fulcrum

Sandra You seem to have posted in two separate threads. Here is my other reply.   http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/894427/ShowPost.aspx#894427

[quote user="Will"] All tables like that prove really are that if you pick the right set of figures, you can draw whatever conclusion you like. [/quote] I seem to remember something along the lines of "Lies, more Lies and statistics"

Sandra I'm sure you will receive a lot of replies of help but this may give you a start. I typed Agence Emploi into Google and this was the first link that came up. http://www.anpe.fr/ Then select anpe.fr en region and then select the region you want http://www.anpe.fr/region/poitou_charentes/index.html Hope this is of some use.

Cassis I'm sure some Brits bargain but most who buy here for the first time are usually lured by the romantic side of France and "English agents feeding unrealistic expectations". It completely disarms them.

I really do believe that in France you pay the price you "think" the property is worth to you. It really is the only way to value French properties. Most UK purchasers pay too much for their first house in France. There are just too many unknowns Anything written in English should be taken with a pinch of salt unless it has an equal correct translation in French.    

[quote user="Pilot"]The Pilots' instructions issued by Boeing are quite clear that 737s must be landed firmly and pilots will normally fly them right onto the runway. A 'soft' landing in a B737 could see you leaving the far end of the runway! I've flown a lot with Ryanair and their landings are no harder than other airlines using 737s. In certain conditions (e.g. strong side wind) this may seems to passengers to be extremely firm, but never in my experience as hard as a BA flight I once made to Jersey, in a Tristar I think, when after the first officer had landed the pilot came on the PA and said "Welcome to Jersey. Five feet lower than when we left this morning." [/quote] I was once told by a person in charge of 737 maintenance at a middle eastern carrier that the 737 landing can be thought of as a controlled crash. I suppose your term "must be landed firmly" confirms that.

Catherine I am lost for words. I didn't realise that the tiles were THAT bad. I was under the impression here in France that all tradespeople have to be qualified. For a major company to employ someone who does things to such a terrible standard is beyond belief. I would definately seek a refund and maybe posting the pictures here was not a bad thing.

Catherine Why dont you just leave the tiles as they are for the moment. Maybe the guests wont spend too much time looking at them. Claim some money back from Lapeyre and as someone else suggested get someone else in to redo it when you are not quite so busy. Life really is too short to worry about tiles being laid properly and getting too stressed will not help you run your busines. I'm sure the guests will understand if you explain what has happened.

[quote user="Briank"]Our old gas combination boiler is on its last legs and we will soon have to replace it. A local firm have quoted 3000€ - 3500€ to replace it. Is this a good price (includes installation)? Also they have recommended a boiler with a ballon inside for the hot water. I can't see the point of this as with a combination boiler you only heat the water that you use. Can anyone explain the need for a ballon in a combination boiler? Many thanks Brian K  (86) [/quote] I don't know whether you really want a gas boiler or maybe that's what you're used to but If you install an electric tank (cheauffe eau) instead of a combination boiler. The tank will cost max 350€ (plus an installation charge) for a 150litre and the electricity will cost around 500€ per year if heated by normal price electricity. Plus which, you don't need annual inspections with an electric tank. I don't know the cost of gas to run the combination but I don't think its that cheap.

I think that entering unnecessary contracts in France should be avoided. If you value your sanity that is. [:)]

[quote user="cooperlola"]Yes, Dick, I have no doubt that you can do it!!!  However, no matter how much I f**t about with it, I still cannot get it to work!  Back to the drawing board.  Btw, it loaded instantly for me with the long link.  Hmm.[/quote]

[quote user="Sunday Driver"]A thirty minute ride down to my prefecture at Niort to register my Suzuki motorbike followed by a ten minute wait to be served.  Free CoC pre-organised and no need for a CT on a bike. The queue for the losers starts just behind me............[:P][:P][:P]  [/quote] I am stunned SD. You normally post such serious replies. Nice to know that you have a sense of humour too.

I have had to dispose of cement bonded amiante (ASBESTOS) a few times. Wrap it in Plastic sacks and tape it up. Then take it to your decheterie. They normally tell you to put it in the "tout venants" bit. I guess you can ask your mairie just to be sure.

I think the process has been streamlined a lot because in 2002 it took me two months. They had to compile a dosier at the sous prefecture (dept 47). In those days none of the staff knew what the procedure was. They even had me go to the weighbridge to get the axle weights checked. It seems even nowadays to vary between departments. On moving house twice the carte gris took 15 days (dept 33) the first time and then when I went to the sous prefecture who had been responsible for the original import it took 15 minutes. Edit: I would add that it helps enormously if your French is good. Mine wasn't then.

Thanks Clair.

Is there any way to chop off the right handed side of posts that are too wide to fit on the screen. There is a thread at the moment called Self-Sufficiency in France and it is way too wide. I know wide URLs in posts can widen the post but I couldn't see if there was one in the thread. The offending page is page one. Edit: The offending poster is Dave & Olive with an extremelly long URL.

[quote user="P"] I used some translation software to translate them - which seemed fairly successful. [/quote] Paul I would recommend that the original poster uses a professional certified translator. I have found, first hand, that translation software really does make a mess of any meaningful translation of a legal document. The terms and words used in legal documents don't translate well.

[quote user="Quillan"]Now it's getting really odd. Done a search in google on nationwide and use the results to try and get in - nothing. Typed it in by hand - nothing Tried cooperlola's link and it went in straight away and you can get to the current account page. Re-booted PC and tried it again all OK. Is this all a red herring or does it now work for others? I wonder if somebody has complained any they have reset their server? Very strange but if I had my money with Nationwide I would have been panicing there for a bit I can tell you. [/quote] I wonder if this is a case of a DNS server poisoning.

I really think that PaD has been taken too far for too long. It has some useful applications. Like when traffic lights are broken and everyone sits there not knowing who should have priority. But seriously who really thinks it should apply to a minor road intersecting a major road. Someone coming from a minor road should have to engage their brain before entering onto a major route. The other thing I can't understand is that the PaD rule is applied in some countries that drive on the UK side of the road. I think Australia still has it but then their rule doesn't go wrong at roundabouts and it is at least possible to avoid a collision on a main route as the person coming from the right would have to cut across the oncoming traffic. Maybe the rule was invented by the British.

[quote user="J.R."]I travelled the world before moving here and logged on to all of my internet banking accounts without problem in the most remote and or poor countries like Vanuatu and Bolivia. When I arrived in France (2 years ago) the first shock was that I had to travel 50km to find an internet cafe (at a university and it was on strike) the second was that no matter what I tried, whatever address I typed in for Egg.com, Newegg.com, Egg.co.uk etc etc it always defaulted to the Egg France site, I was completely unable to access my money for a very long time including when I got my own computer connected via Wanadoo. I never did get to the bottom of it but I did find that I could link to it using Google UK but not Google France. Perhaps that is worth trying? [/quote] In the mid eighties when fax was the way to communicate in most of the Western World I went on a trip to the USA. I needed to send a fax and was going to going to send it from the nearest hotel. However my girlfriend at the time told me that I wouldn't be able to do that from a hotel in the USA. I was taken aback because this technology was available everywhere in the West but not apparently from hotels in the USA.

[quote user="Teamedup"]Did this happen to you two in the UK or not? I have heard of women in France, especially english women getting unwanted attention. I don't think that the film 'A nous les Petites Anglaises'  helped.   [/quote] I never get unwanted attention  [;-)]

[quote user="Bob T"]No one has the right to apologise on my behalf, I meant every word that I said. I hope that anyone who disregerds the law has his car confiscated and gets a huge fine. [/quote] Bob We are all entitled to our opinions. I had earlier posted a rather silly reply to the OP. I have since deleted it. I felt like apologising after reading the OP's original enquiries. After all I don't think he was deliberately  being criminally  minded but really wanted to do the right thing. None of us here in France know exactly how to go about everything, hence this forum. We are all at differing levels of French and finances and employability. So I do feel like apologising for my rather silly post.

The problem everyone has been facing today is to do with DNS translations on the Wandoo/Orange's DNS server. The internet runs on a series of addresses that are just numbers. For example 213.56.94.20 is an address. The whole internet runs on these numbers. In order to use these numbers you have to have a DNS server to translate what you type in. When you type in www.nationwide.co.uk or any other text into your browsers address nothing will be understood by your internet service unless it is available, for translation, via a DNS server. A DNS server will translate www.nationwide.co.uk to its correct digital address so that you get pointed in the right direction.. I hope this helps. Edit: If you actually know the numbers and can carry them around in your head then you don't need a DNS server. So next time you can't get to a particular site then type in the digital address. That is if you know what it is.

I posted earlier that I had changed my DNS server to Neuf's and it was working. I've now changed it back to Wanadoo's default and it's OK as well.. There was deffinately a problem with the DNS lookup from Wanadoo earlier. .

[quote user="Gardengirl"]Hope someone can help with this. We are buying an apartment in Uzes, and won't understand the French contract. We thought if we could find one who speaks English, we'd do a lot better; the one already working on the contract doesn't. We've heard that it doesn't cost any more to have 2 notaires involved, as they share the fee. Is that right? We will also want to have a community marriage contract, and assume he/she would sort this out for us as well. This is all very new to us, so feeling very much at sea. Thanks for any help you can give. Jo [/quote] A French estate agent told me recently that as an EU citizen you are entitled to have the contract translated to your language. I believe that you have to pay but at least it's there. Of course the actual contract is still processed in French.