Tarn

They are as stated, to be used with the disc indicating time of arrival. There should be a sign on a post telling you how long you can park for free, after which time you may get a fixed penalty fine. There are more and more '15 minute' blue parking spaces springing up. In our local village they appeared overnight down one side of the road down which two cars can just pass. The locals reacted predictably. They started parking on the other side of the road instead, leaving the blue bays clear so that cars could drive over them!

15:0O Armed with the information gleened here (and the paperwork needed) I stumbled into the Hotel des Impots and asked (in broken French, sporting a 'confused' grin) for a Quittus Fiscal. The man behind the desk took out the form, pointed at the parts I should fill in and said something that I took to mean 'fill in what you can and if you get stook shout me'. I filled in what I could. He came back, looked at me slightly disappointedly and filled in the rest and sent me on my way. 15:30 Headed for the Prefecture and asked the very pleasant woman at the reception for a 'demande de certificate d'ammatriculation'. She started talking about 'Carte Grise' and things. She saw my face drop and held up the form. As my face dropped further, she asked me for my passport. Having read this forum I was ready for that one! I thrust it into her hand. She opened it at the photo page, grinned, and showed it to me. There it was - the photo that my wife hates the most. I had picked up the wrong passport. I exclaimed (in a voice far too loud for a public building) 'Oh m*rde!' to which she replied, grinning even more widely now)  'non, 'Mercredi', monsieur!!' (Yes, it was) I rummaged around and found my driving licence. This seemed to work. She set to filling out the form for me (excellent!). Meanwhile her colleague, who had come to see who was swearing at the counter, began practicing her English on me. We had a jolly old time. I'm her 'mate' now. Shortly afterwards, the bundle was clipped together and thrust back into my hands. 'Number six' said the woman. I headed over to window six and handed over the bundle. Seconds later I received my licence and utility bill back. 'Go to window seven' (in French). There I paid and received my Carte Grise. As I left the Prefecture the two women on reception ignored their rather bemused looking new clients and waved furiously at me, wishing me a 'bon apres midi!' 16:05 Went to Auchan and had the shiney new plates made (12 euros each) 16:45 Headed home. Rather surprised that the legendary French bureaucracy could not have been more pleasant or helpful. Maybe it was the shorts I was wearing that did it . Just thought I'd post this as a balance to some of the usual horror stories ... Tomorrow, the insurance ...

I hired a new diesel Citroen Picasso a while back. I don't like citroen's... but... I have to admit that it was incredibly easy to get in and out of and the support / ride was impressive. My 75 year old father (over 6 feet tall) hopped in and out of it like a youngster, with a beaming smile on his face. He loved it. I say, go to your dealer and try every car you want to. That's what they're there for. Whether you buy the car from them or in France matters little - the manufacturer still wins.

Maybe a silly question but, we're looking ap purchasing a car in Germany, put it on transit plates, head down to France and register it there. We will have all the necessary documents. However, as we're not resident yet would it be a problem at all to register it? We have an address, bills etc.

Yes, your old insurer should issue you with a no claims certificate, if you contact them and ask for it - after your insurance has lapsed. Not during your insured period! I sent my current insurer the renewal notice from my previous insurer showing my no claims on it. They were happy and it worked ok - in the UK. I'm not sure whether or not it would anywhere else..

We received a parking ticket when on a house hunting trip, in a hired car. The estate agent we were with looked at it and muttered something about the local police / hire car companies / bureaucracy. Shaking his head, he tore it up in front of us and deposited it in a nearby bin saying 'don't worry about it'. His colleague nodded at us reassuringly. Whilst I'm not suggesting that anyone does anything similar, it's well over three years ago and we didn't hear anything more about it.

I may have some news soon... we applied for a mortgage against a property we purchased two years ago. The English bank rep (french bank) said yes, after seeing all our financial details. We did tell him that we wanted to borrow against the equity in the house. He said they do them for renovations, and pay the builder. We said we would do the building, and just want the loan (which he said was very unusual, but he'd try for us... and we did want to carry out some renovations didn't we:cool.  We are awaiting the formal offer which we were told should be here within the next week. I'll let you know what happens.

Whilst at the bank ask them what your daily and weekly ATM limits are. I had mine increased but they're still quite a small amount. Payments using your card or cheque are OK but banks don't like people having cash.

P. My advice is to be clear about which department and where within that department you wish to live. Then contact the agents. When we first started looking we knew where - roughly - we wanted to be and we ended up driving literally thousands of miles to get to agents offices, and missed some appointments. They are used to UK buyers not turning up for appointments simply because they don't realise how big the country is. When book an appointment it's either morning, afternoon or all day. i.e. it's at least half a working day that the agent has to book in. If you make it clear that you KNOW where you want to be, how much you want to pay and what type of house you want you will generally find them to be very helpful.

[quote]CHEAP CALLS? The cheapest I have found with no strings attached and inclusive of all taxes, no set up charge, no equipment, pure English language service is TLK2 which by comparison will save you all ...[/quote] Ginny, are you connected to tlk2 or is your advice impartial? In a response to another string it appears that you may have have a commercial interest here?

"Michelle is looking forward to going back to being a teacher" Yikes! She must be bored.

My advice, from spending a long time browsing web sites and printing details off before heading out to view, over two years, is this. Take the details of any of the the properties with a large dose of salt, and whatever you do, keep your sense of humour because it can be desparately disappointing.  The house that you have seen on the net for weeks and weeks may (strangely) not be on the office books when you arrive - having spent lots of time and cash getting to the immobilier this can be frustrating! They will, however, show you pictures of many properties on their books. My particular favourite was one which, after 40 minutes of driving, ended up to be a closed down disco. It had purple lava-like walls with tiny mirrors inlaid. A bar and a dance floor with spot lights and glitter ball greeted us as we entered the 'main room of the house'. The icing on the cake for me was when the agent showed us the separate toilet facilities. However, he couldn't show us the small living accommodation (which would be excellent to live in whilst we converted the rest of it back into a house) because someone was still living there, and they were at work. We laugh about it now. We finally found our house by word of mouth - bypassing the agents altogether, saving loads of money and wasted journeys. Good luck!

Does anyone have any experience of Telesoldes or Telerabais for telephone calls in / from France?  I read about them on a money saving site www.MoneySavingExpert.com and wondered if anyone here had experience of them? I hasten to add that I am not connected in any way to either the phone sites or the moneysaving one! (and if this post breaks AUP please delete it). 

The son of one of our neighbours came round asking for odd jobs. After discussing with him and his father we came to a deal. He cuts the lawn with his father's ride on mower. It takes him about an hour (it's a big garden) and it costs me 10 euros, all in. After pricing it up against the cost of a ride-on and the number of cuts I''ll need a year I think I have a bargain. It's a pity he's growing up so fast...

Our plan is to go out mid September to mid December to work on our house (essentially a holiday), come back to UK within three months (E111) and spend Xmas / new year in UK. Then look at becoming resident in France in the new year. Then work on the house some more / plan starting a business. I will probably seek advice in France unless anyone can recommend a good advisor in the North of England? (If anyone can recommend an advisor / accountant in Detps. 81 / 34 that would also be helpful!)

I read that moving to France after leaving a decent paying job in the UK to start up a small business in France can result in you being taxed in France on your previous years earnings - when you were doing quite well. (does that make sense?) My question is, in general is there a time to avoid moving or is there a good time to move, for tax purposes. Would an extended period of gardening help? Or is it a case of talk to a tax adviser? John

I too received an e-mail from Britline (the British speeking bank) in French, inviting me to go into my (not so) local branch to pick up my new card. I e-mailed them and asked if they would send it to my UK address. They responded  promptly (in English) saying that they would.

Ours arrived some 17 months after completion...

(Local French) Relatives of the (Local French) person we purchased our house from own a small house in the bottom of the valley. There is recorded access to it via a farm on the other side of the valley, with a track down to it. They decided to renovate the house last year. To cut a long story short, the farmer refused them access. The Mayor got involved and agreed that there is access rights. The farmer still refused access. The owners of the house said that if they 'pushed it' legally, they believed the farmer (reputed to be slightly bonkers) would probably accidentally bump into the corner of the house with his JCB. The upshot is that they have had to purchase access rights from another farmer on our side of the valley and lay a new road - about 500 metres long. The Mayor insisted that it should be a public right of way in order toi secure planning permission (but declined to contribute to the building of the road). So. My advice. If there is even a sniff of an access dispute don't walk, but run away.

I go along with Zeb. When we purchased our house (used for holidays) the wallpaper was black up to about three feet from the floor.  Also is smelt of damp - badly. There was a distinct tide mark on the walls. We stripped it and pulled off loads of plaster (mostly it fell off). Luckily we described our 'rising damp' to a good friend of ours, a buildings surveyor, seeking his advice (on damp proofing). He told us it sounded like condensation and that that we needed was good ventilation. He advised against any form of DPC in a stone house of its age (late 1800s). We took his advice. We cleared all the air vents, and when we weren't there we left all the internal doors open and , left the upstairs windows open slightly, with the shutters closed. The house was very cold in the winter when we arrived but the damp improved as did the smell. A year later both were gone and we repainted. I would advise caution against taking radical action like chemical damp proofing. Bear in mind that many of these houses have been standing quite happily for hundreds of years. They generally need a bit of understanding and treating properly. Work with them not against them. John

I applaud the stance on gas guzzling 4x4s. The objection appears mainly about using them in cities. There's no place for them in Paris, London or most of the countryside in between for that matter.  

We have a place 15 mins from Castres (roughly in the direction of Toulouse). It takes us 60 mins door to door to Blagnac, and it's very easy inded. John