squidge

ok....soooo....bit of background first.... first year of tax return. there's me and the man in the house. we're not married and haven't 'pac'sed'. we both just have a bit of interest on uk savings to declare. 1) even though i read all these things about 'household declarations' and not individual ones, do we need to fill out separate 2042's, 2047's & 3916's because we're not married? 2) on 2042, do i just fill out the front page, tick the 'célebataire' box in part A on page 2, and then just write the amount of uk savings interest earned in box TS on page 3? have i missed out any other bits that need filling in? 3) on 2047, do i just fill out the top box on the front page, fill out the necessary bits on page 2, declare that we're on E106's in box VIII on the back page, and then sign and date at the end of the form? missing anything?! i know everyone is utterly bored of answering these things, but any guidance would be fab! thanks everso squidge x        

tazio did you ever find an answer to your lieu de naissance and appartement questions? i'm stuck on the same bits! for the first one, do you pop 'tonbridge, angleterre' (if, like me you happen to have been born there!) on the 'lieu de naissance' line...... or just pop '99' next to dept and nothing next to commune? for the second, do you leave the entire 'appartement' line blank if it's a house?! [:)]   [quote user="Tazio77"] Thanks everyone, the murk is clearing a little...lol. After looking through the 2042 and 2047 forms I do have a couple more questions. Form 2042 Lieu de naissance -  Under Dept Number, should this be '99'? Adresse -  What does etage, esc. bat. and  nbre of pieces mean? Form 2047 I'm confused with building society interest, the FAQ's says 'Put the gross figure in Column 5 under Royaume Uni', I can find a column number 5 but where does the Royaume Uni come in? Finally, I arrived here mid August 2007, and received some final dribs and drabs of part time pay (UK tax paid), should this be included? I feel a real duffer....but thanks for your patience. Alan     [/quote]

just picked up our first lot of forms yesterday. hoped it would be quite simple as only declaring a bit of uk bank account interest. got confused after 3 seconds of looking. i'll be asking stupid questions over the next couple of days, but i've randomly come across this : http://www.annett-consultancy.com/article_filling_in_your_French_tax_form.html#fiscalresident which is really really good i think! (although it does talk about 'net' income figures..... when i thought you put gross?) squidge x    

errrrr the post above is from me and not mr squidge....... didn't realise he was already logged in!

afternoon all, anyone have any suggestions as to where to buy one of these? presumably they're too big to deliver via on-line? the littleone has been in my tummy for 24 weeks now. we're having some issues with the results of the rubella blood tests (both tests have come back positive....even though i was immunised at the age of 12 ....and haven't had any symptoms or poorly feelings), and so want to do a spot of retail therapy! squidge x    

afternoon all, don't suppose anyone knows of a doctor who has a grasp of english (or one that doesn't.... but doesn't mind you not understanding much more than basic french!) in or near to st girons that you could recommend? bit of a long shot i know..... but i don't know how else to find out! thanks! squidge x    

evenin all in answer to the 'why?' question - it's those silly people at gites de france (and prob clevacances as well...... don't know) that insist on having a cooker hood (amongst 15,000 other things) installed before it can be rented out as a gite with them. when we're done it'll be kitted out much better than our own place!!!

Same thing happened in the Vendée.  Flat puddings all over l'Hexagone. [+o(]

Hello. My Yorkshire puddings have failed to rise for the last 5 or so times now - is it because I'm using UHT milk?  I'm using the same ratio of ingredients as I've ever done, so all I can think is that it's the UHT aspect. Can anyone confirm?! ta.

afternoon all stupid questions coming up.... we're doing up a little place nearby at the mo in order to rent it out as a gite next year. at the moment it doesn't have a hotte aspirante at all, so we're going to need to install one. as the stone walls are getting on for half a metre thick, i'm not going to vent it to the outside for now (may do in the future). prob is that the gas hob currently resides underneath a window.... i think there's enough room to fit one to the window wood lintel thing above it, but i don't know how they can be fixed - can you just fix one to the wall via brackets? are the brackets normally supplied? as it will be fitted above a window, there won't be much room above the extractor for the air to ventilate.... a prob? cheapest one i've seen is for about 60 euros.... in ikea of all places er...... thanks!!!! the squidge x

ooo thanks for that - all i can find about the type of service we have is that it's 'Haut Débit' (but that may just mean something standard) did you mean to say that option one would be a bad idea until ...blahdy blah... rather than option 2? if not, i'm possibly even more confused! as every cent counts, it would make sense to move everything to free wouldn't it? they advertise this as the standard package on their website for 29,99 so i guess we can do that. then we'd save 16 euros a month in line rental. i guess that there maybe some issues with fixing line probs though - free saying it's ft and you having no contract with ft.......... which option do you guys go for out there?!

ooooo haven't organised it just yet......... the sun's doing his job well at the mo. very summery still. i'm also going to have probs getting mark to create a 'small' fire....... he is man of house - he must make BIG fire otherwise he not REAL MAN. ours is a pretty stove - a godin boy. untried and tested as of yet though.

the first title that came into my little head for this post - 'free phone calls' would've given the wrong impression.... i think we've been really REALLY thick. we've had broadband access with free for a little while now and pay 29,99 euros a month. got confused when we had a letter from france telecom that seemed to say 'sorry that we're losing you', but as we've continued to get bills from them since then, just presumed that either a) i'd got the ol' translation wrong or b) they'd got it wrong and sent the letter out in error. just been on the 'free' website and had a bit of a shock...... should i be getting everything from free (line rental and phone calls) and completely nothing from france telecom?! at the mo we're paying ft for line rental and call charges on top of the 29,99 for free for the broadband. if i'm right, how does it work? what do we do? do we just pick a new phone number under the 'créer ma ligne téléphonique freebox' heading when i'm logged onto the 'free' website and then at some point in the near future the line automatically gets switched over to this new number and france telecom stop sending us bills? surely it's not that simple?!......... errr thanks thicko squidge [8-)] (and possibly thicko mark as well.......)

afternoons to all kitting out a little place down the road at the moment that will (hopefully) be a gite next year to give us a bit of income. need to buy a bed for it. gites de france seem to be mega picky about the type of mattress you have to have.... 35kg minimum density....no foam..... looking at ikea (!) to get this spec you would be looking at rather posh 'sultan hedfors' at a cost of 229 euros for a double. anyone come across this prob before? do i really need to shell out this much on a mattress?! hope not. booooo to gdf

hi all we had a new pretty poele and liner chimney tube thing installed a few months ago ready for the winter. do we need to do anything 'different' or 'special' the first time we light it? also ... while i'm here.... any cunning suggestions / knowledge out there on how to create the perfect fire?!  i'm collecting pine cones at the mo as i hear they're kindling gods. thanks!!! squidge x  

yup - thought the same! but seems to be a bit more tricky to find an cheap online company to print them.....!

morning all going to start looking at creating a flyer or postcard or something similar for the b&b to pop in all of the local tourist info centres. two questions!: 1) will i just be able to play around with some words and pictures/photos in msword and then convert it to a pdf?! i haven't got any posh software but i'd like to try and do it myself if it's possible. don't know what the best way of going about it is. 2) any ideas on what type of quantity would be good? in your experiemce, how many leaflet things have tourist offices generally take off your hands? tricky to know whether to get 100 or 1,000 bits of pretty paper printed!!  that's it for now...... until i've properly woken up and thought of other things as well..... thanks squidge x          

ok..... so a few months ago we trialled the lovely idea of collecting our milk straught from the vat at the local farm. Unfortunately, as it was straight out of the cow and therefore un-pasteurised and un-everythinged else, it went off within 48 hours. We can't get through a litre between the two of us in that time (i'm picky about what goes on my cereal - it tastes weird here) so we've ended up getting uht from the supermarket for our cups of tea. My question is this: is it ok to just use uht for the guests or do they expect fresh milk? uht in a hot choccie sounds disgusting and yucky. So uht or fresh? The unofficial living france poll commences.... now     

thanks all!! think i'll just get a pot of something from the supermarché and plonk it on the table with some hot milk in a jug. Next question just posted...... sort of related......  

morning all ok..... so we're soooooo near to getting gdf in for the dreaded inspection. silly question of the day: do you offer hot chocolate for brekkie? if so, have you got a fancy machine to do frothy things and the like?..... or is it ok to buy a pot of powder from champion and just add milk/water? do the french expect yummy stuff? do you just serve it ready-made in a big cup-mug thing? more naughty questions to follow soon..... thanks! squidge x    

what does everyone think...... is there a market for a gite with no outdoor space? we're looking at a place this week in a large village/small town nearby that we like..... but we're unsure whether people these days expect somewhere where they can at least burn a few bits of meat on the barbie. all views welcome!! thanks squidge x

unfortunately they don't cover france...... ...... hey but i've just found this - http://www.jardin-bio.com/boutic/bou_list.cgi?codefam=aux&codesfam=Han.&lang= shall be buying some sharpish. french call the buggers 'larves de hanneton' or 'ver blanc'.... just in case anyone didn't know..... and cared.

[quote user="Cassis"]Hi Squidge You could start here - I DK if the UK suppliers listed ship to France but you can ask.  There are some European suppliers but no mention of France. http://www.chafersurvey.com/treatment.html Here is the email address of the suppliers of the product they are talking about - you could ask them if they will supply to France directly or if they have French outlets. [email protected] And here is their website: http://www.beckerunderwood.com/ [img]http://www.rootrainers.co.uk/gardeners/protection/chafergrub?view=813[/img] [/quote]   splendid! i shall ask sue gibb ..... i'll let you all know what she says..... thanks! (as always)    

[quote user="squidge"] Just bought a Depeche du Midi - forecast for the week is for a return to hiver for a bit, and then, as you say Phil, back to seasonal norms by next weekend.  Funny you should mention the moon thing.  St Joseph's Day on Monday apparently.  Janneau next door has warned of grave repurcussions for us after we put our spuds in before that date.  His own won't be going in a minute earlier, although I bet that he'll stubbornly put them in on that very day even though, given the forecast, it may be snowing, in honour of St Joseph, and tradition.  He gardens according to a combination of the moon and the saints' days - weather is irrelevant.  Quite nice really, I suppose.   [/quote] D'oh that was Mark not Squidge, not that it matters much.  Could get away with all sorts now I know I can do that.....[6][:)]

Just bought a Depeche du Midi - forecast for the week is for a return to hiver for a bit, and then, as you say Phil, back to seasonal norms by next weekend.  Funny you should mention the moon thing.  St Joseph's Day on Monday apparently.  Janneau next door has warned of grave repurcussions for us after we put our spuds in before that date.  His own won't be going in a minute earlier, although I bet that he'll stubbornly put them in on that very day even though, given the forecast, it may be snowing, in honour of St Joseph, and tradition.  He gardens according to a combination of the moon and the saints' days - weather is irrelevant.  Quite nice really, I suppose.