Rob G

Next week my wife is going back to the UK for a few days. It will be the first trip back since we moved here, and she is taking our French car. She asked me earlier whether we need to get some headlight beam converters. I must confess I hadn't really thought about this. I've always used them when bringing a RHD car to France for a holiday, but before we moved over here I drove our French car in the UK for about a month and never even thought about converting the headlamps. Anyone know the official position on this? Thanks, Rob

Well, tmto, I think you've cracked it..... Rob

It seems this subject just goes on and one! We're finally getting used to getting the ifre going, and keeping it going well. What seems to work best for us is to get rid of the grate and build the fire directly on the hearth. We use an "allume-buches" firelighter block, a few bits of kindling and then put a couple of very dry split logs on. Once it's going, we then add one or two more logs. Key things we have found are that you need to have a good amount of kindling, so that you end up with lots of red hot glowing cinders under the logs; also that it periodically dies down and needs rearranging - sometimes only a slight movement of the logs will lead to a nice roaring fire again. I'm sure woodburners are a lot easier, but we can't afford one at the moment. Open fires may be more work, but they're a lot nicer too (imho). There's just something about a roaring fire.....maybe I'm just a closet pyromaniac! Rob

I don't know why the French do this, but they seem to have the habit of using apostrophe s ('s) for the plural form of certain word/names borrowed from English. There's a shop near where we live called "Interior's". Rob

In a similar vein to ViveLaFrance's reply above about the way the French pronounce English, can anyone work out what this means (see it as a kind of riddle - answers on a postcard please...): Un petit d'un petit S’étonne au hall Un petit d’un petit Ah ! Degrés te fallent Indolent qui ne serre cesse Indolent qui ne se mène Qu’importe un petit d’un petit Tout gai de Raguennes Rob

Hi Janey, A slight word of warning - "Je me suis fait engueler" is somewhat colloquial = "I got yelled at". Might be better with something like "je me suis fait gronder" (= "I got told off"), or "j'ai eu des ennuis" (literally = "I had troubles"). Hope this helps, Rob

Thanks Iceni, your advice is noted. My pyramid is not standing on its head - I'm fully aware of the need to properly understand market potential, develop a business plan etc. Just trying to get a handle on some of the likely initial and ongoing costs (in terms of orders of magnitude) at the outset before I get too deep in. Rob

We would like to consider the option of starting up a small home-based business here in France. Through reading various forums etc., I have picked up that the initial and ongoing costs in terms of tax and social security charges are pretty astronomical (and then they wonder why France doesn't have an "enterprise culture"....) As I really need to get to the bottom of this so that we can make up our minds whether this is an option worthy of further exploration, I was wondering if anyone knows of any good websites (in French or English) which give clear information on tax and charges for small businesses? Thanks, Rob

Having established that the chimney worked fine, sorted out the airflow problems so it draws well etc., and having bought some small bags of logs locally and made several good fires, we decided to order a bulk delivery to keep us going. I understand that midwinter is not the best time to have wood delivered - it's best in summer so it has plenty of time to stand and dry out. However, having only arrived recently and in desperate need of wood to reduce heating bills, we had no choice. I checked with the company how long the wood had been cut, and was told two years minimum. So we had three "steres" delivered on Tuesday morning (all losse, of course - took me ages to move it into the lean-to...) Looking forward to having relatively limiteless supplies of logs for the fire, we eagerly made the first one on Tuesday afternoon, only to find that the logs are, well, wet. Not wet as in they've got a bit damp on the outside; wet as in they hiss and spit when burning, and some sap/resin bubbles and seeps out of the end. Should this happen with wood that was cut two years ago? How long can we expect to have to wait now until it's completely dried out? Once we can get it going with plenty of red hot cinders underneath, it does keep burning; it just doesn't burn as vigourously as very dry logs, so the amount of heat it gives off at any one time is much less. In fact, a lot of the time it mostly smoulders rather than flames. This fire business is not as straightforward as I had thought. Rob

Thanks, Will, for the info. Yes, when we signed for the house at the notaire's office, he had us give a cheque to the previous owners for the tax for the remaining part of the year. Just to clarify, are both the taxe fonciere and the taxe d'habitation payable to the local tresor public? I might try to contact them and ask about payment arrangements - I'd really rather not get hit with a massive demand in one go. Rob

We bought our house in Normandy (76) at the end of November. Can anyone tell me when we should be notified of our taxe d'habitation and taxe fonciere, and who should be notifying us? And are there usually various payment options for these taxes - e.g. monthly payments? Thanks, Rob

Following various people's advice, we tried lighting a fire yesterday without using the fire grate. We kept the ashes from the previous day's fire and lit a new one using paper and kindling, then put logs directly onto that. What we found was that it was a bit harder to get it going in the first place, but once it was really burning, it was a lot easier to keep it burning. Using the grate, we found that quite a few times the fire went right down to just embers, and we had to add bits of kindling and mess about with it to get it going again. Last night, without the grate, it kept burning much better all evening, and yet strangely seemd to use fewer logs. The cinders underneath the burning logs were much hotter than previously. We need to find the best way of getting it going without using loads of kindling - can't afford to keep buying bags of the stuff! (Unless anyone has any suggestions where you can get a ready supply....) The only thing now is that the fireplace looks a little odd with no fire grate in it. Oh well, can't have everything. Rob

LOL! A wood burner may be an option for the future, but at the moment it's an outlay we can't afford. When the fire is burning nicely, it kicks out a lot of heat. The question is how do you easily get it going nicely, and keep it going nicely? Rob

I was going to say that we are neanderthals when it comes to lighting a wood fire, but the neanderthals were probably pretty good at it! We're just learning - never had to light one or keep it going until we moved to our house in Normandy 2 months ago. We have an open fireplace and are having a delivery of 33cm "buches" (logs). These come in various thicknesses. We have also bought a supply of "buchettes" - i.e. small stuff that lights easily for kindling. We put some bits of paper, kindling and a few bits of firelighter block on the hearth under the actual firegrate, and get this burning nicely. We then put a couple of split logs - not too thick, into the firegrate and get them burning. Then maybe add a couple more split logs. I read somewhere that you should always have 3 - 5 logs burning at any one time. The problem is keeping the logs burning at a good rate. They tend to smoulder rather than really burn. Once every bit of kindling has died away into a glowing ember, the logs stop flaming and start smouldering - to keep it burning we then have to stick some more bits of kindling into the hearth underneath. I think we must be doing something wrong - I thought we should just be able to keep adding logs to keep it burning nicely. Before anyone asks, yes the logs were cut two years ago and are nice and dry. Advice required from expert firestarters please! Rob

Thanks, Thumper, for the confirmation. We'll look out for it when we next go shopping. I had heard that there were some new regs coming in in January. Apparently, as well as the regs you mentioned, the inspectors can come and ask to inspect the fosse at any time, and if they find any aspect of it not to be up to the required european standards, they can demand that you have it put right within a set time limit. I have no reason to think that there's anything wrong with our fosse, except of course what seems to be the usual standard of workmanship in France.... Rob

The man came around this morning to have a look and give us some advice. (He was, of course, late. As far as we can tell, this seems to be the norm in France. Typically expect people to arrive between 15 and 30 minutes after the agreed time.) He reckons the reason we're having problems with the fireplace is down to insufficient ventilation in the kitchen. There is one vent that allows fresh in from outside, but he thinks this may not be enough to allow air to be drawn up into the cooker hood when the fire is burning. He said that this being the case, what you actually get is the opposite effect - i.e. you get smoke drawn back down through the cooker hood into the kitchen. So we may need to get another vent put into the kitchen. Before we go to the trouble of doing this, we're going to try leaving the kitchen window slightly ajar when the fire is on, so that we can test his theory. If that doesn't solve it, then we're back to square one! As for the central heating, he reckoned that the boiler might just need a good service and clean, which would cost around 90 euros. It's also possible that replacing it with a newer one might lead to much greater efficiency - a service would be able to reveal how (in)efficient it actually is. He said that he doesn't think changing to mains gas rather than fuel would save any money, because the cost of gas is more than fuel per kilowatt hour. I don't know if this is true. All I can say is that we have been staggered by the relative cost of our fuel heating as compared to the very cheap and highly effective gas central heating we had in the UK. I can only assume that the French must be used to paying far more for their heating than the British, whatever type of fuel is used. Rob

Thanks for the replies. I guess when it comes to it we'll just have to phone round and see what we get. Christine, we were already pretty convinced that a bichon maltais was not quite the same as a bichon frise. However, every French person who has seen our dog has called him a bichon maltais. It's bizarre - it's not as though people don't have bichons frises in France - we've seen plenty of them around. For some reason most people don't seem familiar with the correct name. Rob

Thanks for the replies. I'm not convinced that using Cif is a good idea. Even if it does end up being diluted, I'm not taking any chances. We've only been here two months and already discovered no end of issues with the general functioning of various appliances and systems in the house. Thumper, you mentioned a product that you think is called Septifosse. I've done a quick Google search and can't find any references to that, so I'm assuming it's something slightly different. I would be really grateful if you could have a look when you get a chance and you're in the right house and let us know what it's called. Many thanks, Rob

Hi, We moved from the UK to Normandy (76) in November. We have one small doggy - a bichon frise (which they seem to call a "bichon maltais" here). We haven't yet had to put him into kennels, but sooner or later the time will come when we have to all go away for a few days and will need to find suitable accomodation for him. Having had a very quick look in the "pages jaunes", there seem to be only one or two kennels anywhere near us. The local free paper has no ads for kennels. So we were just wondering, are kennels generally hard to come by, how much do they generally cost and what sort of standard are they? Thanks, Rob

Hi, We've moved from the UK to Normandy (76) in the last couple of months. We've bought a house with a fosse septique, so obviously have to be careful about what products we use in the house. We have some stuff to put down the loo once a week, but really my question is around what sort of products we can use for cleaning the kitchen sink and bathroom. We've been told to avoid anything with "Javel" (which I understand is bleach), but haven't yet found anything else which comes close to the same level of cleaning power. Any suggestions? Thanks, Rob

Another way to find your nearest CPAM - go to http://www.assurance-maladie.fr/portail.0.html - click on your region on the map, the on the next page click on "liens utiles" at the bottom. This takes you to a page of links, which should include a list of CPAMs in your region. Rob

Useful to know - thanks mikew. Thanks to all for your various suggestions. We've been taking electricity readings several times per day for the last few days, and there doesn't seem to be any one domestic appliance that is using more juice than it should. It seems that the major usage comes from the water heater, and also the central heating. Although this is an oil burner, it's electrically powered and seems to just about double our electricity consumption when it's on. In other words, reducing the amount of time the heating is on will not only save us money on fuel bills but also on electricity. We have a guy coming round tomorrow morning to look at the chimney and hopefully get it fit for purpose. This will allow us to use the heating sparingly and use a fire the rest of the time. He's also a heating engineer so will get him to look at the heating and hot water and see what he thinks as well. As a matter of interest, out of about seven businesses I phoned dealing with fireplaces and heating, he was the only one who was able to come in less than two weeks. Some even said they were taking on no new customers. I guess it's a good trade to be in during the winter.... Rob

[quote user="zeb"]Obviously things which heat use more electric and one of these may be using much more power than it should. Everyone uses their appliances in a different way. We have an electric kettle but mainly use the kettle which sits on the woodburner. I use the dishwasher almost daily but the washing machine (both cold fill only) is used every other day. Do you have an electric oven and hob?[/quote] We have an electric kettle but don't use it all that much. The dishwasher is on once a day during heures creuses. We have an electric oven with an induction hob. I know this type of hob uses quite a lot of power, but it's not on all that much, and it's the one that the previous owners left - and EDF tell us that their usage was a lot lower than ours - so it still doesn't explain the difference. [quote user="zeb"]Also, I note that you have oil central heating and also an electric hot water tank. Doesn't your oil boiler also heat the water?[/quote] Good question! - we haven't been able to figure out quite how it works yet. Both the previous owner and EDF told us that the water is electrically heated, and comes on automatically during heures creuses. However, I can see that there is also a small pipe going between the water tank and the boiler. So I'm wondering if perhaps the boiler also heats some water when the central heating is on. [quote user="zeb"]Woodburners. We have a 35sq mtr kitchen/living room (it was two rooms before renovation) which we can happily live in during the winter. We have a free standing Supra 11.5 woodburner and never need to put the rads on in the kitchen. It's going non-stop (virtually) from September to April. We have had the same wood supplier for 4 years and use a mixture of oak and hornbeam, it burns efficiently and can be shutdown every night.[/quote] Probably won't go for a woodburner, as we don;t really have an ideal place for one, and I think they need their own flue. What we do have is a fireplace in the lounge/dining room. We've only used it a couple of times, and have had the smell of smoke in the kitchen through the cooker hood. However, we are now thinking of paying someone to come and look at it and see what needs to be done to make it fully usable. In this way, we could minimise the amount of time the central heating is on - just use it to warm up the house morning and late afternoon - and light a fire the rest of the time. With regards to wood supplies, how do you find a suitable supplier? And your mixture of oak and hornbeam, how do you light it - do you have to use kindling or buy some other type of "petit bois" as well? [quote user="zeb"]Gaz de Ville. Maybe worth asking someone along your street with the same size house what their bills are and if it's much less, ring GDF for a quote for connection. May be worth changing your boiler. Good luck.[/quote] Yes, we're definitely going to investigate this. Might call GDF anyway and get them to quote for connecting us to the main. Anyone know what GDF charge per cubic metre or whatever the unit is? Thanks, Rob

Thanks for comments so far. We are on a 9 kW power rating. I think it was 6kW when we moved in, but when I phoned EDF to give them our details they asked me all about what appliances we have etc, and said they needed to put it up. (Not that we have more than an average number of appliances.) While I understand that the abonnement is bound to be higher, what's bothering me is the amount of kilowatt hours we seem to be using. From early afternoon yesterday to 9 o'clolck this morning, our meter says we've used about 17 kWh. This is going to total up to about 200 a week - like I said, a lot more than we used in the UK, with a similar number of appliances. The lady on the phone at EDF said that perhaps we had an appliance that was faulty - but how do you tell? My father-in-law suggested switching everything off, then turning them on again one by one while watching the meter to see what speed the dial goes round. This seems very hit-and-miss to me - the dial doesn't seem to go round incredibly fast anyway, apart from when the hot water is on, which is only during "heures creuses". But something is obviously causing us to use more power than we should be during heures pleines as well as heures creuses. Grateful for any ideas....we can't afford these kind of bills every month! Interested in comments about alternative fuels - wood burners etc. Making 1000 ltrs of oil last a year sounds great, but impossible at the moment. I reckon we've cut back on the heating about as far as we can without freezing all day, and we're still using 70 litres a week. What sort of wood burner do you have? The only sort I can imagine is a free-standing one which, while it might be very efficient, will probably only really heat one room? Rob

Notwithstanding the abbonement and the taxes, I'm reasonably sure that something is using more power than it should. [quote user="Teamedup"]With your alternative heating it may well be worth your while taking out one of the economy contracts with the EDF. [/quote] Not sure what you mean by "economy contracts" - we already have heures creuses 12h30 - 14h30 and 01h00 - 07h00. What other options are there? Rob