bigjimbishop

I'd be interested in a poll which looked at how many of the 62% moved here and how many returned to the UK after 2 years. Some pals told me that 30% return but I don't know if this is true. What I do notice is that for the most part people return to the UK because they refuse to learn French! They buy the barn, build the gite, run out of cash, can't find a job and basicly fail to realise that life here is so much easier than the UK if you speak french! So to answer all the "will we be welcome?" questions and rubbish any books that list endless nightmares in moving here, learning to integrate local culture and language into your lives is the most rewarding and fun challange in moving here. Too many "whinging Pommes"  so Speak French or Go Home Biz A+

I'm off to see the ANPE in a minute to try and find some teacher training either locally or by coorespondance. Anyone had any success in this field? Ultimately I want to teach multimedia part time in local schools. I have broad practical and theoretical IT skills and experienced composer and animatronics engineer. I'm sure this will take years to accomplish but I'm ever hopeful. Anyone got any tips? Jim

The only reason I'm interested is to make a dual boot machine to broaden my client base in the music industry. Games developers use PCs, Music producers use Macs, Film and TV is split almost 50/50 these days. I simply can't afford to go down the Mac route yet but can afford Tiger. All my licenced software is dual platform so this could be a winning solution for me if it works.

Roughly what should one expect to pay for a french will?

Running XP on Intel Mac may tempt many PC users over to Apple but what about THIS???? http://www.uneasysilence.com/os-x-proven-hacked-and-running-on-an-ordinary-pc/ anyone tried it yet? I'm going to give it a whirl on Intel and AMD.

I'd highly recommend getting a solicitor especially if he has one. His guy could be advising him to use tactics to mess things up for you It only cost me 120 Quid which seems a lot but he gave me such confidence as I'd never been involved with the courts or CAFCAS before. My guy went through the application then delivered by hand with me to the courts in order to get the date I needed. Absolute life saver. If you live anywhere near Leicester the I'd recommend Dews Whitcombe on London Road. Solicitors really help in these situations to get past the emotional content of the whole deal. Once again Good Luck. Where are you moving to?

I had a rather pressing schedule during that period so I told the CAFCAS officer that I was leaving on a certain date and needed the orders fast. In the circumstances my boy had to come with me whatever the courts did as his mother was not prepared to care for him so they got things moving fast. Kick some arse and make it happen when you want. Do you have a solicitor handling the application?

Parental consent was one of the 'Fathers for Right' issues. Until 2004 only mothers had automatic parental consent ie the legal right to decide on religon, education and health. It used to be a simple matter for a father to get these right if the mother agreed but if she decided not to have the father on the birth certificate for whatever reason then the father could face real problems securing any legal status with his child/ren and still be liable for CSA. Fathers automatically have equal rights with babies born since dec 2004. Your hubby needs to check he has these rights. Again if the mother does not respond then it's automatic. We went through a CAFCAS report. The boy had been living solely with me for some months and legally I had no rights over him if, for example if he had been ill and a doctor needed consent to operate then only his absent mother could grant this. So when I went to apply for parental consent and mentioned that drugs were involved they suggested a residency order as well just incase she decided to take him away to someplace where he might be in danger. He was only 2 at this point. his action generated interest from CAFCAS so a report was done with interviews for each of us. She was honest with the officer and explained why she could not cope. But then in the middle of all this I came here on holiday and bought a house. So I returned to UK with a court date set 3 days before house completion date in France and a property to sell fast in UK. I then needed a jurisdiction order as well. Crazy 3 months but we made it just before the market crashed in the UK. I got the court orders and left UK the same day!

brass bands are quite popular. I saw a concert in Arleuf, Bourgogne. They all got quite drunk and put on a great show http://www.batterie-fanfare.fr/index.php?op=edito This is the link to one of the national sites I play trombone and miss having a toot occasionaly with a band. Just too rural here for that kind of jazz

We drew up an agreement for the details of a 'reasonable contact order' together but she did not want me to have a residency order as she felt that removed all her rights over our son. This is not the case as the residency order merely states with whom the child lives until he is 16. She can challenge it anytime. As it happens the residency order arrived as part of the jurisdiction order. As long as both parents have parental responsibility then joint decisions cover issues of religion, schooling and medical treatment. But as soon as the kids have been resident in France for more than 6 months then French law takes over and the other parent has little chance of changing the situation. This has been tried and tested recently and got a lot of media coverage. I got a great solicitor (who deals in child abduction by an estranged parent) to help me get through this. Luckily it was an amicable. However I did benefit from the political scene at the time. This was the period nearly 2 years ago when Fathers for Justice were in the news. I suspect that any earlier and I might have really struggled to take my son with me. As concerns your hubbies ex, when you make an application for an order to the courts the respondant has a time frame in which to react. If she does not then the order is likely to be granted in her absence. I know this works for Parental Consent so with a good lawyer it should work for the other orders as well. Having the maternal grandmothers blessing really helps. I can't imagine you will have a problem. I've agreed not to remove my son from the jurisdiction of France (unless on holiday for less than 31 days) just so the door cannot be closed entirely. I think this is only fair as one day I will no doubt have to explain it to my son. Best of luck

Oh yes please scan and send. Cheers Dick. greatly appreciated I'm sure it will keep the Hotel des Impots happy.

When I decided to leave UK with my 3 yr old son I got parental consent, a contact order and an order to remove him from the UK jurisdiction. As it happens his mother was in agreement that she could not care for him so we drew up the application together and put in conditions of contact which was basicly open. I got Allocation Parent Isole for 1 year (loads of money) which is a 'getting back on your feet' allowance and I was supposed to prove she was not supporting me in order to recieve this. But she is homeless and I've no idea where to find her so they just gave me the money. I think the allowance was possibly better than any maintenance I might have got from her anyway. She has not stuck to the contact agreement and never writes or phones and I have found that my son is totally happy without an inconsistant parent in his life. So I reckon it's possibly counter-productive to chase for maintenance if you can get by without as it does cloud the water a bit. I'm sure your kids will have a great time here as my boy does. good luck to you

What is a "dispositif assimilé" I don't have a TV and a lost the flipping letter.

Rock wool is Laine de Roche and is available in rolls, boards and loose from Brico Depot (my second home)

I just searched Wanadoo.fr and France Telecom and I cannot find any mention of ISDN or RNIS. Weird! So I'm not sure if 128kbs connection is available, maybe it's just limited to 64kbs. Maybe they discourage this type of installation now that ADSL is rolling out. Problem is that I'm not likely to get it for 2 years! It's impacting on my business  negatively more and more. Rural charm has its limitations Thanks for the info, I shall plough on.

Can you use VoIP with ISDN?

Brilliant, many thanks Hegs. They stock it.

can anyone recommend a box with all these functions? ADSL wireless firewall router with ISDN backup I found this....Draytek Vigor 2600w ADSL Router w/ISDN Backup but I can't find anyone who stocks it ta

Quote   I don't quite understand why Citroen are asking for all of that.  Basically, they need a copy of your V5C so they can identify your vehicle from the VIN number.  Their computer system will confirm that it is within a series which is type approved for France, then they'll print off a standard certificate of conformity.  And they're going to charge you 120 euros for the pleasure. End Quote You can get a Conformity certificate from Citroen UK instead for 80 Quid which will work here

I have an old barn in ruins with 3 walls standing 2 metres high. But it's not marked on the plans at the Marie. Can I 'repair' it ie put a roof back on it with out permission? I know it always pays to ask permission but out of interest if it is just a pile of stones which miraculously grew a roof over night are they gonna get me? If you demolish a building then do you inform the Marie so new permissions are needed to use the site? I seem to remember the rules are different in UK if you rebuild on an existing footprint of a ruin. Jim

I just bought 4 Velux 78x98 to fit tuile mechanique from Brico Depot. I pondered going down the cheaper route with Roto but the accessories are much better and the garantee is 20 years and covers accidents during installation.

Bourgogne is half way between Paris and Geneva so not really skiing country. As for the cold winter I've been out in the garden digging today in shorts....I don't reckon anyone in the UK was doing that. It gets cold in the winter but you don't get the 4 months of damp like UK. My pals from Leicester just rocked up here last monday and bought the first propery they saw. I've been looking through the lists they got online and locally and the prices are still very reasonable. This is a very rural area so you need to have an income/pension organized. Loads of painters and artists live here due to the beauty, but I guess this is true in most of France.

We are in the Morvan National Parc, Bourgogne

If you want all the packages bundled in Microsoft Office such as Excel, Word, Powerpoint etc then search and download Openoffice from www.openoffice.org You can do all the same things as MS Office XP pro and export PDFs It's free!!! not 135Quid but really free just like Firefox internet explorer and Thunderbird mail client program I've been using it for 2 years and am very pleased. Microsoft is pants!

If you get the property list from the local Notaire's (Solicitor)  office you may find a better deal than the UK and Dutch owned estate agents, now seems to be a good time of year for a bargain as well. I'm shocked at the prices down south! Here you can buy 2 gite sized cottages with a spring and an acre of land for 70,000 Euro. jim