jamesg

I tried Zone Alarm on two computers, but whenever it updated it messed up my wanadoo ADSL connection and gave me the dreaded blue screen of death. I have found a really good firewall called comodo, which has been entirely trouble free.

Have a look here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1124214048,51164,#step This will point you towards various sources of help with your problem.

Hi JSA, I did that 12 years ago after 40 years of smoking.   The first attempt failed as I became depressed after 2 weeks.   The second worked as I was expecting it and told myself it would only be temporary, which it was. Since then I have never had the fatal first one and dislike the smell so much I cannot imagine why I ever liked them. The method that worked for me, was to buy weaker cigarettes made by silk cut and spend a week at each strength level, until I was on the white label ones which tasted like cotton wool and so when I stopped there was really nothing left to give up. Those white label ones, if they are still available, have hardly any nicotene in them. Good luck,

Hi Sunday Driver and thanks for the reply. That looks like what I read with my rather inadequate French language skills. Hopefully that means that the answer to the question is yes.   I got the usual gobble de gook from Babelfish when I tried for an exact translation. I am just buying an Eriba caravan and hoping not to need the E part of the license, as I will have to change mine soon because of age.

I understood that a B + E License for towing would only be necessary if the caravan's PTAC is greater than the unladen weight of the car, or if the gross train weight of the combination is more than 3500Kg. Can anyone confirm this please?

The notaire we dealt with gave us a RIB and a week to pay the deposit. We just opened a local bank account and arranged a transfer to that via a British currency dealer. Within the week we transferred the 5% deposit to the notaire from the local account and 4 weeks later the balance to complete the transaction. It was probably simple because there was no agent involved with the transaction.  Just us and the vendors visiting the notaire together.

Hi Mark, Nearly all the campsites around there close at the end of September, including Municipal Les Ondines on the left as you enter Souillac from the south, by the Dordogne. I have stayed there when it was closed but maybe it usually has a barrier. There are a coupleof small sites about 5 km out to the west which say end of October.   I can post the phone numbers etc if they would be of interest.

If you bought a Tesco Internet phone you could choose from various places in Britain for your phone number. Our number starts with 0161, ie Manchester.  I presume that that is what the receiving number will see. The cost is £10 plus £5 delivery to France and you have £5 call credit included.   They then send you the phone, which plugs into a USB Port and the installation disc.   The only problem is that their system will not accept payment with a UK Credit card registered to a French address, so someone in the UK needs to order it for you.

[quote user="Patf"]He may be an imaginary being but his influence has concrete results. [/quote] Yes a load of trouble like any religious fanaticism.

Reading about the Estonian number reminds me that you can now get a global sim card with a UK phone number.   Have a look at www.0044.co.uk for the details.

We had exactly the same problem when we lived in North Wales.   Annoying the English is a popular hobby there too.   Visotors used to say that they switched into Welsh when they saw an English persion approaching.   Maybe that's what happens here in France. [6]

Well Richard, there is an English installer locally on your website, who I would recommend without hesitation.   I recognise him from his profile.

Well I am amazed, I thought even politicians had to pay tax like the rest of us.

My system which is XP Pro with SP2 went crazy after installing Zone alarm pro trial and also zone log. I now just have zone alarm free firewall with avast anti virus, but had to do a system restore to initialise the adsl modem which went on the blink, I think the problem was with zone log changing other settings.

Having read through all these I can't help wondering about the posts that have been censored for the sake of political correctness. Why can we not be allowed to judge these comments for ourselves?

Well zeb100 i was not surprised to find no information in your profile. No wonder anti social behaviour is so common with such a politically correct solution such as yours. You surely are joking.

Hello purples, When we were buying our house in April, the notaire said that there was a change in the tax law in January, which allowed a non tax resident owner to sell one property only without liability for CGT in France. Worth getting professional advice on this I would think, unless someone has really up to date knowledge of the situation and knows better.

Hello Michelle, With your name I would think you would speak good French. If not and you are near a large town you may well find insurance agents for AXA etc. who could make life easier. France telecom, EDF and the water cos. usually have local offices and if you go in with your bank details you can set up accounts with direct debits on the spot. That's what I did on the day I moved in this April and there have been no problems. The bills arrive and the direct debits follow a few days later. My French is very rusty. Good luck,

About 3 weeks ago we stayed on a campsite on the bank of the Seine at Pont de l'Arche just south of Rouen and there were otters swimming in the river just by our pitch. There seemed to be a family of them.

Hello Dominique, I am wondering what anti virus program you have which can't get rid of your trojan. Maybe you could try another one, I have just changed to avast which is availabe on free download for instance.

Hi From Peter's figure I would guess the boat is about 8 metres and 10 to 20 years old, or maybe newer and slightly smaller. This tax rises with tonnage and engine size and for a 10M sailboat with 20 HP motor was just over 250 euros in 2003. The tax of the same amount for foreign reg boats with resident owners or users is called "un droit annuel de passeport". Boats with flags of convenience are surcharged 3 or 5 times the amount. Presumably this name comes from the old "Passeport du Navire Etranger" which was known as the green card. I have the first one issued to me at Menton Garavan in June 1970 and stamped out at L'Aberwrach in September. If you wanted to leave your boat in France she could stay without duties as long as you handed this in to the duanes. In fact people used to stay on board without dificulties after handing in the card. James

On a slightly different subject, the french customs pay regular visits to yacht harbours looking for U.K. and other registered yachts whose owners are residents. They were asking if you have a carte de sejour but no doubt they now have another definition of a resident. French regisred yachts are required to pay a substantial annual tax and there is also a charge of the same amount under another name for resident owners of foreign flag vessels.

I have very recently bought an excellent new microwave for 40 euros. I don't recall anything close to that in U.K.