XLeblanc

Has anyone any experience good or bad on Polypool. They are an english company but they tell me they have shipped quite a few pools to France. They do not have an agent in France either. Any information would be gratefully received.

Food for thought really, If someone could tell you categorically what would need changing then a decison could be made whether or not it was worth doing. I will need to have a thinkif I have the time to do all of this chasing around. Cheers all who contributed

I have now successfully registered two of our three vehicles in France with no real problems. We have a mazda MX5 Eunos Roadster which was imported from Japan into the UK. It is now in the barn with a cover over it in limbo as it has no MOT or road tax although it is insured with our French agent. Whilst the car is not worth a great deal of money I have replaced and upgraded a lot of the parts on the car over the last few years and as such it would be a shame to get rid of it. From what I am told I wont get certificate of conformity for it from Mazda and the only way to get it registered in France would be to put the car through a test similar to the SVA (single vehicle approval) in the UK. Has anyone on the forum got any experience of this, what are the chances of being able to register the car in France. Thanks

I have now registered two vehicles in France now and the process is not difficult. You just have to make sure you have all the correct bits of paper when you make the trip to the prefecture. Once at the prefecture the process takes less than half an hour. There are a great number of people driving around in British registered cars some of whom I know for a fact have not returned to the UK to renew their MOT certificates and display no control technique stickers on their windscreens. Therefore there is a strong possibility that their cars may not even be roadworthy. I wonder also how their French Insurance Company would view this situation should they have an accident.  

Thanks everyone, I shall try and give the people suggested a call when I get home from work.

I am commencing our barn conversion in the coming months and require to find people to carry out some of the initial work to get it underway. It would be necessary for the builders retained to carry out the work to be correcly registered and be able to provide references and examples of work they have carried out in the past. It would also be necessary for them to committ to dates on their devis. I do not mind waitng for the right people. The work is in three parts really. Part One Check out the roof of the barn, one of the roof slopes is sagging a little and has been propped on the first floor. This would require to be put right. The original skylights have to be removed and thirteen velux windows installed. Part Two I need to get a concrete floor laid on a portion of the ground floor of the barn, this is approximatly 170 square metres. It will also need to support the weight of a reasonably heavy vehicle. There is access for the likes of a bobcat or mini digger to achieve this. Part Three There requires to be three new appertures for widows made in the building, some partition brick work and a couple of arches rebuilt. If anyone knows of any builders whom they can recommend then I would be very grateful of their details. Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

We bought our fox terrier from a breeder in Lauriere, Haute Vienne, which is not too far from Bourganeuf. Her name is Monica and she seems to care about her dogs. The details are as follows:- 05 55 71 42 48 I also met a woman (English) who was starting a business running kennels south of Limoges while I was attending the Chambre De Metier course in Limoges. If you would prefer I can get her number for you. Cheers

Hi Paul, Firstly I assume your joists are 450mm centres and not 45mm as your post suggests. If infact they are 45mm centres just go ahead as there will be no problem. By adding chipboard you are in theory creating a T joist which will add some structural strength to your floor. Since the overall condition of you joists can not really be determined accurately . I would suggest a small experiment subjecting each joist to a point load test which will give you an indication that they will be strong enough to support your floor. The overall load on the floor will not however be classified as a point load as it will be evenly distributed across the surface area of the floor. This can be done quite simply by calculating the total weight of concrete, chipboard flooring and the water weight within the heating pipes in total for each of the two areas and then dividing it by the amount of joists you have in each case. Then subject each joist to a point load equal to that in the centre of the joist. Note any deflection or structural damage to the joist and move onto the next one. Weights for 50mm concrete are 122.2336kg per square metre and chipboard (22mm) is 18kg per square metre. Hope this helps Paul. I expect I will be ripped apart by the experts waiting on the wings who have not answered your post already as not the way they would do this. Cheers

We used Ryder which are National and were very good, but the downside was it was not cheap by the time we paid the ferry tolls and diesel.

There is a LeClerc supermarket in La Souterraine and a LeClerc Brico type place in La Souterraine also which are nearer than Limoges. They will also have stores in Limoges which are likely to be bigger. For chests of drawers etc it may be work going to Brocante type places which are dotted around the area. There is a large one in Limoges called Troc something. I can give you directions if you decide to go there. There is also a large Carfour supermarket and retail type park at junction 39 of the A20, just south of Limoges. If you are going to kit out a whole house it may be worth going to IKEA, there is a large one in Bordeux. LeClerc have just commenced van rental in La Souterraine for around thirty euros per day.  IKEA have a website you can have a look at and see the sort of stuff they sell prior to driving there. If there is anything else I can help with let me know as you are coming a long way and obviously need your planning straight before you arrive.    

I ordered left hand drive headlights for my wrangler from the jeep dealer in Portsmouth and had them shipped to France, only £65 each if I remember correctly. Will have them fitted in the next few weeks so can let you know how much that costs.

Euge, Where are you based or going to be based in France. Peoples interpritation of the rights and wrongs can be distorted and it is important that you get things right from the onset. I attended the mandatory business course at the end of June in Limoges and it was all in English. There were also people in attendance from Charente which as you will likely be aware is not part of Limousin but they were accepted on the course. The complete course has been translated and adapted to suit people who as yet do not have a good enough command of the French Language. I know people who's French is of a good standard and they attended the course in Gueret and they were left asking themselves a lot of questions at the end of it. I left my course with a clear understanding of what I needed to do and knew which fiscal and tax regimes I needed to adopt in order to start a joinery manufacturing business in the near future which will manufacture windows, flooring, kitchens, staircases, doors, worktops, skirtings and architraves as well as supplying top quality Eastern European Kiln dried oak machined properly to whatever dimensions the customer wishes. The course also covered mandatory insurances needed to operate an enterprise in France. Information on Grants, tax concessions and interest free loans to generate some working capitol to help you start your business were all forthcoming. It did not just tel you about these things it told you where and whom to apply to to get what you needed. The same Scottish guy also does courses for the chambre de metiers in the dordogne. All in all the course from my point of view was top class. You will obviously need to attend this course yourself but I can hopefully answer any questions you may have in the meantime. I have all the course notes which were professionally translated into English.   Goodluck  

There is good and bad, fair and unfair in every country in the world. If you do not think the fruits of your labour a worth five euros per hour then you have a choice to make.

[quote]Need to have a staircase built from scratch and we were pondering on whether a stone staircase was feasible. Before I attempt to discuss this with our french builder, has anyone any views/tips/experie...[/quote] Basically, If you can't research it with a book from Axminster then buy it from Lapeyre, get a master tradesman with 30 years experience who is fully registered as an artisan and is insured up to the hilt. Are not able to check their SIRET number incase they are actually lying and are really working on the black. Then forget it. If all that fails then refer to the pages jaunes as there will be at least 82 of them in your particular department. More seriously anything is possible if you have the funds to complete the project and can find someone capable of undertaking such a job.

Thanks for the votes of confidence all comments will be taken on board. I do not have a business plan as such as I am no where near starting a French business at the moment. I will know when the time is right to do so and my business plan at this point should be clear and simple aswell as being based around local knowledge I will have gained by then. My business idea is based around a few factors. The main one being the difficulty sourcing what I wanted or needed locally. I needed some windows making and the French joiner quoted me in excess of six months to have them done. I am not the type of person just to get my feet up for six months and wait, maybe that is my failing. I could have messed around with the widow opening sizes and went to Lapeyre and bought them but again that just isn't me. My feeling is that if a business of this type can flourish in the UK with more competition then I believe that it will do well here in France, where the raw materials are less expensive although not as readily available. Or it would seem that way initially. We are having some building work done currently and the French artisan doing the work is using doors which are more or less of the peg. This job was planned and the devis signed some time ago before I decided to go down this route. These doors are good quality but if I had a choice they would not be what I would use. Working with wood is something I love and I woulld just like to give people in my area or for that matter anywhere a bit more choice in the materials they use for their building projects. They would then benefit from items in their house, which were original and not like everything everybody else has in theirs. They can even play an active part in the design if they like. I am not looking to mass produce things or to try and compete with others doing similar work.  I simply do not need to as I have a well paid job in the oil industry in the UK that allows me three weeks off every five. As a result of the above, when the business is formed I do not need to make any money from it in the short term. I require all of the items I hope to sell in the future for my barn project (960 squm floor area). This more than justifies my outlay so far for machinery. The money I shall save on making all of my own joinery products will pay for the machines and at the end of the day, if looked after these machines will be worth as much or if not more than I paid for them after our barn is finished. I risk nothing but have much to gain. I accept that I am fortunate, I was tempted to use the word lucky but where I am now is a result of a lot of years hard work and not really down to luck. You may ask how my current role in the oil industry is connected to joinery manufacturing? I assisted from the outset in the set up (including wiring) of a joinery manufacturing business in the UK. I worked there in my spare time and advised in it's continual growth over the first few years of it's life. Although I understand why, I did not agree with direction this business went as it moved toward mass produced joinery. The workforce had the tallent and flair to produce some quite stunning and original work, but the business owner who was very good friend decided that he would rather make twenty stair cases at £800 each and keep the business going for a month to six weeks than making one at £12,000 in a week and worrying what to do for the next few weeks. Granted the location of the business did play a major part in his decision but that could have been got around by good advertising and marketing. The quality of the product was achievable at reasonable cost and that is the hardest bit of the job. This expertise is still there in the UK to be called upon as and when the need arises. As well as numerous other contacts in the UK from whom I have purchased machinery, each and every one an expert in the use of the machines they retail. This thread like many others seems to have taken a bit of a turn away from advice on some industrial wiring which in the UK is part of my professional remit. Only the rules change slightly. No where in my original post did it state my intention to work on the black as it is called. I came to France for a better way of life. I feel a greater need to give rather than take from the French society which has more or less welcomed us to France with open arms. I am not about to abuse this privelage which I see others openly doing. Thanks again for all of your replies, keep them objective and keep them coming. You can never have enough knowledge. I hope this make interesting reading and puts some minds at rest that I am not just another Brit who has moved to France to exploit the French.

I have a large barn which is going to be converted into a house, workshops and garage for a few cars. The house and barn were originally owned by an old lady who is  now a neighbour. At some point in the past she has had the electricity supply disconnected from the barn and a cable installed between the barn and the house to run a few lights and sockets. I assume this was done to save money on her EDF standing charges for two properties. The three phase cables are still connected to the overhead lines and look as though they are still terminated in a box in the barn where the original meter and disjoncteur was fitted. I have recently bought a number of machines to enable me to manufacture windows, doors, staircases, flooring, skirtings and architraves to complete the barn as well as setting up a French Business doing the same. Most of these machines are three phase and range up to 10kw for the largest. I would like to reinstate the original three phase supply to the barn although I am not too familiar with the French wiring standards I should have no problem getting my head around them as I served an electrical based apprenticeship in the UK and currently work in the oil industry with electricity. My thinking was to simply reintstate the original barn wiring and lighting circuits and get EDF to reconnect the barn on that basis Then run the wiring in for the machines and just get EDF out to raise the current rating per phase up to it's maximum. Applying a diversity factor which assumes the machinery will not be operated simultaneously would mean that a a 20kwish setting on the disjoncteur should be ample, which I believe is the maximum edf will allow on a domestic supply. Or should I say it was the maximum they would increase the house supply to. I invite costructive advice on whether I am likely to get away with this or whether or not I would be rumbled and my supply disconnected. Could I do this and have a French electrician check it over prior to EDF connecting the supply. I do not however want my spelling mistakes corrected and told by all and sundry that I personally wouldn't do this. Many thanks in advance.

I feel the original post has taken a bit of a change of direction but feel obliged to comment on the apprenticeship / training quandry the Uk and I presume other countries are experiencing currently. I started my apprenticeship in 1981 with the Electricity board in Scotland. That year there were 102 apprentices recruited by the board. The year after around half of that and the following year only three. I currently work offshore with an oil company and we do have apprentices passing through. Even if we had the amount of apprentices in training schemes that we will need for the future. I fear the quality of training, the recruitment of the correct people and the actual attitude of the modern apprentice recruits leaves a lot to be desired. NVQ's seem to be more important than anything else. I am currently having to do an NVQ to prove that I am what I say I am and that I can doe the job I have been doing for twenty years. What is wrong with my college certificates, apprenticeship indentures and completion certificate? An NVQ does not even come close to what I learned while doing my four year apprenticeship never mind what another twenty years of experience has tought me following that. The biggest thing my apprenticeship taught me was respect, something the younger generation of today seem to have lost forever. The tradesman of today in the building trade are only taking advantage of a situation the wise forward thinking politicians have created. As far as I am concerned the politicians in the UK have their own agenda and not that of the country and they know jack s**t about the real world where most of us live. Good luck finding your elusive, expensive tradesman, my motto is learn to do it yourself.  

removed  

We have stayed in many Gites during the two years we spent looking for the right property in France. Initially in Brittany and then in Limousin. I think the basic problem in my view and repeat in my view is that a great number of people starting a Gite business or for that matter running a Gite business in France believe that all they have to do is to convert a small barn and fill it with functional furniture and appliances and then get the advert placed and the bookings will come pouring in. I would not have rented any of the Gites we rented out of season and paid the prices they were wanting for them during peak summer periods. They were not very clean and very badly equiped to spend a couple of weeks in. We stayed in one the first night and had to go and buy a sheet for the bed the next day as the sheet the owners had fitted had so many bobbles on it you couldn't sleep. I called it an exfoliating bed sheet. People have standards and if you pitch your gite at your own mediocre standards then it is only going to appeal to people of the same standard as you or that of a lower standard. If you have high standards and provide accomodation to these high standards then you will appeal to that area of the market. There are obviously more factors involved which include the marketing of your gites and their geographical location. You also need to be a good host and be tolerant of your guests and respect their needs. This is something the people whom we stayed with lacked to a certain degree. I believe there are a lot of gite owners out there who do not have the attributes and the quality of accomodation necessary to run gites, Their prices are geared more to their financial needs than value for money. Bad gites will not attract repeat business. Now we are in France we have met a number of people whom the dream has not materialised for. They are  hard working people, people with skills, but the French system and language barrier prevents them from succeeding there. My heart goes out to these peolpe. I hate to see anybody's dream being shattered. The above is only my opinion on this thread, some may agree others may disagree. Please however do not delude yourselves and get into something that can not work for you in France. Good luck all.  

removed