BJSLIV

If you are using 30 Euros in two weeks that's about 2 hrs a month of calls which is costing you 60 Euros per month. With what is in fact quite a heavy usage you would be better off with a proper contract rather than pre-pay. A 12 month deal with Orange at 38 Euros would give you two hours a monthly , plus unlimited calls to three chosen numbers. You can compare all the offers here. http://www.comparatel.fr/

"too good to be true" My shorthand take. A while ago the rules were changed so as to ensure that EU citizens were not able to move to France unless they were either employed or had private health insurance. In another part of the forest Nicholas was trying to make the system more flexible so that it was easier for people to take on second jobs, or even set up new businesses. Hence the auto-entrepreneur was born .  The big idea is that if you are starting out , and so not making any significant profits, there is no minimum contribution required. This was never intended for new arrivals , it was intended for people who were already in the system one way or another. Look at it this way. Under the old system, which  was thought to be too attractive, inactifs were required to pay contributions of 8% on a major part of their declared income. Under the new system people believe that if they set up a business selling old copies of the Beano on Ebay but unfortunately due to market conditions  they only sell 50 euros worth per year, then for 10 Euros worth of contributions they are going to be given the key to the French health system....................... Too good to be true?????  

Off the top of my head, assuming a standard PC with an LCD screen which goes into standby when not in use, I wouldn't expect you to average much more than 150 watts per hour. So assuming that the machine was on 12 hours per day that would be 2Kw per day. Say 20p per day. Try this calculator http://www.eu-energystar.org/en/en_007c.shtml

I see that France must be  edging its way towards PC behaviour. Claire's recipe is headed................"   Têtes de choco - anciennement ' tête de nègre "   [:)][:)][:)][:D]

OK this refers to someone who recruited workers directly Travail dissimulé dans un château Le propriétaire d'un château d'Ille-et-Vilaine entame un chantier de rénovation, en 2004, et confie les travaux à une équipe de travailleurs polonais sans les déclarer. Lors d'un contrôle sur dénonciation, les maçons polonais affirment qu'ils sont des touristes en promenade, mais le propriétaire du château reconnaît qu'il les emploie pour des travaux en intérieur. L'homme, âge d'une cinquantaine d'années, a comparu hier, et expliqué qu'il avait eu du mal à trouver des entreprises de la région pour réaliser ce chantier. Le procureur a requis 6 à 8 mois de prison avec sursis et une mise à l'épreuve, afin d'obliger le propriétaire à payer les cotisations sociales et une amende de 20 000 €. Le jugement sera rendu le 3 septembre. If you employ a Polish firm they will have to register and comply with the full gamut of minimum wages, working hours, French registrations, insurance etc. If they don't comply I fear that you could be held responsible for employing a non-registered company.  

So, the clock starts afresh......? But without any free period via E Forms......

But prior to the "Great Exclusion" wasn't it a legal requirement to register? or to look at it another way To be legally resident in France one needed health cover of some sort. Knowing how the bureaucratic mind works, I won't be surprised to find that the reason entrance to the system has been denied is that their five years qualification period will end when they have been resident with health cover for five years.    

We have the Orange / FT package The plus with the Orange deal is that you can have French TV either down the line or by satellite, depending on where you live. The minus is that they charge an extra 7 Euros if you want to ring abroad. So the deal, excluding offers, usually adds up as 29.90 basic + 3 for the livebox + 7 for international calls making 39.90 in total.

Just curious - but if someone didn't have health insurance but had sufficient resources to pay for any healthcare surely they must be legally resident?  Legally resident, but as Ron has pointed out illegally not paying their dues!

Got a package from UK Telecom which now offer you a landline, wireless broadband, free telephone calls to other landlines in many countries.  Comes in at around 43 euros a month. Which is 10 or 15 Euros a month more expensive than the French operators, if you are brave enough to deal with a French speaking help desk.

There's no point worrying about the pros and cons of the Tempo tariff, the one with red, white and blue days. If you aren't already on that tariff they won't take on any new customers. Hence the choice is ordinary or Heures Creuses, the equivalent of Economy Seven.  

I have a feelingOrange don't really know what they are doing and it depends on who you deal with. I agree

I would try the european emergency number 112 if using a mobile.

You are lucky that you live in an area where Orange TV online is available, presumably a larger town. We who live out in the sticks can only get Orange TV if we have a satellite dish installed. It will also be interesting to see if you are able to pay the ongoing charges with your debit card. In the past this has been impossible, standing orders only working with a French account.  

I am told by my French colleagues that there will be a general strike tomorrow in France, Thursday 19th March but I have not seen it mentioned on this forum. Enjoy your extra holiday!

does anyone know of any product that will speed up the rate of drainfield absorption ???? I fear the only product that will permanently solve your problem is a JCB.

I gave up on AVG last last year. It was taking about 4 hours each day to carry out it's scan routine during which time the machine was virtually unusable. So I switched to Avast.  

Does anyone use Teleconnect Isn't the problem with Teleconnect that.... 1 You still have to rent a line from FT at 16 euros per month. 2 Though you can cancel at any time they charge you 45 Euros. Personally  think that unless someone is only using the property for a very short period each year or they want 99.9% availability of the phone line, then the best option is probably to go for 100% Free which gives the phone line, virtually all calls free, and as fast an ADSL line as is technically possible. All For 360 Euros per year.

I think the problem is that like many utilities gradually facing up to rising costs and competition La Poste was looking for ways of increasing it's income. So it came up with this idea of forcing anything other than letters to use the parcels service. Irrespective of whether or not it was legal to do this , they ignored one major problem. How to enforce it, especially if many of the counter staff probably thought it to be a daft idea anyway. So in practice it has been very easy to ignore the rule, unless you happen to encounter a counter person whop is a stickler for the rules. Once a package is in the post it's going to be even harder to enforce, short of the delivery person waiting to see the letter opened and collecting a surcharge at the delivery end. I did think of designing a letter bending machine and seeing if I could interest La Poste. The idea would be to bend each item to 90 degrees% , anything fragile would break, but there would be no right to compensation, as the goods shouldn't have been there in the first place!

Hence my wondering how many times they have switched on and off!

How many times, and how often do you switch it on and off during a year?  

I have had problems in a shop where they were about to refuse my Nationwide card because they were confused when the machine asked which language to use. Not having seen this before they were about to revert to the default "Pas possible" but once I had explained shown them what to do ,everything was OK.  

It can't be fundamentally that much more expensive. Its not that long ago that the weekend press was full  of articles showing how much could be saved by a day ferry trip to LeroyMerlin in Calais

No its 100% electric. Its a specific model "The 13 amp Aga". It works a bit like a night storage heater. http://www.tncook.co.uk/newelectricaga.html

The rule about using colissimo for small stuff was illegal If their conditions were illegal, why did the regulator feel obliged to go via this route, making them introduce a special tariff under threat of withholding price increases for Colissimo, rather than just telling them to obey the law?