boisson non comprise" pour les menus. Carte des vins comportant au moins : - les prix de 5 vins ou des vins s'il en est servi - de 5 - à défaut de vins, liste et prix de 5 boissons couramment servies. La nature et la contenance des boissons doit être indiquée dans tous les cas. À l'intérieur Menus et cartes : mise à la disposition de la clientèle de documents identiques à ceux affichés à l'extérieur. Boissons : l'affichage des boissons servies à l'occasion des repas peut être remplacée par une carte mise à la disposition de la clientèle et comportant les prix de l'ensemble des prestations offertes. Cette carte peut être un document distinct du menu ; elle peut aussi être inscrite de façon lisible au dos du menu.

Yep, it's all the nibbles served with an apéritif and includes all that is on the miles of shelves dedicated to them in the supermarkets. My personal favorites are the Monaco and the mini-pizzas :-)

To the list above (replacing 51 by Ricard and omiting the wines which are not aperitif per se and should be in the home anyway :-) ) I'd add some "vins cuits" such as Dubonnet and Ambassadeur. Some rum (agricole, off course, none of that bacardy stuff) for those who like mixers... Be ready to have some crême de mûre/pêche (as well as the framboise mentioned above) for those who like their kirs with a twist (and these tend to be more popular that the classic Cassis when offered!). Also remember a full stock of Gateaux Aperitifs (which my partner calls, rather sweetly, apero-gateaux). And, remembering that the same cabinet will hold the digestifs, stock up on Poire Williams, cognac, Chartreuse, armagnac and some Get 27 for that 80s feeling :-) PS: it always impresses me if English people like Suze. It's a bit of a acquired taste! :-)

My take on lait ribot (seeing as it's from Brittany and as shown to me by my grand-mother): Put a few hot plain boiled potatoes in a bowl and pour some lait ribot on top. Then eat and enjoy the mix of sweet/salty/hot of the potatoes with the sharp/cold of the lait ribot. I dare you not to mash the potatoes in the bowl just so they can soak more lait :-)

> Les chemises de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches?... Chausettes not chemises is the usual :-) And one of my favorites: si six scies scient six cyprès, six cent six scies scients six cent six cyprès

I think DAB (just like a TNT/Freeview) is a standard and your set should work in France. HOWEVER: I believe DAB broadcast is rather limited in France! You can check the reception for your town on: http://www.radionumerique.org/recevoir.php?menu=5

There is an earlier thread about this but to sum it up: the Civil Partnership is not recognized in France as a Marriage or a PACS. You could contract a PACS in France (or at the Consulat Général de Londres if one of you is French) as this would be recognized in the UK as equivalent to a CP. Note however that for inheritance purposes, the PACS is not equal to a marriage. Remember also to update your british wills as doing a CP (and possibly a PACS) will void them (as they would be voided by a marriage). I hope it helps!

I see how it can be confusing :-) My partner would often use Vous with me after longish conversation trying to stay formal (at banks, etc...) :-) I've been away from France for the last 13 years so might not be at the latest trend of linguistic but the general rule is that one should use "vous" until one has been invited to use "Tu". The most "senior" person would be the one asking! ;-) I find the "vous" a useful way to keep the distance with people. Especially artisans, etc as I always feel otherwise it gets a bit "pally"... Even among French people, you get to funny situations with, for example, my mum, using Tu with her sisters but Vous with their husbands while I use Tu with all my aunts/uncles...

I'd go an see your notaire: he really is the best person to help you phrase a will that'll be as close to what you want as possible. Saying that, as the previous poster says: there are law that you just can't bypass...

Spoke to my partner about the whole issue of before or after and he thinks my idea that "il habite une petite maison" and "il habite une maison petite" have slightly different meaning rather strange. Maybe it's all in my head and I'm loosing my French ;-) I would have said "il habite une maison petite" meaning that is house is especially small while "il habite une petite maison" would just mean that he lives in a small house. mmmh... Maybe... ;-) He however referred me to my bible of grammar: my beloved Becherel (Volume 3: Grammaire) where chapter B5 "Place de l'adjectif épithète" in the "Adjectif" section has the following to say: Some adjective HAVE to be after (the ones denoting a relationship: solaire, aérien, catholique). Some are normally before (often short and common adjectives like petite) and some can be either before or after which can bring either a change of meaning (un curieux enfant/un enfant curieux) or a change of emphasis on the quality expressed by the adjective (une maison somptueuse/une somptueuse maison). And it's the latter that I would have put my maison petite/petite maison. But maybe that's too subtle or even downright incorrect! So all, in all, I'd say, go with the flow, people are unlikely not to understand you or even raise the eyebrow if your adjectives are sometime out of place.

I'd also add that the meaning changes when the adjective is in front of the noun. When it is behind, it just qualifies the noun ("une maison petite" is just a house that is small); when it is in front, it changes the noun, the adjective becomes "the essence" of the noun. This goes to the extend where the group adjective+noun takes a meaning of its own: un grand homme un petit-déjeuner un chaud lapin I'm a french native speaker so my gammar is way behind most of yours here but I have more "feel" for the language, though most of the time it is impossible for me to explain stuff (which frustrates my partner a lot!) :-)

It seems that these duties are unavoidable. My partner would be due in any case to pay the 60% (I think) death duty on the share he would inherit (i.e. 60% of his inherited 75% of my half share if I died, 60% of my inherited 50% of his half share if he died - All this assuming our respective parents survive us). Doing a PACS would mean we would have a allowance and have a reduced tax rate. Might do that or might wait until the CP gains recognition in France!

Our situation is slightly different: gay couple (thus unmarried!) buying a house in joint names. I have 1 parent alive and my partner has both his. We have done (or rather are about to send them off for registration with the notaire) wills which say that, in my case, I designate my partner as "légataire universel". The "héritiers réservataires" cannot be done out, but a clause in the will says that it will be for my partner to "désinteresser en valeur" (i.e. pay them off) any of remaining parents. I.e., if I die tomorrow, my mum would own a quarter of my half-share in the house, my partner the rest of my share BUT he has the chance to just buy off my mum's share. Seems fair to me! :-)

Prescriptions in France are not done by the Optician. You'll have to make an appointment with an "Ophtalamologiste" who is a eye doctor spécialiste. You do not need to see your généraliste before seeing one. Not sure how the whole rembousement works for them but they charge the full fee that their status allow. Though, what you get for that is a full eye examination; not the usual UK specsaver formality... Krys has some explanations (http://www.krys.com/remboursement_frais_optique-12.html) on their website about what you an claim back. In my case (French living in the UK, buying a holiday home in France), I'm getting a standard Specsavers prescription and getting flash new glasses in a flash little shop in Quimper during my holiday there next month. Result: I won't be wearing the boring same frames as everybody here :-)

Most welcome, Judith! Spell-checker is also a blessing! Especially when used in the text field in web browser! You might also like to check the "Keyboard Viewer" as it might be useful if you switch keyboard often: activate it on the Input Menu tab in Control Panel, it'll show the keyboard (and more importantly the effect of Shift/Tab/) for whichever keyboard language you have active at the time...

I had this checked (A colleague of my partner who is UK tax solicitor with an interest in private international law) and UK Civil Partnership will not have any effect in France: it will not be considered as being equal to anything. The reverse is not true: A French PACS is automaticaly equivalent in the UK to a CP (with the side effect of revoking any UK wills you might have). PACS can be contracted in France by 2 foreigners (don't know about the requirements in terms of residency) and in the Consulat Général de Londres if at least one of you is French (I am, my partner isn't). Am I the only one to think the PACS is so "impersonal" compared the UK CP?

And for Mac users around here: Press Alt + "something" then the letter you want to modify. The something is: ` for a grave e for an accute i for a circonflexe u for "deux points" so for example é: press Alt+e then e ë: press Alt+u then e Only exeptions is for the ç where Alt-c is all you need, Likewise for œ (Alt+q). This is system wide...

Hello all, No sure if this is the right place or if anybody would be able to help but I'm finding myself in a strange situation: I am French with my family originating from south Finistère but I have been living in the UK for the past 13 years (so don't know much of the "système"). My partner and I are just in the process of buying a small holiday home in Plonévez-Porzay which needs renovation. We're trying to find a maitre d'oeuvre/architecte but seem to be hitting the problem that no artisans are available to do any work on renovation and concentrate instead on new-build (of which there is plenty in the region). Even recommendations from family and friends seem to useless at the moment. Any of you had a similar problem? how did you find people to do the work on your house? Thanks a lot for your help!

According to this http://www.leroymerlin.fr/mpng2-front/pre?zone=zonecatalogue&idLSPub=1051634952&chapitre=2, the neighbouring Maire is right if the town has over 2000 inhabitants... My mum's house has just had the tout-à-l'égout installed in the street... (so as my prospective house as it's the one next door!) You have 2 years to have your connection installed once it is made available to you. The town arranges for a company to come and quote for it. When they do this, they also must dispose of the existing fosse.

Does this help: http://www.laposte.fr/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=312 Clicking on Colis - Depart France Métropolitaine gives you this PDF: http://www.laposte.fr/IMG/pdf/tarifs_guichet05.pdf

For HSBC, you don't actually need to be a Premier customer to open a French account with CCF (to be renamed HSBC France in November). Contact your HSBC branch and they give you a form to fill which is then passed on to their London IBC (International Banking Centre) which sends you all the account opening forms. These needs to be countersigned by an HSBC branch and sent back. Account should then be open in 5/6 weeks. Tranfers to the French account will be £10 if you're not Premier though: Might be worth paying the £20 a month for premier membership if you intend to do many transfers! Thats all the theory as we've sent all our forms properly countersigned about 3 weeks ago and should be hearing from them soon hopefully!

Bonjour to all of you! This is my first post here so be kind! :-) I'm French and have been living in the UK for the past 13 years. My partner is British and we are thinking about buying a house in France. More than thinking in fact, as we have have made a proposal to purchase the house we want: it's the house next to my mother's résidence secondaire in Brittany, it's current owner is "sous tutelle" which means a person manages his affairs and his house will be put onto the market in a few months, because of our proposal, we should have "first pick" when that happens. The house is relatively cheap and we'll only need a €30K to €40K mortgage. This is below the threshold of most lenders. A broker couldn't help us because of this and recommended we contacted Britline. However, we have already a Crédit Agricole account (though not in the britline "branch") and are checking with them if they'd loan that sort of amount. Anybody knows? We bank with HSBC in the UK and are in the process of opening a account in their group's representative in France (CCF) to facilitate transfers. CCF cannot lend us that small amount as a mortgage but mention it might be possible to arrange through our bank manager as a loan. Any of you had any experience in getting that sort of amount? How did you eventually do it? Thanks in advance for your help and I'm sure you'll get a chance to read all about our purchase on here as and when it happens!