Judith

If I may - as one of those "Southerners", but knowing equally the Dordogne area (look at my sig) ... I can say that for us (or at least my hubby) it was the amount of sun, for me, the relative dryness, and apart from summer, the relatively quiet roads, though is anywhere quiet these days.  I well remember a Spring trip along the Dordogne towards where the caves are (??) which was definitely slow, tortuous and bedevilled by tourists. Here we do have space, straight roads, and even when busy, there are places to get away from it all.  I love the heath / moorland around here.  There is one route which every time I used it reminds me of home ... And who wants to go the Riviera ... for there, you will find Dordogneshire all over again.

[quote user="Un autre Gallois"]Judith, I agree it's time to bed it down - after I have pointed out to you that I have never mentioned any thing that can remotely be construed as you needing an eye test or that you don't know when you need such a test. I have seen a post from another member that may be relevant to your comment, but it is not from me (who has worn specs. for well over 70 years!) UaGallois[/quote] Sorry, Gallois, easy to mix up your posts amongst the chaff being said on here ... someone certainly did ... I see we join the clan of needing glasses, even after my cataracts were removed, wonderful, and my brilliant surgeon removed much of my myopia,, I still continue to need them for proper sight, and not just the reading stuff, though I have those too, all prescription, standard readers don't wash it with me ...

O'er, my genuine mistake, for which I apologised, I seems to have set the cat among the pigeons here.  Betty, thank you, yes, eye conditions come in various shapes and sizes, and Gallois, since I've worn glasses since I was 3 (yes, three) years old, don't you think I know when I need an eye test (which happens once a year as it happens).  Size of print, light source, background, there are many things that don't help legibility, and it must be said the the CdS falls in to several of those traps, BUT, that all that info is likely to be stored on the chip, so available to those who need to see it.  As an official document, I am rather more used than I'd like to see them almost always verge on the illegible.  How many of you have complained about the use of small print in contracts, for example, no matter what the state of your eyes. Do I really need to finish this - little things, you know .... Time to bed it down ....  says Zebedee.

[quote user="NormanH"]Thanks for confirming that Judith. As you say the writing is very small as it needs to be to fit on a credit-card sized CdS, made to fit in to the pockets in a wallet..... [/quote] Thanks you NormanH, sense for you, as ever.  Sadly, small though the card is, it still doesn't fit into my wallet/ purse in the pocket designed for cards!  C'est la vie. The print size, for me, is less relevant than the spacing around the words, an unusual vision impairment, but one I am now accustomed to accepting that others do no understand. 

[quote user="Un autre Gallois"]If very small print is that difficult to read the presumption is that which is printed is not really there? Maybe another "odd" comment - when in a hole it's usually best to stop digging, Just take it on the chin and move on. UaG[/quote]Gallois, do not mock those who see less capaably than others, I assure you my vision difficulties are not something I joke about.  It was an honest mistake the first time I looked, I really had not see it was there.  No wonder the forum is declining in usage if such comments as mine (and its apology) are are seen as odd, whilst yours an one or two others on here, who I will not name, but we all know who they are, are regarded as the norm. On their own heads be it if the forum dies IMHO.

Mea culpa, given NormanH's postings, and looking more carefully, indeed, my address is there, but not quite where he says it is, in that place there is just a gibberish of numbers and <<<<<.  My excuse, it's in VERY small print ... and actually most of it I find difficult to read as it is really so very small and narrow, and my vision is such that narrow print is very, very difficult for me to read ... Still, I am glad to have it, in spite of some of the (very) odd comments on this thread.

Neither would I Patf!!

I have already posted in this thread that my CdS, received from Beziers (the nasty prefec, agreed, NormanH), about a month ago, has no address on it.  A chop, yes, but no address.  Maybe Carca and Beziers do things differently, Gallois, but no need to make a song and dance about it.  I expect technology has improved since NormanH and ABLF got their original cards, so old as they are ....

My current and recently issued CdS does not have an address writ on it, as far as you can see by the naked eye, but it has a chip, so that's where it'll be stored, what's the betting.

Wools, I think you've had your answer, but yes, it varies by prefec and what you are, inactif, worker etc.  Didn't want our bank accounts .. but we did the 2 per yr roughly 6 months apart for EDF and such.  I had taken the same for the bank accounts, but they did not want that in Beziers.  But yours could want something else, so best check there.

Betty, NormanH, yes, I prefer to do it like that, but it seems the Impots won't let us ... nor, if you go paperless (we don't), can it seem they can send you a reminder that they are going to take out the money ... not yet in the 21st C methinks.

[quote user="mint"][quote user="Un autre Gallois"]Hi - Nationwide have informed me that I have a facility (must be with a card reader) to make CHAPS transfers, costing £20 each, of unlimited amount from my Flex account! Additionally there is a facility to pay several amounts of £10,000 each per day "Speedy Payment" via a debit card. They will not, however, let me have a credit card (non resident and not transporting a card with me when moving here!). UaGallois[/quote] Yes, I have used the 10 grand per day many, many times.  Have been known to do it 7 days on the trot to pay for a second-hand car, but that was a fair few years ago.  I was too tight to pay the 20 quid[:D] I use the credit card for almost all everyday expenses and thus in effect  change a few hundred pounds a month into euros sans charge.  Also, it spreads the ups and downs of the exchange rate evenly.  Although, if the rate is particularly bad, I pay in euros from the French carte bleue or cheque. [/quote] Gallois, I accept the Nationwide Banking does have it's limitations, hence why they are no longer my main UK bank, and Mint, you have taken the words right out of my mouth, you use your NW card exactly as I do ... much easier than transferring money.  I used NW when we first came here to transfer the proceeds of our flat sale, as I had then no easier alternative, now, I try to keep sufficient at both ends (as it were), so very little gets transferred across.  I have been in the (lucky, sad?) position of having had family deaths since we came to France which have helped in the UK, and the sale of our first bought property here in France only 2 years ago, to help out at this end ...

Mint, have to agree about Nationwide.  It was they, who, within 2 hours, spotted an odd use of my card (to get cash, I don't believe I've ever used it to get cash) and phoned me ... yes, it had been stolen, without my knowledge - distraction technique.  So kudos to them for that, even if they won't increase my credit limit (always pay it off in full), or allow me to do things online I'd like to do with my account.  And the replacement card arrived quickly, without charge, the cash fee reimbursed etc.  Getting a new card from CA took ages, and cost me to replace it! Do they want our business I always ask myself when I look at the services on offer by CA.  And no, I'm not going to change accounts, it is just far, far too complicated!!

Likewise, per se, I am not agin DD, and if it were me, they'd be in place monthly so I knew where I was.  But like, you Betty, we keep small amounts in the account where we want the payements to come from, so need time to arrange the money to go into to .. we will do it, because we are given no alternative from next year, and indeed for the taxe d'hab now due, but reading on the site, you can only do this at a certain time of the month, and only change the account details once (!!!!), likewise, though are accounts are linked and we can see each others account details and indeed move money between them online, the Impots will only let me deal with the two accounts in my name .... and not the one they want to put it against, hubby's, as that is where it has been since time immemorial when we first bought and there was then only the one account, as it was before I arrived full time.   Grrrrrr!!

Well this rings bells,  Just trying to get our "new" dd organised, for the impots, with a hubby who doesn't want to dd ... been happy sending a tip all these years. Spent rather more time too on the impots site today than I could have wished, and still not done! Cheques, well use them all the time in France to pay subs to organisatons etc, no way are they past there sell-by date here.

 I knew this, and remember Hereford's postings on the subject too.  I did not know about the lack of "duty of care" of the parent negating it though.  I do wonder just how many people who come to live in France are not aware of this, and if it might have made a difference to their decisions to come here .. happily, I am now the "elder" in my family (by all of 20 mins), but with no children, it has never been in my plans to have to do this, as I have no-one to do it for me!

"Betty", I need the like button again. Poisoned chalice, hoist with own petard, many phrases come to mind, but indeed, she seems to be the best if a bad bunch at the mo, and party politics aside, we definitley need a Churchill-like leader, prepared to ignore the party to achieve what is  best for the country, but I see no-one ...

Yes, my comment was some equalised.  As in all things, there's some that will and some that won't, I suppose.

Lehaut,Not a surprise, in spite of what I said before. They think that the chomage will pay up, evermore, but as is happening everywhere, the state assistance, even in somewhat still generous France will not go on forever in the current modern world.

Agree that circumstances are not always what they seem or look like, and that the French are very good at hiding their wealth from the tax man, but even so, I've heard them talking about the difficulty of getting jobs, the distances they have to travel to get them, sometimes as far as Montpellier and Toulouse, and further .. but I will confess I do not see the seemier side of life in my usual day to day activities.  If I were a young French person though, will the skills and knowledge, I know where I would be going if I want to  make something of my working life.

And as well as Beziers, there are many rural areas around here, also not amongst the rich of the world.  Be that because of lack of jobs, or because their livelihoods are very weather dependent doesn't matter, neither give security long term, which means the young often have to move away to find work, leaving only the old and retired to live in these regions.  There are also many young families, with perhaps only one wage earner, if they are lucky, so no spare money. There are reasons why the very popular bar à vins around here sell a glass of wine for only 1 euro, and that's not just because wine is cheap here.

Love it, and why is that not a surprise, too much watching the speedo and not the car in front ... and frustration when in a longer than ever queue due to the nouveau speed limit.  Round here there are roads which are either perfectly safe at 90, straight, long, no trees, or so narrow and bendy that you could not do 80 on them if you tried ... even if allowed.  Daft IMHO.

Agree about Trebes, but our only way through if we use the Minervoise.  I find the 113 just as bad ... I rarely use the top road, the one with all the towns beginning with V, near you, Nomoss by the sound of it, but now with the road gone (like a village I lived in in Wharfedale, it lost its bridge which was its link between the two halves of the town a couple of years ago) it will take some time and a long detour to get from one side to the other.  I think the worst of the storms are now over, we are left with the clearing up.  At least we have now heard that our friend in Trebes has been rescued from her upper story vigil. So our prayers there were answered at least. 

This link gives better details https://www.inforoute11.fr/ Some routes still difficult and Trebes is a no -no still.

My builder managed to get her to Olonzac today from Douzens, said Puicheric was a mess, and I know the Minervoise at Homps was flooded, but don't know if it still is ... it's now possible to get to Lezignan from here too, so things are slowly improving, but yes, there are many more areas affected than those on the news.  We have discovered that a friend in Trebes is flooded, and confined to the upper floor, we have not been able to contact her since to find out if she is now out and safe .. I would be very surprised to find that Trebes was passable - yet. Rain still forecast for Wed / Thursday, but with luck we should be over the worst now.