Bones

Read it again carefully SD... (Loving the opportunity to patronise SD, just loving it!) [:D]

Go in, tell them you want something similar but slightly newer (think of an excuse, don't mention the box) and get them to part ex yours with another used one in their lot. Considering yours has FSH with them etc they shouldn't have much excuse to refuse a top dollar trade in price. They'll probably send her straight off to the auctions/local trader. Being a regular customer, perhaps they'll give you a decent finance deal on the newer one - it's better than paying out cash for a big gearbox repair. If they inspect her and mention the gearbox fault you can then turn the tables on them. ("Again?? That's not very good is it! perhaps I'd be better off elsewhere") Okay, this is probably all wishful thinking but it would be funny just to see them try and justify themselves. [:)]

Apparently the CT has only been around about 15/20 years and they're easing in the standards - which seems common sense. The latest tightening up - including shock absorbers and other items - came into effect around DEC 2007. I took my 205 in just before the latest testing/failure amendments and she flew through. I was amazed! Rear axle is (well) on its way out, common fault. Exhaust needs replacing, needs a tune up but still managed to pass the emissions test. The list of recommendations they attached to the certificate was as long as your arm. So, she's roadworthy but seemingly everything needs replacing! [blink]  

Hasn't the tendency to rent come from waiting to have at least 10% to throw down and keeping the same house for eons? I'm wondering how a mortgage/credit revolution in France might change all this. Certainly Sarko would like it this way. His dream of the English model is starting to look a little shonky the way old Blighty's heading, mind!

Figaro seems to be saying "er....". It's certainly less clear as to what's going on in France and where it's heading (compared to the UK/US). It's not like they've had a massive boom-time and now the credit crunch is going to bite. I think if prices do drop in France then there's a chance that over time the french economy will improve and we'll see some rises. Maybe when the energy crisis bites and France is the only one with the nucleur power stations! Right, I'm off to Paris to buy some flats with electric heating. [:P] edit: just read some more of the Figaro piece and one guy is saying that there has indeed been a boom that started in 2004 and prices will have to drop 45% to correct it. Yes please! But not likely imo....

The thing is though that (certainly in our village) houses aren't selling. It's the same in the UK. The houses aren't selling at current prices, in Manchester (where I'm from) I know of several people who haven't had so much as an offer over the last couple of years. They've dropped the price but still nothing. What does this tell you? That the reported drop in UK house prices is vastly underestimated. Now that the better mortgage deals are being taken off the table, buyers will be looking for even heftier reductions before they bite. 7-10 years ago you could pick up an old village house for peanuts, freshen it up, and now it's worth 2-3 times more. Who was doing this? Foriegners. If the first victims of the credit crunch in the UK are going to be the buy to let crowd, then it follows that secondary home assetts in France will be sold off too. It's also a bonus for these folk that the Euro is so strong, when they convert the back to sterling they'll be laughing. Sit tight. You won't necessarily lose out all that much.

I hope the prices tumble to what they were a few years before we moved over in 2004: that'd be great! [:D]

Sorry Pads, forgot to reply. Yes it's the same area. There's nothing to say that it won't happen, just that there seems to be a huge effort (on the owners' part) to have it designated in a certain way. The new mairie administration don't want it designated in this manner, essentially because it would leave them liable if the private enterprise were to collapse. What will happen? I dunno, it's all conjecture. But I wouldn't be purchasing any golf clubs any time soon. Not that I have any money. Or particularlly like golf.

[quote user="Panda"]Bones that's not strictly the case, I have a friend who was an agent comercial,  so self employed this didnt work out ,and now she gets chomage, limited to the amount of time she paid in as I said before. We don't know the OP's circumstances as I said if she lost her job, lost her partner etc. then I too feel for her, if however she came to France with a child with the hope of getting a job with clearly little french (she didn't understand the rejection letter) then I do feel France should not have to bail her out for what was a very ill researched move. In her place I would have no hesitation but to return to the UK where it's easy to find work and if not at least you can get the help needed. Am I being too harsh?   [/quote] As far as I know your friend would have had to have been salaried and there are schemes for this. Are you being harsh? Yes! If it wasn't for the Op's grandad they'd all be eating sausage and have some diminutive fascist president as leader! Oh... I do have a French friend who truly believes this, he's dead set against (particularly) muslims coming to France but has no problem with any of our WW2 allies coming over! The mind boggles. But I digress, I do agree that the burden of responsibility lies with the immigrant. If the immigrant is from a nation where, say, living standards are truly abysmal then I believe we should make an effort to welcome them in: at least that's my lonely position. I'd fund this, by the way, with the estimated global cost of 6 trillion wasted on the Iraq/Afghanistan 'wars' - money out of arms and huge reconstruction companies pockets and less refugees created to boot. Simple! Britain, though, isn't one of these 'abysmal' countries, and if the op was childless I too would advocate a swift return to dear old Blighty: lesson learned. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and this moving abroad lark is something relatively new to us Brits (isn't it?). We've made a few mistakes, didn't realise how difficult it would be to make a living abroad and now that our kids are integrated we should be viewed as being in need of avuncular aid (as one would view an asylum seeker). Not for the sake of the adults but for the sake of the kids. Anyway, aren't France going through a population crisis? I've never understood that. France wants more people, so it pays out small fortunes to couples if they have more sprogs, even though there are no jobs for said sprogs. Meanwhile we have a load of immigrants just dying to come in and clean our streets, anything being better than where they were previously domiciled, and their kids would be so motivated to building a better life for themselves if we didn't stick them in crappy council ghettos and inwardly - sometimes outwardly - sneer when they walk by. This, by the way, is why we have 'hard' black and asian men in Britain, used to be just the black population - they got sick of being mocked and grew up tough - now the asians are (inevitably, wisely) joining in! Riots are the precursor, police give them a hard time and they riot and then the police think twice, as do the sneerers. I'm generalising of course but that's the way I saw it where I grew up. Am I digressing into amateur sociology again? My plan: welcome in more immigrants, rmi them and stick them in HLM houses, find them menial labour jobs that help the community and don't sneer at them for being 'reduced to this', educate their kids towards decent professions rather than give up on them as scum that'll just end up being drug dealers (that one's for you teachers!). Utopia! [8-)]

1: You don't get chomage if you're self employed and your business goes under, that's hardly a fair system. 2: It's pretty hard to get a job in the first place, very hard in some areas! If you've come over with, say, a french partner and your kid is English - the kid integrates for a few years whilst you tend to the home, then your partner leaves you (or whatever) you wouldn't - under the fair system described - be eligible for rmi and would be sent home. I'd argue that that wasn't a fair system at all. We're all European now! In France the minimum age for RMI is - I believe - 21 or thereabouts; if you've not managed to find work in that time (which is possible in the current economic climate) are we saying that you should be sent to, say, England? Of course not. Why? Because you were born here. If on the other hand you're English and own a home in the same area as said laddy you'll have been paying council tax etc that in part goes to help the unemployed French youngster, who might live in social housing in the same village but not pay one red cent himself. I'm losing my thread here but what I'm trying to say is that the op will have made some contributions to France whilst being here and has never claimed anything back. The RMI is a real piffling sum, I think she deserves it and she certainly won't want to stay on it for any serious length of time. Go and see the social worker and perhaps they'll be some flexibility, especially considering the fact that there is a child invovled.

I'm down in 11, there have been some pretty strong winds in the south east but I've not seen anything on the news about storm damage. When I say cold I'm talking 5° - 14° by the way!

I know!  Having said that, a cat looking into a mirror and a tiger being the reflection isn't exactly run of the mill either!

Did you not notice the rustling behind the potted Palm to your left? http://tour.airstreamlife.com/weblog/Tucson%20palm%20trim.jpg Seriously Pads, I didn't realise you meant literally met; how thick am I? So there you go Euro, Pads has shown you the way. [:D] Can I ask do you live in a village or the big city? Makes a huge difference I feel. If by 'single' you mean 'lookin for love' then a small village can be the quickest route to 'coupling'. Folk will just throw you together! I suppose in any case you need to put yourself about a bit. The village café being your first and most fruitful stop, everything goes through there. Pads advice about joining groups seems common sense too, there are all kinds of associations out there, in fact the French seem to have one for every imaginable endeavour.

Agreed VLC is the dogs.[:)]

Stop press, it's March, it's freezing. [:@]

You'd better not be including me in that terrible triumvirate of yours Pads: friends are for the weak, the weak I say!! Euro, why not introduce yourself here and we can pick at you... I mean try and see if there's some advice we can offer that might suit your individual needs. [:D]

Forget Hillary and Obama, the election in my lil ol' village has been absolutely riveting. Punch ups, threatening letters, police investigation, lovely! The results are in tonight and ten of the eleven opposition candidates are in: the mayor of thirty years standing is out!! Second round next week, perhaps the mayor will squeeze back in - although it remains to be seen whether he'll have the cods to show his face after this debacle. One of the main issues was the proposed (for eons) golf and housing complex they want to build up around La Royale (montagne noire, north of Carcassonne). Not a cat in hell's chance of that going through now.

Certainly around Carcassonne you'll find English speakers wherever you go and our Doc speaks English: a lot of French folk do. Your kids are going to be translating before you know it!

It's that global warming: not long till the dogs start ribbiting, as the bible predicted. [:-))]

You know, the first time I saw your new avatar I thought it was a cartoon of a grinning rasta sticking his thumb out.  [8-)] Not seen any snow myself yet but March is certainly colder so far!

Hello. You need to go through a social worker, there will be one dedicated to your area.

The vast majority of people I knew during the last recession and the fallout of the endowment fiasco were simply not money minded. They see a man in a suit spouting fancy jargon and they crack, hence endowment mortgages, hence top up loans, and the risk of eventual negative equity: a miserable existence, a feeling of failing your kids. I'm talking from a working class perspective here,  quite how it affects the middle/upper middle classes I'm not sure. I remember my mum sitting down with a mortgage advisor and him still pushing the endowment option even after it had began to seep out (to all and sundry) that they weren't such a good idea. Another negative impact of the free market system we've succumbed to is the rampant consumerism, kids are literally brought up on this and feel a strong need to buy stuff; any stuff. Throw credit at them and they'll take it, tell them it's based only upon what they can pay back and they'll trust you, show them a house and they'll want a bigger one, 120% mortgage: what's that all about?? No. This sink or swim system is breeding distance, suspicion and gangs of free for all scum on the streets. People are perpetually unhappy and unfulfilled, and that's the way the system wants them, otherwise they stop buying junk. Basically, I'm saying that prosperity is a relative concept.

I read an article stating that the first repossessions will feature buy to let properties. Save your cash and buy them at auction! "Next up is China. It is now the world's top super power bar none, and looks set to continue that way. They have the potential to manufacture everything that the world needs within the next few years...so that leaves old empires like Europe and America with agriculture and finance on which to base their economies." Apparently the huge building industry (suburbs) in China is keeping commodities prices bouyant (oil, lumber, metal). I also read that over the next twenty years Europe will be enduring a massive energy crisis and that we'll probably deal with it by binning the idea of manufacturing altogether. The huge increases in electricity bills will self regulate our home consumption. Germany is relying on France's elecy from their nuclear power plants and the rest of Europe has no chance of catching up in time as building these things takes years. The funniest part of the article was about the UK constructing a huge coal fired generator. The govt gave it the go ahead based upon new technology designed to deal with the associated pollution. They said, at the time, that there was no way of knowing exactly when this technology would appear, now they're saying that it probably won't appear, ever!

I don't feel self concious driving around in my 1987 205, if people want to be envious that's their problem... [:D]

Here's the rub. You can use said C word to denote stupidity/folly and it's not necessarily a huge deal. Use the full form of the C word to describe someone and it is, apparently, a stronger insult. The M word can be used for everything from 'break a leg' to 'oh s(ugar)....'. You hear the P word used as a stronger form of M, but then again you can hear that slip out on any quiz show - you'd be hard pressed to hear a Brit say S(ugar) on a quiz show... In English there are degrees of swearing denoted by the actual words used, in French it appears that context is key (though not always). The use of tu between strangers is probably a prerequisite for any serious swearing, so immediately the context is affected and the words used take on a stronger meaning. I asked the missus (French) about Sarko's riposte and she seemed more concerned about the 'pauvre C' part of things; she felt it was a way for Sarko to belittle his interlocutor almost on a class level: like he was calling him feeble and worthless in comparison to himself. Again, this is coming from a woman well versed in English expletives and the subtlety of their usage and even she had trouble explaining why his comments were offensive in French. It was as if she wasn't quite sure herself. Bizarre. (edited hastily after the M word was auto asterixed: use your imagination!)