Will

Chez nous, it's a dead heat between Sarko and Le Pen, (32% each) followed by Bayrou (18%), then Hollande and Dupont-Aignan with 7% each. Mélenchon brought up the rear with 4%, the other three got no votes at all. Interestingly, last time round Bayrou was a runaway leader in the first round, and the socialists (Royal) got nul points.

No problem with dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits etc via the Shuttle. In fact if you are taking rabbits it's the only option (really wanted to know that, didn't you) [;-)]

I would have thought that Have your pet treated against tapeworms From 1 January 2012 tapeworm rules apply to pet dogs only and Tapeworm treatment – (dogs only): ...There is no mandatory requirement for tick treatment were both fairly unambiguous [;-)] Particularly as the DEFRA page goes on to say: "Pet owners are reminded that it is considered good practice to regularly treat their animals against a range of ticks and tapeworms as part of their routine health management, especially if travelling abroad. Veterinarians are advised to discuss with their clients the appropriate course of action" - i.e. worm treatments for animals other than dogs, and tick treatment for all pets, are recommended but not mandatory.

From what you say the answer is 'probably not', but this guide will give you a pretty good idea. It would seem that as long as your 'habitual abode' is the Middle East then the fact that the only house you actually own is a French holiday home would not be sufficient to make you resident.

I too work in magazine publishing, admittedly for a smaller outfit than Archant, but with an infinitely smaller staff. I have a website to maintain, using a somewhat non-admin-friendly system (and would love the chance to include a forum, despite the extra work involved; in fact it's something I've been asking for for a long time). We went through a major change, it was over the Christmas/New Year period a year or two ago and I had, like my colleagues with other titles, just two or three days to transfer everything from an old system to the current one. It was made worse by the fact that I was in France, supposedly on holiday. We achieved it, not without a few problems and quite a long settling-down phase afterwards, but we did it. The fact that we did so was, as I pointed out at the time, due to the dedication of the staff involved - i.e. a couple of IT people and the individual editors - with a fair smattering of luck. Things went wrong, but could have been much worse. But it gave us an online product that was streets ahead of all our competitors, and in my opinion they are still a long way from catching up. That in itself was highly satisfying. I mention this to prove that these things happen. They are an inevitable part of growing a publishing company. This forum may be important to some, but it is only a website, and nobody has been seriously harmed in the changeover process. In view of my own experience I would tend to agree that Archant maybe should have foreseen the potential for things going wrong, and having key people away at the time was shortsighted. And some warning would have softened the blow - even a post on the site saying that it would be down for a short time for an upgrade (which any other site owner would have done). But it's very easy to be wise after the event. Particularly as the forum has been through this sort of thing before, and arguably even less successfully in the past. Please don't take your frustration out on the unpaid people who are the main link to Archant, or on any individuals. But please be constructive and add your comments in the correct topics on this forum. Archant should be glad of these, even the most comprehensive testing can't fix all the bugs for everybody.

Testing to see if I can post now back home - I was at our offices today and tried to use the forum, I could log in, got the posting box, wrote messages but on clicking either 'post' button my post just disappeared into thin air. In fact I emailed Clair via the forum, putting the content of my message into the e-mail message box and although she got the message, it appears to have been blank. IE7 (I think - back home now so can't check - on Windows 2003 Server x64). Home setup, which I am using now, is Firefox 11, Win 7 wrks fine now IE Tab add-on is disabled which was needed to make the old forum work. Unfortunately disabling IE Tab caused Google Toolbar and other useful things to disappear and I can't get them back.

[quote user="Sunday Driver"]Like anyone else living in the UK who imports a French registered vehicle, the relative will only have the French carte grise in the name of the previous owner and a document proving he now owns the vehicle, such as a certificat de cession - or even a handwritten receipt.  How would the DVLA expect a UK resident to obtain a carte grise in his own name? Let's not make a simple process complicated.... [;-)]   [/quote] I can assure you it's not me who is making a simple process complicated. What I say is based on actual experience. The DVLA - at least the office we used - needs a registration document to prove ownership. It doesn't recognise French certificats de cession, receipts or anything else. It would be lovely if SD was right and the DVLA wrong... [:D] but I wouldn't like to see the buyer of this motorhome stuck with a vehicle that can't be legally registered, similar to the fate of buyers in France of UK-registered vehicles that have not been properly exported. It's just one of those situations for which the standard procedure isn't really designed; you should be able to bend the rules and sensible officials and law enforcers would probably help you get round the problem, but not all can be guaranteed to turn a blind eye. Motorhomes at ferry ports are a prime target for watchful immigration people, unfortunately. That's all I can say on the subject.

[quote user="Russethouse"]Will,  the mods were told that the forum would be 'moving' to make it accessible from mobile devices, we were not told, and not consulted about other changes.[/quote] I think that in that case the mods are completely justified to be somewhat upset with Archant for that shabby treatment. You put in quite a lot of time and effort on the publisher's behalf, for no reward, and are left to take the flak for their IT people's cockups. As I am involved in magazine publishing, and have experienced IT-induced problems not within my control, I have a certain amount of sympathy, but I would never leave my (mostly paid) contributors in the proverbial in that way. Incidentally, it looks like quotes are working OK for my combination of Windows 7/Firefox 11.

Unfortunately the 'normal procedure' is not achievable in the quick, post-funeral timescale required in this case. Although the SD version of it might well work in practice, as the law currently stands the new owner would technically not be allowed to drive the vehicle in UK until it was registered to him, and as a UK resident he cannot legally drive a French-registered vehicle. As I said, in our own case which was much simpler, we still needed to get a carte grise in our names, which had to be paid for despite only being needed for a short time, and in itself took several days, and wouldn't be possible if the new owner didn't have a French address. In our case DVLA needed a carte grise showing the correct owner, not a carte grise in the previous owner's name and a letter, which could have been written by anybody. DVLA also needed proof - i.e. receipts - that the headlamps had been changed back even though a new MoT certificate was also required. The quick and simple way is to just pay for it, drive it back, and sort out what DVLA requires from England. But that will not work if PC Plod decided to poke the long nose of the law into it, as we have seen from previous cases on this forum.

OK, if Quillan & Co want to know about actual problems then here you are. To get the previous version of this forum to work properly I had to either use Internet Explorer or use the 'IE Tab' add-on in Firefox. After the change I eventually managed to get rid of the white space issue and the leaping about all over the screen by disabling IE Tab. I now find that whether it accepts my posts or not seems to be a totally random issue. The only way that seems to work semi-reliably is to preview the post first, then post it. It seems very difficult to navigate back to where you were after posting, particularly when it hasn't worked. I find myself having to go through all the 'welcome to the forum' and 'terms and conditions' pages. Alternatively, I can go back to my bookmarks and open the new 'active topics' page which is saved there, and which, most - but not all - of the time, allows me in without re-logging in. Unlike some, my old log-in email is still accepted, even though it has been an invalid email address for years, due to tiscali.fr changing to alice.fr, and my French accounts cancelled at least five years ago. I also find the colour choice poorly thought-out and the background image annoying and irrelevant. Now a question for the mods. Previously, any major changes to the forum were tested by the mods and admin team in a beta version before it was made live. Not all the bugs could be fixed, I recall, and once a new version was released there was still plenty of adverse reaction from many users to the changes. But this time the adverse comments cannot all be put down to conservatism and dislike of change. Why was the new version not tested in advance on a variety of different browsers, different operating systems and different computers? What could Archant hope to gain by not going through this stage?

The microchip numbers on all the French animals that came with us have been registered with Pet Plan to our current address in England.

Having registered a vehicle in England that was originally English, transferred to France, transferred to new owners (us) and shortly afterwards re-exported to England I can assure you it is possible, though potentially expensive. And if you have details of its original UK index number, and this hasn't been cancelled or re-allocated, that will make it much easier. The big problem in this case is that, as a private sale, it can only be registered in England to the same person to whom it was last registered in France. As this is impossible for obvious reasons, the registration will have to first be transferred to the new owner in France. In the case of a motorhome, the new French carte grise is likely to be costly, particularly as it's only going to be needed for a very short time. It was dear enough even for a Clio to get a carte grise for a few weeks only. As the new owner doesn't have a French address, then the first transfer looks impossible anyway, and certainly not possible in the required timescale. Further complications are that the headlights and maybe one or two other items will need to be changed back from French to English, and as it's over three years old it will need an MoT in UK which could be difficult with a French registered vehicle. Maybe the best bet is for your friend to sell it to a specialist dealer, because the transfer should then become somewhat simpler.

Rabbie - just before I saw that I tried it in IE, and the white space problem didn't occur. But it wouldn't let me post a reply. I had the IE compatibility add-on in Firefox, which was necessary in order to get a properly-sized posting box and working hyperlinks. I have now disabled this and it works better, but I am still having to log in every time I want to do anything. There seems to be a caching issue, because I have to constantly refresh the index page to see if there have been any replies or new posts.

Why does it have a vast area of white space at the top of the page, so I have to scroll right down before I can see or do anything? I keeps jerking about up and down the screen. My old bookmark took me straight into the active posts section, that no longer works and as mentioned above we now have to go in via the site home page, community page and login screen before I get anywhere near the bit I'm interested in. But maybe that's the idea?

Yes it does. We have had a lost cat returned thanks to its French microchip.

Contrary to popular belief, OSA is not caused by being overweight. It's basically to do with breathing during sleep being obstructed by collapsible walls of soft tissue in the airway. Obesity can lead to low muscle tone which brings this about, so the condition is not uncommon in overweight people, but there are many other causes of obstructed airways. I'm glad to see it receiving more recognition in France.  

You get the percentage off fares as a foot passenger, though it usually only amounts to a few pounds, but from my experience (mostly a couple of years back so it may have changed now) you miss out on the free day cabins. I always thought it a bit stiff that I had to pay the same for a reserved seat as anybody else [;-)]. You still get the discount in the restaurants though.

[quote user="Mr Ice-ni"] Not quite, Coops, but a good point. An excellent reason to scrap Universal Suffrage. John [/quote] So which sections of the population would you envisage disenfranchising? Women? Scots? Homosexuals? Dyslexics? Clergymen? Freemasons? Sun readers? Estate agents? Journalists? Small fluffy dogs? Anybody with a sub-Mensa IQ? (mind you, from my experience of Mensa I would personally be quite happy if that so-called branch of intelligentsia didn't have the vote).[;-)]

We currently live in Buckinghamshire and have a house in West Sussex, both of which are supposedly prosperous areas which arguably have less need of NHS dentists, and there's no shortage of dental practices offering NHS treatment in either place. Whether or not they are any good is a different matter, but the same sort of comment could be levelled at hospitals and dentists in most places, including France.

[quote user="Théière"]Of all the criticisms of M O'leary etc at least they don't have the nerve to give you a bigger discount on the longer stays which are not after all on their vessel but on dry land.[/quote] The shorter stay return trips are already discounted. It seems travel operators can't win; with one breath they are criticised because two day trips work out less than a 10-day-plus return and the terms and conditions won't allow you to use two day trips, and with the next they are being criticised for giving discount club members a higher percentage on longer stays. [:D] Another highly useful benefit is this (pasted from the Club Voyage web page): Get your friends and family to book with Brittany Ferries as a guest of your membership and for every booking made, we'll credit your Club Voyage account with £10 towards your own future travel. (Maximum credit accruable £150 per annum, allocated when you renew your membership) And with Club Voyage you don't need to actually own a house in France or Spain, unlike the previous incarnation. All in all it's a pretty worthwhile deal if you travel more than a couple of times a year (or once in peak season). Edit - RH posted while I was checking the above.

I suggest you read 'A Year in the Merde' by Stephen Clarke, which is a light-hearted description of the author's experience of running such an establishment, although not actually owned by him. As far as running any type of business in France goes, recent changes have made it less onerous to run a small-scale enterprise as a sole trader, but you will still encounter the high charges and tedious bureaucracy once your turnover increases to the level that equates to earning a living wage, worse still if you are contemplating employing anybody. Non-French do succeed in opening businesses in France, and seem perfectly happy, but few if any get rich. Edit - the Forum software would not allow me to give the name of the book, despite it being freely on sale and not a top-shelf or under-the-counter jobby. The disallowed word is something like M3RD3. And by the way, don't bother with the 'M*rde Actually' follow-up title which is utter rubbish.

Be careful. Selling 'non-fixed' items like furniture and appliances (even fitted kitchens etc) at inflated prices is a way of reducing tax. You may benefit in paying less for the French equivalent of the UK stamp duty by buying these things separately, but the seller may be looking at a way of reducing capital gains liability or some other dodge to avoid putting some of the purchase price through the taxation loop, but if when selling on there is capital gains tax to pay you could lose out through there being a bigger difference between purchase price and sale price than there should have been. It's a more sophisticated version of the old cash under the table trick, that may get picked up and you could be asked to pay the taxation shortfall. But it's most likely to be just a typical French overvaluation.

[quote user="EuroTrashII"]Sorry, just read Will's post - I thought that to be eligible for an E101 it very definitely has to be your intention to only stay temporarily in another country, and you have to have a permanent home continuously available to you throughout the period you are away, which you intend to resume living in after your time abroad? Several years ago when I moved over I applied for an E101 and got one and then decided to go AE after all - but I seem to recall having to identify exactly what accommodation I had permanently at my disposal in the UK.[/quote] You are right of course. That's certainly how the E101 worked; in theory it's temporary, but there's no reason why you can't change your mind about going back at the end of its validity - as we both did. Neither, I think, is it quite as simple as keeping a home available, you can rent out your house (as we did), or you may be renting yourself, and in France 'between tenancies'. The important thing is to maintain ties with UK, which might work for the OP with the nursery premises, though I rather suspect the A1(E101) isn't really appropriate in their case. The real answer is to ask a professional rather then rely on experience of other people on a forum, because what worked for us quite probably won't work for others. And getting it wrong can be horrendous - if a professional gives bad advice you have some comeback, whereas there is no guarantee to back up forum chat. The real benefit of discussions like this is that even if they don't point to the right answer, at least they give some pointers about the sort of questions to ask the professionals.

Norman - he posted above [;-)]

You definitely need to take advice from a specialist accountant with knowledge of the tax and social security systems in both Britain and France. Under normal circumstances, your problem could be temporarily solved by applying for an A1 (E101) form which would allow you to transfer your UK business to another EU state and continue paying tax and NI in UK, while being eligible for French healthcare in the same way as any other French resident. This arrangement is valid for one year, and can be renewed with the agreement of the authorities in both France and UK. That year (and maybe one renewal - you won't normally get longer than that) will give you time to regularise your situation. But this only works if you are physically carrying on the same business in France that you operate in UK - in your case it seems that you are not doing the same work in France (it has been delegated to others), so may not be entitled to an A1. Beware - without an A1 or similar form you will quite probably be expected to prove that, for your UK business, all clients, all work, all management, and all other activities are undertaken outside France - i.e. the only way in which your setup can be considered 'legal' as far as French residents are concerned (and you will without doubt be deemed to be fiscally resident in France). This will raise the question of the origin of your income, on which you exist from day to day, and you will have to prove that this is independent of your UK business. Daft, I know, but that's France for you. If the French authorities find any financial links to your UK business they will hammer you for various charges, quite likely amounting to a high number of hundreds of euros per month. Some people try to shelter behind 'dividend' income - this raises even more complications as far as France is concerned, and professional advice is even more essential. Or you could just lie low, keep your head below the parapets, use the EHIC for healthcare, and hope to Heaven that you don't get investigated. Of course, this is not recommended, though many people seem to do it. It is very easy to get things wrong in France - its rules for businesses are totally different, and in many ways far more restrictive than in UK. And getting it wrong can prove extremely costly, so professional advice is an investment rather than an expense. By the way, I have worked in France on an E101 (the former identity of this version of the A1) and have experienced a French tax investigation, so the above is based on real personal knowledge.