Lou

[quote user="PaulT"]Am I right in thinking that optimism can rise a little from these early indications? Interested to hear from anyone in 31 south of Toulouse but north of the Pyrenees. Thanks to all of you providing reports Paul [/quote] I'm not far from you, Paul, approx 20km from Boulogne on 65/32/31 border We have an 80 cm dish and a Humax box - receiving Channel 5, Sky News loud and clear this evening (not that we particularly want either of them!) Ch 4 HD seems to be breaking up a bit, but having never watched it before I don't know if it's always done that! Lou

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]Well the speedo in my car is so inaccurate that I regard it as a suggestion only. I glanced at my SatNav because the speed had changed to red, it does that if you are more than 5Kph over the stated limit so I'm pretty sure I was doing 116 Kph.  Like I said, no excuse but not exactly a hanging offence, I will just be a bit miffed to receive a ticket for 1 Kph over........... [/quote] You may well receive a ticket for 1 kph over........we got pinged (again, no excuses) doing 56 in a 50 zone, tolerance of 5 kph left us looking at the fine for the registered speed of 51 kph [:(] I might be making this up/dreaming, but aren't the tolerances different depending on the speed limit? (I'm wondering if you get a bit more allowed for higher limits?) Lou

We levelled and seeded an area just in front of our terrace, the rest is rough grass with some trees/shrubs dotted around, which we simply cut. A French acquaintance in our village recounts the tale, almost every time we see her, of her English ex-neighbours who re-seeded an area about 8.000 m2, cut it regularly so it was very neat and short and (the worst thing of all!) watered it in the summer....... she just couldn't understand it  at all - not so much the water wastage but just the sheer effort of it all for something you couldn't eat Lou Edit - the rough area with regular cutting is now looking much tidier, with reduced weeds and more grass, though will never be a "proper" lawn - we don't mind it

[quote user="ebaynut"]Lou, When I put these dimensions in the P2G site, I get the same quote as you paid, however the Interparcel site lowest price is showing as £25.00 plus vat, not £41.00 plus vat as you were quoted. Clearly in this case P2G are cheaper if the parcel is of low value and you don't want insurance, but if it was of value and you did want to insure it for £500, then P2G would charge £25.00 and Interparcel would charge £10, then making Interparcel cheaper by £10 including insurance. But it is correct, you do have to shop on these sites, but always take the high cost of P2G insurance into account before deciding.   Idun, I am unable to understand Interparcel being four times more expensive than P2G unless you go for P2G cheapest option and compare it against Interparcels highest.[/quote] I've discovered the difference..... if I just chose a quote for UK Mainland to France without entering postcodes I get  25 pounds plus vat, if I enter the two postcodes we would be using, it quotes 41 pounds. The collection address is in a town in the UK, we are fairly rural here in France though still in a village. Lou

[quote user="ebaynut"]That's interesting Lou, what where the dimensions and weight of your package? I send mainly to the US and Australia and never find any difference in their quotes. I would like to check this out. [/quote] Hi ebaynut It was a box 60*48*48 cm weighing 23kg With parcels2go via Parcelforce in UK and then La Poste Colissimo (I think) in France, it cost us 24.48 pounds inc VAT - this was just last week Yesterday Interparcel quoted me 41 pounds plus VAT Maybe Interparcel get better deals to US and Australia than France? Lou

I didn't know about Interparcel, but out of interest have just been to their website and got a quote for the size/weight of box we just had delivered via parcels2go - we paid 24.48 pounds inc VAT. Interparcel quoted 41 pounds plus VAT Given that it's usually the same carriers one way or another - either La Poste or UPS or FEDEX etc etc, I'd prefer to take my chances and pay less! we've always found the local delivery people, whether La Poste or courier firms, very friendly and helpful, it seems to be the call centre staff who just can't grasp the concept of anyone not having a street address (and I've encountered this problem with others eg EDF too) Lou

We've also just used parcels2go with Parcelforce for a box from UK to France - amazingly quick delivery, collected Wed pm and delivered Fri am! Greyman - we had a similar problem with UPS not long ago, their original solution was (despite having our phone numder) to send us a postcard to find out what the correct address was .....[Www] However, this was also with parcels2go, we contacted them and they got someone from UPS to phone us and get directions (we couldn't find a proper contact number for the depot); the essential problem was their computer system not accepting a "normal" rural short address - i.e. a lieu-dit and village name only. Lou

Our cats start their devastation of the local vole population at this time of year...... get a cat! Lou

[quote user="Quillan"]I think I am getting there now. So the UCI will decide if they agree with the findings of the USADA and if they do will contact the TdF who will then strip him of his wins. The USADA as implied in the news cannot in its self strip him. I agree, it is bad enough to loose but then to discover you did because the winner cheated is terrible. Perhaps the TdF organisers should arrange a big 'do' to present the real winners with their medals and have it on telly so they can get there moment of glory. [/quote] One of the problems presented by stripping Armstrong of his wins is that some (many?) of those who came second to him were also doping at that time and/or have been found doping since - eg Ulrich. I think they will just strip Armstrong and not "officially" award the wins. Lou

EuroTrash wrote the following post at 10/10/2012 10:08: Bizarre that Dordogne and much of Normandy are the lowest band, or am I reading it wrong? The map covers non-EU born immigrants......so no Brits included I was surprised the area around Marseille wasn't in the highest band, as I always thought there was a very large North African population here, but perhaps the rest of the dept lowers the average. Lou

I don't think it matters where you are resident when you fill in the tax return, what matters is where you were resident during the relevant period i.e during 2012. Lou

Ok, so they suggest that some "experts" advise not having cats at all in homes with young children - sounds really scary... Yet in another article in the Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/qa-toxoplasma--what-can-be-done-8102717.html It says that only 1 per cent of cats are infected at any one time..... I wouldn't claim to be a maths or statistics expert, but that doesn't seem to add up to me.... I shall continue cuddling my cats! Lou

Looks like a capricorne beetle to me - that's the mummy or daddy of the larvae that's just chewed it's way through your woodwork......I beleive though that they are a protected species, so you shouldn't kill them. Lou

Our thermometer (outside in the shade) recorded our hottest temp so far this year - 35.7 degrees. Still very warm indeed now - approx 28 degrees. I've got the bedroom window wide open in the hope it will cool down some more. I wa stuck in an un-air-conditioned office all day :-( Lou

One of the best ones I heard was someone on their way to the garage with their car who was wished "Bonne réparation" Lou

Well, out of curiosity having just checked the last bill we received (in 2009, headed "Avis d'imposition prelevements sociaux"), Sunday's post isn't STRICTLY true, in that that bill does collect *some* CSG eg on savings interest, and comes (in all appearances at least) from the tax office. Do you think URSSAF would have listened if you HAD contacted them and offered to pay??! Telling a bureaucratic French fonctionnaire that you think their system has got it wrong.....

In my experience in the area where I am (I work for an estate agent), very few SAFER referrals result in a pre-emption. I think the size of the land which has to be referred can vary, I'm pretty sure that around here it's anything over 2.500m2. Not to scare the OP, but there can be of course other pre-emption rights depending on the property and the area, eg the Mairie/commune may have pre-emption rights. There's a new one too this year (I think, can't recall all the details right now) with the aim of preserving large tracts of woodland rather than dividing them - if a property has woodland which adjoins a neighbouring property's woodland, then the neighbouring owner has a pre-emption right. There must be a definition of what exactly constitutes "woodland" but again I can't recall the detail at the mo. Lou

I don't think we have to admit anything, Cooperlola, if we've filled in all the forms required of us then it's not our fault. When we first arrived we still had some savings which were earning interest (ah the good old days!) and with the then good exchange rate on top, we did get a bill for CSG and CRDS which included my husband's pension listed for CRDS but never in the column for calculating CSG (just the savings interest). In addition I don't think this can just affect Brits, but all nationalities including any French who have pensions or unearned income from abroad. So there's some consolation (for me anyway) that it's not a "foreigner" or "British" thing. So Norman is right, it's not a new charge, but in practice it will be for those of us affected. The real bummer on a personal level is that it is kicking in just when things in general are costing more - though of course presumably that's partly why the authorities have decided that they ought to do something about collecting it properly.

[quote user="cooperlola"] Discovering that we get 6.6% less a month than we thought has been a real blow, I can tell you, I haven't slept properly since I first saw this. I still am amazed it has raised such a muted response.[/quote] Maybe most people don't/won't pay because they've got S1s, or are working and paying anyway? We're a bit odd in that I work, and my husband is classed as my dependent with CPAM. He gets a small (and I mean small!) occupational pension, which up to now we've not paid CSG on. I've dutifully filled in the 6.6% box so expect to get a bill this year. We can't really afford it, but I'm reasoning that strictly speaking we should have been paying this from the beginning, and at least from next year I can factor this cost into our budget. Surely they can't apply it retrospectively and send us a back-dated bill, can they? This would scupper us. Lou

We pay an annual fee towards the fosse inspection by SPANC - which is once every four years. I think it's 60 euros, so 15 euros per year added to our water bill. I wonder if this what Sid means by his "annual contract". As far as I'm aware these inspections are obligatory, as is the fee for them. Lou

My understanding of "revolving credit" is that it's a loan without any fixed payments or fixed timescale for repayments. Eg conventional loan of 4.000 to be paid back over 3 years at fixed rate of 125 a month Revolving loan of 4.000, spend 4.000 straight away, pay off 500 in 5 months time, and the repaid 500 is available again to be re-borrowed. In other words potentially you never pay it all back because it's too tempting to keep using the never-ending credit. I may be wrong but I think that's the gist of it, and of course it's dangerous because it's freely available credit once you're signed up. Lou

Just another point re: Norman's remark about people not being interested in 'real' French life, and not commenting on posts etc. Partly in my own defense, but also I imagine affecting others on here! Some of us who are in France full-time are working (like me!) and don't always have the time to read eveything and comment on it. I think Norman( amongst others) always posts interesting stuff, but I don't always have the time to read and think about it in detail, when the topic/post is fresh. I agree with Coops re just posting links, I usually skip these thinking I will come back to them, but rarely do! Even a one liner to start the discussion off is better than nothing. Finally, it's the nature of the beast that most people are mostly interested in their own lives and what directly affects them, and they won't always have the contacts/language skills to delve further  into other people's lives. I consider myself fortunate that I work with French people, and can watch/listen to French news and pick up what's happening - but I also usually watch the UK news and read UK newspapers online too. Lou (on a quiet Saturday morning at work!)

We have a Scholtes, bought when we arrived in France 6 years ago. Works well, and grill is good BUT (and this relates to your other thread in the Language section) there's no actual grill pan, we have to use a rack plus "normal" pan/tray underneath. A pain if you want to check on cooking and have to pull out both bits separately to try to avoid drips. The other issue is that it will only grill with the door closed (a safety function I suppose) but irritating if you just want to melt cheese on an omelette for example, and have a frying pan with plastic handle which won't fit under the grill and have the door shut. I haven't seen a grill pan here like we used to have in the UK. Why I really don't know, other of those mysterious differences..... The cooker does have the "pyrolysé" (spelling?) function for cleaning is brilliant, I'd never buy another cooker without it. Lou

I hope the baby threw up all over her after that (didn't watch to the end - did it? - made me feel queasy just watching the way she was flinging the poor thing around) I do reckon the first baby on the beach was a doll though.... Lou Edit: I did know someone who managed - completely by accident and was mortified and very upset at the result - to dislocate her child's shoulder in some rough play. I can imagine either babies' joints are so flexible they can rotate happily without any problem or that they're extremely vulnerable - I'd go for the latter myself.

I've seen them in supermarkets, usually next to the tills. Here's the link to the decret: http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000025417826&dateTexte&categorieLien=id As some people have commented on the TF1 news website - in reality you probably need to have TWO in the car, since if you use the one you've got to check your limit, you're ok so you drive home - you could then be fined for not having an unused one available in the car........ Madness which I'm sure won't change a damn thing in terms of drink-driving Lou