Simmy

Thanks to all of you.  As I thought, I just need to bite the bullet.  Yes, the purchaser did pay most of the TF, but it was lumped in with the house sale and at the time I thought it was his share of the 2007 tax which I paid last Nov - Doh!!.

Hi, I sold my maison secondaire back in January and no longer have a residence in France. I've just received (ie today) my Taxe d'habitation and my Taxe Fonciere.  I was surprised to receive them but as far as I can tell IT IS up to me to pay them as the house was still mine on 1 January.  The purchaser did pay a sum for the Fonciere as part of the transaction (I was smugly thinking that this was for his proportion of the taxe I paid in 2007, but it's finally dawned on me that the taxe is paid in arrears and it was for his proportion of the 2008 bill which I've just received). Before I arrange for payment, please could someone confirm I am correct in this and it is up to me to pay? On the subject of paying is there an easy way to pay from UK; I've no longer got my French bank account so as far as I can see I can't pay on line (in fact only Habitation seems possible on line as I can't access the Fonciere bill).  Thanks Simone

Try this site: http://www.campingfrance.com/

Not the case ogleflakes. In 2005/6,  59 employees & 42 self employed construction workers were killed in  UK. Road accidents accounted for 3201 deaths in uk in 2005.  The number that were 'work related' is less clear but the HSE consider it might be as high as about 1000. For asbestos the HSE considers there were between 3800 amd 4000 deaths from mesothelioma and lung cancer.  (The number from meso was 1969 in 2004 but the lung cancer figure is less clear because it is not so easy to determine cause).  In addition there would be further deaths from asbestosis. Accidents at work account for far fewer deaths than ill health caused by work, but there is a much longer time lag between exposure to the hazard and death so less obvious.

I agree chrysotile (white) asbestos is safer than crocidolite (blue) and the amphiboles (including brown).  There has been some discussion about whether the case for chrysotile has been overstated (eg articles in the Telegraph) but the people quoted often have links with the asbestos industry.  Some of the points made in such articles have been refuted by research by HSL but I think there is probably something in the thrust of their argument.  However, it is rare to find 'pure' chrysotile - ie it is often contaminated by the other forms - (in my experience even if one ceiling panel is shown by analysis to contain chrysotile the next may have significant amounts of crocidolite).  Therefore I agree with the UK approach to adopt the same standards for all asbestos.  Asbestos is after all the largest cause of work related death in the uk by some considerable margin.  Whilst the earlier deaths were predominantly those in asbestos mills, asbestos laggers and those in asbestos removal, they are now predominantly electricians, plumbers etc. With regard to the original question, yes it can be safely disposed of as indicated in some of the earlier replies, wrapping it and using a dechetterie that will take it.  If it looks at all friable you can damp it down. The French do seem to be storing up their own problems though: In February 2005, a working party set up by the French Senate began to investigate the consequences of asbestos contamination in France. The authoritative 333 page report, which was published on October 26, 2005, says that 35,000 asbestos deaths occurred between 1965 and 1995 and predicts that 60,000-100,000 could occur in the coming 25 years.3 The report calls the country's asbestos cancer epidemic “inescapable and irreversible” and estimates that 27-37 billion euros will be needed in the next 20 years to treat victims. The manipulation of the government and public by an asbestos industry-backed public relations organization called le comite permanent amiante (CPA: the Permanent Committee on Asbestos), which operated between 1982 and 1995, was soundly criticized: “(The CPA) was, in fact, nothing more than an industry lobby which used scientists, social partners and representatives from the relevant government ministries to promote the policy of the 'controlled use of asbestos,' as a viable option to an asbestos ban in France… the CPA was a model of lobbying, communication, manipulation and exploitation and, in the absence of action by the State, spread pseudo-scientific pro-asbestos propaganda which contradicted the state-of-knowledge regarding asbestos hazards prevalent in Anglo-Saxon literature of the time.”4 The massive use of asbestos in France has created an occupational and environmental health catastrophe for which the Government is to blame. October 28, 2005 See: http://www.senat.fr/rap/r05-037-1/r05-037-1.html

'215,000 hours = about 600 years'   Are you sure?

I don't know much about this computer malarkey but I just click on the word 'google' beside the google search bar and then click on 'delete search history'; am I missing something?  I just wish my offspring would do, it then I wouldn't know where they have been!

Nust be true then, Dick

Come again?

Sounds good, you must let me have the recipe.  What sort of mouse is best?

OOh Bouffe I'm with you.  I prefer young men in lycra too, 'specially when it's 'all bunched up'! 

There's also a current discussion in the NW forum below (above your other posting).

There was a thread on this a few weeks ago: http://forums.livingfrance.com/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=295&MessageID=180235   Simone

Ryan air must have had a bad day Sunday.  A flight to a Polish airport didn't land because of weather.  All the pasengers were told was the no. of Ryan Air in Dublin 'but there will be no one in 'til Monday'!   

Perhaps a little far but there is La Maison Du Vert Vegetarian Hotel and Restaurant Ticheville 61120 Vimoutiers Normandy France   http://www.maisonduvert.com/

I  used my 1st 10 trips up between February and August this year.  Just paid for the next 10. No problems of any note.  Sometimes couldn't book the 1st crossing after 3pm but most times if we turned up before 3 pm we got on an earlier one.  Coming back we usually got on before the booked time.  There were 2 crossings where we were delayed a bit. Nothing serious and would have happened if we'd just booked a normal return. Simone

My first time here so I hope I'm not intruding but some of you do seem awfully touchy.  If you get hot under the collar everytime a man - and it usually is don't you find - talks about about how much they drink you'll raise your blood pressure.